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Gemini Cricket
07-02-2001, 06:13 PM
Cast Members:
What are your favorite places to work at Disneyland? Is there a specific area or ride that CM's scramble to get work shifts at?

Non-CM's: Where would you work if you could?

lisap
07-02-2001, 08:13 PM
I think it would be fun to work on the Disneyland Railroad--always on the move :) Is that one of the more desirable spots for CMs?

I know where I would not want to work--crowd control for princesses. People get really cut-throat trying to shove their little darlings to the front of the line. There is a CM who works with Ariel at the grotto who does a really topnotch job--I think he is English. Very longsuffering.....

PhilMP
07-03-2001, 01:47 AM
My favorite place to work would have to be a Balloon or Glow location on Main Street. Lots of action, meet lots of people, plus lots of fellow ODV CMs to hang out with while we all make money for the mouse.

Where I would not want to work would be any attraction. I don't see the appeal of asking "Party of 3?" all day long, or making sure that everyone's seat belts are fastened, or pressing a little green button all day.

Phil

DisneylandBoy
07-03-2001, 09:41 AM
I want to work on the Jungle Cruise. When I get out of high school, that's what I'm going to do. As an actor, I couldsee nothing better than getting to "perform" all day long. If I couldn't do that, then I would want to be in a show or parade. But the Jungle Cruise would be the best!

TP2000
07-03-2001, 07:12 PM
So I think PhilMP has some issues with the kids who work the attractions. ;-) I hope they aren't playing pranks on the ODV crews in the break rooms or anything.

But personally, I have always wanted to work on the "rides" at Disneyland. When I was a kid and thought how cool it would be to work at Disneyland, it was always the attractions that seemed like the place to be.

The Mark Twain and the Canoes look like fun, plus Small World for some reason sitting in those little towers under the umbrella. And of course there's Haunted Mansion with those fabulous outfits and Pirates with the fun outfits and the moody station area. Jungle Cruise has never held much allure for me, but then I don't think I could be that funny in front of people. But I have also always wanted to "wake up Jose" in the Tiki Room.

I'd also like to drive the Omnibus and yell "BOAAAARRD! on the Disneyland Railroad. When the PeopleMover still ran, I wanted to work there too.

There seems like a lot of fun attractions to work on at Disneyland. Even Grizzly Rapids and Soarin' look like fun, with snazzy outfits. But Paradise Pier rides and Superstar Limo hold no allure for me.

DisneyFreak2000
07-03-2001, 10:01 PM
I would like to work in a themed ride. Working out door like at a Paradise Pier with no themed queue area would be boring and hot. It would be fun where you WERE part of the ride like Jungle Cruise, but being an actor I would love to be a character in a parade, show or even Mickey in Fantasmic!

Napsto
07-04-2001, 05:49 PM
i know a guy who works on tarzan, tiki, matterhorn and jungle cruise. he saystiki is best on hot days buthe like matterhorn alot.

Gregmh48
07-05-2001, 10:54 AM
I'd want to work on the Monorail. I can't think of anything bad about working there. The Haunted Mansion would be fun too.

Castmbrdlx
07-05-2001, 11:24 AM
Being in Store ops my favorite location is the adventure land stores. The area is fun and the leads and managers are great. If I worked in attractions it would have to be haunted mansion. I hear they have fun working there.

lillas
07-05-2001, 05:38 PM
As a former west side attractions host, my favorite place to work was the canoes. Jungle cruise was fun but burn out became a problem. You would average about 30 trips per day, and it was difficult to be "on" every time. On canoes, it was just paddln' down the river chatting with the guests, an occasional race with another boat...

Gregmh48
07-05-2001, 06:35 PM
The canoes would be great, except I get tired about half way around the river. :(

thamnarestan
08-12-2001, 06:55 PM
Originally posted by PhilMP
My favorite place to work would have to be a Balloon or Glow location on Main Street. Lots of action, meet lots of people, plus lots of fellow ODV CMs to hang out with while we all make money for the mouse.

Where I would not want to work would be any attraction. I don't see the appeal of asking "Party of 3?" all day long, or making sure that everyone's seat belts are fastened, or pressing a little green button all day.


That's BS. ODV has to be one of the worst places to work in the park, along with foods and costuming. Attractions is generally considered the best place to work in DL, even though CMs from other lines of business won't admit it.

Just tell someone you meet that you work at Disneyland, and they'll ask "What ride do you work on?"

My guess is that PhilMP is just bitter because he wasn't chosen for Attractions. Just my guess...

thamnarestan
08-12-2001, 06:59 PM
Most CMs like the slow-paced classic attractions such as Jungle, Pirates, Canoes, Mansion, etc. Although some people enjoy working them, rides like Thunder, Space, and Indy aren't considered the best places to work.

The best Attractions job in the park, though, has to be River Show Drivers who drive the Mark Twain and Columbia for Fantasmic. They only spend a quarter of their shift working. It's very, very difficult to get trained for it, though, as you can imagine.

rexfarms
08-12-2001, 08:01 PM
Monorail all the way. I have talked to CMs who say that it is the best attraction. But being a host at the Blue Bayou seems fun. Canoes are awsome too.:D
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/disneymonorail

mad4mky
08-12-2001, 08:30 PM
I could never work food...
Got to be the toughest job there.
Me...Disney Gallery. Cool in the Summer, Warm and dry in the winter. Meet all kinds of nice people from all over the world. Scenery always changing.
Great View of Fantasmic...and always a lot of people watching.
Not too many people with little kids hang around up there for too long. And lots of interesting Disney facts and pictures.
Seems like a great place.

