I worked in both the Florida Disney World and Tokyo’s Disneyland, the latter being owned by a Japanese company which basically rents the name. The Japanese system worked really well.. the park is clean, workers polite and well trained. They can expect full retirement with benefits. The US parks are filthy and the help is minimum wage.
In the U.S., you only work a six month term then you ‘audition’ again for your job. That way, Disney can get rid of you if you lose that ‘Disney Look’, meaning young and fresh. Disney gets over 50k unsolicited job applicants a day so they can pick and choose.
What’s the weirdest thing you ever saw working for Disney?
An acquaintance of mine and his brother many, many years ago hid out on Tom Sawyers Island at Disneyland in Anaheim until the park closed once - I think it was in the wild 1970’s. I have no idea why they did it but they were eventually caught by after hours security and prosecuted good and hard. I believe also, it’s been many years since I’ve heard the story retold, that the brother was severely injured by the steamboat tracks while going for a midnight swim off the island beach. They reportedly were not seen by anyone in the Indian village though - thankfully
Yep, the Disney corporation went to Puerto Rico starting in the 1970s promising the locals paradise in exchange for working on the cheap in Orlando.
Does the Japanese Disney Employees get busted at Child Sex Stings? 🤓 Asking for Grady Judd...