Operating the attractions may seem like a glorious role at Disney that perhaps you wish you could do! Although everyone always dreams of cracking corny jokes as a Jungle Cruise skipper, there are other procedures and attitudes that Attractions Cast Members must routinely follow in order for Guests to have an efficient and safe experience:
- Ride downtimes are not always what you think – Often, an attraction will be stopped if a ride vehicle does not stop at the station correctly. To a Guest, it may look correct, but an error message may appear on-screen for a Cast Member and alert them if anything is off by just the tiniest increment. Sometimes, the attraction may also temporarily stop to allow for a Guest with a disability to board. This is common on rides with Omnimover systems, such as Haunted Mansion and The Seas with Nemo and Friends.
- E-Stops are also pretty common – E-Stops, or emergency stops, are common protocol when a ride vehicle misbehaves. For example, if an error message occurs on Space Mountain that says that the small brake is not in the correct position, this will cause the ride to e-stop. If you are riding certain dark rides (and if you’re lucky), you may get a behind-the-scenes look if Cast Members need to turn on the lights. Sometimes if the problem cannot be fixed in a timely manner, Cast Members must escort Guests from the ride vehicles to the exits.
- Those empty ride vehicles are part of the procedure, too – Cast Members hate it (just as much as you do) when an attraction goes “101”, or “shuts down”, in Disney-speak. Sometimes the procedure requires running several empty ride vehicles through until the backup is straightened out (PeopleMover is a good example of this). Guests often don’t understand and will get very grouchy if they see empty cars leaving the station. The vehicles often have to correct their “spacing” along the track to ensure the safety and quality of the show. Also, would you really like to be in that ride vehicle if something was wrong?
- “Please fill in all available space” does not mean form a line – Although some of them may look and sound like audio-animatronics when they are telling you to “please move all the way down and fill in all available space” with that two-fingered point, Attractions Cast Members are human beings. When Guests won’t cozy up and let people in their personal bubble for a few minutes, the Operational Hourly Ride Capacity can be greatly reduced; lots of open space is wasted, the line gets longer, and Guests and managers get upset.
- The new Disabled Access Service (DAS) is better than the Guest Assistance Card (GAC) – Lawsuits and complaints seem to be popping up daily, so this is a touchy subject. But even if Guests may dislike the new DAS, it actually works more efficiently than the old GAC. In order to keep things fair for all Guests, only one return is allowed at a time, similar to a FastPass. This keeps the stand-by line shorter since Guests are no longer allowed to automatically skip the lines. The number of DAS passes being issued has greatly decreased, since the chance to abuse the new policy does not have much benefit.
- Stroller parking is awful – Attractions Cast Members are the ones that move your stroller when you park it in the middle of the pathway, twenty-five feet away from the sign labeled “Stroller Parking.” Please don’t be angry with them; they are simply trying to keep the area organized and safe for everyone. It is a never-ending struggle that often creates a lot of havoc, anger and confusion for all involved. Cast Members tasked with moving strollers are heckled on a daily basis.
- Please don’t try to exit the Carousel of Progress early – Although this attraction may not be everyone’s cup of tea, there is a big reason why Cast Members announce that Guests should not stand during the show. When one person’s boredom causes them to get up and exit early, this often starts a chain reaction of Guests leaving, which then creates a “Carousel of Regress.” This can result in a shutdown of the entire attraction in order to escort everyone off of the ride safely, because it is the Carousel of Progress, and it does move.
- It’s often physically impossible (and annoying) to seat your large group together – When a group of 12 approaches and wants to ride in the same train for Space Mountain, it’s just not going to happen. Each rocket only has room for six. It can be difficult for the Grouper, the CM responsible for asking “How many?” Guests often get upset, but are they really going to talk, hold hands and have a group picnic during their ride on Space Mountain? The entire group will meet up afterwards and it won’t even matter! Everyone will be too busy laughing and chatting about the great time they just had.
