 Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. If you like these types of videos, make sure to give this video a big thumbs up and subscribe and hit the little notification bell because I do a lot of giveaways on my channel and I wouldn't want you guys to miss out on those. So without further ado, let's get right on into this video. Working in a theme park is definitely an adventure. Some people are totally meant for that lifestyle and some people are not. I'm kind of in the middle because I'm going to kind of just tell you my experience with working in a theme park because I've had really, really good experience and I've also had like a not so good experience, but it's like all combined within the same experience. So when I first started at the said theme park, I know you guys know it was universal. I don't really want to say like the specific location. If you go back on my videos, you could probably figure it out. I just don't it's not really relevant to this video. So I'm just telling you my experience. I worked in merchandise. I did deal with food because there was a candy store and I did deal with like shirts and other types of merchandise like towels and like cups. When I first started there, I was so excited. It was kind of like my first real labor working job where I clocked in and all of that. It was cool to see the backstage of the park and see what people don't see. I'll get into all of that stuff a little later. There's not like too much stuff. It's not like glamorous or anything. So basically I started working there and I absolutely loved it. Like all the people were awesome. Everyone was so nice. My manager at the time when I first started like he went above and beyond for the employees and stuff. And I still remember this one story about this one team member like being all sick and he legit drove that person to their house. So they wouldn't have to drive and stuff. I just thought that was like so cool. He was so good that he like moved up in the company like really, really fast and like no wonder. He's like an excellent worker. He's a cool guy and stuff. He would come into the stores and like work with us and like we would have like jokes. And I remember like we served with these cupcakes and we had these cupcake containers and he would put the cupcake in and he couldn't like get it closed but I could. So like I like closed it for him. It was just a really fun time. It was always like a party when I went there and also the team captains were awesome. Like all of them there wasn't like anyone that I didn't like. Maybe there was like a few times that I like got annoyed with one of them but like they were all like super chill. Again, like it was a party. Nothing really to complain about this one time. I worked like a lot of days at least for myself and stuff. And then I got these like migraines and stuff. So I figured out I had to wear my glasses. So that was really cool. And then we got a new management team because like they rotate managers kind of a lot. Again, this is another thing I don't really understand with theme parks. Not one theme park is different. They're all kind of like operated the same way. This is like a little side note, but it is really, really hard to grow in those companies. You have to know somebody to get in or you have to just get really lucky because those companies know exactly who they want to fill roles and stuff. And it's really difficult sort of to move up in any way, shape or form. So I highly suggest if you want to get a position there that's not like entry level, then you get an education and you start out in the company to show your loyalty and stuff. That's just the cold hard truth. All theme parks are kind of run the same way. Meaning you don't like grow up in the company. You kind of just go lateral. So if you're like a team captain, like a manager, I think it's like really hard to get up into like corporate and stuff. So you're just like moved around different areas. So like if you're in Tune Lagoon and you're like a manager, you could like move positions, but like you're not going to be in Tune Lagoon anymore doing the same position. You're going to be over in Jurassic Park doing that same job, but you're in a like a different location. If that makes any sense to you, you're not really like moving up. You're just like kind of moving around. So every three to four years, I think managers shift. So during my time at Universal, we had a manager like shift. So we got a new manager and my current manager, I think he moved up in the company, which is awesome, but it was just kind of like a change in pace and stuff. It still is great. All my friends that I kind of like started working there with, we're still there. Some of them went to different locations to work, but overall it was like a cool area and stuff. So fast forward. It started kind of getting like, I don't know, before I say anything else just to let you know, there's kind of a high turnover and there's these things called seasonals. So I was a seasonal at Universal. So I only worked like two times a year summer and winter. We're my like two times of the year that I worked there. When I say high turnover, it's not like a lot of people like quit and stuff. We do have like a lot of that type of turnover, but there's also like a lot of like rotation within like workers and stuff. But every season ever since probably I started there 2016 2017 was fine. It was kind of like the 2018 slash 2019. It was just kind of like it started kind of going downhill for me. Like I wasn't very excited to go anymore. It just kind of felt like blah and I don't know if it was like the people, but I just felt like the spirits were like kind of down and a lot