billybaruch1 said:
Is there no one who loves working for Disney as much as they love visiting Disney?
My sister is a CM at DTD. She really likes it. She likes talking to people from all over the world and soaking up a little of the guest enthusiasm. However, she doesn't do it for the money. If the money mattered to her, she'd have to work elsewhere. She's been there a little over a year and just recently was able to become a full time CM.
As a full time CM, she does get healthcare which she pays a certain amount for each month. It does allow her to get health coverage a bit cheaper than when she was paying for it entirely out of her pocket. She also gets certain perks such as a Main Gate pass. This allows her to take up to three people into a park, but she has to stay with them and it is not good during certain times of the year. She gets a 20 percent discount on merchandise. For a brief time prior to Christmas, she got a 40 percent discount.
She works from about 4pm to midnight 5 nights a week. She does the change runs and closes out the cash registers. She volunteered to learn these things. She gets no extra compensation for doing so. For doing this, she normally clears a little over $250.00 a week. She got a slight increase in her hourly rate when she became a full time employee.
I've always thought it was funny. Full time vs. part time has nothing to do with the number of hours a CM puts in a week. When my sister was still a part time CM, she often worked over 40 hours a week. Disney keeps track of the number of hours a part time CM puts in during a year. When the start getting close to the number of hours that will push them to full time status, they cut their hours. They actually prefer to keep CMs part time.
Again, my sister really enjoys being a CM, but it isn't really the glamour job that people think it is. Most of the CMs that work at DTD hold more than one job. It is the only way they can survive. And, while most guests are very nice, there are those who are not nice at all. You wouldn't believe some of the horror stories my sister has told me of things that have happened in just her shop.
As far as professional positions, that's another story. I have many neighbors who hold professional positions at Disney. They live in very nice homes and do very well. Most of them started out working at Disney and then moved their way up once they finished college. That is Disney's preference. Unless absolutely necessary, it seems they would rather promote from within. I actually think that is a nice thing.
There is another thing to keep in mind about working at WDW. Many of the shifts that CMs work actually prevent them from going to the parks. My sister doesn't start work until around 4pm, although the exact time she has to be there changes on a weekly basis. When you don't off from work until midnight or after and you still have to drive home, it is pretty hard to get up and get to a theme park early in the morning. Then, she has to be home by 2:30pm at the latest so that she can get ready and drive to work for her shift. On her days off, she has things she has to do around her house. She rarely makes it to a theme park.