- They won’t stop the attraction just to retrieve your Mickey Ears – Unless it’s medicine or valuables (monogrammed mouse ears don’t count here, unfortunately), Attractions Cast Members will not shut down the attraction to grab your hat that fell off during Rock n’ Roller Coaster. Guests instead need to return to Guest Relations, where the central Lost and Found is located, at the end of the night or the next morning. After CMs get a chance to do closing procedures and locate lost items, they will bring them to Guest Relations.
- Courtesy does not always come first – The four Disney service standards, in order, are: Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. If Guests disregard Cast Members’ multiple warnings and are busy texting and looking down at their phone while boarding a moving sidewalk, those Guests should not expect kind words and happy smiles from those Cast Members. Safety is always the number one priority at Walt Disney World, and if it means Attractions CMs have to yell at you to get your attention to watch your step and keep you from breaking your leg, they just might.
Although the idea of spieling on Jungle Cruise or being a creepy Tower of Terror bellhop sounds glamorous, there is a lot more to operating your favorite Disney attractions and dealing with Guests than many realize. Attractions Cast Members go through a significant amount of training to run the attractions to ensure that everyone has a safe experience.
Join the “I’m So Disney…” group on Facebook to discuss this and many other Disney things with anyone and everyone.
Great write up! Intrusions on CoP drove me crazy, because no one wanted to watch the same scene three times in a row, but I didn’t work Buzz complex very often.
#9 is not entirely accurate. First, even if it is valuable they will not stop the ride. However on some attractions if there is a downtime they will look for items. On rollercoasters though it is not until the ride is powered down for the evening. Second, Central Theme Park Lost and Found is at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC). Each Guest Relations holds lost items for that day and then takes them to Central Lost and Found the next morning.
I seriously hate the WDW “dont form a line” mentality tho. Disneyland’s Monorail has been starting to do this and I don’t like it. Unfair in the name of efficiency, it is BS.
There are a lot of good CMs who know how to do their job without being an asshole, but there are a lot of bad ones who pretend Courtesy isn’t one of the keys. Guest may not always be right, but they are always your guest.
-DLR CM
I don’t think that’s what they meant by “10.Courtesy does not always come first ” Of course we are as courteous and pleasant as possible, even while we are being screamed at during a downtime.
But you best believe if a teenager tries to climb over the railing that separates stationary guests from my rockets, my first warning is not going to be with a smile. It won’t be rude, but it certainly wouldn’t be classified as “Courteous”. And the 2nd will be the E-stop warning when NO ONE is going to be courteous to him anymore. Safety is #1. Even Walt knew that, and it is truly the most important thing.
-WDW CM
Also it isn’t really a “WDW mentality” For most attractions lines, and the formation of them, is crucial to the operation of a ride. And for others, like Kilimanjaro safaris, having a line form in certain areas can inhibit operation, starve docks, and make the hourly count go down, ruining efficiency.
Not our fault that DL is adapting it to an “attraction” that doesn’t need it.
I hate DLR’s mentality of form a single line, it really adds 30 minutes to a line when people line up single file, makes things run worse and then discourages cm’s to maintain the park
~WDW CM
Loved every bit of this. Only thing is I work all the Classic Dark rides and Storybook land and at the Dark rides I love downtimes! It is so much fun! Depending on who my other CM is and what happened I can get a ride back up in like 10 mins at the lowest. So no I don’t hate it and I know a lot of other people don’t either in Fantasyland. I mean if your standing in one spot telling people to exit to their left for 40 mins when that station backs up because of slow moving guests there’s a gleam in my eyes because I get to walk I side the attraction.
Your title is off… This is not 10 Attractions Disney cast members do not want you to know about… This is like 10 tips of why rides break down
This should be titled “10 Things Disney Attractions Cast Members *DO* Want You To Know”
Working on the railroad, things would be a lot easier if people would just shut up, don’t think, and go where we point. Attractions are loaded certain ways for a reason. We load back to front so the people who board at the last second have the shortest distance to go (we are a timed attraction). It’s also where we load disabilities and I’ve seen people run past us and jump in a seat right in front of a wheelchair guest.
Also, just because a train is in the station with empty seats, it doesn’t mean you’re getting on it. We have a schedule we adhere to (that’s what those whistles in the station are for). If it’s time to go, then it’s time to go. We will close the gate on you and leave you behind.
