Amber Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (8 page)

Since we got there early, we wandered around DAK, as it’s known to Cast Members, waiting for Lou to arrive. We stopped at the Yak and Yeti counter service for some Chinese food, then walked back to the Dawa Bar, where Lou would be holding his event. Already, quite a crowd had formed. Despite Lou’s short stature, it was easy to locate him by the circle of fans pressing him from all sides. Paige and I grabbed a table a little removed from the group. We watched the African drummers performing nearby, and we pointed out the many Disney nerds who had been drawn to Lou’s appearance in the park. It was refreshing to see people just as enthused as we were about wallowing in Disney trivia, reading personal accounts by Disney Imagineers, soaking up as much “back stage” knowledge as possible.

As we were sitting there, taking it all in, a man in a white Imagineer polo who had been eating at another table came up and introduced himself: “Hi, my name is Pete. What do you want to do for the company?”

Paige and I were a little taken aback by his abruptness, but it was an easy question, and we spared no time in answering.

“I want to be a tour guide for the Keys to the Kingdom,” Paige told him firmly, explaining her fascination with the company and her love of trivia.

“I want to write,” I said. “I don’t necessarily know what I want to write, but I want to write. Something with Hyperion would be great, but I’m not in the least picky.”

We stood around chatting a bit more about our goals for the future, and soon the crowds had dwindled. Pete led us over to the table where Lou had set his bags and introduced us, telling Lou that Paige wanted to be a tour guide. Lou whipped out copies of some of his audio tours, and while Paige went into another telling of her love of all things Disney, I was led over to a man I had never seen before.

“Hey, Tim. This is Amber. Amber, this is Tim Foster, one of the co-editors of
Celebrations
magazine. Tim, this girl wants to be a writer.”

I felt three steps behind as I struggled to keep up with what was happening. Tim, with a look of excitement, took hold of my arm and walked me to a secluded area a few feet away.

“So you want to write? What do you want to write about? Have you read
Celebrations
before?”

I stared at him bemusedly for a moment. It was almost as if the words were taking too long to register with my brain. “ What do I want to write?” I repeated aloud. “Um…well, anything, really. I love Disney, and I love writing. Any combination of the two is something I would be interested in. And no, actually, I have never heard of
Celebrations
.”

As soon as I said it, I wondered if that was a smart thing to do, admitting to the co-editor that I had never heard of his magazine.

“What about the parks?” Tim asked. “Anything in particular you want to write about the parks?”

I continued to lag a couple of seconds behind in the conversation. “Well,” I said hesitantly, “EPCOT is my favorite park, and the World Showcase is my favorite thing about EPCOT. I could spend an entire week there and not feel the urge to go to another park.”

“Good! Good! I have been thinking for a while about doing a special edition covering all the World Showcase pavilions; I’m glad to hear others would be interested in it. I’ve got people covering some pavilions already, of course. Great Britain and France, for example, are covered, but there are plenty more…”

And on he went, breathlessly ranting about which topics had potential and which had already been covered, or had been promised to someone else.

Ensured of my willingness and enthusiasm for Disney, but oddly deciding not to ask me to write about what I loved most, Tim mentioned that he wanted to do an article about Liberty Square. Magic Kingdom isn’t my favorite park, and Liberty Square definitely is not a place where I had spent much time on past visits. But I wasn’t going to refuse the chance to see my name in print, especially with Tim so eager to put it there. After I assured Tim that I would love the chance to write for him, he handed me his business card and we returned to the table, where Lou was signing the audio tour CDs for Paige, along with a few copies of
Celebrations
.

