The Magical Life

Hey guy's I'm gonna share something with you....
If you've passed by or read my profile by chance before you know I worked for Walt Disney World but it was less than magical. One thing that is told to every coming group:
The traditions class, your class on the history of Disney taken the first few days, there is something done. Your overly happy instructed will put a damper on the room. He or she will ask everyone to stand. They will randomly ask a large number of the room to sit. Those standing are the ones representing the percentage that actually make through their entire program without choosing to leave or getting sent home.
Don't get my wrong, I loved the experience. I loved the friends I made and I miss it everyday. It makes your life back home just...not quiet good enough at times and I would do it again if I could do it all the same but be warned...it's not what one expects.

When you are a college student you are something known as a CP not a full cast member and there is a HUGE difference between the two. Cast members get benefits and whole different set of rules. You see as a CP, before you come to Disney they glamorize what will occur and sugar coat everything that they want to tell you. You're overjoyed when you get accepted out of the thousands that apply and everything is fine...until you get there.
For me, it was a dream come true. I always wanted to work for Disney and it felt like something in my life was finally going right. When a CP you have...perks and huge downsides.

The perks: You are given an apartment with one to six people who could be from Kansas to China. It's the ultimate Real World package when you move into your apartment all that's missing is a camera. The people you meet...just hope you don't get the crazy ones like me. This apartment has no bills except for the rent ($77 to $120) that is taken out of your check each week. Awesome right lol...we'll come back to this later.

Next is the free admission to all Disney parks no matter the time, day, or weather. Your ID that gets you into work also acts as a pass into all their parks and gives a discount on all merchandise and food. With a few exceptions of course. With this pass you can also get a number of friends in a few times for free. So yeah...never a dull day as a CP.

Last perk, transportation. You have free transportation. Yup, I said it. You need no car because CP's have a bus system. They take you to and from work, to parks, to all Disney owned property, Walmart, and even the local clubs. Sounds awesome doesn't it.

So here's the the downsides:

When you live in the 4 complexes that hold Disney Cps known as: Vista (the party complex), Chatham (the suburbs), The Commons (the foreign kids), and Patterson ( the most likely stuck up ones) -results may vary- But back to what I was saying. Being on Disney's property complete with a pool shaped like mickey's head you become somewhat of a slave. They know where you are at all times because of that awesome little ID of yours and can call you into work no matter what you're doing. Every time you swipe that card, it's like telling the world:

“Hey look at me. I might be some where else when I'm supposed to be at work!”

Yes it happens no matter how much you think it won't. You work hard and all your friends have the day off and are going to Typhoon Lagoon, but you have to work. :(
But...you can call in but you have to careful. Calling in sick and not personal and going to play, you can get a one way ticket to TERMINATION. That's Disney's sugary word for FIRED! And yes the calling in thing has gotten a lot of people fired because they don't exactly explain the whole calling in thing well to anyone. You have to figure it out from experience most likely.

Transportation...*sigh* you can ask any past CP, the one thing you hated about CP life was the buses, especially if you worked at Magic Kingdom or Epcot. For them the bus was always full and you would most likely have to stand the whole bumpy long ride to work. If you were really unlucky you couldn't get on the bus making you have to wait for another which WOULD be late and make you late for work. Also the buses to Walmart, they had a funny way of running. Certain days they didn't run very late they stopped at 5 in the afternoon and other days they ran until 1 in the morning. If you weren't off on those lucky days look forward to some missing groceries when you got home. The bus would be so full you can't keep up with anything but on the bright side you did meet some awesome people on the bus...they may be a little irritable though.

Oh and those apartments, like I said, hope you don't get the crazy ones because they can get you terminated too. If your roommates do anything against the rules in you apartment and you don't tell on them, you could get sent home just like them. Even if you had nothing to do with it, you might not even know but Disney Housing doesn't care, you're gone. Period. Oh and you have a curfew. Yeah I know, we're all “responsible” young adults here and yet we have a curfew. It's reasonable one but that doesn't mean no body breaks that rule.

Now let's talk about this whole termination process. Being the closet thing to a legal slave you are treated like one when you get fired. You have 24 hours to get all your stuff, pack it up, get a plane or bus ticket, whatever you need, and get out. Simple as that, if you're not gone you can get arrested for trespassing. After watching this happen to a number of people and having it happen to me as well, it's not so easy....it's actual impossible to do unless you knew it as going to happen. They will most likely tell you at work unless you did something in your complex that was against the rules and you got caught. But this makes you about 30 minutes to an hour from your house. You have to give your ID and everything back (humiliating), be escorted out by security (embarrassing), and simply wait for the bus to come with possible tears running down your face the entire time. Trust me...it hurts... a lot.
Now you must go home pack all the stuff you've brought and collected over the last possible 8 months, return your “costumes” to costuming(another bus ride). Buy a plane ticket (I hope you have the money but I doubt it, Disney doesn't pay very well), and get out before 11 am the next day. Your room has to look exactly the way it did when you moved in our they're taking it out of your last check.

So it can't be that bad right? Why am I so bitter? Well it's not because I was fired. Honestly it isn't. Even though I got fired for something that wasn't even my fault I was mad because of the way they treated me. First of all, I had a twelve hour shift the day I got fired. Instead of telling me in the morning like they were supposed to they let me work half my shift and told me about 4 in the day. We did the whole shabang, luckily I had my sunglasses so no one could see me cry. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to anyone. I watched all my friends joking and laughing while really I was just fired and most of them wouldn't know for about a week. I kinda just disappeared and you had to figure it out if I didn't tell you. I was never fond of the way my job was. I worked in the McDonald's of Animal Kingdom. It was a minimum of 90 degrees in there, you never got a break on time, every once in while they would just forget and act like you already had one. It was the huge world of forced smiles, on the inside everyone wanted to tell everyone to shut up and make a hug sign pointing toward the bathroom.
Another thing, it was like your managers forgot what it was like to be doing the work and not just watching and yelling from the side lines. When we got busy, it was easy for even people who had been working there for years to get flustered or confused. The tickets constantly came in, a machine or two might break in the middle of rush time, and you have people from every direction yelling at you because they've been waiting an hour for fries. Your managers come back to the kitchen and also yell. A number of people have been known to go to the bathroom and cry for a moment to compose themselves. It gets that stressful. But despite anything that may be happening at work or at home you can't let it show. You're best friend might have died but managers don't care. Go suck it up and make people have a magical day. Because that's the Disney Way. Insert wink, smile and song here

I'm not writing this for me though, I'm writing it for a friend of mine. I got a call today from her crying saying she was terminated. She did the program with me but got to extend and stay a year because she loved it and they loved her. I mean she literately was DISNEY. And yet she was fired, why you may ask. For having an opinion. At Disney you don't question your job or the way things are done, you just do it and shut up. She told me on a few occasions she asked her boss why things were done a certain way and why they should do them differently. He agreed and allowed her to do it her way but when a BIG guys from Disney came along he completely disowned the idea and put the blame on her not following protocol. So now she's packing her stuff and on her way out.

One thing I want to also add. I don't hate Disney, I hate some of the middle management that treat people like crap. And know not everyone at Disney is like this and a lot of people there are the best people you will ever meet. I promote people to do it but be prepared for the most tearful stressful and best 8 months of your life. You will look back on it a lot of and be happy you did it no matter how it turns out. So I'm ending this rant and like us Blueberries always say at Restaurantosarus down in Dinoland in Animal Kingdom,

Hope you had a wild time and be careful it's a jungle out there.