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Women of Color in leadership at Disney

Disney News (2/13) – Women of Color in Leadership at Disney and How to Thank an Awesome Cast Member

February 12, 2022
Episode 12

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Women of Color in leadership at Disney

On this week’s show, Kelli highlights 5 amazing women of color in leadership positions at Disney and Chris covers some amazing interactions we’ve had with cast members, specifically focusing on how to thank them.

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All music for this episode is available through a creative commons license. The background music for the News segment was created by Kevin Macleod: Fuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-parade
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

For more things DISNEY (and Disney food reviews), check out our website: https://scfadp.com Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at @SCFADP!

Show Notes:

Chris and Kelli discuss updates and news from Disney parks, including record-breaking revenue and the popularity of the new Genie Plus system. They also highlight the importance of empowering cast members to create memorable experiences for guests. Additionally, they discuss the achievements of women of color in leadership roles at Disney, including Shareen Mitchell, Karthika Rodriguez, Catia Akasha, and Nicole, and the significance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Outline

Disney news, including record revenue and new attractions.

  • Chris and Kelli discuss Disney-related topics, including a 50th-anniversary flower display at Epcot.
  • Chris and Kelli discuss Disney news, including record revenue and Genie plus, and Kelli shares her experience at Pinocchio village house.

Disney updates, including new cavalcade show, refurbishments, and Imagineering festival permits.

  • Kelli and Chris discuss Splash Mountain refurbishment, new cavalcade show, and Mickey’s magical friendship fair.
  • Chris and Kelli discuss updates at Disney World, including stage shows, train testing, and a fire on Space Mountain.
  • Little Red from Kilimanjaro Safaris has been repurposed as an animatronic elephant at the end of Jungle Cruise.

Disney news, including new merchandise, construction updates, and leadership positions.

  • Chris and Kelli discuss the Galactic Starcruiser experience, including pre-arrival merchandise and a comic book series.
  • They also share updates on various Disney attractions, including the return of the Builder Lightsaber experience and the availability of Soul Magic shots during Black History Month.
  • Kelli discusses women of color in leadership positions at Disney, highlighting Shereena Carter’s contributions as a creative executive who reimagined Princess and the Frog and Mickey Mini’s Runaway Railway.
  • Chris adds to the conversation by sharing his thoughts on Art Smith’s upcoming restaurant at Orlando International Airport, which will offer both counter service and sit-down options.
  • Kelli shares stories about her childhood visits to Disneyland and how they influenced her career path.
  • Sherita WE LOVE YOU, talks about her role in reimagining Splash Mountain and Princess Tiana’s influence on the project.

Women in leadership roles at Disney.

  • Chris and Kelli discuss the promotions of two women of color at Disney: Shareen Pathak and Karthika Rodriguez.
  • Kelli highlights the achievements of Karthika Rodriguez, who became the first black female vice president of a Walt Disney World theme park.
  • Kelli and Ashley are avid yogis and travelers who work at Disney.
  • Ashley loves her job as Vice President of Media at Disney, despite challenges.

Disney cast members’ roles and responsibilities.

  • Kelli and Chris discuss the importance of cast members at Disney, highlighting their unsung heroism and the purpose statement of creating happiness.
  • Chris shares a story about a cast member at Disney who helped a child with a bloody nose.
  • The cast member went above and beyond to provide assistance, even when it wasn’t explicitly stated in the handbook.
  • Disney cast member surprises guests with special viewing spot for Illuminations show.

Disney cast members and their interactions with guests.

  • Chris and Kelli share stories of Disney magic, including a cast member’s secret and a fast pass surprise.
  • Cast members praised for their professionalism and dedication to guest experience.
  • Kelli and Chris discussed a cast member at Disney who spoke in Spanish to get a group of children to move after they had been ignoring her repeated requests in English.
  • The cast member’s language switch was successful and the children immediately complied, demonstrating the importance of tailoring communication to the audience’s needs.

Episode Transcript:

Chris 0:26
Welcome aboard Disney fam. Hey, welcome aboard. Indeed. Disney fam. My name is Chris.

Kelli 0:35
And I’m Kelly.

