Seasonal Roles

[hiddenmickey06]

I'm interested in applying for a Seasonal Role in the Florida parks, but I'm not sure how they work. How long do these roles usually last? Do you have to find a place to live while working there, or is there special housing provided by Disney? If anyone has any information on this I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[bluesnut]

I have been going down there for extended trips for years. But this past winter was the first time that things were right for me to go try to start my Disney dream. When I went through my interview they said that unless you could give them at least 10 straight weeks of availability you could not be elegibal for Seasonal CM. They told me Seasonal was considered "Temporary Full Time" and it could be up to 40 hrs a week.

They asked me about my vehicle arrangements and if I was coming down just to work there. I know there are dorm type accommodations for the college program, I haven't heard that there was anything for anyone else though.

I have several friends down there that stay the winter and do Seasonal. I'm going back in the middle of May to start "Earning My Ears". I'm so excited!!!

Bluesnut
Soon to be Seasonal CM

 

[dove_]

If you're seasonal, you do need to give 8-12 weeks of full availability for training. After that, you're free to work whenever you want, as long as you work one shift every 6 months and 40hrs a year. You will not be automatically scheduled. If you want to be scheduled by labor, you have to request it, and you are one of the last people to be scheduled (after full time, part time, college program, etc), so you are not guaranteed hours.

You can, however, pick up shifts from other CMs as often as you want.

You are not given housing. Housing is up to you. Many CTs stay in disney hotels (using the discount) if they are down there for a short period of time. Many others stay with friends they have made on the program. There are also hotels nearby that are extended stay. You must have a car/transportation to work, you cannot use the buses that the college program uses.

 

[abombing]

i know this is like a dead topic but i have a question. is there a cap on how many hours a week you work as seasonal. im planning on coming down for 4-6 weeks to work HHN at universal and would love to get some hours in at disney every year as seasonal. can you work 30-40 hours a week as long as want or would you be capped eventually. is the hub how you pick shifts up ? if not i figure it would be hard to pick up shifts if you dont know anyone thats curently working there. i cant really go part time becuase i move around and after october i wont be back until the middle of january, so iwant to know if working like that is an option. thnks !

 

[fugawe09]

Although this is a way dead topic, it is worth noting that the rules are a little different from the last post in 2011.

Every quarter you go on the Hub and indicate your availability. You go week by week and identify the days and times you are willing to work. Every week you check your schedule and you may be scheduled in the times you marked as available, but it is not guaranteed. You can also pick up available shifts that you are trained for. There is the Extra Hours Hotline, where the company posts shifts that it was not able to pre-fill and there is a module where people post shifts they would like to give away. You can work 40 hours a week in theory, but keep in mind that seasonal and extra hours shifts are the ones they use to fill in the schedule, so in some areas there are a lot of less-than-8-hours shifts that are the leftovers after all the full-timers are scheduled. Like a 3 hours shift to help with stanchions at the parade. At places like the Sports complex, many of the cast are seasonal (retired snow bird types) who work full time during a particular sport season and then go home. Eventually there is a weekly hours cap, but I don't think you would hit it.

Now, this is the big change... to remain employed you must maintain 160 hours worked in a rolling one-year period, checked quarterly. I'm making the dates up, but the idea is that between 1/1/14 and 1/1/15 you have a total of 160 hours worked, between 4/1/14 and 4/1/15 you have a total of 160 hours worked, and so on. It is not 160 hours EACH quarter, its a rolling period. So if you work all your hours in one quarter they will all fall off at the same time a year later and leave your hours bank empty if you haven't worked again to refill it.

 

[abombing]

thank you so much ! i was just curious on how all that works.im still a few years away from actually getting to that point because i am going to work at least a year there first.