Originally Posted By ImTempest So, I have a job. Not a great job, more of what used to be called "A Girl Friday", but it's a job and in these times I'm grateful - it pays me not huge amounts, but well enough. And they indulge my being a Disney-holic - I'm allowed to play Disney music at my desk all day, my company lanyard is from Walt Disney World (they said as long as it was break-away, and it is). So the PRESIDENT of the COMPANY comes to me two months ago and says "I'm taking my 5 year old granddaughter to Disneyland in a couple of weeks - would you mind helping me put something together?" Not at all, and on company time, too!! She comes to me after the trip, thanking me for all my planning - said they wouldn't have been able to do half the things they did without my help. Why do I bring this up now? Today, two of the senior staff asked if I could help with Disneyland trips they will be taking later this spring. The President had been talking up how easy I made it for her. Why, oh why, can't I make a living doing this?! Wouldn't it be WONDERFUL?! Oh well, I can dream, can't I?
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove Wow, that's really very nice of you to help these people attain THEIR dreams. Who knows? Maybe someday things will fall into place and you will be all things Disney to many grateful clients. In the meantime, have fun with this new little side project and enjoy spreading that pixie dust around to your VERY fortunate co-workers. xoxo
Originally Posted By SleepingBeauty82 I guess you could become a travel agent but I don't know if they have ones that focus only on Disney vacations. LOL. That's very cool though!
Originally Posted By ssturgeo Same experience for me, over and over...and I dream of retiring and working for Disney VP some day!! :>)
Originally Posted By crazycroc This happens to me all the time. I haven't figured out how to make a living from it yet, but I'm working on it.
Originally Posted By ImTempest STIL, that's exactly how I feel. Give everybody a little pixie dust, every chance I get! See, I'm pretty sure I don't have the extent of knowledge needed to write a guide book and to tell the truth, there are some really terrific ones out there already. What I enjoy doing is helping the people that aren't going to read through the books to find out the ins and outs of the best possible fun they could have. In the case of our senior staff, they really don't have the time. Maybe someday I'll make a living at this, maybe I won't, but I know that some little boy or girl will have the most magical time I can give them!
Originally Posted By tinkerbell1962 I was a travel agent for 5 years ONLY for the Disney discounts! I mostly did the corporate travel - but did 100% of all Disney related trips. I increased their Disney product sales by 200% in just a year! Granted, I've been out of the travel industry for almost 10 years now, but I've considered free-lancing with one of the online travel agencies. Back in the day Disney really put a lot of $$$ into training travel agents. After I got my "degree" from the College of Disney Knowledge and my sales increased, I was invited on three of the most amazing trips! I spent an entire week at WDW attending their sales training and was wined and dined like crazy! Then, I was invited on a free (only paid port charges) Disney cruise and then went on to their "graduate" level of sales training at DL. I was the only Disney-nerd on that trip and I won every trivia challenge and the scavenger hunt in the park! Everyone fought to be on my team after the first day.
Originally Posted By TINK-MOBILE Dreams sure can come true, you just have to Believe....sounds like you are going to make a lot of Special people really happy...save some of your Pixie Dust for us, we would love some too..smiles : ) : ) and Disneyland.........hugs from Snow White and The Tink-Mobile oxox
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Its funny how much minutia we know about these parks, kind of nice to know when we can put it to some actual good use lol. And yeah, I imagine we can all be Disney travel agents on some level. I was kind of the same situation you were in when I was in WDW back in 2003. I was at this reeeeaally crappy hotel lol and a few people were there asking the desk attendent questions about the resort. The desk attendent didnt know anything beyound what time the bus came to pick us up and I was the one end up answering the questions about everything from what time Fantasmic started to what park TOT was located in (no one said these were questions for biologists ). By the third day there, everytime I walked in the desk attendent was asking me questions lol. The guy worked there for 6 months and was 10 minutes away from the park and didnt have a clue. But I did ;D.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo It's funny WD, that happens to me in Paris too. Especially funny when trying to do it in French, German, English or Spanish. But I do love it (feel sorry for my family though).
