When people think of Disney World, they think of Magic Kingdom.  When they think of Magic Kingdom, they think of Fantasyland.  Every thing else is just a bonus.  Fantasyland has always been my favorite land in the tragic kingdom.  If there was ever a place that magic actually existed, it would be there.  In the twinkle of the lights on the carousel, in the beautiful details on the back of the castle, to the characters roaming around, this is the most realistic representation of magic we have.

So when I got to work inside of it, it felt like I was really apart of a fairytale. I felt the weight of bringing this magic to life.  Now, if you are at all familiar with Disney, you’d say: “But don’t you work in Fantasyland everyday?”  And the answer is, technically, yes.  Storybook Circus is a part of the New Fantasyland expansion, but a circus is not a storybook town, no matter how hard they tried.  Stripes don’t twirl like the purple dress does.

I picked up a couple of shifts in Fantasyland and putting on the purple dress was a dream come true (just ask any merch cast member – we all wish that was our costume).  I worked in Castle Couture, Sir Mickey’s, and Fantasy Faire.  Little Princesses who had just had a makeover by their Fairy Godmothers wandered in feeling as royal as ever, and I had the honor of curtsying and twirling with all of them.  I was thriving.

When you compliment their dresses, they compliment yours.  Then you get the honor of telling them that Rapunzel actually made them for us when she was trapped in her tower. She had a lot of time on her hands. Then their little eyes light up because in Fantasyland, that is a realistic story.

And the best part of Fantasyland is that people are more willing to believe you.  When we finally enter the land, I think we are truly swept up in its’ magic because we want the fairytale to be real, so we accept it more than anywhere else in the kingdom.  So when you ask me about pixie dust, and I tell you that Tink drops if for us off every morning, you believe it’s true. When a little princess wants to wave the magic pixie wand herself, you tell them the magic is just too powerful for them, and that Tink only trained me.  And then they don’t question you. Tink’s word is the final say.

There is so much more creative liberty here because my role in this story is a townsperson of this royal town.  I live in Fantasyland and interact with these characters everyday so therefore I have the authority and experience to tell you stories about flying off to Neverland with Peter, or hanging out with Cinderella in her castle. That what’s we all dream about: this is the town right outside of Cinderella’s castle and we all secretly want to move there.  We support her and she & Charming rule over us.  So when I tell you about my adventures, you believe them because secretly we all want these stories to be real. We buy into Disney’s reality more here.

Now, being a cast member, I know that if you worked here everyday, that this magic would wear off.  I know that a mom who takes her daughter to the Bibbidi Boppidi Boutique has a much higher chance of attacking you when you don’t have the right size slipper her little glittery mess of a princess.  I know that because we associate all of Disney with this area, guests have much higher expectations here than almost anywhere else.

But the beautiful thing is that we have so much more room to make magic here.  We can play with so many more stories.  We can make stories come alive here.  When I was closing Castle Couture before the fireworks, a little princess came in for her after-makeover photoshoot (which happens inside the studio in our store).  She was so sassy, absolutely working the camera.  When photopass had gone through all of his shots, he knew she wasn’t done, so he asked her what poses she wanted to do.  She wanted to twirl.  So he said, “Yes, let’s do it!” Girlie starts twirling, then falls over on the potted plant on the side of the set.  Now if that’s not the most tragic & magic thing in the world I don’t know what is.  But she pops back up and keeps twirling though.  Then she comes over and starts twirling with me.  She was going to dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table, so I pumped that up for her before she left.  It was one of my favorite interactions ever.  Then a fantasyland cast member came over to me, a guest in her area, and basically yelled at me to get back to work.  Magic gone.

I tell this long story for several reasons:

1. That little princess was my favorite
2. To demonstrate how easy it is to forget the magic we make.  I was actually living in the magic with this little girl and keeping it alive, which should always be our number one priority.
3. A cast member lost sight of the privilege of her area’s magic.  This is the easiest thing in the world.  We get so comfortable and frustrated that we forget magic is ours to create.  But if we put guests first, and value their experience over the state of our stores, then that Disney magic will never leave.

And this is true of whatever place you find yourself.  The “magic” will wear off, it will fade, as we grow more comfortable with a place, job, person.  But this is only if we let it.  We have to keep that magic alive just by simply remembering it was there in the first place, and we are the ones responsible for continuing to make it.  It’s a small world after all, so make sure it stays full of magic.

“Here is the world of imagination, hopes, and dreams. In this timeless land of enchantment, the age of chivalry, magic and make-believe are reborn – and fairy tales come true. Fantasyland is dedicated to the young-in-heart, to those who that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.”

Walt Disney