Just like tiny towns in the middle of nowhere, you'd miss some shows and events at Disney over the years if you blinked. Did you know that Norman the Cow from the City Slickers movie used to live at the Disney MGM Studios backlot ? . . . Yeah, i never saw him either, but they say he did.
Norman's field was turned into the temporary stage for Beauty and the Beast. . . then the new home of Pocahantas. . . then the new and jazzed up home of Hunchback of Notre Dame . . . then the new, new home for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . . . then new temporary home for Star Wars Weekends (deep breath) And Now after much gutting, rebuilding and remodeling that space is (drum roll) a convention space . . . and I believe a venue for Night of Joy, Super Soap, Ect, ect, ect.
But first let us go back in time to some other one hit wonders like the Dinosaur Parade. Do you remember the television show with Earl the Dinosaur and his family ? The most famous member of the cast was the baby whose only line was "Not the mama." Well, we had a Dino parade with about three or four floats and the infamous Dino - Whores, i mean Dino - girls. THey got that nick name because of the itty, bitty costumes and a dance routine that was straight out of a night club, but then most of our parades seem to have a unit or two of scantily clad girls. I guess you have to do something to keep the 'little old men' coming back.
Although it was a relatively short run, we did manage to be around long enough to have the only float wreck I can remember at the Studios. Sure, we had plenty of floats clips a few trees and trim a few branches, but during the Dino parade, we had a float actually hit the fence. Fortuneatly no one was hurt, although a few people did go to first aide.
Disney had a way of creating shows and events that are not quiet in step with the modern trend. When they opened the Goosebumps Horrorland show / attraction, the series of children's books was already on the decline. Although i never worked at the show, I was told the grand finale all hinged on young childern volunteers doing a certian bit part in order to release everyone from a curse. It all sounds well and good. You pick the most enthusiastic kids in the audience, take them back stage, dress them up and give them a couple lines to say. Easy. Right? Wrong. When taken out of thier element, some kids melt like the wicked witch under water. SO. You have a show that "can't end until the kids say the secret words", but often times you'd have kids that wouldn't say the secret words. Gotta love kids.
The fact that the audience was outside, standing on hot asphalt with out any sun shade pretty much gauranteed that it was only going to be a short run show. They also had a spooky maze for kids to go through. THe cast loved it because they could scare the bejesus out of little kids and get paid for it. Where the maze area is now an enterance to a gift shop.
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, or Epic, had an ultimate top to bottom over haul back in the late nineties or so. While they were on hiatus, the cast did an odd ball kind of show out on New York street. Good guys and back guys fight it out, some one falls to thier death (not really) and heros save the day kind of show. Right next to the New York Street Show was the Pocahontas show. (Another short lived wonder.) During the Pocahontas show there is a touching scene between John Smith and Pocahontas where John offers her his hand in friendship and trust. Nice sweet, touching moment. Expect during Epic's street show.
On several occasions it went something like this. John Smith offers to shake hands with Pocahontas, "This is how we say Hello." This is abruptly followed by rapid gun fire from the Indy show out on the street. Hey, for once Disney got history right. . . get it ? "this is how we say hello", white settlers killing off the natives. . .anyway. After a few shows like this. The cast of Pocahontas wanted go on the War Path and raid the Indy street show. Stage managers called a truce, adjusted show times and peace was restored. To bad it wasn't that easy back in colonial times.
Ace Ventura was another one hit wonder at the studios. Since it was also considered a stunt show, there was some over lapping of cast. One particular day, a cast member at Ace was also a cast member at Epic in the same day, practically at the same time. In order to make it from one show to the other, a costuming dresser was assigned to play pargo chauffuer all day as the stunt guy was laterally changing costumes in the pargo on the way from one end of the park to the other.
Always remember. . . "The Show Must Go On."
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
MEANDERING THOUGHTS FROM A WONDERING MIND, or this is a blog after only four hours of sleep.
People always tell me, "It must be so exciting to work for Walt Dianey World." If you like getting yelled at by cranky nicotine deprived guests, playing map quest for the cachillion times and slathering on hand sanitizer everytime a precious child sneezes all over the counter, it's Super kalli fragil- - -, super cali fragelis - - -, you get the idea. When I was new (and nieve,) I vowed that i'd never get bored with going to the parks. Now, when a friend wants to play in the park, I let them in with my pass and ask when they want to meet for dinner that night. It was a good ten to twelve years that I never stepped foot in the magic kingdom. I had come and gone from costuming in the tunnels regularly for work purposes, but avoided the park like the pleague.
