Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 As to senority issues ... if anyone sees Phil Holmes or Erin Wallace or Al Weiss or any other major WDW exec in the parks on 12/24 please let us know. I don't stalk on Christmas Eve ... I stock! ;-)
Originally Posted By jonnyrzone420 And spirit, my super disney fan buddy, I meant the hourly park employees
Originally Posted By MPierce >> There are plenty of examples where religion is intruding on people's rights and crossing the line (like pharmacists not filling prescriptions for birth control if it goes against their 'beliefs'). << I had completely forgot about that case. Hopefully that was just an isolated incident. There is no excuse for a person to take a job when they think it might interfer with their religious belifs, and their actions may cause another person to suffer.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 But I understand you can buy a Christmas Tree stand for your holiday tree!!! LOL. We're a Catholic family, one of my daughters is married to a Jew. We have no problem giving him Christmas presents, and he has no problem accepting them. They come to our house for Christmas dinner. I've no idea of Christian vs non-Christian employees at WDW, but I'm sure there are Christians who would have no problem working Christmas Eve or day. We're celebrating Christmas on the 25th, and whenever my son comes home from whereever he is, we'll celebrate again, just be missing a tree. Watched WDW at Christmas on the travel channel last night. Nobody looked offended by all the Christmas stuff.
Originally Posted By jonvn "one of my daughters is married to a Jew." The shame must be unbearable. I'm not a christian, and am not offended by xmas decorations. I think people who are need to get a life. I'm also perfectly happy accepting presents. What kind of idiot does not accept a gift?
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 ^^^Actually my son-in-law is very nice, and a good husband and father. Religion has nothing to do with our relationship with him.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>Actually my son-in-law is very nice, and a good husband and father. Religion has nothing to do with our relationship with him.<<< What I am about to say is not an argument, just an observation. It seems strange that you felt compelled to say that he was very nice and a good husband and father, as if the idea of him being a Jew would automatically require him to be defended. When you originally mentioned him, it never occurred to me that he would be anything but that. Like I said, not an argument or put down, just a curious observation.
Originally Posted By mousermerf The "shame must be unbearable" comment probably triggered the defense.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 Thank you mousermerf. What I was trying to point out was that his being Jewish didn't matter to us. We're perfectly happy that our daughter chose him. We judge his as a person, not as someone of any religion. I really wasn't sure if the "shame" comment was serious or in jest.
Originally Posted By mousermerf I have a jewish friend who eats bacon, it's not -really- pork. She's the worst jew ever.
Originally Posted By CMDad I have been reading this and thinking about how I feel about the parks staying open and the need for CM's. This is also the case at the resorts which are a 24/7 operation of course. Like Spirit, I remember the days when Christmas Eve was a 6 PM closing, and as you left the MK you "ran a gauntlet" of CMs shaking your hand and wishing you a Happy Holiday. Personally, Christmas Eve and Christmas used to be the best - and least crowded - days at the MK. We often came then. When my daughter first started working in WDW she worked as an attraction host at DAK - and always knew that she would get out early - as DAK never stayed open late yet. When she started working at CBR, she would always volunteer to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for the obvious reason that being Jewish, it wasn't a particularly important day for her to be off, and by always volunteering, at least one other CM could be home. My son did the same thing when he was a CP at the HM, and when he returned for another Christmas week the following year - not that he would have NOT worked that night as low man on the seniority pole. (I am not sure if there was any extra pay - I don't remember there being, but I could be wrong. She usually worked a double shift those days which amounted to a nice paycheck.) There was never a lack of volunteers for those shifts. This year, now working in IT, she again volunteered for those days - for her, being on call is a 24 hour shift. As it turned out, while she is on call on 12/24, she wasn't needed on 12/25, so she will be able to spend the day with us. Eventhough we aren't Christian, it will be nice to have her with us for the first Christmas Day since she has worked at WDW. So what do I think? WDW is a place that people go FOR the holidays, and it has become so much moreso than in the days when MK was the only park and still closed early on Christmas Eve. WDW is still dependent on that business, and provides a wonderful family experience on Christmas Eve and Day. As for how the CMs in general feel about it ... I am not sure - I would be interested in how they felt about it. (I can't go on just how my daughter feels since it is not our holiday.) But, I think I don't have a problem with the situation as it stands.