Chris 0:35
I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that you dance your way through the intro every single time I

Kelli 0:39
do. I love it. It doesn’t get old for me.

Chris 0:41
And you’re going with the figment ears. I

Kelli 0:45
am I love figment. And I want to show my support for him and, you know, festival the arts ends on the 21st and so I wanted to just give them a little podcast love for

Chris 0:56
you said that festival the art sins in

Kelli 1:00
saying no. But I mean, it’s his time to shine and I’m here for him. I

Chris 1:04
saw a little 50th anniversary. flower display has already landed at Epcot for the the international Flower and Garden Festival.

Kelli 1:14
Okay, very nice. Well done.

Chris 1:16
That’s not part of Main Street. That’s just a freebie.

Kelli 1:18
That’s just a freebie.

Chris 1:19
Right? Hey, we’re back. We’re back this week after an unplanned and completely. Unintentional unintentional week off. Oopsie Hey, you want to do Main Street?

Kelli 1:37
What about people who listen to oh my gosh, see,

Chris 1:39
I’m already out of practice. I’m already out of practice. See

Kelli 1:42
who listened to us last week?

Chris 1:44
Well, we had download so we’re so grateful for us. We had downloads in Newark, New Jersey. Okay. Yes, Newark, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Okay. And Denver, Colorado. These are places that are all three of these places. I would have thought we would have said these places before right. I would have thought but I think that we have said these places as we’re close to these places. Okay. Other folks have downloaded in towns, villages.

Kelli 2:19
Right. Okay, so what’s the Larry’s the outside of the house? Yes.

Chris 2:26
Cut kaymar Sao Paulo Brazil.

Kelli 2:29
Oh percent. Oh,

Chris 2:30
okay. Omar, Sao Paulo Brazil. We love Brazil. We love we are huge in Brazil.

Kelli 2:38
Yes, we are but I’m pretty sure you slaughtered that name.

Chris 2:41
I’m almost positive it is either kaymar or Kumar?

Kelli 2:45
Is there an H in there is because that’s not how nature is pronounced in Spanish.

Chris 2:49
Well, that’s not Spanish. That’d be Portuguese.

Kelli 2:51
Oh, well, that’ll speak Portuguese. Okay, right ever

Chris 2:56
news. Mainstream street All right. Yeah, so much news. If I mean, I get through it all. So Disney announced this week I posted all time record revenue. You saw we saw I saw that. Yeah, we saw this $7.2 billion in revenue for in the parks. In q1 2022 So that’s a pretty penny 50% 50% of the guests purchase Genie plus the new course system. Yeah. Hey, you know what you should do if you’re going to Disney and you’re thinking about that genie plus thing. You should go listen to this episode where we talked about that. I think it’s a win date Genie plus obviously it’s a win for Disney. Clearly so good on them for making a buck. Yeah. Love to see him push some of that down to the employees a little bit better. So okay, so Magic Kingdom news. This is one of those things where I’m always blown away by what did folks and Disney Parks just feel like it’s important and it matters no matter how small right at Pinocchio village house the one of the exterior like little planter boxes on the windows. Got a little Figaro. Geppetto is Cat pet cat Figaro. Okay, a little prop Figaro in the window. Okay,

Kelli 4:18
just as an FYI I do not eat pizza at Nokia’s restaurant, especially in the world the sort of trash oh my goodness it is cardboard trash don’t get it but I’m glad they added a little

Chris 4:31
I just don’t know like looked up there said you know we need to do we need a little figure of the cat up there.

Kelli 4:37
Look at their details, man. Yeah, I guess details focus on the pizza maybe and improve that and then worry about the cat

Chris 4:48
Splash Mountain refurb exterior rock work and some maintenance on some of the effects is effectively done. Now that wasn’t And when I first did this news piece but they refilled and they started testing I don’t know if it’s quite open again yet but you can go get on Splash Mountain again either today or real soon right? Disney adventure friends cavalcade showtimes were posted last week it debuted, it debuted Friday. So this is a new cavalcade starring nearly 30 of your favorite Disney and Pixar friends as supersize cavalcade features Nick and Judy from Zootopia Balu and King Louie Jose Carioca and penteado from this week, caballeros Maratha Mallanna The Incredibles wow, I Yeah, and it’s the debut of Miguel. It’s the Magic Kingdom debut of Miguel from Coco. Wearing a mariachi costume. I saw in addition, Aladdin and genie and Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. Marie from Aristocats Pocahontas and Miko Oh,

Kelli 5:58
my goodness.

