CRAIG: Growing up Disney was very much a part of my childhood memories. I was born in 1985 so I think I was lucky that so many of the Disney classics were being released on video around that time. I became very familiar with the characters and stories and our video collection grew greatly! The first film I saw at the cinema was The Aristocats, which must have been rereleased in the late 1980’s. I can also remember going to see Disney on Ice and being amazed at getting to see the real Mickey Mouse right in front of me!

I was brought up just outside of Glasgow, in Scotland, which had a Disney Store and can remember spending a long time in there at weekends playing in the Plush Mountain. My family was in there so often that we were on first name terms with the Cast Members!

My mum and dad had always promised my sister and I that if they ever won the lottery they would take us to Walt Disney World. In early 1993, our local radio station, Clyde One, had a competition weekend where each hour you had to listen for a certain song and when they played it you had to call in. The first person through won a voucher for money off a holiday with a travel agent and all the winners over the weekend had their names put into a hat and the winner won a trip for a family of 4 to Florida. My mum won the hourly prize on the Saturday morning, the song was Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves.

My parents were a nervous wreck! I don’t think they had slept the night before with excitement and nerves, but on the Monday morning we were all sitting having breakfast before school and the phone rang. My mum answered and it was the DJ from the breakfast show saying she was one of the people they had called back. The rest of us sat in silence listening to the radio until after what felt like forever the DJ came on air and announced the winner was… My mum! We all screamed! We were going to Disney World! It did feel like we had won the lottery. That summer we went to Florida for 3 weeks and had the most amazing holiday. We spent 2 weeks in Orlando and then had a week in Treasure Island. Looking back I don’t know how we did it but we spent a couple of days at all three Disney parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney-MGM Studios), the 2 water parks (River Country, Typhoon Lagoon), Sea World twice and Universal twice. I think that week in Treasure Island we just slept. It was a dream vacation and one I will never forgot.

My sister and I have been very lucky when growing up to have amazing parents who always put the two of us first and made sure we always had fun as a family. Almost yearly after that we were so fortunate to back to Florida and split our vacation between WDW and the beach, usually at Siesta Key in Sarasota. I have so many happy, special memories of family trips to Disney, and Florida, and it almost feels like a second home we visited so often!

CRAIG: With Disney vacations a big part of my growing up, I had always had an ambition of becoming a Cast Member and getting my own name badge! While I was a student at university in Glasgow I needed a job, and after working in a few places, I got a job in the Disney Store. I loved working there and enjoyed speaking with the guests, especially the children. I’ve always been a big kid so it wasn’t hard to be enthusiastic about the toys and products, as I genuinely was! The only downside was I got to know all the songs from High School Musical very quickly as they were on what seemed like constantly, so I got a bit of stick for that from my friends! After I graduated from university I started working full time there while deciding what to do next. It was at that time a new Cast Member started who had gone out and worked in Walt Disney World at the stores on Hollywood Boulevard during a summer while she was at university in Scotland.

She told me all about her experiences and how she had applied to go out there. I knew of the international programme that let British people work in the UK pavilion in EPCOT but that had never appealed to me. I didn’t like the idea of working for Disney but spending the whole time in a British bar or shop selling British items. It just didn’t feel very Disney-like to me.

I applied with a British company called Yummy Jobs who deal with the recruitment of folk from the UK for Disney, and just a couple of days later they called to ask if I would be available for a telephone interview with someone from Walt Disney World international recruitment. I don’t think the person doing the telephone interview had a copy of my CV as at one point I answered a question referring to someone as a Guest and mentioned working in the Disney Store. At that she asked a few questions about what I liked about working there and what role I would like to work in most, I answered operations, and she finished the call. The same day I received an email to say I had been accepted on the International Graduate Program starting 20th January 2008.

CRAIG: The International Graduate Program was run in conjunction with the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. To quality you had to have recently graduated university with a degree, ideally hospitality related. (My degree was in Accountancy so they weren’t too strict on it!) We were all on 6month J1 Academic Visa’s with UCF, meaning we could work at Disney but had to take classes at UCF. There were a number of different nationalities taking part on my programme, (Brazil, Mexico, France, China to name a few), and there were around 20 from the United Kingdom, with 3 from Scotland (Me and 2 girls). We all worked at Walt Disney World in a variety of roles across the resort, 5 days a week. Each Friday, one of our days off, we attended classes at UCF from 9am – 3pm. The classes were all hospitality related and related to Disney. They weren’t like normal school classes however as they were especially designed for the multinational pupils so were a little more basic than you would expect and didn’t have exams at the end of them. We all stayed at Vista Way, one of the Disney accommodation areas for college program participants and were bussed to UCF for the classes each week. During Easter and July, when the resort was at its busiest, there was a break in classes which meant at that time we all worked 6 days a week instead of the usual 5.

