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

Author:Annie Salisbury [Salisbury, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: walt disney, disney world, vip tour, disney tour, disney park
Publisher: Theme Park Press
Published: 2016-03-04T08:00:00+00:00

18

I was part time at Great Movie Ride. When I moved to Guest Relations, I was also part time. As part-time cast, remember I was really only supposed to get around 23 hours a week. At GMR, I was getting right around that; but when I moved to Guest Relations and became a Celebrate Greeter, I was working more of a 40-hour week. When I stopped being a Celebrate Greeter and just became a regular cast member working in City Hall, my hours dropped drastically. Most weeks, I’d be lucky to get 12 hours.

That was a really rough time for me. I had just moved into a brand-new apartment with a roommate, and we were both struggling for cash. Thankfully, I had money saved up so I could afford to eat and pay my bills, but I couldn’t afford much of anything else. On top of that, my student loans were going to start kicking in. I’d pick up shifts as often as I could from other Guest Relations cast members, but sometimes I’d go three weeks before I got one of those extra shifts. Hours were sparse in GR because there were so many cast members who wanted to work, and so few hours to actually give them. Even full-time cast members were only getting around 35 hours a week. And since I was brand new, no one really wanted to give me their hard-earned extra shifts, either.

I couldn’t go and pick up hours back at GMR, or even DisneyQuest, any more. When I transferred to Guest Relations, I went from being part of a “unionized” role to a role that was not unionized. I know nothing about unions, but I do know that being statused to an non-unionized role meant I couldn’t go back and work something union. I could only take extra GR shifts. And there weren’t any.

I had been assigned a GR homeroom manager, Dennis, and he’s the guy I was supposed to go to for all questions and concerns. Dennis was an older gentleman with a big potbelly and greying slicked-back hair. He spoke with a heavy Puerto Rican accent that sometimes made him difficult to understand. His catchphrase was also “Make-a da magic!” and he’d say that to us every time we passed by the office.

“Hi, Dennis, can we talk for a second?” I said as I stuck my head into his office. He was sitting behind his desk on the far left side, eating something that smelled unpleasant, and staring at his computer screen.

“Annie! Annie, my girl, come in. How are you?” He pushed the rolly chair next to him toward me, my cue to sit.

“I’m fine. How are you?” I never knew how to answer that question with the managers, because I was never sure if I was supposed to complain about the last guest I had handled, or if I should brag about the last magical thing I did for a guest.

“Ah, living the dream.” Dennis looked away from me and

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