In fact most life time cast members clock out and leave the property like bats out of hell. This adds an extra dose of fun to driving at Disney World. First you have your basic Tourist. Lost or nearly lost, they stay in the middle lane because driving in the slow lane would be admitting that they were lost. Then you have the foreigners. Any one that drives on the left side of the road, gets a crash course in driving on the right when they turn into on coming traffic with out realizing it. A couple of near death experinces usally resolves the right/left driving rather quickly. Cast members, I hate to admit, tend to tail gate, hit the speed bumps a fast as thier car will allow ( with out leaving various parts behind in the road) and swerve in and out of traffic like they're playing a game of Frogger. Throw in a few smoke belching, gas guzzling busses that seem to crawl slower that a snail in summer, and you have a driving situation that is a thrill a minute. Word to the wise, Use The Mgical Express from the airport. It's a free bus service to and from the resorts.
Parking at the studios was always fun around the holidays, cheer leader competions, major show rehabs and any other time management wanted to mess with our minds. :)In the beginning, our parking was where the Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller coaster is now. The old security check point and the costuming building are still there, but catering has taken over the building. Except for a wee, itty bitty corner in the old men's bathroom. Yes I said Men's bathroom. That was turned into a "puppet hospital." The entertainment techs laid claim to the space years ago. That's were the broken Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Playhouse Disney and several other puppets go to reglued, re-sewed and re-habed. When the new rides were built, our parking was moved to the guest parking lot, except during holidays, when we park inside the park in any space big enough to fit a car.
During cheerleader competion, they put up a huge tent in our parking lot and we have to park way, way, way in the back. The common joke was, "Yeah, parking was so bad, I ended up in Germany." "You mean at Epcot." "No the country." Certain Cast working at the studios would see just how fast we could go when leaving the parking lot. The furthest back guest parking was rarely used, so it turned into a massive free for all short cut. . . until the powers that be put in speed bumps, and barracks, and a few well placed county police.
South of the Magic Kingdom parking lot is a race track. Disney tried to start up their own auto race, but it fizzled after a few runs. This track it now used for a Petty driving experience and more recently an Indy driving experience. The edge of the track it right next to the main road leaving the Magic Kindgom. On many occasions I have been caught off guard as a race car on the track speeds past the line of traffic on the road and scares the $h!t out of me.
When you work for the vacation capital of world, where do you go on vacation ? For me, it's AS FAR AS WAY FROM ORLANDO AS YOU CAN GET. I have traveled around the world and have not been anywhere that I didn't run into the mouse some where. At the foot steps of the Parthenon in Athens,Greece, a road side vendor was selling plastic Mickey junk. . . I mean stuff. The group I was touring with was hiking through a small, mostly abandoned town on our way to a ancient historical sight. The only human being I saw in this entire town was a young 7 or 8 year old little girl wearing a Minnie Mouse dress, Minnie tights, Minnie hair band and Minnie shoes. I did a volunteer vacation to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana, one year. I thought i was safe from seeing the mouse there, since Disney make alot of Native Americans mad at the company's potrayal of Pocahontas. WRONG. I was there no more than thirty minutes when we walked into a school class room and there, larger than life, on the wall were two cut outs of Mickey and Minnie in Native American style buckskin.
My quest continues.
In fact most life time cast members clock out and leave the property like bats out of hell. This adds an extra dose of fun to driving at Disney World. First you have your basic Tourist. Lost or nearly lost, they stay in the middle lane because driving in the slow lane would be admitting that they were lost. Then you have the foreigners. Any one that drives on the left side of the road, gets a crash course in driving on the right when they turn into on coming traffic with out realizing it. A couple of near death experinces usally resolves the right/left driving rather quickly. Cast members, I hate to admit, tend to tail gate, hit the speed bumps a fast as thier car will allow ( with out leaving various parts behind in the road) and swerve in and out of traffic like they're playing a game of Frogger. Throw in a few smoke belching, gas guzzling busses that seem to crawl slower that a snail in summer, and you have a driving situation that is a thrill a minute. Word to the wise, Use The Mgical Express from the airport. It's a free bus service to and from the resorts.
