How Walt Disney World Prepares Its Cast Members for Now and Tomorrow

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

Preparing Cast Members to Succeed Today

Walt Disney World is known for innovative attractions, immersive environments, fun and elegant resorts, themed restaurants and world-class entertainment. But even the most impressive of those creations ultimately depends on the Cast Members who operate them, maintain them and, perhaps most importantly, bring them to life for guests. In fact, for many guests, their most lasting Disney memories aren't of an attraction or a show at all, but of a Cast Member who created an extraordinary moment.

Recently, Disney invited us behind the scenes to learn more about how it prepares and supports the people who create those moments. From their earliest days with the company, when Cast Members learn about Disney's history, culture and traditions, to training for their specific roles, to opportunities that can lead to entirely different careers, Disney has built systems designed to help Cast Members succeed in the jobs they have today while preparing them for the opportunities they may pursue tomorrow.

Of course, Disney is a business, and while these efforts are designed to benefit Cast Members, the investment can pay dividends for Disney as well. Cast Members who grow and advance within the company bring their experience, knowledge of Disney's culture and understanding of its expectations with them as they take on new roles and greater responsibilities. In fact, approximately three out of five Walt Disney World leaders began their Disney careers in hourly positions.

Let’s Go to Disney University

For Walt Disney World Cast Members, that preparation begins at Disney University, which itself begins with Traditions. Traditions is a program that welcomes new Cast Members to the company and introduces them to Disney’s history, culture and approach to guest service. It’s easy for us Disney fans to forget, but there are many Cast Members whose very first experience at Walt Disney World is showing up for work on day one. Before learning the specifics of their individual roles, Cast Members first learn what it means to be a Disney Cast Member and the traditions they are now being entrusted to carry forward.

During our visit to Disney University, we also got a glimpse into the role-specific training for two very different jobs: housekeeping and resort concierge. Housekeeping Cast Members train in mockups of three different room types, using the same equipment they'll work with day to day. They learn important safety procedures, including how to handle the chemicals they'll use, along with the special touches guests have come to expect, such as creating towel animals. For resort concierge training, mock front desks allow new Cast Members to role-play real-world guest interactions using scenario cards designed to prepare them for situations they will encounter on the job. And this is just the first step in their role-specific training, which continues once they arrive at their actual work location.

Training is only one part of preparing a Cast Member to succeed in a role. They also need the right tools, and at Walt Disney World, sometimes one of those tools is what they're wearing.

Dressing the Part

Our next stop took us inside Walt Disney World Costuming, where the reality of what goes into outfitting tens of thousands of Cast Members hits home. An enormous amount of work goes into making sure Cast Members look like they belong in the story being told around them. But we also learned that designing a Disney costume isn't only about how it looks. For the Cast Member who may spend an entire shift wearing it while standing, sitting, kneeling, crawling, driving, interacting and everything in between, how it functions is just as important.

Costuming can also help Cast Members interact with guests in a way I never considered. One of the costumes we saw, worn by merchandise Cast Members on Main Street, U.S.A., features a custom floral print incorporating the state flowers of Florida, California and Missouri, representing Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline. Those types of details give Cast Members a story they can share with guests - something that can be particularly helpful for those who may not be naturally comfortable striking up conversations with strangers.

Understanding what Cast Members need from their costumes also means listening to the people who actually wear them. A great example is the World Famous Jungle Cruise, where the familiar skipper costume may look essentially unchanged, but was recently updated based on feedback from the skippers working the attraction. The horizontal venting on the back of the shirt would sometimes catch on the steering wheel as skippers moved around the boat, so Costuming redesigned it to be vertical - maintaining airflow while better accommodating the movements required by the job. The development team even had some firsthand experience to draw upon, as one of the managers who worked on the project was herself a former Jungle Cruise skipper.

