Amber Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (10 page)

Paige had an egg coloring kit that she wasn’t able to use (she had to be at work early in the morning), so we asked to borrow it. Then, after our dinner, Leah and I decided to assume the mantle of Easter Bunny.

We formulated our plan as we drove to Downtown Disney from Hollywood Studios. We would buy little gifts for everyone — Leah would get Paige’s and mine, and I would get hers and May’s — and then some candy to decorate with. An air of excitement filled Dino as we worked out what we would get. The bright lights of Downtown Disney drew us like moths, and soon we were out of the car and in the huge World of Disney shop.

Together we picked out an
Alice in Wonderland
tea set for Paige — who loved both breakfast and Alice — and some more typical Easter presents for May: a stuffed Thumper from
Bambi
, a large coffee mug with Thumper on it that we could set the stuffed animal in, and a large bag of jelly beans. Then we separated, agreeing on a rendezvous point after we had bought each other’s presents; they were to be a surprise until the morning.

We had given each other only about thirty minutes to find the perfect gift, so — a little scatterbrained — I wandered through the World of Disney before remembering a shirt (picturing an old cartoon with Mickey and Minnie Mouse in medieval attire) that I had seen a few weeks ago at Tren-D which reminded me of Leah, a huge Minnie fan. After I’d bought the shirt, I wandered into the crystal store, and found some little figurines of Snow White and Dopey — also favorites of Leah’s. They quickly joined the t-shirt. With my bank account down to a few measly dollars, I retired the debit card and left to find Leah.

We met at the agreed-upon spot and, plastic bags rustling, rushed back to the car. We couldn’t keep dopey grins off of our faces as we envisioned everyone waking up and seeing our “Nook of Celebration” (the useless extension of the living room that was supposed to be a balcony but never made it that far) decorated and full of presents.

When we arrived back at the apartment, May was awake and ready to color some eggs. We stashed our purchases behind the chair, and Leah set up the color and eggs while I showed May how, if you used a white crayon, you could write little messages on the eggs that would show up after you colored them. We made a special one for May’s first Easter.

We colored our eggs — it must have been somewhere around one in the morning — and I have to say, it’s one of my favorite Easter memories. May was so excited about the entire event that it was infectious. After we set the eggs up to dry, some of them glittering in the kitchen light, we moved to the floor in the living room. All four of us identified in some way with a Disney princess (even myself, the least likely Disney princess), and so we decided to color pictures for us to hang above our presents.

I colored Leah’s picture — she was undoubtedly Snow White — while she colored my picture of Belle in her reading dress, book in hand. May took charge of Paige’s picture of Jasmine, and Leah and I both teamed up to color May’s favorite picture of Ariel. The poster-sized coloring pages took ages to color, especially as we were all the kind of hard-core artists who shaded in the sky and all the foliage, but we had some great conversation.

At one point, after we had been coloring in silence for a while, two sets of at least 96-count Crayola Crayons spilled out on the table so we could find our colors easier, May, dismayed by the desert landscape of Agrabah, cried out “So much brown!” which quickly became an inside joke for our little Easter escapade.

Eventually, everything was done.

We sent May to bed with the promise of the Easter Bunny’s gift in the morning, and Leah and I hung the pictures and arranged the presents, jelly beans, and chocolate eggs in neat piles, shielding our presents from each other. Finally, around three in the morning, we took some final pictures, bade each other good night, and headed to our respective beds, excitement about the coming morning tempered by exhaustion.

We all woke up at the same time (except for Paige, who had had to leave much earlier), and it was wonderful to see May rush in, fall to her knees in front of her corner, and grab her Thumper. She looked at the stuffed rabbit, enraptured, and kissed it repeatedly.

“Oh, the Easter bunny came! So cute!”

Leah and I beamed at each other, then turned to inspect our own presents. She had gotten me a Peace, Love, and Mickey antenna topper; a Donald Duck keychain; and a notepad decorated with Belle’s yellow ball gown. And, the massive part, a gift basket from Basin, containing some of my favorite bath bombs, bath salts, and more.

