Parking lot at Disney's Animal Kingdom about to expand ahead of the park's new additions

[peter11435]

I'm tired of arguing with you. I have an opinion and you have one. The difference is that you're trying to force me to adhere to yours while you try to slam mine. Before I introduce you to the ignore button, I invite you to take a look at how many "likes" you have. There's a good reason for that. Enjoy your life my friend.

I'm not forcing you to adhere to anything. I'm simply pointing out that your opinion goes against what is the standard in the working world.

Go ahead and ignore me. That won't upset me in the slightest.

And this isn't a popularity contest.

 

[flynnibus]

If you work food service, you can't clock in unless you're in uniform. Proper shoes, pants, company issued shirt, hat. This goes for most places of employment.

Except prior to this change, the company did not treat the required clothing as 'uniforms' but instead called it 'costumes'. The company strived itself on maintaining the illusion of the show. From what employees were called, how they were dressed, and how they functioned within the work environment. The company maintained possession and responsibility for the costumes - just like any stage show would.

This is not the same as your McDonald's guy showing up in black slacks and the required shirt he had to buy.

An actor does not show up to the theater in their stage costume. A mindset Disney still maintains within entertainment, but in dealing with their rank and file cast members, for the sake of reducing the burden on the company, they ABANDONED the show mindset and instead shifted the burden to their employees.

Hrmm.. abandoning show for efficiency... is it not sounding like a broken record yet?

Sure it sound easy to say 'well just do it on your own time' - yet most have no idea how much sacrifice and limited time and freedom most cast have during their work day.. and how much time they already give up off the clock.

Think about it... people actually WANT to work as janitors in this environment.. why? Because it gives them the freedom and escape from the rigid constraints most roles operate under. Think about that.. you'd prefer digging through trash...

 

[flynnibus]

Just think for a minute where these people have to park... where they have to store personal belongings... where they have to clock in... then where they need to be to be on station.. and then where they need to go back to clock... where they need to get to eat... where they have to get to for their personal stuff.. then worry about clock... go back.. then clock out..

It's amazing how many of you will cry a river over how long you had to wait for a monorail or a bus.. how long it took to get down mainstreet.. but have no empathy for people having to do that kind of drag every day, twice a day, on their own time, and get no compensation for it or no sympathy for it.. all while getting some of the crappiest wages around.

Yeah... what are those freeloaders thinking when they have the nerve to expect their employer to acknowledge they are doing stuff related to their job.

 

[Tom]

Except prior to this change, the company did not treat the required clothing as 'uniforms' but instead called it 'costumes'. The company strived itself on maintaining the illusion of the show. From what employees were called, how they were dressed, and how they functioned within the work environment. The company maintained possession and responsibility for the costumes - just like any stage show would.

This is not the same as your McDonald's guy showing up in black slacks and the required shirt he had to buy.

An actor does not show up to the theater in their stage costume. A mindset Disney still maintains within entertainment, but in dealing with their rank and file cast members, for the sake of reducing the burden on the company, they ABANDONED the show mindset and instead shifted the burden to their employees.

Hrmm.. abandoning show vs efficiency... is it not sounding like a broken record yet?

Sure it sound easy to say 'well just do it on your own time' - yet most have no idea how much sacrifice and limited time and freedom most cast have during their work day.. and how much time they already give up off the clock.

Think about it... people actually WANT to work as janitors in this environment.. why? Because it gives them the freedom and escape from the rigid constraints most roles operate under. Think about that.. you'd prefer digging through trash...

For the record, I'm not at all condoning Disney's current way of handling this. I think costumes should be treated with the respect and mystery, and that CMs should be compensated for a reasonable amount of time to get to their starting position from the parking lot.

And until I was corrected in this thread, I thought costumes were still guarded and forbidden from being worn off property. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

 

[flynnibus]

It's nothing but Disney being cheap... and worse.. cheap against the very people it relies upon to make their product what it is. It shows a complete lack of appreciation for the commitment their employees make.

Worse, it's spun to the employees as a benefit to them... a benefit.. so they don't have to deal with a situation that was so unliked... but was unliked because the company was screwing them in the first place! So instead of saying "we'll stop screwing you.. how about I screw you this way instead?"

Disney plays with fire here... they image relies on the front-line cast.. yet they perpetually treat them like dirt... and adding insult to injury... the company sees record profits and soaring disparities between front-line CMs and executive management.

 

[lifeguard1020]

I don't understand why people think they should be paid to go from parking to clock in. If I work downtown on the 55th floor, do I get paid to walk from the parking garage or wherever it arrive from, to walk into the building, enter elevator/stairs/transporter to the 55th floor and then clock in? I haven't at any position that I've ever worked. If you're a dental assistant, business manager, janitor, electronic technician, psychic, unless you're an independent contractor or a full time salaried employee, I don't know how you can be paid from any kind of transportation to/from work...

 

[jt04]

I would like to see Dinoland loose the carnival attractions and be turned into a properly themed dinosaur area. I think Dinosaur is a great ride (when properly maintained) so it would be nice to have a whole land that matches it in quality.

Austrailia had dinosaurs. So there is that. Add roos, wombats and platypi and you have a land.

 

[G00fyDad]

I missed something here.... How the h*** did we get a thread merged with the AK parking addition thread? Clothes? Really? Who cares?! How does this relate, in ANY way to the parking additions at AK? Scratch that, I don't care. Is there any way that the mods could separate the two conversations?

