Disney World ambassadors near job’s end
Caitlin Busscher and Nathaniel Palma stride with purpose across Magic Kingdom. They smile and wave to coworkers, calling many by name. There are hugs. They smile more and enthusiastically greet visitors, noting buttons indicating first-timers to the theme park. They laugh and move forward. There are more smiles.
There are no animated bluebirds circling their heads, but it might be apropos.
The duo’s sunny attitudes, obvious passion and people skills are factors that landed them in the high-profile positions of Walt Disney World ambassadors.
“We’re here to throw some pixie dust back at you,” Palma exclaimed to 70 cast members, uniformly dressed in bright red vests. They’re all sharing a packed room overlooking Main Street.
Greeted with loud applause and more smiles, Palma and Busscher are there to salute a team’s work — parade crowd control, basically — during the very busy day of Oct. 1, the 45th anniversary of Disney World.
Ambassadors are plucked from their current Disney positions for two years. Busscher worked as a leader within the costuming team at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Palma was part of the shows and parades team at Magic Kingdom.
They are nearing the end of their two-year term, which has featured grand openings, award ceremonies, community outreach, job shadowing and becoming the faces of the resort’s 75,000 workers.
Small rewards are distributed at the team meeting. Although the ambassadors aren’t always the prize patrol; they aren’t the bearers of bad news either.
“Sometimes they get really excited ... like, ‘Oh, why are you here?’ ” Busscher laughed.
The team meeting is the third stop of the day. Earlier, Palma and Busscher sat on the floor to read Disney stories to antsy 3- and 4-year-olds at the Orlando Day Nursery downtown. First, they talk about princesses.
“Who’s the prettiest of them all?” Palma, 27, asks the kids, stumped by clues that might guide them to Snow White.
“Elsa?” replies a child firmly in the “Frozen” generation.
The ambassadors switch gears and take turns reading from the “Frozen” story. Later, they dance with the youngsters before leaving to see Mickey Mouse, they say. Some events are handled by two ambassadors; others are done solo.
“We enjoy working together as a team very much,” said Busscher, 30. “I feel like we’ve gotten to know each other very well, and we can utilize each other’s strengths and build each other up.”
Back at Magic Kingdom, they switch into appropriate clothes for guiding guests who are waiting to see Snow White. It’s one of 70 jobs they’ve shadowed during their tenure, which concludes at the end of the 2016.
“We’ve driven every single kind of transportation at Walt Disney World,” Palma said, including the monorail. They’ve dressed up at Haunted Mansion, served food at the ’50s Prime Time Diner, worked at the Tri-Circle-D Ranch, told jokes aboard the Jungle Cruise ride and done stints within payroll, security and IT. They’ve washed dishes; they’ve powerwashed Main Street.
Along the way, they learned more about the heritage of the company and had new experiences. Busscher recalls ceremonies at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for people going home to Africa after working here for a year. The event includes Mickeystyled graduation caps and national anthems.
“It’s one of the simple, beautiful ways that I think our company celebrates the people that make this place so wonderful,” she said. “I cry every time.”
Palma and Busscher were selected as ambassadors — from about 150 applicants for the coveted positions — after multiple rounds of interviews, demonstrations of speaking and writing skills, observations during public appearances and a “mock media day,” they said. The field is narrowed to five finalists who go before a panel that includes Walt Disney World President George A. Kalogridis and other resort leaders.
Both had packed their cars after college and headed to Florida.
“I moved down to Walt Disney World simply because I wanted to work for the company,” Busscher said. “I was just thrilled to be a part of this magical place no matter what job I did.”
Palma grew up in Mexico City. His family would visit Disneyland for one day every few years, he said.
“I always thought that, ‘One day I’m going to work there, and I don’t care what I do,’ ” he said.
The ambassador program predates Disney World. It got its start in 1965 to help deal with media demands for Disneyland’s 10th anniversary. The first participant carried the title of Miss Disneyland. Eventually, the name was changed, males were put into the mix and multiple ambassadors were selected for resorts around the globe.
Ambassadors’ former positions are held open for them, but many move on to new opportunities within the company instead.
Training has begun for Disney World’s 75th and 76th ambassadors, Ken Facey and Brandon Peters, who were announced in September. They will be in the jobs for 2017 and 2018.
The panel, naturally, picks positive, pro-Disney people for the post. In conversation, Busscher and Palma frequently use words like happy, amazing, wonderful, exciting, fun, favorite, fortunate, enriching, incredible, beautiful, tremendous and, of course, magical.
“Not so long ago, I dreamed of just being here,” Palma said. “And now I get to do this on a day-today basis, which is a pretty rewarding feeling.”