Cast Member Standards

[DW Aficionado]

First of all, I want to go on record to say that most of the Disney cast members to a wonderful job even in the extreme heat of Floriday. But as far as salaries go, most are unskilled workers trained to do a unskilled task. Disney just needs many workers like that

 

[muddyrivers]

Why are you so bothered by Joe Rhode? It’s an honest question. I’ve seen pictures and I don’t understand why there’s a problem.

I'm not someone who's "bothered" by Joe Rohde per se. However, I'm not really a fan of how he flouted the rules and now he's pointed to as "If Joe Rohde can wear all his earrings and be a CM why can't I?" For those who don't know or don't want to look it up, Joe Rohde started with a regular earring in the 80s and then stuck his Disney 5 year service pin through his ear to open the hole up more.

To be perfectly honest, I really respect and admire the work Joe Rohde has done, truly. However, when I look at him during interviews and see his ear lobe hanging down to his shoulder with who knows how many earrings, it does disgust me. If I saw CMs in the parks with huge earrings like that, it would bother me. It may not bother you, it may not affect my experience on an attraction, but it does have an effect on my experience in the park and I'd rather not see that.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I'm not someone who's "bothered" by Joe Rohde per se. However, I'm not really a fan of how he flouted the rules and now he's pointed to as "If Joe Rohde can wear all his earrings and be a CM why can't I?" For those who don't know or don't want to look it up, Joe Rohde started with a regular earring in the 80s and then stuck his Disney 5 year service pin through his ear to open the hole up more.

To be perfectly honest, I really respect and admire the work Joe Rohde has done, truly. However, when I look at him during interviews and see his ear lobe hanging down to his shoulder with who knows how many earrings, it does disgust me. If I saw CMs in the parks with huge earrings like that, it would bother me. It may not bother you, it may not affect my experience on an attraction, but it does have an effect on my experience in the park and I'd rather not see that.

I don’t think he flouted any rules because he was never a CM.

It does genuinely surprise me that in 2024, people are still bothered by something like this. Personally, seeing someone who works in a creative career with a bunch of earrings is not something I would think twice about. But, I don’t know what culture various posters were raised in. Maybe in certain cultures or parts of the world things like this are quite taboo.

 

[Eric Graham]

I don’t think he flouted any rules because he was never a CM.

It does genuinely surprise me that in 2024, people are still bothered by something like this. Personally, seeing someone who works in a creative career with a bunch of earrings is not something I would think twice about. But, I don’t know what culture various posters were raised in. Maybe in certain cultures or parts of the world things like this are quite taboo.

ive read a great deal about him on the web...im kind of a huge fan...and I think it is so wonderful about how he was such a creative genius and how he has had such an instrumental and memorable impact on developing Animal Kingdom. What a truly beautiful and oh such a beautiful park that it encompasses. And, also, I might add that it is one of the most desired places for a naturalist in the USA to work. Take care, and have a wonderful day! Always Happy Disney travels!

 

[John park hopper]

Society has become the circus side show people would pay to go see years ago, now you get to see it for free

 

[Ayla]

I don’t think he flouted any rules because he was never a CM.

It does genuinely surprise me that in 2024, people are still bothered by something like this. Personally, seeing someone who works in a creative career with a bunch of earrings is not something I would think twice about. But, I don’t know what culture various posters were raised in. Maybe in certain cultures or parts of the world things like this are quite taboo.

All Disney employees are Cast Members, not just front-line ones.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I think it must be tremendously hard to be a CM nowadays. Guests have paid so much with the increases in ticket prices and resorts fees, Genie add ones etc , that they have such high expectations, it's hard to meet that. Coupled with how complicated it is, with food pick up reservations, booking rides, park hours impacted by special events there are more on CMs plate than there used to be. And I will be honest, we don't always know when we are getting a CM who has had to handle some difficult guests and we are catching them at their lowest point of the day.

We can speculate how much CMs have changed but we KNOW how different guests are. These CMs have to deal with aggressive, inebriated, or high guests way more than their counter parts of yesteryear. Guests are certainly ruder to employees everywhere(just see how many airline videos there are) and that for sure carries into WDW, where somewhere along the line people got the idea that they were princes and princesses of the magic castle, and everyone expects "special" treatment and the CMs are their vassels and not real human beings. It must be a grind, and I can see how at the end of a shift and taking all that we might catch a CM feeling pretty burned out and ready to just get home(especially if their manager is strict on when they clock out, we know the bean counters look at it all).

Finally as someone said earlier it's a top down thing, you can see this in any industry, even your local fast food restaurants. I can't say all Taco Bell staff behave a certain way, because depending on the management they are different, With the two franchises within my area the staff handle guest completly different and how clean the restaurant is and how quick service is also reflected by management.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Abigail Disney: CEO pay should be more closely tied to wages

The filmmaker and Disney scion speaks out on closing the wealth gap

fortune.com

This does not help CM morale

 

[castlecake2.0]

All Disney employees are Cast Members, not just front-line ones.

not really, Cast Member is the term for employees that work in parks and resorts, Crew Members are shipboard employees, Imagineers for WDI, Adventure Guides for ABD etc, corporate level are not considered Cast and not referred to as such

 

[jloucks]

The tons of layoffs you describe are not the cast who are hourly paid in operations for the most part . It is the salaried level. CEOs and senior execs compensated very well is nothing new in big companies.

