#merchandisecp

[thekimmiandjackieshow]

The Weekend I Joined the Circus

When I first visited Walt Disney World in 2013, I fell in love with Magic Kingdom. I wanted to explore every inch of it. It solidified my desire to do the Disney College Program. I wanted to be part of the magic that I was feeling. I’m sure that’s what inspires many college program kids to apply. But the stand out moment to me was an odd moment. It wasn’t seeing the castle for the first time. It wasn’t the first time I saw one of the many inspiring Magic Kingdom shows. No, it was the moment I walked into Storybook Circus. The Cast Members behind the registers were wearing red striped vests, yellow striped shirts, carnival hats, and a giant striped tie. I looked at my mom and said, “I want to be a Cast Member and I want to work in this store with that giant ugly tie.” 

I didn’t know my wish would actually come true.

I hadn’t had any luck finding shifts at Storybook Circus. It appeared everybody who worked there, loved working there, and rarely were people willing to give away shifts to outsiders. My friend Emily had recently picked up a shift there though and said she loved it, so I was determined. One girl was giving away two shifts, a night shift on a Friday and a morning Saturday shift. I took them both. It was the only time I had really done that. Because my goal was to pick up shifts in as many different locations as possible, I wasn’t really repeating locations. But, I needed hours and the convenience of it was too much to pass up. 

I had always said, “I will work anywhere in Walt Disney World. I don’t care what costume they put me in - in fact, I hope they give me the most ridiculous costume!” I had repeated it to friends before I left SEVERAL times. I was hoping for a costume as memorable as Storybook Circus. The Animal Kingdom Strollers costume is a pretty great costume when it comes to “ridiculous costumes that only Disney would put you in”, but the Circus was my dream costume. I can’t really explain it, I just had my heart set on it. Getting to work there was so exciting. It was the shift I was probably the most excited for and the least nervous for.

The costume has several pieces. The first is an optional carnival hat. I loved wearing Disney’s hats. Strollers had one and it was great at first, but after a while it became too much of a hassle. The costumed band around it always slid off and the humidity made my hat hair unbearable. I gave up on it shortly after starting my program. Still, I knew I had to have the circus hat. The next piece is the big yellow, red, and blue striped tie. Luckily it was a clip on. This sat underneath the collar of the yellow and blue striped, long sleeved shirt. The shirt was a little stiff at the ends where you could either button the white cuffs closed around your wrists, or roll it up a few times depending on the weather. Next were the pants...high-waisted red pants with even deeper red stripes. They were as soft as silk pajama pants, but they sat ridiculously high.

Over the top of all this sat a matching red striped vest. I checked out everything I needed and headed to the bus. I can’t even tell you how thrilled I was. 

The thing about working at the Circus is it’s technically part of “New Fantasyland”. The Circus portion of the land had been revamped on several occasions. It started as “Mickey’s Birthdayland” and progressed to “Mickey’s Toontown Fair”. The idea was that the land was filled with vacation homes for Mickey and his friends, who of course lived in Toontown in California. From what I heard, it didn’t go well and was later reimagined to the Storybook Circus around the same time as New Fantasyland. In the land there were two Dumbo rides, a kid-friendly rollercoaster, circus themed meet and greets, and of course, Big Top Souvenirs. Because New Fantasyland was an expansion of Magic Kingdom in 2012, the tunnels system didn’t travel all the way underneath that part of the park. I don’t know how it worked for Mickey’s Birthdayland and all that when it first opened, but Storybook Circus was also expanded a bit when it was rethemed, meeting up with a backroad that the West Clock Buses took to the tunnel entrance. So, instead of the bus stopping at only the tunnels and requiring Cast Members to walk to their work places on stage, they had another bus stop that allowed New Fantasyland Cast to walk to their work locations through the backstage area. I think New Fantasyland Cast Members could use the tunnels if they wanted to but I know that several got off at the other bus stop.

The West Clock Bus’s first stop was at Clown’s Alley, the backstage area behind Storybook Circus and leading to a gate for other New Fantasyland Cast Members. My coworker Emily had recently picked up a shift at Storybook Circus, so she had texted me what to look for and where to go. I felt like I had found where I needed to be, but I was a little bit nervous. I never knew what to expect from doors backstage. Would the door lead me on stage or would it be to another backstage area? Walking on stage half-ready with personal belongings in tow is frowned upon at Disney, so doors always gave me pause. I went in anyway and got lucky. Inside sat a row of lockers, CDS (where we clock in), and double doors that clearly marked the way to on stage. There were also a few offices. I went around the corner to the offices to see if I could find a coordinator that would introduce me to the area. As I waited, I watched the TV that was mounted above the CDS. Music from Festival of Fantasy played as daily announcements flashed across the TV, and then a short skit made up by some Cast Members who worked at Storybook Circus played. The loop went on and on, filling the back area with music from the parade. I was surprised at how much effort they had gone to for this merchandise location. At my home location, we were lucky if we got briefed by coordinators before starting our shifts. Things that were “need to know” were announced to those who opened, and everybody else got their information through the grapevine, if at all. I was excited to have picked up two shifts at the circus, seeing how organized everything was. 

I got a tour of the backstage area and the entire store. Big Top Souvenirs is so interesting because it has so many moving parts. They sell almost everything there. There’s of course the regular merchandise like hats, shirts, plushes, jewelry, postcards, keychains, etc. But there was also an entire concession stand in the middle of it all selling caramel apples, dipped marshmallows, and other Disney snacks. They also sold MagicBands, which (at the time) required Cast Members to be able to link the bands up with guests’ accounts. Behind a different register, guests could get their ears they purchased embroidered. I was amazed. Cast Members who work at Big Top are able to be trained in so many different things. To work with food they had to be trained in food safety and have the training to actually make the food, to link MagicBands they had to be trained to link it up with guest tickets, and to embroider ears they had to be trained in Costuming. I was curious about what I would be able to do as a Cast Member who was only qualified to sell regular merchandise and MagicBands. They told me that backstage was called Clown’s Alley, and in that alleyway were the cast restrooms and break room. They showed me where the stockroom was, and then I was on my way! 

