Recently I have been seeing a lot of fun posts from a fellow BOGP Lizard team-mate in the BOGP Lizard Facebook group. Steve Hood had moved to Florida from Indiana and started his job with Disney just a few weeks ago. His posts were showing him smiling as he was entering his training classes and then him in uniform with his Cast Member name tag as he started his new job as Security Officer in the Disney Parks. I reached out to Steve to ask him more about this huge change in his life.
It’s been a thought in the back of my mind that maybe my family and I will move to a warmer climate one day; but as the kids are getting older and more adjusted to school, I don’t know if it will happen, but it is a dream. So I wanted to know what is involved in pursuing such a dream. Here is what I asked Steve and his responses.
I worked at General Motors in Marion, Indiana for 12 years. I was the Chief of Emergency Services. The Security, Fire, and Emergency Medical response all reported to me. Prior to that, I was a Fire Marshal for a fire department in Central Indiana. As the Fire Marshal I was a Division Chief of the Fire Department responsible for all fire investigations, inspections, and fire prevention for our district. I also was the Chief K-9 handler for our department and had an arson K-9 who did accelerant detection and fire prevention demonstrations. Before that, I was a firefighter, EMT, and Police Officer for a combined total of 28 years of emergency service work in Indiana.
My grandparents moved to Orlando when I was a little boy in the 1970’s. Needless to say, we visited them as much as possible and went to Disney many times. When I first went to Disney World, Magic Kingdom was the only park. I watched EPCOT being built and all the other parks since. My grandparents knew all the tricks and how to visit the parks and resorts as much as possible and keep the cost down. Sometimes we would spend the entire summers in Orlando with our grandparents. We visited many places, not just Disney, in those days. We went to most of the theme parks back then. I remember going to one several times not many people remember called Circus World. My grandparents must have liked it or had cheap tickets, because it seemed like we went there a lot. We also did things other than theme parks, like visit many state parks and springs in the area. I developed a love for Florida, and all my life have visited at least once a year. In 2015, we came down 5 times; driving from Indiana, a 16 hour drive, each way. We have many friends in this area, and we have always planned on moving to this area eventually. Every time we would visit, it became harder to leave.
One very big part of our decision to move was a very severe motorcycle accident I had in 2005 where I wrapped my body around a pole and broke almost everything in my chest cavity. I came very close to the end of my life that day. I was flown to a trauma center in Indianapolis where I was in a coma for a month. The injuries I sustained were pretty extensive and took a long time to get back to a new normal. The accident and story are a whole story in itself, and I won’t go on here about it. I will say, however, without the help of the BOGP Lizards and Mike Bankhead, the team captain, I would probably never have been able to make this move and take this job with Disney. I was pretty much in a wheelchair and had to visit the parks with it before I joined the Lizards and put my mind to not letting this accident take away my mobility. I lost almost 100 lbs and was able to start running with everyone’s help. This made it where I am able to stand and walk for long periods, which is an absolute for this job.
I lost almost 50% of my lung capacity due to the accident damage and have several scars and implanted metal devices to help me live a fairly normal life. With all those injuries, the cold Indiana winter is very hard on me, and as I age it only gets harder. The cold winters are what really drove us to try to make a move to Florida when possible. After one of our trips in early 2015 my wife and I put together a 5 year plan to move to Florida. Towards the end of 2015 I was contacted about a Security opening for Disney. This was not normal, as they had not been hiring previously, and it piqued my interest. This was a possible way to get a job working for the Disney company using my experience and move to Florida at the same time. I mean we figured I would just get a job around central Florida. I never thought I would be able to land a job with Disney where I can make magic for others and be surrounded by the magic every day while I’m working. I tell several guests daily how lucky am I to get to work here and be here every day. When they tell me it’s their last day I remember the feeling and smile inside knowing I don’t have a last day of the magic or my vacation here. It’s like I’m on a never-ending vacation and am able to make money while doing it. I tell people all the time I finally figured out a way to get Disney to pay me to come here.
I put in for the job and was quickly contacted by Disney. They didn’t have any management openings at the time and were afraid with my qualifications I wouldn’t want to start as a security host or what most people call officers or guards. They did feel with my background I would quickly be able move into other openings as they became available. My wife and I had a lot of long hard prayerful discussions and decided to make the leap.
What was the process you had to go through to line all of the details up, job interviews, finding a place to live, etc.?
