Disneyland General
Topic: DLR Casting Center - No Longer Hiring?

#	Author	Message
71	SpokkerJones Mon 1/12/2009 10:27p	This thread isn't about my experience as a cast member, it's about cast members in general, and more specifically the economy's effect on Disneyland's ability to hire people. However, if you reread the first post about my experience working there, you would see that I had some fun, but it was also just a year-long gig and because I didn't see much opportunity I decided to leave. Not everything is so black and white. I'm now a semester away from completing my bachelor's degree and I'm looking beyond graduation for a job or maybe even graduate school since I have the grades for it. In the end, Disneyland was a good first job, but I'm not going to shy away from the negatives.
72	gadzuux Mon 1/12/2009 11:02p	Nice to hear the custodial team story. I've always thought that a sweeper would be a cool job to have at DL - you're outside and moving around and having guest interaction, but performing a simple and almost serene little task. All "show", low stress.
73	VanFrance2009 Mon 1/12/2009 11:26p	I wrote: <<This is an interesting theory. Here's mine I believe that rotations developed because it was too hard to figure out how to give out breaks and lunches otherwise. I think rotations stayed in place for so long because the technology didn't exist to effectively deploy folks to their breaks and lunches. (and probably because the early leaders of the Park came from Attractions).>> MonorailBlue wrote: <<“Puh-leeze. Every other area in the park could figure out breaks and lunches, but Attractions couldn't possibly without a computer? What utter nonsense and rubbish. You think breaking Attractions CMs is harder than working breaks and lunches for--oh, I don't know--restaurant servers? Again, total rubbish, utter flim-flam and hysterical nonsense. Thank you for a comedic Monday.”>> Just a couple of points that I’d like to clarify: * I was clearly presenting a THEORY. Not fact, a THEORY. It was mine and mine alone but it is based on my own observations. * I NEVER said that Attractions couldn’t figure out to deliver breaks and lunches without a computer. I said the TECHNOLOGY didn’t exist. To help you understand what I was referring to, I pulled this quick definitiation from wikipedia - "technology" can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines, hardware or utensils, but can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. If you can find a reference in my previous post that I made to a computer, please let me know. Rotation breaking had become so imbedded into the culture of Attractions that broader thinking was almost impossible. Anyone that could come up with a system (not a computer system...just a system) that would allow for the timely and efficient distribution of breaks and lunches outside of norm would of course be met with extreme resistance. It wasn’t until some pretty savvy leaders at Kali River Rapids in the late 1990’s figured out a new way to send Cast Members to both their work and break assignments, that a new system was born. It fell into favor quickly because it made sense to pay Cast Members for work that they were actually doing instead of paying them to take double and triple the breaks of any other group of Cast Members in the Park on a regular basis. * And I do think that it is was more difficult to send Attractions Cast Members to a break or a lunch if you were going to try to do that without using either the rotation breaking system and the current Cast Deployment system. The things that makes it difficult to send anyone that works in a front of house location of any table service restaurant is that a manager must ensure that they have enough labor available to cover the break and lunch periods. I think it is much easier for a restaurant manager to ask a server working 15 feet in front of him to go on break than it would be for an Attractions Lead to ask the pilot of the Mark Twain to go on a break immediately one minute after he or she had pulled away from the dock. I’m happy that I was able to make your Monday so enjoyable. Perhaps I’ve made your Tuesday just as fun! VF
74	VanFrance2009 Mon 1/12/2009 11:36p	Spokker Jones wrote: "Look, I just don't think working at Disneyland is as good as a job they make it out to be. There is no "Disney Difference" and management and guests treat and pay the employees like crap." I think Westsider and others have done a decent job in explaining what one can expect from the "Disney Difference." I think we're behind the "pay the employees like crap" argument because if you believe your worth more and can find an employer to give that to you, by all means you should be taking the money. Nobody has addressed how management and guests treat you like crap. What is happening or has happened to make you believe that management or guests have been treating Cast Members poorly? Also, Westsider - thanks for the Casting Update. Since Disneyland is the largest single site employer in all of Orange County, it is fascinating to watch how this company is operating in the current economic climate. VF
75	SpokkerJones Tue 1/13/2009 1:07a	I believe this Al Lutz update says it best. http://miceage.micechat.com/al...508b.htm "There are dozens of examples like that where Greg's fellow executives in TDA are wasting money left and right under the guise of the new "global structure," while projects and operational improvements in the parks are deferred and cancelled due to lack of funding. But when some people in TDA report to a Vice President in Orlando, and vice versa, (with lots of red-eye flights linking them together), the chain of accountability has become so muddled that all the wasteful spending goes on practically unchecked. Meanwhile, the dingy and dirty Cast Member break rooms still haven't been remodeled, and the Cast Member cafeterias still can't serve up a decent five dollar pork chop. The Cast Member shuttles that run thousands of employees per day to the huge Katella Cast Member Parking Lot are still so run down, so understaffed, and so overcrowded, that most of the big managers working in the park have weaseled their way out of riding them altogether. Even though their workplace is inside the berm alongside the hourly folks and they should be parking alongside them in the Katella lot, many top managers have been given their own personal Segway that they use to zip backstage up to their car conveniently parked at TDA. And that's certainly a ringing endorsement for how completely broken the Cast Member parking situation is, as the big boss flies past on a Segway while the worker bees file out the gate beneath an ignored plasma screen TV to wait in a long line for an overcrowded shuttle to their cars. And yet the entire corporate structure Rasulo has rammed into place is stacked against any real positive change, or anyone being able to stop the wasteful spending, while so many legitimate operational needs go unchecked and underfunded all over the Resort." It's not just the quoted part that's relevant. I think this was Lutz' best update he has ever done about how Disneyland is operated.
76	Jim in Merced CA Tue 1/13/2009 10:06a	^^^One of the most enjoyable times I had as an hourly cast member was working World Showcase custodial. I was getting extra hours that summer, and got the call to go to EPCOT Center. I got to dress up in the old Foreign Legion costume, and then, with pan and broom, started at The American Pavilion, and sweep and clean my way down to the Mexico Pavilion. Got to answer guest questions, sweep up LOTS of cigarette butts and other trash, and just keep the walkways tidy and clean. I would check in with the lead at set times, took a lunch break, but they didn't make me empty trash cans or anything. Which is the heavy lifting stuff. Did that a few times that summer and really enjoyed it.
77	Jim in Merced CA Tue 1/13/2009 10:12a	I was referring to post #72 by the way... 'That summer' was 1986. I don't think World Showcase custodial even wears the old Foreign Legion costumes anymore do they?
78	Hans Reinhardt Tue 1/13/2009 10:28a	Those were nifty looking costumes. I remember them well.
79	monorailblue Tue 1/13/2009 12:49p	I can't stop giggling for some reason.
80	Jim in Merced CA Tue 1/13/2009 1:32p	what is it monorail blue? Please share.

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