I've had a few questions via email, blog posts etc and this is where I'll answer them:
1. I was wondering what areas you would recommend, I can't decide between working on the rides or in the shops. Do you know what people seemed to enjoy more from people you met doing various jobs?
Personally I have only worked on rides and only met one person who worked in a shop - the ToT shop. I think it really depends on your French. If it is not fluent or very close to fluent, they will not let you work on rides because of guest safety. There is no training in English either on rides unless you're really struggling. I loved rides - even though you do a lot of saying the same thing "Bonjour. Vous etes combien?" and "Au revoir. Bonne journee!" and doing the same thing (opening restraint bars, opening and closing doors, pressing buttons) and you get breakdowns too which can be interesting, you can have loads of fun: talking to the kids, parents, joking about with them. It really is something where teamwork is 100% necessary so you'll really get to know the people you work with plus every 15-20 minutes you change role within the attraction and when you're changing roles there's always time for a little chat. This really is one job where you get what you put into it.
On shops I heard that it can be very quiet or very busy. You don't really get the chance to talk to people and it is even more repetitive - scanning and greeting people as well as arranging stock. It can be lonely if you get put on an outdoor merchandise cart but it can also be lonely inside on your own till - on the plus side you're always sure to have people from the shop with you on breaks and in less busy periods you get paid to simply talk to your co-workers next to you which will happen at certain times of day. Imagine shops far from Main Street practically empty for 30-45 minutes when the parade is on.
Guest Flow seems like a very good job, although it is 10 hour days - you essentially have to keep guests behind the lines and get to watch the parade, help out bring the characters out, take lots of photos of people, watch shows and control people doing shows and fireworks. You will feel exhausted at the end of the day but if you LOVE talking to people this is the one for you as you'll get asked a million and one questions including "Where is the pink castle?" and "What time is the 5 o'clock parade?" and "Where are the rides?" but you will want to sit down at the end of the day.
People in restaurants seem to have to hardest time, unless you get somewhere like the Wild West Show which seemed like loads of fun. Proprete (cleaning) do a lot of walking about but also always seem to be on their own breaks chatting away. This one you seem to have no management looking over you. But personally picking up rubbish isn't the kind of experience I'd want to have at Disney.
For me I'd choose something that you know you can't do anywhere else in the world: rides or Guest Flow.
2. What did you wear to the interview? Was it casual or smart? Or does it matter?
Everyone was very formally dressed to the interview, suits and all. I wore black shoes, sock and trousers with a blue checkered shirt with a tie and a red jumper on top. Now don't you all go copying me. For the ladies, it was either smart dresses or trousers and a blouse. Essentially if you've watched The Apprentice that is what the vast majority of the room looked like.
Don't make the mistake some people made of wearing jeans and a T-shirt, yes it's Disney... but it's a professional company where you will have to wear a uniform and appearance must be top notch for the Disney standards.
3. Is there such a thing as the Disney Look for Paris?
Well...strictly, yes. Costume must be 100% which is easy enough to do as it is cleaned for you, all you have to do is wear is correctly. Guys: shave every day, even though I did occasionally see some beards going on for a short period of time. Girls: little to no make-up. Hair colour doesn't really seem to matter, neither does hair styles as long as they aren't too extreme. As a guy, hair gel was fine. Girls should have hair tied back so it does not obstruct your face. That's all I remember at the moment.
4. Do you have to speak French to work there? Even characters?
Rides/Guest Flow = Strong French required (A-level B or more)
Restaurants and Shops = Average French required (good grade at GCSE = A or more)
Proprete = Some French required (GCSE pass grade)
Characters = Minimal French required
They do not ask for your grades, they will judge by your French at interview - these are just my observations and what grade I think you'd need on a UK scale. These are by no means official but my estimates.
Characters will be asked to learn some phrases in French for when meeting kids if face characters, others need not much french and almost everyone there is English in fact.
However remember you are in France and not everyone speaks English: and why should they? It's their own country? You will need french in the supermarket, when you want to find somewhere/something, at the doctors, dentist, opticians, pharmacy, clothes shop and for when you want to interact with the french people there. After all what good is it going to France if you are just going to speak to the English people - you will learn a lot very, very quickly. I thought mu French was pretty good and I still learnt loads!
5. Do you want to work their full time, or would the novelty where off?
I'd like to do it for longer than I did so I could meet more people and do everything at a slower pace - not forever though, I think maybe 3 months maximum and then I'd want to try something else maybe within the company, maybe not. We'd have to see.