Chris 5:59
I mean, this is effectively a parade spray. That’s everybody is this is effectively a parade and so I saw some that some folks have been posting some pictures since it launched on

Kelli 6:08
Friday. Yeah, and it looks like a parade. It’s got a stretch all the way down Main Street. People you just not all of them, right? They’re not on one float.

Chris 6:18
Right. Some of them are just walkers just for the walker. But um, put them to flirt.

Kelli 6:24
I always feel bad for the walkers. You know, but I do like that. That’s what Elsa does. Right? Like the walker queen. She is not the Queen no more like an Elsa walk on. What

Chris 6:36
I want to do is come up with that water horse. Let me see you make a water horse Disney

Kelli 6:41
that rides down through their splash in the crowd. Yeah.

Chris 6:44
Well, yeah. Mickey’s magical friendship fair debuts on February 25. And showtimes have been posted for that this is a big deal because this is the return of stage shows out in front of Cindy’s castle. Okay, right. So it’s, it’s been newly enhanced for the 50th anniversary. But so that that’ll be a big deal. Okay, they’re actually doing stage shows again. All right. People saw two pictures of the Walt Disney World railroad train, doing some testing because it’s been shut down for the refurb the trains themselves have been completely beautified. Again, they look gorgeous. I think that they mainly shut it down because they were doing Tron construction that required that they take up part of the railway. Okay. And I think that something I saw said that as they’re continuing Tron construction, they’re gonna build a tunnel that the train goes through.

Kelli 7:41
Okay, that’s cute. So

Chris 7:42
yeah, that’s fun. So that is fun. There was a fire reported on Space Mountain. Did we see this? Oh, it turns out it was just smoke billowing out of a refrigerator but it got

Kelli 7:55
smoked.

Chris 7:59
It got the attention to the fire department.

Kelli 8:00
I didn’t know there was a refrigerator as part of the spice mountain to track

Chris 8:03
I think maybe like in in in castmember break room

Kelli 8:08
they and it caught it went ablaze.

Chris 8:10
I don’t know if it caught on fire. But it was it was smoking.

Kelli 8:16
I’m sorry. Not laughing.

Chris 8:17
No, no, we didn’t laugh about that. Imagineering festival permits to for this is not magic kingdom. This is totally Epcot for structural elements on journey of water for Milan is water and journey of water. Yeah, I’m trying to that. Yes, very much. I don’t know if you remember the little red character from the when Kilimanjaro safaris originally opened in Animal Kingdom. It was it was there was a bit of a site adventure twist to it, right? We were chasing poachers or there was people coming across to that. Yes. And we were worried about little red who they were trying to catch her little red poachers a little baby elephant.

Kelli 8:59
Wow, man. That’s

Chris 9:00
been a minute. Yeah. 2012 It was one of that stopped by the way. Well, the little animatronic elephant that played Little Red is the elephant that is now at the end of the Jungle Cruise. Twitter Sam’s gift shop.

Kelli 9:15
Oh, so

Chris 9:16
that animatronic has been repurposed. How cute. Yes.

Kelli 9:20
Okay.

Chris 9:21
She he she is cute. They they are cute.

Kelli 9:26
They is also appropriate. Yes, grammatically correct.

Chris 9:29
I’m not galactic starcruiser shopdisney shopdisney is selling pre arrival merch for the galactic starcruiser experience. Imagine folks arriving at their star cruise or dressed as you might see people dressed in the movies. So imagine Princess Leia is white flowing. Yeah, I’ll

Kelli 9:54
be honest. I can’t imagine people arriving to that galactic cruiser wearing anything else. They’re not so I’m in shorts and T shirts. Well that’s

Chris 10:01
the thing right? So now you don’t have to

Kelli 10:05
pay that kind of money. For that experience. Man, you are dressing the part.

