I recently read a blog about the drastically different standards between staff/cast members in both Universal Studios and Disney. Now although I agree with most things that were mentioned in the blog, I have been lucky enough to have the privilege to work in both of these parks and I thought I should give the other side to the tale - the cast members point of view, to which park treats their employees better.
I was lucky enough to work within the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando and yes in agreement to the blog that I found - Universal do have more relaxed standards in some ways which could maybe do with a bit of a tidy up if they want to keep up with Disney. However, during my lunch hour I was able to walk or get the staff bus to either of the staff restaurants and eat a pizza and chips or a chicken burger for something like $3 - amazing staff discount when your an intern and need to save all the cash you can. There was also the birthday rule - if it was your birthday you ate your lunch - for free!!! awesome right!? Plus staff could pick up little dinner cards where you got it stamped 10 times then got a free meal.
So what did Disney have to offer me for lunch? A bag of cookies. Expensive cookies at that which probably cost as much as my pizza! Before I make it sound like Disney starve their employees let me just explain I was working in Typhoon Lagoon, a water park, so this may be different for the larger parks. Our staffroom was an outdoor shelter - in my opinion not great when your working outdoors all day in that heat. Anyway we had what was the equivalent of a gas station shop where you could buy crisps, cookies, a chocolate bar or a small packed salad. All for your standard prices, no amazing discount. As its Disney you kinda expect a little better, even if you are at the water park.
Our Universal staffroom was much more appropriate for the Florida heat - it was air conditioned and nice and big to fit everyone in.
A bonus of both parks was that the managers would sometimes manage to get you a load of free food, at Disney this was mainly popcorn and snow cones, at universal this could be a drink or ice lol. So both parks did well on this front.
Another thing mentioned in the blog was that you could see staff with their bags on occasion walking through the wrong part of the park at Universal - for example in Disney you would not see someone from Frontierland walking down Main Street as they have underground tunnels for staff to get exactly where they need. Universal have secret entrances for their employees but it is impossible due to the park layout to have an entrance for every single area, unfortunately yes this can ruin the look slightly.
I also feel that management at Universal have a high level of care for their staff, I was given cards of appreciation by management and team leads, its always nice to know your work is appreciated. I worked an over night shift for a Harry Potter Convention and all staff were given a tour of the Wizarding World being told certain little hints and tips that not everyone gets to see or know about which was really cool and fun. At the end of the night we were all given a HoneyDukes Lolly pop to show how appreciative they were of our help. Little things like this really matter, so I expected the same from Disney, but it was not to happen. In fact I lost something very sentimental to me while working at Disney, it was found by management and locked in the managers office til morning. When I arrived for work I was told it was no longer in the office, I never got it back and was most upset to think that someone I was working with (potentially a manager) had taken it.
One last thing to mention would be the transport - Universal do not offer free transport for their employees but luckily they have many very friendly Americans who are eager to give the British Interns a ride home. They come to the parties and generally want to be involved with the interns, however the American employees I worked with at Disney tended to keep themselves to themselves. Interns caught the staff busses for free - a big perk again in money saving - when the busses turned up that is! At one point me and a few friends had been left waiting for an hour for a bus and when we rang the depot they didn't seem too fussed at all - very unhelpful.
All in all yeah I agree the Universal standard could do with a tidy up in their appearances but behind the scenes they kick Disneys butt in looking after their employees!
Heres that link to the blog I was reffering to if any of you are interested -
http://meetthemagic.com/things-in-universal-studios-never-seen-in-disney-world/
FloridaGirl :)
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