The GCW Tour, the Frozen It's a Small World -- But Not That Small

Our final dinner on the cruise ended with a "parade of flags." The waitstaff carried the flags of the sixty countries that are represented by the crew and staff of the boat around the dining room while "It's a Small World" played in the background.

Well, kinda...

It's been sort of interesting talking with the staff and watching how the nationalities break out around the boat. Let's just say, it's not a random distribution.

We did learn the staff are -- no surprise -- on contract. There's apparently a single point of contact for Disney Cruises in each country, and that agent coordinates all the hiring from that one country. The contracts are for six months, and when the contract ends the staff member will go home for six to eight weeks. Assuming they like the work and are wanted back, they'll then sign on for another six months and go around again. I didn't ask about wages, but they must good enough to keep the staff coming back. Most of the folks I talked to had been with Disney Cruises for somewhere in the neighborhood of five years, so there's gotta be something leading folks to sign up for repeated contracts.

One thing I have to give them: no fake names -- at least none that I saw. The staff name tags all identify both name and country of origin, and I saw no "Mary"s or "Fred"s from the countries of Southeast Asia or Africa. But I saw a ton of names from the countries in those regions, and elsewhere, that I wouldn't be able to pronounce without a ton of direction and practice.  

So props to Disney for not whitewashing their culturally diverse workforce at the most basic of levels. 

But I can't say they've reached the promised land just yet. It was hard not to notice, for example, that while the name tags on the waitstaff predominantly identified their countries of origin as the Philippines, Indonesia, with a few Indians and South Americans thrown in for good measure, when you went to the Oceaneer's Club and other designated kid areas, the staff there all seemed to be Americans and Canadians. 

Someone with a better brain than I will have to tell me if this is overall a swing toward, or away, from justice, but I do sort of wish there was a bit more diversity within the specific areas of the boat, as well as across the entire operation. 

Maybe eventually.