Parking at the studios was always fun around the holidays, cheer leader competions, major show rehabs and any other time management wanted to mess with our minds. :)In the beginning, our parking was where the Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller coaster is now. The old security check point and the costuming building are still there, but catering has taken over the building. Except for a wee, itty bitty corner in the old men's bathroom. Yes I said Men's bathroom. That was turned into a "puppet hospital." The entertainment techs laid claim to the space years ago. That's were the broken Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Playhouse Disney and several other puppets go to reglued, re-sewed and re-habed. When the new rides were built, our parking was moved to the guest parking lot, except during holidays, when we park inside the park in any space big enough to fit a car.
During cheerleader competion, they put up a huge tent in our parking lot and we have to park way, way, way in the back. The common joke was, "Yeah, parking was so bad, I ended up in Germany." "You mean at Epcot." "No the country." Certain Cast working at the studios would see just how fast we could go when leaving the parking lot. The furthest back guest parking was rarely used, so it turned into a massive free for all short cut. . . until the powers that be put in speed bumps, and barracks, and a few well placed county police.
South of the Magic Kingdom parking lot is a race track. Disney tried to start up their own auto race, but it fizzled after a few runs. This track it now used for a Petty driving experience and more recently an Indy driving experience. The edge of the track it right next to the main road leaving the Magic Kindgom. On many occasions I have been caught off guard as a race car on the track speeds past the line of traffic on the road and scares the $h!t out of me.
When you work for the vacation capital of world, where do you go on vacation ? For me, it's AS FAR AS WAY FROM ORLANDO AS YOU CAN GET. I have traveled around the world and have not been anywhere that I didn't run into the mouse some where. At the foot steps of the Parthenon in Athens,Greece, a road side vendor was selling plastic Mickey junk. . . I mean stuff. The group I was touring with was hiking through a small, mostly abandoned town on our way to a ancient historical sight. The only human being I saw in this entire town was a young 7 or 8 year old little girl wearing a Minnie Mouse dress, Minnie tights, Minnie hair band and Minnie shoes. I did a volunteer vacation to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana, one year. I thought i was safe from seeing the mouse there, since Disney make alot of Native Americans mad at the company's potrayal of Pocahontas. WRONG. I was there no more than thirty minutes when we walked into a school class room and there, larger than life, on the wall were two cut outs of Mickey and Minnie in Native American style buckskin.
My quest continues.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
HOLIDAYS AT THE MOUSE HOUSE
I often said, "I now know what kind of job the Grinch had that made him hate Christmas." Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas, but holidays in costuming was like a chaotic fire drill. We had row after row of toy soldier costumes (most of which had to be repainted every year), a thousand and one santa-ish costumes(all of which had to be dry cleaned and altered before, during and after the holidays), several inflatable snowmen and women(who always seemed to be missing parts from one year to the next) and a plethera of scarves, hats, mittens (a large chunk of which never found their way back into storage come January.)
For a while we had a Christmas Beauty and the Beast "Holiday Enhancement" show. Belle's dress was a beautifull bugundy and gold ball gown. Heavy as a ten ton truck, but beautiful. Along with Belle and Beast, the holiday show also had several kids from the park dressed as big round Christmas ornaments. Cute idea. Cute kids. A royal pain to deal with. We'd put the large balls of foam on the pargo at night to take them back to the building and one bump in the road, they'd all tumble out like dominoes. On a few times a custodial person would find a wayward ornament and bring it back for us.
You can always tell the state of mind of an area by how they treat the holidays. Fansatmic! was not having a good year back in the early 2000's and it showed. For our Halloween pumpkin carving contest, thier's was uncarved with a cut out of Mickey's ears, hands and feet sticking out from underneath it, as if he had been squashed. On the side of the pumpkin was the words, "Some imagination, Huh?" (those familiar with the show will understand where that came from). It's pretty safe to say that when your cast symbolicly squishes the corporate icon. . . They Are Not Happy.
We used to have Christmas Pargo Parades. A cast only thing, each department dressed up thier pargo in holiday themed decorations and they would be judged by the Studio's Executives. First year was a year for venting. Coordinators had lost thier status(demoted)a few months earlier. There were cut backs, shortened work weeks to save money and we saw a ton of money being spent on a new ride (Tower of Terror) that was having a lot of problems. Since all's fair in Love and Pargo Parades, the cast let management know just how unhappy they were when the evening's entertainment included thier version of the Seven Days of Christmas.
