As my internship ends, I reflect on the events of my summer at Disney with accomplishment. As a student athlete, it has been my first full-time position (not dribbling a basketball). My desire was to work with creatives and understand the business of art.

Disney is an amazing company to have on my resume as I move from college to the working world. Learning that I am good at building professional relationships, even though the work was less than stimulating, is a good skill set to enhance. My coordinator has urged me to apply for a coordinator position because they loved my work ethic and people skills. It is a nice compliment but I want to finish college and focus on a more creative endeavor.

My focus on safety did provide and appreciation as an artist of many challenges that will arrive as I continue to pursue installation art. My mind constantly raced about creative elements in the park but had no exposure to the “creatives” I would hope to encounter at Disney.

I did meet a former Stetson University Women’s Basketball Player who was coming through the line at Buzz Lightyear. She played for the prior head coach but I invited her to come to a game this fall. From the one line on my nametag, I never expected that to happen.

I will continue to come to the Parks as an annual passholder with my family but have a very different perspective on the operations and the work behind the magic.

I am looking forward to my return to studio classes, basketball and a very hectic senior year. However, more importantly I learned I am really quite amazing. I am an intelligent, well-spoken leader among my peers. I can do anything that I set my mind to and I always bring the magic.

A focus of mine has been light during the past year in my artwork. Some of my work has studied how light can define and transform. I have been documenting it this summer through photos, as I will continue to study it this year in my studio work.

The nighttime displays at the Parks are spectacular. I have experienced them as a guest in my younger years and this summer as a cast member. As a cast member I worked mostly nights at Magic Kingdom, so the fireworks are a part of my daily routine. It is the biggest production for the Magic Kingdom Park daily. The music and light transforms Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom for thousands of guests nightly. EPCOT has a nighttime extravaganza on the pond in the center of the countries. As a guest, I have seen all of the nighttime displays. Pre-pandemic both Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom also had nighttime displays. The elements used to display the projections included on screens, sails, water mist and castles. The music and narration is an essential part of the production by capturing a mood, inspiring through tremendous storytelling and a final crescendo sharing visions of magic and goodness in the world. These shows are productions that do not disappoint. Spoiler alert – Just to share in insider look, Tinkerbell flies from Cinderella’s castle toward Tomorrowland every night. Tinkerbell lands back stage in Tomorrowland behind the Buzz Lightyear ride. Truly magical to witness.

As an artist, I will continue to explore light in my fall semester in my art studio and in my theater class with stage lighting and filters.

Context in installation art is important.

The rides themselves are interactive art installations. However, these installations are in context due to immersive lands. The Lands at Magic Kingdom are intentional. Every concept is well thought out and planned in detail. The music played in the land, the transitions between lands, and the smells in the lands including the themed food offerings including the restaurants.

The lands in Magic Kingdom include Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and are all organized around the HUB and Mainstreet USA. As a detailed example, let us review the transition from Fantasyland (Cinderella’s castle, Belle’s castle, Aerial’s castle, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Winnie the Pooh, Tea Cups and more) to Tomorrowland (Motor Speedway, Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, TTA and more). The elements include sound when passing the sound teacups as you approach the motor speedway. Lights change from low non-descript lighting by Winnie the Pooh to the towering Astro Orbiter along with the underside of the TTA illuminated red and Space Mountain in the distance.

In my opinion, the greatest transition is at Hollywood Studios. The park begins with Mainstreet Hollywood. Once passing the Sci-Fi Diner and the Muppet Theater there is what appears to be a subway entrance. Then the elements of another world begins. Symbols, trashcans, materials, sound and music change. A moment later, you have left earth and have travelled to a new galaxy. All cast member in this galaxy have in-depth training and if you speak with the cast, they each have an extensive back-story.

Fun fact – when I went to the Parks with my mom (who was wearing a Star Wars shirt) for her birthday, a cast member wrote her name in the alphabet used in Star Wars (which she LOVED)!

As Magical as Disney can appear, there is also an underbelly of ugliness. On the operational side of a large company of creatives, the challenges are immeasurable. It has been an eye opening experience for me and has given me a real world perspective of the business of art, customer service and making magic.