Chris 10:09
Yes. And there Disney is releasing under Marvel Comics label a comic book series called Halcyon legacy. That’s definitely the name of the ship. You’re on. It’s the Halcyon which takes people aboard the house he on during important moments in the ship’s history. Okay, we’re going all out man. Yeah, Epcot, harmonious T shirts are available now. That Okay. Blog Nikki, the folks that I use for a lot of this news, they actually got shots of the construction going on specifically for the journey of water for malanez. Okay, water attraction, the trenches and stuff for the water effects and the plumbing and everything. Let’s see here, Hollywood Studios. The builder lightsaber experience returned because they’ve run out of stuff. But now that’s back. This legacy lightsabers are back at your supply chain issues at dock condors den of Antiquities, including Darth Vader re but then they almost immediately sold out again. You can now get a Soul Magic shot at Hollywood studios and Epcot as part of Black History Month. Oh, that’s fine. Like you know the magic federal lenses? Yeah. The park is set to close on April 6, at five o’clock on April the sixth. We don’t know why. Typically, that’s a special event type situation right. And the meet and greet for Sorcerer Mickey is returning to Hollywood Studios. Okay. The red carpet dreams is where you can meet Sorcerer Mickey. And I think that’s why another little news item. They’re getting rid of the Mickey and Minnie cavalcade that comes through there where they’re in their little cartoon cars. Okay, they’re writing in the cards. I think that’s why they’re getting rid of that because I think you can now go meet Mickey and Minnie up there.

Kelli 12:03
I can’t make you can’t do both. He can’t be in there for pictures and on the car. Because you know, you can only be in one place at one time. Right? And he would have to change outfits and everything. I think Sorcerer Mickey is my favorite Mickey.

Chris 12:15
I love social media. Sorcerer Mini. She wasn’t in a movie as a sorcerer. So I guess Mickey was

Kelli 12:24
maybe the baby hasn’t been made, doesn’t mean she’s not a sorceress.

Chris 12:29
Just say we’ve never seen her in the costume in a movie or a cartoon or anything like that. We have seen Mickey that way. Gosh.

Kelli 12:37
I said it seems like gender bias.

Chris 12:42
Art Smith is set to open up sunshine diner at the Orlando airport.

Kelli 12:47
Whoa, yeah. Now that is something that is something is that counter service or sit down? Kids?

Chris 12:55
Maybe both? I think he’s got a little diner bar in there.

Kelli 13:01
That some something they are Art Smith and Winebar George is gonna be right there at the Orlando airport.

Chris 13:07
I mean, that’s trip. Just to get to the airport. That’s that’s a reason to get to the airport. I’ve got so much more. This is gonna be fodder for posts and stuff this week. Okay, good. So who’s doing what this week? I have Tomorrowland. Oh, well, let’s, let’s hear it. I’m sure it’s going to be fascinating. So

Kelli 13:23
I’m going to talk about women of color in leadership positions at Disney. Why talking about that? Well, first of all it is Black History Month is I didn’t want to just focus on you know, people of color at Disney, I thought let’s look at women of color in leadership positions. Okay, now what I will have to say is that I had to dig for these, most of Disney leadership is still very white and very male. In fact, if you look, if you Google like Disney leadership, the page that you go to on the Walt Disney website, shows to African American women in those positions. And I’m gonna go over who they are here, but I found other women of color that are in leadership positions, but I guess they’re not considered senior leadership at Disney yet. So, the first we’re gonna talk about and I have some more information on some of these than others, right, but I just think it’s cool what these women do. Okay, so the first one we’re talking about is Shereena. Carter. Now Serena is the one that reimagined princess in the frog does the Splash Mountain okay, right princess in the frog Shereena also created Mickey minis runaway railway.

Chris 14:35
Oh, wow.

