If you've never been here before, welcome to my DCP blog! I have an absurd number of posts on here, so whatever you want to know, I probably have an answer somewhere. I did my first program back in fall 2014 QSFB, and more recently did a program in attractions spring 2017 and extended through fall 2017. I started my program at Storybook Circus which includes Dumbo and the Barnstormer, then got cross-trained at Mine Train on my fall extension. Ok now that that's out of the way...here we go!!
So attractions is a role that includes a few different types of locations. It can be (as of when I worked there) parking, main entrance, shows, rides, and parade audience control. You have a very high chance of being placed in one of the parks, but could get parking at Disney Springs. I knew one girl who was attractions and was the parking person who took your money when you drove through in the parks, I friend of mine was strictly PAC (parade audience control) as attractions, and my roommate was attractions at Festival of the Lion King, a show. So there's a variety of places you could be placed. Certain attractions may have specific requirements to work there, and they will strictly stick to that because attractions is so heavily safety-based. For example, international students can't work certain rides because of (depending on who you ask), either their work visas or language barriers. Another example would be that a coworker of mine was moved from working at Mermaid to working at the Mine Train because of his height (he was so tall he was having to stoop at Mermaid which is a liability because of his health). On the other hand, a coworker of mine was too short to see over her console at Mine Train which is a safety hazard, and the only reason she kept working there was because she took it to the union and they fought for her to stay (she had to stand on a step stool). So anyway long into but that's attractions in a bit of a nutshell!!
Also you could be assigned a single attraction, or a complex. For example, if you get assigned Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, that will be the only attraction you work unless you extend and are allowed to cross-train. If you get Philar Complex, you work Mickey's Philharmagic, the Carousel, and Princess Fairytale Hall. For me, I started off in Storybook Circus, so from the get-go I worked at both Dumbo and the Barnstormer, then later cross-trained at Mine Train! Cross-training varies by location, but generally you could only cross-train in your same complex/area/location. For me (Fantasyland East, Magic Kingdom), I could cross-train with either the Mine Train, Enchanted Tales with Belle, or Mermaid. We all share the same managers, and also have a lot of costume crossover, so it's easy for them to train us there. Note that if you're doing a DCP you probably won't cross-train unless you extend your program!
I guess I'll start with scheduling and positions for each of my attractions. Hopefully this doesn't become super dry, but to be honest it might because some of it is technical haha. To protect sensitive information or information I shouldn't be sharing, I'll keep this broad but hopefully detailed enough you get a good idea of how it all goes! And like always...I'll be sure to throw in bunches of costume photos! :)
Let's start with Dumbo! Basic info: it's a spinning/circular ride (not a roller coaster haha), doesn't have a height or age requirement (except to ride alone), and does have both a standby and FastPass line. At the Florida location we had TWO Dumbo rides, for lack of a better term, so we could get through more guests. Guests always thought one was a FP Dumbo and one a regular, but they both held a mix of guests. The queue line went around the ride and into a big circus play tent before exiting out to the ride, and our indoor queue included an electronic pager system that called guests back in the order they went inside the play tent, so kids could play and they could "hold their place in line". If we were busy it was required, so even if it was two 30-year olds they still had to go in with a pager because there was no way for them to hold their place in line otherwise. Lap sitting is/was permitted and basically the only rule on the ride was that kids had to be at least 7 to ride by themselves, and 14 to ride with someone under 7. Obvious rules applied like not standing, no selfie sticks, no jumping over the fence, etc. Also service animals were allowed to ride on the floor, or in a carrier harness on the person!
Okay so the positions themselves! The following are (simplified) positions we could pull: greeter (both standby and FP), console positions, merge, grouper, play tent positions, and strollers.
Greeter positions: FP checks that all guests have a valid FP and that kids aren't riding by themselves, and that strollers don't go in the queue. Standby does the same minus checking FP's! They also make return times for guests with Disability Access (sign up with Guest Relations if you can't wait in long lines due to a disability). Easy peasy. Also you give LOTS of directions.
Console positions: the ones that actually operate the ride; they push buttons and make announcements and verify everyone is safe. I'll leave it at that I think.
Merge: combines FP and standby lines using set ratios. People will not understand that there is a method you follow and I hated this position haha.
Grouper: counts people and puts the correct number of people on the ride.
Play tent positions: hands out pagers and takes them back and also monitors the play tent making sure kids have shoes on and calling custodial when a kid pees in the corner. Basically a walking safety enforcer.