 

[AEfx]

And why DLR was having such a hard time keeping turnover low before the recession. They really do not err to the working environment for their employees. From where they must park, how long it takes to park and get to the clock, then their rules on clock in vs work location, costuming, crappy shuttles, weak break areas, perks on the decline, removing company parties, etc... and still expected to be the industry's best employees while getting paid less than other hourly unskilled labor in the area.. that get to work indoors.

Its amazing anyone works there.

It is.

To put it in perspective, starting wages at McDonalds in Orlando are generally higher than WDW. And at McDonalds you show up, park 50 feet away at most, walk thirty or forty steps, and can start working. And no one expects McDonalds employees to be "magical" all the time, either.

I have a great deal of respect for the folks that do it - and put up with the tons of abuse. Folks at McDonalds get their fair share of loony folks, but there are a lot more loony and downright awful folks who "Paid thousands of dollars to be here for a once in a lifetime trip!" at WDW - versus someone complaining about a $4 Big Mac having a soggy bun.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I don't understand why people think they should be paid to go from parking to clock in. If I work downtown on the 55th floor, do I get paid to walk from the parking garage or wherever it arrive from, to walk into the building, enter elevator/stairs/transporter to the 55th floor and then clock in? I haven't at any position that I've ever worked. If you're a dental assistant, business manager, janitor, electronic technician, psychic, unless you're an independent contractor or a full time salaried employee, I don't know how you can be paid from any kind of transportation to/from work...

It's not just walking in, but the entire process. And in some cases Disney does make parking quite difficult. Any job ever require you to park two miles away?

 

[cw1982]

I missed something here.... How the h*** did we get a thread merged with the AK parking addition thread? Clothes? Really? Who cares?! How does this relate, in ANY way to the parking additions at AK? Scratch that, I don't care. Is there any way that the mods could separate the two conversations?

1) are you surprised? Surely you've been coming here long enough that threads on a tangent aren't a big shocker to you... lol
2) it happened because someone brought up the fact that CM's come in the same way as guests, thanks to the setup of the parking, and that this was "bad show" because guests saw CM's who were only partially in costume. Basically.
3) I don't think it's fair to ask the mods to go through and separate the entire thread... talk about tedious!

 

[Tom]

I missed something here.... How the h*** did we get a thread merged with the AK parking addition thread? Clothes? Really? Who cares?! How does this relate, in ANY way to the parking additions at AK? Scratch that, I don't care. Is there any way that the mods could separate the two conversations?

I don't think any threads were merged. There was only so much to say about an expanded parking lot, and it was mentioned how terribly the bus drive and park entry was, and how CMs park next to guests and walk across the bus lanes to get to work, in costume. Thus began the thread drift.

Do you have additional comments on the asphalt being added?

 

[G00fyDad]

I don't think any threads were merged. There was only so much to say about an expanded parking lot, and it was mentioned how terribly the bus drive and park entry was, and how CMs park next to guests and walk across the bus lanes to get to work, in costume. Thus began the thread drift.

Do you have additional comments on the asphalt being added?

Is the extra asphalt necessary? Is it really that busy during that time of the year?

 

[flynnibus]

I don't understand why people think they should be paid to go from parking to clock in. If I work downtown on the 55th floor, do I get paid to walk from the parking garage or wherever it arrive from, to walk into the building, enter elevator/stairs/transporter to the 55th floor and then clock in?

You're missing the part where this employer dictates where you park... and frequently in a place that requires significant shuttle time. And no one has said 'pay me for my shuttle time' - but its about recognizing and acknowledging the time your employees contribute to you WITHOUT being on the clock.. so you don't turn around and screw them again over the little stuff.

The adage is "adding insult to injury" - think about that one. They are already putting the screws to employees through the poor wages, often tough conditions and high work standards... but don't blink an eye when they decide they need to force employees to park even further away because the resort has parking issues adding another hour+ to their personal time lost. And do so repeatedly because the employees are far enough down the totem pole we don't need to rush those parking improvements. That's exactly what they have been doing for years at DLR.. and WDW has much of the same roots in their costume policy. It's simply a shifting of burden.

 

[Tom]

Is the extra asphalt necessary? Is it really that busy during that time of the year?

They're anticipating the park being much busier in the future, once they launch the nighttime show and then Pandora.

 

[G00fyDad]

1) are you surprised? Surely you've been coming here long enough that threads on a tangent aren't a big shocker to you... lol
2) it happened because someone brought up the fact that CM's come in the same way as guests, thanks to the setup of the parking, and that this was "bad show" because guests saw CM's who were only partially in costume. Basically.
3) I don't think it's fair to ask the mods to go through and separate the entire thread... talk about tedious!

1)Obvious.
2)Obvious.
3)Obvious.

I thought you would have gotten that from my comments.

 

[G00fyDad]

They're anticipating the park being much busier in the future, once they launch the nighttime show and then Pandora.

Fair enough.

 

[cw1982]

1)Obvious.
2)Obvious.
3)Obvious.

I thought you would have gotten that from my comments.

If you didn't want a reply, you shouldn't have asked. The question of how we got from topic A to topic B seemed like a legitimate one, especially given the longevity of this tangent, so it followed that you may have been at least somewhat serious with the rest of your post.

 

[G00fyDad]

If you didn't want a reply, you shouldn't have asked. The question of how we got from topic A to topic B seemed like a legitimate one, especially given the longevity of this tangent, so it followed that you may have been at least somewhat serious with the rest of your post.

Never said I didn't want a reply.

 

[cw1982]

Never said I didn't want a reply.

now you're really not making sense. If you don't like my reply, feel free to ignore it, but don't question why I replied and then turn around and say you didn't mind people replying. I just gave you what your post was set up to receive.