Friday, May 19, 2000
by Kevin Yee
For those of you getting impatient
to read some "read good" Cast Member stories, and getting annoyed
at my self-indulgence here (who does this guy think he is? why should
we care about his little hire-in stories?), well I have good news for
you: we turn back to good random stories next week. But I have to finish
the job I started, so let's crack open a brew and listen as I report for
duty....
Well, my first day was to be a day shift (they have day, mid, and night
varieties, of course I had no choice in the matter as a new hire). I think
it was 10:30-17:00, or six and a half hours. Disneyland uses the 24-hour
clock for shift times, as many businesses do, because it's a round the
clock operation running a theme park. Anyway, my shift was just long enough
for them to be legally forced to give me a lunch and two breaks — of course
I get docked for the lunch. But that's OK. It's traumatic your first day!
Having as many breaks as possible worked out to be a pretty good idea.
They say to get there quite early because there are a number of things
to deal with: clearing security at Harbor House, getting myself my ID
card at the Security office, getting wardrobe to issue me a locker and
a costume, then changing into the costume and then finding my location.
They recommend thirty minutes extra; I was at least ninety minutes early.
Well, I figured out how to park pretty easily. The employee entrance
alongside Harbor Blvd leads to Bambi lot, Goofy, Mickey and sometimes
Minnie and Happy, two sections just on the other side of Bambi. But the
prime place to park is A-lot. When Disneyland visitors get a parking ticket,
they saw all these sections listed, but they were always Cast Member parking
locations (A-lot was listed as Alice, but no one ever called it that).
A-lot is the prime spot to park, it's closest to where we have to go backstage,
and thus they lock it up halfway through the morning and reopen it in
the afternoon so night shift people have a place to park. If you know
the giant tram area between Disneyland and Harbor Blvd, populated by colorful
lightpoles, this is the area that A-lot used to be located.
Bambi Lot, frequently reserved for CMs.
A-lot had its own set of problems.
Technically the rows were one-way driving, but they never really worked
that way. I was constantly amazed that my car was not wrecked multiple
times over, let alone on that first nervous day. It's true that the guest
portion of the lot was also one-way, but there is far less confusion when
there are attendants around to keep things orderly. The CM lots were full
of people driving the wrong way and angling for a good spot.
So then it's off to Harbor House to get past security. With my hire
sheet and driver's license that's a breeze, and I head on through. First
thing you do is pass through this room with thousands of paper timecards
on the walls interspersed with timeclocks. I won't get my timecard until
later today, so I just breeze through and back outside at the other end.
The sidewalk descends as I pass underneath the railroad tracks. Overhead
a train rumbles past; the track above me is the area directly between
the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas. The sidewalk slopes back
upward, and I'm at a T-intersection. Directly in front of me the street
ends because that is the backside of Space Mountain — from here it's just
a building, on top of which the white conical shape of the mountain sits.
Around the corner slightly the base of the mountain is just a giant cylinder.
To my right will be Cast Cutters (haircuts), Cash Control (where all that
money goes every day), lockers, the character head room, and the home
of Outdoor Vending (in those days). To my left is a long administration
building.
In those days, that was the ONLY administration building. Jack Lindquist,
soon to be the first president of Disneyland, had his office there, inside
the berm and overlooking Main Street. This building contains the Primeval
World diorama alongside the back, plus Costuming (Wardrobe), more lockers,
the Disney University we heard about last time, Security, and all the
offices necessary to run Disneyland. Hard to believe it, but they have
like ten times as many offices now.
First stop: Costuming.
Get issued a costume no problem, but they come back with: "sorry kid we
have no lockers right now." Uh... what?? I'm stuck with a paper bag. I
have to find a locker room — any old one will do, provided it's not a
women's locker room — change, and then bring my bag back to the Costuming
window for safekeeping. They'll keep my street clothes in that bag behind
the counter there. As I see, several dozen new hires are in the same boat
as me. After today's shift I'll repeat the process in reverse. This annoyance
continues for three weeks before I finally get issued a locker.
The costume for CafÈ Orleans comes with a clip-on bowtie. This
scares me quite a bit; I've never used one of these things. Later I learn
there is a trick to make sure it stays tight (involves bending the metal
once it's attached). I also later learn, to my chagrin, that I'd been
issued a new bowtie and look ridiculous for not pulling out the "Colonel
Sanders" string that dangles down both sides of it. My coworkers will
end up laughing at that when I arrive at the location. But I'm not there
yet.
Next up: Security. Get issued an
ID card. Because I'm Casual-Temporary (work holiday periods
only), it's red. And it's just a laminated picture on a card with info
literally typewritten onto it; no computers here. I could make one of
these at home, given a laminating machine. In later years a new type would
be issued with a bar code, then in the mid 90's yet another style replaces
it that has a readable magnetic stripe. By then computers will have been
added. Also at Security I get my parking sticker — a Mickey shape with
"19" on one ear and "87" on the other. That particular sticker was the
last until 1989, though, so everyone had a 1987 sticker even in 1988.
