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Showing posts from January, 2012

Questions & Answers About Working for Disneyland Paris [Part 1]

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NEW : I've written a book about my 16 months spent living and working at Disneyland Paris. Download it on Amazon . I've had quite a few questions via email, blog post comments etc about working for Disneyland Paris. Here you can find the answers to them. This page was last updated in April 2014. 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/attractions because of guest safety. There is no training in English either of course, all training is in French. I loved rides - even though you do a lot of saying the same thing "Bonjour. Vous etes combien?" and "Au revoir. Bonne journee!" an

Favourite moments of being a Cast Member at Disneyland Paris

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There were a lot of highlights throughout the two-and-a-bit weeks. Here they are: Traditions and touring the park Getting my nametag!! Noora shouting "Tu n'es pas Indiana Jones!" Although this is not a Disney character, it was so random and the parks are such a character-orienteed atmosphere that it really made me laugh at the time Watching Fantillusion countless times - it never gets old - and dancing along with Eilidh once I knew the dances haha. Our nightly BTM sessions for the first 5 days or so. Space Mountain: Mission 2 - love it! Shame I only did it twice whilst there! Singing just "Like We Dreamed It" at the end of the parade in Town Square and on Main Street with Eilidh - I'm sure this is THE stand-out moment I will never forget. The snow on Main Street Being backstage and seeing the logistics of everything - it's a whole different world back there! Seeing the Eiffel tower for the first time. "Nettoyage en course" toile

What could Disneyland Paris improve for cast members?

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Now looking back retrospectively I thought I should post what Disney could do to improve the experience for the Cast Members in Paris, as well as posting what my favourite moments were in a different post. More variety of food in the cantine - chips and pizza and burgers get a bit old after a while. I know there's some traditional French dishes but how about spaghetti bolognese/meatballs/other dishes from around the world too? Eilidh said there was nothing Veggie except chips which is a shame. Buses for CMs - don't make us use public transport, it is horribly packed and you have to refund 75% of it anyway. The midnight onwards buses are a joke - particularly on New Year's Day after the fireworks when you're trying to cram in over 2000 cast members from residences and their friends onto two buses! The quality of accommodation was fine but I at least expected a mop, a kettle, a microwave and a toaster - surely not too much to ask? Ali suggests accommodation should

Working at Disneyland Paris - Blog Index

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Hi, I'm Gio! Over Christmas in 2011 I ventured on a journey to work at Europe's most visited tourist destination - Disneyland Paris. Follow my journey through my blog posts below. So far my "Working at Disneyland Paris" blog posts alone have been read over 32,000 times (as of 24th September 2013). Thank you! NEW : Download my book about 16 months spent living and working at Disneyland Paris now on  Amazon . 1.  Disneyland Paris Interview Questions, the process, details and more - my experience 2.  Working at Disneyland Paris - The Contract (4 weeks to go) 3.  The Road to Disneyland Paris: Less than 2 weeks to go 4.  Working at Disneyland - Day 1 - Arrival - 16th December 2011 5.  Working at Disneyland - Day 2 - Traditions and Orientation - 17th December 2011 6.  Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 3 - Training - 18th December 2011 7.  Working at Disneyland - Day 4 - Training: Day 2 8.  Work

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 18 (Jan 2nd) - Leaving... but not before a last visit to the park

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So today was my last day. I woke up after a reasonable lie-in until 10am or something. Then, got ready and went to reception to get a mop as we had to clean the apartment as it was a disgraceful. There were none. They said I should have thought about it earlier. Well tough because you can't really clean much of the floor without a mop. I did my best without that and cleaned my room and the bathroom and kitchen. With the help of Francesca too. Thank you!! The me and Jamie went backstage. However technically I was no longer a cast member and my contract had finished. I explained this at the entrance booth saying I needed to go to "service paie" to fill in my navigo reimbursement forms. The guard said ok but be quick. Yes! I was in. And it was easy! I went to fill in the forms and posted them through the box. Then I went to have breakfast and bought a croissant and a sandwich for the Eurostar journey as they were much cheaper here than on the train. Jamie hadn't ma

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 17 (1st Jan) - An emotional final day of work!

