Cast Member Standards

[Lilofan]

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.

Imagineering made up their own rules in terms of grooming. The Disney Look does not exist in their work groups. It is not just Joe Rohde. When he " retired " after many decades with Disney he's now an exec with Virgin Galactic.

 

[mkt]

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.

WDI has always done things their own way. Same for most of the non-guest-facing creatives across all theme parks, in all divisions.

 

[JoeCamel]

WDI has always done things their own way. Same for most of the non-guest-facing creatives across all theme parks, in all divisions.

They tend to be an eclectic bunch and that's a big part of what makes them so good at creating, have to give them range to create

 

[ohioguy]

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'm glad that you admit that it's your problem, not theirs.

 

[threvester]

I would be curious to see numbers on approximate total cast members working in the 80s vs today. The number must have increased exponentially. Combined with so many other parks opening and expanding in Orlando, it’s kind of amazing they can stay staffed at all.

My money is on Disney looking to automate as much as possible as soon as possible, because as they expand, their need for employees will only increase.

Until the union tells them they have to remain in the stone ages or else

 

[TalkToEthan]

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.

Based on contributions/creations he’s easily my all time favorite imagineer……….but his overall appearance, particularly his ears—— those ears!!

 

[Lilofan]

I would be curious to see numbers on approximate total cast members working in the 80s vs today. The number must have increased exponentially. Combined with so many other parks opening and expanding in Orlando, it’s kind of amazing they can stay staffed at all.

My money is on Disney looking to automate as much as possible as soon as possible, because as they expand, their need for employees will only increase.

Universal Orlando leads the way in automation. Fry Robot ( his name is Horton ) at UNI is making the guests french fries for example fresh and hot.

 

[John park hopper]

Universal Orlando leads the way in automation. Fry Robot at UNI is making the guests french fries for example fresh and hot.

I hope the fry robot is paid a living wage

 

[jloucks]

Until the union tells them they have to remain in the stone ages or else

I noticed this with the dockworkers union. They are very much against automation of any kind. Dockwork seems like a great place for automation, but what do I know?

 

[Lilofan]

I hope the fry robot is paid a living wage

lol. One less item Universal managers to be concerned about.

 

[networkpro]

I noticed this with the dockworkers union. They are very much against automation of any kind. Dockwork seems like a great place for automation, but what do I know?

You might have missed the New York Post article that sums up what they are afraid of "How did 50K dockworkers strike at US ports with only 25K jobs". Automation would endanger union no-show "jobs" .

 

[Eric Graham]

You might have missed the New York Post article that sums up what they are afraid of "How did 50K dockworkers strike at US ports with only 25K jobs". Automation would endanger union no-show "jobs" .

i don't read a number of artices because often i'm a very cheap person and I don't pay to read the extra articles, but thank you for that informative and educational information.

 

[TalkToEthan]

UNI is making the guests french fries for example fresh and hot.

Fresh??

…as in potatoes are shipped to Florida most days from Washington and Idaho or places like Maine and cut daily in the park?

 

[Eric Graham]

Fresh??

…as in potatoes are shipped to Florida most days from Washington and Idaho or places like Maine and cut daily in the park?

I heard that the king of all fries, the fry king of wherever his name is per se....one of my most favorite movies of all time. is having some kind of problem with the fries...i don't know how the whole food things work but can definitely respect the field and are often totally gracious and often generous bc I was a dishwasher and busboy many a year ago. And then there was my first job at a grocery store as a clerk where my wonderful Mom would call the store about 12 or 1 late at night and fuss at the store for me mopping the floor so late when I had school the next morning. Probably not legal at all now and for very good reason.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Until the union tells them they have to remain in the stone ages or else

I have a feeling that depends on the amount of competition that exists for a job. There are plenty of areas where there are shortages, and the people working those jobs are scrambling with everyone else to find ways to fill in the gaps (I work in such an area and honestly it really makes me worry about worker shortages as the population ages. I guess I assumed Covid would be the peak of labor shortages and it would get better, but sometimes it feels like my colleagues are just disappearing! My parents live in a less densely populated area, and when my mom had surgery recently, the nursing and healthcare worker shortage at the hospital was a huge problem. It's legit kinda scary.)

My guess is that there is not heavy competition for guest facing CM jobs at the moment. And when they need more people to work at Epic Universe, and people to staff all of these new cruise ships, and the ever growing restaurant and hotel industry in Orlando? Wow. I doubt there will be staunch opposition to automated food service or more self-service kiosks, but that's just my guess.

 

[donaldtoo]

I have no issue with Joe Rhode and his ear.
But, if one our (now grown) children did that to their ear and asked me what I thought, I would tell them the truth…
“It looks like crap.”

 

[Phonedave]

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.

I think it is also because of the amount of knowledge that has to be imparted. Years ago it was relatively simple to teach new CMs both Disney history as well as park operations.

Now, there are a LOT more Disney media items out there - more characters, more shows, more games, more cannon, etc. and none of the old stuff is going away either (despite the efforts of Disney on certain items). To add to that, you have certain guests that are into certain niche topics that a CM is not likely to know about. I'm sure there are some guests that come up to a CM and start to talk about VMK, maybe even mention something like "falling chairs" and when the CM draws a blank, they are incredulous that they don't know what it is about.

Also, the parks themselves are a lot more complicated. Instead of just training a CM on park hours, park passes, and paper fast passes, now they have to know park reservations, the app, Lightning Lanes, virtual queues, dining reservations, and a host of other topics.

It is a LOT of training for somebody that is new to the whole Disney / WDW experience.

 

[Phonedave]

I have no issue with Joe Rhode and his ear.
But, if one our (now grown) children did that to their ear and asked me what I thought, I would tell them the truth…
“It looks like crap.”

I'm pretty much in the same boat. It's not my cup of tea, but it is not going to impact my opinion of him as a person. Anymore so than somebody wearing an ugly shirt.

 

[celluloid]

I think it is also because of the amount of knowledge that has to be imparted. Years ago it was relatively simple to teach new CMs both Disney history as well as park operations.

Now, there are a LOT more Disney media items out there - more characters, more shows, more games, more cannon, etc. and none of the old stuff is going away either (despite the efforts of Disney on certain items). To add to that, you have certain guests that are into certain niche topics that a CM is not likely to know about. I'm sure there are some guests that come up to a CM and start to talk about VMK, maybe even mention something like "falling chairs" and when the CM draws a blank, they are incredulous that they don't know what it is about.

Also, the parks themselves are a lot more complicated. Instead of just training a CM on park hours, park passes, and paper fast passes, now they have to know park reservations, the app, Lightning Lanes, virtual queues, dining reservations, and a host of other topics.

It is a LOT of training for somebody that is new to the whole Disney / WDW experience.

The pay should either reflect that.
Or paid for more training.

Most sad not just due to guest experience, but so much of the burden goes on middle managment.

 

[Phonedave]

WDI has always done things their own way. Same for most of the non-guest-facing creatives across all theme parks, in all divisions.

It's not even just theme parks. I work in telecom. We have some executives that kind of flaunt the rules (not that we have many rules from a dress, appearance, or such things, but there are "norms" in any business) but it seems the ones that do, are able to do so because they are brilliant. Maybe brilliant in business, maybe in tech, maybe in marketing.