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Yeah, me too, its fun . I actually remember another time I sort of turned into a go-to guy for all things Disney and it was for an ex's friends who were a couple when I was living in Japan. They were going to go to TDS for the first time and my ex-girlfriend casually mentioned I been before, so they wanted to ask me about information, best attractions, best times to go, where to eat, etc. We had lunch what and was suppose to be an hour turned into three hours later I was still talking their ear off lol. They were facinated by all the info and couldnt believe the gaijin knew more about the Tokyod parks then they did . I was sort of a star that day. They looked pretty impressed. My girlfriend though looked the opposite and just got confirmation she was living with a dork ;D.
Originally Posted By ssturgeo I spend a lot of time at Disneyland answering questions, giving tips, sharing trivia about the park and various attractions...love it!! And, meet some great people that way too. One time when paying for items at the World of Disney the CM at the register said I had to answer a trivia question...do not remember what it was, but I answered, and then he continued with others trying to stump me...he finally gave up and said "Wow, you really do know Disney"!! :>) Sharon
Originally Posted By Mr X ***By the third day there, everytime I walked in the desk attendent was asking me questions lol. The guy worked there for 6 months and was 10 minutes away from the park and didnt have a clue. But I did ;D.*** ***It's funny WD, that happens to me in Paris too. Especially funny when trying to do it in French, German, English or Spanish.*** There has GOT to be some money in this for us somewhere lol. Just last week, some chick (a business aquaintence actually) was asking me for advice on TDL. Since it wasn't part of our "business", I didn't bother helping here much (though I explained how Pooh is the first fastpass to get AND that if they're lucky the new Monsters Inc ride might be sneaking in guests and that they should check there first even before Pooh, and all the other general "dos and donts")... She was most appreciative. I would LOVE to do that for folks, for a little extra cha-ching. It'd be so darned easy, wouldn't it? (and fun) Not sure if we should hire Dave, though. I think him telling the clients right off the bat "MUST...BE...POSITIVE!!", just *might* be bad for business. But anyway, yeah..we got some serious game on this junk...I wonder if it could translate into a neato side 'net business to make some bucks from (wealthy) Disney novices who are looking for sound advice.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo "One time when paying for items at the World of Disney the CM at the register said I had to answer a trivia question...do not remember what it was, but I answered, and then he continued with others trying to stump me...he finally gave up and said "Wow, you really do know Disney"!! :>)" Lol - we had this one when Murfsmom hurt her foot. We were with the cast members and some were trying to stump me (they did not succeed, but I stumped them!)
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>>Not sure if we should hire Dave, though. I think him telling the clients right off the bat "MUST...BE...POSITIVE!!", just *might* be bad for business. <<< Lol, I was supposed to be working. But yep, I find positivity for a decaying product difficult to muster. But if it were a role I was formally doing, you do not know how positive I can be! >>>But anyway, yeah..we got some serious game on this junk...I wonder if it could translate into a neato side 'net business to make some bucks from (wealthy) Disney novices who are looking for sound advice.<<< I thought that was what LP (and others) were.
Originally Posted By Dalia3001 lol, I love this thread! I absolutely love planning Disney trips for myself and friends, and my family keeps telling me I need to find someway to do it for a living. Nothing makes me happier than putting together a solid itinerary, making dining and hotel plans, etc. that I think will suit whoever is doing the traveling. I actually went so far as to do a bit of research online once to see what would be required to become an online travel agent who specializes in Disneyland vacation packages, but the requirements to become a licensed travel agent seemed prohibitive. I was hoping that one could just take some classes and then be ready to go, but it seems that it's more involved than that, and of course it makes sense that anyone who might be taking people's credit card information would need to have some sort of official licensing, etc. If anyone figures out a good way to put all our talents to use, sign me up! I also dream about working for vacation planning, and keep telling my husband that if we lived in So Cal I would seriously consider a career change, hee hee.
Originally Posted By tinkerbell1962 The very best part of planning DL trips for others when I was a travel agent was that for the most part, $$$ was never an issue. When I'm planning for myself I always have to find the cheapest way to do it. I loved making reservations at the Grand Californian at DL or a balcony cabin on a Disney cruise. They would just pull out a credit card without a blink. But, even more I loved planning a first trip for a single mom who had been saving for a couple of years. I got her the very best deals and declined any commissions that I was due. I took the $$$ I would have made off her trip and made the kids goodie bags with snacks to take in the park and Disney Dollars and autograph books.
