The event snapped above is the opening ceremony for Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It delivers a magical opening for a magical day at the most magical place in the world. Only, it isn’t magic at all. Here’s what actually happened.

Overnight – The night before the day pictured, the costumes for the characters, the town mayor (center of the photo) and the guest relations host (who would accompany the family of the day to the left of the mayor) were washed, dried and pressed. The train station was also washed down. Meanwhile, maintenance did some repairs on the train.

Early morning – The horticulture staff pulled weeds and replaced flowers in the Mickey Floral. Maintenance turned the train over to the conductors who began the process of stoking the train boilers. In the tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom costuming personnel were prepping the performers’ wigs and costume pieces while the performers were participating in warmups to protect their bodies from injury. The princess Performers do their own sort of prep, applying their character’s makeup and donning the wigs previously combed out for them.

The final hour before opening – The stage manager has arrived and verifies that all necessary personnel are on site and, if necessary, makes any replacements, including pulling performers from other duties to fill in. The character performers finish warmups and are transported to their dressing location where costuming has already laid out their costumes. The character attendants and costumers stand by to fix any last-minute issues and provide tucks and zips as necessary. Tickets personnel share the number of waiting guests with the stage manager. The stage manager verifies that the technicians have the sound working are ready for the show. Operations reports that the train is ready, and the train is moved forward to the staging area as are all the performers. Meanwhile, guest relations is finding a family to be family of the day and then escorting them into the park and up to the train station.

The stage manager calls a half hour warning, then 15, then 10, then 5. With everyone now on the train, and zipped, wigged, and ready, the stage manager begins the show. The engineers fire up the whistle, the train lurches forward, the audio cue plays, and magic begins.

All of this activity took place among many different departments and divisions to support a 10-minute opening ceremony. To the guests, it was magic. To Disney, it was process followed in a methodical order and repeated day after day after day.

The key points I take away is that magic is obtainable if you have the will and a team who work together under directed guidance to deliver that customer experience.

So, what are some gaps in your organization’s customer offering? Are there details you could tighten up? Some daily procedures you could put in place? Ways you could get more cooperation among team members?

It could be very hard work for you ... but imagine that magic it would create for them.