As I mentioned in an earlier posting, wildlife is everywhere at Disney. In the late nineties I was leaving the studios one afternoon and had to come to a complete stop. The car behind me wasn't too happy about this, but I saw a bobcat tooling around in the bushes. It looked around for a few moments, then slipped back into the woods. Just the other day at the Wilderness Lodge some guests said, "We just saw the coolest thing." The cashier said, "Oh, really, what was it ?" "We were watching a rabbit out the window, then from out of no where a bobcat snatched it and vanished into the woods." My first thought was," Atleast they weren't upset about seeing Thumper get eaten."
Squirrels are often called 'Rats With Good Press Agents'. While at Epic, we, the cast, did a very bad, but contagious thing. We fed the squirrels. In case you don't know, if you feed these little beggars, they become brazen and fearless. In fact Epic had to be stopped. . . in the middle of show . . . because of squirrels. There is a flame affect that floats on a sheet of water at the beginning of scene three. A squirrel thought the water was it's own personal fountian and stopped for a drink. . .a long drink. It's kind of a 'Guest Dissatisfier' to see a little furry woodlands creature get torched in the Dragon Burner flame effect, So every one got over time because the show ran long as the techs tried to herd the squirrel off stage. It's kind of fun though, watching a performer try to stay in character as a villian when two love smitten squirrels are racing around his feet.
I think the final straw, however, was when the squirrels discovered food in the parked strollers out side of the stage. The little theives would trash the guest's belongings during the show, then afterwards, it'd run up the leg of an suspecting guest trying to beg for more.
I never knew until recently that the Pirates of the Carribbean ride wasn't totally enclosed. Apparently, after the Johnny Depp rehab work a guest was talking to a cast member about the improvements. They said they were so impressed with the new animatrons. . . 'even the Alligator looked so real'. The cast member played it off well and asked which one they noticed. The guest described with scene it was in and went on thier way. The ride was shut down as the 'powers that be' removed the very real alligator that had found it's way into the ride. (Disneyland may be older, but our Pirates ride have real alligators. . . at times.}
Any building with massive amounts of people coming and going and the doors left open most of the time is bound to gather some uninvited guests. The character costuming builing had a nest of finches in the rafters one year. It was small, they didn't bother too many people. The next year, how ever, it turned into a condo. After nesting season and the babies were gone, we were vigilant about keeping the doors shut. WELL, that didn't work. They discovered a new exit point above the roll up door. The year I left, they were about to enter the third finch season and the third year of covering the costumes in plastic.
At one point, the character costuming building had a black bird who was drawn to our coffee pot. He would follow us in and go straight to the back of the building. My fellow cast members tended to over react and tried to chase him out of the building. You can not 'chase' a bird out of . . . anyhwhere, but he was smart enough to find his way out. The dove at the Boardwalk Resort was another story. The floors had been revarnished and the fumes were over powering, so we openned the doors to air out the lobby. A dove found it's way in and spent at least two days in side. Several of us called pest management and insisted they do some thing before it died. The operator said "it would be okay because she was sure it had found water". I ensured her it had not and that this bird was going to die if some one didn't do some thing. Long story short, that night, my manager said they had, had enough and decided to chase it down. The theroy 'if it was going to die, at least it would do so trying to rescue it'. He said they tired it out to the point of barely being able to fly and they were able to catch it and returned to the out doors.
Anyone visiting Florida has to realize, we are a swamp state. As a swamp state we have reptiles. I almost ran over a black snake with a Segway at the Allstar Resort. Scared the fool out of me. A few days later another runner had parked his pargo (modified golf cart) in the same area and, I think it was the same snake, tried to get into the pargo. When I used to work in the phone bank, I had a guest tell me that she was trapped in her room because a snake was curled up on the sidewalk in front of her door.
When I did my orientation tour of the lodge, there was a pair of Mallard Duck bopping around in the pool with the guests. I was surprised that no one gave them a second thought.
I'm sure there will be more critter stories. If you have heard of any, please let me know and I'll add your stories here too.
