Dreams of Adventurous Exploits

“That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.” –Walt Disney

Suspending disbelief: that’s what Tiggers (and theatre people) do best! It’s so much fun to experience Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” attraction and allow yourself to believe for just a millisecond that it’s all real. That you are actually inside a creepy, rustic, haunted mansion. It’s so much fun to walk underneath Cinderella Castle and imagine just for a moment what it must have been like on that fateful night at the prince’s ball. But the moments in which I suspend my disbelief most often at Disney parks are during character meet-and-greets. After all, as wonderful as Disney World is with its many fun attractions, food, and shops—the characters are what make the Disney experience truly magical for me.

I suppose this explains why I wanted to be a Character Attendant in the first place.

I love telling stories.

My experience with improv throughout my school years has shown me how incredible it can be when you take what your partner says and build off of it even more. For example: A kid asks Pluto if he’s learned any new tricks lately. Pluto nods excitedly and begins chasing his tail. If his attendant were to begin to tell the child about some of the other tricks he and Mickey have been working on, or how long it took to learn that particular trick—perhaps Pluto kept getting to dizzy and falling over—and maybe he got so dizzy one day that he fell over on Minnie and got fur all over her dress!—suddenly there is a connection, a mutual trust and appreciation between the performer and the attendant. Likewise, improv has also shown me that things are much more believable when there are stories to go along with them. A child might be skeptical that he or she is meeting the real Queen Elsa, but the moment she talks about what Marshmallow was doing yesterday and where Olaf is today and how many chocolates Sven ate last night, suddenly it becomes a lot harder to doubt that she is the bonafide queen of Arendelle.

Throughout my time at Walt Disney World, I certainly spent a lot of time with characters. During most of my free time, I could be found in Hollywood Studios, more specifically in line to meet Hiro and Baymax. I’m sure many of you are rolling your eyes at this—I’m obsessed, and I’m aware. :) Besides Mickey Mouse, Hiro Hamada is my all-time favorite Disney character. I visited with Hiro 16 times throughout my College Program (I was bummed that I didn’t visit more, quite honestly). He is a honking genius and is honking hilarious and is honking inspiring. Maybe I feel protective of him because I’m actually Honey Lemon? Plot twist. Maybe I’m just trying to get to know Hiro so that I can imagine that I was dating his brother, Tadashi? Double plot twist. But in all seriousness, there will be more on my admiration of Hiro in a later post (“Oh, joy…” some of you may be thinking).

I actually made a ton of friends during my time spent waiting in line to meet my faves, most of which I am still in contact with today! I have so many wonderful memories because of these two characters, and will be forever inspired by their influence in my life. All because nearly once a week, sometimes more, I would suspend my disbelief and wait in line for two hours to have a conversation. :)

But besides Hiro and Baymax and Mickey, my DCP also gave me a deeper admiration and connection with other characters—most notably Princess Aurora, Aladdin and Jasmine, Goofy, and the Incredibles.

I will never forget the conversation I had with Princess Aurora in which, after discussing her animal friends, I asked her which animal she would be if she were an animal. If you know me well, you will know that I would be either a butterfly or a bunny (does a butterfly count in this case? Haha). To my surprise, the princess said that she would be a bunny! I had just found another connection with this beautiful princess. After discussing the similarity, laughing, and wrapping up the conversation, we posed for pictures. Meeting with Princess Aurora never gets old. It is incredibly unfortunate that I only got to work with her twice, but I am incredibly grateful for the admiration that blossomed because of those two shifts.

