CP Roles and Experiences

[Meg13]

When I did the CareerStart program last year (basically CP once you arrive in Florida), I was located at the Electric Umbrella in EPCOT. Fountain View, the ice cream shop, was our sister restaurant, so we would get shifts there a few times a month, but the majority of the time was spent at EU.

Working at EU was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot give the experience too much praise. Of course there were bad days and times when I was praying for my break to come, but those things are so far outweighed by all of the amazing times I had there. The typical day (and I am a workaholic, so my days were longer than many others') at EU was getting to work around 11:00, when we opened, and then getting assigned a role in the kitchen. I was usually put on anchor or window (anchor receives the tickets from Guests' orders and assembles the tray, window scoops fries). Those were my favourite places to be, as they were fast-paced and inside the kitchen. There was such a... jovial atmosphere in there, it was easy to have fun. There were times we would be so busy we would have both sides open, tickets all the way down the counter, and still more spilling out of the printer down to the ground. Fryers would be rushing to keep up, top buns fell off of numerous burgers, and sometimes we would get held up by someone else, but it was so much fun! The time would fly by, and usually despite the almost frantic air about the place, we all got along so well there wasn't any animosity in the kitchen.

And we had amazing leaders. I can't give them enough credit. They were fun to mess around with (once you got on their good side, that is; they were still leaders first, friends second), and always willing to roll up their sleeves and scoop some fries if the window as getting overwhelmed with the amount of trays waiting.

There was a break or two somewhere in there, and I'd get rotated around the kitchen - or occasionally put out on register, but I preferred to be in the kitchen, and was better at those positions - and would work until close. Then it would be time to take up closing positions (even if I wasn't scheduled to stay till after closing, someone could always use the help). Usually I chose the most gross jobs to do (besides ovens, which was the disposed food; I'm a wimp, and that's got a lot of lifting), and would be one of the last people out, but I loved every minute of it. I would then clock out, head to Casting with my friends who'd stayed behind to help as well, and then jump in my car, smelling like a French fry and absolutely ready go to bed. Or Steak 'n' Shake, as often happened.

I know QSF&B has a lot of horror stories out there, and I've heard quite a few of them myself. I've experienced them, too, when I was transferred to a different location where the family atmosphere was definitely lacking among Cast Members; I went the whole time there and only saw a leader once, and that wasn't under great conditions. It just depends on where you end up, and how you get along with your fellow CMs. Personally, I know that I am still in touch with almost all of my friends from EU, and can't wait to go back!

 

[jlg263]

Hi! I'm Jennifer and I've done 2 CPs. The first was Fall 2007 in attractions and the second was Spring 2009 in Merch.

Fall 2007 - Attractions
I worked in fantasyland at Dumbo/Philharmagic. Working in Fantasyland was a lot of fun, but the hours were usually long. I regularly has 12-14 hr shifts and they would go pretty late into the night. One time I was there until 4 am! But that was during Christmas so it wasn't a regular occurrence. It wasn't too bad though because I had great coworkers that made it fun. And overtime pay isn't bad either

Working in Fantasyland I was also picked up for a lot of fun little shifts like handing out candy during the Halloween parties or guarding the roped-off areas during Wishes. Parade crowd control was also a frequent shift I'd be scheduled. Magic Kingdom is a great place to work because there is always so much going on and you get to see fireworks every night! The downside is that it tends to be a little stricter than the other parks.

I like attractions because, well, it's fun to work at one! The main downside for me was that people would get easily irritated and take it out on me. Standing in line for an hour at Dumbo is not fun...I'm aware, haha. Philharmagic was better though and it helped that fastpass is totally useless there so we didn't have to be too strict about that. I would rotate to both rides throughout the day (including stroller parking), so I was never scheduled at just Dumbo or just Philhar for a whole day. A normal rotation for me would be a Dumbo position, Philhar 3D glasses room, Philhar greeter, Philhar fastpass return, Philhar merge, stroller parking, Philhar lobby, Dumbo again, Philhar theater, etc. There were only 2 dumbo positions, so thankfully I usually didn't spend too much time out there I'd spend about 40 minutes at each position before moving on to the next or going to break. I liked this aspect of attractions because it made the day go faster and if you didn't like a position you knew you wouldn't be there for too long. When I worked merch I would stay at the same register for hours, and that would get pretty old.


Spring 2009 - Merchandise
In Spring 09 I worked Merch at what is called "Left Block" in Hollywood Studios. It consisted basically of all the shops of the left side as you enter DHS. I worked at the cart before the turnstiles, the store that was half inside/half outside the park, Sid's (autograph store), Mickey's of Hollywood, Keystone, and the carts next to the hat.