Strollers: this position was only up if we were busy or overstaffed and it is a Cast Member that makes sure strollers are parked in the right place.
Next: the Barnstormer! The Barnstormer aka the Brainstormer as every guest calls it, is a kids rollercoaster. It's a 63-second ride and kids only have to be 35 inches to ride. So we got lots of toddlers and little kids. It's right next to Dumbo and only has eight rows (capacity two per row, 16 per plane) and no big drops. It also has a FP and standby lane. Same age rules applied, and obvious safety rules, no lap sitting on this one and no service animals allowed to ride.
Positions included greeter/FP greeter, merge, grouper, console positions, and strollers.
Greeters were the same as Dumbo but now you had to check heights and be more diligent about ages. Since kids have to be 7 to go by themselves and there can only be TWO people per row, if you had a small horde of children get in line you had to make sure everyone under 7 was paired with an adult. There was no rule-bending on this one because it's safety related, if a child was 6 there was no way he could ride without an adult.
Merge: combine standby and FP using ratios and check ages!
Grouper: place people into rows based on party size and availability, honor seat requests (always pick the back row!), and check ages!!
Console positions: push buttons, give announcements, CHECK AGES and make sure people pull lap bars down. Safety safety safety.
Wheelchair: assist in loading guests using wheelchairs into the ride.
Strollers: make sure strollers are neat and organized and in the right place.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: this one was very similar to the Barnstormer but newer, more sophisticated, and designed for a slightly older audience. It's another roller coaster that is family friendly, super smooth, and very well-themed to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was also the busiest ride in Magic Kingdom and was the newest ride in MK. On SLOW days we had an hour and a half wait. Busy days? Easily four hours. Side note: if Mine Train went down, it took a long time to come back up because of the size of the ride (you have to walk the whole thing when powering up/restarting). Reasons rides go down - guests jumping ride fences to retrieve their lost items, guests jumping over the tracks, guests Simba-ing their children (lifting them up, possibly as a sacrifice? Who knows), ride malfunctions, or weather (95% of the time being lightening affecting an outdoor attraction. Positions for the Mine were VERY similar to Barnstormer: greeters, grouper, consoles, merge, wheelchair, and tower. Tower being the only new position. Also we had FP and a height requirement (38 inches). Ride capacity: 10 rows at 2 per row, or 20 people.
Greeter: same at Barn! Heights/ages/directions/checking for FP. Getting yelled at because it's our fault they didn't have a FP (insert eye roll).
Consoles: operate ride, push buttons, open/close gates, unload guests, check lap bars, etc.
Grouper/station: putting people in rows and rechecking questionable heights.
Merge: combining standby and FP USING SET RATIOS (people could not get it through their head that we weren't just randomly combining people).
Wheelchair: helping load guests using wheelchairs/walkers.
Tower: tower was basically the brain of the ride. You got to hangout in this room that had screens so you could watch people on the ride (AKA stop the ride if they whipped out their selfie stick), and were the main point of contact for CMs. Stressful position, but a good break from being extroverted!
You could also be assigned a treat shift during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parties! This was dependent on location, and since I worked in MK in an area where they handed out treats, I was assigned a treat shift a few times! These are fun six-hour shifts where you get to hand out candy :)
A typical day of work (at any location for me) would look like this:
- Clock-in when I get there, then head out a couple minutes before my start time.
- Log into computer and get assignment. Assignments could look like anything down below:
- Pull a rotation
- Pull a break/bumpout
- Task
In attractions we have a set rotation so position A always goes to position B which goes to position C until the last person at the end of the rotation (this prints on receipt paper with positions and names), and the last person will pull a new assignment. If you pull someone's break or bumpout you would take over for them in that position and follow the rotation (so you pull position C, you'll start there then go to D then E etc. when rotation goes around). Rotations came roughly every 45 minutes, so you weren't in one position too long. If you pulled a task it meant that there was no rotation, break, or bumpout due, so you got to be a floater for ten minutes! This person usually gave bathroom breaks, moved strollers, stuff like that.
- Work roughly two hours then get first 15-minute break
- Go back to computer to pull new assignment
- Two hours later get 30-minute unpaid lunch
- Go get new assignment
- Two hours later get last 15-minute break
- Work for two more hours then clock out and go home
Other stuff! Attractions all have target numbers for the amount of guests they aim to get through in an hour (or whatever metric your attraction uses), so for competitive people like me that was a fun way to focus my energy at work! Focusing on being efficient and hitting our target. When we had a good hour, they wrote our names up so you get some nice recognition! See below!