The housing for the College Program is provided at a reduced price at Flamingo Crossings. However, as a new cast member I did not get a choice about the type of housing arrangement. It has not been a great experience and I relocated to my parent’s house mid-summer. In summary, it is a complex with nearly 4,000 college students with no rules of engagement, minimal boundaries and no Resident Assistant. As I was moving out of Flamingo Crossings, it became apparent Disney knows the problem exists but has not solved the issues.

Many businesses say the customer is always right and that is the same at Disney. Disney says it is all about guest experience. However, I have experienced personally and witnessed repeatedly the ugliness in the world today. It is unbelievable the number of people who are inpatient with waiting in lines in the summer heat with their loved ones and lash out at the cast members. My family has been on numerous family vacations at the Disney Parks in the busiest of times and would never EVER behaved like what I have witnessed. I really do not think it is the wait times or the heat. Unfortunately, I think it is a microcosm of today’s society.

Just to finish my disappointment about the Disney culture, no one has your back. The guests will be screaming at those of us running an attraction and no supervisor will come to diffuse the situation. The guest will rarely be asked to leave the attraction and almost never asked to leave the Park. Managing people is never easy. Raising the bar to change the culture would be challenging but not impossible and I hope Disney will take the difficult path and change their operations to address these issues.

Safety is paramount in all business operations. With both of my parents working in construction, I have understood it in the sense of trades’ people building buildings and operating heavy machinery. At Disney, I am in a safety critical role. Prior to getting my job assignment, I was required to drug test. I spoke with several others entering the college program who did not have this requirement. Safety has been a key factor in my internship this summer.

In the attractions every day – safety is critical. At the Buzz Lightyear attraction, it requires seven positions and four of these are safety critical. The four safety positions include Load 1: loading guests on the ride; Load 2: fastening the guests into the car. This position is also responsible for everyone on the entire coaster with the main control panel. Unload 2: has the second control panel: Unload 1: is responsible for unloading guests. Together these positions along with the other 3 stations ensure the safety of all guests on the ride. Every attraction has safety critical positions at Disney.

This summer there was tragic death at Icon Park. A young man perished because safety standards were not followed. Two rides at Disney, Flight of Passage (Animal Kingdom) and Soarin’ (EPCOT) are rides that have the same amount of drop that the young man fell and died at Icon Park. Disney shut those rides down for a day and had a mandatory safety stand-down for all cast members that work those attractions.

Every week in every land, there are track talks. During these talks, we review the safety standards and discuss the importance of safety in daily operations. Also during normal work hours, the safety leaders will visit the attractions to observe the safety behaviors of the cast members.

Public art installations also need to consider safety as a key factor. In my weekend in NYC, I visited the Statue of Liberty. I viewed it from Liberty Park. The Statue is extraordinary. Lady Liberty originally constructed in France 1875-1884, moved to the United States in 1885 and reconstructed in 1886. I researched the reconstruction of the Statue and was completed without scaffolding in a very short time frame. Extensive safety standards have been established over many years for workers and the public. Today’s safety standards are an important constraint to consider in design of public installation art.

The finance of installation art has been a topic that has interested me recently. While working at Disney in a very successful brand with merchandise that is identifiable worldwide, it makes me think about the financing of art. Because Disney is interactive installation art, it draws crowds and money.

After a recent trip to NYC, I began thinking about the financing of art installation. At MOMA is saw a room size installation. It was impactful however; it was all words and in my opinion lacked any graphic or interactive depth. I began to wonder if at any time was the cost a constraint for the artist that affected the decision making for the installation art design.

From the early history of Disney parks, there have been many sponsors of the installations. Some of these sponsors included General Electric 1964-1985 at Carousel of Progress or Eastern Airlines 1972-1978 at If You had Wings (original site for what is now Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin).

Today as Disney has grown into a successful recognizable brand, they self-fund the installations based on their media success. Three of the newly constructed or renovated installations include Guardians of the Galaxy (EPCOT), Tron (Tomorrowland – MK) and rebranding of Splash Mountain to Princess and the Frog (Frontierland – Magic Kingdom).

From the operational side of Disney even on their most successfully branded rides, Disney cannot afford to keep it all running. The Stitch ride at Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom was too expensive to maintain and operate in Disney’s budget so the ride is closed. In the second most popular ride in Animal Kingdom, Everest (rollercoaster) the Yeti costs too much to repair. It originally would swoop toward the coaster but now it just hoovers over the track. The Yeti has been non-functional since before the pandemic.

