The Walt Disney company is one of the most successful companies in the world. There are two different segments of the company that contribute to its success: hospitality & tourism and entertainment. The reason why Disney World is so successful is because it combines these two segments. Disney hires thousands of entertainers to bring their movies to life and give their guests unique experiences. However, it is not only the entertainers that are expected to make guests feel like they are living in a Disney movie. All cast members are required to use Disney language to keep the magic alive for guests. I worked in Epcot, where we referred to the guests as world travelers to help them further feel like they were really traveling the world. It can be challenging at first, especially for people who have worked in similar customer service jobs, to remember how to talk to guests. However, after about a month, it becomes so engraved in your brain that you will likely still be talking to people the same way after your time working there is completed.
Another challenge is the crowds. Disney World is always busy and it is impossible to work at a location that doesn't see huge crowds. It can be overwhelming at times to feel like you have to be smiling and friendly all the time, without a break to even think. I worked at the world's largest Disney store, and there was never a time when the store wasn't packed. At times when I was in guest support positions on the floor away from registers, I would have lines of people waiting to ask me for help. It was not possible for me to walk from one side of the store to another without getting stopped. Sometimes it was challenging to get to a break on time because you can not deny a guest help, and there was no way to sneak into the cast only areas. There were even guests that waited outside the cast member entrance to immediately ask to trade pins with cast members that were getting off of break or starting a shift. It could be extremely overwhelming, especially with the long shifts. The best way that I managed this was by taking bathroom breaks when I got overwhelmed just to give me a few minutes to get my thoughts together and regroup. I also used every single break to walk to the Starbucks out front and stay caffeinated so that I was energized. Eating something on every break was helpful too, because there was nothing worse than being starving and exhausted trapped in that huge mob of people. The best thing to do is use the break time to help better your mental and physical health, however that may be. If you find yourself getting really overwhelmed, then go take a quick bathroom break to get away from guests.
The biggest challenge of working at Disney World is the way that some of the guests treat you. People can be very rude, and since Disney World sees such a high volume of guests, there is a good chance you will encounter a rude one. The best thing to do is learn not to take things personally. It is not like that you will see a guest more than once, since most of them just come for vacation and the chances of that one cast member encountering that one guest multiple times when all of those people are there is extremely rare. Whenever I was yelled at or talked down to, which really was not very often, I had a strategy that I learned from previous jobs. If someone is unhappy with something and yells at me about it, I offer them a solution. If they do not like the solution, I immediately get my manager. There is no point in standing and arguing with someone when I don't always have enough power to fix it. If a guest said something that really bothered me, I talked about it with a coworker during the first opportunity I had to get offstage. Keeping it in my head caused me to overthink it, and I couldn't stand to do that. It was nice to get other people's perspective so that I could figure out if there was something else I should've said or done, or to see if I really was in the wrong. I always felt better when I talked about the situation with someone else and they told me that I didn't do anything wrong and that I shouldn't worry about it. Co-workers become your best friends at Walt Disney World, as they are the only ones who understand the struggles that you are going through and that can help you get through them.
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