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Recently, television actor Brandon Hillock told his story about portraying feisty pirate Jack Sparrow at Disneyland. (As an aside, after reading the article and doing some quick sleuthing, I was pleased to discover that Hillock played "Deputy Sacks," one of my favorite characters on cancelled cult television show Veronica Mars.) I found his story fascinating, since I have always wondered what the deal is with "those people" who are in the fuzzy suits or under the makeup.
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Hillock did not disappoint. He dished on the expectations of a Disney characters, as well as the restrictions. Female park visitors threw themselves at him. Characters are not supposed to interdate, but Hillock hooked up with a hot Ariel. He was dinged for hanging out with a Pluto in-costume, as characters from different "lands" are not to intermingle. Eventually, Hillock was fired, but he concedes he crossed the line at points:
I'll be honest: I didn’t follow all the Disney rules. I played Jack like he was real, and if a woman flirted, I would flirt back. Women loved it. But there were also women who would have too many beers at California Adventure or smuggle in alcohol you could smell on their breath, women who were clearly sloshed.
Hillock was a "regular" employee, but many employees are part of the College Program, a paid internship program for college students that seeks to teach transferable real-life skills, offers educational courses, and provides networking opportunities. Critics of the program say that the college program participants (CPers for short) are little better than indentured servants who take the place of unionized workers who make a fairer wage:
But aside from giving interns valuable experience, the program is a relatively cheap source of labor for Disney and sometimes worries the unionized workers, although union officials approved the program when it began almost 25 years ago.
“None of them are paid properly,” Ed Chambers, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1625, said of the college interns. “They’re like indentured slaves ... They live on Disney property. They eat Disney food. They take Disney transportation.”
Most of the college interns earn $6.25 an hour, well below the more than $11 an hour pay for a veteran employee performing the same tasks. Interns also don’t receive any pension or health care benefits like regular workers.
Since California minimum wage is currently eight dollars an hour, and about one-seventh of Disney employees are CPers, it seems there may be some truth to this claim. Further, some CPers claim they were stuck with less-than-desirable jobs such as burger flipping that they believed would not further their careers:
Common student jobs — or “roles,” as Disney calls them — include working in quick-service food and beverage; full-service food and beverage; merchandise; operations, which includes attractions, park greeters and parking; custodial; lifeguarding and hospitality. The pay is $6 an hour.
There is no set minimum wage in Florida, but $6 an hour is less than the minimum wage in eight states, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
[Emilie] Norvell worked in quick-service food and beverage at Disney-MGM Studios during Spring 2001.
“I worked selling ice cream at `The Dip Cart,´ also known as `Hell on Earth,´” she said. “They made it sound so glamorous, but it was not what it seemed.”
Still, others are very happy with their Disney experiences. Shannon, a Duke alum, characterized her experience as:
...[A]wesome, definetely one of those life experiences that if you have the opportunity to do you have to do it. I met some great people, made some wonderful friends out of it, and hey I'm staying at Disney so it can't be all that bad!!
As of 2003, she was a management intern for Disney.
Other students have had very positive experiences as well, and recount their internships positively, such as Allan, who chronicled his six-month stint in "Working for the Mouse," and Vanessa ("My WDW College Experience!!!"), who came from Puerto Rico to do a three-month internship.
I saw positive stories and negative ones, with very little in between. Maybe people who have had mediocre experiences just aren't motivated
