What does Disney do with old costumes and characters that don’t make frequent or any appearances anymore? Specifically the old suits and heads from fur characters?
Gotta give props to Cryptic for posting a topic that is so long-lived. This thread is pretty impressive.
What is the status of this mandatory housing? It seems totally abusive to me that your employer could :
-Tell you where you must live (especially if it is renting the place)
-Forbid visitors at your place
-Search your place at will
You’re forgetting that it’s a college program. Your college can search your dorm rooms.
If you work outside of the college program for the parks, you need to find your own housing, but as long as you’re part of the -program-, the requirement is that you live ‘on campus’-- their building. They’re letting you be part of a rather well-oiled machinery and they require you to be punctual and reliable. The best way to handle a large number of college kids is to plunk them down in one place. Disney likes to keep as much control of all possible variables as much as it can.
Again, this is a CP. If you don’t like the fact that part of the program stipulates where you have to live during the duration of the program… don’t apply, simple as that.
I was in Walt Disney World last month and had a great experience with Tigger in Epcot. (Pooh was cool too, but way more chill). I know it wasn’t you, but this thread and Tigger’s fun and playful performance makes me very thankful for all the Tiggers in the World.
Not sure about this one. I suspect they would either keep the costumes stored in a warehouse somewhere, display them in some sort of museum, or just destroy them. I highly doubt that they would sell or give away the costumes, as that would likely be perceived as harming the integrity of the characters.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. If one is considering applying for the College Program, one should keep the name in mind, and not try to think of it as a “job” job. The implications of attending the program are made clear early and often, much like attending a university… except furrier.
Hi there!
I found this thread a few months ago and have reread it several times. I really do want to work at WDW as a character, and preferably fur. A few questions I have if you don’t mind Cryptic.
How many guys attended your audition, and were many of them over 6’1? I’m personally 6’1 and want to know if they generally have less people applying in that height range.
If you could pick any face character role to be what would it be and why?
Any tips you could give for the physical side of preparing for the CP. I have roughly 2 years (because of a unique situation) before I can attend. So I want to know if it would be worthwhile to start exercising more regularly and start working on anything that might help me if I get the job.
When you were working fur was it easier to work in the morning or afternoon? (Assuming you had a choice)
Was it easy (from what you remember) to pick up extra shifts during a holiday? I really have no desire to do anything other than work while I’m there and I would quite enjoy if I could spend the Christmas season working.
Any other general tips you could give for the actual job, not the audition.
Thanks in advanced!
- Dell
Oh, before I forget!
Was there ever a time that you sneezed or coughed in your costume while on a set? How did you deal with these problems?
Would you get fired for that? (Not that it would surprise me, it being Disney and all)
Sorry if any of these have been asked, I read the first few pages and used the search function and I didn’t see any asking these questions.
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Did you use the utilidors as a staff performer? What are they like? I imagine they’re reasonably spacious since Wikipedia says that in extreme emergencies sometimes ambulances go through there.
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Did you ever hear about anyone passing out or dying in a costume (I’d assume probably from heat exhaustion)? If so, how was it handled?
Hey there, dell1862 and Jragon!
How many guys attended your audition, and were many of them over 6’1? I’m personally 6’1 and want to know if they generally have less people applying in that height range.
Out of ~150 people auditioning, I believe there were maybe 10 guys. I seem to remember there being one ludicrously tall gent, but I could be wrong. Regardless, I imagine the ratios would vary quite a bit from one audition to another. I do remember being told that special consideration is given to those over 6’0".
If you could pick any face character role to be what would it be and why?
Gaston. I don’t even know if he appears as a face character at any park, but he should. He’s a total badass who gives a total of zero fucks, and he’s got enormous biceps. Why would anyone want to be anyone else?
Any tips you could give for the physical side of preparing for the CP. I have roughly 2 years (because of a unique situation) before I can attend. So I want to know if it would be worthwhile to start exercising more regularly and start working on anything that might help me if I get the job.
That’s hard for me to say, as I was in pretty good shape when I started, and worked out at the gym fairly regularly throughout the program, so I never experienced what it was like to perform while out of shape. I do think that endurance is helpful, particularly if you’re playing a high-energy character like Tigger. Running/skipping/bouncing from the break location to the set location can be really draining, and thirty minutes of actively performing is also draining; some performers would just walk out to save energy for the rest of the set, but I really tried to crank it out every time. So yes, I imagine getting in the habit of exercising regularly would help.
