Disney employees! Orlando residents! HELP!!?
I want to work in Disney World (planning on moving to Florida anyway), but i’ve heard terrible terrible things about Orlando..very dangerous, costs too much for rate of pay, getting slummier by the day…not a place anyone recommends moving to…from what i’ve read the nicer parts of Orlando are not near Disney..Where do you Disney employees live? Is it a safe part? reasonable cost? What is Orlando really like?
I love Orlando, but I prefer the Disney area. The Disney area is crowded, lots of tourist stuff, heck Orlando is Tourist Trap USA for Florida. Lots of traffic, always something to do, but cost is high. You have your nice areas of Orlando & your bad areas, just like with any other city.
My family works for Disney (& I use to) & they live in Polk County (Lakeland, Auburndale, Winter Haven) & the drive is only about 30 to 45 min when you take I4 which is a straight shot to Disney.
Cost in Orlando for rent is high & the pay at Disney starts around $7 to $8 an hour depending on what you do (that is for hourly, salary is alittle bit more). You will get by with a full time job if you rent, but money will be tight. You get paid every Thursday, have park tickets to get yourself & three others in x12 (12 times a year). Discounts are pretty nice. I will warn you, it is expensive down here & the pay at Disney does suck (worked for them for over 5 years & in that time I went from $6.50 to $7.50 within those five years so the raises are horrible). If I was to go back to Disney right now for a job, I would have to hold down two jobs because of the cost of living here in FL. I rent a two bedroom apartment in Polk County & I pay $774 in just rent. Orlando apartments (in the nice areas) are alittle more.
Before you move to FL, make sure you have a job first. Disney is hiring right now, but it’s for very limited positions. Hourly positions at the moment are: custodial, Food & Beverage Seater, Attractions (PT only), facial characters and HouseKeeping (this is coming from a disney jobs email that i get once a month). You have to apply online now @ the Disney-careers website, no more walk ups to casting to apply.
Best of luck to you!
Polk County doesn’t have much near Disney that I’m aware of and one of it’s main highways gets fog that’s been known to cause pileups. A lot of it is rather rural.
Orlando is rated #6 in Forbes most dangerous cities based on violent crime statistics. They’re finishing a new sports arena towards N Orlando that in my opinion is destined to make a badly congested hwy I-4 a lot worse and more dangerous. Orlando has inadequate services for it’s poor and tries to discourage helping them by means of arresting people who tried to feed them (Food not Bombs group). This should get more interesting considering it’s very high foreclosure and unemployment rate.
Most of the areas near Disney are immigrant as are many of it’s employees.
Hello Sparko,
I live in orlando and work for disney. as far as disney cast members we live all over central florida. from as close as 5 miles to the property to as far as 60 miles. just starting off at disney your pay rate won’t be that much. and your only promised 32 hours for full time.so you will need 2 jobs to survive. yes there are very dangerous parts of the city to avoid. but most of the areas outside of the city proper are nice. anything else i can answer get back to me.