CRAIG: As I said before the program allowed me to obtain a visa to work at Walt Disney World and not be restricted to only working in the UK Pavilion. It also allowed me to gain a certificate from UCF and attend classes there giving me a chance to experience life at an American college and see firsthand if it was anything like it is made out to be in the movies and on TV (From my experience it wasn’t!)! Living at Vista Way however was I guess more similar to what I imagine, perhaps stereotypically, to be similar to college life. There were parties nightly in various apartments and I guess for a lot of people there it was there first time away from home so they were making the most of it! That was a fun experience to be a part of! I shared an apartment with 2 Mexican and 3 Brazilians. There were 3 bedrooms so my actual roommate was from Brazil. He worked in thecustodial at the Magic Kingdom. Getting to live with people from around the world and who I would not otherwise have gotten to spend time with was great and I made some great friends. It was interesting learning about their culture and despite my accent and English not being their first language we all got on very well!

CRAIG: I worked in operations. I knew before going out that my role would be that but I didn’t know where. For months running up to it I was thinking where it might be: Tower of Terror, Kilimanjaro Safari, Soarin’. My sister was hoping I’d get Soarin’ because of the silly costume! After a couple of days out there, after going through Traditions at Disney University, we had to go and collect an envelope which contained our roles and information on it. It was like collecting exam results! People were worried to open it and learn where they were going to be and what they had to wear! I was placed in Fantasyland, something I was delighted about as I had hoped for a role that would involve lots of interaction with people, especially children. Fantasyland was perfect. The complex is split into three sections, one with Peter Pan and Small World, one with Philhar, Dumbo and Carousel, and the other with Snow White, Winnie the Pooh and Teacups. Cast are initially trained on all the rides in one section and then are allowed to cross train to another after a period of time.

I was initially trained on the Pooh complex. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh quickly became my favourite, partly because it was the first ride I learned to operate. Closely follow by The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and Snow White’s Scary Adventure. After a few months of asking I was also trained on It’s a Small World and Peter Pan’s Flight, meaning I could be scheduled over there, pick up additional shifts, or move over if they were short of Cast.

As with the college program participants we were given the less favorable shifts. I usually started work mid-afternoon/early evening (depending on how late the park was open until) and work until closing. I always enjoyed closing the ride and getting to do a ride through, simply going through the ride as a guest would and checking everything was working correctly, and then completing a walkthrough of ride, walking the track after all the cars and animation has been stopped. I never tired of walking the track at Pooh or Peter Pan and seeing up close all the little details. I especially liked the rain scene in Pooh and walking past Nana at Peter Pan, we would always say “Stay” or “Good Night” to her as we walked past! Getting to walk over London and feel like a giant is not something many people can say they’ve done! I liked getting to see these attractions from a slightly different angle to what the regular guests do. It made my appreciation and admiration for the Imagineers grow, getting to see behind the scenes of the attractions and what makes them work was something the Disney Geek in me loved!

CRAIG: As I mentioned I usually started in the afternoon so typically would be taking over from the Cast Members who had opened the park. My typical usually involved hanging out with my friends at Vista Way in the morning, usually at the pool. Coming from Scotland walking up to sunshine every day was a bit of a novelty so I made the most of it! Being able to go into the parks for free also didn’t wear off, I was worried working there might make things a bit less magical but that certainly wasn’t the case. I enjoyed going into the parks before a shift for a few hours. If I went to the Magic Kingdom I would avoid Fantasyland because I spent so much time there, going to all the other lands made it feel like I wasn’t at work at all! I liked being able to get a Dole Whip before work and just walk around Main Street or the hub. Getting to go into the parks regularly and not rush from ride to ride allows you to take in more and appreciate the little details all the more.

Once I got to work my role involved rotation between positions at each of the three rides in my area, usually the Pooh side of Fantasyland. You would log into the computer system backstage which would print out a task to perform, ie replace Bill at Teacups greater. The print would then tell Bill to go to another location, or on break, or to log out as his shift had ended. As the night went on roles would be dropped, for example at 10pm there is not normally a need for someone to be looking after stroller parking at Winnie the Pooh while at 2pm the role is essential to maintain some organization. (Or organized chaos as it typically was!) I would work between the various positions on each ride. You were usually at one position for around 45mins to an hour so it never got boring. I especially enjoyed the greeter positions at the attractions as you got to spend time with the guests; helping them with directions or giving advice on what to do next or where to eat, or just talking to children about what they had done that day.