Assignments were given by register, but each register was themed to look like a circus cage. Each cage was given a particular animal, so instead of being told to go to Register 1, you’d be told to go to Lions 1. There was also the option of working the outside cart by Casey Jr’s Splash and Soak Station. It’s really only open during peak days when the weather is warm enough, otherwise the Splash and Soak Station is turned off and the cart remains closed. 

The cart sits off to the side and sells basics like hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, and towels for those who got a little more soaked than they intended. 

I didn’t even realize the cart was back there until the coordinator showed me around. My hope was that I’d get a healthy mix of being outdoors and getting to work around the store. Knowing that I wasn’t trained in everything made me nervous that my entire shift would be outside. Sure enough, I started my shift at the cart. It was fun watching the kids play in the water. It wasn’t a boring cart by any means. I was working the cart by myself though, and I wasn’t a fan of that. Every so often somebody would come and restock the cart with a towel or two, but beyond that I was by myself. 

Later on I got to be inside, and I loved it. There were parts of the store that were hard to keep clean, like the plush walls or the walls of Mickey ears, and sometimes the registers got surprisingly busy for a story in the back corner of Magic Kingdom, but keeping busy was what kept it fun. When I got my break slip it was called a “cookout”. Something about walking backstage where Festival of Fantasy music is being played and running into a Cast Member who asks if you’re headed to your coookout makes the whole thing more magical. It didn’t feel like real life because it didn’t feel like anybody would live a life where they dress head to toe in carnival themed clothing to sell merchandise to guests. The evening signaled the end of my shift and I went home, all smiles.

I worked a Saturday morning opening shift. We skipped the tour since I had just worked there the night before. The store was incredibly slow. Guests hadn’t really gotten all the way to the back of the park by that time, so we were pretty over staffed. With that, I got to do “tasks”. Tasks are the assignments that merchandise Cast Members pull every so often. They can be because something really needs to be completed or because there are just too many Cast Members at that time. One of my tasks was to take the trash cans out, including the ones in the kitchen area where all the caramel apples and other snacks were being made. It was the only time I was ever allowed back behind one of those counters as I wasn’t food trained or anything. It was neat to see how its set up and how it functions. Not that taking out the trash is special or anything, but when you’re curious about the magic made at Walt Disney World, any glimpse of backstage that you’re not used to is exciting. Another of my tasks was to entertain guests outside. There were a few carnival style games we were allowed to bring out to the front of the store to bring attention to the store and bring that extra magic to guests. The Cast Member who was doing it before me was clearly tired of having to work outside in the sun, playing the same carnival game they’ve probably been forced to play for hours on slower days. It was all new to me though, and it was far more fun than the worn down hula hoops Animal Kingdom Strollers has. 

I stood outside and played with guests willingly. It was better than straightening out the Mickey plushes for the 90th time. I was glad I had picked up an opening shift because it was so different than my almost-closing shift from the night before. 

With it being so slow, they decided to briefly train me on how to ring out embroidery orders. Typically, one Cast Member takes the order and rings it up while the other Cast Member preps the sewing machine and embroiders the ears. I wasn’t there long enough to be trained on the embroidery part of it, but I read through the rules of embroidery orders, wrote out orders on the little cards, and rung them out. I realized that I really missed being constantly challenged at work. My favorite part of working at Tower Gifts was when I learned how to find, edit, print, and ring out ride photos for guests. Learning how to do embroidery orders, no matter how small that was, was fun for me. I liked being pushed to do new things and learn more. It was the primary reason my job back at Animal Kingdom was getting stale. CP’s were so limited at DAK Strollers that after a certain point, learning new things wasn’t really an option.

I also got lucky in that the Saturday morning I was working also happened to be the day Ricky was in town. He had come in town for Animal Kingdom’s Birthday (and the release of Rivers of Light that never happened) and was hanging around the parks. He stopped in Circus for a visit and even though he had just visited me at Animal Kingdom a few days before, it was awesome to see him again. Plus, he was able to get a few pictures of me working which was cool. 

When I made that joke years ago about wanting to work at Big Top in the silly hat and giant tie, I didn’t think it would actually be possible. I honestly think that if I hadn’t done it, it would have been one of my biggest regrets. I loved working at Storybook Circus and if I had to do the program all over again, I think I’d request it as my home location.

[thekimmiandjackieshow]

A Day of Exploration & Magic

With all the shifts I had been picking up around Walt Disney World, I was starting to miss the friends I had made at my home location. Every week I kept one or two shifts at DAK Strollers, but only if it was a shift I liked. Typically these were opening shifts or stock shifts. Back when CP’s could give away shifts, I gave away every other shift and picked up shifts in other places. I didn’t have any regrets about doing this, but it did mean I wasn’t as close with my work friends as I could have been. During my fall program, my work friends and I were really close, basically family. But after I extended in the same location, new people came in and I kept my walls up. For many reasons, as dumb as they were, I was skeptical about the new people and it wasn’t until about a month into my second program that I started to appreciate them and become friends with them. When I started picking up shifts other places it created distance, but every once in a while I would find myself invited to a day out in the parks to play with these DAK Stroller people. 

Central Florida gets a lot of heat for having crazy weather, but honestly mid April was the perfect time to be out enjoying the parks. I was planning to meet everybody at Animal Kingdom, and from there just see how the day went. I was not disappointed.

