Ema Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (Earning Your Ears Book 2) (9 page)

While everyone else was in denial about graduation and our program coming to an end, I was really excited. Before we even got our email about graduation I’d decided to ask for some time off and give myself a 3-day holiday before I went home. I got approved for July 31, August 1, and August 2 (which is graduation, with moving out day on the third). I planned to spend my days off buying the last of my souvenirs, taking character photos, riding rides, and seeing my favorite shows: Fantasmic!, Finding Nemo, and Lion King.

On August 1, I went with Amy and Shauna on a “favorite ride day”, which included Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, and Soarin’. In between, we went on some of the smaller rides we had done before, such as Living with the Land, where we took pictures of the funky Mickey Mouse-shaped pumpkins. As we got off the ride, Amy reasonably asked: “
Why did we just sit and take pictures of plants?!”

Graduation took place at Chatham, which makes a lot of sense considering the amount of outdoor space they have. It was due to start at 4pm. We all got dressed up and went to catch the bus together, along with every other CP graduating that day. The bus was hot, sweaty, and packed. You could feel the anger coming from the non-graduating CPs on the bus going to work. Not only wasn’t it their day off, but many of them weren’t able to get a seat.

When we got to Chatham, we followed the sound of the music. There were queues for many different activities, including receiving your certificate, pictures with Minnie & Mickey in their graduation robes, and pictures with your home flag or adoptive country flag. We went straight for our certificates, which forced us to split up as they were in alphabetical order. Once we had stood in all the lines, we joined in the little dance they had to cheesy tunes spun by a DJ, took loads of group photos, and went to collect more free stuff, especially food. Disney did not stint on the food; there were burgers, pizza, hot dogs, pulled pork, corn, chips, cookies, and brownies. After queuing, dancing, and eating free food in the blazing hot Florida sun, it was time for a costume change before we all headed to Magic Kingdom to watch Wishes together.

All in all, this night was the perfect way to end the program. You really do make friends for life, and you have no idea how much you will miss them until they are taken away from you. I miss getting texts saying “come down”, throwing Chinese food on the floor, and self-teaching myself to draw my favorite Disney characters. I miss watching Amy cooking noodles to put in the fridge to take to work and eat them cold the next day. I miss laughing uncontrollably at my obsession with Fantasmic Mickey’s entrance dance. I miss watching Paige crying after she told everyone goodbye. I miss hearing her complaining about her “stupid damn ass crackers”. I miss frantically packing the night before we are due to move out and go home. I miss going to get energy drinks and brownies at 3am, and bumping into Paige and Leah who were going to catch their flight to New York. I miss our Post-it note conversations. I miss everything! No time will ever compare to this summer, no matter how much I complained, but this isn’t goodbye, because:

Goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.

— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

My second program began on June 10, 2013, and ended on August 16. This time, instead of getting a role I wasn’t entirely happy with, I got the role I’d always wanted: character performer.

With every dream, there are high expectations, and for me, my second program didn’t hit those high expectations; it went above and beyond.

As you read this part of the book, you’ll come upon something strange. Ema mentions her “friend” Pluto a lot.

Now wait a minute.

Didn’t Disney hire Ema to be one of the character performers for Pluto during her college program? Disney did. And isn’t this whole second part of the book all about Ema’s experiences as Pluto? It is.

So what’s with Pluto being her friend?

Disney takes its characters seriously. The term for it is “character integrity”, and new cast members who portray characters in the park are told quite clearly, and quite seriously, that *they* are not the characters, because Pluto and his pals really do exist.

But the characters need “friends” to help them do their jobs. And that’s where Ema, and all the other cast members in this role at Disney theme parks, come in.

Ema is adamant about upholding character integrity. So, as you read her further adventures, don’t expect to find Ema telling you about her experiences as Pluto, even though that’s what she’s actually telling you about. Ema is Ema, a friend of Pluto, just as all the character performers are not their characters but rather friends of their characters. Ema will be telling you about what her friend Pluto did.

Now that you know the score, let’s meet Ema’s friend Pluto.

The application process for my second program was very different from the first time around. I put in my application on August 29, 2012, and I received my invitation on October 4, 2012, for an interview on the ninth, so it only took four weeks.

I was extremely lucky to get into my first program, as I hadn’t even sent in my application before the interviews and just turned up hoping for the best. I wasn’t going to do that again. I sat for hours filling in this application; everything seemed so much more in depth. Last year, I did end up filling in an application, but it was after my first interview, I had been offered my second interview and been told they didn’t have all my details on file, so would I go fill it out. I wasn’t as panicked as I was this year, since now there was so much more riding on an acceptance, and the
right
kind of acceptance. I had my heart set on working in the Entertainment, and I didn’t want to give that away. I was so frightened that if I let on that I was only going to be applying for one role, it would be an automatic denial for being inflexible.

The application this year asked questions that I didn’t even think about during my interviews last year, such as “What is your motivation for the program?” and “Why do you value cultural exchange and interaction.” I was screwed. There was no way I was going to be accepted this year; I didn’t even know what to write. I felt like I wrote “I cant wait to share my culture with others and learn about other cultures” over and over again. The whole application form felt like one big repetition of pushing how much I enjoy other people’s company. I wrote “culture and spending time with people of different lifestyles has always been a passion of mine” about 5 times, and then I used Microsoft Word’s built-in thesaurus to come up with different words that meant the same thing. I should have given my application the title of “I love culture!” in big, bold type.

Finally, I was done and uploaded all the required documents. I scrolled down to the bottom of the screen and found an empty box that I had overlooked. It asked: “Any final comments?”

