Character Attendant

How cute is this? Belle and Character attendant kissing the Beast

Just my opinion, but this could possibly be the easiest role in the College Program. Take a look at your responsibilities and you've got it made compared to other roles.

Responsibilities may include: 

• Providing Guests with information about show schedules, Character locations, and visitation times 
• Providing audience control, including handling challenging Guest situations 
• Ensuring the safety of Character Performers and our Guests 
• Partnering with Disney's Photopass® photographers 
• Maintaining show quality and Character integrity 
• Setting up and removing stanchions, ropes and poles 
• Assisting Character Performers with putting on costumes 
• Retrieving and arranging strollers 
• Maintaining cleanliness and order in work location 
• Standing for extended periods, working outdoors 

You just have to be comfortable with corralling people into lines and dealing with frustrated guests who are either miffed with the length of the line or upset that Mickey, Ariel (insert favorite character here) has to leave to go take a break. If you watch the video below you can see that these excuses can be as wacky and creative as you want them to be! Example : "Hey guys! Ariel has to go back under the sea to go check on Sebastian for a bit, he got a dinglehopper stuck in his claw." How fun would that be?!

I know of a lot of people who have chosen character attendant as their first choice and also go to the auditions for being a character performer. This is a good backup after auditions and you still get to hang out with characters all day! Win-win! If you think that being a character attendant after not passing the performer audition would be unbearable then this role isn't for you.

To me Character Attendants are like awesomeness in a blue shirt. You usually work long hours, often out in the sun and harsh weather. Your primary objective: to protect characters from heat and hooligans, as well as answer super-random guest questions about the parks, all while pin trading and wearing a Disney smile.

Aside from closing the line, attendants have to be a character’s eyes while they are busy meeting guests. They have to keep an orderly line, issue instructions over and over, and, most annoying of all, stop the foreign tour groups from dominating a character’s time. Despite the struggles, most attendants stay positive enough to play cheerleader for the characters. I’ve seen characters recover from a bad day because of an attendant’s kindness.

So the next time you’re in the park and you get in line for a character, please be nice to the character attendants. They hold very little power, but hold much of the entertainment responsibilities. Play along with their jokes and do as they say — it’s for your safety and efficiency, after all. Even better, if you meet a truly extraordinary attendant, give them a Great Service Fanatic card (GSF). It will take you at most 5 minutes to fill out, but it makes him/her look fantastic to management and goes on their permanent record. More than that, it’s important to tell attendants they’re appreciated; living in a character’s shadow isn’t easy. But Attendants make it magical.

This is a great video made by Disney explaining more about being a character attendant.  Enjoy!