I had to meet everybody in Dinoland so I walked quickly through all of Animal Kingdom to get there. The group had pretty much finished up at Animal Kingdom, a result of me getting there late because I had wanted to sleep in on my day off. We stood around and talked about our next plan though because, let’s be honest, not many college program kids have a plan when they’re headed to the parks unless they are checking something specific off on their bucket list. I don’t think it’s necessary to always have a plan either. Part of the fun and magic of living there was not always needing a plan. You could go and relax and enjoy the day without thinking about all the things you absolutely HAD to do. It was nice and care free, but it did mean a lot of standing around wondering what was next. For a quick second, we distracted ourselves with a few goofy pictures in Dinoland.

I took well over 7,000 pictures (this is after going through and editing out duplicates and terrible ones) for my spring program alone and I STILL wish I had gotten more pictures. I think there’s just always moments of your program where you think, “Oh I can grab that photo later” or, “That’s a silly tourist photo, we don’t need a photo there” or the worst, “Nobody is around to take our picture and/or the Photopass line is just too long to worry about it, we’ll do it some other time”. The truth is, if you don’t do it then you probably won't think about it next time. I’m very picture-oriented. When I go back and look at my pictures, there are things that I cannot believe I didn’t get a picture of. I always had my phone, camera, or GoPro out, and I still never got a picture of me and my fiancée in our matching strollers costumes. We worked together all the time but it just never happened. In fact most of my pictures in my home location costume happened in my spring program. I’m thankful for the few moments I insisted on a picture no matter how flaming hot Dinoland was at the time, or what stranger we had to ask for the picture.

At some point in April, the outdoor amphitheater was revealed for the upcoming Rivers of Light show. At that point, all progress had stopped for the show and we were beginning to think that the giant lotus flowers backstage were going to be abandoned and the idea was going to be scrapped. No new release date was given, no new information was sent out to cast, it was all just rumors. Of course the main rumor was that one of the floats had sunk. See, this was the first “free standing, remote-controlled” show on water that Disney had done. Shows that look similar (Fantasmic! for example) were actually done in a man-made river or body of water that allowed for a track system to be installed underwater. Animal Kingdom’s new show was utilizing a natural body of water and therefore couldn’t be drained. So if a water show was going to be developed, they were going to need to find a way to make the floats remote-controlled to allow them to be free standing without risk of collision. They did, and it worked, and all was fine. Until a test run went wrong and a float (supposedly) sank to the bottom of the river. This rumor spread amongst Cast Members like wildfire until it finally ended up on a main Disney forum and the guests got a hold of it. In any case, the amphitheater construction was 100% complete, so rather than keep walkways narrow with walls around the amphitheater still up, they revealed the amphitheater. It was beautiful and definitely made the walkways clearer, but it added to guests’ questions about the release date of the show and reminded us all how bitter we were that we weren’t actually going to be on our college program anymore when it was finally released.

Our last stop in Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest. This is hands down, one of my top 3 attractions in Walt Disney World. The first time I visited in 2013, I was too freaked out to go on it. But I forced myself on it at the beginning of my first program and loved it. Now I can’t go to the park without making a stop there.

We made our way out of the park and headed towards Magic Kingdom. A good chunk of CP’s are known as “Magic Kingdom Trash” which is the new way to say they’re Magic Kingdom mega-fans. Me? Not so much and not so secretly either. I’m a big fan of people watching on Main Street while parades pass by and the music plays. I think there are few things that are more magical than that. But the rest of Magic Kingdom is sadly outdated, making me miss the original park on the west coast that is better kept up in terms of attractions and general offerings. Don’t get me wrong, I know WHY Magic Kingdom is more outdated than Disneyland. I can go over that in more detail in another post, but the truth of the matter is, Walt Disney World doesn’t update things nearly as frequently as Disneyland does and it shows. It always makes me a little more homesick than other parks, but the group was headed there so I tagged along. 

We pulled up to the Magic Kingdom parking gates and flashed our Blue IDs. Those magical pieces of plastic were our access to everything, including free parking. Instead of following the guest cars over to the Ticket and Transportation Center parking lot, we veered to the right towards the Contemporary. We parked in the cast lot for the Contemporary (WHICH I DON’T RECOMMEND YOU DO). It was a popular choice to park here for a visit to Magic Kingdom because it was only a walk away from the park’s main entrance. Typically, guests have to park at the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) and take either the monorail or the ferry to the main entrance. The experience was one that Walt thought of in order to transport guests away from their land and into the magical one ahead. It was one of my favorite things to do but it was looked at as “inconvenient” by several Cast Members. It’s also not technically allowed. See, when you are a Cast Member visiting a park you are a GUEST. You are no longer allowed to access backstage areas, Cast Member parking lots do not apply to you, and (this should be a no brainer) you can’t just hop on a register or run an attraction or close a character line like you might do on your day-to-day job. You are now a guest, which means you are held to the standards a guest is held to. They make it easy for you too by giving you free parking with your ID. Yet still, Cast Members park in the Contemporary and walk over to Magic Kingdom. Cast Members who are caught doing this are at risk for having their car towed by the way. They also monitor it even more on days they suspect more Cast Members will be there (like CP graduation days or CP departure days). I just don’t recommend it. But that day, I was in that car, parking in that small lot, and crossing the one street that separated us from the park.

To be honest, one of my favorite views was on this street. I loved seeing the back of Space Mountain. At Disneyland, Space Mountain is pushed back to the very edge of the park. The back of Space Mountain is completely blocked off by a backstage area and there aren’t any Disney roads that are accessible to guests to give you that same view. The first time I saw the back of Space Mountain I thought it was so weird, but so cool. I still got excited and took a picture every time I crossed that particular street.

