Disney World is the Most Magical Place on Earth, but there is no denying that the magic is created by Cast Members as well!
Cast Members are the MAGIC!
You may have noticed some Cast Members have gold pins on their name tags. These pins are service pins and indicate how long a Cast Member has worked for the Walt Disney Company. After one year, a Cast Member can earn their one-year pin, followed by their five-year pin, and so on every five years. Once a Cast Member reaches 10 years with the company, they are invited to a special party that only happens once a year.
Cast Members with milestone anniversary years starting at 10 years (then 15, 20, 25, and so on) get to attend a special service celebration in the Magic Kingdom!
Magic Kingdom
Disney pulls out all the stops to celebrate these Cast Members (who get to bring a guest!), like a lanyard with how many years they have worked for the company, a red carpet down Main Street, tons of food, and the Magic Kingdom shuts down early for them to enjoy!
The Magic Kingdom closed at 4:30 PM on January 30th
This year’s celebration happened on January 30th, and the Magic Kingdom closed for guests at 4:30 PM. Over 6,500 Cast Members were honored with over 100,000 years of service combined! There were six generations of Cast Members invited to this exclusive celebration and 19 Cast Members celebrated 50 years with the company!
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During the celebration, Cast Members are treated to specialty drinks and food, and this year, the most popular offerings on the menu were jumbo shrimp, street corn, cannolis, and mac & cheese. On top of having food around the parks, popular restaurants like Casey’s Corner and Aloha Isle were serving up complementary treats!
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Those who had service anniversaries of 40, 45, and 50 years were treated to a special three-course sit-down meal.
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Cast Members and their guests got to ride Magic Kingdom attractions with little to no wait, and there were over 150 experiences for them to enjoy. Of course, there were Photopass Photographers ready to capture over 85,000 photos throughout the course of the party.
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This party sounds amazing! If you want the chance to attend next year, you will either have to be invited by a Cast Member celebrating a milestone anniversary or become a Cast Member and start working towards your 10-year status.
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We love that Disney makes sure to celebrate Cast Member milestone anniversaries in a big way each year, as they deserve all the recognition!
@disneyparks Celebrate the magic makers and let them eat shrimp! ?✨ #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #MagicKingdom #DisneyCastLife #Shrimp
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We have had many magical memories made even more wonderful by the many outstanding CMs at WDW. I am so happy to see Disney doing this to recognize their people, and I’m especially happy to see that the recognition increases with tenure. Too many companies seem to have a ‘what? you’re still here?’ attitude toward anyone who has been around for more than 5 years. As usual, a lot of other organizations have a lot to learn from Disney.
Speaking as a Cast Member who has celebrated his 10th and 15th Service Anniversary at this party (and is 2 years from 20!) I can tell you first hand that this party is amazing!!! Disney really does treat the Cast like royalty at this event!! Even after the party is over Cast Members talk about what a great time they had and tell the Cast Members who haven’t been at Disney for 10 years yet what a wonderful experience they will soon have!
How many can they invite?
This is a lovely thing for Disney to do. It’s worth finding out in advance when it will happen. We just happened to be there in 2022 on the day of the party. The park was really quiet because it was closing at 4:30pm. We got more done in that shorter day than we ever do in a busy full day.