Disney World Hits Cast Compliments Milestone & Why You Should Praise Magic Makers!
Walt Disney World has reached a major milestone with Mobile Cast Compliments. This shares that news, plus tips for how to appreciate Cast Members easily via the My Disney Experience app and extensive commentary about why you really should make the effort to praise the Magic Makers. It’s a win-win!
Let’s start with the news. Cast Members at Walt Disney World have received over two million Mobile Cast Compliments submitted by appreciative guests through the My Disney Experience App. This accounts for a total of nearly 2.6 million Cast Compliments across Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort!
If you’ve never submitted a Mobile Cast Compliment before, a ride on Cast Member Andrew Rubin’s musical parking tram might inspire you to do so. During just the first six months of his College Program, Andrew has received over 550 Cast Compliments! “When I get a Cast Compliment, it reminds me that I’m making this parking lot as magical as I can,” said Andrew. “If I can create magic in a parking lot, I can create magic anywhere.”
From singing announcements to creating his own parking-themed versions of Disney songs, Andrew’s passion for creating happiness has also made for some incredible guest moments that are a source of pride for his friends and family.
“Receiving compliments is awesome, but I do this because the guest experience is truly important to me,” he said. “As a parking cast member, I’m the first and last person guests encounter. I get to set the mood and meet the expectations that come with a visit to Disney World.”
Walt Disney World guests aren’t the only ones who take the time to compliment the incredible Walt Disney World Cast Members – they recognize each other, too! Over the last ten years, Disney Cast Members have exchanged nearly six million (!!!) messages of gratitude using RecognizeNow!, a digital tool specifically designed for them.
How to Leave Cast Compliments
The next time a Cast Member makes magic for you, consider recognizing them for the great work they do by leaving a compliment on the My Disney Experience or Disneyland Resort apps. We implore you to do this for the reasons discussed below in the commentary.
To send a compliment, navigate to the bottom of the My Disney Experience app’s menu screen and select the “Cast Compliment” button. Then choose a positive sentiment from the drop-down menu. After that, enter the cast member’s first name, hometown and click submit!
Make sure to spell the cast member’s first name and hometown correctly so the cast member will be alerted, and they can receive their personalized recognition from their leadership at Walt Disney World.
One thing to note is that you do not have to make Cast Compliments in real-time. Many readers have bemoaned the amount of screen time required at Walt Disney World these days, and there’s no need to add to that.
Simply write down or take a photo of the Cast Member’s name tag, and submit Cast Compliments later. You can do it at the end of a long day in the parks, or even after your trip ends. It’s a nice way to relieve the fun memories and magical moments that defined your Walt Disney World vacation!
(As a quick aside, it’s nice to see the number of Cast Compliments received by Andrew above. This confirms to me that the Mobile Cast Compliment actually works and amounts to anything. When this app feature first rolled out, it lacked the specificity it has now, and I was slightly skeptical/cynical about it. This announcement makes clear that Mobile Cast Compliments are every bit as worthwhile and valuable as the old fashioned ones!)
Why You Should Leave Cast Compliments
Cast Compliments are significant for internal recognition and career advancement opportunities within Walt Disney World. They ensure that the Cast Members who are living up to Walt’s legacy and making magic for guests are recognized and promoted, which is exactly what we should all want to see. The cream rise to the top.
For this reason, we’d recommend giving Cast Compliments not just to Cast Members who go above and beyond to add an element of ‘entertainment’ to a mundane experience, but those who deliver more straightforward-but-exemplary guest service. I would hazard a guess that Cast Members like Andrew above and the servers at Whispering Canyon, for example, receive a disproportionate number of Cast Compliments. Ditto the custodial CMs making gorgeous mop art.
Meanwhile, there are far more Cast Members who less visibly (or completely invisibly) ensure you’re having a great experience. Show some appreciation for them, too! We’re not suggesting you make 1,971 Cast Compliments per trip, but even a few would be higher than the average guest and go a long way towards Walt Disney World hitting 3 million Mobile Cast Compliments by 2026. (That should be our goal!)
