Comments

1. Tim says

   April 2, 2010 at 11:32 pm

   As someone who used to work at Le Cellier, I have to say that while this is a good opportunity for guests, and will almost certainly be successful, I kinda feel bad for the Cast Members; A dinner shift at a busy theme park restaurant like Le Cellier is exhausting even when the restaurant is only seating from 4-9. Service cast members usually get there at about 3:30, and leave at around 11:00 or later, usually without a break since you constantly have guests. With this option, service Cast Members might not get out until midnight or later, and that’s just a rough day all around. Cast members working “mid shifts” (lunch and dinner) would have even longer days!

   They’ve tried this before, keeping a few restaurants open for an extra hour on Extra Magic Hour evenings, and I can vouch that it made for a loooong shift!

2. AJ says

   April 3, 2010 at 1:09 pm

   Tim, thanks for your comment. That’s a great perspective; I do imagine that would make for a significantly long shift. Are there any opportunities to be paid for “overtime?”

3. Tim says

   April 3, 2010 at 8:00 pm

   I’m not sure about hourly cast members such as front-of-house staff or culinary staff, but as servers we didn’t get any overtime pay. However, that’s because ours were tipped positions, so we would make more money since we’d be serving more guests in an evening than on a normal shift.

4. AJ says

   April 4, 2010 at 2:24 pm

   Thanks, Tim. It’s a great perspective to have. If they DO extend hours, do you think there’s a chance that they’re create another shift? If not, I’ll be sure to extra-tip in the evening!

5. Tim says

   April 5, 2010 at 2:58 pm

   I don’t think it’s very likely that they’d introduce another whole shift just for one extra hour. However, what they tried with the wait staff in the past was to have some of the servers that worked lunch stick around for a bit and serve the first round of tables at dinner (the lunch shift was always fairly short to begin with), and then bring in some of the dinner servers at 5 pm instead of right at the beginning of the dinner service at 4. That helped out a bit.

6. AJ says

   April 6, 2010 at 5:53 pm

   If you still have contacts, there, Tim, let me know what they’ve ended up doing. Thanks so far for your “backstage info”!!