"On the second day of Christmas our managerment gave to us. . . a new exciting thrill ride." A chunk of dry wall was dropped from the catwalks of the stage signifing one of the many problems Tower had in the testing stages. (all was fixed and it's been running flawlessly ever since.) "On the fifth day of Christmas our management gave to us. . . Five disgruntal leads." -Insert explative of choice here-. . . you get the idea.
It wasn't all bad though. One of my all time favorite pargo's was the year a department got permission to use one of the Fort's draft horses and hitched it up to the pargo. On top was a crate of chickens and other hillbilly stuff. It was titled "A Country Christmas". Costuming's pargos were . . . let's just say, we never won. After a few years, the parade turned less Christmassy and more odd. THe year the character department provided the "floor show" entertainment that looked like it was straight out of a sleazy bar was the last year we had the pargo parade.
Another holiday tradtion that's still going strong is the 70% of cast sales, or as I call them Grab and Growl Sales. They open the doors and it's like a stampede. People drag around boxes overflowing with mickey shirts and Nemos dolls for pennies on the dollar. I saw one lady almost get jumped by another when the first lady mistakenly started looking through the other's box of stuff. "THAT"S MINE!" she said. A bunch of us slowly backed away, but an eye on the rabid shopper. Most of it is surplus from the merchdise shops although one year i managed to ge a nice four piece luggage set for $100 bucks.
On the upside, Disney at Christmas is awesome. When I worked at the Boardwalk the lobby smelled like gingerbread for days after they built the train gazebo. I've heard there is a chocolate carousel at one of the resorts. I think I'll have to find it this year.
For a while we had a Christmas Beauty and the Beast "Holiday Enhancement" show. Belle's dress was a beautifull bugundy and gold ball gown. Heavy as a ten ton truck, but beautiful. Along with Belle and Beast, the holiday show also had several kids from the park dressed as big round Christmas ornaments. Cute idea. Cute kids. A royal pain to deal with. We'd put the large balls of foam on the pargo at night to take them back to the building and one bump in the road, they'd all tumble out like dominoes. On a few times a custodial person would find a wayward ornament and bring it back for us.
You can always tell the state of mind of an area by how they treat the holidays. Fansatmic! was not having a good year back in the early 2000's and it showed. For our Halloween pumpkin carving contest, thier's was uncarved with a cut out of Mickey's ears, hands and feet sticking out from underneath it, as if he had been squashed. On the side of the pumpkin was the words, "Some imagination, Huh?" (those familiar with the show will understand where that came from). It's pretty safe to say that when your cast symbolicly squishes the corporate icon. . . They Are Not Happy.
We used to have Christmas Pargo Parades. A cast only thing, each department dressed up thier pargo in holiday themed decorations and they would be judged by the Studio's Executives. First year was a year for venting. Coordinators had lost thier status(demoted)a few months earlier. There were cut backs, shortened work weeks to save money and we saw a ton of money being spent on a new ride (Tower of Terror) that was having a lot of problems. Since all's fair in Love and Pargo Parades, the cast let management know just how unhappy they were when the evening's entertainment included thier version of the Seven Days of Christmas.
"On the second day of Christmas our managerment gave to us. . . a new exciting thrill ride." A chunk of dry wall was dropped from the catwalks of the stage signifing one of the many problems Tower had in the testing stages. (all was fixed and it's been running flawlessly ever since.) "On the fifth day of Christmas our management gave to us. . . Five disgruntal leads." -Insert explative of choice here-. . . you get the idea.
It wasn't all bad though. One of my all time favorite pargo's was the year a department got permission to use one of the Fort's draft horses and hitched it up to the pargo. On top was a crate of chickens and other hillbilly stuff. It was titled "A Country Christmas". Costuming's pargos were . . . let's just say, we never won. After a few years, the parade turned less Christmassy and more odd. THe year the character department provided the "floor show" entertainment that looked like it was straight out of a sleazy bar was the last year we had the pargo parade.
Another holiday tradtion that's still going strong is the 70% of cast sales, or as I call them Grab and Growl Sales. They open the doors and it's like a stampede. People drag around boxes overflowing with mickey shirts and Nemos dolls for pennies on the dollar. I saw one lady almost get jumped by another when the first lady mistakenly started looking through the other's box of stuff. "THAT"S MINE!" she said. A bunch of us slowly backed away, but an eye on the rabid shopper. Most of it is surplus from the merchdise shops although one year i managed to ge a nice four piece luggage set for $100 bucks.