6. Do people work at Night?
1. I was wondering what areas you would recommend, I can't decide between working on the rides or in the shops. Do you know what people seemed to enjoy more from people you met doing various jobs?
Personally I have only worked on rides and only met one person who worked in a shop - the ToT shop. I think it really depends on your French. If it is not fluent or very close to fluent, they will not let you work on rides because of guest safety. There is no training in English either on rides unless you're really struggling. I loved rides - even though you do a lot of saying the same thing "Bonjour. Vous etes combien?" and "Au revoir. Bonne journee!" and doing the same thing (opening restraint bars, opening and closing doors, pressing buttons) and you get breakdowns too which can be interesting, you can have loads of fun: talking to the kids, parents, joking about with them. It really is something where teamwork is 100% necessary so you'll really get to know the people you work with plus every 15-20 minutes you change role within the attraction and when you're changing roles there's always time for a little chat. This really is one job where you get what you put into it.
On shops I heard that it can be very quiet or very busy. You don't really get the chance to talk to people and it is even more repetitive - scanning and greeting people as well as arranging stock. It can be lonely if you get put on an outdoor merchandise cart but it can also be lonely inside on your own till - on the plus side you're always sure to have people from the shop with you on breaks and in less busy periods you get paid to simply talk to your co-workers next to you which will happen at certain times of day. Imagine shops far from Main Street practically empty for 30-45 minutes when the parade is on.
Guest Flow seems like a very good job, although it is 10 hour days - you essentially have to keep guests behind the lines and get to watch the parade, help out bring the characters out, take lots of photos of people, watch shows and control people doing shows and fireworks. You will feel exhausted at the end of the day but if you LOVE talking to people this is the one for you as you'll get asked a million and one questions including "Where is the pink castle?" and "What time is the 5 o'clock parade?" and "Where are the rides?" but you will want to sit down at the end of the day.
People in restaurants seem to have to hardest time, unless you get somewhere like the Wild West Show which seemed like loads of fun. Proprete (cleaning) do a lot of walking about but also always seem to be on their own breaks chatting away. This one you seem to have no management looking over you. But personally picking up rubbish isn't the kind of experience I'd want to have at Disney.
For me I'd choose something that you know you can't do anywhere else in the world: rides or Guest Flow.
2. What did you wear to the interview? Was it casual or smart? Or does it matter?
Everyone was very formally dressed to the interview, suits and all. I wore black shoes, sock and trousers with a blue checkered shirt with a tie and a red jumper on top. Now don't you all go copying me. For the ladies, it was either smart dresses or trousers and a blouse. Essentially if you've watched The Apprentice that is what the vast majority of the room looked like.
Don't make the mistake some people made of wearing jeans and a T-shirt, yes it's Disney... but it's a professional company where you will have to wear a uniform and appearance must be top notch for the Disney standards.
3. Is there such a thing as the Disney Look for Paris?
Well...strictly, yes. Costume must be 100% which is easy enough to do as it is cleaned for you, all you have to do is wear is correctly. Guys: shave every day, even though I did occasionally see some beards going on for a short period of time. Girls: little to no make-up. Hair colour doesn't really seem to matter, neither does hair styles as long as they aren't too extreme. As a guy, hair gel was fine. Girls should have hair tied back so it does not obstruct your face. That's all I remember at the moment.
4. Do you have to speak French to work there? Even characters?
Rides/Guest Flow = Strong French required (A-level B or more)
Restaurants and Shops = Average French required (good grade at GCSE = A or more)
Proprete = Some French required (GCSE pass grade)
Characters = Minimal French required
They do not ask for your grades, they will judge by your French at interview - these are just my observations and what grade I think you'd need on a UK scale. These are by no means official but my estimates.
Characters will be asked to learn some phrases in French for when meeting kids if face characters, others need not much french and almost everyone there is English in fact.
However remember you are in France and not everyone speaks English: and why should they? It's their own country? You will need french in the supermarket, when you want to find somewhere/something, at the doctors, dentist, opticians, pharmacy, clothes shop and for when you want to interact with the french people there. After all what good is it going to France if you are just going to speak to the English people - you will learn a lot very, very quickly. I thought mu French was pretty good and I still learnt loads!
5. Do you want to work their full time, or would the novelty where off?
I'd like to do it for longer than I did so I could meet more people and do everything at a slower pace - not forever though, I think maybe 3 months maximum and then I'd want to try something else maybe within the company, maybe not. We'd have to see.
