Ema Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (Earning Your Ears Book 2) (12 page)

At Magic Kingdom, we went on a mini tour of the tunnels, which are really the ground floor of the park, with everything else built on top of them on the second floor. Using these tunnels, cast members can pop up in their work location without having to walk through another land and spoil the magic. It’s why you never see a cowboy in Tomorrowland.

With our tour complete, we had lunch in the Mouseketeria, the cast member cafeteria in the tunnels. Imagine a high school cafeteria, and you’ll have a decent idea of what it looks like. Cast members in and out of costume grab meals here. You might see Maleficent gobbling some mac-and-cheese, or Cinderella chowing down on a hamburger, or even Donald Duck slurping some sesame noodles. In some ways, it’s the
Star Wars
cantina right here on earth.

On the bus back to Disney University, we watched a montage video with testimonials from cast members and guests about the entertainment at Disney. Then Rafael read us a letter from a guest who had written to the PhotoPass department to thank them for taking a picture of her and her sister. I am getting chills just thinking of this story…

These sisters fought like hell and couldn’t agree on a single thing. One day, they had a massive argument and stopped speaking to each other. The parents tried everything. In the meantime, they had both started families, and neither had met the other’s children. The parents decided to plan a trip to Disney World for all of them, so they secretly told each sister that they were just going with them. Of course, the sisters uncovered the lie when they saw one another during check-in, but if they were ever going to settle their differences, it would be here. They had the best holiday and forgot about everything they’d ever fought about. They bought matching Minnie ears and got a picture of just the two of them on Main Street before the rest of the family piled in to join them for another picture. Two weeks after the vacation finished, one of the sisters was in a car accident and passed away. The other sister had written to PhotoPass to thank them for taking the final picture of the two of them, as without it the surviving sister would have had no recent picture of them together.

If you aren’t sobbing, your heart is made of stone.

There hasn’t been a single moment, not one, that I felt I’d made the wrong decision in coming back here again. So far, the program was living up to expectations, unlike last year. I would have been gutted if I’d had to spend another summer hating my job.

In addition to the Welcome to Entertainment class, I also had to take part in four days of performer training. Again, as I lived with two other performers, I thought we might have been lucky enough to attend training as a group, but I was wrong. Unlucky me. Amy and Katie were scheduled together for the four days, and I was going to be on my lonesome. They started training the day before me, but refused to divulge any of the details because they didn’t want to spoil it.

Finally, it came my turn.

The first two days of training consisted of indoor-based activities. I was in a group of ten: five Americans, four Brits, and one French. As we waited outside the Animal Kingdom, our trainers (Toni, Jimmy, and Adam) pulled up in a van and drove us around to the back of the building where our training would begin.

We spent the first part of the day going over the motto that every Disney cast member remembers: SAFE D BEGINS WITH ME. It begins with me because I put into practice all the important health and safety rules that Disney teaches me, like the correct way to pick up a box. Even as performers we have to embrace the safety rules. If you ever meet someone who has been a performer, or you work at Disney and you think that the performers have caught a few breaks, we haven’t: we learn the same basics as everyone else, and we have to embed the safety rules into our day, too.

As is the case with most training, the first day was relatively dull and uneventful. Disney likes to get the less interesting aspects of the course out of the way as quickly as possible.

On day two, after an appearance by Mr. Smee, who wished us luck and then went in search of a certain ticking croc, we “met” some of the characters to which we’d been assigned (in Disney-speak, we were going to “hang out with our friends”) and began to learn their habits. We had to learn what the character likes, how it acts, whether it prefers to walk or run, sleep or play, etc. My “friend”, Pluto, shows a lot of energy and moves around enthusiastically, so part of the preparation for becoming “friends” with Pluto in advance of beginning my role onstage was to learn how he behaves.