After talking about our presents for a few minutes, we all crawled back in our beds to wait for our alarms to go off once more, this time waking us for work.

When Leah met me in the kitchen later, she told me, another large smile on her face, “May fell asleep curled up with the little Thumper. It was fun being the Easter Bunny!”

I LOOKED BEHIND ME on the bus, searching for the girl who had passed me wearing a straw hat.

“Hey, do you work at the Sunset Ranch?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Oh, I’m deployed, and was wondering where I go to get everything.”

Something that made me and some of my friends anxious during our first few days at Disney World, and then again when we were deployed (temporarily assigned to a new work location), was where to find what we needed. Where would we put our bags? Where did we pick up costumes? Did we have to bring our own lunch to work, or was there something like a cafeteria or a restaurant for Cast Members?

For your workplace, obviously, you’ll receive training. As part of orientation, you’ll take a tour of the Cast Member building in the park where you’ll be working. Each park has its own Cast Member building (or Utilidor, in the case of Magic Kingdom), and if you ride the Disney bus to work from your apartment, that’s where it will drop you off, with the exception of Animal Kingdom.

Once you’re inside, Cast Members are happy to point you toward costuming or bathroom/changing rooms. I was a little overwhelmed at first, but everything is set up so well that it’s easy to navigate.

There are security guards at the entrance to these buildings who’ll check your ID and bag before they let you enter. One security guard, Tom, was usually on duty when I left EPCOT for the night, and he was one of the happiest guys there. Every night, I would say goodnight to him on the way out, and he would answer likewise.

One night I had changed out of my work shirt before heading toward the exit. I was pleasantly surprised when Tom remembered my name, even without a nametag. He must see hundreds of Cast Members every night, and yet he remembered my name; it goes to show that the magic doesn’t happen only onstage. The Cast Members backstage are just as special, even if they don’t always get the appreciation those on stage receive.

I had my picture taken with Tom during one of my last nights in the park.

For meals, Cast Members often use the cafeterias set aside for them. The food is quite good, and I was a big fan of the grill area in EPCOT’s cafeteria. You won’t be shown the cast cafeteria during your orientation tour of the park, but any co-worker or leader will be happy to give directions.

My leaders at Electric Umbrella always tried their best to be aware of who had brought their lunches and who needed to eat at the cafeteria. They wanted to make sure everyone made it to the cafeteria before it closed. When I was deployed, the leaders at my other position weren’t quite so accommodating. Every workplace is different, however, and people with all sorts of personalities will be your leaders.

The more places I worked, the more I realized how different EU was; while I was there, we didn’t use CDS (Cast Deployment System), the computer program that organizes who goes where, and when. It was easier not to use CDS at EU, because the leaders knew better than the computer who worked the different positions best. Someone who can’t keep up with the back of Nieco can hold up the progress of the kitchen drastically — not exactly something you want to chance in the middle of the lunch rush. But since I’ve left, rumor has it that even EU has yielded to CDS.

Prices at the cast cafeterias (run by Aramark, not Disney) are what you would expect. Food at the grills and other stations range in price between $5.00-$9.00. Lots of snacks — bagels, muffins, candy bars, popsicles — are available, too. Aramark also brings in some chains, such as Subway.

Despite the good food and decent prices, many Cast Members, especially those in the CareerStart and College Programs, opt to bring their own lunches. I was a fan of making a huge batch of pasta and then portioning it in Tupperware. I learned that vegetables like spinach weren’t great for reheating, and the ratatouille penne that I learned to make was definitely the most revolting leftover that I have ever eaten. But baked chicken with brown rice and some kind of vegetable like broccoli? The best! And really easy to cook the night before work and stick in the fridge, too.