6. Do people work at Night?
Yes but how late depends on what you do.
Characters = After about 8.30PM most characters are done for the night, except if you are at Cafe Mickey at the village where characters are on till late 11PM+ some nights in peak season.
Rides = Earliest start is 6:45am for Extra Magic Hours at 8AM and latest finish is 10:45PM when the park closes at 10PM. You work 7 hours + have 1 unpaid lunch hour
Shops and Restaurants = Depends where you work. Earliest start about 7am for Extra Magic Hours if on Main Street shops or shops in a land which is open that early. Latest finish about 11pm for shops on Main Street and 2am for shops in the Village.
Proprete = Mainly during park operating hours so 7.30AM earliest to 10.30PM latest I imagine.
Restaurants = You may get a breakfast shift which starts at 6:30AM, you may get a night shift if in the Village - that finishes around midnight usually.
These are all high season times, the parks can close at 6/7/8PM on non-peak seasons which of course means the chances of working at night are much lower.
7. I thought, It would take you like 20mins to walk to the staff area? Doesn't that eat into the CM's lunch time!? Or are there staff areas all around?
You get about 10 minutes to walk to your lunch destination, but there are all around the park in areas that are so obvious when you know where. Also there are buses backstage taking you around so its not really a big problem as these are pretty frequent too every 5 minutes or so and can take you round the park in about 3 minutes. Places to eat are plentiful! Don't worry.
8. Do People get on? From everywhere within the park?
Yeah you'll meet people from several different roles. However, as I was only there for a very short time I only met some characters, lots of people from Fantasyland (attractions, proprete) and people from guest flow who were in my Traditions class.
Also met a few people in shops and the Wild West Show and hotels from the flat and you'll meet new people every day. Where you work doesn't determine who you'll meet!
9. Do the two parks connect easily?
Yes, you can't really tell when your walking between them as backstage is all one place.
10. Do the Parade characters just do two parades a day, and then go home? They have to have their make-up done everyday? Is it far to walk from the make-up area to the parade starting point?
I'm not too sure on this one but I remember reading somewhere online that characters do about 4 hours of work per day - remember there are parades, shows, and meet and greets with characters. Yes, make up is done there for you. Those lucky enough to be in the parade get a parade bus to the start of the parade where the floats are waiting for you. Also remember that for much of the year there is only 1 parade per day.
11. Who controls the Music around the park??
Well on my last day I saw a control booth for main street which guests can't see but there is an office called PCOPS [Park Central Operations] maybe in there? Couldn't tell you to be honest but I'm sure there's quite a few places scattered around. For parades there is a system which automatically locates the parades and floats and plays music according to their location so if there were an unexpected hiccup in the parade it wouldn't affect the music.
7. I thought, It would take you like 20mins to walk to the staff area? Doesn't that eat into the CM's lunch time!? Or are there staff areas all around?
You get about 10 minutes to walk to your lunch destination, but there are all around the park in areas that are so obvious when you know where. Also there are buses backstage taking you around so its not really a big problem as these are pretty frequent too every 5 minutes or so and can take you round the park in about 3 minutes. Places to eat are plentiful! Don't worry.
8. Do People get on? From everywhere within the park?
Yeah you'll meet people from several different roles. However, as I was only there for a very short time I only met some characters, lots of people from Fantasyland (attractions, proprete) and people from guest flow who were in my Traditions class.
Also met a few people in shops and the Wild West Show and hotels from the flat and you'll meet new people every day. Where you work doesn't determine who you'll meet!
9. Do the two parks connect easily?
Yes, you can't really tell when your walking between them as backstage is all one place.
10. Do the Parade characters just do two parades a day, and then go home? They have to have their make-up done everyday? Is it far to walk from the make-up area to the parade starting point?
I'm not too sure on this one but I remember reading somewhere online that characters do about 4 hours of work per day - remember there are parades, shows, and meet and greets with characters. Yes, make up is done there for you. Those lucky enough to be in the parade get a parade bus to the start of the parade where the floats are waiting for you. Also remember that for much of the year there is only 1 parade per day.
11. Who controls the Music around the park??
Well on my last day I saw a control booth for main street which guests can't see but there is an office called PCOPS [Park Central Operations] maybe in there? Couldn't tell you to be honest but I'm sure there's quite a few places scattered around. For parades there is a system which automatically locates the parades and floats and plays music according to their location so if there were an unexpected hiccup in the parade it wouldn't affect the music.
