MEANDER THOUGHTS OF A WONDERING MIND PART TRIO

It's time for my yearly to clean up my file of jotted down Disney snipets that didn't have a home anywhere else.

When dealing with guests, you have to be professional and courteous at all times. Well, when you are checking them into your resort and see that they live on Swamp Poodle Rd ( I think it's some where in north Philly), you just have to ask, "Are you kidding me ?" I also had a guest who lived on Yellow Brick Rd. She said she loved her street was was never going to move. Jump off Joe Rd (Grant's Pass, OR) Actually came with a history lesson. Apparently 'Joe' was being chased by indians back in the day and jumped off a small bluff into the falls to get away. Sadly, the legend states that he didn't survive the fall.

A friend of mine worked at the Give A Day, Get a Disney Day call center. (Give a Day was a promotion that Disney did in 2010 where they encouraged a million people to do a volunteer project and get a free Disney ticket to the park in return.) Apparently a pageant promoter had ALL of the girls in the pageant do a volunteer project, BUT they only wanted us to only give tickets to the girls who won the pageant. WTH ??? Obviously it was a resounding and unanamous NO from our end. If you did the work, youw received the tickets.

That was about as good as the guest who was soooo pissed off that they weren't going to get the tickets, BECAUSE they didn't actually sign up to be apart of the million volunteers, that they threated to call the President of the United States. My friend was so tempted to say, "Really ? If you have Obama's phone number, can I get it too ?

There was actually two different Pocahontas shows at Walt Disney World in the nineties. The Animal Kingdom version had Pochontas, Grandmother Willow and a cast of sometimes reluctant animals, like the rabbit that needed a nudge from the stage hand to get going. . . I literally saw a hand from backstage pushing the rabbit out on the stage.

Most people, however, have forgotten about the short lived (nine moths + or -) show that was at the Studios. It was supposed to be 100 % native American cast and crew. Yeah, that didn't happen. There was one wardrobe person, one stage technician and about half the cast who were native American. I actually found it on youtube the other day. (Search for Spirit of Pocahontas )During the run of the show one of cast members who played the medicine man performed a traditional native american wedding on the stage. (after hours).

When you work in a show, you tend to 'create your own little world and some things that make perfect sense in your sphere of reality makes other people go "HUH?" One of the lines in Pocahontas was, "Wingapo, this how we say hello?" Which later turned into (backstage anyway) Win-GA-Po. For years after the show went down, a few of us still said, "Win-GA-Po," when we'd see each other.

While I'm on the subject of 'our own little world', the show that came after Poca, was Hunchback of Notre Dame. . . A Musical Adventure !. During the run of Hunchback, we had Gypsy wedding. One of the performers and a Stage Technician got married (not on stage though). Everyone in the cast and crew stepped in to help with the preperations from the dress and food to the photographer and decorating the hall. The bride asked one of her fellow cast members to walk her down the isle, because her elderly father wasn't physically able to. This cast member was so humbled and honored to be able to do it that he got a little teary eyed. He said, "since he was gay, that was probably going to be the only time in his life that he'd ever be able to do that.

When guests come to the park, they can get a Happy Birthday button to wear. I had a guest with some questions come to the desk. As i was trying to help him, I could have swore the name he had written on his Birthday button was 'THE*DORK'. I was about to ask why he wrote that on there, when i realized it actually said THEODORE. O0ps!, Glad i didn't make a comment.

I recently was asked about a new resort that Disney World was going to open called Buffalo Junction . It was going to have Buffalo and Elk, i guess like a north american version of Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had never heard if, but after a little internet searching i realized he was right. It was supposed to be located in the strip of land between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness campground. I found articles written about it from the 80's and 90's and a possible resurface in 2009. I'm not sure if the powers that be are still kicking around the idea, but who knows, what will crop up, if the economy gets better.

Speaking of the Fort, i often wondered what ever happened to the famous cow called Mickey Moo. She was a dairy cow with a black corporate mickey shaped spot on her side. Again I went to the internet. My sources tell me that she passed away in August of 2001. Awe does that mean there's no more Mickey Milk ?

Alas, my meanderings are more like fizzelings, so i'm calling it a night
. . .
A NIGHT.