Would You Like Magic with That?: Working at Walt Disney World Guest Relations by Annie Salisbury

yet, but I would learn them soon enough.
    There was another girl training with me. I hadn’t seen her in the training sessions, so she was still a stranger. Her name was Jessica, and she was a tall girl, right around the same age as me, with bleach-blonde hair. Like, super bleached. Like, I wondered why no one had told her yet that her hair wasn’t part of Disney Look at all. On top of that, she wore red lipstick, had bright pink nails, and large gold hoop earrings. I had no idea how she had gotten through all the Guest Relations interviews looking like that, since nothing about her was in accordance with Disney Look. She was a nice enough girl, but still. I was freaking out about my tan nail polish, and here she was, flashing a pink manicure.
    Kate took the two of us from costuming onto the bus (YES, the bus, hold that thought for a bit) and brought us to Magic Kingdom. She walked us from the mouth of the tunnel, all the way down, underneath the park, and up at the very front, just outside Guest Relations. Along the way she pointed at things and made comments about people and places, but I can’t remember any of them. My nerves had completely taken over, and it was like I was running on autopilot. I still couldn’t even believe that I was here. In Magic Kingdom. Training for Guest Relations. Nothing made sense to me, and it was all like a very good dream. I didn’t want to wake up.
    Kate brought us into the City Hall, where all of Guest Relations was housed. People ran back and forth, always in a hurry to either find a manager or get an answer for a guest, and it was very chaotic. Kate told us not to pay attention to those things right now, and brought us upstairs to the second floor. There was a tiny little breakroom inside there, with three tables and far too many chairs for the space. Kate sat down at one of the tables, and we followed suit.
    I expected Kate to start going over stuff right away, like what we were going to be doing, and how much fun we were going to have. Instead, we sat for 45 minutes while Kate made some personal phone calls and then got a cup of coffee. Jessica and I sat there and twiddled our thumbs, too nervous to do either one of those things on our first day.
    Finally, after close to an hour, a manager came in. His name was Brandon. He looked startled to see us at first, and then realized that we were the brand-new trainees. “Oh, hello!” he said through a bright smile. “Is today day one?”
    “Anything you want to tell the new recruits?” Kate drank more of her coffee. It was like a little hint that she wanted Brandon to talk to us, and not her, because she wasn’t done with her coffee yet.
    Brandon sat down at the table, more than happy to meet two new people. “Don’t be intimidated by anyone. Everyone was new at some point here, and don’t be afraid to ask questions! We’re all here to help you, even if it seems like we hate each other at some points.”
    “Yeah, we’re like the most functional dysfunctional family.” Kate interjected.
    “If there’s ever anything you need, feel free to reach out. The manager’s door might be shut, and we might ignore you for a while, but eventually we’ll help you out! And don’t forget to make the magic!” Brandon put a lot of emphasis on the “make the magic” part, like it was some sort of joke that I didn’t get yet. Kate snorted a little bit. At least she was finally done with her coffee.
    Kate gave Jessica and I white binders with our names on them. She then gave us “EARNING YOUR EARS” ribbons, which we stuck onto our nametags. Then she went to the bathroom, made another phone call, talked to someone for fifteen minutes about plans for the weekend, and THEN it was finally time to take us into the park and show us our new job.
    At this point, I was still under the impression that I was training for Guest Relations. I didn’t realize I was training for Guest Relations, subscript, Celebrate Greeter. I kept asking Kate when I