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

After a while, the dancers stop treading me as “new” and “excited” and started ignoring me. I was ignoring them, so it was mutual.
    The five Celebrate Greeters would get the Grand Marshals out of their car, throw some water bottles at them, and then we had to race to the other side of the street. We’d watch the parade from backstage. The Frontierland path curves upwards once it goes through the Frontierland gate, and there are some prop crates back there (for what, who knows). The five of us would huddle around those boxes and wait for the parade to finish. Sometimes we’d duck down so we could check our phones. Other times we would just sit right on top of the boxes, because who exactly was going to yell at us, anyway? There’s a parade going on!
    After the parade was over, we had to go back and collect the rope, and then we slowly made our way back toward City Hall with it. Technically, after the parade, we were done for the day. Park attendance starts dropping as soon as parade is over, so there was no point for us to be there, since it wasn’t a peak time anymore. We were supposed to go back to City Hall to do odds and ends like restocking stuff and assisting the cast members actually working there. None of us ever wanted to do that. We had been out in the park all day, sweaty, hot and tired, and we just wanted to go sit somewhere and cool off and maybe not get yelled at about nonsense for a little while.
    Thankfully, the parade wrapped up around 3:45. We’d stall until 4. Then, we took our slow walk back to City Hall, weaving in and out through the park, ducking into backstage areas here and there for air conditioning, and also so our walk would take longer. We might stop by the Mousekateria and get something else to eat. A few times, we got REALLY brave and actually took the train back to Main Street. Every time we took the train back we were yelled at, but we still did it a few more times. We had already been out in the park all day, walking and in full view of guests. Why couldn’t we take the train back?
    We’d make it back around 4:30, and then it was time to clock out and leave. Our work as a Celebrate Greeter was done.
    When I started in Guest Relations as a Celebrate Greeter, I assumed I’d be doing it for a week or two. Then I’d be trained to work in City Hall, as a true Guest Relations cast member. That’s what was happening with everyone else brand-new to Guest Relations. They’d spend a week Celebrate Greeting, then get trained, and then once every other week end up back as a Celebrate Greeter. It was a nice rotation system that gave everyone some variety.
    Except for me.
    After two weeks of Celebrate Greeting, I asked one of the managers when I was going to be trained in City Hall. They looked at me confused, and I had to go, “I’m new, I’m Annie. When can I be trained?” They’d still look confused and say stuff like, “Let me get back to you on that.” No one ever got back to me.
    Every week I’d go into the manager’s office and ask, “Can I be trained in City Hall now?” and every week they didn’t have an answer for me. Some were like, “Your training is coming up.” Others were like, “Beginning of next month!” And then there was the one manager who couldn’t remember me at all, and I had to re-introduce myself to him every time we had a conversation.
    A month passed, and every single day I went to work as a Celebrate Greeter. I worked Monday though Friday, 8:30am to 5pm. That’s all I did. I stood in random areas of Magic Kingdom and handed out free passes for ice cream whenever I wanted. I watched the parade every single day. I got rained on, and I couldn’t wear any sort of rain protection, and I couldn’t carry an umbrella. After a month, I was ready to be a real cast member again, because as a Celebrate Greeter, I didn’t feel like one.
    However, none of the managers had any idea when I would start training. Looking back, I feel like there was actually