When you were working fur was it easier to work in the morning or afternoon? (Assuming you had a choice)
First off, no, you don’t have a choice. Not while you’re in the college program. Full timers have some choice in their scheduling, but the college programs just go where and when they’re told. I didn’t have any strong preference as to what time of day to work. I’ve always been a morning person, so I don’t mind waking up early, but afternoon shifts are fine too. The parks are always crowded, so it doesn’t make any difference in that regard.
Was it easy (from what you remember) to pick up extra shifts during a holiday?
I only picked up an extra shift one time, and that was because my roommate said his team desperately needed help for the New Year’s Eve celebrations. I never actively sought out extra shifts. I don’t think I ever even knew how to do it. I was happy working whatever hours I was given, and playing guitar the rest of the time.
Was there ever a time that you sneezed or coughed in your costume while on a set? How did you deal with these problems?
Weirdly enough, I don’t think I ever ran into that situation. I only got sick twice while I was there, once with a fever during the first couple days of training, and once with a sore throat and profusely runny nose later on. Neither episode featured coughing or sneezing as a symptom.
Would you get fired for that [coughing or sneezing]?
I don’t know, they didn’t mention it in training. I suppose it would depend on how you dealt with it. If you kept your composure and continued performing as though nothing happened, I can’t imagine anyone getting upset about it.
Did you use the utilidors as a staff performer? What are they like? I imagine they’re reasonably spacious since Wikipedia says that in extreme emergencies sometimes ambulances go through there.
If you’re curious about the utilidors, search for posts with “tunnel”, which is how they are usually referred to. But anyway, yes, I did walk around in them to get from place to place. They’re essentially just hallways with pipes running through them. They’re not particularly special. At first you might think “Oh boy, I’m in the tunnels at Disney World!”, but after a week you realize it’s just another hallway. The ambulance thing seems plausible; they were certainly large enough for smaller vehicles to drive through.
Did you ever hear about anyone passing out or dying in a costume (I’d assume probably from heat exhaustion)? If so, how was it handled
I never saw someone pass out, but I heard plenty of stories. In training, they specifically mentioned that passing out is both A) a logistical nightmare and B) easy to avoid if you drink plenty of water and communicate with your attendants. When performers pass out, they clear the area of guests, bring in the EMTs, who then cut the costume off of the performer. Why the costume had to be cut rather than removed, I was never certain. So if you’re feeling woozy, get your ass inside and drink some water. Don’t be a tough guy.
As for deaths, I was told one story while in training for the Christmas parade. Apparently, a few years before I was there, a float lost control backstage and ran over a nearby parade performer who was playing Pluto. The trainer cautioned us against talking about the incident, as there were still a number of performers working who witnessed it. Knowing how sensitive a subject it would be for them, I never asked anyone about it.
FYI, I was at the Magic Kingdom about a week ago, and he was there–the new Fantasyland area includes a Gaston’s Pub quick service place, and he was right outside there.
His biceps are sorely lacking however.
Hey Cryptic, since you started this amazing thread, my family has gone to Disney twice and met dozens of characters. One thing I noticed was that since the fur characters can’t talk, almost all of the kids won’t talk to them either. Kids who were chatting away while in line would immediately clam up when they reached the characters, like they were waiting for the characters to talk first. It wasn’t just fear - plenty of kids would happily talk away at face characters. Was this your experience? Did they give you any training in how to get kids to open up when you were unable to talk to them?
Thanks for the quick reply Cryptic. I wasn’t expecting anything until after Christmas!
Anyway, I thought of a few more questions in-case you don’t mind.
**Do you wear glasses? Did you know any performers that wore glasses? I’m terribly near sighted and always have a hard time keeping my glasses on, and just worried that with all the sweat and such in the costume it would be very very difficult to keep them on.
I know that Tigger see’s out of his nose. Did your handlers help you move through an area or did you just kinda wing it and hope you don’t trip on anything. (Other than those strollers ;))
A totally out of the blue question, where did you eat lunch? (Assuming you ate some)
What was your favorite holiday at WDW? (Halloween, Christmas etc etc.)
Finally, how are things going with Special K? I don’t believe we’ve seen an update on that for a while.**
Thanks in advanced!
First off, thanks to Cryptic, UKCatgirl and any others who have contributed information. I was a CP about 8 years ago from May of 2005 to January of 2006 (Fall Advantage), and I just returned home on Monday after a 4 day trip to the parks for the first time since then. I’ve always had an interest in returning to work there again, and I think being a character performer could be fun. The closest I got to entertainment was working with the horse team for parades in what custodial CMs refer to as “Honey Bucket.” How it got that name, I have no idea, but that’s another story and I will spare you the details other than it involved working as costumed pooper scooper, and by costumed I mean a parade themed costume, not the costume custodial wears day to day.
