Cast Member Exposes Disney World: Park Reportedly Lying About How it Treats Its Employees

A former Disney World cast member recently reported how much working at the resort had changed since the pandemic, despite the company’s claims.

The Walt Disney World Resort is popularly known by its moniker, “The Most Magical Place on Earth.” Each aspect of the Disney Park comes together to form the ultimate Disney experience for so many guests from around the world, from attractions like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Haunted Mansion to lands like Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park.

However, cast members are undoubtedly the heart of the Disney experience, and Disney’s treatment of its cast members has long been called into question.

How Does Disney Treat Cast Members?

Disney’s treatment of its cast members—whether at the Central Florida Disney Resort or its sister Southern California Disney Park, Disneyland Resort—is known to be lacking. Many cast members have spoken about how they are faced with racist or toxic working conditions, and all of us have heard about the “traumatizing” rules to be a Disney Princess at the parks.

Add to this, the fight for a living wage that raged on for months at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland before cast members finally got a well-deserved raise. Prior to this change, many cast members reported sleeping in their cars due to being unable to afford food and rent.

Recently, an article on Fast Company reported another unfortunate reality when it comes to cast members working at Disney. A former Disney cast member explained how the park treated them differently before and after the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically concerning an onboarding process called “Traditions.”

“Traditions” is a day-long initiation out of Disney University and is an integral part of welcoming new cast members and bringing them into the fold, energizing them to create Disney magic.

The former Disney employee who chose to remain anonymous while speaking to Fast Company explained,

“Even the little things felt like a bigger deal in 2020, like Mickey came and handed each person their name tag; our ears were in a box so it was a big ‘surprise’ to open the box and see them. And in general, I remember watching more videos about cast members who worked there for a long time . . . who moved their way up the company. The whole thing was made to make you feel like you were a part of something big and important,” the source recalls. “Then, in 2022 . . . Mickey popped in to wave to everyone, but he did not stay. The ears were just sitting on our chairs—this is just a silly little nitpicky thing, I know. And Traditions was only a half-day thing. There were still some of the same videos and stuff from pre-pandemic, but all the ‘magic’ was kinda stripped away and it felt more like, ‘You are an employee. Here are the rules.’” 

Notably, the article clarified that a Disney spokesperson said the company still hosts full-day “Traditions.”

These conflicting accounts of working as a Disney cast member are strange enough on their own. However, this isn’t all cast members have to deal with while working at the Disney Parks. More often than not, guests have started becoming more entitled due to becoming increasingly frustrated by paying more expensive ticket prices and getting less in turn for their money.

While it’s unclear what the truth about “Traditions” is, one easy measure of employee satisfaction is the turnover rate, and Disney boasts an unfortunately high one.

What is Disney World’s Cast Member Turnover Rate?

In 2018, the OC Register reported that per Andrew Hagelshaw, a spokesman for the SEIU United Service Workers West, “Disneyland workers have ‘an incredibly high turnover rate of 30 to 40 percent a year, and not just at our union.”

And it’s not just Disneyland. While specific percentages are hard to come by for the Central Florida Disney Resort, The Walt Disney Company has a reputation for having an incredibly high turnover rate.

While some may question whether the change from a full day of “Traditions” to a half-day is really that big of a deal, it points to a larger problem of the company demanding more while giving less to its cast members (and guests as well).

If this is true, Disney’s staffing problems could become more pronounced, making Disney World’s numbers and situation even more precarious.