A Walt Disney World cast member who leads holiday decorating teams across the resort started her Disney career 23 years ago on an overnight custodial crew. Disney shared the story of Dacia, an area manager with Holiday Services, on October 8, 2026. Stories like this only mean one thing: we will be seeing decorations for the Holidays popping up around the Walt Disney World resort soon!
According to Disney, Dacia began in the early 2000s cleaning backstage offices overnight. She moved up through jobs as a craft support foreman, a decorator and a planned work specialist before a temporary assignment in Holiday Services turned into her current role. Her teams now work with Walt Disney Imagineering on seasonal decorations around the resort. “I love seeing people grow,” she says in the piece. Disney gives only her first name.
Holiday Services is the department behind the work guests see every November, when Magic Kingdom trades Halloween for Christmas. We covered the holiday decorations arriving on Main Street, U.S.A. on November 2 last year and the overnight change in 2024.
Disney says her path is a common one. Its story puts the number of Walt Disney World cast members at more than 80,000 and says about three in five of the resort’s leaders began in hourly roles. Our own coverage has an example at the very top. Joe Schott, who became Walt Disney World president in August, started as a part-time Jungle Cruise skipper.
The piece reads as much like an invitation as a profile. It points to Traditions orientation, Disney University courses and leadership training as the steps along the way. You can read Dacia’s full story from Disney.