I honestly loved merch! It could be boring sometimes, but it gave me more one-on-one guest interaction than attractions did. Sometimes attractions just felt like herding cattle. Also, guests were generally in far better spirits than at attractions.

Hollywood Studios was more easily accessible and laid back than Magic Kingdom. It also had better hours. The downside was honestly not having the "prestige" of working at MK. And no nightly fireworks was a slight bummer too... But we did have Grad Nights there that year and it was a BLAST! All we did was wear tons of glow merchandise, dance, and sell a few things all night Not to mention I basically got paid to watch Katy Perry perform.





There were definitely pros and cons to both roles. I think I'd pick merch as my favorite, but it's a hard decision. On both programs there were days where I hated it and just wanted to go home, but then I would see something that reminded me "Hey, I'm getting paid to be at Disney World...I guess things aren't so bad" And I just applied for the Spring 2011 Alumni Program, so obviously it was all worth it

If anyone has any questions about my experience, don't hesitate to ask! I love to talk about my CP days

 

[elphie101]

This has been fantastic! I love reading all of these real experiences Keep them coming!

 

[piratechick]

Hello, my name is Vanessa and I did two CPs-one on Fall 2007 and the other on Fall 2009. I am hoping that I get accepted into the Fall 2011 program.

Fall 2007-QSFB
In my first program, I was picked to do QSFB in Animal Kingdom Park. I was Outdoor Foods, which is basically working the ice cream and snack stands all over the park. It was not easy! Its been awhile and I forgot exactly how many stands there were, but I think it was around 9 ice cream carts and 7 snack stands that I worked at. They rotate us everyday, so I would be working a ice cream cart one day and the next day would be working another ice cream cart or a snack stand. The snack stands are the stands/kioskes that you see around the park selling popcorn, pretzels, churros, chicken fingers, sandwhiches, etc. AK is considered the hottest park in DW at it being 12 degrees hotter than any other park, so standing at a ice cream cart with only a fan on a 100 degree day for 6-15 hours is not fun at all. Sometimes, its not fun working the whole park, because on some days, you can be assigned an ice cream cart all the way on the other side of the park (the main base was all in one area) and its hard pushing a huge cart full with drinks with your money and register on top through a crowd full of people. I remember one day where my drink cart accidently spill onto its side and the drinks went rolling everywhere. Thankfully, I was stocking, so I had no money with me and the guest were really nice with helping me catch the drinks. Our costume was okay being only a simple safari tan shirt and shorts/pants.

Hours and Breaks: its is well known throughout the cast members that QSFB gets the most hours. A 40-50 hour week was considered a normal week. We got 60+ hours during peak periods especially during the holiday. I remember I'd got 79 hours during Thanksgiving week and 68 hours during Xmas week. While everyone else got at least two days off a week, I only got one day off. Some days, especially during holidays, I would go through a 10-15 hour day without even one break. They were terrible with giving breaks (and this was before they really started to enforce the break rule). But, at least in the end I was looking forward to a big, fat check especially with all that overtime.

Overall: It was difficult and tough, but in the end I pulled through and made it an awesome experience. I meet a lot of people from around the world and got to see the smiles on kid's faces when they got their Mickey ice cream. I was also able to work throughout the whole park instead of just staying in one area all the time.

Fall 2009-Merchandise
In my second program, I was lucky and got Animal Kingdom again (you get that park, the latest you will work til on nonpeak was 5-6pm and on peak hours til 8-9pm, unlike MK where you will sometimes have to work until 3am and that is because AK normally closes at 5pm) and was placed in Dinoland merchandise. I worked the big Chester and Hester gift store, the little gift stands located throughout Dinoland, the gift shop at the Dinosaur ride, including the photos, and believe it or not, the carnival games. We had three costumes: our stock costume, a Chester and Hester costume, and the Dinosaur costume. Our Chester and Hester costume was considered one of the worst costume you will find (I think the person who made it was colorblind): it consisted of a bright red shirt with blue sleeves and bright glow in the dark neon green shorts. In comparison, our Dinosaur costume was one of the coolest in the park being that it was all white with black and yellow strips going across our chest diagonally (it looked like a race car outfit). It was my favorite.

Hours and Breaks: Hours, this time, were decent at being 30-40 hours per week and 50+ hours during holidays. And I was happy to finally get two days off a week this time. Breaks were consistent and never skipped, thankfully.