Being in Fantasyland I would sometimes be scheduled for Wishes. You would be taken out of your normal rotation for a couple of hours and put up ropes around the castle to close off areas close to where the fireworks went off from the rooftops. Once the ropes were up you would stand there and make sure guests didn’t cross over them until the show was over and were given the ok to take them down. It might sound dull but not only did you get a great view of the fireworks but again got plenty of time to talk to guests.

The end of my shift would always involve closing the ride you were at down, you would get to ride through and then walk through the attraction making sure everything was working ok. Make a note for maintenance of anything that wasn’t and then power down the ride. Once that was done it was home time.

CRAIG: On one of my first nights working in the Magic Kingdom I was working on Wishes. I had put up the ropes between the carousel and Snow White and a family approached to ask what was going to be happening. It was a pretty quiet night in late January and just about 5mins before the show so I told them what Wishes was and they seemed excited to see it. I started talking to their son who was about 5 and asked what he done that day and if he had met Mickey. His dad jumped in and said they hadn’t seen any characters and that it was their first visit and had been a bit overwhelmed by it all. They were only there for the weekend but had spent most of the day walking around a bit lost and not getting to do much! After Wishes was over, which they loved, they asked it this was the best place to watch it and I said Main Street close to the hub was my favorite spot. I gave them a map and time guide and spent about 5mins talking to them about different things they could all do and told them about the Judge’s Tent’s in Toon Town and where to meet the characters.

The next night I was outside Winnie the Pooh and a little boy came running up to me, it was the little boy from the previous night. He wanted to show me his autograph book and all the characters he had met. They had also been on loads of rides too and used FastPass which I had told them about too. It was so nice to see them again and find out that I had helped in a little way for them to have a better trip. After chatting for a bit they said they were going to watch Wishes from where I had suggested and then joined they joined the line at Pooh. I really appreciated them saying thanks and getting to see them again so while they were in line I went to get them each a first visit pin and a No Strings Attached form, it is a little form Cast Members can fill out to make up for a bad experience a guest has had. The Cast Member fills it out to allow the family to use it as a fastpass, or to get an ice cream if they dropped theirs etc. I filled it out to get them some popcorn for while they watched Wishes.

When they came off the ride I was there waiting for them and gave them each their pin and said that Mickey had told me to say thanks for coming back and was so glad they had had a great day and wanted them to have a little treat while watching the fireworks. You would have thought I had given them a winning lottery ticket! They were so grateful and appreciative of this small gesture and it made me feel really good for being able to help in a small way to make their trip more special and memorable.

I was also able to work in front of the castle on the 3rdand 4th of July for the special Independence Day fireworks show doing crowd control. The park was so busy and it was hard going trying to keep walk ways clears and keeping guests moving. Once the fireworks were over a lot of guest left the park so we were helping to direct people backstage to exit down behind Main Street as Spectromagic was starting soon after and Main Street was so busy. Things quieted down just as Specto and I noticed a family with a little girl sitting just on the pavement waiting for the parade with a space beside them. I sat down next to the little girl and starting talking to her. She hadn’t seen the parade before so I told her that Goofy was supposed to put all the lights out on Main Street for it but had forgotten. (Silly Goofy!) She had told me she had earlier been on Peter Pans Flight, so I told her I could see she still had some pixie dust on her and asked if she could help me turn out the lights. Having seen Spectro so many times I know when the lights would go out so I got her to brush the pixie dust that was still on her shoulders onto her hands and rub them together on after 3 to throw it up into the air.

I counted to 3 just as lights went out around us. I’ll never forget her face and the amazement on it that she had put all these lights out with the magic of pixie dust. As part of the Year of a Million Dreams Cast Members were given special Tinkerbell pins to give to guests to say ‘thank you’ if we say a guest doing a good deed basically. I gave one to her for helping me out and told her to keep an eye out for Tinkerbell at the end of the parade cos she would make sure the lights came back on again. Again it might not have been the biggest gesture but it was good fun for me to do and made me feel worthwhile and like I was creating a bit of magic or a memory for this family. I always liked being allowed to do little things like that and again spend time with guests.