I only had the opportunity of working with Aladdin and Jasmine once. I was terrified at first, because I had heard how busy the location was and was extremely worried about closing the line for each set. Aladdin and Jasmine could tell that I was nervous and went out of their way to make the experience wonderful for me. They gave me tips and tricks for the location, constantly included me in their stories, and genuinely expressed gratitude whenever they could. Watching Aladdin and Jasmine made me realize how much I had missed them since my previous Disney vacations. And talk about RELATIONSHIP GOALS. After working with Aladdin and Jasmine, I can proudly say that those two rival Rapunzel and Eugene as favorite Disney couple!! At the end of the day, I had a wonderful conversation with Princess Jasmine and got to know her even more. :)

My love for Princess Jasmine had kind of mellowed since I went to high school. In 8^th grade, my stake (a large group of individual LDS church communities in an area) put on a production of Aladdin Jr. in which I was cast as Princess Jasmine in one of two casts. :) What a wonderful experience that was. Unfortunately, I had almost completely forgotten about that experience until I worked with Aladdin and Jasmine. Suddenly my connection with the princess was revived, and now I love her more than ever before.

Goofy and Donald were the first characters I worked with upon entering my Character Attendant training. I was an overwhelmed, anxious blueberry. While Donald tried to loosen me up by flirting (oh, that duck), Goofy recommended that the best remedy for my tension was laughter! Those two helped me to become a much better attendant by allowing me to tell stories with them right from the beginning. Stories are my comfort zone and helped me to feel that I might actually be able to do this attending thing. Goofy and Donald definitely kept me on my toes, that’s for sure. It was extremely stressful having to keep my eye on two characters, two Photopass Photographers, and a long line of Guests, especially when the characters were being so silly. But it was because of Goofy and Donald that I learned to juggle my responsibilities. Goofy isn’t exactly an ideal juggling teacher for most people, but he was the most wonderful teacher I could possibly be matched with.

Throughout my program, I got to spend more time with Goofy than almost any other character because we had many mutual friends. It was always a wonderful surprise when I would visit Goofy and he would be very excited to see me because one of his friends told him that I was coming! I have so many fun memories because of that Goof. :)

Although I also bonded with many other characters, I will end this post by talking about Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and their super “cool” pal, Frozone. Starting out as an Attendant, it was very difficult for me to make lasting friendships. Friends that I could hang out with on a day off. Friends that could make me laugh or cheer me up or would call my name if they saw me from a distance. I was always working at a different location and couldn’t spend a lot of time backstage to get to know anyone. About a month into actually working in the Magic Kingdom, I was scheduled to work with the Incredibles and Frozone at the Tomorrowland Incredibles Super Dance Party. This experience was a turning point in my program.

I had so much fun dancing and interacting with the supers that night that they introduced me to their friends, who exchanged Facebook information with me. At the end of the night, we ended up staying for an hour after clocking out—just talking! We were already making plans to hang out. I had finally made real friends outside of my Attendant/Performer training group.

I got to work with them at the Dance Party again during the Magic Kingdom's 24-hour event, and I ended up going to visit Mr. Incredible and Frozone in Hollywood Studios a few times as well! During my favorite interaction with them as a Guest at Hollywood Studios, I told them that we missed them at the supers meeting that morning. They asked me where my supersuit was, and I told them that I was late to the meeting because I couldn't find it, so everybody there thought that I was just an average citizen. They asked me what my super power is, and I told them that I have a voice that can hypnotize people and break things. Frozone responded by miming that he has ice powers. I asked, "What do you do, Mr. Incredible? Clean toilets?" Frozone thought this was very funny, but Mr. Incredible gave a sassy response and began to show off his strength. We decided to get a picture together, posing with our appropriate super power. Frozone prepared to use his ice powers, Mr. Incredible flexed, and I stood up straight, opened my mouth, and reached out my hand as if I were about to sing some kind of aria. Mr. Incredible began to make fun of my pose, so I responded, "Why are you making fun of my power? You're the one who cleans toilets." Once again, Frozone died of laughter. We posed once again. Frozone prepared to use his ice powers, I prepared to sing an aria, and Mr. Incredible hunched over with an invisible toilet want.

BEST. INTERACTION. EVER.

These are just a few of my journeys from simply being an Attendant to having adventures with some of my favorite Disney characters, on and off the clock. I can’t wait to be reunited with my all of my friends in April 2016, when I will be returning to Walt Disney World to have even more adventures as a Character Attendant!

