Customer Reviews

Mouse Trap: Memoir of a Disneyland Cast Member

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I worked for Disneyland for 3 years in 1994, 1995, & 1996, right in the same timeframe as Mr. Yee here, but I'm horribly disappointed in his book.
When your halfway thru a book about DL of all things, and you catch yourself saying "well I hope it picks up in the 2nd half," you know you're in trouble. And for having worked at DL for over 10 years, I was aghast at Mr. Yee's drought of amusing ancedotes, personal observation, or heartfelt feeling. Having worked myself in Outdoor Vending for a mere 3 years, I could fill one chapter with more entertaining stories than Mr. Yee did in his entire book, but lets talk specifics:

Simply, Mr. Yee doesnt know how to write a memoir. His previous books are recitations of Disneyland fact, and this book reads exactly the same. For example, he waxes long and obsessively about procedures: procedures for changing costume, procedures for turning in money, procedures for checking in, etc etc etc. This stuff is not entertaining or amusing even when you're THERE, let alone as a non-DL employee. There are no punchlines to these procedures, no amusing asides, no "and then there was this ONE day..." nothing but flat delivery of bare fact, reduced to its most flavorless recitation of events. My man, thats not a memoir, its a Tech Manual. Such information would be helpful in the hand of a new hire, and I might encourage DL to distribute new copies of this book to its new hires for exactly that purpose. But for capturing Disneyland magic- its all dead on arrival.

Mr Yee's editing style depends on a lot on bare fact. Even when he eventually (1/2 way thru the book) gets around to his personal experiences, its easily summarized with "this happened and then this happened and then this happened" with zero observation or introspection into those events in his day in a life. There's no FEELING. There's little connection to why such and such makes Disneyland a unique place to work, and no reason why we're supposed to care one way or the other. (Its like being asked to look at a black and white photo of fireworks and then assuming we already know how colorful they are. There's a great deal of "you had to be there" going on here).

Yee's foundational problem is that his ancedotes just arent all that funny. Part of that is an unfair complaint, as he worked in an unentertaining part of the park, the foods division. The part of the book where he gets around to describing bad guest behavior (the part that singlehandedly defines and elevates David Keonig's Mouse Tales) is easily interchangeable with any restaurant anywhere in the country. The chapters where he talks about working backstage suffer from the aforementioned "I did this and then I did this" syndrome, delivered with zero color, suspense, or flavor. And a part that may define this book, where he says "the most oddball thing I ever did was deliver desks to a bosses house..." made me gasp. (My man, I've worked at Disneyland too. I've seen oddball. I've heard oddball. I've DONE oddball. And brother, that is definitely NOT oddball.)

What then, was I hoping for?
Well how many things are totally UNIQUE to this place? Why did Mr. Yee quit after working there so long? Why did he then come back to work a different division? (That entire process occurs in under a sentence).
Why did Mr. Yee quit again? After you work for someplace for a decade, you CANNOT simply say "well something else came up." Dude this was a decade out of your life and you just up and quit? Thats what a memoir is for, to REVEAL your feelings, to give up the dirty secrets, to wax poetic for pages at a time on your motivations and future dreams. When I read "I quit" to be frank I felt cheated.
Ditto for the heavily hyped (on the back cover) observations about 9/11, which end up being a page and a half TWO PAGES FROM THE END OF THE BOOK.

So lets put it this way:
Mr Yee, were you there for the 40th Anniversary Cast Photo in Main Street, 1995? I certainly was. Remember the cheers? The screams? The thousands upon thousands of friends and soul mates all packed together into one perfect moment of camaraderie? Captured forever on film? I have that photo on my wall and will cherish it forever. THATS what we want to read about. THATS where the Disney magic was. I certainly have an ancedote or two from that day. That you had nothing to say at all was extremely disappointing. Either you werent there (aghast), or you attended and felt absolutely nothing (MORE aghast).

Now I've read Mr. Yee's 101 DL facts book, and thats competent enough. Stick with that. As a castmember hoping to recover old memories from a place I hold in a special place in my heart, this book offered nothing. Maybe I just worked in a more interesting department (indeed, for as a member of ODV I was shunted to every conceivable area of the park on a daily basis, and was the first Ambassador to the World that many guests met), but if I regret even buying a book then there's not much left to defend.
I'm sure Mr. Yee is a nice enough fellow, and as we worked there at the same time there's every chance we ran into each other. But this isnt his best work and people looking for captured Disney magic wont find it here.

Mousetrap is definitely an informative tale. The problem is it just isn't a very exciting one. It's not the authors fault entirely. He wasn't a captain of The Jungle Cruise or a driver of The Monorail. Just a manager and crew member at a New Orleans Square restaurant for most of his DL stay, so most of his writing is on his experience there. He writes in details about his experience becoming a Disneyland "Cast member" and all the classes, policies, procedures, and day to day operations at the park we don't get to see. This is all well and good but by the time I was half way through this book I felt exhausted and, sadly, bored. A detailed explanation of every backstage area of the park, no matter how boring or mundane it was? Spending page after page after page talking about uniform and locker procedures? It was a chore to read, and there just weren't enough interesting facts or new information about the behind the scenes workings of DL to keep me that interested. I'd recommend it for hardcore DL fans only. Interesting idea for a book but too many facts drag it down and make it lose the Disney magic.

