Writing — Photography

Christmas Stitch at Disney World — Cute or Evil-looking?

Disney topiary and just a bit of what it’s like working for Walt Disney World

I spent five years of my life being a “slave to the mouse.” That’s right. I spent five years working at Disney World in Orlando.

One would think working at Disney World would be all fun and games — and sometimes it is. A lot of the time though, it was just exhausting hard work.

The best part of working at Disney World was being able to go to the parks for free anytime I wanted — and I had so many wonderful experiences doing just that.

The downside was actually having to work there, ha ha.

I worked in merch, or merchandise. In the early days, I ran a cash register and also worked the photo counter at the Rock n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Hollywood Studios. Then I worked at Mouse Gear for quite a while at Epcot.

In my later years, I worked in receiving at Polynesian Village, which I much preferred. Awesome as far as getting physical exercise, for one thing — no need to go to the gym ever— but also I didn’t have to deal with the wonderful “guests” quite as much.

Surprised as you may be to learn this, sometimes the guests weren’t so wonderful, and I’m only really talking about the adults here. I always enjoyed the children. They were so cute and sweet — full of wonder and excitement — just the way any Disney guest should be, I suppose.

Especially when they walked around the park in their costumes. Too precious!

The adults, on the other hand, could be demanding, aloof, stressed-out and just downright mean. Not all of them, some could be totally awesome. And I totally get why. Disney is crazy expensive these days. and I think a lot of people underestimate Disney World as far as sheer size (it really is like a small city) and thus, the exhaustion factor. That would stress out most people, I suppose.

And while I thoroughly loved my fellow cast members, the truly worst thing about working a Disney was the management staff. Sometimes I really did wonder if they had a place where they sent all these people where they could learn to be nasty and completely miserable people.

Seriously though, going to the parks made it all worth it, for a while. I would have stayed if it wasn’t for the nasty management. That’s what finally ended my Disney career. At one point, I had thought I would stay there and retire one day.

But who wants to stay and be treated like crap all the time? It just gets so old after a while.

I do miss working there a lot though. I badly miss many of my fellow cast members — I still have many on my Facebook and when they post their Disney photos it’s very bittersweet — but I don’t miss those crazy psycho middle managers! Total freaks, for real! You can’t even imagine. Haughty, demanding, soul-sucking folks.

Oh, and by the way, what do you think of the topiary? I actually loved most things Disney while I worked there, but the topiary displays at Epcot… hmm… is it just me or do they have a tendency to be… I don’t know… just rather freaky looking?

What do you think?

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