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Well, if you read my blog post from yesterday you will remember me saying I had set an alarm for work. Or so I thought. In fact I either didn't OR slept straight through it but considering my roommate wasn't woken up by it, it looks like I forgot. So I was meant to be up at 6h40 to be ready to start work at 8h30. Unfortunately for me, I woke up looked at my phone and it was 13h14, I didn't believe this so checked my watch and other phone and they all said that it was past 13h00. Way to make a last minute impression, eh? Mortified by the idea that I was already 5 hours late into my last ever shift (thankfully 10 hours and not 8), I called the team leader's mobile - with the 60 cents of credit I had left. And said that "Bonjour c'est moi. Je suis tres tres tres tres tres desole, je n'ai pas entendu mon alarme. Donc, qu'est-ce-que je fais?" The team leader was surprisingly very understanding and said something in french which I didn't quite

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 16 (31st Dec) - The last day of 2011

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Today's was a very exciting today as it was the first time I ever got to see Fireworks in a Disney park, admittedly I wasn't expecting Wishes such as in WDW, so I lowered my expectations to make sure I wasn't disappointed. Nevertheless, I was still hugely excited! It was not just me who was excited for New Year's clearly, as in briefing we learned that the estimated number of people was 47,000 in Disneyland Park and 20,000 in WDS. [The day after they told us we had actually reached over 53,500 in Disneyland Park alone.] Today due to all the number of visitors, I got to practise (Read: learn) several languages with guests: English, French, Portuguese (3 languages I can actually speak), along with German, Spanish and Italian (languages I only really know the very basics of - time to get Rosetta Stone and learn them) were all spoken. It's incredible how many languages the permanent Cast Members know...all of the above really to a reasonable level, plus some known N

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 15 (30th Dec) - Guess who's 19 today?

So I woke up and got up at 9.30am - yet another lie-in. I opened up my birthday cards and offered the money I got to my family if they wanted to go into the parks today. They didn't want to which was fine with me. I had to delay, and then cancel, my morning with Andrew in the parks as lunch took a while to be ready and then we sat round singing Happy Birthday and eating the lovely chocolate cake we'd bought. I went to get a suitcase of luggage from my room at La Boisserie and gave that to my parents in the hope that everything left would now easily fit in my suitcase when I leave, we'll see about that... Next I went to meet Eilidh and we went to watch Once Upon a Dream after getting a Space Mountain Fastpass. After the parade I realised I'd forgotten to text Lisette and Marine, my two workmates, whom I was meant to meet at 17H00 at Imagination. I texted them to say I'd meet them outside ToT with Eilidh at 17H45. We all went over to RnRollercoaster and the qu

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 14 (29th Dec) - Paris with the family

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So finally a day off again! Slept over at my parent's tonight so we all got up around 9.30ish, had breakfast and then went off to Paris - 56 euros for a day pass for 4 people is pretty expensive! We saw the Arc de Triomphe, walked down the Champs Elysee and went to M&S there to get a sandwich for me. Then we got a bus to a palace which I forget the name of. We walked around there, saw the Pantheon, saw Saint Sulpice which had a nice holy water fountain with an octopus on it, and there was a nice little nativity set too. We had a coffee in the evening and we had lunch in a small little restaurant too. Parisian food can be expensive that's for sure. Back home, mum was discussing how she wants to go to Disneyland tomorrow but doesn't want to pay the outrageous price which is over 200 euros on the door for all 3 of them, even with my staff discount it would be about 185 euros. I can tell she really really wants to go and was trying to convince me to pay for them to go

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 13 (Dec 28th) - Just another day, just another VIP...

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Today I got to do my first tour de show of Casey Junior! Woop woop! Loved it singing along "Casey Junior's coming down the track (8)" and actually getting to ride the ride I was working on - it's faster than I anticipated, 18km/h to be exact. Both rides were 101 at one point today too which meant that the little Casey/Storybook miniland was essentially empty but some characters came out anyway to keep guests occupied. We had 12 VIPs in one big group today on Casey, I heard they were somehow related to/were Spanish royalty... VIPs are always accompanied by a very smartly-dressed Cast Member around the park. One thing that truly makes me laugh is that in France they use the word "un truc" [a "thing"] in conversations - so they can actually have a whole conversation going: "Oui! Le truc c'est ca" "D'accord parce que le truc avec le truc c'est que..." The cantine food is very cheap and very tasty but I&

Working at Disneyland Paris - Day 12 (27th Dec) - Not my day...

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Today was just not my day, there weren't that many things that went majorly wrong but all together it made for a really crappy day. First of all it was very, very cold. So cold that I had to put on chauffe-mains and chauffe-pieds to keep both my hands and feet alive and warm. Then I almost missed my bus, then I forgot my ID so had to get in through the booth which wasn't too bad but annoying - no ID meant no money on the card so I had to withdraw cash and pay with that. Then I forgot my pen in my locker which meant asking people for a pen every time I go to work at dispatch which is very annoying for both the other people and myself. I was denied the tour de show of Casey and had to stay in the dispatch booth instead to set up the ride which is annoying as I still haven't been on this ride which I am supposedly meant to know...one of the Cast Members said to me "It's just a train with some music" So? That sounds great! Then during my break I droppe