Kelli 14:35
Okay, so she does custom shops. She’s She’s good. She’s been at Disney for 25 years. She started at Disney in 1997 as an accounting team leader, come on that great. That’s fantastic, right. She was recently promoted like two months ago from senior creative producer to executive creator producer relevancy activations. I don’t know what any And then, but on her LinkedIn page, everybody was like, congratulations Sherita WE LOVE YOU blah blah. We’d love you and Matt, you’re gonna do great things. I don’t know who Matt is, but they loved him too. So, she joined the scenic illusion team in 2007. And she has progressed within that team to her current role. So yes, she did Mickey Munis runaway railway the redesign for Splash Mountain Shereena grew up as a self described Air Force brat living for a time near Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California. Okay. When she was seven years old, her family made their first journey to Disneyland. And I’m reading a lot of this. Yeah, I’m gonna link a lot of this on her pages, so y’all can see where where I got this info from. So she and her siblings would do like odd jobs around the house to save to have enough money to spend when they went to the happiest place on earth. All caps, but when Shereena visited Disneyland for the first time at seven, after they walk through the gates, I’m going to read you her quote. When the family first walked through the ticket gates of the happiest place on earth, her father surprised his wide eyed kids with an unexpected gift, a crisp, $20 bill for each of them. Turns out this $20 supplement became a quarter family ritual that took place every four years or so when the family visited the park together. But as it is, for almost every family tradition, the first time is still the one you remember most. And Sherita says I’ll never forget that moment. Awesome. So years later, Sherita is now working for Walt Disney, and she brought her parents back to the original Marriott Magic Kingdom. And to keep up with a family tradition, she handed each of her parents a $20 bill. When they walk through the gate, she says and then we just sat there and had a good laugh about our family tradition. But as she strolled down Main Street USA with her parents, she couldn’t help but think of her first visit to Disneyland when the family tradition began. And she first felt the magic of Disney, gosh.

Chris 17:05
It must be frustrated.

Kelli 17:07
So Shereena is quote about the reimagining of Splash Mountain is like Princess Tiana, I believe that courage and love are the key ingredients for wonderful adventures. And I’m delighted to be a part of bringing this fun filled experience to our guests.

Chris 17:23
Oh my goodness, she’s got it. She’s all eat up with it. Right.

Kelli 17:26
So you know, it’s funny. You mentioned the Splash Mountain refurb. That was recent. And there’s a lot of talk online about is it going to get done? It’s it’s not. They announced in 2021 that they were fast tracking it. But then now it’s like, well, what are you doing?

Chris 17:41
Initially? Not fast.

Kelli 17:42
This is not very This doesn’t feel very fast tracked. So there’s a lot of speculation out there. But I will say Shareen has been in her new role now for about two months. And I’m just excited to see what she does.

Chris 17:54
She’s gonna do amazing things. Yes.

Kelli 17:57
The next one is Karthika Rodriguez Karthika has been at Disney since 2006. She started at Disney World industrial engineering. Now I’m going to assume that’s basically the janitorial staff for the sounds like to me. She progressed to General Manager Epcot park operations, focusing on attractions and custodial operations, and she was named vice president of Epcot in 2021. Come

Chris 18:22
on, that’s awesome. By the way,

Kelli 18:24
she ensured are still not in the official leadership team for Disney. Like they’re not the ones that are on that website. So she’s named vice president of Epcot. Her promotion comes after serving five years as general manager Epcot. And she makes history at Walt Disney World as the first black female vice president of a Walt Disney World theme park.

Chris 18:42
Oh, good for her.

