Disney World Princesses Hit on by Dads

Disney World and Disneyland are truly places where dreams come true for most kids, and even for many adults. From the perfectly clean streets to the flawless performance of your favorite Disney characters, being in the land of Disney can really feel like a dream. Like everything, though, there's a harsher reality underneath all that glitter and magic. Former princesses who used to work with Disney took to the Internet to let everyone know what it's really like to work as a Disney princess, and let's just say that some of their stories are less than magical. If you want to keep an image of a perfect Disney world, then I would advise you that ignorance is bliss, for these stories are a real magic killer.

15 They Like To Prank Each Other

Being in character all the time while on the job must be tiring, so it's no surprise to hear that the employees mess around while in the back room or off the clock. The skirts on the princess' dresses are so ridiculously huge that it probably didn't take that long for them to realize a whole person or two could fit underneath them. There's gotta be a lot of clothing magic going on under those skirts to make that kind of poof a reality, where gravity is a thing. There's so much smiling going on for a Disney Princess on the day-to-day, that a little prank might be just what they need to get unstuck out of character and back to normal again.

14 Nowhere Is Safe From Guys Hitting On You

Via: E! Online

Blaine proposing to a bunch of princesses definitely isn't the worst thing a princess has had to deal with from a male patron. Literally every princess who has spoken about their time as a face character has mentioned the creepy dads who hit on them or tried to get a butt touch in on a photo op. One former Snow White mentioned that some older men would make really creepy Snow White and the Seven Dwarves jokes. Sometimes these guys would whisper things in their ear while their wife and kid are right next to them. And like every woman who has had a service job and has had to deal with weird guys hitting on them, these princesses have to brush off the gross comments with style and grace, all while still staying in character. If it were me, I'd be fired in a day for telling those men off.

13 You're Not Allowed To Sing

Via: Traveling Mom

If you ever thought you could cut it as a face character, except for the fact that you can't sing very well, there's some good news for you! According to this former princess, face characters aren't allowed to sing to guests at all. The only people who sing in costume are performers under a totally different contract to do the live shows. Even though they aren't allowed to sing, the princesses still have to do voice training to make sure their voice is up to par with the character's. There's no way that there are that many women out there who naturally talk in such a refined and high-pitched voice. I bet doing those vocals all day would kill the voice box enough where you can't do much singing after that.

12 Everyone's Required To Do Their Own Makeup

There are a lot of things that make a face character, but the face (as the name suggests) is probably the most important part. That, and the wig. While there are cosmetology specialists who work on washing, putting on, and styling the wigs daily, each employee is in charge of their own makeup application. In training, they're taught how to do the makeup for their respective characters, who all have different looks and use signature colors to achieve their perfect princess look.

I've done theatre before and I can only imagine how much powder is caked on their faces just so that they look perfect in any lighting and in any weather condition. They must dump setting spray on themselves so that their makeup doesn't melt off in the heat. At least for the face characters' sake, having the Disney theme parks in some of the hottest parts of the United States may not have been the best idea.

11 Most Of The Princes Aren't Into The Princesses IRL

Via: Flickr

As one princess put it, "We weren't finding romance at work." With the fact that there is a prince for every princess, along with some other male face characters, the ratio is pretty even for male and female employees. Even so, there wasn't much of a chance for the princesses to find their own prince while employed at Disney because most of those princes were looking for their own prince.

For the ladies who are into men, working at the park must have been kind of rough romantically because there weren't that many options. Sure, you could always go outside of the park to find a boo, but from the sound of it, there seems to be a kind of "bubble" for Disney employees and they don't really go outside of the park all that much while they're employed there. It makes sense, though, being a Disney face character isn't really a job as it is a lifestyle. For those guys, though, they must have had a great time romantically while working there.

10 Everyone Starts Out As A Mascot

It doesn't matter if you're meant to be part of the Disney royalty, you have to start down at the bottom as a costumed character first. That's right, every graceful princess has spent her time underneath a sweaty fur costume just trying not to die. Contrary to popular belief, there are no fans or air conditioners in any of those suits, so those people are just drowning in their sweat in the hot Orlando summer, waiting for the moment when their 30 minutes are done. Most of the costumed characters who are trying to be face characters don't have to spend that much time under the suit, but it's probably enough to really appreciate how awful that work is. At least under that suit you can frown all you want.

9 People Say The Darndest Things

Being a face character means having to interact with people all the time, and a lot of those people aren't going to be the brightest, especially when those people are children. Kids say the darndest things since they're not old enough to establish a filter, and it probably is pretty difficult to process some of these silly statements and come back with a reply that stays in character. My favorite one of these is the one about Ariel and Prince Eric since this particular former employee never worked on anything even close to The Little Mermaid. This poor child probably just found out what sex meant and was so destroyed that they couldn't stop thinking about the fact that that's how babies are made. I feel for that kid. You see babies everywhere and the magic is lost when you find out that the classic stork story is a lie/

8 The Job Is Mostly Just Talking To Yourself

Via: Pinterest

When kids aren't saying crazy stuff, they're not really saying much at all. Like I've said before, children don't have the best social skills, and while some of them can't stop talking, the majority are pretty shy and don't know how to make small talk with strangers — or in this case, with their idols.

