What It's Like to Work at Disney World During a Pandemic

[Nevilledog]

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/disney-world-florida-pandemic-precautions-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-1035232/


Earlier this summer, amid skyrocketing COVID-19 rates in Florida and urgings from public health experts to go into lockdown, Disney World reopened its gates. The decision to reopen was highly criticized, with many wondering how the theme park could possibly keep guests safe, happy, and healthy during a global pandemic. But little notice was paid to the 77,000 employees of Disney World — some of whom had been furloughed since April — and whether they wanted to be back at the Happiest Place on Earth in the first place.

Kinsey Doerr is a ride operator at Space Mountain in Tomorrowland, the futuristic section of Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; she’s also the shop steward of UNITE HERE! Local 362 in Orlando, one of the unions for Disney World “cast members” (the company’s term for park employees). She started out as a lifeguard at Disney hotels and water parks, then in 2018 transferred to attractions at the Magic Kingdom to work at Space Mountain, her favorite ride.

On an average, pre-pandemic day, Doerr would rotate between dispatching the rocket ship vehicles, scanning guests’ Magic Bands (digitized wristbands that provide entry into the park), and making sure guests were secure in their vehicles by checking their lap bars. Now, her duties are the same, yet she comes to work every day worried that she’s going to contract a potentially fatal illness. Before the park reopened, “just going to Target every day was scary,” she says. “Even though we’ve been open for about a month now, I still am afraid to go to work.”

In conjunction with the unions, Disney has instituted safety and hygiene guidelines for reopening the park, including limiting guest capacity, instituting social distancing measures, and requiring all guests over the age of two to wear masks except when eating and drinking (it has recently banned guests from eating while walking). Many employees have also praised Disney for its safety measures, but Doerr and another cast member who spoke with Rolling Stone said it could still stand to do better. In a statement to Rolling Stone, a Disney spokesperson said, “Seven unions representing 48,000 cast members signed agreements to have their employees return to work, and we continue to evaluate and adjust our approach along the way, as the situation evolves.”

*snip*

[donkeypoofed]

1. Anyone working w/the public feels the same