Read and React 4

The question of any day when you’re working in attractions is going to be, “where do I go for fast pass?” or for those guests that can’t speak English, “fast pass?” Answering the same question over and over again doesn’t bother me but when you have five to six groups of guests surrounding you for an answer to the same question it gets a little frustrating for sure. Sometimes, I wish they would just listen when others are asking questions since nine out of ten times it will be the same as yours. As a cast member of Disney, I must be polite and courteous to all guests no matter how brainless they may be when they are on vacation. I found the best way to deal with this is to give them a loud reply so that the guest around them would hear it as well. As frustrating as I may get, I always end up smiling because common sense may be dead but gratitude isn’t.

However, it might be harder for the full timers to deal with the same thing again and again for 365 days a year. Fortunately for those who work in Future East Attractions, we have a wonderful management team that believes in treating their cast members like a guest. As the article had mentioned, the key to employee retention is praising, recognition, ongoing opportunities and etc… and all of our managers are very good at doing this. Many of our managers would interact with the cast members daily to see if anything is wrong and some would even take over a position to put themselves in our shoes. They see the guest issues we go through every day and ask for feedbacks on what we should do to deal with such issues. I find the guest service fanatic cards very encouraging. Manager or leaders would give them out when they see a magical moment or if they see a cast member go above and beyond for a guest. I feel that it is thanks to such encouragement from our management team that keeps the magic alive in every one whether they are full time, part time, seasonal, or college program.

From the time that I’ve worked in Epcot, I found that the easiest way to begin a magical moment is with the kids. Majority of our guests that comes to Disney is to spend time with their kids, whether it’s for a birthday, good grades, vacations and etc… These kids doesn’t understand that their parents spent hundreds of dollars to get them in and when they complain the parents would get angry and short temper. This is where I would try to bribe the child with Mickey stickers and get a Mickey four with the Mickey glove. This usually clams the child down and the parents would be content again. There hasn’t been a time where a Mickey sticker didn’t put a smile on a child’s face and seeing their sweet smile encourages me.

Epcot – Future East Attraction
Spaceship Earth Cast Member