of people that I worked with when I started had quit. Like a lot of the team captains that I started working with also went other places. So it was kind of unfortunate. I still had like a couple of team captains that I was like, oh, I'm so glad they're still here and stuff. And we got new team captains that like some were really good, but then like others just like, hmm, not. I just wasn't feeling it with them. I don't know some of the team captains that were like that had moved. It was super sad because they were like some of my favorite people. Like there was this one lady named Marion and I don't know if she'll ever like see this or anything like that. But the store that I worked in, she kind of like took ownership in and she was like such a hard worker and when we would like stay to close the store and stuff like she would help clean. And I just felt like she was also a team member. Even though she was a team captain, I don't really remember the last time like towards the end of my experience working there that like anyone really like stayed to help or anything really. We didn't get like really any help or like anything like that. It just didn't feel like it was before and I am comparing it because I was at this location and stuff for a fairly long time So towards the end he just like I was not feeling it. I was just always not wanting to go and stuff a lot of the time it's the people that you work with that make it like awesome. So some of the people at the location I was that just weren't making it awesome. There was like a good handful of people that did make it awesome but it's not like I worked with them like a whole lot and there was like a couple team captains that I absolutely loved but I feel bad for them because like they had to work with like other team captains that I didn't really like. So it was just kind of odd at the end and I really didn't like it. Now I'm going to kind of get into the job part of the working at a theme park. So basically they're kind of stripped with rules appearance wise and like uniform wise and I totally understand that because you have to have the theme park look my foot fell so that I really understand and I really don't care that like you know your hair had to be like a natural color you know your fingernails no jewelry like I totally understand that because you have to like have the look and everything but there is like some rules that were just really ridiculous. I just don't understand why but I understand why because like people will take advantage of the system but it's definitely not an environment that I really liked for working at a theme park. Most of the time you have to like swipe in so basically you cannot be seven minutes over the time or else you'll get like dinged which means you'll get like a point on your card or you get a point off the card. If I were to get in trouble like half a point or a point would be taken away which a universal you want points and at Disney you don't want points with the clocking and clocking out we did have a 15 minute break that we were allowed to take but if you're one minute over then your 15 minute break would like cut into your like paycheck and stuff some people didn't even take their 15s because it was kind of a waste of time because of 15 minutes went by way too fast. Sometimes I took mine and then sometimes I didn't just depending on the timing so being in a theme park clearly you're going to have to work with a lot of people. There wasn't a lot of people that I didn't get along with. There was only a I think a couple that I was just not feeling the rest of people like I could totally work with and they were cool. Most of the people at that location are really cool people. It was just a couple that I was like and then you know and then some of them like one of them was like I think seasonal or whatever but just so you know when you work at a theme park you're going to have to work with so many types of people that it's not funny like one shift you might be working with someone you've never even seen before and it's just kind of weird. Sorry for all of the movement my legs were literally falling asleep and I was like sitting on my leg. So this is a type of job that I kind of consider laborious and I'm not trying to say that to sound like lazy or whatever. I mean sometimes I am lazy and stuff but you're constantly on your feet. You're not allowed to sit down. You always have to look like you're doing something at least that's how I always felt or else like a team captain or someone would come in and be like you need to look like you're doing something and you were never allowed to stand behind the register if you weren't serving a guest which I think that's kind of ridiculous but I guess they want to show that like you're always out there like willing to help in different parts of the park operate differently. So sometimes there will only be cashier so like you're always at the register and then other people like the stalkers there'll be specific people out on the floor like stocking things but in our location we had to do both. One thing that really really bugged me that I hated about the job was doing the cooler. Now when you go into any type of store really you know the coolers that have like the Coca-Cola the sprite the lemonade look I've memorized everything the monster the water the Diet Coke the cherry Coke all of those have to be hand-stocked like you yourself have to like put in the drinks and then they get cold and then other people like take them out that is such a like job that I hated doing but the good thing I was trying to look at the positives when I worked there at least it almost always took at least an hour to do that not like an hour