P.S. Today I had a lady asking where they could find bugs. She wanted to bring some home with her. I'm not making this stuff up. As we talked, I realized her daughter had a school project due on bugs.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
BRAZILIAN (BRASILIAN) SEASON, CHEERLEADER SEASON AND VARIOUS OTHER GROUPS
If you're at the parks and see a large mass of people dressed in neon orange, neon green or neon yellow shirts being led by someone carrying a TOURISMO flag, I suggest you just step back and let them pass because it's Brazilian season and you will get sucked onto their wave if you try to cross thier path. In fact in the mid to late nineties, Disney had special events called Brazilian nights where we'd have some of the shows in poutugese. This would encourage the tour groups to come later in the day and not be quite so over whelming to the non-brazilian guests. These groups are loud and haven't seemed to grasped the concept of waiting in line. In fact at Epic (Indiana Jones Stunt Show), a Brazilian group forged a trail through the landscaped que line and tried to come in the back of the theater, the operations people escorted them out of the theater. Management made them go to the back of the line.
While I was working at All Star, a Brazilian group gathered in the hotel lobby and were so loud I felt like I was working in a stadium. Then thier leader decided to use a whistle to get his group's attention. My managers quickly put a stop to that. The complaints from the regular guests about these groups ranged from, "Do they ever sleep?" and "they're running up and down the halls all night" to "My young child just saw two of them 'doing it' in the elevator". Extra security and a portugese speaking lobby greeters have helped to tame them some.
The darling Cheerleaders aren't much better. Except, instead of running up and down the halls at night, the Cheerleaders would have thier boom boxes blasting at the wee hours in the morning so they can get that last bit of practice in before thier competion. When management and the Varisity leaders made a rule that they had to 'X number of feet' from the rooms to practice, that calmed down those complaints a bit. What always amazed me was, for being an athletic minded group of people, they complained endlessly about how far thier room was or that they had to carry thier own lugggage if luggage service was being overwhelmed by other guests. I finally told a few people, "You're young and supposedly an athlete. Pick up your own suit case." She said, " It's too heavy." I responded, " Well, maybe you shouldn't have over packed." . . . Needless to say she wasn't happy with me, but I was just a nameless opeerator in a phones room at that time.
I was at All Star Movies one day and heard Phantom of the Opera music drifting across the resort, so of course i had to go check it out. In the Mighty ducks building the icons are three story tall duck shaped hockey masks. A high school show choir was using the acustics inside of the hockey masks to practice. I had to stop and listen. Then for the rest of the day I had Phantom music in my head.
I picked up a shift one morning at the studios thinking it was going to be for the Star Wars event. I was wrong. There was a jump rope competion in the Theater of the Stars. When they told me that, i said "Jump Rope Competition. You've got to be kidding." They weren't. It was a small group compaired to the Cheerleaders, but they put thier heart into it. On my way out for the day a group of four jump ropers were behind me talking. "Some one asked me if we were cheerleaders. I said DO WE LOOK LIKE CHEERLEADERS ? WE'RE JUMP ROPERS". I wanted so bad to turn to her and say, "Why, yes. Yes you do look like Cheerleaders." But I was sill in costume with my name tag on, so I behaved myself and just kept walking.
Pop Warner Football always manages to stir things up a bit at the resorts too. THe year before I started at All Star Resort there was a brawl in the food court between the teams. And the year after I moved on to another resort there was a brawl in the food court. You can always tell when there are sports teams on Disney property. Security is stationed at every corner.
The first weekend in June every year is Gay Days at Disney. It started as a group of guys chatting online and they all decided to meet up at Walt Disney World. Someone in the group decided they should all wear red shirts so they could find each other. And Presto-Chango a new special event was created. A side note: When this first made headlines, the pastor of my church, First Baptist of Orlando, was the president of the Southern Baptist convention. The Southern Baptists were offended by the concept of Gay Days at a family place and decided to call for a boycot of Disney. How ever, when my pastor returned to Orlando and realized that a very large population of his congeration worked for the so called Evil Mouse, he started back peddling pretty fast and quickly stopped the protests.
