When You Live at Disney
When I was an intern in the College Program at Walt Disney World, I lived on Disney property for 4 months. I had a pass to any park with any amount of park hopping on almost any day I could want, except for those days when the park was expected to reach capacity... unlimited. It was a Disney fan's dream.
I used to think of how I would "do all the things" if I lived at Walt Disney World. I would do them so much that maybe even I would get bored of them.
Surprisingly, that's not how it turned out when I actually did get a chance to live there. Here are some things that surprised me about experiencing the parks when you live and work there.
You Are Often Alone
I had five roommates - FIVE! You would think it would get crowded but since we all worked different days and different shifts, we rarely got to hang out together. When I ventured into the parks, I often ventured out alone because, frankly, no one else was home. Or maybe they were home but they were exhausted and the park was the last place they wanted to be (Boy, did I also understand those days).
Alone means a lot of single rider lines. Alone means talking to strangers, or maybe popping in to your roommate's work location to say hi, but quickly because you don't want to them to break character. Alone means visiting the park you work in all incognito and finding your co-workers and getting caught up in some sort of escaped bird drama (I worked at DAK) rather than riding rides.
Alone Isn't A Bad Thing
All that alone time actually meant I learned to quite enjoy alone time at the parks. Single rider lines are as good as any Fastpass, so that was a bonus. But also, I never had to discuss with any travel companion how we should spend our precious time. I would just do whatever I felt like until I felt like I was done. I had time to know my parks better, know what I enjoyed, and recognize at what point it was time to head back home before exhaustion set in.
Shorter Visits Were the Norm
After about my first week of unlimited access to the parks, I quickly realized that in order to actually take advantage of a day off work and recuperate enough for work, I could not be hanging out at the theme parks from dawn to dusk. So my visits would usually follow one of two patterns:
1) I get up and go to the park in the morning, and then return to my housing by noon to run errands then hang out by the pool for the evening. The morning visits were usually for those times that I wanted to go to my own park, the Animal Kingdom. I am still a strong advocate that morning time is the best time at this park. The animals are more alert and active. I would go in the morning mainly to walk the nature trails because there was perhaps an animal I wanted to see like a young one out on display for the first time.
2) Or I would run errands in the morning, and then rest a bit before heading into the parks mid to late afternoon. This was usually my mode of operation if I wanted to catch a nighttime show, get a nice dinner somewhere in the park, or just if I wanted to sleep in.
Sometimes You Go To Do Just ONE Thing
This was pretty common, actually, I would have one goal in mind heading into the park. Either I'd do that thing and then leave, or I would stay if I liked the crowd levels and was enjoying myself. Here are the types of silly things I would have as my single goal for the day:
1Visit the Germany, Japan, and UK pavilions of World Showcase to buy Christmas presents
See Illuminations: Reflections of Earth
Ride Spaceship Earth
Eat at Flame Tree Barbecue
Catch a picture of the Tree of Life in certain lighting
Visit the Siamangs and Gibbons in Asia (my favorite animals)
Meet my co-worker who worked at Space Mountain at closing so we could ride together for her test ride and she could tell me when turns were coming (because I was scared to death if I couldn't see what was coming!)
Visit Disney Hollywood Studios because you just found out there is a legit bookstore that sells actual new release books and coffee drinks and you could use both.
Take ANY unsuspecting roommate (or even those who are suspecting) to Club Cool to do the Beverly challenge (it's a bitter soda you could get for free, along with lots of other flavors, at Club Cool at EPCOT), and have a snowball fight. This was back when they had a snow cave entrance to the store.
Sometimes You Just Stroll
Sometimes I knew I wanted to be at a park, but I didn't really have any plans, and I'd end up just strolling, looking around, enjoying the atmosphere, and seeing where the day took me. If there would be one thing I could give every guest, it would be the security to set aside your goals and your schedule for a couple of hours and just take it all in in whatever way it comes to you.