Walt Disney World,

See ya real soon!

Dreams of Happily Ever After

"The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements, but rather with the things we do for the people we love and esteem, and whose respect we need." -Walt Disney

Our lives are made up of dreams: dreams of peace, dreams of hope, passion, success, and longing for the future. We let the winds of these dreams guide us, often becoming so focused upon the ultimate destination that we forget to truly feel the calming breeze and take a look around us along the way.

Before my Disney College Program, I measured my own success based upon what others would think or say of what I had done. Now I’m not saying that these short-term goals were not important, however, I am saying that my validation of what I had done came from the wrong sources. I shouldn’t work toward a dream worrying about what others will think or say of what I would accomplish. I should work toward a dream knowing that I put my whole heart into creating something that I think is beautiful. Shouldn’t this knowledge be enough to make me perfectly content?

For nearly the first half of my DCP, I pushed myself above and beyond, making myself sick from working so hard. Why was I trying so hard? I wanted people to like me. I wanted my fellow Cast Members to notice and praise the work that I was doing. I wanted to create a good reputation for myself and hopefully secure a future with the Walt Disney Company. Did you notice what these thoughts have in common?

ME.

My dream was to be the best Character Attendant at Walt Disney World, but I wasn’t doing it for the Guests; I was doing it for me. The Lord is full of surprises, and he always knows just what to do. After humbling me (more on this in a later post), he guided me to a reevaluated dream:

To create magic for Guests.

What I was doing before was not magic—it was selfish. Yes, I wanted the Guests to be happy and have a wonderful vacation, but that wasn’t going to create significance. It wasn’t going to last a lifetime. Mickey taught me so much about giving a personal interaction to each Guest, not simply repeating the same stories and activities. He showed me how to let the Guests guide the interaction. True, sometimes they are quiet or don’t speak English, so you might have to have some similarities in order to communicate, but Guests are always going to respond differently. We each have different desires and insecurities.

The moment I made this change in my attending—when I started focusing on the Guest’s wishes and not on whether or not they’d think I am a good Attendant—that was when I started receiving the praise that I’d been looking for all along. Funny how that works. But regardless of whether or not I’d receive praise for it, I felt much happier when I worked for the Guests’ needs and desires above my own. I felt completely satisfied in just knowing that I made someone smile rather than worrying about whether or not I made his or her day. Once I made this change, I felt truly happy to go to work each day. The repetition of duties didn’t bother me anymore.

So thus my dream became not a dream of my own "Happily Ever After," but of the Guests’.

Whistle While You Work

“Most of my life I have done what I wanted to do. I have had fun on the job.” –Walt Disney

I am so grateful to have a job that I am always happy to go to. Sure, I may get tired sometimes and long for a day off. Working every day is definitely exhausting (I have the highest amount of respect for those that work to support a family), but it makes the biggest difference having a job in which I actually want to be there when I go to work.

This post is dedicated to the things that keep me going to work every day. The little things that make me smile, boost my energy, give me confidence, or that show me again and again just how lucky I am. Sometimes I have so much fun that I am actually sad when my shift is over! I can’t guarantee that this article will have any sort of real structure, since it will probably just end up being a collection of random memories.

A darling little latino boy came to visit Anna and Elsa with his family in the Princess Fairytale Hall. He was carrying a pirate sword, and after he met Elsa, I wandered over to him and attempted to “sword fight” him with my invisible sword. The little boy, thinking that I was reaching my hand out to him, reached his own little hand up and held mine. I kneeled down, laughing, as I attempted to tell him of my sword fighting intentions. To my surprise, he leaned in and gave me the most tender kiss on the cheek! It meant the world to me! Maybe he was still so starstruck from having just met Elsa?

With Tinker Bell one day, an older child picked up one of Tink’s crayons, which was almost as big as she was (we had, after all, shrunk down to Pixie size). She boldly proclaimed:

“Hey, big crayon! What’s the big idea??”