Cast Compliments are also a nice morale boost and break the cycle of entitlement and negativity.
I speak from indirect experience. Not as a Cast Member, but as a Sandwich Artist. For a few years during high school and the breaks during freshman year of college, I worked at my hometown Subway. On the rare occasions when customers would say something kind to my boss, it absolutely made my day–those people probably had no idea how impactful they were. Customers being kind was positive reinforcement, whereas rudeness was the exact opposite.
To this day, Sandwich Artist is far and away the most demanding job I’ve ever done. (I was also exceptional at it. Apologies for bragging, but to this day I can execute a flawless v-cut and perfectly layer an obscene amount of toppings in a footlong, and do it quickly. I’m easily 99th percentile for sandwich-making skills.)
My experience also taught me that the entitlement people think a $5 footlong bought them was absolutely asinine. I can only imagine how much worse that is with a $5,000+ vacation. This is why I’ve written repeatedly that all Americans should work in a service industry so they “learn” how to treat others.
You wouldn’t think this is something that actually requires learning–that people should just know to treat others with respect because they’re fellow humans and it’s the right thing to do. You would be wrong. Way too many people consider the workers in customer service roles to be “beneath” them.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last few years is that we’ve received more complaints about Cast Members from readers. And you know what, painting with broad strokes, this is accurate. As a whole, guest service is worse now than it was in 2019. But there’s a lot more nuance to it than that.
The labor market is tighter now. This is especially true in Central Florida, which is rapidly growing in terms of employment opportunities in the hospitality industry without a commensurate increase in the labor pool due to a variety of real world factors. This is precisely why the Disney Look was relaxed a few years back–not whatever excuse Disney gave at the time. It needed to happen to help resolve staffing shortages. (It’s the same reason the Yankees are doing it now–so they can lose the World Series to the Dodgers again.)
It was also a rough few years for Cast Members. They were tasked with playing adult babysitters and rule enforcers when health safety protocol was in place. On top of that, think of all the highly unpopular changes made by Walt Disney World. Frontline Cast Members, who made none of those decisions, bore the brunt of ever-increasing guest complaints about those things. Morale was the lowest we’d ever seen it in mid-November 2022, and it has taken time to rebound since then. But thankfully, it has.
At this point, the biggest problem is guest entitlement.
This is not an issue unique to Walt Disney World; entitlement is at an all-time high. We’ve witnessed countless Cast Members subjected to adult meltdowns at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. These happen for any number of reasons, but the underlying reasons mostly relate back to the sense of entitlement at the core of the Disney Parks Pet Peeves post, or the stresses and pressures that many adults feel when going on a Disney vacation.
Many of these rants invoke the cost of the “expensive vacation.” Unsurprisingly so. Guests pay a lot of money and have certain expectations as a result. But I can assure you that Cast Members neither set those prices nor have any control about corresponding policies, attraction maintenance, wait times, Lightning Lane availability, or any number of other things that upset guests.
Again, frontline Cast Members do not make policy–as is probably obvious to anyone reading this. But guests aren’t always as rational in the heat of the moment when they’re “cracking” under the stress of visiting Walt Disney World, Florida weather, etc.
I know this is probably preaching to the choir, but it’s a small miracle that Cast Members are able to deal with belligerent guests while essentially becoming a punching bag. Not only that, but once the unpleasant interaction is over, the Cast Member is expected to resume their role as if nothing happened, putting on a smile and going out of their way to be pleasant to other guests.
If they are simply human and fail to quickly set aside those emotions so it doesn’t negatively affect the experiences of other guests, people take to the internet and complain about Cast Members going downhill. I’ve seen and heard enough to have fully abandoned my dream of a ‘retirement job’ at Walt Disney World. I couldn’t do it. I’ll go back to making sandwiches in comparative peace.