What on earth do I say here? As if my application wasn’t repetitive enough, I had to reconfirm everything I had just said. I needed help! I was not going to let this box be the reason I hang on to my application for another week. The temptation to write “I will offer you my kidney or any other organ I don’t need to survive in order to gain a place on this program.” Too much? Yeah. I used this space to suck up a little bit more and thank Disney for taking the time to read my disgustingly tedious application. I really should have used the space to apologize in case all of my sucking made them sick.

It was the October 4, my birthday, and I was getting excited to celebrate it in style with a Disney-themed fancy dress night out at university. That morning my phone had started going crazy with Facebook notifications from the Disney ICP 2013 group. People were getting their first interview invitation emails. My heart stopped for a moment. I was so scared, and I felt like I was going to faint. I checked my email account. The screen said “updating mail…” for what felt like an hour, but was actually less than 30 seconds. The result? No new mail. I was devastated. How come other people were getting their invitations before me? Am I even getting a first interview?

I started receiving texts from my friends (who had been with me on the program the year before). They had received their invitations and wanted to know if I’d be at the Liverpool interviews, too. I couldn’t even reply. This was it. My Disney dream was over before it had begun. I sat in my room for a little while and then decided I’d start re-arranging my things and cleaning in preparation for my amazing 21st birthday party and dressing up as Rapunzel.

I plugged my phone into my speakers, put the music on full volume, and sang at the top of my voice to
Glee
soundtrack: “Why do I reach for the stars, when I don’t have wings to carry me that far…” As the music faded, I heard a
ding
. Email!

I launched myself at my phone and clicked on the mail icon. The subject line read: “The Disney Summer Work Experience”. I clicked open and before the screen had fully loaded I’d closed my eyes and crossed my fingers. I took a deep breath, gave myself a little pep talk (in my head), and peered out of one eye to see a location and date/time highlighted in yellow. To be honest, I don’t remember much else about that email other than the important bits highlighted. I rang my parents to tell them straight away. I was so excited to have a chance to sell myself and prove that I’m worthy of a second summer at Disney World.

After going through the ordeal of waiting for the email, the interview seemed fairly straightforward and simple, especially in comparison to my first-year interview where I felt like I was fighting to speak against the other twenty people, but this year it was groups of ten.

On October 9, at 5:59am, I woke up with butterflies in my stomach, I sat bolt upright on my bed. Then my alarm went off a minute later. It was time to start getting ready before I called a taxi to take me to the train station. I had planned to get the train with my friend Leah, who had participated in the program the year before with me, working at the Polynesian’s ’Ohana restaurant. We met up with Abbie (who had worked at French Quarter in quick service), my roommate from the previous year, and also Charlie (who had worked at the Polynesian in Custodial). We had all sat together in a small lecture hall at Liverpool John Moores University, and so they put us all in the same interview group, which made me feel a lot more at ease, even though I wasn’t really that nervous to start with.

We had started the day at 7am to get the train to Liverpool and arrived at 9 for the 9:30 presentation. They tell you to stay seated while they come round and give you an interview slot (this year I had 12:30pm), and then you are allowed to go explore the city, get some food, and do some shopping, until you need to return for your group interview. We had already grabbed some snacks from the Tesco Express on the walk up to the interview building, so none of us were particularly hungry, but we all agreed that we would go to Nandos after the interview for a late lunch. I love Nandos, and so this was all I was thinking about before the interview; it kept my mind off it, and it wasn’t as if I needed to think about what I wanted to eat, because I always order the same thing: lemon-and-herb chicken burger, with garlic bread, chips, and halloumi cheese.

Last time, the interviews (I was told) had gone as late as 8pm, but this year no one had a slot past 5:30pm. I’m not sure if that is because there were less applicants or more interviewers, but it didn’t really matter. The interview itself, like last time, was held in a group setting, with 10–15 applicants in each group. Everyone was given a chance to answer every question, unlike before. There were only 10 people in my group, and 4 of us had come from the same university. Another member of my group was Abbie, my former roommate. We were asked a number of different questions, including:

• Why do you want to work for Disney?
  
• Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
  
• Give an interesting fact about yourself?
  
• How would you deal with the heat?
  
• How would you deal with difficulties arising from roommates and homesickness?
  
• How would you deal with different cultures?
  
• Describe your hometown in one word or sentence?
  
• How would you respond to certain scenarios: Mine was that the character had to go in so you closed the queue, but a family wanted to see him.
  
• Give an example of good guest service that you have provided or received.
  
• How will the program help you in later life?
  
• Which character are you most like?
  

And because I’ve done the program before, I got asked: What would I have done differently if I could re-start my first program?

A key thing I noticed is that they watched for how you interacted within social situations and large groups. Obviously, they do not want a shy cast member, nor do they want a rude cast member who interrupts and cuts people off mid-sentence without an apology just to make their point or get attention. I could see that the recruiters were watching how we interacted with one another, but really they were assessing our personalities.

I did feel myself start to suck up and praise everything about the Disney Company, but then pulled back when I realized that being a suck up just wasn’t me. I love Disney, and that totally is me, but I am also a bunch of other things, and while I was fan-girling over the creative ideas the Imagineers have come up with, I was hiding all my other amazing qualities that I wanted to showcase to the recruiters. I came back to being myself, and in those few seconds that I chose to do this, I realized that if I didn’t get a second interview, then they didn’t like the true me, so it would be for the best.

October 25, 2012. I had to travel to Liverpool again. This time, I had a full 9 hours of sleep, did not wake up once during the night, and felt refreshed and confident when the alarm went off at 6:00am. I phoned my taxi and sat patiently on the bottom step in my university house. I saw some flickers of light, jumped up, and ran to open the door, assuming it was my taxi, but the driver went straight past the house. It wasn’t my taxi. I checked the time on my phone. 6:35am. I began to panic and thought about ringing the taxi company. How stupid that would have been: it’s only been five minutes since I called them in the first place.