Originally Posted By figment1986 Lets see what other parks are doing: BGT: Dec. 24 9:30 - 6:00 (add an hour for closing shift and its reasonable) SWO: Dec. 24 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. (add an hour for closing shift, alright.. but could be better) IOA: Dec. 24 9:00 am - 7:00 pm (Add an hour for closing shift, same as sea world...) USF: Dec. 24 9:00 am - 8:00 pm (longer than IOA, add an hour for closing shift and its pushing it...) So universal the latest is 9 for their team members... and the Busch parks close about an hour apart. Its not late late, and i can understand USF closing an hour later for "uni 360" and most people are out around then anyway. but a disney park closing after midnight?? on Christmas eve? sure its busy, but not as bad as say Christmas day around noon.
Originally Posted By kennect Spirit, It looks like you lose on this one...I remember the early closings but they didn't stop DTD at the time from closing early...And then there was what to do with all the folks at the resorts...They brought in a ton of extra things to keep the crowd happy..You know cute stuff, decorating cookies, someone doing ice sculptures, etc....My only experience with was crazy and I would rather see the MK park open late then have thousands of visitors wandering around their hotels with nothing to do....
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<If you are vacationing at WDW over the holidays I'm not sure how happy YOU would be with everything closing early that evening. >> Why not? They close that early most of the time. Are vacationers disappointed then?
Originally Posted By jkayjs I guess it won't be a surprise where I stand. Being in healthcare I never have all the holidays off. In fact one year I worked every holiday except Memorial day, but since I worked the wk-end before it didn't really matter. My kids learned early on that dates matter little but events are what's important. So we celebrate whatever it is when we can. Even birthdays, there is always "the call" but rarely are we all together. I would venture a guess that keeping MK open later on the Eve is not just more profitable but also wiser. Folks these days seem to manage to get themselves in a lot of trouble when left to their own devices to find entertainment. I suspect WDW found as the crowds staying on property grew so did their problems with "bored" folks. Let's face it cookie decorating or SM you decide. MK doesn't serve any kind of alcohol. If I were deciding my thought process would be "better in MK alcohol free, than sitting around drinking @ the pool bar or DTD". Now I could be all wet here but I'm sure somewhere along the line someone has used this as a compeling reason to extend the hours. Do I miss the "olden days"? Sometimes, well OK lots. But we all know they are gone except on CoP(of course one of my fave rides). I have noticed that many of the younger folks I work with do seem to think they should have every wkend/holiday off. I suspect this has a lot less to do with tradition/celbrating and more to do with "ME, ME, ME". Oh well I guess when you reach the double nickle you wax nostalgic.
Originally Posted By jkayjs <<Oh well I guess when you reach the double nickle you wax nostalgic.>> You also don't proof. Celbrating- a new word brought to you by jkayjs.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper There are 24,000+ hotel rooms ON WDW property. You cannot compare what WDW chooses to do for the holidays vs. Sea World, BGT or even Universal. Most of those 24,000 hotel rooms are occupied. So let's say 20,000 of the rooms average 4 people in a room (and we know it is really more than that in most cases. Now you have 80,000 people on property with nothing to do on Christmas Eve if you close all of the parks early. So, they are now suddenly all back at the resorts absolutely slamming the pools and restaurants which is an added burden to the cast members working at those resorts. Again, I was a Cast Member on the holidays and I loved being there.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Most of those 24,000 hotel rooms are occupied. So let's say 20,000 of the rooms average 4 people in a room (and we know it is really more than that in most cases. Now you have 80,000 people on property with nothing to do on Christmas Eve if you close all of the parks early.>> No different than on most week nights during the rest of the year. Besides, I thought that one of the reasons people shell out big bucks to stay at the Disney resorts was that they are more than mere hotels. I would expect that there would be all sorts of activities to partake in at the resorts: festive dinners, caroling, storytelling, etc.