On day three, we were ready to venture into the park and meet guests with our new “friends” for the first time. We all went to Epcot for the day (and for day four, as well) and were given a mini-tour of the Epcot Cast building before gathering at the Entertainment base. It’s strange when you are walking around backstage, because you can never guess which ride or show is on the other side of the wall.

We were then given yet another tour, this time of the Entertainment department, and told how the system works and the schedules that performers must keep:

Stage 1: Clock in. Every cast member can clock in 15 minutes before their shift starts; failure to clock in or turn up to work results in a point on your record. College program participants can rack up no more than 3 points every 30 days before facing consequences, including termination, which for an international means leaving the country within 24 hours. If you don’t, your name will go on a “black list” and might bar you from returning here in future, even on a tourist visa.

Stage 2: Report to the duty captain in their office at the Entertainment building. At some parks, you have to report to a different duty captain depending on where you are performing; for example, Magic Kingdom is the base for all character dining at the Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and Polynesian resorts. Once you’ve reported in and have told the duty captain where you’ll be performing, and with which character, they tick you name off the list and your day begins.

Stage 3: Get into your basics, which are the clothes given to you by the Entertainment department to wear while performing. Attire is kept simple to keep performers cool and comfortable throughout the day.

We had these three stages drilled into our heads during the final two days of our training. After we had completed our stages, we began our warm-ups. It takes a lot of energy to dance and jump around and do whatever it is your character likes to do. Warm-up sessions vary by character, and Disney provides documentation of the best exercises for each character, based on how much energy the character expends and what body parts it uses most. Tigger, for example, does a lot of bouncing, and so his warm-up consists of leg exercises.

Pluto always brought out the best in me. I love his energy, but also how caring and compassionate he is toward kids. He knows how to make their day, and it helps that all of the guests love Pluto and are excited to see him.

After four days of training and my first day of work, I felt ready to go out into the Disney parks and perform. My assigned area was DinoLand USA in the Animal Kingdom. I couldn’t remember ever having met Pluto there, but maybe that’s because my family never cared much for that section of the park.

My meet-and-greet spot featured both Pluto and Goofy. I arrived at the Entertainment building and followed two very tall lads to the duty manager’s office. I was ready to just get on with it and go find Pluto, but as I walked in and said “Hi” the duty manger’s face lit up. “Are you British?” I had made his day. Apparently, there aren’t many British performers, and this guy had an obsession, I would call it, with England and its royal family.

My partner, who was “friends” with Goofy, was French. I have nothing against any other culture; in fact I used this program to embrace as many different cultures as possible and to learn new things (just as I’d written numerous times on my application!). The French guy was new and not much of a conversationalist. No matter how much I tried to interact with him, his answers to my questions were usually limited to “yes” or “no”. Eventually, I moved away to meet some of the other people in the very large break room (so large that it came with its own toilets, sofas, TV, and box of VHS tapes). The character attendants, most of them full-time cast members, were extremely nice and happy to answer my questions.

My day was spent mostly with a never-ending stream of cute kids. One little girl dressed as Belle curtsied to Pluto, so of course Pluto bowed in return. Her dad captured it on film, and I heard the mother remark that Pluto was the first character to bow to her daughter after the curtsy. Pluto signed some challenging items with his clumsy paws, including a scrap of paper no bigger than the palm of my hand, a hat (which would have been fine if Pluto hadn’t been handed a 2-inch crayon to sign it with), and park maps (a free substitute for Disney’s pricey autographs books). By the way, Pluto hates signing park maps unless they’re on a clipboard or a hard, flat surface.

During my first week of work, I was at DinoLand every day. I was disappointed, since my friends had scored much more interesting (and more “Disneyish”) locations. But as soon as I had spent my first day in DinoLand, I took it all back. It was a great place to hang out.