Disney offered me a job with one condition. I had to obtain a FL driver’s license. Once the decision was made to take the job my daughter and I headed out in the car on a Saturday to FL with one mission: to secure a place for me to live and obtain a FL driver’s license. So many things could have gone wrong, but I felt the Lord opened the door at every challenge and it all went very smoothly. After a very long drive to FL and back in just a couple of days, I was able to call Disney and tell them I had obtained my FL driver’s license. They immediately moved my process forward and scheduled me for Traditions. I had to fly to Orlando one more time for a day for my on boarding to get my fingerprints for the background check.
How hard/easy was it to move? Are you married and do you have children? Did they move with you?
The move was and is still challenging with the most challenging part still to come. The move at first will be just me with my family coming to see me every break they get from school. At first I loaded up all I could bring in my truck and moved into a room with our friends who live directly behind the Magic Kingdom. Another bit of kindness that was extended to help us make this huge life change. Without our friends I really don’t know how I would have done it. I lived with them for a few weeks until I could find an apartment. The rest of my family will not be able to make the move for a little over a year due to prior obligations. This also happened so fast we didn’t have time to prepare and sell our house and property and prepare for a move before I needed to be down here. With being a new employee, I don’t have any vacation or time to take off, so we will need to wait on the final move till I have some time to take off. My wife is a teacher, so she will also need some time to find a job here in FL and transfer her teaching license here. In the meantime, they will come to see me every chance they can. They were just here for spring break and will be back for the summer. We call this our Florida home and the one in Indiana our Indiana home. I found another Security cast member who was willing to move into the apartment with me, so we were able to keep the cost down.
It is definitely hard, and I do get lonely. For that reason, I like to meet up with people in the parks and hang out when they are here. It keeps me company, and I get to meet so many awesome people. I have five kids in all; three boys who are on their own and our two daughters at home. It will be really hard not seeing them as much, but they help my wife and girls at home, and they will come down when they can, as well. Not seeing my grandson is also really hard. I hope they can get down a lot. Having the ability to get them in the parks should help entice them down here, hopefully.
One thing that has proven to be a challenge with Security has been working at all the parks. Most people who work for Disney have a specific location or park they work, for the most part. For us in security, we can get moved around a lot. There are times where I will be at one park for three weeks then in the middle of that I have one day at another park. My schedule so far has had me moving to a new park about every two weeks or so. I’m sure once I have been here for a while that may be nice to move around, but being new it is very hard to find everything behind scenes and where you need to park and go. Once you have it figured out they move you to another park which is like being the new guy again. Imagine your first day at a job happening every couple of weeks. Everyone you work with and the managers are different.
I also have a little trouble with guest who are not happy no matter what I try to do. I usually have a couple per shift who are so nasty to me it is hard to not lose my groove. I tend to take that too personally and just be quite for a while. They seem to poison the other guest around them and the mood gets very poor no matter what I do. I found I have to just check bags or whatever I’m doing and smile.
Do you have any regrets? Would you have done anything differently?
I don’t have many regrets so far. I do miss my family and will constantly look for ways to keep busy. Also I don’t cook at all, so that has been more of a challenge than I thought. I have some friends who invite me over for a meal, and I quickly accept. I have also had a few people ask me to join them when they are eating at the parks when they are here which is nice. I see lots of people but miss the human touch like a hug. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but it’s new to me right now, and I am still figuring it all out. I try to post on Facebook every day where I am, so anyone who knows me can come say hi or contact me about meeting up.
I absolutely love the magical moments. Like the little girl who came up to me and gave me a hug when I was explaining what to do if they get lost. I love interaction with the guest and hope I can continue having guest interaction whatever I end up doing. Every day I try to remember it’s someone’s vacation and I want to make it special. Sometimes, that is in ways people don’t see or notice, like checking their bags well. We never want something to happen in the parks like we have been seeing around the world lately. Even though bag checks may be long, we are really trying to keep everyone safe in the park. People don’t realize the extent Disney goes to in making sure everything is safe. The new security features like metal detectors, bag checks, K-9s, and many other things are to keep Disney a magical place to visit.
There you have it, one man’s dream that became a reality for him with the support of his loving family and friends! Next time you are going into the parks look for Steve! He would love to visit with you. Friend him on Facebook so you know where to find him when visiting that day! I know that when we are on our upcoming trip I will be checking each day to know when I will find a “friend” in the park to greet me before we have our fun for the day! Thanks Steve for sharing your story and maybe it will give someone the courage to pursue a dream they had been considering but was apprehensive about making the next move!