Kelli 18:43
And she says I hope my achievements inspire other women of color to pursue their passions. And there are many more first for women of color she wrong. She’s really been all over the Walt Disney World parks. She worked in operations for a while at Magic Kingdom. She’s been at Epcot for a bit she actually assisted with the opening of the new fantasyland in Magic Kingdom. That’s cool, Nicole. The next one is cautious. Stuart now Akasha is head of product for the Walt Disney Company and she’s been there since 2019. And the best I can figure is, Catia was essentially hired to launch this app called movies anywhere. And movies anywhere is an app that brings together movies on different streaming services from Disney Fox, Sony universal and Warner Brothers, so that you can stream them on your TVs on your phones or whatever so you log in to each of those different services through the movies anywhere app and then whatever movie you want to watch. You can stream through movies anywhere it finds it on those apps forgets you’ve been asking for that. I don’t know why we don’t we don’t use this. But anyway, so she’s Head of Product product and it looks looking if you look at her info that slips to be basically what she has is done. She says, I’m currently head of product for movies anywhere a Disney owned VOD movie library service. I’m a Change Catalyst that leads a team of project managers and drives the product strategy, vision and feature development while managing an ever changing roadmap. She’s She’s strong woman, and she also is a diversity equity inclusion advocate focusing on increasing increasing Black and African American representation in tech across all levels. That’s cool. She is an avid yogi, a world traveler, a lover of vegan tacos, and she is always pursuing the perfect gel manicure. So the next two are the ones that are listed on the website. And they’re the two that I have the least about LaTonya Newton. She is the Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at the Walt Disney Company. She leads their strategic diversity and inclusion initiatives and she came to Disney in 2017 from Toyota. Oh, interesting. Okay. And the next one is Alicia Swartz. She is Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. So she essentially is general counsel and handles all their their legal compliance efforts. So those two women are on the official leadership team website. This one’s my new favorite. Oh, okay. Okay, this is my last one. And she’s my new favorite. Ashley Cartwright. So Ashley Cartwright is Vice President media at the Walt Disney Company. She says I’ve been in the film industry for almost 10 years, and I’ve worked for almost every studio, every major studio, Sony Warner Brothers Fox, and now the Walt Disney Company. And I love what I do. So I found a website of a lady who interviewed strong women that she just meets out in the world. And she puts their reviews out there. So she ran into Ashley and this sounds so ridiculous. She ran into Ashley at a cafe in Paris. And she says Ashley walks up in this polka dot top and her smile took up her entire face. And she just had the confidence, more confidence anyway she’s ever seen sit down at the table next to her said hello in order to glass Hassan Sayer, and they were best friends. Immediately. Ashley was there traveling by herself. She was gonna meet a friend in a couple of days. And so she and this lady just hit it off and had a blast. And so she interviewed Ashley. And so some of these questions are from that interview. So she says, what makes my job challenging is in fact what makes me love what I do. Every film is unique a new product with a new strategy audiences partners goals, etc. is an art and a science to market these movies. And as Pablo Picasso would say, I like to learn the rules like a pro so I can break them like an artist. She also says that she would tell people advice take any and all jobs though they may not be the title or job description you desire. All jobs are a job worth taking. Because any job is a step in the right direction. You’re going to learn something from it no matter what you’ll learn what you like, what you don’t like what it takes to excel in a certain position and how you want to lead a team one day your weaknesses, your strengths and everything in between. And she would tell her 21 year old self, life gets better and better. So keep living it to the fullest. There always be lessons learned. But remember who you are. Stay planted firmly. And stop drinking plastic bottles of vodka. You are better than that. Oh great. I love it. So

Chris 23:25
that’s good. You. You’re better than that. I’m

Kelli 23:28
tricky. Plastic bottles of vodka. You are better than that.

Chris 23:31
That tells us that even someone that’s reached her heights at one time was drink plastic bottles. I love it so much. So good. So

Kelli 23:41
congrats to all these women who are doing amazing things at Disney. And setting that example. Yes. You’re all awesome everywhere. Yes.

Chris 23:48
Awesome work. Hi, today we’re gonna talk about cast members. Oh, that’s silly cast members of color. But I was inspired as per usual by WWE magazine, who again, shout out their wonderfulness. They are great. Their last magazine focused heavily on cast members. And the truth is, in my view, at least I my truth about this is that cast members really do make the trip magical they do. You can build what they’ve built. But it’s interacting, sometimes unintentionally with those cast members that are making it just awesome. I mean, you think about how few custodial staff you see in a park. Right? The ones you see look fantastic. They’re some of them are artists themselves because they will draw right characters on the ground with their wet mops. But most of that work to make that part shine like it does is done at night. Yes, because of amazing cast members. So thanks again to WWE aim for putting out a magazine that focuses so much on these unsung heroes so often in the parks. So when you when you join Disney as a cast member, you’re presented with a purpose statement. The purpose statement goes like this, we create happiness by providing the finest and entertainment for people of all ages everywhere. So right there, the very beginning your job is to create happiness, right? That’s a that’s a big, that’s a wonderful call.

Kelli 25:31
It is that’s a strong mission statement.