Magic Kingdom felt 10 degrees hotter than Animal Kingdom did, which was unusual. I always felt like Animal Kingdom was the hottest park by far, with a humid rainforest feel that wasn’t really imitated anywhere else in Walt Disney World. That day though, it wasn’t the humidity that made it hot, it was the sun. Which meant that Main Street was on fire because of the lack of shade, and Animal Kingdom was slightly more bearable because of its trees. We were committed at that point though to see Festival of Fantasy. At the beginning of my program, I wasn’t as in love with FOF as other people. I had fun with it, and I liked it, but I didn’t LOVE it. It wasn’t until I got to see it more that I developed more of an emotional attachment to it (which was how I felt about basically all of Magic Kingdom... it’s more sentimental love than anything else). Like many other CP’s, I had the introduction memorized, knew exactly where to stand to get the best views, and could sing along to the entire parade. While we stood on Main Street waiting for the parade to start, a nearby group had separated to get ice cream. They came back just in time for the parade, and pushed past us to give their kids sitting on the curb in front of us their ice cream. One person shoved past me and stood dividing our group, almost dripping their rapidly melting ice cream onto my friend’s hair. When I say guests are clueless about their surroundings, I’m not kidding. It was hard to enjoy the parade when I was consistently warning my friend about the raining ice cream above her head, and making sure none of the sticky chocolate landed on my white shoes. It was one of those things that reminds you how tiring it is to be surrounded by selfish tourists all day every day. Beyond that, the parade was everything, as it always was. It lifted our spirits, made us feel magical, and kept us dancing and singing.

Decidedly the only way to cool off after watching the parade in the heat was to go on Splash Mountain. I hadn’t ridden it all too often. In fact, I hadn’t ridden most of the rides at Magic Kingdom that often. Whenever I did find my way into Magic Kingdom it was often for just the parade, meandering down Main Street, or taking pictures of random places. The attractions were not typically the first thing on my mind. But, down the mountain we went anyway! As huge fans of all things Animal Kingdom, especially Festival of the Lion King, we of course had to imitate our favorite animals all the way down!

We found our way back to Main Street for Move It Shake It Dance and Play It! (MISI). MISI is a character dance party and being one that avoids characters due to my sheer ability to be indescribably awkward, I typically didn’t dance with the characters. But I did try to catch the first and last song at least once during my days at Magic Kingdom because I loved the atmosphere. We hung around, took pictures at the castle, and then some of our group took off for the day. That was the other thing about living the Disney life: there were always other things we should have been doing.

At some point during the day, we were able to head over to Jungle Cruise to visit Skipper Kasia. Kasia and I had worked together at Animal Kingdom Strollers in the fall, and had become fast friends. She extended her program into Attractions and became a Skipper for Jungle Cruise. I had always planned on visiting her on her bote, but our schedules never allowed for it. Even visiting her on that day, we were only able to get a quick picture before leaving. I was glad we had at least caught each other. I loved visiting people at work because it felt like I knew people everywhere we turned, and I knew it made a typical day more fun for whomever I was visiting. It was always nice to know that people cared enough to go to your part of the park and say hi.

We played on another attraction or two before the end of the day. The sun started to set. As we crossed over the bridge leaving Tomorrowland, the energy in the park seemed to calm down. The noise of the day had dissipated as large families disappeared into restaurants for the dinner rush, and passholders headed home for the night. We could hear the futuristic space music playing on the bridge as we approached, and while there was still that white noise of children laughing and families chattering, it felt like a fairly silent park. The sunset was gorgeous as it reflected off the clouds. It wasn’t dark enough for anything in the park to be lit up, so the only thing lighting up the castle was the soft glow of the sunset through the clouds. It was magical and I was happy. It was the kind of happiness that washes over you when you feel like you’re home. I had been counting down days until the end of my program at that point, longing to leave the job I couldn’t stand behind and ready to head off to my new adventure in North Carolina. At that moment though, I wondered why I was so excited to leave. Disney had that effect on people. The others in the group noticed the perfect lighting too, so we stopped for a picture on the bridge with the castle as our background.

It had been a pretty perfect day that made me love my coworkers and Magic Kingdom a whole lot more. Those are the moments I wish I could go back to. Relaxing on a day off with random people, some joining us halfway through the day while others left to go run errands. It was something that was unique to living at Walt Disney World, an experience I’ll likely never have again. I’m glad I took a deep breath and enjoyed it every once in a while because that feeling is something I never want to forget.At some point during the day, we were able to head over to Jungle Cruise to visit Skipper Kasia. Kasia and I had worked together at Animal Kingdom Strollers in the fall, and had become fast friends. She extended her program into Attractions and became a Skipper for Jungle Cruise. I had always planned on visiting her on her bote, but our schedules never allowed for it. Even visiting her on that day, we were only able to get a quick picture before leaving. I was glad we had at least caught each other. I loved visiting people at work because it felt like I knew people everywhere we turned, and I knew it made a typical day more fun for whomever I was visiting. It was always nice to know that people cared enough to go to your part of the park and say hi. We played on another attraction or two before the end of the day. The sun started to set. As we crossed over the bridge leaving Tomorrowland, the energy in the park seemed to calm down. The noise of the day had dissipated as large families disappeared into restaurants for the dinner rush, and passholders headed home for the night. We could hear the futuristic space music playing on the bridge as we approached, and while there was still that white noise of children laughing and families chattering, it felt like a fairly silent park. The sunset was gorgeous as it reflected off the clouds. It wasn’t dark enough for anything in the park to be lit up, so the only thing lighting up the castle was the soft glow of the sunset through the clouds. It was magical and I was happy. It was the kind of happiness that washes over you when you feel like you’re home. I had been counting down days until the end of my program at that point, longing to leave the job I couldn’t stand behind and ready to head off to my new adventure in North Carolina. At that moment though, I wondered why I was so excited to leave. Disney had that effect on people. The others in the group noticed the perfect lighting too, so we stopped for a picture on the bridge with the castle as our background.It had been a pretty perfect day that made me love my coworkers and Magic Kingdom a whole lot more. Those are the moments I wish I could go back to. Relaxing on a day off with random people, some joining us halfway through the day while others left to go run errands. It was something that was unique to living at Walt Disney World, an experience I’ll likely never have again. I’m glad I took a deep breath and enjoyed it every once in a while because that feeling is something I never want to forget.