but it took a long time to do that considering depending on if the cooler was like low and needed a lot of drinks it did take up a lot of time and I felt sometimes that like you could just be like standing there like not knowing what to do half of the time if you had no like guests in your store or whatever but that's one job that I did not really care for and I also wanted to add some of the team members thought that they were like above you and would tell you what to do and I really didn't appreciate that also a lot of the team captains thought they were in charge which they were in charge but they would always think that they were above each other so it was like hard to tell who was the boss and it not all of them but some of them and it's like no the manager is the one in charge so that really heated me up another thing about working in a theme park you're going to get a lot of drama and I know that like no matter where you go or work and stuff like there's going to be like drama and people talking about certain things or people it's just really annoying but in this specific location like the more that went on like the more drama that was created and it just was like kind of annoying but your girl likes listening to the tea so I didn't mind too too much okay so I want to talk about kind of the wardrobe there's this building like backstage it's called wardrobe and it's basically just like this warehouse of like all the costumes and all the clothing pieces that you need for work so this is the part that I really really didn't like about working at Universal when you work at Universal if you're full time you can take home your clothes meaning you can like take them to your house do laundry like normal and everything but if you're seasonal or like part time some part time and some seasonal actually got to take home their outfits which I had no idea why that was totally unfair I asked but they were like no sounds like alright fine so I had to end up leaving like an hour and a half to get to work because of like traffic and stuff but also because you need to go to this place called wardrobe pick out your clothes and then go into the locker which smells like feet sometimes it smelled better than other times but it's still kind of smelled in there because everyone had to like change and stuff because I worked at the park that's like further away I had to like walk all this way which is great because I was getting some exercise there was a bus I would take you but like sometimes it would be late I always left pretty early so I could catch the bus and it was great I really didn't have any issues with the bus but towards the end of it I just started walking because I wanted the exercise I didn't like having to like go change into stuff and then like go to work and then have to change back because that just like takes so much time and like another thing that I didn't really like about working at a theme park and this kind of goes in general for working with people like service type jobs it's not all bad don't get me wrong but there are some people that it's just like why it makes me like not like society sometimes because the way people talk to their kids and like the way people just like go about asking for things is just not the nicest sometimes and I'm like dude I'm a person I'm here working this job getting $12 now or like please respect me please like be a little bit nicer and you don't understand that so many people don't put back items where they're supposed to go and it's like are you I mean I get we're all lazy and these people paid a lot of money to get in the park but like come on people like put the shirt back not with the plushies put it back with the other shirts it's okay if you don't like get the shirt right like the same design or whatever but put in the same area like half the time there would be pieces of merchandise that would be like all the way on the other side of the store and if you are working in a dump store which is a store after a ride you were constantly like a dog chasing your tail because you were just like cleaning up after the next like wave of people it was like the never-ending task another thing that wasn't too bad but like still not the best sometimes you would be in stores alone and when you're in a store alone it was kind of like lonely but also you had all these people like waiting in line sometimes I don't understand can you just not take your break right now could you just go a little later but this goes into my next point where you had this thing and I think that they had this like everywhere and I know a lot of theme parks do this it's called a breakboard it's not literally a board it's kind of like a piece of paper that's on like the cash register area and it tells you when your lunch is and your breaks so that's why it's called like a breakboard and it tells you when your times to go to lunch are and I understand that but sometimes and this frustrated me so much the breakboard did not make sense whatsoever like sometimes there'd be people that were like in a store alone and like it's the busiest time of the night or something and then other times you would get into work you would check the breakboard and you're like wait why am I taking a 15 minute break after one hour of work it made no sense whatsoever and they started changing it kind of this is like towards the very end of my era or time at Universal and I asked like my manager could I take my lunch a little bit later cuz like I don't need to go to lunch like two hours after I started working you know and she was like oh we're trying to like make sure there's like always two people in the store I don't know like she gave me this excuse and it was kind of