Ema Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary (Earning Your Ears Book 2) by Ema Hutton Read Free Book Online

couldn’t have a particular chair because it was being saved for someone else—twice!—I finally found somewhere to sit.
    Once the manager came and it looked like everyone was here, I noticed that one of the chairs where I had asked to sit in was empty. I felt sick at the thought of someone lying to me just because they didn’t want to sit next to the new British girl. I was looking around in hopes that someone knew who I was, and that they would show me where to go. Only by chance did I see a green folder on a lady’s lap with my name on it. I made a beeline for her. Even though her name tag said “Jenny”, I could tell English wasn’t her first language because she looked confused when I said “excuse me.” I pointed at the name on the folder and said “that’s me.” She laughed and said “I understand.” I think she found it funny, because she could tell that I knew English wasn’t her first language, but saying “that’s me” was maybe a bit too basic, and probably sounded very funny to someone that did understand.
    Jenny was from Puerto Rico, like a lot of the housekeepers at Port Orleans. Although she did, in fact, speak very good English, there were moments when I could tell she didn’t understand me, but with my accent and the speed at which I speak, I don’t blame her. I spent the first two days with Jenny. She would show me what to do and how to perform each job.
    The first thing we had to do was get a pargo. Pargos are like little golf carts that are used to get the housekeepers from Cast Services to their work locations at the resort. Before we could do that, however, I had to go get a ‘‘Royal’ apron. It was blue and yellow and I didn’t like it as much as my white one which made me look like Cinderella. So it was back to Costuming to find an apron in my size, scan my ID so it went on my costuming log, and then off to find a pargo going to our assigned section of the resort. Once we got on the pargo and traveled to Riverside, we went straight to a linen room. These were behind doors that looked like every other door, but had a plate on them that read “Cast Members Only”.
    It was quite exciting to have access to cast member-only room, even if it was just full of towels. As lovely as Jenny was, her co-workers weren’t so welcoming and kept talking to her and to each other in Spanish, looking at me and talking to each other again. I felt so awkward not being able to join in with the conversation. What made it worse is I knew they could speak English, because they spoke to the manager in English.
    It wasn’t all negative that day. I found my first hidden Mickey in the design printed on a table in one of the guest rooms. Jenny was really excited to point the hidden Mickeys out to me. I also got my first tip of $2. Technically, it was Jenny’s, but she halved everything with me, which I thought was the nicest thing, because these women really do work hard and the extra money in tips means a lot, so for her to share it all with me was a kind gesture and very much appreciated.
    I had the most fun learning how to make towel animals. Before I left for Disney, I’d seen a video of an elephant being made out of a towel. I really wanted to learn how to make it, and Jenny taught me on my first day.
    On the second day, Jenny started giving me my own section of the room to clean and would then come over and assess how well I did and tell me where I needed to improve, because on my third day I’d have my own cart and my own board with my own rooms.
    I knew nothing of carts or boards at this stage, but I quickly had to learn. The carts were the simplest things to work out; they had all the equipment and supplies we needed to clean. The boards were pretty easy to follow. They consisted of a piece of paper with a table on it, each row for a different room, and they were color-coded based on room status. White meant an occupied room with a guest who was going to be in that room again that night.