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MIKE: Well, it differed from day to day. I always provided the voices for some of the comedians, but we usually changed it up every show. One show, I would be voicing Buddy Boil, other times I'd be doing Wazowski's bit. We didn't want to get bored, so we traded them around. Since we all knew each other's acts, it was easy to do.

MIKE: Overall, we had quite a few. I don't really remember the number. But daily, we'd have about six people. The show would run about once an hour, so we'd have shift changes and breaks thrown in there, but throughout the course of a normal day, there were six of us.

MIKE: Well, everyone had a layer of interactivity within their acts, except for the pre-recorded stuff. So, we all got to take turns to play with the audience... especially 'that guy.' (laughs)

But yeah, we all got to talk to them a bit. The ones that were more interactive than the others were always more fun, absolutely. That goes without saying! But overall, there wasn't a bad role in the show to play. They were all great, and had some great, if not cheesy, jokes.

MIKE: The two headed monster. There were about five different heads for that one, and we changed them around every show. They all had different names. I loved playing Sam, or Mac, or Jeeves, whatever his name was during that show.

Re-telling the plot of Monster's, Inc. with people from the audience is always a favorite. That's honestly my favorite bit in the show. I always tried to do that bit together with Jon, who also worked on the show, each of us as one of the heads. We used to go so fast and mess up some of the story. And we'd jump around the story, really confusing the guy at the switch board. He'd put the wrong person on camera, and we'd call him out on it.

It was very funny stuff!

MIKE: Ironically enough, no! Most of the other people did, but I never did it before in my life. I was just naturally funny, I guess! (laughs)

I was good at improv, and even better at reading from their script, so that's where they placed me!

MIKE: Well, that depends. We were allowed to say whatever you wanted, within the context of the show, obviously, and the programs would match the character's mouth on stage as best it could to our words.

But each character had a very specific range of motions that they could and couldn't do. For instance, Crush can swim around over at Epcot, but there really is no reason for our monsters to be able to do that! It wasn't just a 'type in what you wanted and they'd do it' kind of thing. Every motion has to be animated beforehand.

That's not to say there wasn't a lot we could do with them. The boards for these characters were huge, and had everything from simple things like walking all the way to a complex, physical comedy routine. And most actions could be combined, which added some extra stuff that was new even to the programmers!

MIKE: I love that. You can always see what kids sent in the jokes by the looks on their faces when you tell them. You say their names, and where they are from, and they just light up.

It's so funny. And some of the jokes are pretty good, too! We've used them in other shows as well!

MIKE: You would be correct. I'd say about 30% of the jokes we get sent are usable. The rest are either inappropriate, don't make sense, or involve one of us playing a trick on the control guys. I'll tell you what, though - there are quite a few of those jokes that I used at parties afterward!

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AARON: I grew up watching a good amount of Disney movies and shows, but I never specifically loved Disney for most of my life, which some find hard to believe. I came across Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was in 7th grade, and became addicted. I started thinking I wanted to work in theme parks, mostly designing rides. Doing research, I discovered the Imagineers, and became obsessed with Disneyland and Walt Disney World then. At that point, I've never been to either World but I knew them like the back of my hand.

AARON: I did the college program at the Jungle Cruise. I wanted to work in operations for the chance to do a job not many people get to do. No one picks their specific ride though, and it was all chance that I was picked for the Jungle Cruise. When I was interviewed, I was asked if I minded speaking in front of guest, and I said I didn't mind doing a small safety spiel. I died when I learned I was going to be a Skipper, spieling for ten minutes at a time! I probably would not have picked it if I had a choice. At the time, I never realized how many people wanted that job or how many people loved the Jungle. But after the first horrifying week, the job became amazingly fun and I could not pick up enough hours to work.

AARON: Well, to be honest, I had a disadvantage. The three people I trained with frequented Disney parks and knew most of the jokes. Learning them really wasn't hard, because we rode boats over and over to learn the jokes. The hard part was getting the timing right, and putting enough gusto in to make the worst of the jokes funny; well, that and getting over any fears of performing in public. But they reward us with a Dole Whip when all was said and done!

AARON: It really depends on your shift. If you open the Jungle, procedures include wiping all the boats dry and all of the benches and trash cans in Adventureland dry. Also, the Skippers take a little boat out with brushes and clean the show scenes. If they close, Skippers still lock up the guns in the gun boxes on the boats, even though they don't really fire anymore. One of the more exciting responsibilities for Skippers it to help evacuate Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates is so large that there aren't enough Cast Members there to get the guests safely out in an emergency, so we go over and help them out. When there were more Cast Members than positions, we would get what's called a "bucket" position that usually was a short task. When I was at the Jungle, one of the buckets was to walk through the tree house. That never got old to me, because Swiss Family Robinson has been and still is a favorite movie of mine.

