Stupid Guest Tricks

You know, the first several years I worked at Disneyland were mostly fanatastic, but after a long while it began to wear on me. I'm curious how other long term employees feel/felt.

So this poll is for people who've worked at any of the parks for longer than say 5/10 years. If you care to add comments, include how long your sentance - excuse me - term of employment has lasted.

Which was "no, what was I thinking" in other words, I wouldn't work there.

I was there for 11 years, the first 4 in merchandise, the rest in Attractions. When you're there that long, you see it all. I think I probably should have quit about 3 or 4 years before I did. It was hard being a newlywed and having to work the cruddy schedule I got stuck with as a "B." I wanted to be home nights and weekends.

I was also there long enough to see the shift in behavior from our guests. When I hired in, the worst thing we had to worry about was some kid stealing the penny candy sticks. My last few years there, the guests were throwing punches at C.M.s. I didn't get paid enough to put up with that crap. It's amazing how nasty they got over the course of time. I think it also had something to do with all the price hikes. We had a theory on the West Side that for each ticket price increase, there would be an exponential increase in nastiness/unrealistic expectations/bad behavior from the guests.

It's a great place to work when you're a kid and you can do all the socializing that goes along with the departments. Not so great when you want a real life...

In the time that I've been going to the parks as a guest I've seen over the years, and then in the time I've been working there I've seen the price skyrocket. I still have an old ticket that my mom bought back in 1985 and the cost was $19.50 for one day. Now the cost is almost $60 for one person for one park for one day. If you look at is the cost for going to WDW has gone up threefold in the past 20 years. Not even has cable rates gone up that much.

i have no plans on leaving for a long time, one of these days my radio call sign is going to end with a 1. I've already declared myself Conductor34, and Station Commander, but then my friend made herself the admiral... and conductor 13. I'm thinking about making a call sign for myself at indy too, but they don't give regular CM's radios there, only leads, and when the lead is on break, they'll give it to a trainer, RO lead, or someone with killer seniority that can operate those things.

I don't see myself lifing at the Parks, but I do see the possiblity of me lifing for the company. I am going to work my way into Olive shop (Disneyland's Scene Shop on Olive St.) You have to be a memeber of the painter's union to get in. No prob! My dad is a Journeyman painter and I know someone pretty well who either still works at Olive Shop or can help me get there.

I am considering going back to work for the Mouse again. My biggest concern is the schedule. It was fun when all of my friends worked there and you could get together after work and Disney was your life. Now I have a life outside of work and i would like to keep it that way.

Tough call lisa. Go with your heart and your pocket-book.
May the force be with you.

I was 2 years shy of a lifer - been with the Mouse for Three years!!! I enjoyed every minute of it!! Each and every day, I looked forward to coming to work to be able to create magical memories with the guest!! I made lots of new and interesting people along the way. I enjoyed learning a new attraction. I love the good memories I experienced while at Disney. Overall, it was all good times for me, eventhough there were some bad stuff that happened to me, I just keep focusing on the good things.