Ema Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (Earning Your Ears Book 2) (14 page)

Reluctantly, and with their urging, I picked up the largest princess dresses (a Rapunzel and a Merida) that I could find. It looked tiny. I sulked my way into the changing room, already jealous of Amy (who had found an Aurora and a Rapunzel in her size) and Katie (who had found an Ariel in hers).

With the expectation of having to pull off a skin-tight dress after struggling to get it on, I found to my surprise and delight that Rapunzel fit. (And yes, we still went to Ghirardelli’s afterward…)

Graduation. Again. Last year, I excited to be chucking in my Housekeeping costume and getting on my flight home. This year, I was desperately trying to find a way not to leave.

I still had two weeks left in my program, but Disney had already set two dates for graduation. Everyone in my apartment managed to get one of those days off so we could attend the party and the ceremony together. Even the Americans, whose programs wouldn’t end for another four months, decided to come along with us.

The festivities were to run from 10am–3pm, though few people stayed the entire time. It was more a drop-in affair. The ceremony was to be held on the Chatham Square field, within walking distance from our apartment, so we’d be spared a packed, sweaty bus ride.

Little was changed from last year, except for the people. We queued up for our graduation certificates and free photo frame boxes, then we got into another line for our Mickey ears, and then into still another line for a photo. From there it was all dancing, free food, and more lines for photos with the characters, including Pluto, who apparently had found another friend.

It was uncomfortably hot, as it always is in Florida during most of the summer, and so we cut things short and went back to the apartment to change into more comfortable clothes and spend the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom, where we’d get our new ears hats embroidered.

Right away, we ran into the same problem as last year: the cast members who did the embroidering wouldn’t do our hats because we weren’t guests. Even though we’d worked here for months, practically for nothing, the company had decreed that we weren’t worth a few strands of colorful thread. The rationale was that it wasn’t fair for paying guests to have to wait in line while we had our hats done. I spoke to a manager about it, who was nice enough, but still wouldn’t give in. I figured it was a cost issue, and so I offered to pay. No response. He didn’t know what to say, because if we paid, then we’d be just like all the other guests standing in line. How could he refused that.

So we got in line, and I was quite happy to pay for the embroidery because it wasn’t expensive. When got to the front and filled out the form, a lovely cast member who had been working in embroidery for years told us he had seen this same incident happen whenever there was a college program graduation. He felt it was foolish that some managers wouldn’t graduates the simple courtesy of having their hard-won ears embroidered. Then he gave us a magic moment: we paid the basic price, but we didn’t have to pay (as we normally would have) for an alternate color or font. It was a small but kind gesture, and we all appreciated it.

The four of us (myself, Amy, Katie, and our friend Greg) then walked to the top of Main Street to find a PhotoPass photographer to take a shot of us watching the Castle fireworks show. We wanted the photo to show our four names embroidered on the back of our hats. The photographer hurriedly sorted us into position by height, and then shouted: “3…..2….1……”

The fireworks went off. Our photo was perfect: it was the four of us looking up at the Castle with the fireworks positioned in the space to our left and right. A fitting end to this program.

If my college program were an American TV show, then my last week would be considered the season finale. It brought many twists and turns.

On Wednesday, August 7, Molly rang Housing to report a leak in her and Courtney’s bedroom. There had been yet another massive storm, and Molly discovered her bed was wet the day after. Many different members of the Housing team had appeared in the apartment to do assessments, but none led to a solution, and in the end they told us that we’d have to vacate the apartment because it had become unsafe. Our move-out date: Friday!

Since we were all still working, it was quite an effort to pack up everything and move it over to the new apartment, which luckily wasn’t that far away. The effort seemed rather wasteful, as within a week I’d be leaving for home, so I unpacked in the new place very little of what I had packed in the old place. The best thing about the new apartment was its proximity to the vending machines, and we were also much closer to the bus stop.

But then the time had come: my final 24 hours as a cast member. I went one last time to the Magic Kingdom with Katie and Amy to watch the parade, have lunch, and pick up some last-minute souvenirs. Other friends joined us as the day wore on, and soon we were a group of seven. We chose a spot close to the Castle for the fireworks, but by this time our number had risen to fifteen, and so we were tightly packed. After the fireworks, we slowly walked out of the park.

