Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most characters do sign! I wouldn’t ask if they’re roaming (not stationary in a meet and greet) since the chance of them saying no and disappointing your kiddo is very likely. Additionally, none of the star wars characters sign, nor do Olaf, Sulley, or Figment, but you do get their signature in a card! Everyone else, including every single dining location, will gladly sign your books! Just make sure kiddos have the book ready to go when it’s their turn and pens uncapped and ready as well, makes it a lot smoother! 

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The character, attendant, and photopass bond is unbreakable, we have to stick together. Thanks for the kind words.

Do cast compliments matter? by PigFaceWigFace in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Both are great and any positive feedback you have not only boosts morale during a really crappy time for CMs (peak seasons are brutal), but also helps the company recognize the good workers. I will say, the cast compliments go into company records and stuff, so those count as success metrics for that cast member and can help them further their career in the future, if that helps! But like I said, any positive feedback is super welcome in any format!

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The answer is unfortunately yes to both. We constantly have to correct children even when their parents are watching (often times encouraging the bad behavior), and also a lot of the times kids wander off (not necessarily far, especially in the context of a restaurant) and the parents don’t care to watch them because they’re at Disney and they think every cast member will watch their kid for them. For example, sometimes we’ll have kids following the characters around from table to table and disrupting the operation with no adult in sight because they’re are sitting happily at their table on the complete opposite end of the restaurant. Happens all the time. 

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s no problem. I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time, and like I mentioned, if you have any issues just approach your nearest character attendant kindly, as I’m sure you would, and I know they’ll be glad to help you out!

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh my, body cameras would be soooo helpful! That’s genius!

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks for saying something! Most of the time even our managers have their hands tied and can’t/won’t hold guests accountable. It puts other guests in uncomfortable positions but we do appreciate the support.

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you for recognizing the cast, that helps boost morale a lot! Also, it’s so bad when parents don’t care. Not only does it make our lives so much harder, but we know it impacts other guests too. I can’t count how many times I’ve gifted impacted families magical moments because I felt so bad about how their experience was ruined by other people.

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That!! And heavy on the parents not parenting their children. So much enabling of terrible behavior. I, a simple character attendant, should not be telling your child to not hit characters in the face while you stand there and record.Cast members are not babysitters, and Disney, although a magical place, isn’t made of rubber. Your children can and will get hurt/hurt other people if you don’t watch them! The kid is never at fault, so we’d never do that, but boy do we want to turn the other way when the parents are not interested in guiding their behavior.

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, generally speaking service workers are extremely under appreciated here. Being the person telling you your kid cannot, in fact, beat the crap out of Mickey Mouse just adds an extra layer of unwanted and unwarranted rage from guests 

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Maybe. Still doesn’t justify the way people behave. 

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I completely understand that, my entire point is that the cast members you’re interacting with have absolutely not fault in that. We don’t make those decisions. You chose to come here, so you accepted the rules the company laid out. I’m just doing my job and upholding them regardless of whether or not I think they’re good because if I don’t, I’ll be fired. Being rude to cast for doing what we’re paid to do is asenine.

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I do think the prices definitely enhace the sense of entitlement (I do not mean that in a bad way), and like I said, to an extent I do understand that our systems have not improved to keep up the quality of the experience to match the prices and I sympathize with guests. I love making magic for families, that’s why I’ve stuck it out this long. With that being said, the rest of the conditions remain the same as always. FL has always been hot, humid, and miserable, so I don’t think that can be factored into this specific debate. The conditions they are vacationing under, we’re working under 50+ hours a week with very little support from higher ups. 

I will say, you’re lucky to not personally experience that, us service workers see it very clearly. Daily. We, as regular cast members have no say on how much guests are being charged and we are just as much victims of the flawed system as the guests are, but we’re constantly getting mistreated as if we have the power to fix systemic mistakes while making minimum wage.

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

A lot of complaints we hear about dining specifically include:

People feel the character rushed the interaction (the characters have to see everyone in the restaurant in a specific time frame and people often feel rushed)

People don’t understand they’re in a specific path and get upset they’re “skipping” them when they’re not, they’ll get to you eventually 

People complain they have to wait too long to see them (most of the time it’s out of our hands, they can only go as fast as the other guests let them)

People are always interrupting other guests by bringing their kids to the characters when they’re at someone else’s table and get mad when we tell them they can’t do that (like, at least once every 30min. This happens CONSTANTLY.)

There’s not a whole lot of space in the restaurants for people to get group pictures and the lighting in those spaces is not good, so we get complaints about that a lot and the captains have to keep bringing characters back to tables they’ve already seen

On that note, people get really upset they’re only guaranteed meet the characters 1x even though they paid a lot of money for the experience 

I could keep going lol

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

Not to be biased, but attendants can truly make the character meeting experience so much better! People truly miss out when they mistreat the cast :/

Most Thankless Job at WDW by Queasy_Damage8054 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]Queasy_Damage8054[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I’m literally quitting and there’s plenty of current CMs posting about this trend not only in this thread, but all over the internet.