THAT was funny.

One day, at Pete’s Silly Sideshow, I was standing as the hall monitor and showing people to the exit. I made eye contact with a little girl in line for Daisy and Minnie, so I started making funny faces. At first, she laughed and kind of turned away, but after awhile, perhaps because of the encouragement of her mother, she started making funny faces back at me. It was just a little moment of connection that brightened my day.

While working with Minnie at the EPCOT Character Spot, a little boy fell in love with Minnie Mouse. After his family had already walked away and the next family was visiting with Minnie, the little boy ran back to Minnie and gave her a hug. It was adorable, but what made it unforgettable is that the little boy then gave the dad that was currently meeting with Minnie a hug as well!! It was hilarious.

With the Easter Bunnies one day, a girl in a purple dress absolutely loved visiting them. She came back through the line three or four times, and on her final visit, she turned to Mrs. Easter Bunny and asked, pointing to Mr. Easter Bunny, “Is he your boyfriend?” When Mrs. Bunny nodded, the little girl started squealing, almost bursting with excitement. She could not stop giggling.

That same day, there was another little girl who said that Mr. Easter Bunny was grounded because he was supposed to marry her, not Mrs. Bunny!!

When I worked with Hiro and Baymax, there was a little girl that I had made funny faces to in the line, and she smiled and laughed at me. She came with her big sister and mom, but as soon as Hiro came over to her, she started screaming and crying. While Hiro and Baymax met with her older sister, I gave her a Snow White sticker to feel better. I had just gotten her to smile at me again when Hiro crouched down next to me. She started crying again. Trying anything I could to transfer her trust from me to Hiro, I said “This is my friend, Hiro. He’s really nice!” Although it didn’t help, it felt so good to be able to say

“My friend, Hiro.”

My favorite character, my friend?? Best feeling EVER.

With Mickey in Town Square Theater, I get to witness a lot of unforgettable moments. I have seen many children run up to Mickey, hug him, and simply not let go. I have seen many overly excited children who will not stop talking to Mickey, asking him every question in the book. I have seen kids with the cutest “cheese” smiles, and a little girl with the most adorable, prolonged “cheese” voice I have ever heard. I have seen a woman that barely speaks English in tears to get a photo with her hero, while holding a figurine of him.

Recently, there was a family that came to visit Mickey, but one of the little girls, Bailey, was too scared to go up to him. I offered to pass her hug to Mickey, and with that, Bailey wrapped her arms around me. It is such a comfort to me seeing that even though children may sometimes be afraid of characters, a lot of the time I can at least win their trust for myself.

Speaking of hugs, just the other day, I was loading Mickey’s room and asked for ten Guests. An Asian family passed through, and their little girl ran up to me, hugged me, and went on her merry way. I was in awe at this random, thoughtful gesture! Have I mentioned that I love children?

I LOVE CHILDREN.

I am looking forward to making even more memories in my time here. I’m trying to be better about writing down the ones that I want to remember. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be here. I feel like I’ve been here for only a few weeks, but it’s been a few months now!! It’s going by so quickly!! To my friends that have left or are leaving already, thank you for making this experience what it has been thus far. You will be greatly missed. I’m so glad that I will be here until August, because otherwise I would not be ready to leave AT ALL.

Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

The Mickey Mouse Club

“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing… That it was all started by a mouse.” –Walt Disney

Whatever was to happen during my program, I did NOT want to work with Mickey Mouse. Although it would have been a cool experience to work with the boss, I never wanted to have that kind of relationship with the Mouse. I always wanted to visit him as a Guest, and I always wanted it to be the most magical experience imaginable. Mickey means WAY too much to me to allow it not to be an unforgettable experience each time I saw him, which is what I was afraid would happen if I worked with him frequently.