Another form of recognition is four keys cards and #castcompliments. Four keys cards are cards that managers will hand out when you do something particularly well, whether that be efficiency or customer service, or something else. They go on your record card and make for good work souvenirs! You could also get #castcompliments from guests! That's when a guest tweets about something you did well using the hashtag #castcompliment (see below! I was recognized with some coworkers for working a treat shift).
Scheduling: I was scheduled on average about 45 hours a week, but hours VASTLY differ depending on location. Off season I got fewer hours, like 35 maybe? And peak season closer to 50-55. Some people I knew never got over 40, and some never had under 40. The first half of my program (spring) I was closing almost every single shift, and this was usually something like 3:45-11:45, then the second half when I had CP seniority it looked more like 7:30am-4. We could trade shifts but not give away, so we were very limited on schedule. You can request days off ahead of time but there's no guarantee you'll get them. I was scheduled five days a week with the exception of two six-day weeks.
Things guests do not comprehend/frequently asked questions:
- The height requirement is all about safety, it is a line that cannot be crossed. If your child is half an inch too short, it is not safe for them to ride this attraction and no Cast Member will allow that if they want to keep their job (I once had a guest try slip me a $10 to let his baby ride the Barnstormer!)
- Kids and parents lie all day every day about their child's age, and you can't call them on it. If they say they're 7 years old, you can't ask for a birth certificate, so you have to take their word for it.
- It doesn't matter if they're tall for their age, they still need to be 7 to ride alone
- If there is thunder and lightening in the vicinity, it is not safe to operate outdoor rides because you would be sitting ducks on giant metal structures. No, if you were waiting in line and it goes down because of weather, you will not get a FP because if we did that the park would be so overloaded with FP, FP would cease to exist. Anything beyond our control like weather we didn't give FP's out for.
- If the CM tells you the wait time is 30 minutes, it's probably close to that. All the time people wouldn't believe me at Dumbo when I said the line was 45 minutes long, because the line is inside and they couldn't see the people.
- "MY DUMBO IS BROKEN" - this happened all day everyday and I'll let you all in on the big secret. If you lift an HOLD the lever (like the spiel says), the Dumbo will go up, if you yank it around it will go nowhere because Disney didn't want to give people whiplash.
- "Someone stole my stroller" people 99% of the time had their stroller moved to stroller parking because they left in in the middle of a busy walkway to go ride.
- "Oh it's ok, she rode it yesterday and passed the height stick", no ma'am we need to measure her every time because people come here and lie their way through everything to get what they want. Inconvenient? A bit. Annoying? Probably. Necessary for the sake of safety? Absolutely.
- 9 time out of 10 the CM is not out to ruin your vacation, they just need to follow the rules. There are certain rules we cannot bend nor break without serious repercussions, and guests don't always understand that. Yes some rules are silly, but we still have to enforce them whether we want to or not!
- Magical moments are given freely, not asked for. I had a lot of people come up to me at the FP and say things like "can you give us a magical moment? We don't have a FP". Sometimes I'd say yes, but it is SO much more magical and more fun to spontaneously give it to someone who wasn't expecting it. If someone treats me like a human or asks me how my day is, it was so much nicer to let them through than the pushy lady with seven out of control children :)
- People will abuse the disability access. The purpose of disability access is for people who cannot wait in lines, usually due to something with a diagnosis. Yes, guests in wheelchairs could be granted a DAS (the disability access pass), but they can wait in lines in their chair. It's really unfortunate because it restricts the guests that really need to use the DAS.
I could on for ages, but this is SO LONG so I'm going to cut it off!! I honestly had a FANTASTIC time working attractions and would absolutely do it again! I had many awful guests ruin MY day, but I also had some of the kindest families and cutest kids that made everything worth it. You get out what you put into it, and it was really nice to see hard work pay off :) I miss many aspects of working attractions but can't say I miss dealing with really difficult guests. Working there made me appreciate customer service roles so much more, and I'm really glad I have that experience. There's only so much you can do, and it's truly amazing how many people think the world revolves around them. Distracted side story relating to that: I once had a woman tell her children she wished they had cancer so they could go through the FP like the Make A Wish family. Absolutely DISGUSTING. Nothing about that sentence is okay.
Back to my wrap up, I made the BEST of friends working at Disney and met some amazing people! I don't regret a single moment, and if you're reading this because you recently got attractions, CONGRATS!!!! You're going to have an amazing time. It starts off overwhelming but really is a fun role to have. :) Until next time, have a great day!!!