Overall: I had a lot of fun. It was still hot being at the stands, but unlike QSFB where you are stuck at one stand for the whole day, in Merchandise, they rotate you around a few times a day, so you can be at one stand for a couple of hours then be inside the store, then the games, etc. The games, I thought, were interesting because I always thought they were part of attractions but instead Merchandise is in charged of them. They were a lot of fun most of the time. Except the ball games, because sometimes the kids would considered me to be the target instead of the holes. I'd came home with a lot of bruises, lol. It was difficult at times, especially with one extremely strict manager who always had a fake smile on, but most of the time I had fun.

Hopefully, in my next program (please let it be Fall 2011), I will get another awesome area to work. My wish is to get AK again, but if I get another park or resort, I will still be happy!

 

[smlinares]

I've done two programs and I'm about to start a third so I know what you are going through! My first program (Fall 2009) was in attractions at The Seas with Nemo & Friends and my second program (Summer Alumni 2010) was in Main Entrance Ops at the parking lot at Animal Kingdom.

Fall 2009:
This was my first program and I was beyond excited about working at Epcot, my favorite park. When I found out that I was working at the Seas, I was a little disappointed but I ended up really liking it! My program was incredible and I absolutely loved my location. I worked at the ride as well as Turtle Talk with Crush (which was my favorite part of working at the Seas). Turtle Talk was always the best part of the day for me! I got to see little kids light up when Crush would talk to them specifically and it was just amazing!

Working at the ride was a little repetitive because two of the positions are on the moving walk-way, which means that I walked about 5-10 miles everyday depending on how long I was at those two positions that day. Sometimes I would be at Unload for 4 hours (with breaks) and then get sent to Load 1, the other walking position, for another two hours. It got tiring but it wasn't that bad.

On a normal week, I got between 35-45 hours depending on how many hours I picked up or how often I extended. I normally got closing shifts, but toward the end of my program, I started getting scheduled earlier in the day, which was pretty nice. It would normally get really busy at about noon and then it was very slow the rest of the day. Working in the morning made the day go by a lot faster because it was so much busier!

Since I was there for the holidays, I got a lot of hours over Thanksgiving and Christmas. I also got to pick of shifts at the Magic Kingdom for the Halloween and Christmas parties, which were easily the most fun shifts and it was nice to switch it up a bit.

One of the cons about that program was that I was in the last wave of CPs that arrived and a lot of the other CPs had already bonded with each other so I didn't really hang out with them. It was fine though because I became really close with one of my roommates, who I still consider one of my closest friends! Overall, I am really glad that I got to work with Crush & Nemo everyday and it got me really interested in starting a career with the company.

Summer Alumni 2010:
Last summer, I really needed a summer job and I figured that I could spend a summer making money at the happiest place on earth. I wasn't very happy when I found out that I would be spending the whole summer outside in the parking lot at Animal Kingdom, but I'm really glad I did!

As a role, parking isn't as bad as you'd think. You get to drive a tram, spiel on the pack of the tram, and direct Guests into parking lanes/spots. I am so glad that I was placed at DAK because it closes earlier than the other parks, and it doesn't get as packed. It was a very chill and relaxed place to work most of the time.

A normal day for a CP in the parking lot would include a closing shift, which was fine with me because it was a lot less busy than the morning ever was! I did get scheduled a couple of morning shifts, but I really didn't like them, because they were so hectic and chaotic. Cars and people are everywhere!!! Thankfully, they liked to keep the CPs in closing shifts!

If I worked in the morning, it would mostly be at positions in the parking lot like pointing cars down a row or directing Guests into certain spots. I didn't really like the lot positions because there is absolutely NO shade and it was extremely hot during the summer! I loved working in the afternoon/evenings because that meant that it was mostly driving the trams or spieling on the back of a tram. Spieling was my favorite because all of the CPs, including my self, liked to add little twists to our spiel. We would make sure that all of the safety information was relayed to the Guests, but we would try to make it a little more fun for ourselves as well as for the Guests. I had many Guests tell me that they enjoyed my corny jokes or that it totally made they day to be called out by me for whatever reason. It was a great way to get Guest interaction in a role that may make it hard.

This summer program was definitely my favorite program that I've done, mostly because my CP group kinda became a big family. A dysfunctional family, but a family through and through. We stuck up for each other, we went through tons of drama together, went out together, got into little spats, and entertained each other when the lot was slow. It was like having a constant support group!

Overall, I have learned that the people are what can make or break your program. I can't wait to have a career with the Disney company and be able to work with people from around the world and be living my dream! Make sure to be involved and enjoy your time at the happiest place on earth, because it does go by faster than you ever expect it to!

I hope this helped anyone who is worried about their programs! I promise, you will have an amazing time!!