Free Amber Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary by Amber Sewell

necessarily know what I want to write, but I want to write. Something with Hyperion would be great, but I’m not in the least picky.”
    We stood around chatting a bit more about our goals for the future, and soon the crowds had dwindled. Pete led us over to the table where Lou had set his bags and introduced us, telling Lou that Paige wanted to be a tour guide. Lou whipped out copies of some of his audio tours, and while Paige went into another telling of her love of all things Disney, I was led over to a man I had never seen before.
    “Hey, Tim. This is Amber. Amber, this is Tim Foster, one of the co-editors of Celebrations magazine. Tim, this girl wants to be a writer.”
    I felt three steps behind as I struggled to keep up with what was happening. Tim, with a look of excitement, took hold of my arm and walked me to a secluded area a few feet away.
    “So you want to write? What do you want to write about? Have you read Celebrations before?”
    I stared at him bemusedly for a moment. It was almost as if the words were taking too long to register with my brain. “ What do I want to write?” I repeated aloud. “Um…well, anything, really. I love Disney, and I love writing. Any combination of the two is something I would be interested in. And no, actually, I have never heard of Celebrations .”
    As soon as I said it, I wondered if that was a smart thing to do, admitting to the co-editor that I had never heard of his magazine.
    “What about the parks?” Tim asked. “Anything in particular you want to write about the parks?”
    I continued to lag a couple of seconds behind in the conversation. “Well,” I said hesitantly, “EPCOT is my favorite park, and the World Showcase is my favorite thing about EPCOT. I could spend an entire week there and not feel the urge to go to another park.”
    “Good! Good! I have been thinking for a while about doing a special edition covering all the World Showcase pavilions; I’m glad to hear others would be interested in it. I’ve got people covering some pavilions already, of course. Great Britain and France, for example, are covered, but there are plenty more…”
    And on he went, breathlessly ranting about which topics had potential and which had already been covered, or had been promised to someone else.
    Ensured of my willingness and enthusiasm for Disney, but oddly deciding not to ask me to write about what I loved most, Tim mentioned that he wanted to do an article about Liberty Square. Magic Kingdom isn’t my favorite park, and Liberty Square definitely is not a place where I had spent much time on past visits. But I wasn’t going to refuse the chance to see my name in print, especially with Tim so eager to put it there. After I assured Tim that I would love the chance to write for him, he handed me his business card and we returned to the table, where Lou was signing the audio tour CDs for Paige, along with a few copies of Celebrations .
    We sat around and talked for a while longer, the crowd now reduced to just a handful of people: me, Paige, Tim, Lou and his family, and Pete the Imagineer. Soon, though, Paige had to leave for work. The group stood and began to disperse. Since I had the day off, I wanted to head over to the Finding Nemo musical, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Pete decided to go with me. Slightly confused, but at this point just going with whatever happened, we walked over to the theatre together. On the way, Pete showed me pictures of a wedding party he had DJ’ed at the Grand Floridian’s Wedding Pavilion. Then, after the show, he gave me an impromptu backstage tour. By the time we were finished, Paige had gotten off work. She met us outside the gates, where the parking tram drops off guests. As she and I headed to Cast Member parking, thanking Pete once more for the contacts he had made for us that day, he stopped us and gave us his email. Finally, we parted. For the rest of the day, however, my imagination ran wild with the amazing