Chris 25:33
Yeah, we create happiness. They do everything possible to instill in each cast member, five keys, you’re used to be four keys, but they’ve added inclusion. The first key is safety. Because without safety, nothing else matters, right? Courtesy because we should always be exceedingly polite. And hopefully, your experiences with cast members have always been like mine show, because you are putting on a show. This is always a show efficiency and inclusion as the last one. The title cast member immediately conveys certain expectations, right? You’re not just an employee, you’re not an associate, right? You’re not a team member. Cast, you’re a cast member, you are a member of the cast. You don’t just work here, you’re a performer in the show we’re putting on Yep, maybe you’re sleeping trash, but you’re also being watched by an audience who Disney calls guests. Right? Every cast member is empowered to take sometimes surprising steps to resolve situations that present themselves. Because if a kid’s got a bloody nose, you might be the closest cast member to it. And they may not have handled, you know, kids with bloody noses in the handbook. Right? But you are, you are told that you can you can take care of the situation. So I thought that I’ve got a few anecdotes here. And if you think of any feel free to jump in. One is a story that actually a former boss of mine told me, he and his family went on their first trip to Disney. He had toddler he has five or six years old. And they went on Dumbo, one of the Dumbo rides and the height or whatever caused the kid to have a bloody nose after they got off. So they’re walking and the first person apparently to notice that the kid had a rager, who was a cast member who ran up to the family sort of gotten to the family’s attention and and before the family could even blink, this cast member had swept them away and took them to a secure place where they could, you know, help the kid with the bloody nose, get the family some water, and they brought an entire outfit back because the kid had gotten some Oh my god. So they sent the kids clothes off to be cleaned. And they got the room numbers and everything that had the clothes sent back to the parents. Oh my goodness, right. So they walked out of that room with a brand new set of clothes kid has no bloody nose anymore. And they’re His clothes are gonna be laundered and taken back to the room. I mean, that’s pretty strong. Pretty strong. Then some of our stories. There was a there was a time when we went to Epcot. And we did that thing where this was during eliminations. Right. And we did that there was this illuminations reflections of Earth time era. And we we used to like to sit on the bridge between France and England. Yep, in World Showcase to watch from there. And so we, we were going to do it right, we’re going to go camp out our spot at like seven or 730 we would typically camp our spot and send me over to France, to pastries for to get some pastries. And then we would sit there with pastries and wine or whatever and wait for the show. And I don’t know what our faces looked like. But the the lady there was a there’s a there’s a stairwell down to this platform right on the water, where they have special events, oftentimes, special events. And, but there was no special event down there this night. And she saw our sad little faces, which were obviously pitiful. And she said would you guys like to come down here and watch the show from the water. And she’s she opened up the slight little chain and let us go down to where they have special events. So watch the show down there. It was it was lovely. It was absolutely glorious. Now it turns out she led a number of other people down there too. We

Kelli 29:46
were not too many,

Chris 29:47
but not many. You weren’t this was not a crowded situation. Maybe

Kelli 29:50
15 or 20.

Chris 29:51
Yeah, that’s right. And we were just, you know, blown away that she just said hey, it just made us feel so special. And that’s really what They are empowered to do is find ways to make the guests feel special, right

Kelli 30:05
unexpectedly.

Chris 30:06
We people in the Disney community like to call it pixie dust. How did you get some pixie dust? Well, that would be a prime example of a cast member presenting us with pixie dust. That is on our very last trip there was a cast member who was in his mid 80s who had worked for Polynesian for 30 years. Oh, wow. He had such a great conversation asking all about us. Where are we from? How many times have we been there’s he was delightful conversationalist. But you may have seen a social media poster Kelly that they put out about the the knots that go into the Polynesian, they have all these lights that are basically balls lit up balls that hang in like fisherman’s nets, hanging from the lobby the most entryways. If you look at the knots that make the net, the knots are little hidden. Mickeys and that, that old man. After like talking to me for five to 10 minutes, he saw me taking pictures. He says, Yo, let me tell you a secret. And then he told me about the knots in the neck. And I thought this was an awesome interaction. There was a waitress once that gave us a fast fastest Toy Story mania. Do

Kelli 31:29
you remember that? Yes.