The point of all this is that if Walt Disney World fans want “better” Cast Members, we need to be part of the solution. To help break the cycle of negativity and help cultivate a positive feedback loop instead of a negative one. It’s time to reverse the vicious cycle of lower employee satisfaction and lower guest satisfaction.
Being kind and gracious to Cast Members is one way. If you interact a less than cheerful Cast Member, you can give them the benefit of the doubt. You never know what their last interaction was before you, or what else has happened in their day. One thing our Cast Member friends who have worked in guest relations pride themselves in is their ability to “turn” guests from upset to pleased; we could all embrace that same attitude, in reverse. If not for kindness’s own sake, remember that (selfishly!) you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Another way is taking a few seconds out of our days at Walt Disney World to give Cast Compliments. Doing so makes a big difference for that Cast Member’s career, and probably has an outsized impact on their morale. You’re probably NOT the audience that needs to hear this–and it’s probably preachy, but I make no apologies for that. This is the right hill to die on. We can all be part of the solution and help Walt Disney World reach 3 million Cast Compliments in record time!
In the wise-words of dearly-departed former CEO Bob Chapek, Cast Members are the “secret sauce” and the key to a great guest experience at Walt Disney World. He said that around 99% of the positive guest feedback he received when running Parks & Resorts was about Cast Members. “You have to make sure the Cast is at the center of everything you do,” Chapek reflected.
We don’t say this very often: Bob Chapek was right. Cast Members are the heart and soul of Disney–the people who breathe life into the parks, making them truly special places.
We can’t point to a single moment or trip that made us lifelong Disney fans. Included among those events were a series of little interactions with Cast Members that left a lasting impression long after our trips were over. We know we’re not alone–the outsized impact of Cast Members is probably why many of you are on this blog in the first place.
The parks wouldn’t be what they are without your hard work and dedication. Cast Members carry the torch of Disney’s legendary guest service are Walt’s most enduring legacy. “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” Let’s all do our part to help keep that reality alive, and get Cast Members to 3 million Mobile Cast Compliments by 2026!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on the Mobile Cast Compliment feature? Will you be using this liberally going forward to appreciate the magic makers who add something special to your Walt Disney World vacations? Thoughts on our commentary or “goal” to reach 3 million Cast Compliments by 2026? Have any magical memories made by Cast Members? Agree that they’re the heart and soul of the Disney magic, and the true stewards of Walt Disney’s legacy? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and appreciated by other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We were in line for early entry to Animal Kingdom and were chosen by cast member, Antonio, to be the “Family of the Day” to open the park. What Antonio saw was a very excited and grateful family to have the opportunity to open the park (and get a head start to Pandora!). What Antonio didn’t know is how much his small act of kindness meant to me, following a cancer diagnosis a couple of months prior. I took a photo with Antonio, and hugged and thanked him for making our day so special (and submitted a cast member compliment). I won’t forget his kindness.
While I’m sure there is some legitimacy to the claims that Guest service from frontline Cast suffered post-pandemic, I seemed to have even better interactions. I fully chalk this up to going into every visit with the assumption that the world was rough for Cast to navigate. That meant that every mediocre or not great interaction was just…a person surviving, and that in itself was impressive. Then when we’d have a good or great interaction, it really stood out. How could someone be so positive in a world that is so terrible right now? Empathy did a lot to make me appreciate Disney Cast Members (as did visiting other theme parks, yeesh). I encourage it for everyone. I guarantee it will make your visit much more enjoyable.
It’s so funny that this article came up, but no surprise that Andrew was front and center! We had the honour of riding at the back of the AK tram when my daughter and I visited in September last year. It was a VERY hot day, and we were absolutely exhausted. We had to ride a tram as part of a multi-park challenge day, and on a whim we decided to cross it off here. We were already smiling before the tram had even come to a stop as we could hear Andrew singing and cracking jokes many meters away! We actually made a point of going and saying “HI” on our way out of the park, even though we were taking a bus, and even caught up with him on our next day into AK. Needless to say, it’s a ride we will never forget, and have talked about it to many family and friends. And as a second bonus to the trip, I got to meet and get a photo with TJ at the Hollywood Tower of Terror. If you know, you know!
