Employee cafeteria

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 6:08 pm

Call me strange, but I loved eating in the employee cafeteria. They had two lines. One side was hamburgers, cheeseburgers and french fries. The other side was the special of the day. I can still smell the burgers and fries cooking!

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:15 pm

Hi Tanya,

For a person who was not an employee at MGA, I don't know where the employee cafeteria was located in the park....Can you tell me? I should have worked there, it sounds like all of the employees had a blast working there.

Jeff

Post by **steven** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:48 pm

Hi, Jeff,

It was located on the internal service corridor, in between the TIDAL WAVE and the Sky Whirl. It is the building with the white roof in the lower right-hand corner of this photo:

Yellow umbrellas for outdoor employee seating are along the fence.

Steven

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:30 pm

Steven,

Thanks for the point of reference! It is nice to have these pictures to do that. I imagine underground tunnels that took employees magically to unknown places in the park....Am I right?

This picture you included is also interesting to look at for the sake of seeing Tidal Wave and Southern Cross from a different perspective.

Post by **steven** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:38 pm

Hi, Jeff,

Nope! There were no underground tunnels for hidden employee circulation at MGA. That's a Disney thing. MGA's rough equivalent was the central service corridor. It ran all the way from the back of the park up to just beyond the railroad tracks at the front of the park in Orleans Place.

Steven

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:19 pm

Steven, was Gurnee's lockers/wardrobe in the back of the park at the end of the service corridor?

Post by **steven** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:28 pm

Tanya wrote:Steven, was Gurnee's lockers/wardrobe in the back of the park at the end of the service corridor?

Hi, Tanya. Yes, they were back there, similar to Santa Clara.

Steven

brdwyguy · Post by **brdwyguy** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:18 pm

if you check the aerial views of the parks
in the history section of the website
you can probably see the service road running down the middle
of the park

as an employee from 76 - 79
one of the more unpleasant aspects was
walking ALL THE WAY down that service road
after a long day in the Grand Music Hall
especially during the Fall Months when it was cold and rainy
Santa Clara - Park

brdwyguy

ewilson · Post by **ewilson** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:03 pm

Oh come on brdwyguy, your walk didn't compare at all to the walk to Royale. Along that long, lonely, unlit back sevice road by the lake, facilities and the boneyard.

To get to the cafateria you only had to go behind your theatre. We had to walk halfway accross the park.

Tanya · Post by **Tanya** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:06 pm

Come on guys! I had to walk all the way to the parking lot! As well as late nights by yourself from the main gate all the way back.

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:40 pm

I had to make the walk from wardrobe to Orleans Place every day when I started in Park Services in 1988.
Yes, that is a long walk, and being in park services, there were times when I would get off work 2 hours after park close.

Sometimes, I would walk through the park instead of the service area. I thought it was cool to be in the park, and have no one else around, and have none of the rides running.

Speaking of the Employee Cafe, do you guys remember the big cookies they would sell? They were chocolate chip ones. We found out that if you put them in the Microwave for about 10 seconds, they got all soft and gooey, and tasted really yummy!

ewilson · Post by **ewilson** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 6:30 pm

I lived on those cookies, and the Its-its. Remember the Big Ums.

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:03 pm

Come on guys, those walks down the service road and from wardrobe to Orleans Place can't even begin to compare to the walks our parents made to school each day in the snow, up hill both directions, barefoot... LOL

Jeff

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 6:03 am

I agree, the hamburgers and fries were pretty good.

tasod · Post by **tasod** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 12:54 am

I have to agree the employee cafeteria was great. The burgers were awesom. I also liked the chili dog plate. It was huge with lots of chili and cheese.

I remember the walls was this pressed fiber strings... it reminded me of smashed and painted spaghetti (maybe it was left overs..)

One bad lunch event was a quick meal and then nametags off for a quick drop on the edge. But, instead we got stuck up top..

Lets just say there was a slight delay in my friend helping to pass out payroll checks