The Ride Delegate: Memoir of a Walt Disney World VIP Tour Guide (15 page)

I think this was a case of the triumph of the human spirit.

It started out like any normal tour. 9am pick up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I just wish that guests would have told me at hour one that they were going to yell at me at hour eleven in Magic Kingdom.

I was running late, as usual, but I also anticipated my guests to run late, as usual, too. I pulled up to the valet at 8:25am. They were nowhere in sight.

One of the valet boys pointed for me to park my van on the far side of the valet, and I ignored his wishes and stopped right in the center of it. “How about I just give you the keys and you do whatever you want with this van?” I asked, and he laughed as he jumped behind the wheel to move my giant mini-bus.

I always found the DAKL valet area to be tiny and cramped. I always felt that for the size of the resort, and the amount of people constantly coming and going, their main entrance into the hotel could have been bigger. This always made it seem like there were a lot more people hanging around then there really were.

From across the valet I saw a tall lanky boy dart between cars and began signaling for them to move forward. I squinted my eyes in the Florida sun and saw a mop of brown hair and thin wire frame glasses.

I hadn’t seen him for at least nine months. I honestly just assumed he had left the company and had gone on to do something else with his life. But here he was, standing before me, parking cars at the DAKL. I didn’t know what to do. Should I wave to him? Should I go over and say hi? Do I just stand here and pretend to be talking to a guest?

I looked back in Trevor’s direction, but he had already disappeared behind a car again. I had lost the moment.

Then, like magic, the cars parted, the Voices of Liberty sang, ticker tape fell from the valet ceiling, and Trevor made his way over to where I was standing. He didn’t come all the way to me, because he was in the process of trying to move another car, but he came forward so much that we made eye contact for a split second. He waved. He remembered me!

It took another three or four cars before Trevor had a moment to come over and actually say hi. He sauntered over, his black tie waving in the wind against his purple shirt. “Hey, how are you?” he asked, taking a spot next to me.

“I’m good, how are you? I didn’t realize you were over here now.”

“I was transferred,” he said, running a hand through his slicked back brown hair. “This place isn’t as crazy as the Grand Flo.” He laughed, and I laughed too because we were both thinking back to all those times we were stuck at the Grand Floridian.

This was Trevor’s and my big moment to be reunited, like Nemo and Marlin, and my guests promptly interrupted it.

The mom came over to me and stuck my hand out. I shook it.

“Oh, I’ll go grab your car,” Trevor told me, as he rushed away through the valet to grab my van.

The mom introduced me to her family. It was her and her two adult sisters, one maybe in her mid-30s, and the other who was surprisingly my age. Then it was Mom’s three kids, ranging in ages from 8 to 13.

“We’ve been looking forward to this all week!” she said to me as Trevor pulled up in my big white van and parked it. He jumped out of the front seat and ran around to the side to open the giant double doors to let everyone in. He followed me around to the driver’s side.

“Do you know when you’ll be done?” he asked, opening my door and sticking his hand out. I grabbed it as he gently assisted me into the driver’s seat.

“With my luck, probably never.” I whispered back. He shut my door and waved goodbye. I did the same.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Mom asked from the back seat.

“No, he’s just a friend.” I told her.

“He’s cute. I like that nerdy look,” she said to her sisters, who both nodded in agreement.

For some reason, this family gave off a warm and friendly vibe. The mom seemed pretty cool, her adult sisters seemed cool, and the kids didn’t strike me as being a handful. My tour guide sense tingled, and I felt like, yeah, this should be a pretty good day! Lets make friends with this new family.

“I’ve known him for a while,” I sighed, turning on my signal to pull out of the DAKL parking lot. “I haven’t seen him in months, though. I feel like I’m blushing. Am I blushing?”

“No, but now you’re flustered!” one of the sisters laughed, and everyone laughed, and I laughed, and I thought, what could possibly go wrong in about eleven hours?

We went to Animal Kingdom first.

“We didn’t park here last time,” Mom informed me as I pulled in behind Rainforest Café.

“Oh, you’ve had a tour before?” I said, surprised. No one had told me that this was a return tour for another guide.

“The last guide drove us right to Safari.”

