Rock Your Disney Side - 24 hour character party at Magic Kingdom

[Next Big Thing]

With regards to the discussion up there about working 12 hr. shifts and whatnot ^ :: I think the issue for CM's is that it isn't a job where you expect to work Attractions from 3 AM to 3 PM. While you do expect to work really early or really late sometimes, it's not regularly expected that you'll go into work at 3 AM and leave at 3 PM. Any kind of medical job may require you to be at work for long shifts at weird times because people will always need medical care. People do not always need to be in theme parks. It's the same reason I used to gripe about working at Staples on Black Friday-- it isn't a job that needs to entail you being there over night. Being open at 1 AM and making employees work so someone can buy a computer (that they could just as easily purchase during regular hours the next day) doesn't make a whole lot of sense. My friends who are nurses have always assumed that they could have shifts that are really long or at weird times because someone may need medical care at AM...

It's one night a year. I don't know if you work in the parks or not, but If you guys have such a problem with it, then I suggest you take up work elsewhere. With the reduced hours the parks have seen the rest of the year, I wouldn't think it should be so bad that this thread has been derailed into complaining about CM's work hours.

 

[luv]

For the Aid who works 12 hour shifts all the time without complaining - THANK YOU.

Everything you do is appreciated. When someone comes back from vomiting in the bathroom to find fresh sheets, they love you. They want to thank you, but you're gone - off doing something for someone else.

When they ask for room temperature pop because the cold stuff makes them sick and you bring not one, but two or three...with straws!...and they find them there, within reach, when they wake up...they love you. They want to thank you, but you're gone.

When they apologize for vomiting all over the bed and you tell them it happens every day and isn't even the worst thing that happened today, then distract them with a pleasant story about the male patient who keeps grabbing your butt when you turn him (not complaining, just chatting), they're so grateful.

When your patients say, "Thank you", they mean, "This is the some of the worst stuff I'll have to endure in my life. I am miserable here and I hate all of this and you've just shot a burst of Sunshine into my misery, for which I'll always be grateful. You can't know how much I appreciate it. God bless you."

The fact that you work 12 hour shifts with no lunch and no breaks and get paid eight or ten dollars an hour is a shame. That you do it without complaining is amazing.

Nurses and aids always say they don't take breaks because they can't. But you could. You don't, because you can't let yourselves sit and rest while someone else sits in their own vomit or whathaveyou.

It is unfortunate that the people who are most grateful are usually too sick or sleepy to thank you, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to do it for them.

Before I was a patient, I had no idea how much something as simple as fresh, new sheets could mean to someone, especially turned down, saving the effort of turning them down. When you're sick, every saved movement helps so much.

Thanks for the clean sheets, the warm pop I can reach and for being so nice about it all.

And thanks for doing your complaining where we can't hear it.

 

[TubaGeek]

To be happy, an employee needs a combination of these things:
1) A good paycheck
2) Good working conditions
3) A company they can be proud of
Currently, they're 0 for 3.

 

[71jason]

It's one night a year.

And actually, days of 16-hours shifts are pretty routine Christmas week or Spring Break. At least during the Leap Day party, most working CMs seemed to be enjoying the novelty of it, as well as getting to see a park essentially packed with their friends. You want to see CMs looking miserable, stop by, say, December 30.

 

[Yensid1974]

I dont really get the CMs not wanting to work it for a 12 hour shift when they get a lunch and two breaks. I work at a hospital and walk around 10 miles everyday which is more than most CM's since they stand a lot. I care for sick people and get stressed with deaths and ect. I am not guaranteed any breaks. We get a lunch if the unit is not too busy and thats usually it. No breaks, holding your bladder and working 12 hours sounds a lot worse than the CM's working the happiest place on earth. I would gladly do their job and spread the pixie dust and magic around

I would almost guarantee you get paid a lot more to do your job as well.

 

[flynnibus]

Not in this state. Its a right-to-work state and employers can do anything they want.

Overtime over 40hrs in a work week is a federal law... right to work has nothing to do with it. And when states and fed both have overtime standards... the most generous applies.

Federal law doesn't mandate overtime in a single workday.. hence the 'over 8hrs' being a company policy, not law.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Not in this state. Its a right-to-work state and employers can do anything they want.

Right-to-work has to do with union membership. You have a right to work without being required to join a union.

 

[Jakester]

I remember my 1st rodeo with 80k + crowds this past New Years. I worked fr 10a and finally got off stage at 10pm, I didn't clock out until 11:06pm.

So I start at 10:00a, which means I'm clocking in at 9:45am, which means I'm arriving around 9:00am.

Needless to say come about 7:00p I was dead. Lol

 

[asianway]

And actually, days of 16-hours shifts are pretty routine Christmas week or Spring Break. At least during the Leap Day party, most working CMs seemed to be enjoying the novelty of it, as well as getting to see a park essentially packed with their friends. You want to see CMs looking miserable, stop by, say, December 30.

