Funny how, as i gather snippets of nothingness for this blog, i noticed that i did my first 'Meanderings' a year ago (almost to the day). Since i started writing, i found that i was coming up with tidbits of behind the scenes happenings that didn't really go with anything else. So. . . .
Back in the day, each of the cash handling locations had a version of a mini bank, complete with bullet proof glass and bank style vaults. Then in the early 2000's the cash control folks were slowly replaced with machines. . . cranky, tempermental, money eating machines. ANYWAY, the older resorts still have survelince cameras and other little known, but still working safety features. My manager, bless his soul, had no idea what the little white button in the money room was for, so he pushed it. . . several times. Nothing happened, so he left. In walks an unsuspecting cast member to count her bank and she is over run by security. Come to find out the little white button was and irreversable security alert. Lesson learned, if you don't know what it is, don't push it.
The quickest way to get someone's attention is to make them think there is some juicy gossip to be had. I was working on a story one day on my lunch break and didn't know how to spell 'conniving'. I called the main building thinking, that if anyone had a dictionary, they would. They didn't. So I hung up the phone. Two seconds later, the phone rings and someone answered my question. Her next comment was "Who ya writing about ???" I hated to dissappoint her, but it wasn't a co-worker.
Disney is all about story telling. One of our entertainment tech leads could make a story out of any thing. For JM (won't use real names to protect the innocent. . .) every thing included a story. There was no such thing as " Hey I have a quick question for you." In fact it was said, if you Asked JM about one plus one equals two. . . he'd start talking about the theroy of TWO.
I have yet to go check it out, but i have been told that in the Muppets 3D movie at the studios, the imagineers were playing around. If you look at the ceiling you will see 'a net full of jello' (work with me here, and say it all together) . . . Annette Funacello. If your still lost, your home work assignment is to go home and watch all of the original Mickey Mouse Club episodes.
During the run of the Aladdin parade, for one of the anniversaries the stage managers got us a cake shaped like Genie. Bright BLUE Genie cake and as we all know yellow and blue make green. No one wanted to admit it out loud, but the next day I kept hearing whisperings in the corners of the greenroom "What color was your poop?" I can answer that, it was green, neon green. Amusing ? . . . Now, but it was a bit disturbing at the time.
I had a guest come the the desk and wanted to let us know that there was no longer a service animal in thier room. Apparently her father stormed out of the resort and took his dog with him. "It was nothing we had done," she said. "He has anger management issues." What I found amusing was the 'service animal' was supposed to help with his anger issues. I'm thinking the dog didn't work very well.
Speaking of service animals, one of the techs told me he was cutting through the backstage area and there was a group of special needs kids with a variety of service animals. . . including a horse. We see a bit of everything working for the mouse, but a service horse kind of caught him off guard.
The actress Betty White came to the studios in the nineties on a book signing stop with a friend of hers. He was blind and the book 'Dina's Story' was about his first seeing eye dog. After their meet and greet with the guests, she offered to spend a little time back stage taking with us. Belle and Beast, who were doing a meet and greet with some guests, were coming back to the green room at this time as well. The gentleman's new seeing eye dog saw Beast. It's hair bristled up. We thought "Oh no." Beast slowly approached and sat on the steps, so he wouldn't freak out the dog. This dog totally forgot about it's master. It ran to Beast and curled up in his lap and just melted. We were all speachless, including Betty who said she had never seen the dog react like that. It was truly a priceless moment.
On a lighter note, we had guests check into a room with a baby monkey. We didn't know about it, but the house keepers sure found out about it. Disney resorts have a strict no animals policy (except of course service animals). They were asked to leave or take the monkey to the kennel. They left. On our dry erase board in the back office, someone drew a picture of a monkey holding a sign 'No Monkeys Allowed'. Over the course of the next several days it was changed to 'No Elephants Allowed' and a few other animals. Yes we amuse ourselves in the most childish ways at times.
Every year we are given Cast Christmas gifts. It's a gift. You take it and move on. In years past they have been decent little memorbilia items. Picture frames. Laser cut paper weights. Pin sets. Well in 2008. . .we got a little hanging thing with a plastic 'Celebrate' sign and a small tin bell. They said it was a wind chime. . .ooookay. Needless to say we all looked at it and said "What the-". Most of them in my area ended up being hung from the ceiling tiles in the back office. Nothing Says Your Important than plastic and tin.
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