Again.
Our last guide
… “Our procedures have changed. We can no longer drive back behind Safari since it’s such a congested area, with all the parade floats and the Safari vehicles.”

Mom nodded like she understood. The family and I trekked through the park and back to the Safari, and then we went to Everest, and then Mom asked me if I could drive Older Aunt back to the hotel because she wasn’t feeling good. She had been dehydrated earlier in the week, and Mom didn’t want that to happen again.

Of course we could take her back to the hotel. Know who would still be at the hotel? Trevor.

I pulled up, and Trevor was waiting outside as if he knew I was coming back for him. He rushed at my van and grabbed my driver’s side door. “I knew you’d come back to me.” He said, smiling wide.

“I’m just dropping off!” I yelled at him, signaling for him to grab the passenger door instead. He realized I didn’t have time to flirt right now, and hurried to the passenger side to grab the door.

“Everything alright?” he asked.

“I’m just coming back to rest for a bit,” Aunt told him, as he held out his hand to help her out of the giant van. “Annie will pick me back up later!”

“I’ll be waiting.” Trevor waved goodbye to me, and I waved back, and my van full of guests gave a collective “awwwwww” as I pulled away from him. Trevor kind of looked like Milo from
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
.

“You should ask him out!” Mom told me.

“Oh no, I couldn’t do that. I’m not that bold.” I mumbled, as I once again drove away from the hotel.

“He’s totally into you!” Middle Aunt gushed. If the guests could see it, there must be something there that wasn’t there before.

I drove the family to EPCOT and we unloaded behind Soarin’. “Where are we having dinner?” Mom asked as we made our way into the building.

“I was told dinner would be at Prime Time.”

Mom seemed to agree with this statement. “What time?”

“5pm.”

“That’ll work,” she said, and we got into the queue.

When we were waiting in line for Test Track, Mom turned to me and asked, “Where are we watching the parade?”

“What parade?”

“The 3 o’clock parade.”

This was one of those instances where a guest said something to me, and I was like, seriously, what are you talking about. We are standing in EPCOT and we’ve just discussed how we were going to Studios for dinner. How do you think we’re going to fit the 3 o’clock parade in there, too? I looked down at my watch. It was just about 12:30pm. I hadn’t asked for parade viewing from the Office, because I didn’t think we needed parade viewing from the Office. That was one of my biggest tour pet peeves. Guests would just say things to me as if I had already anticipated their every need. No, I had no idea you wanted parade viewing, so I didn’t book it.

“I didn’t know you guys wanted to see the parade!” I laughed, because it was better than crying in the Test Track queue.

“Of course we want to see the parade!” Mom exclaimed, and the kids joined in cheering, too. I ushered the guests on Test Track and I hurried out the exit to send an e-mail to the Office.

The Office responded quickly with a YES. Phew. So that was at least dealt with in a timely manner.

The guests exited off Test Track and I told them the good news, that I had secured parade viewing for them! Yay! Everyone cheered as we headed out of the building. Mom wanted to stop somewhere for lunch, quickly, and I managed to talk her into heading to the Electric Umbrella, since it was the closest, and only, quick service around. I was not about to trudge into World Showcase knowing that I needed to make a parade at 3pm.

We finished lunch at Electric Umbrella and I hurried everyone back towards the van. We loaded in, and I started driving on my course to Magic Kingdom when…

“Can we swing by Animal Kingdom Lodge?”

I looked in the rear view mirror at Mom. She had her phone out and was clearly texting the sister back at the hotel. I looked at my clock. It was just after 2pm. I needed to be at Magic Kingdom by 2:30 at the latest or I’d lose my parade spot.

“Okay.” I said, because I wasn’t about to tell Mom that we were under a time crunch.

So back to DAKL I drove, and I pulled up to the valet and Trevor was standing there, waving me forward to park. “I didn’t realize you missed me that much,” he smirked, as he grabbed my driver’s door.

“Someone in this van loves you!” Little Billy yelled from the back seat and Trevor cocked an eyebrow at me as the family jumped out of the car without any assist from either of us.

“We’re just picking someone up,” I said, wondering if my cheeks were rosy red.

The family hurried out of the car and into the hotel as I weakly yelled after them, “But we have a parade!” None of them heard me. They disappeared inside. I looked at my watch. 2:15pm.