[thekimmiandjackieshow]

Chris from Orlando’s Enchanting Shift

After a successful shift in Tomorrowland, I went back to working at my home location for a good portion of March. I had requested quite a bit of time off for the various visitors that were in town, so keeping my shifts at Animal Kingdom was easiest. I thought with some time off my perception of my home location would change. When it didn’t, I went for a shift in Fantasyland.

Fantasyland was one of the more intriguing places in Magic Kingdom for me. It seemed the most magical because you got to work right behind the castle, and what could be more magical than that? I picked up a shift in Zone 1, which meant I’d pretty much be at the two major shops right behind the castle, helping princes and princesses dress like the royalty they were. I was also excited to finally ditch grandpa pants and wear a skirt to work.

I got to costuming early and walked in with way more confidence than I had the time before. Originally I believed the flowing white sleeves were part of a plain white shirt, and the vest piece fit over that. I was wrong though, the vest was the main part and the flowing sleeves were sewn in right under the vest’s shoulders. It was incredibly uncomfortable. My costume at Animal Kingdom may have been ugly but at least it was soft. While uncomfortable, the skirt did have pockets, so at least there was that.

The purple and gold getup was also fairly unflattering. It didn’t help that the elastic on the sleeves was completely stretched out. At some point I realized I didn’t have my name tag with me. At Animal Kingdom, my location had name tags to sign out. The name on the borrowed tags was Peyton. At Magic Kingdom, though, you have to check one out at costuming. 

Chris Orlando, FL The infamous borrowed name tag. “Chris from Orlando”. The day was getting interesting already. But, I was excited to help pixie dust princesses all day, so I headed off to the tunnels and got ready for work in the locker rooms.

I had figured that Fantasyland would be the easiest of the lands to navigate. The tunnels are kind of weird in that you’re dropped off just behind Fantasyland, so it’s the first land you see when you go into the tunnels. Someone was even nice enough to give me directions before I got there. “Go under the castle and follow a small hallway to your left. Open that door and there you are.” Sounded easy enough.

Except I didn’t know what “under the castle” meant. So I walked all the way under the castle, down the straight long pathway until the walls were a deep red. Main Street. I had obviously gone too far, but I didn’t see any hallways on that long stretch. A leader spotted my confusion from a mile away and asked me if I was lost. The thing is, she was a leader in Main Street and only knew how to get to one of the Fantasyland shops. As we were walking up the steps, I asked her where I could put my bag, knowing full well that we are absolutely not supposed to carry personal belongings with us on stage when we are in costume. I kid you not, this leader took my bag in her hands and said, “I’ll carry it. We’re lost and just have to get you where you need to be. If someone gets in trouble, it will be me.” We went through the doorway and ended up on stage. The leader asked a Cast Member where we needed to be, and the Cast Member looked absolutely horrified that this leader was casually holding a random tote bag with my change of clothes. The Cast Member got somebody to cover her and she walked us over to the other Fantasyland store where we walked through the “Cast Members only” door and found the CDS station where I needed to clock in. The leader waited with me until we could find a coordinator to put me into the system. 

At some point during this fiasco, my shift was changed from Fantasyland Zone 1 to Fantasyland Zone 2. Not a big deal, but I had no idea where to go next. A coordinator finally arrived and looked completely overwhelmed. The leader introduced me to him and took off, heading back to wherever she was supposed to be. 

By this point I knew that the coordinator needed to put me in the system so I could work at the registers. He handed me a booklet that had information on it for my shift. In addition to the stores I’d be working in, there was also a passcode on it. That passcode opened the door from the hallway I was supposed to find the first time, and the second stockroom I’d be going through to get to the second store on my rotation. Then he grabbed a random Cast Member from the stock room and told him to give me a tour. The Cast Member tried to get out of it because they were literally surrounded by boxes and was right in the middle of organizing everything, but the coordinator flat out ignored him. I apologized to the Cast Member and he was super nice about it. I asked the coordinator if I was put into the system and he insisted that I didn’t need to be and that all was fine. 

We walked down the stairs, through the mystery hallway I was originally looking for, around a corner towards the main entrance of the tunnels, and down another hallway to some lockers. Then we walked back up and he showed me where I’d be working as part of Zone 2: Enchanted Grove Cart and Hundred Acre Goods.

Hundred Acre Goods was the Winnie-the-Pooh store that was the ride dump for Winnie-the-Pooh. From there we walked through the stock room, down a hallway that was level with Magic Kingdom and had another clock-in area, down a flight of stairs, and through a door until we were walking right along the base of the castle. I had never realized that all the bushes there hid an entire cast pathway and an outdoor break room for people who wanted to smoke. A small “Cast Members only” gate dumped us out by the bathrooms across from Cosmic Ray’s. We walked down the ramp and arrived at Enchanted Grove Cart, a small cart next to the Merida meet and greet in the strange pass that is both Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. We then walked back up to CDS and I pulled an assignment, “Have a magical stock shift”. I went back to the coordinator to ask what I was supposed to do as a stocker, and he moved things around so I would have a register shift the rest of the time. My first assignment was at the "E-grove” cart where I ran into another Cast Member with a “Chris from Orlando” name tag. I attempted to sign in to the register and was promptly locked out because I wasn’t put in correctly. It took a while to track down another coordinator and explain to them how to put me into the system. As soon as that was taken care of, I was back at the cart with Chris Number 2. 

