Would You Like Magic with That?: Working at Walt Disney World Guest Relations by Annie Salisbury
Authors: Annie Salisbury
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board.
Mind you, this was back before smart phones really took off, and before everyone was always staring at their phone. When I was in Guest Relations, there was no My Disney Experience app. You couldn’t book FastPasses ahead of time. If you wanted a FastPass, you had to walk to the attraction and get a FastPass.
The tip board was there for wait times, pre-smart phones. The tip board actually had its own Blackberry phone that would receive updated wait times every half hour. Sometimes the entire message wouldn’t come in. Sometimes no message would come. Sometimes you’d just guess the wait time for attractions, which is what I did a majority of the time. I never let Peter Pan’s Flight dip below 75 minutes, because that seemed reasonable. I was also supposed to keep track of downtimes, and physically change the placards on the tip board to say stuff like “SPLASH MOUNTAIN IS DOWN”. But those messages never came in either, and guests were always coming back to me, saying that they had walked all the way to Splash Mountain just to find it closed.
Disney probably rolled out the Disney Experience app just because I singlehandedly sucked at updating the tip board with relevant information.
Being out at the tip board was the worst. Don’t take my word for it, though. If you want to experience what it’s like being out at the tip board, just stand somewhere in Magic Kingdom. Doesn’t matter where; just make sure it is in direct sunlight at all times. Also, wear a giant nametag on your chest, and a golden D pin that suggests you know the answers to everything . Look friendly and approachable, so everyone wants to talk to you and ask you questions, preferably all at the same time, sometimes in languages you don’t speak. Oh, and make sure that there is at least one guest yelling at you about height restrictions or dining options, because that’s a must. Are you still standing in direct sunlight? Good. And now there’s a parade coming so there are five billion people standing in your personal space and also it is so goddamn hot and you have run out of water and might pass out? Yeah, that’s what it was like being at the tip board.
The tip board was themed to Main Street, U.S.A., so that meant that it couldn’t have “shade control”. The tip board at Epcot has fans. Studios even has an AC unit in their tiny little tip board location. So could Magic Kingdom get those fancy things? Nope. The managers tried repeatedly to get some sort of umbrella for us to stand underneath at the tip board, but the VP of Magic Kingdom refused every time. It broke the “theme”. He finally caved and gave us a giant circular tree that we could sort of stand under to shield ourselves from the sun. But the fun thing about the sun is that it moves, and we only got a little bit of shade in the morning. By afternoon, the sun had moved, and so had the shade, and we were left out there to slowly melt.
The rule was that we could only be out at the tip board for a half hour at a time, which is the same rule that character performers have for standing outside. However, while characters don’t have to go out while it’s raining, we still had to. The only time we could leave the tip board was if it was thundering and lightning. If the weather wasn’t that bad, we had to stay out there.
But still, no giant umbrella to stand underneath. No umbrella to even hold out at the tip board. It was miserable.
Whenever I was tasked to go to the tip board, I begged to get out of it. I tried to get another cast member to switch with me so I wouldn’t have to go. If you had done something to piss off a coordinator during the day, sometimes they’d make you go to the tip board twice, which was a terrible punishment.
Even worse, sometimes you’d get out to the tip board and do your required half hour, and then you’d wait. And wait some more. And keep on waiting until someone else would come to bump you out of the position. Sometimes that could
Mind you, this was back before smart phones really took off, and before everyone was always staring at their phone. When I was in Guest Relations, there was no My Disney Experience app. You couldn’t book FastPasses ahead of time. If you wanted a FastPass, you had to walk to the attraction and get a FastPass.
The tip board was there for wait times, pre-smart phones. The tip board actually had its own Blackberry phone that would receive updated wait times every half hour. Sometimes the entire message wouldn’t come in. Sometimes no message would come. Sometimes you’d just guess the wait time for attractions, which is what I did a majority of the time. I never let Peter Pan’s Flight dip below 75 minutes, because that seemed reasonable. I was also supposed to keep track of downtimes, and physically change the placards on the tip board to say stuff like “SPLASH MOUNTAIN IS DOWN”. But those messages never came in either, and guests were always coming back to me, saying that they had walked all the way to Splash Mountain just to find it closed.
Disney probably rolled out the Disney Experience app just because I singlehandedly sucked at updating the tip board with relevant information.
Being out at the tip board was the worst. Don’t take my word for it, though. If you want to experience what it’s like being out at the tip board, just stand somewhere in Magic Kingdom. Doesn’t matter where; just make sure it is in direct sunlight at all times. Also, wear a giant nametag on your chest, and a golden D pin that suggests you know the answers to everything . Look friendly and approachable, so everyone wants to talk to you and ask you questions, preferably all at the same time, sometimes in languages you don’t speak. Oh, and make sure that there is at least one guest yelling at you about height restrictions or dining options, because that’s a must. Are you still standing in direct sunlight? Good. And now there’s a parade coming so there are five billion people standing in your personal space and also it is so goddamn hot and you have run out of water and might pass out? Yeah, that’s what it was like being at the tip board.
The tip board was themed to Main Street, U.S.A., so that meant that it couldn’t have “shade control”. The tip board at Epcot has fans. Studios even has an AC unit in their tiny little tip board location. So could Magic Kingdom get those fancy things? Nope. The managers tried repeatedly to get some sort of umbrella for us to stand underneath at the tip board, but the VP of Magic Kingdom refused every time. It broke the “theme”. He finally caved and gave us a giant circular tree that we could sort of stand under to shield ourselves from the sun. But the fun thing about the sun is that it moves, and we only got a little bit of shade in the morning. By afternoon, the sun had moved, and so had the shade, and we were left out there to slowly melt.
The rule was that we could only be out at the tip board for a half hour at a time, which is the same rule that character performers have for standing outside. However, while characters don’t have to go out while it’s raining, we still had to. The only time we could leave the tip board was if it was thundering and lightning. If the weather wasn’t that bad, we had to stay out there.
But still, no giant umbrella to stand underneath. No umbrella to even hold out at the tip board. It was miserable.
Whenever I was tasked to go to the tip board, I begged to get out of it. I tried to get another cast member to switch with me so I wouldn’t have to go. If you had done something to piss off a coordinator during the day, sometimes they’d make you go to the tip board twice, which was a terrible punishment.
Even worse, sometimes you’d get out to the tip board and do your required half hour, and then you’d wait. And wait some more. And keep on waiting until someone else would come to bump you out of the position. Sometimes that could
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