Disney may get a bad rap for high prices, but you just need to stop and look around to see where it’s spent. The grounds are immaculate, the rides are truly incredible, but it’s the cast members who are the driving force behind the magic. Most of them love what they do and it shows!
I couldn’t agree more–I did my time in the customer service mines, even trained CS agents at one point, and I don’t envy CMs dealing with the insane entitlement of a lot of guests. People are overwhelmingly more likely to complain about a bad experience (whether real or perceived) than praise a good experience so it’s fantastic to see so many people step up with positivity. Since the mobile compliment feature has been a thing, we have made a concerted effort to recognize at least one CM each day of our trip. But even before then, we would find ourselves at Guest Services once per trip. To this day some of my best and fondest memories of the parks and resorts are of moments with CMs. They truly do make the magic and they deserve all the recognition in the world for that.
Tom, I’ve been using your photo idea for a few years now and it makes the process of leaving a compliment to a cast memeber so easy to do when you get back to your room and have a charge back on your phone. The cast members have always been happy to give me a big smile when I tell them I’m going to give them a compliment.
I am proud to have been a little part of sharing compliments, as I have done at least over two dozen between our trips. I also learned to do them immediately so I remember names and my happiness can be immediately felt in the comment. My special shout outs often are a result of staff being kind or treating my son with Autism with dignity, as that is not always the case, so I want to help put a light on those who do because they make things more magical!
Very much like the special shout out I did for the young man that was playing Peter Pan that day in my earlier post. The woman had some sort of developmental disability but the CM didn’t let that stand in the way of her being treated to a magical moment.
Great article and love the idea of a photo of their tag. I was from the “u” shape era of subway sandwich cutting! My goal is usually to do at least one compliment a day in the parks on top of any special incidents that may pop up. When you start to look for it, you see it all the good around you. I’ve seen cast members really go out of their way at times. Especially have great memories of the staff at Port Orleans Riverside.
Great idea for the photo of the name tag. When we went last summer, there were a couple of standout CMs that I really wanted to acknowledge. One was at Aerosmith and she went above and beyond to assist my son’s fear of going on it for the firs time when it kept going down.
The idea about taking a photo of the name tag is great. I have a terrible memory so I always leave my cast complements while I’m still in the location so I can double check name and hometown before I go. I’m really glad that Disney really is tracking these, because I know how important kindness is for morale. I’m also glad to know that even though the V-cut is no longer practiced in Subway that its spirit lives on.
Thanks for reminding us to send Cast Member Compliments! During a recent WDW trip, I tried very hard to compliment every Cast Member I interacted with. I had recently heard so many negative comments about Disney Cast Members. Yet, all my interactions were just great.
My wife was in a wheel chair at Magic Kingdom one day due to a foot injury. We inquired at Big Thunder Mountain Railway how to ride with a person in a wheel chair. Three separate Cast Members assisted us and they were amazing. As we boarded, I took just a few seconds to thank the very nice, courteous and professional young woman helping us for being so kind. Her face lit up and she seemed genuinely surprised to get such a compliment and actually thanked me for taking the time to thank her. And yes, I also sent her a compliment in the App.
“I had recently heard so many negative comments about Disney Cast Members. Yet, all my interactions were just great.”
It’s negativity bias.
Someone could have 99 excellent interactions with Cast Members and only 1 bad experience, and the latter will stick with them far more than any of the positive ones.
Great to hear your amazing experience–thanks for sharing!