I can’t think of any questions I have at this point, and I’m not really in a position to audition just yet, but I’m considering it.
One post did stand out to me because I worked the role most related to it and am intrigued by the possibility of such a thing. It certainly would have made my job a bit easier. If anyone can post a clip or a link showing this, please do.
In no way do I intend to hijack Cryptic’s awesome thread, and I apologize if it seems I am doing so. Anyway, I’ll just get right to it…
I worked Custodial at Magic Kingdom for my CP, and I can say with certainty there are no vacuum tubes under the trash cans, however that would have been awesome if it were true. What we actually had and most likely still have is called the AVAC system. It’s basically a system of tubes running from certain points in each land to a central system behind Splash Mountain. Every hour, a custodial CM in each land does what we call a trash run. Any trash cans that did not have a bag (bag trash was a separate run) were referred to as liner trash, and we would pull those liners (plastic bins) and replace them with a clean one. We would transport the full liners on a metal push cart to the appropriate AVAC station, sort them by removing recyclable items, and dump items down the chute if they were safe for the AVAC’s filters and could be ground up. At the end of the night, the CM doing the closing run would empty and rinse the liners so they would be ready for park opening the following day. Anyhow, if anyone has more questions about custodial at WDW, feel free to PM me and I’ll be glad to help you out.
Did they give you any training in how to get kids to open up when you were unable to talk to them?
This mostly happened with the really teeny kids, which was totally understandable – what looks like a fluffy little critter on TV suddenly turns out to be beast that’s three times their size. We were trained to make our body appear as small as possible (crouching, drawing our arms into our chest), and only make small, gradual movements. This, combined with encouragement from the parents, was usually enough to win them over. It didn’t always work though.
**Do you wear glasses? Did you know any performers that wore glasses? I’m terribly near sighted and always have a hard time keeping my glasses on, and just worried that with all the sweat and such in the costume it would be very very difficult to keep them on. **
I’m very fortunate in that I’ve never needed to wear glasses or contact lenses. I knew a few performers who did wear glasses, but it never occurred to me until just now that that might be problematic in costume. I imagine most bespectacled performers would have to go with contact lenses, though maybe it wouldn’t matter for low-energy characters like Eeyore.
I know that Tigger sees out of his nose. Did your handlers help you move through an area or did you just kinda wing it and hope you don’t trip on anything. (Other than those strollers)
I know some of the other costumes have pretty limited vision, but Tigger had a reasonably clear field of view through his enormous schnoz. By the end of my program, I was doing cartwheels on set, so no, I didn’t need help walking around. The stroller incident was a one-time thing, I swear!
A totally out of the blue question, where did you eat lunch? (Assuming you ate some)
I usually ate in the break room, or in the cafeteria if I saw someone I knew. Some days I would pack sandwiches, others I would buy something at the cafeteria. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom both had reasonably convenient cafeteria locations with a decent selection of food. I don’t remember ever going to the cafeterias at Hollywood Studios or Epcot.
What was your favorite holiday at WDW? (Halloween, Christmas etc etc.)
There’s two weird things about holidays at WDW: The first is the lopsidedness of them. Big ones like Halloween and Christmas were stretched out into a full month of extra decorations and parades, but there would be nothing for Thanksgiving. The second thing is that since holidays are the busiest times at the park, that’s when you’re going to be working your butt off, with no chance of getting vacation days. What might seem as though it would be an extraordinary experience (Christmas at Disney World? Oh boy!) really just goes by in a blur. Short answer: My birthday 
Finally, how are things going with Special K? I don’t believe we’ve seen an update on that for a while.
Special K currently works as a dancer on a cruise ship that runs between Seattle and somewhere in Alaska. I actually found that out by accident: roughly two years ago I started dating a wonderful woman, Ninja Queen (who also happens to be a dancer). As the months drifted by, I found myself thinking about and speaking to Special K less and less, not by any malice or conscious restraint, just the natural way of things.
Fast forward to a few months ago, when I went to Seattle for a week to meet up with my dad and brother in Seattle. Whenever I travel, for some reason my brain goes “Hey, now’s a good time to text everyone you haven’t talked to in a while,” so I sent Special K a text saying simply “I’m in Seattle!” We were quite surprised to realize that we were in the same place. Between my travel schedule and her cruise schedule, it wasn’t possible for us to see each other, which was probably for the better. Ninja Queen is, in all likelihood, my life partner, and it would have been remarkably stupid if I had allowed myself to fall victim to the feminine wiles of an old flame just because we happened to be in the same city.