This was a good amount of procedures to remember: how to park, how to
gain admission to Harbor House, and how to get a locker, a costume, an
ID card and a parking sticker. If you remember they had showed a video
during Orientation on how to do all this, but still, it was daunting.
As I've said before, they now have an experienced CM meet you at Harbor
House and they guide you through the rest of the process. Putting on unfamiliar
Costume pieces sounds easy enough, but it can be a real annoyance. Or
embarrassment. Particularly the female costumes are less than intuitive
sometimes.
Finally, off to my location: Cafe Orleans, and this time I know where
it is because they pointed it out to me on the Orientation walkabout.
The lead, or hourly manager, is there to greet me and he hooks me up with
Ben, who will be my trainer for the day. Now, Ben Gray was a powerful-looking
guy maybe three years older than me, so I didn't dream of calling him
"Ben Gay," though it did leap directly into my mind.
I was to work bussing that day. Ben showed me how to get a bustub, get
a busstand, and how to send the bustub down that dangerous evil naughty
conveyer belt (let's just say that poor timing could easily result in
crushed hands and often resulted in broken plates). Then he led me to
a table and said to go ahead and bus. I'm afraid I had to ask how exactly
one does this. There is an art to it, and if you're not a skilled bustub-packer,
you need to learn this art! I still remember some of the tricks to arranging
the table; the ashtray was to face the river after we'd wiped it out.
It was okay to smoke in the patio back then, you see.
Sandwich Room at Cafe Orleans
I swear, the very next thing Ben
taught me was how to waltz into Sandwich room, make myself a Croissant
Mardi Gras — the ham/turkey croissant sandwich which to this day is still
on the Cafe Orleans menu — and then take it out to the busshack to be
eaten illegally. I watched in horror, convinced I would be
fired my first day for just watching him do this. At some point we journeyed
past the Sandwich Room, past the bored lead lounging at his desk, and
down the foul-smelling elevator. I sorta liked the smell after a while
though; it always reminded me of the Cafe, which had become fun by then.
But on that first day, we went down to the Main Kitchen, a huge sprawling
complex below New Orleans Square and situated around Pirates of the Caribbean's
subterranean tunnels. From there we headed to the D.E.C. (Disneyland Employees
Cafeteria) for our breaks and lunches. Don't worry, I'll dedicate some
column space to the D.E.C. at some later point.
After the initial terror and confusion about what all to do on the first
day of work — I literally had to take notes at Orientation to remember
all my chores — the day turned out rather fun and easy work. They've learned
their lesson though, in the form of the Buddy System I told you about.
It's a lot easier for the new hire, of course, though I think quite a
few CMs sent out as Buddies use this time as paid break. Still, by and
large it's a better system.
Well, I mentioned Costuming this time around, so next time I'll deliver
some more details about it, and I'll see if I can scrap up a story or
two.
Next up: Costuming
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Are you a CM or a former CM? I would love to hear and share your stories! E-mail me! Stories and comments you submit become property of and may be published on this site; we normally don't publish last names of current CMs, but if you wish to remain anonymous altogether or do not want me to share your stories, please let me know when you e-mail me. — Shoshana NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in reader-contributed stories do not reflect those of Cast Place or MousePlanet. CM – Cast member; company lingo for “employee.” Empowerment Evolution – The 1995 attempt by newer park management to introduce modern accountability and market forces into the stodgy Disneyland methodology and power hierarchies. The name was meant to “empower” rank and file employees by removing layers of their management, though now there are more managers than ever. TPO – Theme Park Operations; the division of the Disneyland hierarchy that actually works in the theme park itself. TDA – Team Disney Anaheim; the name of the on-site administration building. Area manager – used to be responsible for an entire land, with all business divisions in the area reporting to him. Area supervisor – the immediate boss for location supervisors who divide up a department of intelligently grouped locations. The area supervisors in turn reported to the area manager. Nowadays all supervisors and area supervisors have been replaced by managers and assistant managers — the same idea, but smaller “business units" than a department; usually just one location in fact. RFT – “A” status; a full-time hourly employee. RPT – “B” status; an hourly employee five days a week but just not quite 40 hours usually. CR – “C” status; an hourly employee who works weekends year-round and five days a week during all school holiday periods (including summer and Christmas break). CT – a part-time hourly employee who works five days a week during all school holiday periods (including summer and Christmas break). No seniority, so shifts worked are usually quite short. Locate the employment center to fill out an application, and they will call you for an interview (dress nicely, just shy of an actual suit). Once there, follow these rules, in this order of importance: 1. Smile and be very friendly. They want outgoing people.
2. Do not let the group interview throw you off balance. They want outgoing people who can “perform” a little bit.
3. Do not worry about job (in)experience. They don't care. They want friendly people, not experienced and/or hardened people.
4. Do your best to convince them you already have a Disney attitude: you want to work with people, you're a team player, and you would consider this a dream job (however, don't overdo it on the crazy-Disney-fan side either). Strike a nice balance.
5. Did I mention the importance of a smile? 
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