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Any Disney fan has wondered this at some point in his or her life: what would it be like to work at Disney? Be it for the movie division, at the parks, as an Imagineer, or even just in a Disney store, surrounded by the characters we grew up with, we’ve probably all thought about it at some point.
So it’s fun to hear about what it could be like to work at the Happiest Place on Earth (or its East Coast sibling). Internet news/interest site Reddit has a feature called “Ask Me Anything,” wherein people, anyone from “Avengers” director (and acclaimed television series creator) Joss Whedon to a guy who works the overnight shift at McDonalds, agrees to come on and answer any question posted of them. The Reddit team verifies the identity of the person doing the AMA, so we can believe, for the most part, that the person answering the questions is genuine.
Recently a Disney World employee did an AMA, and Business Insider sorted through all of the questions and answers to find the highlights. This employee works at the Magic Kingdom, monitoring the entrance and doing crowd control during parades. What must it be like to work at the Magic Kingdom? Let’s find out.
The first thing the employee said is that you’d be surprised what people try to bring into Disney World. They search bags at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, and frequently caught items are alcohol and knives. One wonders what guests intend to do with either of these things (alcohol is allowed at Disney, but only in specified establishments, not in amusement park areas).
He also says that there are a fair number of adults who try to come in dressed in costume. I was surprised when I learned about the rule against it, but I suppose I can grudgingly understand it (and hope the policy is at least lifted for Halloween). But the employee says that sometimes people try to come in wearing adult (i.e., revealing) versions of character costumes, and even without the aforementioned policy, that would be a no-no.
The employee also addresses one of my childhood Disney World fantasies: what the Magic Kingdom is like after closing time. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll ever achieve my dream of being locked in by myself overnight, because according to the employee, the Magic Kingdom is never truly empty. Between custodians and engineers there’s always someone in the park, even in the middle of the night. Employees do sweeps back and forth through the park after closing, even doing ride-throughs on all of the attractions, to make sure no one is locked in after hours.
How does the employee cope with all the little (or perhaps big) annoyances that must plague his daily routine on the job? He says the constant happy music isn’t all that bad: sometimes it’s annoying, but more often than not he sings along. For kids throwing tantrums the employees have an unending supply of Mickey Mouse stickers that are big helps in distracting the upset children.
If you’re looking for tips on how to handle the crowds at the Magic Kingdom, the employee’s got a few: vacation during the off season, purchase the Master FastPasses, and most importantly, go to the 11 o’clock parade. It’s identical to the 9 o’clock, but much less crowded.
To sort through all of the questions answered by the Disney employee, check out the Reddit AMA thread here.
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*(This image by alanlight is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