Preparing Cast Members for Tomorrow

That former Jungle Cruise skipper also illustrates another aspect of being a Disney Cast Member. A job at Walt Disney World doesn’t necessarily have to - and very often doesn’t - remain just that job. Experience gained in one role can become the foundation for opportunities in entirely different parts of the company, sometimes in places a Cast Member may never have imagined when they first put on their name tag. In fact, some of the career advice we heard repeatedly throughout the day was to not get locked into a particular path: stay curious, take risks and don’t be afraid of a lateral move that might build new skills or open a door you hadn’t previously considered.

Some examples:

• One Cast Member began in merchandise on the Disney College Program before moving into resort operations and eventually becoming a resort general manager.
• An electrical engineer moved through technical roles, Imagineering and international assignments before making a complete career lane change and ultimately taking on a senior leadership role in Walt Disney World Transportation.
• Another Cast Member made what some colleagues viewed as a step backward when he moved from senior operations management into housekeeping. That move eventually led to front-office and hotel roles and back into senior leadership.
• Another began in Textile Services, spent five years there and then 13 years in resort operations before becoming a senior manager with runDisney and Sports & Recreation operations.
• An industrial engineer who saw herself primarily as someone who worked on projects and spreadsheets had leaders recognize her talent for teaching and developing others. Today, she leads an industrial engineering team at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Those career moves don't always begin with a Cast Member deciding what their next job should be. The future resort general manager, for example, told us that leaders twice “tapped her on the shoulder” at pivotal points in her career, first encouraging her toward management and years later suggesting she consider leading a resort. Other Cast Members shared similar stories of leaders and mentors recognizing strengths in them and pointing them toward opportunities they hadn't necessarily considered themselves.

There are more formal opportunities as well. Disney Aspire provides eligible hourly Cast Members with access to education programs with tuition paid by Disney. And that investment isn't limited to preparing Cast Members for jobs within the company. During our visit, one leader acknowledged that Disney knows some participants will pursue degrees that ultimately take them somewhere else, and that's okay. The idea is that helping Cast Members become more educated and successful benefits them wherever their careers ultimately lead.

Lunch at California Grill gave us a chance to meet several members of Walt Disney World's culinary team, whose Disney careers collectively stretch across decades and restaurants throughout the resort. One chef told us he's worked in at least 14 Disney restaurants during his 29 years with the company. We heard the culinary team described as a community, with chefs who have worked together for years, sharing their experiences and helping develop the Cast Members coming up behind them.

And then there are the Churrolympics - an opportunity for chefs to experiment and be creative in their existing roles. Earlier this year, culinary teams from across Walt Disney World were challenged to come up with new takes on one of the resort's most familiar snacks. Chefs were given three categories — sweet, savory and ice cream — then returned to their locations and spent a couple of months developing their creations. Eventually, 29 different churro preparations came together for judging, with several selected to eventually make their way into the parks.

Supporting Cast Members Beyond the Job

As all-encompassing as Disney can seem sometimes, especially to Disney fans like us, Cast Members have families and responsibilities outside of work as well. One longtime Cast Member we met talked about raising her two sons during her Disney career and the importance of having access to childcare close to where she worked. As her children grew older, that support changed with her needs, including access to backup care when one of them was sick. For her, those resources were part of what had allowed her to continue building a career with Disney while raising a family.

Health care is another part of that support. Disney's Center for Living Well provides Cast Members and their families with access to primary care, pharmacy services, behavioral health care and other services right on Disney property. The first Walt Disney World location opened near EPCOT in 2008, with a second later opening in Celebration, and Disney is now preparing to open another Central Florida location in 2027.

It Still Takes People

The next day, I returned to my hotel room to find that housekeeping had done more than simply clean it. The toiletries I'd left around the sinks had been neatly arranged on a towel between them, washcloths had been carefully draped over each faucet, and the fresh towels below had been arranged into a Hidden Mickey.

Just the day before, I'd been at Disney University watching how housekeeping Cast Members are trained, including some of the little touches that go beyond simply leaving a room clean. Now I was seeing one of those Cast Members put that training into practice in my own room.

Walt Disney famously said, “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” Attractions will change, resorts will expand and new technologies will continue to transform Walt Disney World. But sometimes that dream is made real in much smaller ways - by a Cast Member taking a few extra moments to make an ordinary hotel room feel just a little more special.