I won’t belabor again the teary goodbyes and farewells, since they were much the same as they were when my first program ended. It seemed unreal to wake up at 6am the following morning and realize that soon I’d be aboard a plane and that when the fireworks next shot over the Castle in the Magic Kingdom, I’d be an ocean away. As the Blue Fairy said at Wishes:

When stars are born, they possess a gift or two.
One of those is, they have the power to make a wish come true.

Technically, we speak the same language, however, Americans and Brits have a linguistic barrier between them which resulting in others often giving me confused looks or asking, “Sorry, what did you say?”

This next story isn’t intended to cause any offense, ; it’s just a story I heard, not a story where I agree with the wording and how it’s used.

A major mishap occurred in Magic Kingdom’s Guest Relations. A British guest was waiting in line, packet of cigarettes in hand. When it came his turn to speak to the cast member behind the desk, he put his cigarettes in his pocket and asked, in language far too informal for the occasion: “Where can I go to have a fag?”

The cast member stared in shock. Trying to remain calm and polite, she replied: “I’m sorry, but you can’t say that; it is not an acceptable way to talk about a person.”

The guest turned red with embarrassment, realizing that no one in America calls cigarettes fags.

This story is just one of many. Once, when I came home from work, I had an encounter with Meritte, one of my American roommates, over the lack of cookies, snacks, and fizzy drinks in the apartment. I was upset at the thought of having to go to the shop, and so I had turned to Meritte and said I was “gutted”. She looked at me and said, “What, like a fish?”. Now, British people do say that you gut a fish, but we also say that we are gutted if we are upset about something.

On top of the confusion over word definitions, there are plenty of statements that we use but which Americans find funny. When I announced to my roommates that I was going to get some pudding before we started watching the next episode of whatever we were watching on TV, they were baffled by my sudden desire to eat pudding. What I meant was dessert.

Confused by British and American English? Here is a list of the words (British in bold) that got me the most odd looks at Disney World:

Dear Walt,

First of all, thank you. These are the two most important words that I will ever need to say to you. Without you, I fear to think of what my life may have consisted of, and how incredibly boring film would be.

Disney has taught me about life, death, love, friendship, imagination, creativity, determination, and music. When I became old enough to apply for the Disney College Program, I was over the moon that I’d be able to work for your world not once but twice. I was even more appreciative of the cast members who work for your company and who hired me the second time around despite my inflexibility on a job role.

I will tell you one thing: Without the Disney College Program, I would never have learned how to cross an American road, which made me fear for my life. You should have warned everyone of these crazy crossroads that are near your world. American roads are weird, even when the man on the traffic light turns green, it doesn’t mean that pedestrians can safely cross. You get a countdown timer, which panics me and makes me want to run, and the worst is if you get caught in the middle.

I would love for you to be able to clarify some myths, such as:

• Was Vista Way really donated by Coca-Cola?
  
• Where did the myth of your body being encased in ice and buried under the Pirates of the Caribbean ride come from?
  

I hope you are very proud of everything you achieved, because you are just one person, and you are proof that dreams really can come true. Not only did you make your dreams a reality, but your dream created dreams for millions of people across the world. I use your quotes on a regular basis, and I always thought that this book would be perfectly summed up with your “If you can dream it, you can do it!” but I found an even better one:

You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality.

Sincerely,

Ema

This book wouldn’t have been possible without:

• My mum and dad, for providing me with diet coke and brain food to fuel me through my book-writing hours;
  
• My brother, whose interest in Disney allowed me to use him as a test subject for much of this material;
  
• My boyfriend, and best friend, Glen, who let me to travel half-way across the globe, TWICE, to fulfill my dream of working for Disney; and
  
• My friends and fellow Cast Members: Amy, Abbie, Shauna, Katie, Courtney, Vicki, Molly, Christina, Meritte, Bethany, Ty, and Kevin.
  

And, of course, the Disney College Program itself wouldn’t have been possible without Walt Disney and The Disney Company, who have created so many opportunities for so many people, and also the characters who have been and will always be some of my best friends.

Ema Hutton recently completed a post-graduate certificate in Education at University of Central Lancashire, England. She hopes to return to work for the Disney Company at some point in the future. This is her first book.

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My Boss, Mickey Mouse. Come read Amber Sewell's Disney College Program diary and share her successes and her failures, her moments of delight and her moments of despair, and learn what happens when the pixie dust settles and the guests have gone home.