The Ride Delegate: Memoir of a Walt Disney World VIP Tour Guide by Annie Salisbury Page A
Authors: Annie Salisbury
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went off to meet up with Aunt, wherever she had wandered off to in EPCOT. “What’s the next ride?” Mom barked at me.
I led the guests to the other side of Future World towards Soarin’. We stopped for a bathroom break before we got into line. It was incredibly crowded, and I stood off to the side, casually leaning against a wall, waiting for them all to exit. When I gathered the group together after the bathroom I once again counted thirteen of them. I don’t know how the others managed to finagle their way back to us without me noticing them, but it happened.
“I can only take ten guests on the attraction with me.” Mom looked at me like I had just pushed her in front of a Living with the Land boat. Her eyes were fiery red.
She yelled some incoherent things at me in Spanish, and once again tried to give me all ten children. I was not about to play this game all day. I informed Mom that I was going to need an adult to accompany me through the attraction, since I would opt out of riding. So, one child was going to have to be traded for an adult. This sent Mom over the edge. More yelling in Spanish Spanish Spanish. I have no idea how I managed to get ten guests into the queue, but I did. No one spoke the entire queue. I didn’t even bother asking for them to be placed in B1. I left them as soon as we passed through merge, darted out another unmarked door, and called the Office.
I decided the best thing to do right now was throw that other tour guide under the bus.
“Their last guide took a group larger than ten. I keep telling them that I refuse to take more than ten, but they won’t listen to me and Mom’s getting mad. What should I do?”
There have been a few situations where the Office has been less than helpful. This was one of them. They didn’t have a good idea, or suggestion, or input, or anything, as to what I should do. They were more than ready to send another guide out and start charging for two guides. I asked them what they wanted me to do. No one seemed able to get in touch with Dad, wherever he was on Disney property, and no one wanted to tell me to end the tour, either. I was alone in The Land.
Mom and the nine kids got off of the ride and she immediately asked where we were going next. Something came over me. (It might have been the adult breakfast bounty I had just eaten at Sunshine Seasons because I had close to 25 minutes before they got off Soarin’. Soarin’ takes so long to ride. Each show is 8 minutes long. Every time you don’t get loaded into a show, you wait another 8 minutes for the next one. That’s an additional 8 minutes that I have to eat something from the deliciously home-grown Sunshine Seasons, the best quick service in Epcot, not counting when Canada lets me take Canadian cheddar cheese bacon soup to go.) I told Mom that she was going to make a decision right now as to who would be my ten guests for the day, and who would leave. That is, unless she wanted another guide who was standing by at the ready.
Mom asked for the next attraction again. I told her that she had until Spaceship Earth to figure out her tour lineup.
We walked in silence. I led my parade of thirteen guests from The Land to Spaceship Earth and no one said anything to each other. We approached the entrance to the best slow-moving history lesson and I turned to Mom for her answer: who was leaving the tour, or would she be getting a second guide?
I know when most guests walk into EPCOT they just breeze right underneath Spaceship Earth and don’t spend any time actually lingering by the giant ball. For one, that area is a complete wind tunnel. There’s no use in trying to fix your hair or hold a park map if you’re passing underneath it. The area is also really open, so sometimes things echo against the metal buildings and the giant metal golf ball. It’s also in such a prime location that everyone in that general vicinity is almost completely aware of everything else happening around them. Guests
I led the guests to the other side of Future World towards Soarin’. We stopped for a bathroom break before we got into line. It was incredibly crowded, and I stood off to the side, casually leaning against a wall, waiting for them all to exit. When I gathered the group together after the bathroom I once again counted thirteen of them. I don’t know how the others managed to finagle their way back to us without me noticing them, but it happened.
“I can only take ten guests on the attraction with me.” Mom looked at me like I had just pushed her in front of a Living with the Land boat. Her eyes were fiery red.
She yelled some incoherent things at me in Spanish, and once again tried to give me all ten children. I was not about to play this game all day. I informed Mom that I was going to need an adult to accompany me through the attraction, since I would opt out of riding. So, one child was going to have to be traded for an adult. This sent Mom over the edge. More yelling in Spanish Spanish Spanish. I have no idea how I managed to get ten guests into the queue, but I did. No one spoke the entire queue. I didn’t even bother asking for them to be placed in B1. I left them as soon as we passed through merge, darted out another unmarked door, and called the Office.
I decided the best thing to do right now was throw that other tour guide under the bus.
“Their last guide took a group larger than ten. I keep telling them that I refuse to take more than ten, but they won’t listen to me and Mom’s getting mad. What should I do?”
There have been a few situations where the Office has been less than helpful. This was one of them. They didn’t have a good idea, or suggestion, or input, or anything, as to what I should do. They were more than ready to send another guide out and start charging for two guides. I asked them what they wanted me to do. No one seemed able to get in touch with Dad, wherever he was on Disney property, and no one wanted to tell me to end the tour, either. I was alone in The Land.
Mom and the nine kids got off of the ride and she immediately asked where we were going next. Something came over me. (It might have been the adult breakfast bounty I had just eaten at Sunshine Seasons because I had close to 25 minutes before they got off Soarin’. Soarin’ takes so long to ride. Each show is 8 minutes long. Every time you don’t get loaded into a show, you wait another 8 minutes for the next one. That’s an additional 8 minutes that I have to eat something from the deliciously home-grown Sunshine Seasons, the best quick service in Epcot, not counting when Canada lets me take Canadian cheddar cheese bacon soup to go.) I told Mom that she was going to make a decision right now as to who would be my ten guests for the day, and who would leave. That is, unless she wanted another guide who was standing by at the ready.
Mom asked for the next attraction again. I told her that she had until Spaceship Earth to figure out her tour lineup.
We walked in silence. I led my parade of thirteen guests from The Land to Spaceship Earth and no one said anything to each other. We approached the entrance to the best slow-moving history lesson and I turned to Mom for her answer: who was leaving the tour, or would she be getting a second guide?
I know when most guests walk into EPCOT they just breeze right underneath Spaceship Earth and don’t spend any time actually lingering by the giant ball. For one, that area is a complete wind tunnel. There’s no use in trying to fix your hair or hold a park map if you’re passing underneath it. The area is also really open, so sometimes things echo against the metal buildings and the giant metal golf ball. It’s also in such a prime location that everyone in that general vicinity is almost completely aware of everything else happening around them. Guests
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