Treat cast members even better than they treat you

Image: harshlight, Flickr (license)

The Disney cast members are famous for their excellent service and attention to detail. Some might wake up on the wrong side of the bed, but on the whole, they tend to be kind and gracious — and, always focused on making your trip special.

Sometimes, when you’re surrounded by people who are trying to make your day special, it’s easy to forget that those cast members are people too. And so, despite the attention, always try to be thankful and nice in return. 

For servers, that can mean tips. For other cast members, that can be as simple as a nice word, a smile, or even letting their manager know they’ve done a good job. But on the whole, cast members are what make the Disney experience so unique and so great — do what you can to make their day a little brighter, too. 

Please, don’t spoil the magic

Image: richo-fan, Flickr (license)

At the heart of all of these rules lies the same basic truth: Think about others. It’s easy to get lost in your own world when you’re on vacation, especially in as magical a place as Walt Disney World. But you aren’t the only person or family at the resort, and the more you keep that in mind, the better the experience will be for everyone.

The most important rule of all is this one: Don’t spoil the magic. That can mean all sorts of things. For one, don’t loudly share backstage secrets that Disney and fellow parents would rather you not share out loud — such as, why Goofy doesn’t talk to you when you meet him. For another, it can mean spoiling the atmosphere, such as by loudly cracking jokes during shows like the Carousel of Progress or The American Adventure.

Disney works hard to create a bubble into which you can escape to forget the rigors, drama, and exhaustion of the real word. As guests, it’s our responsibility to do what we can to protect that bubble — even if it sometimes means playing along when we might know better, or suspending our disbelief for something we otherwise wouldn’t.

That, after all, is the whole point of a Disney vacation. We don’t go to Disney because we know how the magic is done — we go so we can convince ourselves that the magic was real all along.