“Rough day?” Trevor asked, leaning against the side of my van. He looked at his watch. “It’s been about five hours.”

“I hope there’s only an hour left. Parade and
done
,” I told him. I could potentially just leave them at the six-hour mark. I could tell them that they had only booked a tour for six hours, and my time was done so have fun without me for the rest of the day!

I sat in my car and nervously watched time tick away. The family had requested parade, I had booked the parade, and now we were dangerously close to missing the parade. Trevor went back to park cars and I prayed the family would come down any second. I thought about giving Trevor my number, but I didn’t know if I could do that without drawing attention from every single other Cast Member standing at the DAKL valet. It was too risky. Maybe I could just get Little Billy to awkwardly slip it to him like a school Valentine.

But this couldn’t be on the forefront of my mind. I needed to get these guests out of the hotel and to Magic Kingdom as quickly as possible. If everything went according to my plan, we’d be there for 2:45, barely. From there we would need to run from the Plaza gate all the way over to the Liberty Square bridge, or we’d be cut off and stuck watching the parade like all the other guests.

The family came downstairs at 2:30.

I yelled for them to get into my van, and they slowly climbed in, now wearing new outfits and carrying new bags with Middle Aunt in tow, telling me she was feeling much better.

“See you in a bit?” Trevor called to me, as I shut the doors behind the family.

“Hope so!” I ran around to my driver’s side door, but he beat me to it.

“I’ll be waiting,” He held out a hand to help me in, and I grabbed it. It was quite the gentleman move. The family saw.

“Annie, you have to give him your number,” the family scolded me as I drove as quickly as possible to Magic Kingdom. “You guys would be so cute together!”

“Lets get to parade first, and then we can talk about Trevor!” I laughed through gritted teeth as I barreled down World Drive in a small, tank-like 15 passenger van. We made it into Magic Kingdom at 2:50pm and I made them run from the Plaza Gate to the Liberty Square bridge. Surprisingly, there were still spots on the benches for them.

I leaned against the rail behind them, exhausted and stressed. This was not my idea of a fun organized tour. The parade passed us with all its magical whimsy, and the kids waved to characters, and Mom took pictures, and everyone had a nice time. I thought about the closest location to get a diet Coke.

I moved back to the family and stood behind the bench they were sitting on. “Did everyone like that?” I asked the kids, who smiled and giggled because who doesn’t love a parade?

“Are we watching the parade from here tonight?” Mom asked.

I stared at her. What parade tonight? I decided to play dumb. “I didn’t know we were watching the parade tonight!”

“That’s why we hired you,” Mom replied, coolly. “We want to watch the parade from the best seats.”

Everyone else on the bridge begins to clear out and after a few minutes it’s just me and my guests still lingering around. Mom discusses plans for the rest of the day, which don’t include ending after six hours. She’s still intent on having dinner over at Studios, so we can go and do all the rides there, and then coming back to Magic Kingdom in the evening to see the parade.

We begin to make our way through the throngs of guests trying to move post-parade. Mom’s now in the lead, taking us behind the Castle and into Fantasyland. I’ve got my Blackberry out, furiously typing an email to the Office.

Hey. It’s Annie. Guess the Red family wants to see parade tonight, already assumes I’ve got seating. Please tell me there’s still space in the first parade.

The Office responded:

Do your guests have tickets for tonight?

Of course my guests have tickets for tonight. We’re standing in the park right now. I swiped their tickets into Animal Kingdom already. They have valid admission.

It takes me the walk from the Castle to Dumbo to register why the guests might need separate admission for tonight. It’s a Tuesday. In December. That means that tonight there’s a Christmas party, so the park closes at 7pm, and there’ll be a Christmas parade at 8:15 and 10:30.

The kids ride Dumbo and I stand next to Mom, trying to figure out how to ask her about tonight. She clearly doesn’t have tickets. I bet she doesn’t even realize she needs separate admission tickets for tonight. I can’t reserve parade viewing for them until I know if they have tickets. The Office won’t let me hold spots for guests if there’s a chance they might not go. After much thought, I take a deep breath. “Do you know if your tickets include admission for the Christmas party tonight?”