About 1,000 guests took notice of us both being “Chris from Orlando” and asked us if those were our real names. Chris Number 2 said no. One cynical guest assumed it was “the mouse” taking away our individuality by giving us all the same name. I still haven’t figured out how they thought that would work out.

Throughout my time at the cart I was asked a large number of odd questions. I had heard some interesting questions working at Animal Kingdom Main Entrance, so I thought nothing could surprise me.  “How do I get to Jungle Cruise?” and “Where’s the monorail to Universal?” were two of the amazingly popular questions I was asked. But while working at the cart (at the base of Cinderella Castle) I was thoroughly impressed with how little guests know about the parks before taking them on.

“Where’s the castle?” was SO common. The first time someone asked me, I thought they were joking. I should’ve known better. I literally just looked up, saw the top of a turret above me, and just looked back at the guest. I pointed my thumb over my shoulder and said, “Right there.” They were amazed. Originally I had been worried about not being able to answer their questions since I didn’t know the area that well. After a handful of guests asked me that, I felt much more confident.

Another guest asked me where the Rapunzel restaurant was. She was SO disappointed to learn that they were actually restROOMS. 

I was also amazed at the number of guests who didn’t appear to know how to read a map. So many people asked me where Big Thunder Mountain was. When I told them how to get there (to walk across the entire park) they said they had just come from that direction to try to find it on this side of the park. I double checked to make sure they weren’t looking for Space Mountain, but they weren’t. I don’t know why they thought Big Thunder Mountain would be in Tomorrowland or how they got so turned around, but I quickly caught on to the fact that most people just held on to a map for show.

The only thing I truly couldn’t stand about the cart were the Brave bow and arrows we sold. The amount of plastic in those toys is insane and people would buy them with the expectation that we would unwrap everything so their kid could hold onto it at that moment in time. The problem is, the only trash can the cart got was a tiny trash can that one may keep at their office desk. Literally a waste paper basket, and we’d be shoving tons of stiff plastic into it, hoping that the stocker would come by soon to empty it. I didn’t love it.

It was then “tea time”, Fantasyland’s way of releasing people to go on break. This one was less of a surprise to me than Tomorrowland’s “feeding Stitch” break time, but it was still fun to at least have some themed language. That’s one of the things that separates working for Disney from working any other retail job. I had no idea how much I was missing out until I picked up shifts in other places. 

I took my 30 minute break in the Mousecateria. Every park has a backstage cafeteria for Cast Members. Most, if not all, also have a small convenience store type thing that sells food for Cast Members who don’t take breaks anywhere near the main cafeteria. The Mousecateria was the break room for Fantasyland Cast Members, at least for those who worked merchandise in “old Fantasyland”. It was located right at the front of the tunnels, directly in Fantasyland. The layout of Fantasyland underground is super weird to me. Tomorrowland has it set up so that once you go down the flight of stairs to get to the tunnels, you’re directly at your lockers and break room. Fantasyland, however, had their lockers nowhere near their staircase and not even really close to their break room to be honest. It was just overall more inconvenient to stop at your locker during breaks. That being said though, they still get 30 minute breaks instead of 15 minute breaks. 

The other store I worked at was Hundred Acre Goods, the ride dump for Winnie-the-Pooh. No pixie dusting for me. I was actually kind of relieved. I was somehow already covered in the stuff, even without working in any of the shops that pixie dusted people. I guess it just showers from the skies in Fantasyland or something. The shop was small but at least a little bit busier than the Tomorrowland stores. The middle-of-the-day lull wasn’t quite as common in Fantasyland for some reason. Being a Winnie-the-Pooh themed shop, you can imagine that we sold predominantly Winnie-the-Pooh themed merchandise. Actually the shop even sold some Animal Kingdom merchandise, which bothered me to no end. Some of the Cast Members were like, “Well it has Tigger on it so it’s fine”. 

And here lies my weird nit-picky issue with Walt Disney World. Not to get too off topic here but in my head, walking into Magic Kingdom is an experience where you are transported to a completely different realm. Almost as if when you are in Magic Kingdom, the outside world doesn’t exist. When you are in Tomorrowland, it’s all about a fantastically technologically advanced future, and the people who live in Tomorrowland know nothing about the royalty that live next door in Fantasyland. Obviously this illusion has to get shattered a little bit because guests will ask questions about how to get to the other side of the park but ultimately, I always thought that Cast Members were supposed to get really immersed in the story and truly BE space cadets or princesses or cowboys or WHATEVER. So with that in mind, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are on two separate planets to me. Magic Kingdom shouldn’t be selling Animal Kingdom merchandise because in my head, the people who work in the castle have no idea about the exploration realm that is Animal Kingdom. The thing is, because Walt Disney World Resort is so huge, a lot of merchandise boasts all 4 parks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of all four parks and I think they should be represented. Business-wise it only makes sense to offer that as frequently as you can so that customers don’t have to go to Disney Springs to get those things, but it still bothers me a little bit because it takes you out of that realm for a second. It’s an issue that I’ve never really noticed in Disneyland, but is EVERYWHERE in Walt Disney World. I KNOW that it’s a SUPER nit-picky thing, but I just really, truly think that’s part of the magic of the parks. 

Anyway, beyond that, I loved the shop. It was so cute! I’m a huge fan of Winnie-the-Pooh so it was easy for me to fall in love with it. I didn’t get as many laughable questions in that shop although one guest DID complain (and I mean full on WHINING) that there was too much Winnie-the-Pooh merchandise. She literally said to me, “UGH Does Magic Kingdom sell anything OTHER than Winnie-the-Pooh stuff???” and I’m thinking, “Yeah... literally everywhere else.”

