What questions to ask an imagineer

[Not For Sale]

In July I am going to do the dine with an imagineer program. But I need YOU to give me some questions to ask the person. I will take all of the questions and put them on a poll to see which ones everyone really wants to know. The most popular will be on the list of the questions of course and the amount of questions on the list counts on how many YOU request. The maximum questions I will subject this poor guy to are 20. Have fun.

 

[Laura]

I can't think of any questions really, but I think that's awesome that you're doing this!

 

[StevenT]

1. How difficult was it for him to get a job with Disney? Did he get the job straight out of college or had he worked for another company?

2. All sorts of little prying questions about the status of the 20,000 Leagues lagoon, Expedition Everest, Epcot etc. (of course he probably won't answer any of those questions, but it can't hurt )

I have a question for you... how much is it to do this? I'm interested in doing it for my next trip.

Enjoy!

 

[imagineersrock]

Originally posted by StevenT
1. How difficult was it for him to get a job with Disney? Did he get the job straight out of college or had he worked for another company?

2. All sorts of little prying questions about the status of the 20,000 Leagues lagoon, Expedition Everest, Epcot etc. (of course he probably won't answer any of those questions, but it can't hurt )

I have a question for you... how much is it to do this? I'm interested in doing it for my next trip.

Enjoy!

ditto!

..just plenty of questions about how he actually got into the bussiness..!

thanks!

 

[SirNim]

...ask him/her to describe how s/he got into the business in excruciating detail!

:lol:

Oh.. and yes, one more thing...

Ask if they have any projects in the pipeline based on "Nimmyland"...!

:animwink:

 

[General Grizz]

Originally posted by SirNim
...ask him/her to describe how s/he got into the business in excruciating detail!

:lol:

Oh.. and yes, one more thing...

Ask if they have any projects in the pipeline based on "Nimmyland"...!

:animwink:

Ditto. Also ask what fields or majors in college would be acceptable at current Disney standards. . . as pertaining to him or his co-workers.

And let us know.

THANKS!

 

[SirNim]

Originally posted by General Grizz
Ditto.

Except for the "Nimmyland" part... :lol:

 

[Bill]

Ask him what they plan to do with the 20k lagoon... mention Harry Potter while you're at it. See what his reaction it. Of course he'll deny it, but you need to look at his reaction and see if there's a pause or anything. Oh, ask him if he knows a programmer named Jon.

 

[General Grizz]

Just a heads up. . . the Imagineer has been assigned not to go into top-secret subjects. So I highly doubt you'll pull such subjects as the future of 20K out of him/her.

 

[cloudboy]

Do you actually get a chance to ask the Imagineer questions? I want to do this, but my friend insists that it is a group thing and you don't get a chance to ask much.

Here are my questions. Seriously.

1) What did you want to be when you decided where to go to college?

2) Did you set out specifically to be an imagineer, or was that an oportunity after you graduated?

3) What do you like LEAST about your job?

4) What is the most fustrating thing about your job? And

5) If you could go back now to school and do something else entirely, what would it be?

 

[SpectroMan]

Originally posted by StevenT
1. How difficult was it for him to get a job with Disney? Did he get the job straight out of college or had he worked for another company?

That's what I was going to say to ask.

 

[Not For Sale]

Originally posted by StevenT
I have a question for you... how much is it to do this? I'm interested in doing it for my next trip.

$60 lunch, $90 dinner; both a 3 or 4 course meal at the Brown & Derby in MGM

 

[Bill]

Originally posted by General Grizz
Just a heads up. . . the Imagineer has been assigned not to go into top-secret subjects. So I highly doubt you'll pull such subjects as the future of 20K out of him/her.

Ah, but if you know how, you can "read" a person's reactions. Mention Harry Potter, and see what reaction you'll get. Maybe you'll get a reaction like Walt's reaction during an interview. The question was, "Are you the one buying all this land in Orlando." and Walt's response was kinda odd. He looked puzzled for a moment, then said, "No, I'm not buying any land in central florida. That's no place to build a park. Your avg. rainfall there is..." what ever it was, he knew it. And the fact that he said Central Florida was odd, because at the time, no one had a clue where Orlando was. So I'm curious as to how your Imagineer will react. Though, even if he doesn't react in an odd way, it could be he just doesn't know about it. WDI usually keeps that stuff secret. Or at least they try too.

 

[lamarvenoy]

What about, has he ever heard of this website. Does he feel that fan based websites like this one have any influence or are currently being monitered. I'd like to think....but probably not.

 

[MKCP 1985]

If you could be a tree, . . .

No seriously,

I'd ask her, what was her favorite design idea that will never make it to production, and why.

I'd ask how much time she gets to spend with prototypes of attractions under consideration versus other potentially less fun work.

I'd ask what is her favorite area of Walt Disney Property - theme parks (which one), or resorts, or what else and what she likes most about working with that area.

Have fun, NFS. Be sure to let us know how it went.

 

[SirNim]

"What about, has he ever heard of this website. Does he feel that fan based websites like this one have any influence or are currently being monitered. I'd like to think....but probably not."


Tell him or her, if s/he isn't already, to read the opinions of people on fan websites!

We know what'll work like nothing else!


And yes, mention Harry Potter and such.

The key is to talk like YOU know what's going on. You don't need to ask the Imagineer about it... You personally, already, know what's going on.. you've got the upper hand, the ball's in your court.

Mention it like you know what you're talking about , and read the reaction!

Brilliant!

:sohappy:

 

[NemoRocks78]

Definitely ask about websites. I'm curious to hear what an Imagineer has to say about them.

Also....ask what has become of S.I.R. and the such from Alien Encounter. Scrapped for parts? Still intact?

 

[FatBoy976]

Could you ask if I could have an imagineering position? Creative, hard working engineer with obvious love of Disney. I became an engineer because as far back as I can remember, I wanted to know how each ride at Disney World worked

 

[cloudboy]

I know that "Imagineer" is a catch-all phrase for all types of engineers who work for Disney. But what are the types they send on the lunch program - are they project Managers, just your general MEchanical Engineer, Show designers - Executives? That would be a good thing to know, since they probably only see one part of the whole thing. PErhaps that is a good question, too - how involved do you get in coming up with the actual design concepts, versus making concepts work?

 

[Captain Hank]

Have a great time with this. I did it over Easter this year and enjoyed it a lot.

Do you actually get a chance to ask the Imagineer questions? I want to do this, but my friend insists that it is a group thing and you don't get a chance to ask much.

You will be one of very few people in the room with the Imagineer, and can ask him/her as much as you want. When I went, there was a total of 5 people (2 parties) plus the Imagineer. The room can't hold many more than that.

The Imagineer seemed very willing to talk about Everest, at least as much as he knew about it, since he wasn't directly involved with the project.

I posted a long description of my experience here along with a picture of the plate you get: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40161

Be sure to ask about his most interesting experience while working on a project.