I am well aware as a guest that that's hardly ever possible unless you make a real attempt to do it. You often have a list of things you need to accomplish in a set number of days before your time is up, and it's been so expensive that you want to make the most of everything. I do believe that the "most" can be taking it slowly through some key segments of parks and just enjoying.
My favorite places to slow down are Safari Village and the Tree of Life Gardens, Asia, and Africa at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Main Street USA, and World Showcase at EPCOT.
Sometimes You Don't Go
When the theme parks are your workplace, sometimes on your day off, you just don't go. Although Disney offers a very good separation of work and life (if you're not in costume, there's no way you're going to be roped in unless you can stay incognito), sometimes you just have had enough of one park for a little bit.
College Program Cast Members during my time spent a lot of time at Pleasure Island, which was where Disney Springs is now, and was full of bars and nightclubs. I wasn't much into that scene, though, nor was the roommate who shared a day off with me. We still ended up going to what was then called Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) but we rarely set foot on Pleasure Island.
Our routine on Thursdays (the evening we both had off) went like this:
Dinner at Rainforest Cafe - Yes, every Thursday. Yes, this pretty much blew our entire "fun time" budget. But yes, we both LOOOOVED Rainforest Cafe.
Head over to the AMC Theater to see what was playing and decide on a movie.
If the movie didn't start for a while, shop a little. We often ended up at the Virgin Megastore (not there anymore for obvious reasons. At the time we worked there, CDs were a definite thing, and the Virgin Megastore was extra awesome because of the many "listening stations" set up all over where you could choose an album and artist and listen to samples of tracks before buying. (Man, I feel like a grandma now).
Watch a movie.
Almost inevitably decide one movie was not enough and we could go for another. Circle back to the ticket counter to buy more tickets. NOTE: One time our second move in the double-header was so depressing ("What Dreams May Come" with Robin Williams) that we simply could NOT call it a night and circled back for a third ticket to something... ANYTHING... and the nice Cast Member at the ticket counter literally told us to sneak into the theater and that we were being too honest coming back to buy tickets each time.
Back to Park Days...
Here are some things I was able to do because I was in the park alone and didn't have an agenda.
Ride Spaceship Earth back to back to back for inspiration.
Do a physics experiment on the Tower of Terror with a penny to distract a kid from fear of the drops.
Go to Asia at Animal Kingdom just to buy incense. Likewise, go to the UK pavilion at EPCOT just to buy some nice Twinings tea.
Actually listen to the entire piano player's show on Main Street USA.
Meet every single Santa on World Showcase during the holidays (almost every country has some version or at least a storyteller).
Watch the tigers on the Maharajah Jungle Trek at Animal Kingdom for a really really long time.
Sit at an almost empty Transportation and Ticket Center after all the parks have closed (ok, not intentional. I spent wayyyy too much time here. Cast Members in the College Program have special buses to take us home. They ran a lot less frequently than guest buses so the wait time could be quite long. I remember many many nights of sitting at the TTC looking at an empty parking lot with a bunch of tall evergreen trees marking the horizon and marveling at the Florida nighttime sky).
Go to Club Cool's special entrance that year which featured a snowy tunnel with "real" snow and have a snowball fight.
So yes, living there does make going to the parks become somewhat "normal", but it's the kind of normal that allows one to slow down and take it in and do whatever you want without the pressure of vacation and expenses closing in. I'll be honest, it's really nice. And my short times in the parks some days should not be taken as me taking it for granted. It's just that working in the College Program was also really hard work with really long hours, and I needed to be smart about getting rest time in too.
Despite all that, working at Disney and having the opportunity to go to the parks alone and just take it in and slow down made Walt Disney World even more magical to me than it was before. When you admire the detail, when you know deeply that every Cast Member you interact with is working so hard that you don't even have to notice it or think about it... that's something special.
What if.... on your next vacation.... you did not plan a day and let it take you wherever it took you, with only a park hopper in hand? What if you forced yourself to slow down and just savor the experience? Could you do it? Let us know in the comments or over on our Facebook page where you can follow us to see our new posts each week. Until next time...
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