AARON: We really aren't supposed to deviate from the Operation Guide for the jokes, but what I would do was tell my boat that I wanted to be famous. In order to be famous, I would remind them of my name, Skipper Aaron, a few times. As the cruise went on, I would say "Skipper Aaron" more and more, to the point where it was after every joke! People loved it and would say it with me, and it actually started working. Guest would come back and ask to ride my boat. Sometimes people would recognize me around Orlando and there was even a fan club on Facebook for a long time, all of which were unexpected.

AARON: My college program ended, so I went back to Texas for school. I did another program, which started me at Space Mountain. As much as I loved the Jungle, I'm glad I had a change in atmosphere and work. I stayed at Space Mountain after my program ended. Even though we are normal Cast Members at Space, there's a strong pride and a sense of power that comes with the most popular coaster in the world that's pretty addictive and hard to leave.

AARON: Safety is number one, not that it wasn't at the Jungle as well. However, because of the nature of the ride , there is a lot more to look out for. Safety aside, it is the goal of the Cast there to load a train and launch it every 19.5 seconds. To make this work, we have to rapidly merge the lines, group the parties, get them seated, check the restraints and monitor in the tower. There was actually more to memorize with Space than Jungle. Space Mountain, despite being older, is a highly advanced piece of machinery that is operated by four computers constantly getting software updates. Learning how to turn the ride on and off and to restart it is difficult, as it is a tedious and complicated sequence of actions, both in the control tower and on the track. And learning all the sections of both tracks and how to get there was crazy, like learning your way around a M.C. Escher sketch. Working Space is incredibly different and more of a challenge, but I love it.

AARON: It's not fair to compare the two because they are vastly different. Different operations, with different co-workers and management made for completely different experiences. Jungle was more laid back, but also somehow more exhausting. Space doesn't allow the same amount of guest interaction, which sometimes was depressing. At the Jungle Cruise, anyone could ride, even on a wheel chair. At Space, there are a lot of disappointed young guest who can't ride, which leads to upset parents (usually more upset than the kids). Jungle Cruise, there was no air conditioning, even in the break room, but Space Mountain is dark and cool. Space Mountain was a lot more fun to ride before and after work, and it was a lot cooler to be able to avoid waiting in line there. One had animal sounds, one had space sounds. I lost my voice at both and both had Fastpass. One closed because of lighting and one closed because of slow guest. At Space, almost all the guest were happy at the end of the ride, and at the Jungle, a surprising amount of guest don't appreciate the experience. Both have pros and cons. The pride and hard work that happens at Space is stronger than the Jungle. Despite how coveted the Jungle job is, I think the general love for the job is stronger at Space.

AARON: Many times on my way into work at Space, I would bring along a random family through Fastpass. It was a tradition that started when there was a long line in the queue, and someone joked as I passed by on my way to work if they could come along and I said sure, why not!

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CHRISTA: I'm not sure that I even realized that I was in love with Disney when I was a kid. The first movie I saw in a theater was Mary Poppins. Perhaps that was the beginning of the fascination. When I was old enough to hang around with my girlfriends, my mom would drop us off at Disneyland for the day. She felt that this was a safe place for us. Of course, this was way back in the days of ticket books. We paid to get in & then sparingly used our lettered tickets. I guess I started some of the "traditions" (that I still follow to the letter today) back then. I had to find Mickey & at least wave. I had to take my photo posing with the Indian figure on Main Street. I now consume a white chocolate chip cookie each visit because they no longer serve Fantasia ice cream. A grand tour aboard the DRR is an enjoyable must. I used the park to hang out in much like kids use the mall these days.

CHRISTA: In 1994, I was fortunate enough to be among the select Opening Cast for the Disney Store in Eugene, Oregon. It was the most amazing experience. We had a Traditions class in the store prior to opening. We competed against other stores to beat the standing record to unload & move in all the merchandise from the trucks & on to the floor. On opening day, Pixie Dust was freely sprinkled everywhere. Two characters (from Disneyland), came up to add to the opening festivities & spread true Disney magic.