That depends on your definition of "new", "very", and how old you are. I am an old who remembers a time before this was commonplace. Sure, there were the oil barons and whatnot back in the day, but in general, it's offensively prevalent now.

Of course that depends on your definition of "offensive"

 

[Lilofan]

All Disney employees are Cast Members, not just front-line ones.

No, when Iger writes an email to team he begins in a few emails - Dear Cast Members and Employees ,

 

[Lilofan]

I think it must be tremendously hard to be a CM nowadays. Guests have paid so much with the increases in ticket prices and resorts fees, Genie add ones etc , that they have such high expectations, it's hard to meet that. Coupled with how complicated it is, with food pick up reservations, booking rides, park hours impacted by special events there are more on CMs plate than there used to be. And I will be honest, we don't always know when we are getting a CM who has had to handle some difficult guests and we are catching them at their lowest point of the day.

We can speculate how much CMs have changed but we KNOW how different guests are. These CMs have to deal with aggressive, inebriated, or high guests way more than their counter parts of yesteryear. Guests are certainly ruder to employees everywhere(just see how many airline videos there are) and that for sure carries into WDW, where somewhere along the line people got the idea that they were princes and princesses of the magic castle, and everyone expects "special" treatment and the CMs are their vessels and not real human beings. It must be a grind, and I can see how at the end of a shift and taking all that we might catch a CM feeling pretty burned out and ready to just get home(especially if their manager is strict on when they clock out, we know the bean counters look at it all).

Finally as someone said earlier it's a top down thing, you can see this in any industry, even your local fast food restaurants. I can't say all Taco Bell staff behave a certain way, because depending on the management they are different, With the two franchises within my area the staff handle guest completly different and how clean the restaurant is and how quick service is also reflected by management.

Its mostly trickle down from the world leaders , influential execs acting like #@%& , some of the working class sees that if they can do it we can do it too backward mentality.

 

[Eric Graham]

I think it must be tremendously hard to be a CM nowadays. Guests have paid so much with the increases in ticket prices and resorts fees, Genie add ones etc , that they have such high expectations, it's hard to meet that. Coupled with how complicated it is, with food pick up reservations, booking rides, park hours impacted by special events there are more on CMs plate than there used to be. And I will be honest, we don't always know when we are getting a CM who has had to handle some difficult guests and we are catching them at their lowest point of the day.

We can speculate how much CMs have changed but we KNOW how different guests are. These CMs have to deal with aggressive, inebriated, or high guests way more than their counter parts of yesteryear. Guests are certainly ruder to employees everywhere(just see how many airline videos there are) and that for sure carries into WDW, where somewhere along the line people got the idea that they were princes and princesses of the magic castle, and everyone expects "special" treatment and the CMs are their vessels and not real human beings. It must be a grind, and I can see how at the end of a shift and taking all that we might catch a CM feeling pretty burned out and ready to just get home(especially if their manager is strict on when they clock out, we know the bean counters look at it all).

Finally as someone said earlier it's a top down thing, you can see this in any industry, even your local fast food restaurants. I can't say all Taco Bell staff behave a certain way, because depending on the management they are different, With the two franchises within my area the staff handle guest completly different and how clean the restaurant is and how quick service is also reflected by management.

Yes, but i'm sure working at Disney is so much more of a herculean effort. So much harder to deal with so many people there at the parks. I can't imagine doing such a job and working with the public on such a grand scale. I'm not sure that I could do that. It really takes such a special person to do that. Must be so difficult, and so very hard to keep such a great disposition at all times dealing with such. So much more incredibly different and so much challenging per se than a taco bell. What a totally difficult job that Disney employees have at all times, and also the wonderful security that watches over the parks...

 

[Eric Graham]

by the way, my wife called me super excited about the new lightning system that is on its way at the end of the month!

 

[jloucks]

Yes, but i'm sure working at Disney is so much more of a herculean effort. So much harder to deal with so many people there at the parks. I can't imagine doing such a job and working with the public on such a grand scale. I'm not sure that I could do that. It really takes such a special person to do that. Must be so difficult, and so very hard to keep such a great disposition at all times dealing with such. So much more incredibly different and so much challenging per se than a taco bell. What a totally difficult job that Disney employees have at all times, and also the wonderful security that watches over the parks...

I think it is impossible for a lot of people. Take me for example. I would love to work at WDW. I like nice people. However, I despise nasty people, and would get myself fired the first time I had to deal with a real dirtbag.