On the upside, Disney at Christmas is awesome. When I worked at the Boardwalk the lobby smelled like gingerbread for days after they built the train gazebo. I've heard there is a chocolate carousel at one of the resorts. I think I'll have to find it this year.
Friday, October 31, 2008
EPIC - More Shananigans
The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. . . or as we call it EPIC, has a reputation for being a wild and unruly place. Just because it was the place where second hand furniture would go to die and there was always clothes hangers flying through the air didn't mean they don't follow the rules. They just tend to bend them every chance they get. Around 2003 or 2004, two tumblers we'll call 'P' and 'S', were working at Fantasmic! one night and decided to come back to the Epic trailer between shows. During the Epic show, they crawled into an upper window of the scene two set and pretended to be eating dinner. The crew was dieing laughing. To make it worse, Tumbler 'P' knelt down and pretended to propose to the other tumbler. After the fact, the Stage Manger said she had never laughed so hard in her life, then she threatened them with thier life if they ever did that again.
A few of the cast were moving the tumbling mats one day and they found a HUGE black snake. Of course they had to catch it. It was like watching a bunch of boys in a school yard as they brought it in the breakroom trailer. One of the girls screamed and ran. The boys followed her the dressing room with the snake. I'm not sure, but I think she promised to do permanent bodily harm to them if they didn't get the "%$&" snake out of the green room. Believe me, this particular Marion Stunt double would have kicked the tumbler's @$$ too.
At various times through out the years we have had several husband / wife cast members. I often wondered how many times personal marital desputes were settled on stage. The girls could beat up her husbands and say "Ooops, huney, sorry, didn't mean to hit you that hard." When the first Marion got pregnant, it seemed so strange to have 'maternity clothes' in a predominately male cast show. Then the next married couple got pregenant, and the maternity clothes moved on down the clothes line. After a few years of revolving pregancies, I decided there must have been 'something in the water' and stayed away from the water cooler. The boys in the cast quickly learned to stay away from any 'milk' in small bottles that was in the refridgerator too.
The first lunch table in the room was the designated 'Public Access" zone. If you accidently left your lunch there, it was eaten by some one. One year on July 4th, I wanted to bring something colorful in for every one, so i mixed Skittles and M&M's since they looked similar. Taste however. . .not so much. The boy's would grab a handfull, thinking it was all chocolate. SURPRISE! (Note to self: lemon and chocolate didn't really go well together.) One of the guys brought a bunch of crawfish back from his family's place in Louisana one year and made crawfish etufee (i know i spelled it wrong), the green room was turned into a feeding frenzi. A large crock pot filled to the ring was empty om mear minutes. During convention season, they do a Cairo themed dinner show at the stage. Afterwards, the catering people would let us have the left overs instead of throwing it out. We'd have a full rack of lamb and couscous for days.
The great thing about being involved with a stage show, is when you need help, your friends are there by your side. One of the tumbler's blew his knee out doing a mini- tramp stunt and had to have surgery to re-attach everything. He said he got up one morning when he heard a mower running in his front yard. With out asking and with out being asked, one of his fellow cast members was outside mowing his yard.
In the same token, when some thing good happened, everyone joined in the fun. One of the German giants (tall guys that beat up Indy), was in the movie Speed Two. The Epic cast rented a limo for him so he could be chauffered to the theater. We filled up at least three rows in the theater. The cast member that was in the film roamed up and down the isle taking to everyone. THe rest of the movie goers wandered what was going on. When our friend's scene came up, we all stood and cheered. After the film, our friend had a couple dozen new fans.
It doesn't take long to learn to not dare these guys to do anything, cause they'll take your dare. One of the Indy's came into wardrobe, one day, wearing only a towel. We told him we were washing towels and needed that one too. He dropped that one and walked off bare behinded. My first thought was, " Hey that worked, let's try that again." Actually, it was more like. "Oh YEAH, I like my job." Then it was, "Hey that worked, let's try that again."
Speaking of towels. I was bored one day and decided to throw a few pair of red tumbler pants in with the white towels. Sure enough. they came out the prettiest pink. What's funny is that the macho stunt guys always used those towels first.
The boys love to mess with people's minds. They'd walk through the back of the Epic theater and do a prac-fall. This usally meant a cup of water would fly into the air one way and papers would fly off in the other as they'd hit the ground. Every time they'd fall, I'd see a half dozen guest's come close to wetting themselves. If several of us were going to the commissary, at least one would always walk into the door and smack it so hard that the entire room would hear it.