The after parties for the night races last until 4am & morning races have rediculous early call times for entertainment. Add in a few park buyouts & It's not like a 24 hour party is the only 3rd shift that has to be covered by ops all year.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I remember my 1st rodeo with 80k + crowds this past New Years. I worked fr 10a and finally got off stage at 10pm, I didn't clock out until 11:06pm.

So I start at 10:00a, which means I'm clocking in at 9:45am, which means I'm arriving around 9:00am.

Needless to say come about 7:00p I was dead. Lol

Yes. It's sucks. And you should be better compensated for it then you are.

 

[DManRightHere]

I'm betting the Friday of labor day weekend like last year. We are leaving disney world the day before to avoid the crowds lol. We were actually there last year and never went to magic kingdom since it was crowded. Not super crowded, but didn't want to wait 40 minutes for pirates.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

I'm betting the Friday of labor day weekend like last year. We are leaving disney world the day before to avoid the crowds lol. We were actually there last year and never went to magic kingdom since it was crowded. Not super crowded, but didn't want to wait 40 minutes for pirates.

Presumably you mean Memorial Day. There was no 24 hour event on Labor Day weekend last year lol.

 

[Next Big Thing]

The after parties for the night races last until 4am & morning races have rediculous early call times for entertainment. Add in a few park buyouts & It's not like a 24 hour party is the only 3rd shift that has to be covered by ops all year.

As far as the races go, I'm not really sure how much ops really does. Certainly nothing to the level of a 24-hour day at MK. I know the races are heavily volunteer run.

 

[OnyxNine]

Tried it once, never again!

 

[Bolt]

To be happy, an employee needs a combination of these things:
1) A good paycheck
2) Good working conditions
3) A company they can be proud of
Currently, they're 0 for 3.

Excuse me? That's a bold statement to make for nearly 70,000 people. Probably not #1, and you can debate #2 (at least they get health insurance and OT) but I'm pretty sure #3, with or without what TDO is doing, I think people who work at Disney love the brand and enjoy what it does to the guests.

 

[asianway]

As far as the races go, I'm not really sure how much ops really does. Certainly nothing to the level of a 24-hour day at MK. I know the races are heavily volunteer run.

At the pm parties the park is pretty much open esp f&w

 

[JimboJones123]

To be happy, an employee needs a combination of these things:
1) A good paycheck
2) Good working conditions
3) A company they can be proud of
Currently, they're 0 for 3.

Then the employees can empower themselves and move on. Nobody is "required" to work at Disney.

 

[Bolt]

Pretty sure the one's at Small World can't leave.

 

[BrittanyRose428]

It's one night a year. I don't know if you work in the parks or not, but If you guys have such a problem with it, then I suggest you take up work elsewhere. With the reduced hours the parks have seen the rest of the year, I wouldn't think it should be so bad that this thread has been derailed into complaining about CM's work hours.

I don't work in the parks. I was just trying to draw a comparison between some of the comments that were being made above my post. The overnights that CMs deal with were being compared with the overnights that medical professionals deal with. I was trying to say that people need medical care at all hours of the night, people do not need to ride attractions at all hours of the night.I was just commenting that there is a difference between the two. That being said, I was also hinting at the fact that yes, it is just one day (which is why I mentioned working at Staples on Black Friday.) I just assume that the CMs that do not like the overnights have similar feelings to when I worked at Staples, that is was not a job you apply for thinking you would have shifts like that, and it is not a necessity to have shifts like that as it is in the medical field.

 

[SoccerMickey]

For the people who are telling the cast members that do not want to work another 24-hour day that if they don't like it, find somewhere else to work, please note that as easy as it is to say that, it's not as easy to follow through on that. A lot of people don't realize the big sacrifice a lot of Disney cast members do just to make our vacations more magical. A lot of them relocate from other areas of the world, leaving their families and loved ones to make Dumbo fly, some college program kids puts their education on hold for a semester or even a year just to come down to flip burgers at Pecos Bill's, and retirees come down to spend their last years to cash out those mouse ears you want to purchase because the same marketing Disney uses to get people to book trips is used in their recruiting. They say come down and you'll be creating memories, helping others live out their dreams, and be part of their celebrations. And while the majority of them do a great job carrying out that message, others get quite the shock that this is a business, the main goal is to turn a profit and if you don't have a business savvy brain you aren't moving up the ladder.
And to make it worse they notice a lot of their perks are getting taken away from them. Case in point a cast member just had her parents come down, staying in a Disney Resort but she wasn't able to book her fast pass + reservations ahead of time because Disney is not allowing the cms to use their employee admissions to be linked to any magic bands. So the best she could do is wait in the lines with everyone else and hope she could get times that were in sync with her family's. Even though she was staying in a resort.
My point is the company is putting more and more expectations on their cast members and giving them less and less back. So if a cast member is dreading another day of long hours, overcrowded park, and not enough staff to handle it, I don't blame them.