**In no way do I intend to hijack Cryptic’s awesome thread, and I apologize if it seems I am doing so […] Anyhow, if anyone has more questions about custodial at WDW, feel free to PM me and I’ll be glad to help you out. **
Oh come now, share your stories! I’m sure you’ve got plenty of good ones. None of my friends at WDW were in Custodial, so I have no idea what sorts of shenanigans you guys put up with. What was training like? Were there a million billion Haitians working in Custodial while you were there? Every Custodial I saw was Haitian!
Heck yeah man, I have quite a few stories. One of these days I’d like to compile a bunch of them into a book actually, that is if I can remember them all that long, :D. Just like all cast members, we put up with guests shenanigans every day. The fun thing about custodial was that we were out and about, so we had to be walking talking information booths for the guests in addition to our cleaning duties. Here are a few stories off the top of my head. I’ll compile some more and put them in another post.
Once while I was on duty in Fantasyland, I had a nice chat with a family when they stopped me to ask for directions to something, though I forget what. I remember they had 2 or 3 little kids, and after I told them where to find what they were looking for, we ended up talking for a while. I found out that the guy was from Egypt and his wife was from the states, but that they lived in the Washington DC area where he owned a restaurant. We talked for a while and I think I gave them some more info about different things to see and do at the park. I remember them thanking me for my help, and the guy even said to look up his restaurant if I was ever in DC again. That was one of the more positive guest interactions I had.
This other time, one some hot day in July or August, I was sweeping near the riverboat in Liberty Square. For anyone not familiar with the park and this area of it, this boat runs on a track and steams around Tom Sawyer Island. This boat, the Liberty Belle, is not to be confused with the ferry that takes guests from the park entrance to the Transportation and Ticket Center/parking lot. Anyway, I was sweeping near the LB’s dock and a lady walked up and asked if this was the boat that went to the parking lot. The thought did occur to me for a moment to tell her that it was, and watch as the boat circled the island for 20 minutes or whatever the travel time was, but then I remembered very quickly that I had my actual name tag on that day, and not my spare with another name on it, so I figured I had to refrain from having a little fun, and I told her the truth that she would have to exit the park and take the ferry.
Another time, I was working a closing shift, and the area around the castle was roped off for the fireworks show. I was standing by to sweep up debris after the show, though I wasn’t slated to push water as I was on some nights after the show. Shortly after Wishes ended, a couple who looked to be in their sixties approached me and they didn’t look too happy. He asked me where he could submit a complaint and said that he got some ash in his eye after looking up to watch the fireworks. Now I’m sure you all are smart folks and no that what goes up must come down, and that if you stand right up against the edge of the restricted zone, there might be some debris from the fireworks falling in that area. Well, just after I told this gentleman and lady that complaints could be submitted at guest relations in City Hall, he told me, and I quote, “Disney will be hearing from my lawyer!” Now I don’t remember would I said in reply, but I probably just reminded him of where to submit the complaint. I think I apologized for what happened, even though I really didn’t care all that much. In fact, if I would have wanted to terminate myself, my response would probably have been more along the lines of “Sir, if you want to take legal action, go right ahead. I’m sure Mickey has lawyers too. Frankly I’m not paid enough to to give a sh*t anyway!” haha.
Ok, one more for this post. I was working in Liberty Square and got a radio call from base (or manager, I forget which) to clean up something at or in Haunted Mansion. On my way I ended up walking alongside a mother and her little girl. The little girl saw me and said something about going on the Peter Pan Ride. I asked her if she had ever been on that ride, and she said no. As I turned to go towards HM, I said “well have fun and tell Peter and Wendy hi for me.” Her mother didn’t seem to be to happy that she was talking to me. I don’t know what her problem was, but I guess it didn’t matter to her that I worked for the mouse. At the time I thought maybe it was because of being a janitor or something like that, but I didn’t care either way and I still don’t because seeing a child excited about being at Disney World and having a good time made the work that myself and my coworkers do every day worth it.
I’m kind of in the same boat you are. I had room mates in foods, custodial, and merchandise, but no one in entertainment. I did get to talk to a few character performers now and then, such as when helping with the parades.