 

[donaldtoo]

not really, Cast Member is the term for employees that work in parks and resorts, Crew Members are shipboard employees, Imagineers for WDI, Adventure Guides for ABD etc, corporate level are not considered Cast and not referred to as such

When I worked at our local mall Disney Store from ‘09-‘13 we were referred to as Cast Members, all the way from the top down…from the President of Disney Consumer Products to our District Manager.
Out and about in the Store was referred to as “Onstage”, back in the storage area was referred to as “Backstage” and the cash wrap was referred to as the “Box Office”.
I had a CM merch discount that started out at 20%, that then went up to 35% after 3 years.
We got a 1-day Park Pass for everyone in the household (myself, spouse and dependents) every 6 months. For the first 2 years I worked there that was for 5 people.
Our SM and ASM were each given Silver Passes.
For our 2 family trips in ‘12 and ‘13 I had a 60% CM resort discount and a 50% CM DDP discount.
TWDC told us we were Cast Members and, back then at least, sure made us feel/treated us like we were Cast Members.

 

[mkt]

Unfortunately, for this one, this is about as much of an insider as I can be.

It’s a combination of factors: but in my experience, the main are financial and staff shortages.

Financial in that spending less hours to train someone is a cost savings.

And short staffed in that they’re running skeleton crews out of necessity. They don’t have sufficient applicants to staff adequately and there is not a ready supply of willing applicants behind them to replace them as there were in years past.

To tie both points together - financial constraints and staffing challenges - leaders now have more flexibility in managing employee discipline as a way to reduce recruitment costs. This means they may be more lenient with infractions that would have previously led to disciplinary action. While serious offenses that warrant termination are still handled as such, issues like minor tardiness or appearance concerns are more likely to be overlooked.

This has led the parks to both formally and informally make adjustments to training, standards, and discipline.

 

[donaldtoo]

I think it is impossible for a lot of people. Take me for example. I would love to work at WDW. I like nice people. However, I despise nasty people, and would get myself fired the first time I had to deal with a real dirtbag.

I have one standout memory regarding a nasty Guest when I was a CM at the Disney Store.
It was on a Saturday during the Holidays. We had 3 registers at the Box Office, and always put up queue stanchions because of so much traffic.
Anyway, this one Guest got to my station, put all her items on the counter and presented a credit card. I politely asked her if I could please see her ID (which was strict Company policy at the time).
She then proceeded to go off, and I’ll spare y’all the whole exchange (if you wanna’ call it an exchange), but it wasn’t pretty.
Before it was all over, and the SM finally convinced her ID with a credit card was strict Company policy, she presented her ID, I politely completed her transaction and wished her a Magical day as she left. In hindsight, wishing her a Magical day probably wasn’t the best thing at the time, but it was standard practice for our Store back then.
15 minutes later, that same guest was back in my queue. The only thing I could think was “Oh dear. What now…?!!!”. She waited for her turn patiently, but expressionless, the whole time.
I quietly took a deep breath as she approached my station, and greeted her politely, yet again.
With that, she started to profusely APOLOGIZE for how she treated me earlier, in a voice loud enough to where everyone else in the queues and my fellow CMs could hear her.
I graciously accepted and thanked her for her apology, and then told her that it spoke well to her character to have taken the time to come back and do that.
As she was leaving, the 2 other CMs that were at the Box Office looked at me like “Did that actually just happen…?!!!”. Later, they told me as much and also, essentially, commented “I’ve never seen an apology, or gotten one, before from someone who behaved like her…!”
Funny thing is, she was in the Store often after that, and we kinda’ became pals. If I wasn’t working when she came into the Store, she would tell other CMs to tell me she said hello the next time they saw me.
And, that is also really the only nasty Guest interaction I remember having the entire time I worked there, now that I think about it.
Funny how it ended up.

 

[DisneyHead123]

ive read a great deal about him on the web...im kind of a huge fan...and I think it is so wonderful about how he was such a creative genius and how he has had such an instrumental and memorable impact on developing Animal Kingdom. What a truly beautiful and oh such a beautiful park that it encompasses. And, also, I might add that it is one of the most desired places for a naturalist in the USA to work. Take care, and have a wonderful day! Always Happy Disney travels!

I really like Joe Rohdes because he is like a bridge between some of my interests. Disney, philosophy (armchair Reddit philosophy in my case, I don't have any formal education in that area), and I'm kind of assuming spiritual practice (he doesn't talk about this directly but I assume it informs some of the things that he says and does.)

While I admire his creative work, I think what really sets him apart are his interpersonal skills, salesmanship, and followthrough on these big, complicated projects. I think there are a lot of people with great ideas but to be someone with great ideas and a very strong ability to make them happen is extremely rare.

 

[Chi84]

I really like Joe Rohdes because he is like a bridge between some of my interests. Disney, philosophy (armchair Reddit philosophy in my case, I don't have any formal education in that area), and I'm kind of assuming spiritual practice (he doesn't talk about this directly but I assume it informs some of the things that he says and does.)

While I admire his creative work, I think what really sets him apart are his interpersonal skills, salesmanship, and followthrough on these big, complicated projects. I think there are a lot of people with great ideas but to be someone with great ideas and a very strong ability to make them happen is extremely rare.

I’d rather look at him all day than the well-groomed guys in suits who brought us Lightning Lane Premier Pass