Remember that you don’t have to create the complement on the same day that it happened (you can back date if you’re creating it after the day). I don’t want the pressure/responsibilty on vacation but I always take a picture (with permission and tell them it’s for a complement) and create the complements when I’m going through pictures (ususally within a day or 2 but sometimes on the way home).
I decided to do this one in a separate post. As the dad of a former CM who was there as part of the DCP, I saw how hard some of these kids work. These people are the front line of customer service in the parks. A lot of times they unfortunately need to deal with obnoxious and unruly guests. Getting compliments from the guests whether it is in person or via the app, it always makes their day a bit better. The face and costume characters probably have it the hardest.
I love that story about Andrew the musical tram guy! It’s great to know that the cast compliments actually end up somewhere because sometimes the app form seems so generic how could they possibly know. I make it a point to give several cast compliments via MDE on each of our trips. It’s fun to recognize people who make it a “happy place” for me and hopefully it helps them in their careers!
I have a couple of times left compliments on the app, though one time for one cast member I also contacted guest services to make sure that this one cast member who was playing Peter Pan got recognized for going above and beyond to make a extra special magical day for a young handicapped woman who appeared to be a huge Peter Pan fan. He took the time to talk to her and make a few jokes and let her family take a whole load of pictures with him. When it was our turn I said to him that it was great to see him take some time to make a very special experience for the woman. He thanked me for the compliment and I could see that he appreciated other people recognizing his actions.
I’m so glad you gave cast compliments a standalone post! I saw this mentioned in another one of your posts a while ago – and it was the first time I’d heard this feature even existed. The fastest way to 3 million is for more people to engage with this awesome app feature!
I compliment CM’s a lot and I do it right in front of them. Believe me they do appreciate it and they won’t forget you either. If you can’t do it right then, use word association to remember their name and home town.
I would compliment Tom but I have to rush off.
“I would compliment Tom but I have to rush off.”
Understandable. I’ve never made you a sandwich.
ah, subway. remember the stamp cards? i practically lived there in high school and college thanks to $5 footlongs. i feel their downfall was removing the v-cut on the bread.
The stamp cards were awful. Even at my small town store, we had an issue with fraudulent and stolen stamps. There was no great way to confront customers who we had a pretty good idea were fraudsters, so we just let it happen until they started coming in on a regular basis. I’m sure it’d be easier to do now with a digital system, but back then, it was terrible.
Back in the olde days we would take a picture of the cast member getting the name tag clear and twitting it on the twitter thing. We would of course let the CM know on the off chance they did not want their name/picture in the cyber-verse. Of course we still picture-fy the name tag if possible to job our memory and get all the deets.
Boy its hard typing in the style of the cool cats today. But the important thing is the CMs can really make or break a vacation, recognize the good ones! For what it’s worth we have noticed on our last two trips the CMs are really getting better and we have done more recognitions of late.
Taking a photo of the name tag is a great tip!
I also feel that Cast Members have gotten better on both coasts in the last couple of years. The end of the Chapek reign was definitely the low point, and things have gotten better since with Lightning Lanes getting easier, the new union contracts, and just generally more distance from all of the (ahem) unpleasantness of the phased reopening years.
Still not quite as good as 2019, but sadly, the world is just a different place now.
Since they rolled out the cast compliment feature, i do something similar. I’ll take a picture of the cast member and name tag (with their consent!) that I want to compliment, and then go through them that evening or on a later date and fill out the cast compliment forms. It also helps me remember the happy moments of my trip!
I also take a picture of the cast members name tag. Of course after I ask permission. It is so much easier to make a cast complement when you have a break and this way I have the name and hometown without having to try and remember it.
I guess emoji get stripped when posting comments!
That was supposed to be applause for you.
Recognition means so much, and now I guess I’m recognizing you!
If I can’t remember the hometown of the person I’m giving a compliment to, I put down where I am and the time of day in that box. Figuring whomever in management communicates the compliment to the cast member, they can look up the employee schedule for the location and narrow it down.