Let's not forget the convention side of the property. There was a resturant company who had a yearly convention at the Wilderness lodge. Not to mention specific names, but it was an Italian-style grill and steakhouse company. They checked into thier rooms with buckets of beer waiting for them. Not to say they drank like fish, but before the end of thier convention, security was fishing a few of them out of Bay Lake when they decided to go skinny dipping after thier night cap.
Speaking of a night cap, i think it's time for a little Jamacian Rum, then off to bed for myself. My goal is to do at least two blogs a month, so See you next time.
While I was working at All Star, a Brazilian group gathered in the hotel lobby and were so loud I felt like I was working in a stadium. Then thier leader decided to use a whistle to get his group's attention. My managers quickly put a stop to that. The complaints from the regular guests about these groups ranged from, "Do they ever sleep?" and "they're running up and down the halls all night" to "My young child just saw two of them 'doing it' in the elevator". Extra security and a portugese speaking lobby greeters have helped to tame them some.
The darling Cheerleaders aren't much better. Except, instead of running up and down the halls at night, the Cheerleaders would have thier boom boxes blasting at the wee hours in the morning so they can get that last bit of practice in before thier competion. When management and the Varisity leaders made a rule that they had to 'X number of feet' from the rooms to practice, that calmed down those complaints a bit. What always amazed me was, for being an athletic minded group of people, they complained endlessly about how far thier room was or that they had to carry thier own lugggage if luggage service was being overwhelmed by other guests. I finally told a few people, "You're young and supposedly an athlete. Pick up your own suit case." She said, " It's too heavy." I responded, " Well, maybe you shouldn't have over packed." . . . Needless to say she wasn't happy with me, but I was just a nameless opeerator in a phones room at that time.
I was at All Star Movies one day and heard Phantom of the Opera music drifting across the resort, so of course i had to go check it out. In the Mighty ducks building the icons are three story tall duck shaped hockey masks. A high school show choir was using the acustics inside of the hockey masks to practice. I had to stop and listen. Then for the rest of the day I had Phantom music in my head.
I picked up a shift one morning at the studios thinking it was going to be for the Star Wars event. I was wrong. There was a jump rope competion in the Theater of the Stars. When they told me that, i said "Jump Rope Competition. You've got to be kidding." They weren't. It was a small group compaired to the Cheerleaders, but they put thier heart into it. On my way out for the day a group of four jump ropers were behind me talking. "Some one asked me if we were cheerleaders. I said DO WE LOOK LIKE CHEERLEADERS ? WE'RE JUMP ROPERS". I wanted so bad to turn to her and say, "Why, yes. Yes you do look like Cheerleaders." But I was sill in costume with my name tag on, so I behaved myself and just kept walking.
Pop Warner Football always manages to stir things up a bit at the resorts too. THe year before I started at All Star Resort there was a brawl in the food court between the teams. And the year after I moved on to another resort there was a brawl in the food court. You can always tell when there are sports teams on Disney property. Security is stationed at every corner.
The first weekend in June every year is Gay Days at Disney. It started as a group of guys chatting online and they all decided to meet up at Walt Disney World. Someone in the group decided they should all wear red shirts so they could find each other. And Presto-Chango a new special event was created. A side note: When this first made headlines, the pastor of my church, First Baptist of Orlando, was the president of the Southern Baptist convention. The Southern Baptists were offended by the concept of Gay Days at a family place and decided to call for a boycot of Disney. How ever, when my pastor returned to Orlando and realized that a very large population of his congeration worked for the so called Evil Mouse, he started back peddling pretty fast and quickly stopped the protests.
Let's not forget the convention side of the property. There was a resturant company who had a yearly convention at the Wilderness lodge. Not to mention specific names, but it was an Italian-style grill and steakhouse company. They checked into thier rooms with buckets of beer waiting for them. Not to say they drank like fish, but before the end of thier convention, security was fishing a few of them out of Bay Lake when they decided to go skinny dipping after thier night cap.
Speaking of a night cap, i think it's time for a little Jamacian Rum, then off to bed for myself. My goal is to do at least two blogs a month, so See you next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