On my third day, I experienced my first 12-hour shift. I’d be the first to arrive in DinoLand and the last to leave. I met a cast member who’d been there for the past couple of days, but who had kept mostly to himself and hadn’t said much. He was a full-time and a “force bid” in DinoLand. All full-time cast members have to bid on a location and don’t receive a schedule like mine (which is described as “global”, because I’m able to work anywhere). Unfortunately, the high demand for some locations means that cast members have to bid for them, a very complex system that I never did fully understand. What I did understand was that most cast members didn’t like force bidding, as it put some of the less successful ones in less desirable locations.

The most magical memory of the day for me involved a dad and his daughter. The dad had a plush Eeyore under his arm, and like every dad at Disney World, had clearly been forced to carry it after his child had demanded to take it into the park that day and then gotten tired of holding it. Since the Eeyore was roughly ball shaped, Pluto became interested in a game of catch with it. He took Eeyore while the girl was greeting Goofy and balanced it on his large snout. The girl burst out laughing as her dad snapped a photo.

In my training, I had been taught how Pluto behaved, and for the first time I felt as if I were getting the hang of it.

Most people would be angry if an attendant even asked if they’d mind someone cutting in front of them when they’ve waited in line for 20-30 minutes under the scorching sun, but this was different. This was a child who was at Disney World as their “wish” with the Make-a-Wish Foundation. About 40% of the kids who make wishes make them for a vacation at Disney World, and some of them include week-long stays with their parents at the nearby Give Kids the World Village. I’ve volunteered at the Village, and so I’m also happy to see Make-a-Wish kids in line to see Pluto.

Some people, unfortunately, don’t understand Make-a-Wish (or do understand, but just don’t care). Their priority is to keep their place in line, no matter what. One day, in Magic Kingdom, Pluto saw an instance of people unwilling to let a little girl move ahead of them in line. The attendant had asked the family at the front of the queue if they’d let the Make-a-Wish girl get ahead of them. The mother rudely answered “no” in such a disgusted voice that you’d have thought the attendant had wanted to see her underwear. The second family in line parroted the first. Then came the third family:

Attendant: Would you mind if this young lady with Make-a-Wish went before you?

Mum and Dad: No, she can’t; we’ve been waiting for ages.

Attendant: Do you know what Make-a-Wish Foundation does?

Dad: Yes, we do, but we’ve waited in line.

No attendant wants to get into an argument that will embarrass the Make-a-Wish family they’re trying to help. Pluto was not impressed by the behavior and made no special effort with these families. He signed their books and posed for photos, but that was it. It wasn’t in the character’s nature to frolic with rude people. You’d think the first family in line would have gotten the message, but they might have emboldened by the others and they also refused to step aside. At that point, Pluto left his spot, took the hand of the Wish girl, and brought her forward. No one can argue with Pluto. He spent lots of time with this girl, who had waited so long and in much less comfort than the healthy people in front of her, and lined her and her family in front of the Castle and signaled to the PhotoPass photographer that she should take the shot with fireworks in the background. (The fireworks were at the end of the Dream Along with Mickey castle show, and they only go off twice at the end of the show; that’s why Pluto had to be quick to make sure the family didn’t miss them.)

I had the privilege to meet several other Wish kids on my program. By far, these encounters were among my favorites. I recall one in particular that happened in DinoLand during an 11-hour day. All the usual suspects were in the area: girls dressed as princesses, boys wearing the giant Goofy hats. Pluto saw a boy in a wheelchair stood near the exit with a purple Make-a-Wish button on his shirt. The attendant did his usual job of telling the family in line that a special guest was going to meet Pluto ahead of them, and they were happy to step aside. My partner for the day, Goofy, finished signing the autograph books of the Wish kid and his little sister, and then handed the books to Pluto. The boy enjoyed watching us sign the books, especially when Pluto did it, since Pluto puts autograph books on his snout to sign them. Surprising everyone, the boy said “thank you”, the only words he’d spoken thus far (I got the impression that he doesn’t speak much). He held out his hand and the attendant said: “Pluto, he wants to hold your hand.”