Back then we were still owned by Disney, so everything was infused with the culture & history. The store definitely made Eugene the place to get a Disney fix if you couldn't get to the park. Because I was raised in the park (or at least it felt like it), I was one of the "go to" cast members who guests sought out to ask all their park-going questions. I loved being an ambassador of sorts. It was really a great feeling when they would stop in the store after their trip & tell me the highlights. I was there during the 10th anniversary of the Stores & still have the poster with each CMs name listed.

CHRISTA: I was floored when I got the email requesting I call to set up an interview appointment in July 2010. I applied the September before & just waited until the interview came. Thanks to my brothers, I was living above their garage in Atascadero, which is about 4 hours north. Commuting would be out of the question, obviously. For the interview, I chose to make a long weekend of it & play in the parks too, so I took the train down instead of driving. It was the best ride ever as I got more excited with each mile passing. At the end of the interview, I was offered the role of a Ticket Taker. WooHoo! It was rather like a balloon might feel when being inflated.

Then the recruiter went on to say that there wasn't a position in that role right then & I would be notified of a start date as soon as a position became available. It was rather like having the air escape out of the once inflated balloon. So close, and yet... It ended up being the longest 3 months of my life, waiting to get the next email telling me when my Traditions class would be held. I packed my car, zoomed down to a motel for the weekend during the classes. When I checked out on Monday, I had a role of a lifetime & nowhere to live. Definitely a leap of faith.

CHRISTA: Disney is a culture. While you might not think about how it touches your life day to day, it does have an impact on you. As a huge company, because it is so diversified, one might think that a single person (employee) might get lost. For me, Traditions class is the life preserver that you can cling to so you don't ever feel lost or little. Everyone starts out in a role. However, there are no "small" roles. You're right that the two Traditions classes differed a bit. The one for the Stores covered the basics of the consumer culture & how the store would impact the community & our guests. We were given an overview of the business based upon the goods we were selling. The Traditions for the Resort was a more in depth view of the Disney Company, its roots, its growth & its many divisions that symbiotically exist today. The average guest has really high expectations for their park experience based upon other Disney interactions. We have a huge standard to uphold. I'm reminded every day how cool it is to be a Cast Member at the Happiest Place on Earth. There are lots of folks who would love to be able to spread the magic while continuing to deliver a fantastic consumer product.

CHRISTA: Being a Ticket Taker (the role is now called Park Greeter) was an amazing experience. True, it was often too hot, too cold, or both during the shift, but it was never boring. I loved being able to chat with the guests. For the most part, they are still pumped up & ready to attack their day. The first timers were so much fun as they usually had lots of questions & thankfully for me, I had lots of answers & tips to pass along.

There really isn't a typical day as each shift was unique & challenging. If you were a Ticket Taker for the shift, you were deployed to a gate in either Disneyland or Disney California Adventure to take tickets or stamp the hands of guests exiting. Sometimes you were in one park for an hour, only to be sent to the other one after your break & back to the other park after your lunch. There was a lot of walking across the Esplanade north or south to the Parks. If you were a Guest Screener (the ones who look in bags, purses, etc.), the same type of deployment would happen, only it was East to West to the green tents.

Sometimes the shift would be at the entrance from the Grand Californian hotel into Disney California Adventure or at the Monorail station in Downtown Disney. You stayed in that area the entire shift, however you rotated between bag screening, ticket taking & hand stamping. I liked working those satellite areas. A little quieter than the main gates of the Parks, so your time with the guests could be a bit longer & even more magical.

I tried to go out of my way to spread the magic every shift. It didn't always happen, but hey, it was a goal & I tried. Often a Birthday button customized with their name was enough to brighten their day. I was able to hook some Australian guests up with same day reservations at the Blue Bayou. For a group from England, I suggested stopping in the Golden Horseshoe to see the Billy Hill & the Hillbillies show. Those guests went out my exit later that night & thanked me for telling them about the show as it was the highlight of their day & they never would have known about it because it wasn't a "ride." I had a stash of my own trading pins that I handed out for excellent behavior, whether it be kids or adults behavior. Sometimes simply listening to them was enough magic to make their day enjoyable.

One of my favorite shifts was New Year's Eve. I was stationed in the middle of the Esplanade directing traffic. We had stanchions & ropes to create a corridor for guests wanting to walk east to west or park to park. We had to keep these open & clear of guests all night. The fireworks were spectacular as we were in the middle of three shows. The crowd literally spun around trying to see the main show in Disneyland & still see the shows being sent off in the Paradise Pier & Hollywood Backlot areas. To be surrounded by ultra-unique fireworks was the best perk of working that night.

