One thing I was wondering - are some ‘face characters’ rotated between parks? My daughter recently spent some time talking (on a cold, rainy day, when NOTHING was happening) with two such at the Moroccan Pavilion in Epcot. She was told this particular pair spend their year shuttling between Florida, California, and Tokyo DisneySea, playing the same characters at each park, and really enjoy the travelling. BTW, my daughter is an advanced-level Japanese language student and these two - while not Japanese themselves - were able to converse with her quite fluently and gave her tips about good restaurants in Tokyo, etc. These two were physically absolutely perfect for the pair they were playing - incredibly so. I don’t want to say who they were because I don’t want to get them in trouble. They were very kind to my teen daughter and very friendly.
I suppose it’s not completely out of the question that this could happen, but I have never heard of it being the case. Also, I can’t imagine any situation in which it would be necessary or cost-effective. While the different parks are all owned by the Walt Disney Company, they are managed independently – and this includes staffing. Even with the College Program, you have to make a choice between Disney World and Disneyland right from the get-go. There is no option for “Just put me where you need me.”
Not exactly ‘put me where you need me’ - they told her they were permanent employees with a set rotation depending on the busy season (and now that she’s home my daughter has clarified that California was not included; it was DisneySea and DisneyWorld.) And they were definitely multi-lingual, speaking at the very least fluent Japanese (Tokyo accent) and English. This pair were just a little bit older than college-age, also.
At any rate, she enjoyed speaking with them and had a good time. She used Disney as an opportunity to practice her Japanese a bit - lots of opportunities. We all had a great time, and this thread has been very interesting.
Bolding mine.
Just a nitpick, but Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea are owned and operated by the Japanese firm, Oriental Land Company.
Now back to this great thread! 
Somewhat off topic, but I don’t care if y’all don’t:
One of the coolest moments I ever had at Disney World was at the Haunted Mansion. It’s my favorite attraction by far, I’ve been through it a hundred times. One time was made more special than the rest by one of the costumed attendants. He made a beeline for me as soon as we entered the Mansion, and muttered, “You should not have come.” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the day.
Our very last ride on our final day of vacation was Pirates of the Carribean. The costumed attendant at the end of the ride sang (in character) “Yo Ho Ho! It’s time to get out of the boat!” as each boat came up. Priceless.
i’m glad this thread is back, i love it! i can’t think of any questions at the moment but as a passholder and a fairly frequent diner at the crystal palace i also may have hugged the OP at one point. fun!
Do you get a choice to go to an overseas Disneyland? When we went to Tokyo Disneyland, Peter Pan and Captain Sparrow were English-speaking Caucasians.
Would they get their relo paid (flight out and living arrangements)?
They did a terrific job, and I had to check myself on complimenting them. After all, to my little ones, they are the real characters. My 5-year-old even waved at the Capt Sparrow in the ride, yelling “That’s my friend!” The characters would spend a lot of time with my kids; I guess they were happy to speak English with someone for a while. 
I actually have a question for you! How is the food at Crystal Palace? I would have loved to get dinner there at some point, but it’s like $70 scrillion per plate and it gets booked solid a month ahead of time, so it never happened. Is it actually worth the dough?
Other Disney resorts may have their own College Programs (or something similar), but the application process I went through had only two options: Walt Disney World in Orlando or Disneyland in California. If College Programs do exist internationally, I assume the relocation arrangement is exactly the same as it was for WDW: you pay for your own flights, and money gets taken out of your paycheck to pay for your apartment. The apartment was pretty damn cheap though. I don’t know if I already mentioned the living arrangements, but it was about $80 per week for a fully-furnished apartment with free utilities, air conditioning, cable, internet, access to a pool, a gym, and transportation to/from the parks. Good deal in my book. I have no idea what the College Program accomodations would be like for other resorts.
Update from Special K!
I just got off the phone with my lovely Special K a few minutes ago. I asked her about the talking Mickey costume. She confirmed that the articulation system (mouth and eyes) are the same as in other such costumes. She also said that the voice system is not prerecorded, but simply modifies whatever the performer says. She also noted that the talking costume will not become a standard feature throughout the parks, as it is way too damn expensive. There will probably be one or two designated locations/times where talking Mickeys will appear.
She also mentioned a recent policy change which will give ya’ll a very clear idea of what it’s like to work for Disney. Every employee has a Main Gate pass, which allows them to bring in guests (up to 3 at once) for free a certain number of times each year (6 uses for part-timers, 16 for full-timers according to Special K). In the past, it didn’t matter what the cast member did after they swiped in their guests; they could stay with them in the parks, they could go work a shift, whatever. Now it is mandatory that you stay with your guests the whole time that they’re visiting the parks. If the cast member leaves, the guests have to leave as well, and they’re making a point of enforcing it. At least one manager has already been fired for “abusing” his Main Gate privileges. Seriously, wtf? What difference does it make? I don’t understand why they think it would be cost-effective to even give a shit about this!
it’s pretty good. decent variety, salads, fish, meat, lots of sides, soups. unlike typical buffet desserts, theirs are quite good, with things like key lime pie, german chocolate cake, and recently they’ve had a pumpkin cheesecake which is delish. we usually hit it up at lunchtime, so it’s not quite as pricey. i think when dining in the parks you get the most for your $$ at the buffets since all the sit down restaurants can be kind of expensive.
it’s actually not too hard to get in if you go in the off season and have a small party. i went in september and made a reservation the same day, went again in october without a reservation, both times were at a table within 25 minutes. i wouldn’t recommend that approach for the families of 15 that wander in, but for a two top you can usually get away with it.