Where you kept your lunch depended upon where you worked. At one of the locations where I was deployed, there was very little space, and the lovely girl that I had met and asked advice from on the bus warned me that it wasn’t the safest place, either — despite the fact that it was right beside the managers’ offices! I used a small fridge to keep my pasta cold, but I had to carry my iPod and cell phone in my pockets. Apparently, a few people had had their stuff stolen, so it was best not to leave anything to chance.

EU, however, had a much safer break room. You could store your bag in the manager’s office — which is where I kept my stuff on my first few days — or, if you brought your own lock, there were small lockers in the tunnels just outside. I never went through the effort of doing either; our break room had some shelves, and I would just toss my bag on one of them, store my food in a fridge, and head out.

My co-workers at EU were really great people, and though they weren’t the only ones who used that break room, I never heard of anybody having a problem with theft. That’s not to say I’d leave my iPod or other valuable item lying in plain view, but I never felt wary about leaving my bag shoved behind someone else’s stuff for the day.

If you’re cautious about leaving your possessions in the open, you’ll be assigned a locker in the Cast Services building when you get your first set of costumes, but the building can be a long walk from your work location.

My advice is to store your belongings in the manager’s office on your first day, especially if you’ve brought stuff you’d like to use during break; however, if you’re only bringing small items and a lunch box, you may not even have to worry about storage. I used the manager’s office for the first week or so until I made friends with some people who assured me that it was more than safe to leave my bag in the break room.

Bringing your own food will save you money, but it’s no big deal if you forget to make your lunch or dinner before you leave the apartment. Just make sure the nearest cast cafeteria will be open during your shift.

Of course, circumstances really depend on your work location, but rest assured, none of it is complicated, and Cast Members are always more than happy to help you out.

IT’S RARE THAT YOU’LL go through an entire program without being deployed temporarily (usually for a week) to another location. Sometimes it’ll be in the same park, but other times you’ll have to learn a whole new set of directions and procedures. You’ll pull up your schedule, and find that instead of your regular work location, you’ve got to report at some place you’ve never heard of.

Working at Electric Umbrella, I watched most of the CPs get deployed before it happened to me. They came back with mixed reviews; some people loved where they had been sent (usually because it had been a little slower-paced), and some loathed it. I was looking forward to my deployment with a tad bit of trepidation.

Toward the end of May, I had reluctantly agreed to fly back home to Tennessee to walk at my high school graduation. I didn’t want to do it, but my mother insisted, and missing two days of work wasn’t a terribly big deal. I tried to request the days off through the Hub, the Cast Member website where you can view your schedule, paystub, other jobs that are open, article databases, and myriad other resources, but my time-off requests were denied. I ended up going to one of my leaders, and after explaining why I needed the days off, he assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem.

It just so happened that these days off were during the week of my deployment. I double-checked to make sure that everything was fine.

The girl I had seen on the bus wearing the Sunset Ranch costume showed me where to find my own costume in the Cast Member building. I picked out a lovely blue and white blouse and matching skirt, a subtle apron plastered with sunflowers, and, as they were out of straw bonnets, a white handkerchief that I had to tie around my head. I took my newly acquired costume to the changing room, where I struggled for a couple of minutes as to which way the bottoms actually went. They looked like a skirt, but were really shorts…still, despite all the logic I put into donning my bottoms correctly, when I stuck my iPod and cell phone in the pockets, it was to find that I had still managed to put them on backwards.

It was a sign.

I always feel uncomfortable walking across stage in costume. One of the things emphasized in Traditions is Walt’s belief in the show: people dressed in Western costumes for Frontierland, for example, should under no circumstances be seen walking through the pastel colors of Fantasyland or tropical Adventureland. Magic Kingdom is the main place where that rule is most noticeable when broken, and fittingly, it’s also the only park where you can easily get from one land to another — via the Utilidor — without ever stepping foot onstage. I knew how to find Sunset Ranch, but I wasn’t sure how to get there backstage (and it didn’t help that backstage at Hollywood Studios consists of a bunch of bland buildings). I managed to find one little shortcut, but still ended up crossing much of the stage, my Gryffindor bag slung across my shoulders.