From my observation, installation art requires a solid funding source and additional budget for on-going costs including maintenance and up keep.

Installation art begins in a space. What is the space? It is a space that has most likely been something before. As an art student, I have only installed art in a gallery space. However, the installations at Disney have more of a history. Let’s discuss Tomorrowland. Some of the attractions include The Carousel of Progress, Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor.

The attractions are all installation art. They each have a different impact on the built environment and affect those who experience them differently. The Carousel of Progress (art installation) originally commissioned by General Electric and designed by WED (the original Imagineers) for the 1964 World’s Fair. The Carousel originally installed in New York in 1964, moved to Disneyland in California in 1967 and reinstalled in Magic Kingdom in Disney World Florida in 1975. The installation had continued modifications each time the art moved but the same concept of rotating theater telling the journey of a family and technology stayed true.

Behind the scenes of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin are the skeletons of the past installation. It is in the same building and was an installation that was constructed in 1972. After decades of use, it was decommissioned and in 1998 Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin opened. Jumping topics to branding – Buzz Lightyear was popular when I was young with the Toy Story movies and now 20 years later still going strong with the release of the Lightyear movie this summer.

I used these two examples of installation art to show the extremes. One was designed and created off-site and installed in various locations. I am sure there were many more constraints in the installation that were addressed while not influencing the outcome of the art. While the second example of art installation actually had the constraint of the location, size and shape of the space. The theme was set and the design had to fit in those boundaries.

As an artist, I expect there may be more constraints than I’ve yet experienced in the studio space. However, I think some of the constraints could be a wonderful challenge for an art installation.

Before new “cast members” begin work inside the parks everyone attends Disney Traditions.

This is a big deal in Disney culture and for Disney employees. Every Disney employee goes through a Disney’s tradition. It is about 4 hour long class learning about the history of the company. Cast members learn about the five keys in Disney culture and careers inside of Disney. Disney also shares some insight on what other park employees do.

The class started off with an amazing hostess! As a general note all of the cast members doing the training are really fantastic for the College Program.

Disney’s five keys include Safety , Courtesy, Show, Efficiency and Inclusion. I’ll discuss these in detail later. The priority of the keys are not in order but safety is definitely the first priority of all Disney employees.

Even though we are all working in different locations doing different assignments they still go over the general rules of everyone. Some of the different safety procedures reviewed scenarios such as active shooter and fires and other life safety things.

Some courtesy training included when giving a guest directions we don’t point with one finger we point with two fingers or we use our whole hand.

After about the 4 hour meeting we had a special guest – Mickey Mouse!

Disney Traditions was definitely a very informative and good experience to have in to see how a big company runs. They communicate very clearly what is expected of their cast members. Disney has brand standard manuals including the “Disney Look” which I will share in a future post.

I was in this meeting with about 100+ other people. And even though I was in there with all those people the Disney cast made me feel like they were only talking to me and that I was the only one in the room learning. The Disney magic is an important part of the brand!

Today was a big day – my arrival date. Not just starting a new internship but relocating onto the Disney campus.

Arrival day was assigned 5/2/2022 at 9:30 AM at Flamingo Crossings. The apartments are very very nice they come with LOTS of outdoor and indoor community gathering amenities – two pools with movie screens, a big outdoor area basketball court workout room, grills, lawn chess and seating areas to name a few. Branding is so important for Disney and is very obvious from the housing campus for the cast members. The Disney experience begins here.

After check-in I promptly proceeded to get my company ID and to move into my room which I share with another roommate named Gillian. We share the living space with 2 other women. I am the only new “cast member” today. The others have been here for 6 to 9 months.

I am so excited to be able to have this opportunity to work for Disney and see how their company runs inside and outside of the park. To observe all the work it takes to run such a successful “creative” business. 

The early afternoon meeting included all the new “cast members” who moved in today. It’s exciting to meet and make connections with other people that I can network with and keep in contact with for the future. Dinner was with some new friends I met from other states and other nations.

Networking will be an important thing to do this summer.  I am so excited to meet even more people! 

Today was exhausting in a good way. I also took time to explore around the apartments and took the campus transportation to see where I would be entering the park once work begins. I rode the bus to Magic Kingdom so I could time how long the commute will take me to be on time to work. Disney provides a busing system from Flamingo Crossings to the parks. I think is a very good resource and also will give me good experience navigating bus systems and public transportation.