Working on DCL

[aussie_princess]

So I'm toying with idea of pursuing employment with DCL. I've worked for Disney in the past at WDW on their International College Program and would love to work for the company again. I would love to hear from anyone who has worked for them and what their experiences are like. How different is the cruise line to land based Disney jobs? How does DCL compare to other cruise lines in regards to working conditions? What sort of qualifications and skills would be beneficial in getting work with DCL?

Even if you are not a CM but have chatted with CMs on the DCL ships and have stories to share, I would love to hear any feedback, stories and advice.

 

[californiamomofboys]

We befriended our bartender from Meridian aboard the Dream this past January and then met up with her in Peru last month. She and the whole team that she worked with had been fired when they got caught eating the chocolate souffle' from Palo that one of her co-workers from Palo brought them. She said the sommelier from Palo turned them in (she speculated that he was trying to get a promotion and was trying to impress his supervisors). She previously worked on Princess and said she never would have been fired on Princess for this (written up but not fired). She mentioned that the biggest difference between the two lines was that on Disney, she felt like she was being watched. For example, on their "off" nights, at the Cast Member bar, she felt like having one adult beverage was fine, but having more than one was definitely frowned upon and noticed. I guess, most cast members only have a few hours off here and there, rarely a whole day, and Disney doesn't like the idea of Cast Members potentially having a hang over on their next shift. She said she liked working for Disney but preferred Princess. She said pay and accomodations were comparable but Disney had the "Big Brother is watching" feeling.

 

[Markonefive]

You may enjoy these articles:
http://allears.net/cruise/issue389.htm
http://allears.net/cruise/issue393.htm
http://allears.net/cruise/issue398.htm
http://allears.net/cruise/issue404.htm
http://allears.net/cruise/issue412.htm
http://allears.net/cruise/issue419.htm
http://allears.net/cruise/issue441.htm

From eight years ago, but lots of detail.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

We befriended our bartender from Meridian aboard the Dream this past January and then met up with her in Peru last month. She and the whole team that she worked with had been fired when they got caught eating the chocolate souffle' from Palo that one of her co-workers from Palo brought them. She said the sommelier from Palo turned them in (she speculated that he was trying to get a promotion and was trying to impress his supervisors). She previously worked on Princess and said she never would have been fired on Princess for this (written up but not fired). She mentioned that the biggest difference between the two lines was that on Disney, she felt like she was being watched. For example, on their "off" nights, at the Cast Member bar, she felt like having one adult beverage was fine, but having more than one was definitely frowned upon and noticed. I guess, most cast members only have a few hours off here and there, rarely a whole day, and Disney doesn't like the idea of Cast Members potentially having a hang over on their next shift. She said she liked working for Disney but preferred Princess. She said pay and accomodations were comparable but Disney had the "Big Brother is watching" feeling.

While this may certainly be true (big brother perception), this perception probably varies by employee and their individual experiences. It is bad for that employee that she was fired due to potentially playing an unintended role in another's play for power and prestige (aka promotion), but that plays out on land, across all employment categories, as well.
As a paying customer, I can appreciate the attention to detail -in this case, a hung over employee may not be able to be as tolerant or pleasant or "magical" as a non-hungover one.

 

[aussie_princess]

Thanks for the replies so far! Those articles look very interesting, I'll make sure to read them. It's been hard to find decent information on this (besides your regular Disney recruiting videos).

The whole Big Brother thing is interesting, but having worked for Disney before, I do sort of understand what they mean. I never had an issue with it because Disney's rules weren't something I had difficulty following, but I know others who struggled with how strict the company is.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I've talked to several people working on the ships. They all said that compared to other lines, DCL treated them them the best. The servers do work 14 hour days, I think.

They said they aren't served food anywhere near as good as the guests, but the food is better than what other lines offer. They do get homesick, of course.

 

[aussie_princess]

I'm not looking at being a server, I'm hoping to either work in the BBB or as a Character Attendant. Either way, I imagine I'll still have some pretty long shifts. That doesn't really bother me though because I worked as a Merchandise CP at WDW over the summer so I've done my fair share of 10-15 hour shifts standing out in the hot sun!

They said they aren't served food anywhere near as good as the guests, but the food is better than what other lines offer. They do get homesick, of course.

That doesn't really surprise me, after all the guests are paying for the good stuff! lol

 

[darnheather]

Character attendants do not work for the same division of the company as the other employees. They have different contract terms and (from what I saw) come from America or England only. I was also told that they are in demand jobs so they might get one or two contracts but that's it.

 

[aussie_princess]

That's ok, BBB is my main aim at the moment

 

[wilkeliza]

Befriended a lot of CMs who work for the cruise line. The number 1 thing they said is you are always on. So even if you end up at BBB you will probably have 3-4 other duties as well so that when BBB is closed you are doing something else. Character attendants are actually performers as well. I know a girl who did 2 contracts with DCL and she was a dancer, friends with a certain mouse, and a character attendant.

I also know their off days are very different then standard off days. Some posiions work every single day but then they will get a large chuck of time off all at once. A shopkeeper on the Fantasy said they maybe get 1 good solid day off each week but it depends on what boat and what your contract says. Servers do long stretchs at one time so they may get a full cruise off but almost never get a day in the middle of a cruise off.

They also said tight shared quarters make life kind of feel like college/dorm living but for the money they make they were setting aside some since they didn't have to pay much for rent or food. They do have a small CM store to buy candy, drinks, etc. They also got to get off if they had like a half day off or whatever but they said the stops can be boring since Disney does the same stops every few days.

 

[aussie_princess]

That's interesting to know. BBB is technically a merchandise position so you would probably get rotated to other merchandise locations on the ship. That's good to know since I spent a year working in march for Disney and actually quite enjoyed a lot of aspects of it. The character attendant/performer thing makes a lot of sense too - something to keep in mind.

lol the tight living quarters go with ship life I imagine, I don't think that is different on any sort of cruise ship. The DCL careers website is pretty good, they have videos, photos and a 360 tour thing of the rooms so you can get an idea of the space. The one thing I'm sad about is that they don't have crew pools on every ship, only on the magic and wonder. I love swimming so that's disappointing, but they have a crew gym so I can still get my cycling in

Something else that I've been thinking about is crew safety. You hear stories sometimes of women (and men I suppose) being sexually assaulted/harassed etc by other crew members. I imagine that 'big brother' thing that people have talked about is partially to make sure that these sort of behaviors are less likely to occur.