Ten Things I Learned From Working at Disneyland

If you had the chance to work at a Disney Park, what job would you want to do? As a self-proclaimed Imagineer, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work at a Disney Amusement Park. Now just for the record, I never have actually worked for Disney, but it is cool to wonder, no?

My wife often jokes with me about moving down to Orlando and that I could work as an Imagineer for Disney. However, I always quickly ixnay the idea of working at Disney. My biggest fear, if I were to actually ever work for Disney, is the loss of entertainment value of going to the Parks with my family. I like the feeling, the smells, the nostalgia of going inside a Disney Park and trying to figure out how did they do that? I love the magical emotion that one experiences when their kid sees their favorite character wave to them in a parade. I enjoy finding the hidden details and experiences that help share the story the Parks are portraying to the guests. Working at Disney, I feel, would take away all of those personal experiences.

If I were to actually work for the Parks, like any job, one eventually becomes jaded by their employer, the people, the place, and eventually, it starts to tarnish the experience. However, maybe that is not so for most people when working for Disney Parks.

I recently stumbled upon a series of videos on YouTube that were produced by Disneyland, titled “Every Role a Starring Role.” The idea was the interview employees throughout the various aspects of the Park, and within 1-2 minutes, highlight the position, their importance to the process, and what they love about their jobs.

These are the type of insider information I love about Disney. Everyone sees “the show” that is portrayed when going through the Park, but how everything is put together is very entertaining for this self-proclaimed Imagineer.

I learned various new aspects about the Park operations from watching the videos, as I will highlight below.

10) Disney has a job for everything. It is quite remarkable that it appears Disney outsources very little in terms of working on details for the Parks.

9) The Jungle Cruise horticulture team swaps out the plant life once per month.

8) The incredible attention to hand-crafted details that goes into signs around the Parks from the Resort Sign Shop.

7) Resort cast costuming handles over 800 different outfit pieces for the Disneyland cast members.

6) How does everyone at the Candy Maker still have their teeth and not weigh 300 pounds?

5) Besides the Imagineers, absolutely the most impressive group of cast members is the Custodial Services group, which does a spectacular job keeping the Parks spotless.

4) Think about this, we drive or walk past hundreds or thousands of trees everyday of our lives. Do we ever take the time to stop and really look at them? When my wife and I went on the Keys to the Kingdom tour for our honeymoon, the first thing we learned is how guest safety is the most imperative part to each cast members role. So the next time you are at a Disney Park, just think about the countless trees around you, that it is a Resort Arborist’s role to make sure no limbs fall.

3) Do you think walking through and maintaining the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the middle of the night would be scary with all the animatronics staring at you? What if you were working on a part of the ride, and someone flicked the switch for them to start moving and talking.

2) If I could tour one backstage area at Disney, it would possibly be the Resort Enhancement Team. I look at my basement with it’s small section of Christmas, Halloween, and assorted holiday decorations and get overwhelmed. Then I wonder just how big the Disney warehouse must be to store all of their decorations. Then, what if they do not decide to use certain decorations the following year. Do they still save them?

1) Not only are there thousands of cast members responsible for making your Disney experience fantastic, but there are even cast members in charge of making sure the cast members are happy with special events.

Take some time and view the videos in the Every Role a Starring Role video series from Disneyland. The next time you are in the Park, and rushing about to get Fast Passes, planning which Land to tackle first, or what food to indulge, remember the countless cast members, in addition to Imagineers, that make your Disney experience fantastic.

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Source: YouTube

8/12/13- Originally published