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

some sort of glitch with me. Maybe something like, I wasn’t even supposed to be there, and I was just perpetually stuck as a Celebrate Greeter. Part of me started to get worried, since no one knew what to do with me. I had this nagging feeling that I’d wind up back at Great Movie Ride, and that would be the end of my Gust Relations story.
    It was clear that I was getting jaded being a Celebrate Greeter every single day. Some days I didn’t want to go out into the park and watch the parade — which I know is a crazy thing to complain about. How dare I complain about going out into Magic Kingdom and watching a parade every day? But when it’s your job, it soon begins to lose its magical luster. It wasn’t anything special to stand in Tomrorrowland after a month. It was just going to work.
    My questions about training in the actual Guest Relations position turned into me begging to be trained. Still, no manager had any idea about my training, and I was convinced this was the end and I could kiss my Guest Relations position goodbye. I had actually been hired to decorate strollers, not deal with ticketing situations.
    So how did I finally get trained? Budget cuts.
    After forty five days straight of being a Celebrate Greeter, I woke up one morning to find a new schedule waiting for me that included actual training shifts for City Hall. I went into work that day thanking all the managers about it, but I was told it wasn’t their doing. The VP of Magic Kingdom, who had loved Celebrate Greeting for the past five years, was over it. He didn’t see the need for it anymore and thought it was a waste of money, from a labor standpoint, and also the fact that I was singlehandedly giving out like thirty Mickey ice cream sandwiches a day. So, it was cut. And since that was the only thing I knew how to do so far, it was time to train me in something else.

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    Training in City Hall spanned four days. It’s done in a progressive schedule, so the first night I was scheduled to close, the next two I’d work mid-day shifts, and the last day opening. I had no idea what to expect. Even though I had technically been in Guest Relations (GR) for two months, I barely knew anyone. I had spent my days out in the park, so even though I wasn’t the newest cast member anymore, I was still very new to everyone else.
    I was told to meet my new trainer inside City Hall about fifteen minutes before my shift started. She’d show me how to clock in (I already knew how to do this), where I could store my belongings during the day (I already knew how to do this, too), and then what to do and expect from a normal City Hall shift.
    When you walk into Magic Kingdom, the building to your left is City Hall. It houses Guest Relations, obviously, but not many people actually go in there, or need to go in there during the day. My family and I, during our two-dozen trips to the parks over the years, never went into City Hall for anything. We once went into Epcot Guest Relations to make dining reservations, and we once went into Studios Guest Relations to print out boarding passes for our flight home. That was it. I didn’t exactly know what to expect standing behind the counter at City Hall, because I had no first-hand knowledge of it. Did people come in to talk about the parks? Would I be planning vacations for guests? If someone came in to complain, how was I supposed to handle it? I had no idea. This is what training was all about.
    I clocked in (so I wouldn’t be late) and then I just stood awkwardly in the Bank Out Room of City Hall. It’s a weird name for a room, but that’s what we called it. The Bank Out Room. Because that’s where Guest Relations cast members went at the end of their shift to tally their money and actually “bank out” for the shift — seeing as how everyone’s got a cash till. Someone once called it the Bank Out Room, and it stuck forever. That’s where I waited.
    And I waited and I waited and I waited. Four o’clock came