Love this!!! These are the things I wish we could break down and tell every guest! Thank You for sharing this. I know that working in attractions can be stressful at times, but it’s also totally fun! I love my job
WDW CM
This is an excellent article but is miss titled. It should be 10 things cast members DO want you to know to help make your visit more enjoyable.
Regarding #5: How are you to verify the number of DAS passes being issued have been greatly reduced? Is this public information?
@Patrick, Guest Research and Guest Relations reports. Guest Research scans tickets & are tracked when used as DAS.
I work attractions at California Adventure and I love this article!
Only one I disagree with is 8. If a group of 12 wants to ride together on Space Mountain (each car seating 6), it CAN be done. What if that group wanted to purchase their picture? As much of a pain in the arse it may be for the CM, it CAN and SHOULD be done to accomodate a guest’s request.
WDW’s Space only seats 6 per vehicle, kind of like the Matterhorn.
Always found it interesting that it was the reverse between DLR and WDW’s Space and Splash in how seating went.
As a cast member that worked in the mountain at WDW and dealt with the “we want to be in the same photo” with large groups arguments, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to get a group of 12 in one picture. Before working attractions, when I worked T-Land merch, I did do a “not supposed to” and edited a photo so that a party of 4 (the rockets are placed like this= 888_888) so normally the picture cuts out the second rocket, but sometimes you can get the first person in the back rocket in the first. That is really the best you can do, even getting all 6 in one photo is impossible, since it takes 2 photos, one of the back and the other of the front.
You obviously don’t understand how the ride works. Space Mountain at Disneyland is a gravity based attraction, and each rocket is weighed before it can dispatch into the mountain. If a rocket exceeds a certain weight limit, it will be too fast, which can cause all sorts of safety issues. So, if a group of twelve, full grown, adults is boarded onto the same rocket, chances are it’s going to be too heavy, and either a couple people will be pulled out, or the entire rocket will be pulled off the main line, delaying their flight, and slowing down the attraction queue (because losing a rocket reduces capacity). Space Mointain cast members are trained to spot potentially heavy rockets, ahead of time, in order to prevent such a delay for the guests. So NO, it may NOT be physically possible to do, and this is a perfect example of why guests requests may be unreasonable, and sometimes annoying for the CM. Imagine having to explain to party after party, that they’re group might be too “large” to ride together…it’s not exactly easy to explain something like that to guests, no matter how delicately you word it. Also, there’s no way a party of 12 will be in the same photo, as each half of the rocket is photographed separately, so boarding a party of 12, on the same rocket, for photographic purposes, makes no sense. Sometimes things just can’t be done, period.
1.) The article says nothing about weight.
2.) 2 rockets of 6 people each = 12 people.
Um. These are definitely ALL things that an ops CM WANTS the guests to know.
F*ck “entitled” guests
I work at The Disneyland Resort in California Adventure, and the only correction I would make to the list is that central Lost and Found is not actually at Guest Relations. For the Disneyland Resort it is outside of the parks to the left of the Disneyland Main Entrance.
Tech, it is the same at WDW, we have a separate building for Lost and Found items, that the Lost and Found is taken to at night. If the guest loses something during the day, as long as it is the same day, they can find it at Guest Relations (which I believe was the same when I visited DL). If they come back the next day and report it lost, we direct them to the Lost and Found building that is across the street from the MK parking lot, in front of the MK buss loop. (near where you get off of the MK tram, way before the Monorail)
Good article. If you want 12 people in a picture, go ride Dinosaur at DAK !!
Definitely miss titled. All this is stuff CMs desperately wished people understood. Re: Carousel – didn’t someone get killed trying to exit because they fell or got caught in the rotation mechanism? There are reasons for all those “annoying” safety regulations. In almost every case of serious injury on a ride or attraction, it was a direct result of a guest failing to follow the rules and acting like a fool. That is why courtesy WILL go out the window when cast members spot people misbehaving.
Dawn: No, it wasn’t a guest; that was a CM that caught between a wall and the non-moving stage. She did not remove herself from her spieling “area” before the Carousel started to rotate.