CHRISTA: Going from an "on stage" role to a "backstage" one has been challenging. I miss interacting with the Park Guests. Now my guests are my fellow Cast Members. I have absolutely no background for issuing costumes. I do however have many years of sorting, hanging & generally getting the wrinkles out of my own clothing. My mantra is "it's a costume, not a fashion statement."

CHRISTA: The sorting, hanging, etc. I just mentioned is my typical day. We rotate between positions such as: covering the checkout area to answer questions or be at the guest service desk to resolve any costuming issues; we check each item to make sure that it is ready for the show - enough buttons, zippers that work, seams & hems intact, etc. to stocking accessories like aprons, hats, belts, & spats. Besides processing the daily deliveries of freshly cleaned costumes from the two laundry services we use, there is the unending (okay, it just seems to be unending), sorting of the costumes that are returned after shifts. There's much more, but basically we're a large team who all do everything to make sure the CMs look their best while on stage.

CHRISTA: We're all in the same boat & understanding that is paramount. We are told that when we walk "on stage" we are to be happy & spread the magic while leaving our real world issues backstage. Since I work "backstage," sometimes the CMs aren't in the best of moods. Late shuttle, no parking spots, too much traffic in general; whatever the real world has caused them to be late, stressed or simply tired. I try to lighten their mood with humor. Recently we've made some major changes to the Ops Costuming set up. Costume pieces that have been in one place for years are now somewhere else. This has the potential to make any CM a bit cranky. So I've been afforded the opportunity of making their time in Ops Costuming an enjoyable one. I figure if I get a smile on their face, just maybe it will still be there when they get on stage.

Tickets are now on sale for the

COMMUNICORE WEEKLY 38TH WEEKAVERSARY
&
EPCOT 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!

NATALIE: I first went to Disneyland when I was 5 years old. When I was 10, we started going to Disneyland every other year. When it came time to plan a vacation, both my parents always wanted to go to Disneyland! I remember seeing a commercial for Walt Disney World when I was pretty little, and my parents had just gone on a trip there without me and my sister. The commercial featured the dinosaur scenes at the Universe of Energy in Epcot, and I desperately wanted to go. I was promised a trip to Disney World when I graduated high school. We finally went in 2007, and I got to see those dinosaurs I had waited so long to see. But in the years leading up to that trip, Disneyland was (and still is) my favorite place on the planet. I really feel like a piece of it belongs to me (don't we all?), and honestly don't remember a trip where I wasn't crying when we left.

Growing up, I loved almost every Disney movie. Even if there was sadness, there was always hope. As I got older, I became more interested in the story behind the Disney Company and the story of Walt's life. Walt is such an inspiration to me, and I really feel like my life has changed for the better because of him, even though I've never met him. I can't think of any place but Disneyland that can put me (and many others) on the verge of tears just by stepping foot on to Main Street, U.S.A. Walt continues to create magic in world that forgets it can and does exist.

NATALIE: I saw a poster on campus back in the fall of 2009, and went to a presentation to see what it was all about. I honestly couldn't believe that there was an opportunity out there that fit so perfectly for what I needed for graduation; an internship credit and a love of Disney! I didn't apply for that term (as there were certain classes only offered in the spring semester that I needed), but went to the presentation again the following February and applied with Attractions as my top choice. After a web interview and a nerve wracking phone interview with a very nice woman named Wendy, I got a call back a month later letting me know I was being offered a position as an Attractions Hostess for the Fall of 2012!

NATALIE: I applied specifically for California during my first program. I liked that it was a bit smaller program (about 300 people compared to 5,000 in Florida), and Anaheim was only a three and a half hour drive from Las Vegas, where I was attending school. It made it much easier to make a few trips back when I needed to meet with my internship coordinator and take care of applying for graduation the following year. I'd also gone to Disneyland so much growing up, and I was very excited to have the chance to work there!

NATALIE: My position as a Space Ranger consisted of 4 or 5 positions throughout the day. I could be stationed as Greeter (out in front of the attraction, greeting new recruits, checking Fast Pass times), inside assisting guests while they loaded or unloaded from their Space Cruisers, or at the main console making sure things were running smoothly. It was definitely fun to be able to control an entire attraction! As a College Program Cast Member, I typically worked the closing shifts and helped to close down Star Command at the end of each day. I did a lot of walking at AstroBlasters, since it's an omni-mover. I didn't notice how much walking on my "treadmill" every day did for me until I was back at school! Occasionally, I also got shifts where I assisted with setting up ropes for that night's fireworks performance, and some shifts where I set up ropes and helped with traffic flow for the parades and fireworks that day. I actually loved these. I got to wear the Main Street "Coke Corner" costume and once the ropes were set up, we got to interact with guests until show time!

