Disney CM's Employee benifits ?'s

[issa]

Heya all

I am a SAHM currently but am looking at returning to work this fall. Disney is within easy commute distance and of course its a option

Can any cast members answer some questions for me?

I have heard you get passes for your family for the parks. Are these annual passes? Are they only during certain weekends or times? How many family members can you get in? ( we are a family of 4 - so I am wondering about my H and 2 DD's)

I have also heard WDW has onsite Childcare for its cast members. Can anyone relate some information about this?

Quality
hours
cost
just daycare or preschool as well?


I would love to work in CRO - anything that is specially required for this. How can I increase my chances of getting that job. Any info on what it's like to work for disney would be great.

I am debateing on a realworld job vs. Disney and these issues come into play when comparing.


Thanks for any and all info.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Disney used to be a lot more lax with the passes for family. Not anymore. You can get 3 family members in, but only if you are there at the entrance with tem to see them in and no more than 3.
You also don't get holidays off working for the mouse as they are open 365 days per year. Something to keep in mind if you have small children and when Christmastime rolls around.

The employees day care is a Kindercare that is located on site. Nothing special believe me. They charge for the daycare, not sure of how much anymore as my kids are all in school now.

Personally, if you want to make money and don't care about getting into the parks for free, you would be better off and make more money to boot, if you work elsewhere as the money isn't that great at Disney.

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

having worked for cro (I am no longer a Cm) This was my experience: I was able to get myself and up to 3 family members in 12 times a year. (I could go any time I wanted to) I do know that families with more than 3 members had special concessions made and had more room on their passes. Certain events were offered as premiums (MVMCP & MNSSHP as drawings, Cirque du Soleil during slow season so you could tell the callers about the show)

There was no on site day care for children. There were discounts with local providers but noone I knew used them.

Apartment discounts in Orlando were abundant, but in Tampa, not so much. However I'm not an apartment dweller, so those weren't too big of a deal for me.

Hours were from 6:50 am t0 Midnight every day of the week, with Mandatory Overtime during certain parts of the year. This meant that during the spring break gear up and Christmas gear up, we were working up to 60 hour weeks mandatorily, and those aren't easy when you've got 200 people on hold and everyone wants the same place at the same time for the same rate, and yes, everyone wants to call back after 5 pm after they've talked with their husband/wife.

Getting a holiday off was a raffle based on seniority and sales. If you were high in either catagory your chances of getting the time off were better than others, but you still ended up working one or more of them, if they were on your regularly scheduled days.

The pay at CRO is better than the parks, that's true. Generally if you've worked in a sales based environment, and don't have a problem with quotas and sales goals, you'll probably like it, but the turn over rate is high there.


ETA: I should add, that when I said hours, those were the hours that CRO Was open. Your shift could be Full or part time and fall anywhere in between. You were given Extra passes to give as gifts or what not 2x a year (july and Xmas) equal to the amount of people on your main gate. There is a cafeteria on site, and a weight room at the Tampa location. And there were 4 segments plus Dining and Travel Agents. I understand this might have changed since July though.

 

[Donna]

are you talking about disney STORE or disney WORLD (just noticed you are from MA).

 

[Steffi]

I worked as a part-time dining reservationist in Tampa. The hours were pretty good for a mom: I worked from 6:50 AM until 11:50 AM, four days a week. I got to choose the days I wanted to work (once chosen, those are your set days/hours). The other choice for morning hours was 8:00 AM til 1:00 PM. They also had part-time night hours available.

The job was easy and fun, and the atmosphere was pretty darn happy, considering it was, after all, a call center. (The only reason I left the job was the drive out there.)

They paid every week, which was nice. I forget the rate of pay; it wasn't an enormous amount, though, something like $9 an hour.

The benefits, I thought, were great. CM's get unlimited entry to the parks. After 90 days, you can bring 3 people in with you (12 times a year sounds right). My friend who worked there had 3 kids and a hubby, so she was able to bring in 4 people. I heard that they also gave out extra passes at Christmastime, but I didn't stay there long enough to find out for sure.

The employee resort rates were pretty good, and we got (I think) a 20% discount at stores and restaurants at WDW. You could also get 50% off certain showings of Hoop Dee Doo Revue (the late showings, I think) and occasionally there would be a 50% off offer for dining employees for certain other restaurants. They wanted the dining employees to try a lot of the restaurants. Also, within my first three weeks there, I got 2 free tickets to see Cirque de Soleil.

I never did get to shop at the employee store onsite at WDW, but I heard wonderful things about it. The Tampa office had a very small store (Company D), and they always had something worth buying, even in that tiny store!

Wow, talking about this sure makes me miss the job!!!

 

[issa]

Yes , I meant the world - we moved down here 2 years ago and I havent bothered to change my user info - Sorry.


Thanks so much for your posts - gives me many things to consider in the meantime.

hmmmmm

 

[Donna]

There is a Kindercare behind magic kingdom. I always assumed they used that for daycare and got special rates for CMs.