Cast Members visiting DW

[I<3Disney]

So, I was pondering the thought of working at Disney World as a cast member, and I wondered, when you (you being a cast member) go on vacation to Disney World does it feel like your just visiting work, or does it still feel exciting like your going on vacation? Do you get a different view of Disney World because you work there? I might sound pretty weird asking this, but is it just not as exciting because you work at Disney?

Thank you

[brownie]

If you're working there, I can't imagine you'd vacation there too. You'd already be there a lot and I imagine you might spend a lot of your off time there. It may also lose some of its magic and you might visit less.

For me, I hope to work there in "retirement" and spend as much of free time in the world as I can.

[joanna71985]

I work at WDW. While I don't "vacation" there, I do enjoy visiting the parks on my days off. For me, when I go on a Disney vacation, it's with DCL (and hopefully someday to DL)

[Main Street Jim]

Wife and I get this question a lot from friends

While we never really "vacationed", we'd spend about three or four nights a week after work, plus one of our days off most weeks (we had Thu/Fri off, then Sun/Mon). It was free (for us) - cheap entertainment

The times we'd go "play" in the parks was spent mostly taking pictures, trying out new restaurants, Boardwalk, Downtown Disney, mini golf, water parks, fireworks, parades, shows...

We'd also get our families and friends into the parks. My dad and his family of five kids could never afford to go to the parks on their own. I *loved* when they'd come over

[WDW&MK]

I wondered this too. I was thinking maybe someday I'd like to work retail at either DTD or at one of the resorts so that it's a little removed from the parks. I have also wondered if the tours that go back stage ruin some of the magic too....

[Lindsey]

I guess it might depend on if you are a CM that works in the parks or not.

My husband was a blue badge behind the scenes CM. We went to the parks regularly, especially Epcot. And since we could get friends and family into the parks for free we often did. We always had fun.

We did take a few short Disney vacations while employed by Disney. We got 50% off of the Disney Resort rooms, and we took advantage of it. When there was a long weekend we would go stay at GF, AKL, or YC. But we never took a full length vacation at WDW, it didn't make much sense to. We did take a full length vacation to DisneyLand/southern Cali. We had the same benefits there as we did at WDW so it was kind of a no brainier to take advantage of it.

My husband was considering going back to Disney, but all of our friends that still work there said that the benefits & pay have changed a lot in the dept that my husband worked. There are still good resort discounts, (which we still get to use with the help of our friends), but many of the other perks we enjoyed are either gone or diluted.