"And so our journey comes to an end..." CEP #18

In explanation of my absence for the past few weeks, I have a fairly valid excuse – I worked 9 days straight through to the end of my program, finishing with an 11 hour shift before seeing Fantasmic that evening, spending the entire following day in Magic Kingdom and moving out of housing the next morning. I have since undertaken 2 weeks of travelling in the States before finally arriving home – the journey has come to an end.

Whilst there are still many more posts to come on my program, I wanted to take the time now to reflect on what has without a doubt been the best few months of my life. My expectations for this program were sky-high and yet somehow they were not only met but exceeded.

Before coming out to Orlando, whenever I told anyone what I was doing they were either delightfully stunned, wanting to hear everything about it, or they’d purse their lips, cock their head to the side and tell me how sorry they were that the magic would be ruined for me as I worked where I’d only before vacationed.

However, the reality was far from it. If anything, the magic has been enhanced, and every time I passed through security to enter the parks on days or mornings off and had security ask where I worked (knowing by my company issued water bottle that I was a cast member), I instantly felt a connection with everyone around me bearing a name tag who had come to work that day united by our common goal: to create happiness.

Effortlessly passing from onstage to backstage via specified routes brought the worlds of reality and fantasy a little closer, it must be said, but every time I went to the parks as a guest I only appreciated the privilege more with a greater understanding of just how much effort goes into making everyone’s day magical – it’s not an easy operation!

You come to view everyone you pass as bearing a value, no matter how tiny their part to play in the grand stage we all stand upon as cast members, generating a vision of whimsical wonder and childlike innocence where you need only wish upon a star to have all your dreams come true.

Aspects of my program were hard – working 50+ hours in a single week can never be romanticized no matter how hard you try, and the combined wait for and journey on the bus totaling an hour for a trip home that should take 15 minutes was arguably the worst part of the whole experience.

Standing by a hub cart in the pouring rain because there was no lightning in the area so you must stay open, or contrastingly baking in the sun surreptitiously cupping ice cubes from the drinks container in your hands to try and cool down, are never going to be glamorous tasks.

However somehow, whenever I’d have these moments where I was tired, drained, exhausted even, there would come a reminder of why I was there. A Make A Wish kid would come in to build his very own lightsaber, an excitable couple would find the pin they’d been looking for on my lanyard, or a little toddler would simply skip past in their new Moana costume, reminding me that I got to come to work and have fun, interacting with people at the happiest they’ll ever be.

The college program is not necessarily as it is advertised to be (a paid holiday) but you’d been naïve to assume that was actually true. The experience is truly what you make it and, as I told myself one night going to sleep at midnight after work, knowing my alarm was set for seven the following morning to make our breakfast reservation at Epcot, there are many, many worse ways to spend a summer working, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.