Chris 31:31
We had gotten into Hollywood Studios. We were at the buffet breakfast for Fastpass. Yes, this was back when you had to actually go print out paper fast passes. She She gave us a paper Fast Pass to Toy Story mania, because that was the big thing that year. Right. The fast pencils were going super fast. Yep. And then what I love the most, maybe is when? How many I mean, last kid do you think happened at Disney every year?

Kelli 31:59
1000.

Chris 32:02
Gotta be right. They have been trained to help calm the kids down by referring to their parents as the ones who are lost.

Kelli 32:11
Oh, that’s hilarious. So have your parents gotten Have

Chris 32:14
you lost your have your parent your parents lost? Have you got lost parents? Can I help you find your lost parents? That’s good. I love it. That’s so great. They had to deal with such garbage they especially in the era of COVID now they’ve become masked managers which is so not fair to them and and you know and social distance managers when we were doing that and just you know, and you read these horror stories of the of the people who had to dress up in costume like the princesses, especially dealing with the old man Yes. So they just you know, they all have to deal with such crap. Yes, but they by and large do it in such wonderful style. Five Ways to thank a cast member one email Guest Relations guest dot services at World Disney world.com. Okay. Tweet two at WWE guest services. You can do a mobile cast compliment on the My Disney Experience app visited Guest Relations location of the park or just say thank you to one of the cast members. Right some of the best times to interact with a cast member or at or in stores just asking you about the merchandise resort check in as for a pin for something’s celebrating. Resort pool entertainment. It’s fantastic for keeping the kids entertained.

Kelli 33:37
Those cats.

Chris 33:38
Those people are so good. Oh, good. Bus drivers have a hit miss on bus drivers sometimes being overly talkative is custodial staff, PhotoPass photographers, and mealtimes specifically at whispering Canyon cafe. Oh, yes. Well, they are special. And I will. I won’t go into that much. But, you know, they make your time at whispering Canyon Cafe an unforgettable experience they

Kelli 34:09
do. I remember the cast member at Winnie the Pooh ride this past time. Oh, yes. That was the first and last time we have ever written Winnie the Pooh. Yes. And they had all of the kids equipment roped off for COVID Like don’t play with it. And she must have yelled in a very nice. Yes, she’s

Chris 34:28
totally didn’t yell.

Kelli 34:29
She had totally stop stop playing. It’s off limits, you know, you Serato is closed. And there was this group that just was not moving. And so finally she turned around and said the exact same thing she’d been saying in English for six times. She said it in Spanish and they all looked up and immediately moved on.

Chris 34:47
Yeah.

Kelli 34:50
They weren’t just being obstinate. She wasn’t speaking the right light. Right. It was she realized what language they needed to hear. She spoke it fluently and they

Chris 34:57
politely but she I must have asked for various people. I bet we heard her say that 40 times yes. But bless her her. Her Tinder chain did not go up her like God was less her like,

Kelli 35:12
the worst job at the worst ride in the world. God bless her for this.

Chris 35:19
They just they’re, they’re wonderful and they really make the magic happen. Yes at the park. So the next time you get a chance to thank a cast member go away because it’s totally worth it to him. Yes. Awesome. Well, folks, that’s our show for this week. I’ve had a blast and you had a blast I have. So we’ve had a blast. If you’ve also had a blast, you know what to do next. Go out to whatever service that you listen to the podcast on and leave us a five star rating. It helps us bring other people to the podcast. It

Kelli 35:48
absolutely does. And if you’re looking for more things Disney please visit SCF adp.com. That’s s for Super C for Kelly, F for Fred’s ballistic APR. Awesome, deeper Disney P for podcast. And if you didn’t get a chance to listen to the bonus episode last week about the Disney plus make sure you do that genie Genie plus.

Chris 36:10
TV service. Yes, cine plus, go out there. Listen to that bonus episode. Also join us on Instagram and Twitter at SEF ADP. We’re having a good time interacting with everybody out there. And I’m sure this particular episode is gonna spawn a lot of entries this week. So keep an eye out for that. Absolutely. And with that, we have to see you real soon.

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Episode 12
Disney News (2/13) – Women of Color in Leadership at Disney and How to Thank an Awesome Cast Member