NATALIE: I loved my time as a Cast Member, and applied for a few of the Professional Internships. I wasn't selected, unfortunately, and once I graduated from UNLV in May 2011, I didn't have any immediate plans. My younger sister had just started her College Program as a Main Entrance Operations Cast Member at Epcot in June, and I definitely missed her. I thought I'd give applying to the Florida program a shot, and see how things were done in Florida! I was accepted as an Attractions Hostess again and moved down to Orlando in August 2011.

NATALIE: I was a Presenter. Throughout my program, I was trained on 3 venues: StormStruck, The Safety Smart Lab at Test the Limits, and Where's the Fire? The House of Innoventions closed for refurbishment during my time there, so I wasn't trained on that. Presenters take care of greeting at the venues, the pre-show, and the show itself. On any given day, I could be at all three of the venues or just one. Depending on the day, I could end up doing a lot of presentations or just one or two. At StormStruck, I was a Stormologist who led guests through a 3D recreation of a severe storm, followed by a game to build a stronger house; at the Safety Smart Lab, I assisted Timon and Pumbaa in a presentation on home safety; and at Where's the Fire? (my favorite!) I was a game show host that led a competitive game where guests attempt to find and correct the most fire safety hazards on their side of a house. I was also assigned some nights to assist at IllumiNations after Innoventions closed at 7 pm. I really enjoyed working IllumiNations since the shift mostly involved interacting with guests and chatting with them about their day at Epcot.

NATALIE: I almost feel like comparing Disneyland to Walt Disney World is like comparing apples and oranges. They are such different experiences! I am a "Disneylander" at heart, since that is where I had my first College Program and grew up visiting there, but each resort has things the other doesn't. Walt Disney World (especially Epcot) has much better, and nicer, sit-down restaurants, but Disneyland has the Matterhorn and the Indiana Jones Adventure. Even Magic Kingdom, which can seem like another version of Disneyland, is very different from its California counterpart in terms of the general atmosphere. As a Cast Member, the work experience was very different as well; this comes down to the difference in the average guest at each resort. At Walt Disney World, it is important make sure each guest has the best experience possible, because this is very likely the only time in their lives that they will be there. A lot of people only get to come to Walt Disney World once or twice, and save for a very long time to be able to do so. At Disneyland, it is just as important to make sure each guest has the best experience, but for a different reason. A very large portion of the guests there are Annual Passholders and come more than once a month. I got to know several Aps, who became friends. They know the park like the back of their hand and it is very near and dear to them. They know what Disney quality is and want to make sure the park and magic they love is being maintained.

NATALIE: One of the greatest parts of being a Cast Member is that something that might seem like just a part of my day to day job can really brighten a guest's day. I had a lead in California whom, after I mentioned that I'd had kind of an off and slow day, asked me, "Well, what have you done to make someone else's day better today?" That always stuck with me.

I remember one family in particular who came for their young son's birthday (and first trip to DL) around Christmas, and his favorite character was Buzz. He had a full Buzz costume on, and even his stroller was a Buzz Lightyear one. Towards the end of the day, his mom approached me and said that they had been trying to catch Buzz at his meet and greet all day and kept missing him. I called the character line to discover that Buzz had just finished his last greet of the day. Another CM, who was out front with me, quickly went backstage to see if he could catch Buzz, but unfortunately he was gone. The mom told us thank you for trying, and that they were going to get in the AstroBlasters line, since they'd waited all day so they could finish their day with Buzz. They seemed pretty disappointed, and the little boy kept asking his mom why he wasn't going to get to meet Buzz. I was sad we hadn't been able to catch the character for them, and the BLAB line was around 30 minutes at that point. I asked them to wait a moment, and went to our Fast Pass machines and got them two sets of Fast Passes for the ride. I told the boy that Buzz was very sorry he hadn't been able to chat with him today but he'd been so busy battling Zurg. I said that Buzz had given me these special passes because he needed his help right away to help defeat Zurg, and that he'd see Buzz inside for mission briefing. His family was so grateful, and the little boy was so excited and I was so happy that I had something I could do to cheer them up.

Tickets are now on sale for the

COMMUNICORE WEEKLY 38TH WEEKAVERSARY
&
EPCOT 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!