We sat around and talked for a while longer, the crowd now reduced to just a handful of people: me, Paige, Tim, Lou and his family, and Pete the Imagineer. Soon, though, Paige had to leave for work. The group stood and began to disperse. Since I had the day off, I wanted to head over to the
Finding Nemo
musical, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Pete decided to go with me. Slightly confused, but at this point just going with whatever happened, we walked over to the theatre together. On the way, Pete showed me pictures of a wedding party he had DJ’ed at the Grand Floridian’s Wedding Pavilion. Then, after the show, he gave me an impromptu backstage tour. By the time we were finished, Paige had gotten off work. She met us outside the gates, where the parking tram drops off guests. As she and I headed to Cast Member parking, thanking Pete once more for the contacts he had made for us that day, he stopped us and gave us his email. Finally, we parted. For the rest of the day, however, my imagination ran wild with the amazing opportunities that had come from our spontaneous decision to go meet Lou.

During my next day off, I camped out at the little white table just outside the Christmas store in Liberty Square. I had a new notebook in front of me, a new pen, and a bowl of watermelon. Rotating my wrist, sore from this sudden burst of writing, I looked up and took a minute to appreciate my situation: eighteen years old, sitting with a perfect view of Cinderella’s Castle and Sleepy Hollow Refreshments, writing an article for a magazine about a subject that was more fun than any kind of work. My thoughts were interrupted when a mother hesitantly held her camera out to me, asking if I would take a photo of her family in the red sleigh next to my table. As this was the fourth or fifth such request I’d received in the couple of hours I’d been there, I smiled and assured her it was no trouble whatsoever.

Eventually, the park had to close — early, as luck would have it, since it was grad night — and I drove back home to type up what I had written. I spent numerous hours researching and writing this one article. I discovered a plethora of facts that made the entire Liberty Square area more interesting, and spent quite a few lunch breaks at work surrounded by my notes and the excerpts I had copied from books in the Cast Member library. After a little more tweaking, I sent the article to Tim on April 29, 2010, fretting that my writing wouldn’t be good enough for him.

All I could do then was wait. It was remarkably like waiting for my acceptance into the program; I pulled up my email at every chance, as soon as I was on break, or off work, or any time at home. Then, finally, I got a response from Tim:

Well Amber, you’ve really thrown a monkey wrench into my day. Here I am, thinking I’m all done with the next issue, and along comes your article. I absolutely LOVE it!! So much so that I think it may become the cover story of the next issue (meaning I have a lot of scrambling to do!!). We’re doing a lot of USA type of stuff in this issue with the Fourth of July nearing (American Adventure, the never-opened Disney’s America park, Hall of Presidents, Main Street etc.), and I think this would be the perfect theme-setting article for the whole issue. What a way to start out, huh??

I have a copy editor who will go through and clean it up grammatically, but basically I think this is outstanding. Some of the facts are ones we’ve used already or are already in another article so I may trim them, but beyond that this is fantastic, thank you so much!!!

I would like to add you to the Contributors Section up front, do you have a nice pic of yourself (it can be casual, even an “at the park” one if you’ve got it)? It doesn’t need to be overly huge but 600 pixels or wide would be great. And a short bio too!!

Great work my friend, hopefully it will be the first of many!!

Tim

I sat in silence and stared at this message for a few seconds, and then immediately ran over to Betty, who had just come downstairs to go to the restroom, and gave her an excited hug, shoving the phone in her face. She was almost as excited as I was, assuring me that this was the beginning of great things. She told me: “You will be a famous author, mi amiga del alma, and your mami will be so proud of you, because I knew it!” I called my parents to let them know, and when break was over, everyone upstairs in the kitchen was subjected to my excited chatter until closing.

Paige, too, had a certain degree of success with her dream job. To be a Keys to the Kingdom tour guide is a coveted position; people can work for the company for years before they are permitted to lead guests through the bowels of Magic Kingdom.

We had emailed Pete the day after our meeting to thank him again for introducing us to people who had potential power to influence our futures, and received a reply that he was happy to help. And would we be interested in going to Magic Kingdom one day to watch him play with Push, the talking trash can in Tomorrowland?

On our next mutual day off, Paige and I went to Magic Kingdom and followed Push as kids delighted in throwing things in and teenage boys attempted to find where the voice was coming from. After Push was done for the day, Pete took us backstage and directed Paige inside one of the buildings where she actually had a meeting with the man in charge of casting for the Keys to the Kingdom tour. Pete and I sat outside at one of the picnic tables. Shortly, Paige came out thrilled, clutching a script that Disney uses for the actual audition.

Paige and I hadn’t really counted on any kind of networking while we were down there. Or at least it had never crossed our minds that, while out to meet a podcaster, we would have such luck in furthering our dream careers. I guess that’s the thing with spontaneous decisions — you never really know where you’ll end up.

“OH, COME ON. I’LL be working for Disney. How hard can that be?”

This is an oft-repeated refrain from future College Programmers before they start work at Walt Disney World. They even maintain this illusion for their first few weeks. Eventually, though, the experience that comes with being a Cast Member strips away the mirage of ease and happiness. Just because the Cast Members you see walking around are smiling doesn’t mean they’re having a magical day. Keeping their temper under control is part of the job.

It’s one of the many things you learn during the initial training process. Disney Cast Members must look approachable at all times: no slouching, no hands on hips, no pointing with just one finger. You are taught to be consciously aware of how you look to guests from all angles — at least, that’s what you’re taught. It doesn’t mean everyone pays attention. And smiling: smiling is key. Smiling makes you approachable; if you look like you are having a good time, guests will respond more favorably to you.

It sounds a little preachy, and trust me, not everyone pays attention to these kinds of rules. You’ll find Cast Members who put little effort into looking approachable. It’s just not something that many people worry about, and something not a lot of managers enforce. I understand this attitude: it’s often hard to tolerate the daily parade of screaming children smushing their French fries into the ground, and angry parents telling you they’ve been waiting for their food for thirty minutes when you have absolutely no hand in what’s going on in the kitchen.

I really loved my job, however, and the Disney attitude made my work day better. If I could spend ten minutes chatting with a kid about seeing the orcas at Sea World, or asking a guest about their day, it made my day go by faster. Sometimes, however, even I had trouble maintaining a magical attitude, and on those days I just wanted to hide in the kitchen and never come out and deal with guests.

What some people overlook when they dream about working for Disney is the high standards Disney sets for all of its Cast Members. Being approachable is just one of them. Disney makes no exceptions just because you’re having a bad day or don’t feel like being social. If, by nature, you are
not
a happy, friendly, easy-going person, then working for Disney may not be the fun-filled experience you expect.

Paige and I had a habit of waking up a couple of hours before we had to leave for work. She would make us breakfast, I would make my coffee, and we would sit on the couch watching
Family Feud
before getting in the shower and then heading off to work. On one such morning, I’m not entirely sure how, I got my mental schedule screwed up. I was leaving the apartment at the exact time I was supposed to be clocking in at the Electric Umbrella. Stomach sinking because I loathe being late, I ran to my car and called EU to let them know I wouldn’t be there on time. I don’t even remember if I had my costume on, but I would be willing to bet that it was waiting in my locker at Cast Services.

I was a bundle of nerves. I don’t take being late lightly, especially if it’s for work. Waiting at the stop sign just before turning onto the highway outside Patterson, I glanced down at the clock to see exactly how late I was going to be. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the car ahead of me ease up on the brakes, and I drove forward to follow them.

Except the people in front of me had just been edging forward, so instead of smoothly pulling onto International Drive, I ran Dinosaur into the back of their car.

As if the morning weren’t already bad enough. I panicked — this was the first time I’d been in an automobile accident — and wondered what in the world I was supposed to do now. I saw the people in front of me get out of their car, so I did the same.

And they were speaking Spanish. Not only had I rear-ended someone as I was running late to work, I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. I knew only a few Spanish words that Betty had taught me at the Electric Umbrella, and I didn’t think knowing the Spanish word for “bacon” was going to help me in this situation.