“What is it like to work at Walt Disney World?” That is a very hard question to answer quickly. Just like the rest of you, I have read other accounts from ex-Cast Members. Honestly, the vast majority of the time, while reading those accounts, I have absolutely no connection to what I am reading; it is almost as though those people must have worked at a different Walt Disney World than I did.
I am not here to sugarcoat it: working at Disney was the hardest and most intense job I have ever had in my life; but, then again, I am not here to be overly dramatic about it either: if I knew then what I know now, I still would have worked there. Not that I want to work at Walt Disney World again, mind you, but that working there was an experience that I am really glad I had the opportunity to enjoy.
I worked in culinary at EPCOT. Originally, I thought it would be fun to work EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival; when I heard that Disney offered seasonal employment, I applied. A few days later, I was contacted by Disney Casting. Receiving the phone call was sort of surreal: someone pinch me!
My family and I have been big Disney people for years and, from time to time, would purchase annual passes. So working at Disney, to me, was going to be an awesome adventure and an experience that I would never forget. From the first phone call from Casting to the day I walked out of the Cheese Grinder (the employee entrance behind EPCOT) for the last time, that’s exactly how I thought of it: an adventure.
I was hired on as a seasonal employee to work Food & Wine; at Casting, I was asked if I would like to be considered for a higher position that was full time because of my experience but when I found out that I most likely would not be able to work Food & Wine, I declined: “No thank you. I just want to work Food & Wine for the experience of it!” And an experience it was and it set the tone for the rest of my time at Disney.
Food & Wine was at first unbearably hot…and then it was unbearably cold. It was a lot more exhausting than it was “fun” but, strangely, I was working at Walt Disney World so that made it all better. I did not really like the crowds or cooking in a kiosk or even cutting thousands of buns in a makeshift kitchen, set up behind Le Cellier, for the Hawaiian pork slider that was on the menu that year.
In fact, I really did not enjoy working Food & WIne at all but that did not stop me from accepting the full time job offer at the end of Food & Wine. And, yes, at that point I was kicking myself for not accepting the higher position while at Casting in the first place but, again, I was working at Walt Disney World so that made it all better; though if I never hear the introduction to “Illuminations” again in my life I will consider myself blessed.
Actually, I did not accept “a job offer,” I accept two job offers. Casting called, when Food & Wine was winding down, and offered me a position at Old Key West Resort, which I accepted, and the Chef De Cuisine of EPCOT offered me a position at EPCOT; even though he was not sure which restaurant at the time, he was sure he wanted me to stay at EPCOT so I accept that job offer too: “Thank you, Chef, I accept…but I accepted a job at Old Key West Resort yesterday.” It is Disney World: these things work themselves out.
I was at Akershus in Norway for the next nine months: the hotline consists of three cooks and one outside expo. Because it is one of only two restaurants to dine with the Disney Princesses, breakfast, lunch and dinner can each run guest counts up to 750+. When you consider that service is about three and a half hours long (three seatings each meal) and that the food is prepared as close to order as possible, you are looking at one intense hotline; even more so because the cooks also plate all of their own dishes. Did I mention that if the ticket times ran over 20 minutes the chefs were not the happiest people on earth?
I never once experienced a new cook that walked onto the Akershus hotline full of confidence walk off the hotline after a service the same way. Generally, it takes a good two months before the thought finally subsides that, on any given day, you could crash and burn…and most likely will. In fact, that thought never really goes completely away but it gives you an edge that helps you make it through. During my days at Akershus, I spent a lot of time praying and the rest of it telling new cooks, “You can do it! Don’t give up!”
I finally came to the point where I felt I had mastered the Akershus hotline: service no longer worried me and, honestly, I found it kind of boring. I had the awesome opportunity to train a lot of the new cooks and chefs that came to Akershus and when I saw them coming to the point of mastering the hotline too, I knew it was time to go. One of the beautiful things about working at Walt Disney World is, if you do not go out of your way to get too many points (and to get too many points you basically have to make a real effort) then you can transfer to a new location every six months.
Before you could say “Pixie Dust,” I was walking through the kitchen door and into my new home at Disney’s Full Signature Restaurant, Le Cellier at Canada EPCOT. Exactly how it happened so fast is part of the allure of Disney magic and I am not one to reveal Backstage secrets!
When I walked into Le Cellier kitchen for the first time, I found myself steeped in a world of passion for and knowledge of food; the kind of place where respect is earned, not given and it is best that you know what you are doing before you get there. There was a lot of pride in that kitchen and, at first, I mistook it for arrogance; but, no, it was pride: the pride a cook or chef needs to be at a Disney Full Signature Restaurant in the first place.
Before long at Le Cellier, I felt as though I had gone as far as I was willing to go at Disney and it was time to move on. I think that Disney is an amazing opportunity for young people; people who have time to wait to reap the rewards. In fact, I think that so much that I helped my son get a job at Disney! But I am not that young; young enough to wait, anyway.
The pay at Disney was not all that bad, contrary to popular belief. Though the average Cast Member is not going to get rich, the compensation is at least competitive in the job market and it is the only place that I have ever heard of that overtime is always available.
I look back at my time at Disney as one I am so grateful to have experienced but one I would never want to relive again. For me, it was right for that time and place but I am more of a Disney Passholder than a Cast Member, if that makes sense. It was the grand adventure that I had hoped for and I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know the most amazing people.
I learned so much during my time there that, for this reason alone, I will always be thankful that it was my honor to be a Cast Member. At the end of the day, it was, indeed, the hardest and most intense job that I have ever had; it was often times frustrating and sometimes even maddening but I was working at Walt Disney World and that made it all better.
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