I’d say our training started out pretty much the same as other roles. After Traditions, I remember attending some class where we learned more about certain procedures and rules, and I remember going to the park as a group. A day or two after that, I had a custodial class at Disney University, and then the next day (I think) I started a training class in the park. We spent some time in the park but most of our time backstage learning about the tools of our trade. We got our brooms and dust pans, learned to push water to the storm drains, and they showed us the Powervacs we would use to clean up after parades. After that class, they split us up into pairs and each pair was assigned to a trainer. We were trained for a couple of days before being evaluated. Somewhere in that process I know I spent time training in Fantasyland, but my memory is a bit fuzzy on that for some reason. I was assigned to work primarily in the north of Magic Kingdom, which is Fantasyland and Liberty Square. Each region had a name and a mascot. We were the Northern Knights. Toontown and Tomorrowland were in the East (Eastern Elites). Main Street (Main Street Maniacs) was it’s own region. Adventureland and Frontierland were in the West (can’t remember what they called themselves). Anyway, we were also taught how to clean restrooms, do trash runs, use the AVAC chutes, and clean up blood. I remember having a bit of trouble with the blood borne pathogen cleanup during my evaluation because I mixed up the order on a couple of steps. It didn’t take long to think it through and do it right though.
I remember having several Haitians in the department back then. They may have hired more since then because I saw several on my trip there last week. In my experience most of them were good workers, but a few would skip out on work and make the rest of us look bad sometimes. Then again, you get those bad apples with any group of people I suppose. There was also one guy from Nicaragua, a woman from Cuba, and a few other Hispanic folks in custodial who I worked with at one point or another. We also had a few college kids from Brazil for a few months because a group of them came as part of the International College Program I think.
Oh, and I did want to clarify a bit from my previous post. To the best of my knowledge, the other WDW parks bag all of their trash and have no AVAC system. When I visited last week, I noticed the trash carts at the other parks were the type for putting bags of trash in, and they had plastic lids to keep the rain out.
Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Hi Cryptic (and everyone else contributing to this thread) ,
Just like everyone else I want to thank you for taking time to answers everyones questions, it has been extremely helpful.
My passion is working with children and I am especially passionate for working with special needs individuals, therefore working with children at Disney would just be a dream come true. I have done my research but still have a few questions.
Do you have any stories about working with special needs children?
What do you need to bring to a character performer audition? Ex: Resumes, head shots, dance shoes etc.
I know you have mentioned before that you have to audition for fur and that they will pick face characters from there, but they have auditions just for character look-alikes. Are character look-alikes the same as face performers? If not, what do they do?
Also while researching I read somewhere that you may only audition for Disney once every 6 months, and I didn’t know if that had any truth to it.
And lastly if I do not get chosen as a character performer, are there any other jobs that has a lot of interactions with the people?
And again thank you in advance for taking time to answer my questions, it is highly appreciated.
Hey there, theguardaholic! I’m glad this has been helpful for you. Some answers:
Do you have any stories about working with special needs children?
Take a gander at the first response in this post.
What do you need to bring to a character performer audition? Ex: Resumes, head shots, dance shoes etc.
All I brought was comfortable clothing, sneakers, and maybe a water bottle. I suppose you could bring dance shoes if you already have a pair, but they’re definitely not necessary.
I know you have mentioned before that you have to audition for fur and that they will pick face characters from there, but they have auditions just for character look-alikes. Are character look-alikes the same as face performers? If not, what do they do?
I haven’t heard the term “look-alike” used in a Disney context before, but it definitely refers to face characters.
Also while researching I read somewhere that you may only audition for Disney once every 6 months, and I didn’t know if that had any truth to it.
That rule sounds familiar. On this official blog post, there’s a staff comment which confirms the 6 month rule. In practice, it’s not really much of a limitation. If the setup is the same as when I auditioned, there’s one small team of audition organizers that tour around the country rather, rather than having a dedicated team for each location. So if you audition in Rochester, for example, and don’t get in, you’re going to be waiting a while for the next Rochester audition anyway. Unless you plan on flying all over the country trying to keep up with the audition tour schedule, the 6 month rule won’t really affect you.
And lastly if I do not get chosen as a character performer, are there any other jobs that has a lot of interactions with the people?
Of the roles that one can have as a College Program cast member, almost all of them involve frequent interactions with guests. The only exception I can think of is Costuming (or Wardrobe? not sure what’s called these days). Like computer programmers, they very rarely go outside.
Hey, I am heading down to Orlando this spring as part of entertainment and I’m extremely excited to head down. I’m studying mechanical engineering so this is a new field for me. I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed this and have been reading it with plenty of laughs and valuable info gained. Originally, I only applied to experience the fun and majesty of Disney, with hopes of furthering my progress in becoming a Disney Imagineer some day. I only realized the opportunities I would have with women once I went to the character audition. Hopefully, things will go well for you and special K. I also will be bringing my guitar and some other music equipment. My only worry is how I can keep it all safe. Did you keep your guitar locked away your room or something?