;)

ODV CM
08-12-2001, 09:33 PM
thamnarestan said:

thats bs. ODV has to be one of the worst places in the park to work.
Have you ever tried it? Except for the cleaning up afterwards, its actually a lot of fun. You get to work on a different type of wagon in a different land every day. Much more fun that doing Mr Toad's for three straight years, imo. The cleaning is hard work, except for blue team of course, and pushing lemonade or pretzel wagons through the park certainly is not my favorite pastime, but overall I'd say its one of the better depts in the park. Plus we get to be on our own for most of the day, without supervisors breathing down our necks 24/7. If I didn't do ODV, I would have wanted to do Indy/Mansion. I had a friend that did both of those rides, and he had a blast. Otherwise, merch would be cool. Maybe the Star Trader, or some of the Adventureland stores. Or Innoventions. You make much more money there, you're in an air conditioned building, and it isn't that crowded. The only bad thing is that virtually every Innoventions CM ever ends up on limited work because of strained vocal cords. But ODV is right up there for me. Probably not for everyone though. Oh, and Club 33 would be cool, but it takes like two years to become a waiter. Once you do, however, you get some seriously good tips.

Gemini Cricket
08-13-2001, 12:05 AM
ODV?

That stands for...

rexfarms
08-13-2001, 07:28 AM
Outdoor Vending

Gemini Cricket
08-13-2001, 10:14 AM
Mahalo.:)

rexfarms
08-13-2001, 10:49 AM
De Nada.

Niwel
08-13-2001, 11:31 AM
As a former Disneyland CM in Fantasyland Classics, I must say that the best ride to work hands down was Casey Jr.

I didn't know how much fun it was until I had the chance to run it. Think about it: YOU get to ride the ride with the guests.


It's faster than most people realize and you have to know when to slow down (i.e. the curves) and stop (i.e. if there are two trains running, you stop in front of the patchwork quilt until the other train has left the station). So it does require concentration.

I never got tired of the scenery.

It was (in 1998) past of the rotation with Snow White and Pinocchio (meaning that you would go from load to unload at one of them and then to Casey. At the end of your shift you were not supposed to not have a break for the final hour, so I would always have people bump around me because I wanted to stay there. We also got to pick which attraction we wanted to close in the evenings. Since you had to walk through the dark-ride attractions at the end of the night I tried to make sure I closed Casey. (I sometimes even got to put the train in reverse and back it into the tunnel.

The best part was when it got slow in the evenings, I would turn off the recorded sounds and spiel like on the Storybook Boats (except it had to be faster, but you got a much better view of the castle). Sometimes when it was VERY slow I would run it for just me. (Just to let the Fantasyland guests know that we were still open).

So next time you are at Disneyland and looking for some fun (and it's not too hot), head over to Casey Jr's Circus Train...
And think of me
:)

PhilMP
08-13-2001, 11:53 PM
Originally posted by thamnarestan


That's BS. ODV has to be one of the worst places to work in the park, along with foods and costuming. Attractions is generally considered the best place to work in DL, even though CMs from other lines of business won't admit it.

Just tell someone you meet that you work at Disneyland, and they'll ask "What ride do you work on?"

My guess is that PhilMP is just bitter because he wasn't chosen for Attractions. Just my guess...

Ah, another example of the arrogance of Attraction CMs.

I actually did want to hire in for Attractions, but my interviewer at Casting thought I would do better at ODV, and I was bitter for a while. But after 2 weeks, I decided that my interviewer was actually right.

And I hope you do realize that they ask you what ride you work because the public doesn't know that not everyone at DL works Attractions of Entertainment.

Oh, and excuse me for not replying quickly, I was too busy paying your freaking salary to log on.

Will D.
08-14-2001, 12:30 AM
I think driving the vintage vehicles on Main Street might be fun. No daydreaming though! You might squish a pedestrian...

Selling balloons might be nice, too. Making people happy is always kinda cool.

Niwel- Casey Jr. sounds like a blast!

thamnarestan
08-14-2001, 12:45 AM
Originally posted by PhilMP

I actually did want to hire in for Attractions, but my interviewer at Casting thought I would do better at ODV, and I was bitter for a while. But after 2 weeks, I decided that my interviewer was actually right.


So, essentially Casting told you that you weren't good enough for Attractions. I must applaud them for this, as it seemed for a while that they'd take anybody and place them in Attractions- child molestors, convicted drug dealers, annual passholders. It was really getting bad for a while.

Of course, I've always been one to say that there're a job waiting for everyone at Disneyland- retarded, ugly, or fat people will generally go to Foods or Costuming, leaving the glamorous jobs to people who fit the roles.

EandCDad
08-14-2001, 06:04 AM
I'm not a CM, so my opinion is of no value here, but I think I'd like to find out where Thamnarestan works so I can avoid that area of the park like the plague. I'm sure, as you have argued, that all the really, really smart people are asked to work at attractions. I mean, you probably make, what, $200 or $300 thousand a year, loading people on to the tea cups. I heard Bill Gates quit Microsoft because he heard that the real future was in DL attractions.

The more likely scenario is that there a good and bad employees in all areas of the park operations. Jerks like our buddy Thamnarestan are probably the minority, at least i hope and pray that they are. I have nothing but respect for anyone in ride operations, vending, clean-up or whatever, it's a tough job with little glory and probably not a ton of pay. Thanks for making my DL experience great. Oh, and if you have to work with Thamarestan, I'm sorry.