Theme parks provide an exception. Indeed, Thanksgiving and Christmas bring some of the year's larger crowds to year-'round theme parks at Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and Disneyland. That creates a bit of a dilemma for theme park employees:
Take the day off and stay home with family... or come into work and pick up hours and hours of overtime?
As a single guy in his early 20s when I worked at Walt Disney World, I had no trouble with that decision - show me the money, baby!
While the promise of extra cash lured me into working my first holiday shift, the experience kept me coming back. Ultimately, family holidays mark a celebration of community. And isn't working in a crowded theme park an ultimate communal experience?
I found working the Thanksgiving holiday especially interesting. Unlike Christmas, which is celebrated around the world, the late November Thanksgiving is an American holiday and brings an almost exclusively American crowd to the parks.
When I worked Thanksgiving at the Magic Kingdom, that meant that even though we'd set up extended queues, they were filled with people who...
Okay, if Disney were like that every day, the experience of working there would end up as bland as the taste of grocery-bought turkey breast. But for one day a year, it put into sharp contrast the blend of visitors' cultures and languages you can come to take for granted working at an international tourist destination.
Nor can I stress enough the great vibe the crowd generates on a community-focused holiday, whether it be Thanksgiving, Christmas or even Halloween. The one Thanksgiving I worked at Big Thunder Mountain, we put through the highest hourly guest counts I'd ever seen. The queues flew and we suffered no downtimes all day. Even with the extended queues set up, I don't think anyone waited more than 45 minutes to ride.
Cool weather and clear skies helped keep the crowd happy and attentive, as well. The forecast in Orlando for this Thanksgiving weekend is partly cloudy skies with highs ranging from the upper-60s to mid-70s. Just gorgeous. With typically great weather and friendly crowds, I recommend that if you have to visit a theme park on a crowded holiday, pick Thanksgiving.
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