Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's six in the morning and off to work I go. Through the main gates, (dim my lights for the security guard, who waves me through), onto World Drive, past the Contemporary on the right, Space Mountain on the left, up to the stop sign and turn right at the Monorail Barn. Then past Disney University on the right, into the cast-member parking lot on the left. Park, grab my backpack and walk over to wait for the bus. Next stop, the tunnels!
Get out of the bus, walk into the tunnel, turn right into the cafeteria and grab a cup of coffee to go. Now I turn right out of the cafeteria, walk down a little way, turn left then a quick right past the character zoo (on the right), another left up a little hallway past the locker room and practice room for the band, and to the end of the hallway, I'm at FantasyLand Ops. Walk over to check the sheet or ask a supervisor where I'm working today, after which I'll walk over to the costume window and get my duds for the day. Everything but Small World and ToonTown requires FantasyLand Golds. Now, what is my assignment today?
Is it Snow? The Snow Rotation consists of The Snow White ride, from there to Dumbo, from Dumbo to the B side of Toad (Mr. Toad's Wild Ride), then you get a break.
Teacups? The Teacups rotation is Teacups, Toad A, Dumbo, break.
or Pan Complex? When you're working Pan, you start at the Carousel, then you go to Peter Pan's Flight. From there you go work the strollers at Small World, then break.
I could be scheduled to work one of the shows at Mickey's Starland. Or I might work Mickey's Toontown Fair(after Starland was retired).
I might be area greeter, which is mainly taking care of all the strollers; most of the strollers are Disney strollers, so people going onto attractions take the children out and just leave the stroller wherever it happens to be. I'll line them up to make them look neat and keep people from tripping over them.
Greeters also put up queues, take the counts each hour on the attractions, and jump into rotations to give breaks. At certain times of the year greeters tend to become seagull warriors; they're the first line of defense against those pesky birds that steal ice-cream cones, sandwiches and other stuff from people's hands. The ones around the park are mostly herring gulls, with a scattering of great black-backed gulls just for variety. Seagulls are natural scavengers, so be wary!
Before we can start any of the attractions, they all have to be wiped down, cleaned up, and tested. I'll make sure that custodial didn't leave a match, cigarette butt or candy wrapper anywhere. If I'm there for early open, I have to make sure the attractions are ready for the resort guests, who come in an hour early. Not all the attractions are opened at this time; Mr. Toad and Small World are usually not open until regular park opening time, which is generally 8am. The supervisor will walk through to see where we want to start in rotation. The amount of time I spend at any one attraction varies from day to day (sometimes hour to hour ;-)); some days I'll be on one attraction 15 minutes, sometimes an hour-and-a-half, depending on how the rotation is running.
The smoothest of all the rotations used to be Mickey's Starland, and then it was Snow. The Teacups and Toad A are trying at times. In the summertime everyone looks forward to working the Teacups because the booth where you run the ride from is air-conditioned. Noone ever wants to give it up to the next person in rotation! The famous words there are "go ahead, bump around me, you'll get to break quicker!; In the winter months there is a heater in there, though it isn't needed that much. The other downside of the Teacups is that it (and Cinderella's Caroussel) are the only attractions in FantasyLand that are run solo (one castmember); when it gets really busy, especially if you're new, you feel kind of overwhelmed!
The A side of toad is (was -- Toad is no longer with us) where the Special Guests (physically challenged) are loaded into the front of the queue. You work side A by yourself, and you're trying to get the special needs guests loaded where the people leaving the cars exit the attraction (slight design flaw there). So you're trying to get 2 queues loaded while also trying to dispatch your cars within a certain time interval; if you get behind, the whole ride stops and you have to call maintenance to come restart it.
The Caroussel, Dumbo and Snow are my favorite attractions to operate in FantasyLand itself. They have a lot of character. Although they are very high volume attractions (yeah I know, what isn't?), they are set up to run very efficiently and they seem to be perceived as being more magical to the kids. The Carrousel is rich in historical value as well as being beautiful; it is the jewel of FantasyLand. The Carousel attracts all age groups, you see little teeny kids, teenagers, parents and senior citizens as well. More so than any of the other attractions, it seems to release the child in everyone.
Now it's Break time!
I hope this section will be helpful for college program people just getting ready to go start a semester in the parks. It is also meant to help people who are considering going to work for Disney. FantasyLand is only one small section of Disney World, but it may give an idea of the ups and downs of working for the Mouse, the interesting things that happen, things to look out for, things to look forward to, and ideas on how to handle different situations.
In the meantime, feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments, questions or suggestions. Click on the bugs to write to me.
Before you start working for Disney, as for any major employer, you have to get oriented. At Disney, Orientation is an elaborate routine called Traditions. You might find it interesting, if you didn't just come from that page, to go through the experience of being "introduced" to your new working life at Disney.
You're always "on Stage" when you work for Disney. To find out how to apply to become one of their "star" castmembers, click on "You're a Star".
Click on 
Mick to enter Traditions.
Click on the Purple Peep to go to the Teacups Rotation. Teacups consists of the Teacups, Toad Side A, and working the panel at Dumbo.
Click on Snow White to go to the Snow White Rotation page if you missed the earlier link. Snow includes Snow White, Dumbo and Toad side B.