I’d hazard a guess that some cast members were selling off their guest privileges on craigslist or the like, rather than bringing in friends & family. Forcing them to stay in the park with the guests reduces the opportunity for that.
Though I wonder what the mechanics are of enforcing it - once you’re in the park, how do they keep track of who is still there and who isn’t? You don’t have to scan anything when you leave - do they just base it on cast members recognizing each other, or is there a huge security complex with advanced facial recognition software monitoring all the exits? Actually, there probably is…
I think the most reliable way of enforcing it would be to check what time the cast member clocked in for work after using the main gate pass. If the difference in times is less than an hour, than that’s a pretty good indicator that the cast member “abused” their privileges. That would be fairly easy to detect automatically, as all the clocking stations are electronic.
Sure, but how do they catch the “I’ll get you into the park, then I’ll go home and play Xbox all day” violators?
They are to this grown-up too - I’m a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and I nearly went nuts when I got my picture taken with The White Rabbit at WDW. My mom said later, “I wonder what the guy in the suit was thinking, haha” and I was all, “There is no “guy in a suit”, that really was The White Rabbit!!” 
I did the last Tower of Terror 13K at WDW, my first half-marathon at Disneyland (on my birthday!), and the Princess Half at WDW. My first full marathon will be at WDW in January then the Princess Half again in February. I’m not a huge Disney fan (except Alice in Wonderland) but I LOVE doing races there. The staff, the course, the entertainment, everything is wonderful. Thank you!
Way back in the late 70’s, I knew a woman who played Snow White at Disneyland - she looked the part and really was the perfect personality for Snow White as well.
She told a friend of our that one of the interesting perks of her job was that she could call in “sick” if she wasn’t feeling happy that day. Supposedly that was a valid reason not to come to work. Not that should could do that over and over, but the fact that she could just call in “sad” and not have to go to work made me laugh.
Do you know if that was/is true?
Alright, I have some fuzzy recollections of how the point system works. Hopefully UKCatGirl can fill in the details if necessary.
Essentially, there’s this point system at WDW. Points are bad. There exists a detailed hierarchy of consequences if you get too many points, something like this: If you get three points within a month, or six points within three months, or nine points within a year, you get a reprimand. If you get three reprimands ever, you get terminated.
So how does one go about getting points? Clocking in late or clocking out early will get you a half point. Calling in personal (or just not showing up for work) will get you a full point. I myself never called in sick, but I think it worked like this: You could call in sick for any reason whatsoever (or no reason at all), and you would not get a point for it so long as you provided a doctor’s note to substantiate your claim. If you could not do this, you would get a point just as if you had called in personal.
It may also be true that full-timers get a set number of freebie sick days per year. I’ll be sure to ask Special K the next time I talk to her.
How am I doing, UKCatGirl?
Scooting around on YouTube I ran across two things-- the trash cans are all emptied from below, by vacuum, and shoes aren’t sold in the parks to help identify snatched kids. I could swear I’ve seen trash being emptied and the whole shoe thing is just bizzare, but it’s been so long I don’t have a clear memory. The doubt is going to keep me up at night-- help!
About Tinkerbell; I took a couple of college classes with the original Tinkerbell’s niece. Unless she was running a world-class con with no payout, she was telling the truth. She never mentioned anyone else in the family working for Disney, so I sorta doubt the role runs in the family.
One cool thing-- evidently Disneyland opened the park to family of employees before the grand opening. My classmate said it was the event of a lifetime. It’s never occurred to me to doubt her word, I’d hate to find out it wasn’t true.
I know this answer!
Yes, they did open the park to family before it officially opened - I guess we would call this a “soft opening” today, just like they open casinos here in Las Vegas to only friends and family a few days early to make sure everything is running smoothly.
I know this because of a piece of weird trivia.
I briefly worked with a guy who claimed he might be the illegitimate son of Walt Disney.
When he was really little, his mother took him to meet Walt and they spent the day together. He was later invited to this pre-opening of Disneyland and even had some pictures to prove it.
Walt denied being his father (perhaps before the DNA days?), but I believe his mother got a lump sum of money to never bring this up again. The fact that this guy got to spend a day with Walt, one-on-one, and go to Disneyland before it officially opened, leads me to think there was at least some reason to think he at least might have been Walt’s son at the time. Walt had to have known the mother rather intimately to go that far.
I have not kept in touch with that guy, and we only worked together for about 6 months in the late 80’s.
I also met another woman whose father worked for Disney, and she got to go to that opening as well. She remembers it fondly and recalls all of her school friends were really jealous of her that day.
Yikes, both of these things are way outside the realm of topics that I would be knowledgeable on. They both sound like BS to me, but I say that as a cocky dude rather than as a former employee.
As for the “soft opening”, we had a similar thing for the Christmas Parade. Rehearsals for parades took place at the aptly-named Parade Center, except for the last three, which were full run-throughs on the actual parade route. Of course, it’s not possible to do this during the day while the guests are out and about, so we had to have overnight rehearsals. On the schedule, they were listed as being from 2300 to 2900 in military time, which I always thought was hilarious. Anywho, the relevant part is that the very last rehearsal was a cast member preview, in which cast members who weren’t in the parade could come watch for free. It was a nice stepping stone between empty rehearsals and live performances with thousands of guests.
I read that twice as “don’t shave the children.”
:eek: