Ema Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (Earning Your Ears Book 2) (4 page)

After filling in all the paperwork, watching all the safety videos and testimonials from CP alumni, and absorbing every last ounce of information I could, I was even more excited about my upcoming Traditions class the next day. I also felt nervous, which made my stomach feel like a shaken-up can of pop. Time to calm my nerves with a visit to Walgreens, located conveniently across the road from Vista Way. We all wanted to see what it had for sale, in the hope that we wouldn’t have to trek to Walmart every time we needed minor items and supplies. Shauna also needed to pick out the right color hair dye, and she wanted to get that ordeal over with and her hair in proper order before we headed over to Downtown Disney for tea.

Back at Amy and Shauna’s apartment, I agreed that I would dye Shauna’s hair for her. It was only when I was half-way through that I realized we had known each other less that 72 hours and she had trusted me with picking the right shade dye and applying it to her hair. Safe to say, I was petrified that her hair would come out completely the wrong shade or go green. Lucky for me, well, mostly Shauna, it was a perfect match, and we were able to leave for our adventure at Downtown Disney in high spirits, ready to eat a stupid amount of food and try on silly hats.

This is possibly one of the most important days in my life: Traditions. There were special buses available to take us to the morning class of Traditions on time,which in our case meant leaving Vista Way at 6:50am to arrive at Disney University by 8am. We were given strict instructions to make sure we there were on time. If we weren’t, we’d have to be scheduled into another one, which would put us in a limbo for as long as a week.

Fortunately, I was scheduled for the same morning class as my roommate, which meant we wouldn’t have to creep around to avoid waking the other person up. I walked down to the bus with Abbie in plenty of time, and we grabbed two seats together. We sat there for a while in silence, purely because we were both tired. I closed my eyes a few times in hopes of getting an extra 5 minutes of sleep on the bus, but my brain was too excited, even though my body disagreed.

It was 6:52. The bus hadn’t left. I said to Abbie, “I thought the bus was leaving dead on 10 to 7; why haven’t we left yet”. Finally, the bus doors closed, but just as it was pulling away, a guy came running up and banged on the door. The driver was nice and let him on. The guy was wearing dark jeans and a shirt. He looked a mess, and far too informal for a Traditions class. He was heading to the back when he saw a spare seat behind us. I was still half asleep at this point, but it was only as he sat down that I realized it was Creepy Mike, the Canadian chatterbox from orientation the day before. I pretended not to see him and whispered to Abbie, who I’d already told about him, that it was
him
. We pretended to be asleep the whole journey to avoid communicating with Mike, but to be honest, it was 7 o clock in the morning, and I wasn’t really pretending most of the time.

The bus pulled up at Disney University on schedule. I had seen pictures of this place online and had always thought that its sign had been Photoshopped. I didn’t know such a place existed, and why I couldn’t go there to study. We headed inside to around all the people who had stopped outside to get their picture in front of the university sign. We decided to get ours later, when we’d look more alive.

Inside the building, we sat in the entrance area and glanced at the Disney cartoon playing on a TV behind us. There were Disney models on display, Disney paintings hung, and Disney quotes written on the walls. I absorbed every detail. I particularly liked Chip 'n' Dale floating down on parachutes from a missing ceiling tile gap. Before I had time to look at everything, we were split into our groups. Abbie was taken away from me at this point, but luckily I had Shauna with me, and a Canadian girl, Paige, who shared an apartment with Shauna. As we followed our leader up to our classroom, I tried to look at every wall, because each time you turned there was a new picture to see and story to read. One corridor had pictures and some writing dedicated to Disney animation artists. I love facts and trivia, and I really just want to stop and read them all. This building was practically a Disney Company Museum.

We stopped around the corner from the Disney Animators’ hall of fame in a waiting area where one wall had Disney heroes on it and the opposite wall Disney villains. The montage of pictures was amazing. Best waiting area ever!

As the line started to move, I stopped focusing my attention on the walls and looked forward to see a table full on shiny blue cards. Our IDs! This was the holy grail of cards. Having one meant we were officially Disney cast members, it meant we were awesome, it meant we could go to the parks for free, it meant we had proof that we have the coolest job in the world, it meant we got discounts on Disney food and merchandise, it meant we were the coolest of all the cats.

After getting out IDs we headed into a room, which had even better walls than those outside in the corridors. We wanted a table with three spare seats so we could sit together, and we had to act quickly to find one. More people were coming in behind us and taking up the space. Finally, I spotted it, a table right at the front, and we grabbed it ahead of others with the same intention. In front of each seat was a baby blue workbook with a red stripe down the side, dotted with white Mickey heads. In the top right-hand corner was a empty name tag-shaped image. Then, in the middle, an even lighter blue watermarked “D”, in the Disney font, and “Traditions, brought to you by Disney University” in black. Of course, looking at the front cover just wasn’t enough, I had to have a cheeky look inside, but nothing gave away what we were going to be doing.

Disney knows that a lot of the essential information we had to know is a tad boring, and that’s why they hire to most energetic, fun, and lively cast members for the Traditions team. Since this was my first program, I was completely immersed in the Disney Magic, to the point that even the thought of safety training seemed exciting.

The computer program started to teach us about how “SAFE D BEGINS WITH ME!” but at 8 o clock in the morning, this was harder than I had anticipated, even with Disney Magic spurring me on. I had to use all my will power to keep my eyelids from closing. I felt so guilty because I didn’t want to seem rude or ungrateful to the cast members leading the class. Even animated clips of the famous “Chris, from Orlando” talking about the four keys of working for Disney didn’t wake me up.

We moved on to filling out sections of the workbook. Actually doing something woke me up, and it helped that each activity was different. The first activity was to practice our Disney point, and learning our Disney point was lesson number one of why Disney has such great customer service. They think of everything, down to the last detail. They tell you that the Disney point was created because in some cultures pointing with one finger is considered rude, but most importantly small children could associate pointing with one finger with being in trouble, as a parent may “wag” one finger at them when telling their child off. Therefore, Disney created their own point, which is unique to the Disney Company, so if a guest were to ask you about the closest place to purchase ice cream, instead of using your index finger to show them the way, you would direct them there by pointing with your index and middle finger together, or alternatively you can direct with your whole hand. To be able to practice, we needed something to point at, and as part of this exercise we were told each table had to pick a team leader. On the count of three, we were told to point at the person we thought would make the best team leader.

One…I knew I didn’t know anyone that well…

Two…I think Paige would make a good leader…

Three…..I point at Paige.

But four (technically eight, with the Disney Point rules) fingers are pointed at me. The best part of this was that it won me a ‘critter’, a little plastic toy of one of the Fab 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto) that are given out as prizes during the class.

We engaged in multiple mini-competitions throughout the morning, most of which involved us answering questions about Walt Disney, his characters, the parks, and the company as a whole. Each correct answer won you a critter. We spent the rest of our morning watching videos starring current and past cast members talking about their experiences. People shared their “magic moments” from their trips to the parks as guests. Finally, right before our scheduled break time, we watched a montage video made up of cartoon clips from various films, interspersed with past and present cast members talking about the company. Most of us had become a bit emotional at this point, and this probably had something to do with the heart-grabbing music playing behind the video clips. Everyone in the room clearly shared the same ambition of working for Disney, and therefore, in this moment, everyone realized their dream was coming true when a clip of Walt Disney himself welcomed us to the family. Obviously, he didn’t rise from the dead; he had filmed a welcome message for everyone who was to ever work for his company, and he had done so to personally welcome them to his family, even after he was gone, and to thank them for being a part of his dream and keeping his spirit alive.

After I had composed myself and wiped away my tears, I went with Shauna during our break to Company D, a cast member-only store located inside the university that sold limited edition merchandise, such as hoodies and tote bags, but the best thing was the pins. I bought myself two pins and a lanyard for my ID.

When we returned from our break, the class was split into two teams, since taking the entire class as a single unit for the backstage walking tour of the Magic Kingdom would have been unwieldy. I was glad that I’d chosen to wear flat, comfortable shoes, unlike some of the Barbies in their 8” heels. We picked up headsets as we left the room en route to the Magic Kingdom, a warning fresh in our heads that no photos or videos of backstage areas was allowed, with immediate termination the fate of those who disobeyed.

After we took our tour through the Utilidors (tunnels), we head through some doors, and some more doors, and then up some stairs and though another door, and as if by magic we were on a side street of Main Street, U.S.A.! I could smell the sweet pastries from the ice cream parlor.

We walked down Main Street as our leaders pointed out multiple cast members who were giving good customer service. Every cast member we saw had once been in our place, and they knew who we were, walking in our tight little groups with headsets firmly in place. They were sure to say, “Hello, Traditions People”, and welcomed us into the Disney family.

Back in the classroom, I was never so glad for air conditioning. As we settled back into our seat and turned in our headsets, there was a knock at the door. Who should it be other than the boss himself, Mickey Mouse. Not only did he come to say “hi”, he brought him with some important items: our nametags! Mickey stood at the front, and table by table we got into an orderly line to collect our nametags and then sit back down, where we took photos of our nametags, my nametag with the critter next to it, us wearing our nametags, us wearing our nametags in a group…you get the idea, there were a lot of pictures taken of nametags.

Finally, we said goodbye to Mickey, watched one last inspirational video from Walt, and then we were sent into the big wide world as official Disney cast members.

First point of call, Guest Relations. We had just embarked on a huge journey, and we wanted to let everyone know that we were new cast members, and what’s the best way to let everyone know you are celebrating something special than with a celebration button! We picked up our “My First Trip” buttons and asked for the Guest Relations cast member to write “as a cast member” underneath. Automatically, her first words weren’t “yes” but “Congratulations”. Every cast member we saw that day congratulated us and welcomed us to the Disney family with the most genuine of smiles.

We headed straight for Space Mountain, and got in the 30-minute line, which actually was a minimal line of 10 minutes. We split into teams of 3 and jetted off into outer space at the speed of light.

After going on a few other rides, we hung around Main Street waiting for the Move It, Shake It parade to begin. We danced with the characters and the stilt walkers. This was such a fun way to start our program. It really felt like I was on holiday.

With 9 of us in the group, it was hard to agree on what to do next. The heat had become unbearable. Some of us wanted to go back on Space Mountain and other rides, but Amy, Shauna, and myself, who were suffering most from the heat, decided to go make use of our Disney IDs and get discount on merchandise. We had already picked out a few things that we wanted when we saw it in Downtown Disney, but had refrained from buying it since we knew we’d be able to pay less in a day or two. I wanted pins. I’d been on holiday to Disney World before, and my brother had bought loads of pins and started trading with the cast members, who kindly gave him a crash course on how trading worked. I wasn’t as much into pin trading as I was pin collecting. However, I saw how much fun my brother had had, and so decided to add “start pin trading” to my bucket list for the summer. We went to the Emporium where I bought a Mr Pricklepants pin, after the team name of my Traditions class, and two other pins: the grape soda bottle top badge from
Up
and Sorcerer Mickey (because it reminds me of Fantasmic!, my favorite thing to do on Disney property).

As we were leaving the Magic Kingdom for our air-conditioned apartments, there was a little girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, just entering the park holding hands with her mum. I could see the wonder and magic in her eyes; she was taken aback by the beauty of the Magic Kingdom. Then she said, in a mesmerized voice;

“Mummy, is this a dream?”

This girl’s response to the magic showed me how much every child and adult enjoys being in Disney and how much I’m going to love contributing to making that magic happen for every family that I see.