It actually pains me to actually write a bad review on this item because Yee is so enthusiastic about telling his story. However, I actually felt cheated out of three days of my life, that I spent reading this book.(I continued reading it out of sheer morbid curiousity) I have Yee's other two books and found them to be very entertaining and informative. I expected more of the same. I was looking very forward to this book and actually pre-purchased it. Kevin Yee makes an honest effort in this book; I just think that perhaps he's not a very exciting person. He was a lead in a New Orleans Square restaurant. The book is centered on his microcosm of Disneyland. I'm not sure there could be a more boring area of Disneyland to chronicle than the restaurant division. The book describes mundane details of the behind the scenes areas, none of which is exciting. (I don't really care how you go about exchanging pants at the costuming counter.) Yee also uses so many codes and acronyms, that I felt I needed a decoder ring. I expected hidden secrets of Disneyland, or maybe some behind the scenes dirt. (Something like the book Mouse Tales. Which is a worthwhile purchase) What I got was to see what Kevin Yee's timecard looks like, and what a performance review looks like. Yee actually kept all of these items and pictures them in his book. (kind of weird) This is more Yee's auto-bore-ography than it is about Disneyland. It was a huge disappointment. In the final chapter of the book, Yee even states "There are thousands of CMs and former CMs that have more interesting anecdotes than I do, and I hope this book inspires them to record their stories as well." It's almost as if Yee knows that the book is terrible and this is his way of apologizing. I wouldn't waste my time with this book.

I have a couple of the other books Kevin Yee has published and they are not much better than this one. I enjoyed several aspects of Mouse Trap in terms of some of the behind the scenes bits and pieces of Disneyland, like the pranks the cast members played and Disney setting out to break the world record for hula hooping. The trivia aspects of it were quite interesting.

However, I found the on stage/backstage "tour" part to be horribly tedious and very difficult to follow. I was an annual passholder for five years and am fairly familiar with the layout of Disneyland. That being said, I had a terrible time following what he was saying in terms of trying to provide a written "guided" tour of these areas and found myself skipping over some parts because they were so poorly written.

I think that Yee had a very good premise going but the Disney University part of the book also got a bit boring in terms of the management tactics he was taught. This chapter basically focuses on what makes good customer service, which most people will be familiar with if they have ever worked in a customer service job.

My other complaint is the cost of this book. I thought for $18 the book would be hard cover. I guess I missed that in the product description. Overall, I think if you are a die hard Disney fan this book is worth reading but you should try to obtain it for less money. Yee is a good writer when he is writing about something he is clearly passionate about but when he is focusing on more technical aspects his prose seems to fail. I did not feel like I wasted my time when I finished the book, I was just a bit disappointed since I was expecting something a bit more like David Koenig's Mouse Tales, which is far more interesting.

I had high hopes for this best since Kevin Yee's posts on the MiceAge Disney blog are well informative and well written. This book falls way short, there are hundreds of better Disney books and his "inside" view is a collection of very dull stories about his friends and co-workers in the park. At no point did I laugh while reading this book or learn anything that I did not already know about Disneyland.

The book was very boring. It is a almost day by day story of this persons job at Disneyland. After he describes every thing in WAY TOO much detail, the actual story about the place he described is boring.I would not recommend this book for anyone that wants a interesting read. Also the writing was terrible.

The best thing about this book is the cover. It's colorful, whimsical, and makes me want to visit the "happiest place on earth". Unfortunately, the pages that follow are the "dullest read on earth".

I expected an entertaining look at backstage Disneyland from a former cast member(which I've always wanted to be.) and instead got a tedious
outline of employee rules and procedures. The backstage tour was so incredibly bland in detail that the minds eye had no way of picturing it. But I guess that's no big deal because the subject matter was so dull my mind wouldn't want to see it. I wanted the inside scoop on Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain and he's describing locker rooms and parking lots.

Sadly, I cannot recommend this book to even the most die hard Disney fan. In fact, if you were to remove the attraction names you wouldn't even know that the author was talking about Disneyland.

The reviewers who trashed this book because it tells the story of being a Disneyland cast member in a non-magical way are missing the point. This IS what working at Disneyland is like. I know, I was also a long-time cast member and believe me it is not all fun and fantasy. I held the same position as the author although in a much more frantic location and I can vouch for the accuracy of his account of how it works. If you think you can walk in and get a job as Mickey Mouse, wake up. You're far more likely to end up in food service or shops than one of the glamour jobs. So, if you really want to know what goes on behind the scenes, this is it. The book is probably more suited to former cast members than the general public, but I enjoyed it. If you think Mr. Yee's account of the park is too harsh, you should hear what the rest of us have to say!

I am suprised on the bad reviews. I absolutely did not find this book boring, but engaging and a quick read.

If you have read Mouse Tales and More Mouse Tales, you will enjoy this book. Whereas Koenig writes heresay stories, Kevin Yee has written a first hand account on a slice of Disneyland life.

I will admit that the first few pages the naration seems to jump around, but Yee's style is not chronological, but brings one into the life of being a cast member. Starting with his interview, "casting" in Disney-speak, Yee introduces what many current and ex-cast members remember as orientation, indoctrination, or even brain washing. Moving on to Disney University, this is a rare glimpse into how Disney maintains the high standards we all expect.

Further along, we learn why Yee, obviously a very intelligent man who could earn significant more money outside of Disney, remained at Disneyland for so long. He writes about the tight knit community, the "family" of his coworkers, and how Disney was not just a job, but can become a way of life.

After many mini-stories about working at Disneyland, including a very poignant story about working the vacant resort on September 11, 2001 (Kevin, if you read this review, thank you for your thoughts and experiences that day), Yee talks about escaping the mouse trap, may be for his last time.

If you ever want to experience a slice of life of a cast member, get this book.

Any lover of Disney will greatly appreciate this look at Disneyland from a castmembers perspective. Kevin's writing style is very enjoyable and his love of Disney shows throughout the narrative. I certainly enjoyed peeking behind the curtain at Disneyland.