Monday, October 9, 2000
by Kevin Yee
There are two kinds of private parties at Disneyland. The more expensive kind involves closing down the Park on a weeknight, emptying it out, and reopening everything back up again for people holding a special ticket. This is the pure form of a "private party," and it's very expensive indeed. Disneyland is not cheap to run. In fact, I'm not even sure they do this kind of party anymore.
A variation of this is the "mix-in." The kind of party is cheaper, but the tradeoff is that Disneyland doesn't close down and empty out first (hence the name mix-in). If you are lucky enough to be at Disneyland during the day, you could stay much later than normal, and they don't announce the closing time until the party itself is also ending, usually around midnight.
But today's column is about yet another variation. a kind of private party that happens after hours in Disneyland, but only in one land. Called an Enchanted Evening, such parties usually took place in New Orleans Square, so I had the pleasure of working most of them. And these were parties where Disneyland really went all out.
Here's the front to the Lead Folder for an Enchanted Evening. It was for Buena Vista Home Video (celebrating the release of Little Mermaid on video), in 1990.
Imagine all of Disneyland deserted but still illuminated by its show lights. Main Street music blaring despite a lack of audience. Into this you, part of the special guests for the night, enter Disneyland. You are directed onto the Disneyland Railroad, where you are whisked off to the Frontierland Train Station.
Once there, you notice festive lights of all colors spotlighting the trees, the buildings, even the ground. Giant helixes of balloons point to the sky. They, too, are illuminated, but from within.
As you step into the land, you are guided by a human wall of specially selected employees, wearing black tuxedoes and holding trays of champagne flutes. Everyone, of course, is all smiles.
Deeper into the land are food tables, offering delicious Cajun treats normally not on the menu at all at Disneyland, like andouille sausage and spicy chicken.
A typical table layout for food items
In various corners of the land are bar tables, offering everything from sodas and juleps to beer and wine. Yes, it's all free! Come back as often as you'd like!
Want to ride the Haunted Mansion or the Pirates of the Caribbean? Be our guest, there isn't a line, since there are only a few hundred of you. But be sure to return out here later on for the fireworks on the River Stage (if this was pre-1992) or the special showing of Fantasmic (if this was after 1992). Above all, have fun! Dance to the special live music! This is a party!
Enchanted Evenings (EE's) were just as much fun for CMs as they were for the guests. You got to dress in a tuxedo after all, how often do you get to do that? Incidentally, the tuxedo is what they now wear for the Fantasmic Dessert Balcony service, though they used to just wear the Gallery costume.
There were a lot of great things about working an EE. All the tables out in the land had to be set up special for the event, and guess whose job that was? But there wasn't really that much work to do. Arrive early, go to meetings about how the evening was to progress, go get the tables, set them up, get the food, set it up, work a few short and fun filled hours on the tables themselves, and then put everything away and go home.
Somewhere during the cleanup phase, the head supervisor would call over everyone and we would all attack one of the food tables left standing on purpose. And we would eat! This was excellent food, mind you, and Disneyland so very rarely bought you any food that this was nothing short of amazing.
The idea was to reward you, despite the short work hours. But there is a method to their madness here. EE's were very expensive to purchase, so the supervisors went out of their way to ensure that literally every single thing was pure magic that night. Foremost in the guest experience, as you must all know by now, is the CM interaction. So we were really expected to project happiness, even above and beyond the normal CM-routine. The food was part of the payoff.
Setting up the tables was kind of fun. We'd grab our pickup trucks (yup we had those!) and head on out from behind the Haunted Mansion all the way over to the special events area, roughly out by Toontown but off to the side. There we'd pick up dozens of collapsible wooden tables, load them up, and bring them back, only to be unloaded again. There was nothing random about the setup, however. The first thing the leads did upon arrival was attend meetings about exactly how, where, and when to set things up. Folders with all the details were given to each of us. Planning an EE was akin to a military operation. It must have taken some serious effort!
After the tables were in place, we'd go get the necessities (crates of beer, chafing dishes, bustubs and so on) while Special Events folks put tablecloths (complete with skirting!) and floral centerpieces on the tables. Then they occupied themselves by wiring the nearby trees for spotlights and lighting effects.
Oh, the balloons! Some nights, instead of using the train, guests were walked in through Adventureland. On those nights, the long helixes of white balloons were anchored at both ends so that an archway was created over the Pirates bridge. Reproduce this effect twenty times, and illuminate the balloons from within, and you have some idea of the lengths to which they went in terms of decorating.
Foods CMs are human, so there was a goodly amount of food consumed while it was on its way out to the tables to replenish the stuff being served. The leads tended not to care. Leads sometimes helped in fact!
Oh yeah, there was alcohol. One of my best memories involves the chain of tuxedoed greeters holding champagne: Jennifer and I were given round trays full of flutes to carry out, and she insisted on adding more and more to hers. Any waiter out there will tell you that she was bound to unbalance herself, particularly if she tried to hold the tray with just one hand (which of course she did). It crashed to the ground, sending glass and alcohol flying, right as the train pulled in. We were slightly hidden, so we had to scramble to clean up, and we just barely made it.
Alcohol was replenished via a "Bar Boss." This was arguably the most fun thing I've ever done at Disneyland. You get to wear a radio/earpiece and hear all of what's going on at the party, from Security to Operations! And mostly you just walk from Bar to Bar, distributing people and resources as needed. Ah, I miss it.
The cleanup is arguably the only hectic thing. Everyone just sort of pitches in so it gets done quicker, but sometimes people are let go, too, so there is quite a bit of slack. Once, quite by accident, Dawson and I had been eating and talking far from the action (remember they fed us at the start of cleanup) and we looked up and discovered it was all basically done. Oops. We didn't skip out on work on purpose! We went downstairs and pretended like cleanup had sucked and boy were we glad to be done. Haha they bought it!
Next up: Cast Member Appreciation Events
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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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