My shift ended and it was time to walk back through the tunnels towards the overcrowded bus full of cowboys, space cadets, princesses, bakers, and ghost hosts. 

This should have been weird. This should have been different. This should have been the moment I thought, “Wow, I work on the most magical place on Earth”. And instead I sat down and flipped through my phone just like every other tired Cast Member did. Perhaps this is because I’m incredibly empathetic and have a tendency to get my energy from other people, or perhaps I had been there so long that this was all normal to me now. Overall, my shift hadn’t been quite as magical as I had expected. I still had fun pretending to work in the castle for a day, though, and spending some extra time in Magic Kingdom. It was definitely worth picking up the extra shift just to test it out and try on the costume. But, I was thankful I wouldn’t always have to be “Chris from Orlando” working in the castle.

[thekimmiandjackieshow]

Paging Mr. Morrow... Mr. Tom Morrow.

I had picked up two shifts in Disney Springs and had decided to go ahead and pick up a shift at Magic Kingdom. To me, this was the scariest place to pick up a shift because of the infamous “Utilidors”. 

In case you’ve never clicked on a clickbait article about Disney secrets, the Utilidors is the underground system Magic Kingdom uses for Cast Members. When Walt Disney created Disneyland, he didn’t think about the pathways Cast Members would have to use to get from one side of the park to the next. The story goes that he was particularly bothered by a cowboy walking through the futuristic land of Tomorrowland. This shattered the illusion of being truly transported to that world, so a tunnel system was created beneath Magic Kingdom so park operations could be hidden from the guests’ eyes. Magic Kingdom actually sits on the second floor while the tunnels are on the first floor. While images of the Utilidors are strictly forbidden, the tunnels are no secret. In fact, the entrance to the tunnels is actually visible using Google Maps Satellite. 

See that pink-ish square? That’s the bus drop off loop. One white bus is actually stopped, letting Cast Members off. You can see the shadow from the building indicating that Magic Kingdom is indeed on the second story.

Anyway, the tunnels system sounded confusing and terrifying to me. I kept imagining myself getting lost underneath Magic Kingdom and not being able to find my way back to where I needed to be. Several more experienced Cast Members told me that it was basically one large circle, and super easy to navigate. Fun fact, most Cast Members get to see the tunnels during their Traditions training. Even if you don’t end up working in Magic Kingdom, you get to see the tunnels when you walk through Magic Kingdom the first time as a Cast Member. I, however, didn’t get to do this because I was rained out of the walk-through portion of Traditions. The park was 101, which meant that lightning in the area prevented Cast Members from safely walking outside and our tour of Magic Kingdom was cancelled. This made me extra nervous as I had no idea what to expect. Now, while the park itself relies on a “hub and spoke” system, the castle being the main hub and the rest of the lands accessible from that main hub, the tunnel system is one big circle with a path straight down the middle. At the time, this made little sense to me. I had walked into Magic Kingdom a hundred times by that point, and still couldn’t imagine an entire system of tunnels beneath me. But, I decided it was time to explore. I think I would’ve regretted it for a long time had I not just gone and experienced it at least once.

I picked up a shift in Tomorrowland. I had heard that was a pretty easy land to be new to, in part because it was fairly easy to find. I wasn’t convinced. My shift was just one zone of Tomorrowland: Merchant of Venus, Mickey’s Star Traders, and some random cart. The day of my shift, I drove to Magic Kingdom. The cast parking lot to Magic Kingdom was easy to find because it was the same place that Disney University was. I had driven there for a few trainings and to visit Company D, so that part wasn’t nerve-wrecking at all. It’s actually a pretty easy drive if you go the back way instead of through Magic Kingdom’s parking lot. I found a parking spot and walked towards the small double doors to Magic Kingdom Costuming.

Not surprisingly, this costuming building was one of the largest on property, if not the largest. Racks of costumes I had seen a thousand times as a guest filled the warehouse. I found my way towards the Tomorrowland merchandise costumes, found everything I needed, and headed out. It was a fairly plain costume in comparison to some of the other ones Magic Kingdom had. I checked out the unflattering black pants and matching belt, along with my grey t-shirt with outdated pink and purple accents that was probably what we predicted the future would be like back in the 70′s when Magic Kingdom first opened.

You can’t check out a costume while wearing it so I changed back into my regular clothes and headed over to the West Clock bus. West Clock is what they call the bus stop between the Cast Member parking and the entrance to the tunnels. When I got on the bus, I saw another person in the Tomorrowland merchandise costume. Naturally I decided to follow them to see where to go. When we got off, I wasted no time and followed them towards the Tomorrowland lockers and break room, trying to keep my distance so I didn’t make it too obvious. But if you worked in Tomorrowland in spring of 2016 and felt strangely followed by a lost-looking Cast Member out of costume, that was probably me. Sorry about that.

I had time to kill so after finding out where I needed to be, I walked back towards the locker room to get ready for the shift. It was another partial closing shift, there long enough to do a closing duty or two but didn’t have to stay until absolutely everything was finished. As I walked back through the tunnels towards Tomorrowland, I tried to take everything in. The tunnels have a certain specific smell. Sometimes it’s distinctly garbage (thanks Cosmic Ray’s for stinkin’ up all of underground Tomorrowland) and other times it’s who knows what. Every so often, a map was posted on the walls for the inevitably turned around Cast Member. The map listed out all the different staircases that led to various stores or restaurants in the park. It also included a “You Are Here” type picture that gave you an idea of what you were standing underneath. The walls of the tunnel were painted too, to give you an idea of what land you were in. Tomrorowland had purple paint. I followed the hallway down to where I needed to be and found everything I needed pretty easily. Even if I hadn’t followed that Cast Member, I think I would’ve found things pretty quickly with a glance at one of the maps. 