This former Pocahontas recalled that there were thousands of times where she just talked to herself while trying to talk to a kid. "I'm proud of being able to talk to myself," she jokes.

Coming from my own experiences as a shy child at Disney World, I probably didn't do much to help the face characters interact with me at all. They must have noticed my shyness, or just thought my little brother was cuter because those princesses liked to ignore me to talk to him instead. I'm looking at you, Alice, from the character brunch.

7 There Are Some REALLY Creepy People

Gross dads may be one thing that you can expect, but there are other creepers that are just so extreme that even the most cautious lady can't prepare for.

This retired Snow White had to deal with a Snow White stalker who wasn't satisfied with seeing any old Snow White, but the "real" one with the brown eyes. It's crazy and gross enough to keep going back to a theme park to talk and try to sexually assault a teenage employee, but then to say that he was going to kill the other girls in the same costume is just insane. I'm glad that she was safe because a lot of women that have to deal with obsessed people like that don't end up as lucky. If it weren't for all the great things that can come out of a being a princess—like fulfilling children's wishes—those bad times wouldn't be worth it.

6 So Many Rules

As much as everyone likes Disney World, I find the whole facade to be kinda creepy. Just like the supposed fact that nothing bad ever happens at Disney. Literally nothing ever happens within the park, any sort of arrests happen outside the park so that nothing disturbs the peace.

Celebration, FL is also one of those places that eerily reminds me of the setup of the next dystopian novel. Let's not forget that Disney, the corporation, owns about a third of all media in the United States. That sort of pleasantry and secrecy within the park would be creepy if it was anywhere but Disney. Employees are required to smile at all times while out and about to make sure that there are never pictures of them frowning anywhere. While it feels like Disney is the place where dreams come true, it's all oddly very homogenous.

5 High School Never Ends

Just like Bowling for Soup once said, "High school never ends." It's like when you are stuck with each other for several hours every day, you're forced to form cliques with people you like and sneer at the ones you dislike. It's a rough life for people to assume you're a mean girl just because you're a princess, but it's a little bit rougher to be one of those poor saps who have to go out in 95 degree weather as Winnie the Pooh. If you're stuck with the same people all the time, you're gonna get close with them one way or another. As they also say, "People who suffer together stay together." There are only a few people out there in the world who know exactly what it's like to be a Disney Princess, and that's a bond you can't break easily.

4 Always Multiple Princesses At One Time

For how much I'm creeped out by how orchestrated and unnaturally perfect everything in Disney is, I am impressed by the great logistical prowess the planners have in making sure that there are enough of the same character across the park to ensure guests are satisfied without having any double sightings. It would be foolish to assume that there is only one of each character at the park at any time. There aren't that many Disney characters to satisfy the needs of the tens of thousands of people that enter the park daily. It would be quite the sight to see a mob of, like, six Princess Jasmines come down into the well-known underground tunnels after a long shift.

3 Backhanded Disney Insults

Via: Rightselection.com

It was confirmed by this retired princess that, "Have a Magical Disney Day," actually means, "f**k you," after being asked in her Reddit AMA. This is pretty interesting to me since Disney parks put in such a painstaking effort to make everything pleasant and perfect all the time, but employees still have to find some way to insult rude patrons, even if it is all while being very polite. It's just like telling a terrible customer to have a great rest of their day after you're done with them, all while wishing that a piano fell on them as soon as they walked out the door. Being in hospitality, you're forced to be kind and polite even to the worst human beings. We're all human, though, and Disney employees have to have some sense of satisfaction that they just gave the politest "f-off" in existence. Hopefully this information doesn't catch on so that they can continue their polite cussing.

2 It's All About The Capital

Via: Weheartit

There are a lot of perks to working at Disney, but the pay isn't really one of them. It was disclosed that the starting pay of a princess face character is $13.50 an hour, and after three years of service, it doesn't go higher than $16 an hour. Sometimes to make a profit, the park will do it at the expense of the comfort of the princesses.

After a former Belle gave her story to Cosmopolitan,she recalled a time when it got seeing-your-breath cold down in Florida and she had to take pictures with people outside of a restaurant. Her outfit came with a little coat, but it appeared that the coat had been hidden by another employee, so she had to keep standing outside in the cold air in a sleeveless dress. The management later told her that the restaurant sells the pictures with Belle for $35 a piece, and the price goes down when Belle wears the coat. Is the price of a picture really worth seeing a girl get frozen to the bone?

1 There Are A Lot Of Tears

A lot of the former princesses recalled their times with kids from the Make-A-Wish Foundation whose final wishes were to spend time with their idols at Disney World. From what they say, there are a lot of mixed emotions because the kids are so happy that they got to fulfill their last wish to be with their favorite characters, while their parents are off to the side just bawling their eyes out from both happiness of the moment but sadness for their child's inevitable fate. I bet it would be hard to put into words what that experience is like, but it's probably experiences like these that make all the bad stuff about working at Disney feel worth it. These princesses really are making kids' dreams come true.

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