After a quiet and frankly boring Friday of sitting in my room and eating the little food left in my cupboards I instant messaged my friend Adam and asked if he wanted to go visit our good friend The Little Mermaid in her grotto at the Magic Kingdom. Being in the entertainment department, like Adam and me, has it’s perks; you can wear what you want to work and you become friends with the princesses. He agreed and I told him that I would meet him at his apartment in 15 minutes. I really didn’t need that much time because, to be honest, I had been ready to get up and do something for about three hours. I know I am a pathetic loser. The funny thing is I was five minutes late to his apartment. Isn’t it funny how we have all the time in the world but when it comes down to it you end up being late anyway?After I arrived (late) to his apartment we departed to the front of Chatham Square to the bus stop to catch the A Bus. It was scheduled to arrive 8:17 p.m. and we breathed a sigh of relief when the clock hanging above the benches read 8:14 p.m. Having some time to relax we sat down. We were the only two people at the stop aside from two girls that sat in silence on a set of benches that faced each other.
From the moment I saw them I made, what I like to call, ‘Disney Judgments’ on them. One of the girls had blue slacks that were far too short for her gangly legs, scuffed-up black shoes and a blue windbreaker that said “All-Star Resort” on the breast pocket. She obviously wasn’t in entertainment. She must be front desk - A Resort Girl. The other girl, who happened to be sitting next to me, was wearing sneakers, sweats, a t-shirt and had a large backpack on her back. No uniform? a backpack? This usually means she is an entertainer. I was intrigued because I had never seen her around the entertainment buildings so I began to talk to her.
“Are you new around here?” I said. Thinking back on my tone I must have sounded like Regina George from Mean Girls.
“Yeah I just got here last week. I have been working none-stop” she said. This made me unsure of her role here. So I asked the universal entertainment question:
“How tall are you?”
“5’ 6”” she said, sounding somewhat confused.
“Oh” I thought, slightly disappointed in my judgement; She wasn’t in entertainment. 5’6” is considered a dead height here. There is no way.
“So are you in merchandise then?” I said. I sounded like such a bastard I am sure. She went on to explain that she worked in the Emporium on Main Street. After her explanation I turned to Adam and, as most entertainment cast members here at Walt Disney World do, began to loudly complain about our jobs even though we know full well that our role here is so much easier/better than the other jobs offered at the resorts.
It is human nature to complain I have discovered. Everyone complains and a lot of the time, they are complaining about something that they actually like. It reminds me of being back in high school in rehearsals for 7 Brides for 7 Brothers or something. Our director would announce that we would be staying into the late hours of the night rehearsing and perfecting her masterpiece. We would all begin to secretly, and sometimes not so secretly, bitch and moan that we had other things to do, or that we had load of homework or anything else we could think of. We would sit and bounce complaints off of each other until our mouths were dry. The funny thing about this, however, is that none of us were really angry. We all loved being there and secretly rejoiced when rehearsal hours were extended.
This is exactly how the entertainment cast members are here. We love our jobs. We are attention whores and this is our brothel. We are like the self proclaimed popular kids in my high school growing up. We have our own buildings, we wear whatever we want to work, and are break rooms have padded chairs. We are Disney’s football team and cheer squad. It kinda makes me sick when I think about it. Come to think of it, every profession here has a high school clique it can be equated to.
The operations cast members are like the drama kids. They have their own cliques and act like they are entertainers, even calling themselves “merchantainers” but when it comes down to it they can only “merchantain” the people that come into their shops, and trust me, most of the time the guests are not in the mood.
The custodial cast members are like the art freaks. They keep to themselves, mutter weird things when you sit by them on the bus and are always around but no one really knows where their break-rooms are.
We even have all the foreign kids. Except for they are really foreign. Not just Mexico and California far but Germany and France far.
It is kinda sad because we all complained about the drama of our high school years then what do we do? Turn around and step into something even worse. Because at Disney High, we are here for more than six hours a day and if you don’t turn in your assignment, you don’t just get an F, they deport you.