After clocking in, I was given the tour of my possible rotation. They showed me Star Traders, Merchant of Venus, and the one cart. Both Star Traders and Merchant of Venus were ride dumps, meaning that an attraction emptied out into the store. For these two stores it was Stitch’s Great Escape. It definitely encouraged foot traffic throughout the store but it wasn’t necessarily busier than my location. My shift was a short 6 hours, but still granted me a 30 minute break. This was one of the most interesting parts of working in various parks. 

See, Walt Disney World is so large that it actually stretches over two different counties: Orange County and Osceola County. The two counties have different labor expectations, so picking up a shift in Magic Kingdom is different from picking up a shift in Animal Kingdom. In Animal Kingdom, if you work a 6 hour shift, you get a 15 minute paid break. In Magic Kingdom, you get a 30 minute paid break for doing the SAME EXACT JOB for the same number of hours. (This is usually what I bring up when people argue that Magic Kingdom Cast Members should get a premium for working in “the busiest park”. That’s an entirely separate argument that I guarantee you don’t want to get me started on.) 

Anyway, I went to get my assignment and my little slip of paper told me it was time to go feed Stitch. I have to say, this was one of my favorite parts about picking up shifts in other places. Animal Kingdom’s main entrance didn’t have any fun Disney-themed or magical work assignments. There was no magic hidden backstage that only Cast Members could experience. There was nothing to bring that small smile to your face to remind you that you worked at the most magical place on earth. You just pulled an assignment and stepped out in the Florida humidity. I took my 30 minute feeding Stitch assignment in the smelly Tomorrowland breakroom, texting everybody I knew about how fun it was to work some place completely different.

My next assignment was again in Star Traders. I didn’t mind. Star Traders was fantastic. Every so often, the People Mover would pass by and I would wave at them with a Mickey glove. The store’s pin board (most merchandise locations have a board that belongs to the location in addition to all the Cast Members wearing their lanyards) was a Stitch plush wearing a lanyard. A few rotations later (mostly just to different registers) “Wishes” started up. I couldn’t see the fireworks but I could hear them go off. The music interrupted the classic space-y music that plays throughout Tomorrowland and I could easily see why Cast Members would fall in love with it. Maybe if I worked in Magic Kingdom my entire program I’d be as attached to Wishes as other people were. Instead, I was an outsider judging the show for exactly what it was, with not much emotional attachment. The store emptied out during the show and we all pretty much stood in front of the registers, waving at the one or two guests who were on People Mover at the time, listening to Wishes.

Magic Kingdom closed for park guests and it was time to start closing up the shop. I realized I had gone the entire shift without going outside once. Because I was never rotated outside of Star Traders, and the break room was underneath Magic Kingdom, I hadn’t been outside at all. Some Cast Members begged for the cart rotation and had mentioned to me that it was because sometimes they go an entire 12 hour shift without ever going outside. I started to appreciate my location a little bit more. I liked that we spent so much time outside. I could do with a little bit more air conditioning, but overall being outside most of the day was enjoyable. A Cast Member decided to have me help pull registers since I wasn’t familiar with any of the other closing duties and they didn’t have the hands to walk me through what to do. I’m sure I could’ve figured it out, but I wasn’t complaining. I enjoyed closing registers. It was also a chance to see the other half of Tomorrowland. Because I wasn’t “photo trained” (adjusting ride photos and printing them out) I wasn’t allowed to pick up a shift in the zone that included Buzz Lightyear’s store. That meant that the store after Space Mountain was off limits too. We closed the registers in those stores down though, so I at least got to see a little bit of what it was like working there. 

When all the registers were closed, we walked around and collected all the strollers people left behind. It seemed as though no matter where I went, these plastic strollers would follow me everywhere. He asked if I knew how to stack them and I explained that my home location was Strollers. In fact it turns out, he was stacking them incorrectly and what we deem as “unsafe”. I realized the special stroller training my location insisted upon meant virtually nothing to other locations. We were told that we were absolutely not allowed to stack strollers without this training. Come to find out, every land in Magic Kingdom stacks strollers at the end of the night and brings them to the hub to be collected so that stroller Cast Members don’t have to search the parks for left behind rentals. Our stacks were left at the hub and I caught a glimpse of the absolutely empty Main Street. I turned around to see Tomorrowland’s neon land marker lit up over a deserted path. The entire park was empty and closed, and there I was standing in front of it all. Once again, I fell in love with being a Cast Member. This is what it was supposed to feel like. Even on the dreariest of days, the small amount of magic that can only be experienced by a Cast Member was supposed to make it worth it. And yet, our location wasn’t anything special. We didn’t even get to see the Tree of Life after park closing like most DAK Cast Members.

Our job was done but we still had about 15 minutes left of our shift. The Cast Member said we could go ahead and head back to CDS (where Cast Members clock in/out and get new assignments) and wait to clock out. 15 minutes seemed like a long time to be standing around, but by the time we got back to the computer, we only had 10 minutes left. I was told to go ahead and clock out and was reminded of walk time. Because Cast Members have to take a bus to get back to West Clock before walking to their cars, they’re granted “walk time”. It’s essentially 10 paid minutes after your shift is over to help compensate for that travel time. I’m going to be honest, Magic Kingdom isn’t the only park that has a backstage bus system. EPCOT requires it if you’re working in World Showcase and DAK has one in case you don’t want to walk all the way around the entire park. In my mind, Magic Kingdom was the place to be. Better breaks, paid walk time, and more magical moments, even if it meant less time outside.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Tomorrowland and definitely considered picking up more shifts there. My program was coming to a close rapidly though, and I had so many other places to explore. I would definitely be coming back to Magic Kingdom though.