I am going to be moving to Orlando area near the spring need help! (Bell: apartments)

[JustinHauf]

A friend and I are going to be moving in the spring time. i am going to be heading down the last week in dec to check places out. so my question is does anyone have any advise for a nice 2bed 2bath apartment? also we are both in the hotel field how hard is it to get a job for 2 people from upstate NY? any advise will be great.

Thank you in advance for any of your help

[annerk]

It depends on what you do in the hotel industry. If you don't mind working for $8 an hour as a guest services person, Disney is usually hiring. If you are looking for a more professional position, it might take some time. Best bet is to try to transfer.

Figure out where you'll get jobs before looking at apartments. This area is very spread out. There are plenty of places to live, you are putting the cart before the horse.

[JustinHauf]

i am deffinety look towards disney to work. right now i am currently a Front Desk Clerk at a 4Diamond Resort. but i wouldnt mind going back to being a bellman or a valet position! since i am apply for entry level positions it'll be harder for me to get hired since i am out of state a company is better off hiring someone who can start right away it will take me a bit to move down there. so that is why i would like to find an apartment first

[hgebel]

Originally Posted by JustinHauf

i am deffinety look towards disney to work. right now i am currently a Front Desk Clerk at a 4Diamond Resort. but i wouldnt mind going back to being a bellman or a valet position! since i am apply for entry level positions it'll be harder for me to get hired since i am out of state a company is better off hiring someone who can start right away it will take me a bit to move down there. so that is why i would like to find an apartment first

If you want to start in a hotel (as opposed to parks) at Disney and you want to start full-time your only options are probably going to be housekeeping and quick service foods. Everything else you are going to have to transfer into after building up full-time seniority (we are a union site and transfers are pretty much on a straight seniority basis, somebody who has been a custodian at a water park for six years will be hired for front desk before someone who has been a front desk clerk for 20 years but has only worked at Disney for 2 years.) Right now we are way overstaffed on the front desk (I am front desk at the Contemporary, also a 4 diamond resort) and I don't see many transfers to day shift front desk happening any time soon (People with only 3-4 years seniority are getting transfers onto graveyard front desk however). Concierge is still doing transfers, not sure how much seniority they are averaging before they get the transfer, but we still need a fairly high number of concierges. They make more than front desk as well (but unlike some other hotels our concierges absolutely can not accept tips).

Although they hire full-time off the street, housekeeping is is probably one of the hardest jobs anyone can do, certainly the hardest job in the hotel. So people are often transferring from housekeeping to other jobs that are technically demotions, just to get out of housekeeping. That's why they still hire off the street. Since you have hotel experience you know what a crazy hard job being a housekeeper is.

If you don't care about starting in a hotel there are some other jobs like custodial, merchandise, and attractions that hire off the street. Bus drivers also but you need experience. Quick service foods and merchandise are both found in hotels and in the parks (and Downtown Disney), but I think people in those departments start usually in merchandise/foods in the parks then transfer to a merchandise or foods job at a resort. Entertainment hires from outside the company as well but requires an audition plus very specific height requirements and is hard to get into.

Note that we will hopefully get a new contract soon so these may change (but not by much), but here are the current starting rates for hourly resort positions in our current (expired) contract:

Merchandise $7.95
Quick service Foods $7.95
Housekeeping $8.25
Recreation $7.70

There are others, but those are what you might be able to get in on on the ground floor.

Since you work on the front desk now, these are the front desk rates to start (but you won't make these since you will need some seniority before you transfer in so you will make a little more)
Front Desk $8.75 ($9.35 on graveyard ) (I got front desk after building up about 2.25 years of seniority in merchandise and monorails)
Concierge $9.25

You need to work on the front desk or some other position for a few years before you can transfer to bellman, there is a long, long waiting list for transfers to that position. Bellman make $4.10 while handling luggage for guests, otherwise they make $7.45.

You could probably start as a full-time valet without much of a problem, but that is because they are outsourced. They get no benefits whatsoever and since they don't work for Disney you can't transfer from valet to another position in the resort.

Benefits for any of those jobs (except for valet) will be fantastic, but pay is going to be an issue. I just (and I mean JUST) barely get by, but only by drastically changing my spending habits from up north. I will be doing a little better than just getting by when I finish paying of my bills from Delaware in a few months, but not much better. I've never regretted working at Disney and I love working here, but you have to really consider what's important to you and if you can live on Disney pay. I tell people even though the benefits here are fantastic, and as important as medical benefits are (especially to someone like me who has Crohn's Disease) you can't eat your insurance card, nor can you use it as a roof over your head. Make sure you can set up a budget on what we make (for example, having a family may make that hard or impossible), and make sure you can stick to that budget (some people can, others can't).

-Harry

[JustinHauf]

Harry
thank you for all your information. i really dont mind working graveyard shift as a front desk. but i also understand that i will have to work hard and possible do other jobs before getting what i want to do. Disney is deffinetly number 1 on my list but at the same time i wouldnt mind working other places. do you think it is the same way at the other hotels that are not disney owned?

[otown native]

hgebel mentioned the outsourced valet out at Disney...I actually work for the company that does that outsourcing. We also offer a couple other positions out at Disney, and we're always hiring. Go to airportbags.com and click on careers to apply (and this goes out to anyone that comes across this post). It's a great way to get you into something quickly, and the company always offers the opportunity for advancement as each of the valet account managers at the hotels were at one point valet runners themselves. Good luck in your job hunt.