OPENNING OF ANIMAL KINGDOM. . . AHhh the memories

Over the nearly twenty years of being with Disney, I have had the opportunity to be apart of some amazing and unforgettable events, not the least of which was the openning of Disney's Animal Kingdom. To start out with, this job wasn't even something i was pursuing. In fact I was just passing through the Epic (Indiana jones show) breakroom one day and a friend of mine was on the phone. She stopped me and told me about her phone call with one of tech managers/ crew chief's (not exactly sure what his title was then). His job with the Animal Kingdom opening was assisting all of the radio broadcasters who where doing live remotes from the various parks and he was looking for people to help out with the setup/ tear down/ escorting (basically get the media folks thier stuff and keep them from getting lost).

Of course I jumped on that with a vengences. 'J' and I pestered the snot out of our department manager for permission leave the department briefly and a week or two later we're sitting in the rehearsal room at the studios finding out what our job would be. Call times at 2:00 AM, most mornings. 12 + hour shifts most days. Exclusive rights to join the media's parties most nights. Basically a no sleep marathon for a week. Since, for the week, we were concidered media crew, we were allowed to join in the parties, eat free food and get the souveniers. In a word 'AWESOME'.

They were also celebrating the newer Downtown Disney Westside opening, so during one of the parties we sampled food from Wolfgang puck and Bongos. David Copperfield made an appearance at Pleasure Island. Way back then, they were going to build a David Copperfield's Magic Underground restuarant at the Studios and they opened a magic shop in the newer part of Downtown Disney.

The Studio's media party was amazing. Disney has what they call Screaming Fans. Cast members get paid over time to line a red carpet and scream and yell like the people who are walking in were movie stars. They do this for conventions and other occasions. I've worked it. It's fun. You just have no voice left the next day. Anyway, at the Studios party, we were met by Screamng fans. At the end of the red carpet, managers were handing out pineapples filled with wine. My manager who gave us the permission to do this side job was there. I looked at him and said, " I guess I picked the right extracurricluar activity". As I worked the crowd, I saw my other managers standing off to the side just watching and unable to participate. They were alot like seeing Roudolph not being allowed to play in the reindeer games.

The only party I didn't make was the one at the new sports complex, now called ESPN's Wide World of Sports. My heart was willing, but the little thing called sleep deprevation was kicking in. It didn't help that I had to be at work at 2:00 the next morning. . .

Oh yeah, 'the work'. I guess I should talk about that too :). At 2:00 in the morning, we were back stage loading up Pargos( flat bed golf carts) with tables, coolers of ice, media gear and a hundred and one other things, then we'd get our assigned areas that needed to be set up. We learned, very quickly, when driving a bumpy little golf cart at full speed, that the back section of the park (between African and Asia) is not flat. In fact it's down right rough. I won't tell you how we found out the first time, but. . . . Table ? what table? . . . KIDDING, sort of.

At 2:00 in the morning you freeze, but by noon, you'd about get heat stroke. We'd get the tables for the stations set up early in the morning. The morning radio personalities would arrive and get a ride to their spots through out the park. However, at 9:00 all motorized vehicles had to be out of the park. We were hustling along the media crews that were right on the edge of the cut off time, because we knew it was foot traffic only after the park openned. During the week WE got a crash course on where all of nooks and crannies in Animal Kingdom were. At one point, I could almost draw you a map to were the all of sprinkler heads and power oulets were located. To this day, when I go to the park, I look around and think, we were there and through that backstage gate is the Lion King breakroom and over there is the Pride Rock Cast Member comissary. . . .

The afternoon was spent walking back and forth assisting the broadcasters with tons of equipment. Okay, maybe not tons, but at near 100+ degrees out, it sure seemed like it. After one of my trips to the furthest reaches of the world. . .I mean park, I chugged an entire bottle of water in in one gulp. Others in our group were manning media information stations in the present day Tusker House covered seating area. (Oh, yeah, we were fed there too. . . At that time, they had rotiserie chicken, ribs and Prime Rib. Mmmm, prime rib). I never worked at that post, I just remember seeing radios all over the place and a bees nest of activity.

We did see our fair share of celebrities. The most memorable story was when one our ladies was told to stand by an open box truck. They were loading and unloading items and needed to make sure things didn't walk away without one of us tied to it. She said a gentleman walked passed her and asked he could sit on the truck's lift gate for a few minutes. He stated that he wasn't feeling as energetic as he usually did. She didn't see any harm in that, so they hung out and talked for a few minutes. She asked if he was having a good time and was able to see all the animals. He said he was and had no problem getting into the exhibits and rides. She noticed his hair was shaved or very short, but never recognized who she was talking to until the plaid dressed VIP escort walked up and asked if he was ready to go. As he walked away, she realized she was chatting with Micheal J Fox. (He had resently had surgery trying to help the Parkinson's disease)

The one and only time I ever saw Mr Eisner was back stage before a media appearence. . .moving on.

Animals have away of letting you kow when they are not happy. The Gorillas in the Gorilla Falls portion of the Savanna were no exception. If you go to Animal Kingdom now, you'll notice that it's not called Gorilla Falls. That's because not long after the park openned, the charming primates started throwing Poo at people. Disney quickly changed the name of that section and has kind of down played the Gorilla exhibit ever since.

Another park openning faux pas came from our illustrious leader himself. During an interview with Mr. Eisner, a bird in the background kept squaking and drowning him out. When asked what was the bird's problem, Eisner said something to the effect of eating it for lunch if it didn't stop. , , OF COURSE the Disney Spin Doctors jumped in and said 'no, no that what our CEO meant to say was that someone needed to feed the bird it's lunch'. Riiight.