Introduction

I interviewed Candace Kottmyer, a PSU alum who is now a food and beverage cast member at
Walt Disney World. She participated in the Disney College Program during her time here at
Penn State, and only thought it would be a one-time experience. However, after an amazing
semester, she had to go back. She did a full year in the DCP and decided that was where she
wanted to go in her career, and she’s been working there for three years now, absolutely loving
it, (Kottmyer, 2023).
Mission/Purpose of the Agency/Department
The five keys of Disney are show, efficiency, safety, courtesy, and inclusion. These five keys are
the basis of everything they do there, Candace tells me. Especially in food & beverage, safety is
extremely important with allergies. They take these keys very seriously because if they didn’t it
could really hurt someone, (Kottmyer, 2023).
Clientele Served
Disney’s clientele includes people from all over the world. Some of the big groups Candace has
been seeing over her time at Disney are Brazilian groups a few times a year, cheerleading groups
that come to compete, a lot more British guests due to gift cards being offered to them now from
Disney to increase the international guest attendance. The age range that Candance typically sees
at the buffet she works at is early parents with young kids trying to get food for their picky eaters
and a lot of the elderly who like to have a wide variety of options, (Kottmyer, 2023).
Services and Programs Provided
Disney offers a ton of services and programs to its employees. One that Candace spoke of in
depth was a program with the app Headspace. “Headspace is a meditation app that Disney is
partnering with and if cast members do five sessions, they get an extra $300 for their healthcare,”
she says. “There’re also medical services that if you get hurt on the job you can be sent there
right away to be treated right away,” (Kottmyer,2023). Disney prioritizes the wellbeing of its
employees. She mentioned these two especially because she has used them in the past.
Staffing
On a typical day, Candace works with a leader and an assigner, typically 19 servers, between 4-7
seaters per shift, and then 20-30 chefs, in culinary, per shift. And that’s just her restaurant; not
any of the others they partner with. Her coworkers are a very diverse group. She works with men
and women of all ages, some who are her age, in their 20’s, up to 60 years old. Her coworkers
are also from various countries including Japan, countries in the Middle East, Russia, and then
all of the College Program kids come from all over too. The majority of the staff are part-timers,
she says. They don’t have any seasonal workers right now, however, they have about 10 full-
time servers and 6 full-time seaters. The rest are part time or College Program workers,
(Kottmyer, 2023).
Funding Sources
In terms of funding, The Walt Disney Company “has raised a total of $11B in funding over two
rounds,” (CrunchBase). The Disney company knows how to make money and does it well.
They’ve made 53 investments, the most recent being November 1st, 2022, when Disney
Streaming earned $900 million, (CrunchBase).
Professional Issues
One of the challenges with working at Disney World Candace discussed is with
everybody being so diverse, sometimes they have disagreements. A prevalent issue she spoke
about is servers wanting more guests in their areas and seaters having to make sure that the
guests are evenly spread so everyone can get a mix of tabs. Not just one server getting all of the
large, adult tables and another getting the group of teenagers. It is “a fun little game,” of trying to
make sure that everyone is happy: servers and guests, (Kottmyer,2023).
On the flip side, some of the many excitements of working at the most magical place on
Earth is seeing the excitement. Candace loves seeing the little kids’ faces light up when they’re
in the parks. It makes her job so fulfilling being able to spread happiness. She says getting to see
those excited faces, just so excited to be there and interact with the employees, is what makes her
know that this is the career for her, (Kottmyer, 2023).
 References

Leible, J., & Kottmyer, C. (n.d.). Video conferencing, web conferencing, webinars, screen
sharing. Zoom . Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
https://psu.zoom.us/rec/share/kmJMom4jO9tJXpY38l3rxRGBMuhZyNqfB6XEjqADIOa4
cxcK76nN7IwygyccqAxY.g2rAoAqwTSGpxivS?startTime=1680557237000
The Walt Disney Company - funding, financials, valuation & investors. Crunchbase. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/the-walt-disney-
company/company_financials