I am pleased to announce that once again, the Lord has shown that he knows what’s best for me. When I was scheduled to train to work with Mickey, I admit that I was a little upset. I was honored to have the opportunity that so many wish for, but I was rather disappointed because Mickey’s rehearsal room was the one place that I wished I wouldn’t ever work at. I never would have expected the change of heart that took place in the days that followed.

On my first day of training, we went around the room and each said the thing that we love the most about Mickey Mouse. What do I love most about this incredible character? Gosh, where do I even begin? Besides being timeless, optimistic, and relatable, I love it when he makes mistakes. I love this because not only does he laugh them off, but also because he always finds a way to solve any problem that he encounters or creates. He is passionate, loyal, and determined to cheer up his pals, no matter their circumstances. Even when Donald is being, well, Donald. Mickey is real. Mickey is humble and dependable. He is energetic, thoughtful, funny, and most importantly: imperfect. This is what has made him one of the most recognizable characters of all time.

But you see, Mickey means a lot more to me than just all that he is. Mickey is Walt, and Walt is Mickey. Mickey means legacy and hope, and dreams that come true. Watching Mickey come to life through the magic of Disney parks is like interacting with Walt himself. Mickey means family, memories, and laughter. Interacting with Mickey feels like being with family. He is always welcoming, always forgiving, and always loving. Most importantly,

Mickey means home.

As I went through my training, I kept having flashbacks of watching Mickey Mouse cartoons with my family, growing up. Never have I felt such an emotional connection with and attachment to Walt Disney World until I stood in the room with the Mouse, reflecting on his prominent legacy and influence in my life and watching him bring unbelievably magical moments to his many visitors.

I am beyond fortunate to have witnessed the things that I have witnessed in the last two weeks. I have had an absolute change of heart. Training to work with Mickey was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had—DEFINITELY the highlight of my DCP thus far.

I never wanted my training to end, but on our last day we went around the room once again, this time sharing our favorite moment that we had witnessed while spending time with Mickey over the course of our training. Most of us were sobbing by the end, sharing such incredibly beautiful moments that we had assisted in bringing to Guests, in awe of every unbelievable moment that we had witnessed. I was bawling as I shared simple moments of seeing children amazed at meeting their favorite celebrity from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, simply giving him the biggest hug ever or laughing and smiling. Or even adults who were excited just to make small talk with Mickey! My favorite moment though was probably a girl around my age who started crying when Mickey Mouse sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It’s incredible how much love people have for Walt’s Mouse.

A PhotoPass photographer shared this touching story with the group, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room: A three-year-old that had recently lost her sight came to visit Mickey Mouse in his rehearsal room in Town Square Theater. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and is very familiar with the star of the show. When she heard the voice that she loves so much, the widest of grins spread across her face. She stretched out her hands, gently feeling Mickey’s ears and nose, unable to see the face of he who means so much to her, but amazed by the interaction that she was able to have with him. This story is why the Walt Disney Company exists and has been so successful to this day. Multiple experiences that are equally as beautiful as this one occur every single day here at Walt Disney World.

I am so humbled to have the opportunity to work with Mickey. I was in only the 25^th group ever to be trained to work with Mickey in his magic rehearsal room, which means that there are under 1,000 people in existence that do what I do. What an incredible opportunity. I am so grateful that the Lord allowed me to have the experience of working for this beautiful company. I now understand that working with Mickey is actually the best thing that ever could have happened to me during my College Program, not only because of all that I have learned and witnessed, but also for the reputation building and networking opportunities it has given me. How many times does it take for me to learn to accept God’s will from the start and understand that He knows what he’s doing??

Once again, I am amazed at how quickly I bonded with those in my training group. Now that training is over, my heart feels heavy. It makes me think of when I said goodbye to my Productions family in high school, or each of the casts I have worked with in various shows. How can I feel that close to people after only two weeks (technically five days) of working with them?

I have recently decided that once I return to the Walt Disney Company (which I sincerely plan on doing after I graduate), I would absolutely LOVE to be on a training team. After all, teaching in the entertainment industry is what I want to do. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be training the next generation of Character Attendants!