lame because I don't need to be like taking a lunch break after two hours work that's ridiculous I also feel like this I mean okay so the breakboard thing is just like completely stupid I think the people in the store should just determine and like work it out amongst themselves on like who's going when I think that would be totally fine because most of the time there's only like at least low season there's only like four people I mean like four people like scheduled in the store but I definitely have always felt that there wasn't a lot of people so I don't understand why could those people couldn't just work it out amongst themselves so this brings me into my other point sometimes we were like really overly staffed and then other times we were so understaffed I don't understand why the scheduling people like just did it in such a weird way because and there was only like one scheduler and it was um it was an assistant manager you would think that like they would schedule enough people to like work I don't know I don't understand it never have never will and I guess I totally get they have a budget and stuff and they don't want to have to pay all these people if they're not busy and stuff because if we weren't busy they would like try to send people home because like then they don't have to like pay them you know and that's probably just like a company thing if we're not you know making the money then like yeah then they would want to send you home which I was totally okay with because even though I like making that coin I still did not really want to be working at Universal a lot of the time another thing I wanted to mention was purchase with purchase items and like selling up or upselling items it was such a pain because you know all these people are spending like thousands of dollars to come to Florida on a vacation and stuff and you're like trying to sell them this like cheap pin or this cheap magnet thing like no they're not gonna want that I mean I'm sold a few things but like if it was practical like sunscreen okay maybe that would make more sense to like try to upsell but these people are not going to buy that stuff I normally honestly didn't mention stuff to people except for like you know there was a six-piece fudge special that I would be like okay if they're already buying three might as well buy one more and get too free it's not too bad but like other things like a cheap-ass universal bag that's probably gonna get a hole in it in two days I'm not going to like offer that to them I just thought it was like kind of stupid and ridiculous it's not it's not my deal to make and I did mention it sometimes and sometimes the people would buy but I just did not like feeling bad about like selling something to somebody one more thing that I really really did not like was I had to stand for like so long and my feet started hurting and even though I'm young and stuff I don't know how people do it luckily I have these like cool inserts that I got not too long ago so I started wearing those to work during the winter season and it helped a little bit but still like standing on my feet for so long I just did not like that whatsoever that's another thing too at like a big theme park and working at Universal like I always felt like they were treating me like I was stupid and they didn't really like appreciate my work and stuff and the calling out policy thing it was kind of ridiculous because I in my entire lifetime of being at Universal I have called out once and I can say that because like that is honest to God truth called out once and I asked that for that day off to the person and she was all like no but I was never going to see my cousin graduate again she was only going to graduate high school once so I wanted to be there so I called out because of that but other times like I told them like hey I'm not going to be here and they still scheduled me I'm like okay well whatever luckily there was like little people from heaven that came and down and took my shifts so thank you and shout out to you guys because I needed those days off because I was out of town for Christmas with Spencer's family so I really needed that time off when I first started the scheduling person she was like awesome and like oh she was like such a sweetheart and then again like when management changed she left she was the type of person if you asked her for days off two weeks in advance she would most likely if she could give you those times off there was not really a lot of like graciousness I just felt like I was like underappreciated and there was one manager that they'd say like thank you every night and that was like really awesome and I did feel kind of appreciated we had this thing that we would take it was like a test called t-set it stood for team member satisfaction it was basically like a survey on like how team members felt and everything and I thought that my fellow team members were all on the same page of like how we felt everything and I don't know if they like took any of that advice but every time like I would take it and stuff like each time it like work kind of got worse I'm like they're not really like fixing anything I think that is going to be it because I rambled on it so long this is going to take me so long to edit listening to my own voice make sure to give this video a big thumbs up don't forget to subscribe also if you have any other questions let me know down in the comments down below I would love to answer the questions for you there was just so much that went on there also I will link down below a video about a guest making me cry that was fun now I laugh about it now but anyway that is going to be it and I'll see you guys in my next video bye