One of my favorite memories was when I was giving a couple guys a ride to the commissary, when we could do such things with out getting in trouble. Our pargos, or modified electric golf carts, was a flat bed. Back when we were an actual studios, we had various places were the guests could see back stage. On this particular run, one of the stunt guys laid down in the back of the pargo and the other pretended to do CPR as we passed by a line of guests. The whole way he kept yelling, "Can't this thing go any faster !!". I ducked my head and just kept driving.
A few of the cast were moving the tumbling mats one day and they found a HUGE black snake. Of course they had to catch it. It was like watching a bunch of boys in a school yard as they brought it in the breakroom trailer. One of the girls screamed and ran. The boys followed her the dressing room with the snake. I'm not sure, but I think she promised to do permanent bodily harm to them if they didn't get the "%$&" snake out of the green room. Believe me, this particular Marion Stunt double would have kicked the tumbler's @$$ too.
At various times through out the years we have had several husband / wife cast members. I often wondered how many times personal marital desputes were settled on stage. The girls could beat up her husbands and say "Ooops, huney, sorry, didn't mean to hit you that hard." When the first Marion got pregnant, it seemed so strange to have 'maternity clothes' in a predominately male cast show. Then the next married couple got pregenant, and the maternity clothes moved on down the clothes line. After a few years of revolving pregancies, I decided there must have been 'something in the water' and stayed away from the water cooler. The boys in the cast quickly learned to stay away from any 'milk' in small bottles that was in the refridgerator too.
The first lunch table in the room was the designated 'Public Access" zone. If you accidently left your lunch there, it was eaten by some one. One year on July 4th, I wanted to bring something colorful in for every one, so i mixed Skittles and M&M's since they looked similar. Taste however. . .not so much. The boy's would grab a handfull, thinking it was all chocolate. SURPRISE! (Note to self: lemon and chocolate didn't really go well together.) One of the guys brought a bunch of crawfish back from his family's place in Louisana one year and made crawfish etufee (i know i spelled it wrong), the green room was turned into a feeding frenzi. A large crock pot filled to the ring was empty om mear minutes. During convention season, they do a Cairo themed dinner show at the stage. Afterwards, the catering people would let us have the left overs instead of throwing it out. We'd have a full rack of lamb and couscous for days.
The great thing about being involved with a stage show, is when you need help, your friends are there by your side. One of the tumbler's blew his knee out doing a mini- tramp stunt and had to have surgery to re-attach everything. He said he got up one morning when he heard a mower running in his front yard. With out asking and with out being asked, one of his fellow cast members was outside mowing his yard.
In the same token, when some thing good happened, everyone joined in the fun. One of the German giants (tall guys that beat up Indy), was in the movie Speed Two. The Epic cast rented a limo for him so he could be chauffered to the theater. We filled up at least three rows in the theater. The cast member that was in the film roamed up and down the isle taking to everyone. THe rest of the movie goers wandered what was going on. When our friend's scene came up, we all stood and cheered. After the film, our friend had a couple dozen new fans.
It doesn't take long to learn to not dare these guys to do anything, cause they'll take your dare. One of the Indy's came into wardrobe, one day, wearing only a towel. We told him we were washing towels and needed that one too. He dropped that one and walked off bare behinded. My first thought was, " Hey that worked, let's try that again." Actually, it was more like. "Oh YEAH, I like my job." Then it was, "Hey that worked, let's try that again."
Speaking of towels. I was bored one day and decided to throw a few pair of red tumbler pants in with the white towels. Sure enough. they came out the prettiest pink. What's funny is that the macho stunt guys always used those towels first.
The boys love to mess with people's minds. They'd walk through the back of the Epic theater and do a prac-fall. This usally meant a cup of water would fly into the air one way and papers would fly off in the other as they'd hit the ground. Every time they'd fall, I'd see a half dozen guest's come close to wetting themselves. If several of us were going to the commissary, at least one would always walk into the door and smack it so hard that the entire room would hear it.
One of my favorite memories was when I was giving a couple guys a ride to the commissary, when we could do such things with out getting in trouble. Our pargos, or modified electric golf carts, was a flat bed. Back when we were an actual studios, we had various places were the guests could see back stage. On this particular run, one of the stunt guys laid down in the back of the pargo and the other pretended to do CPR as we passed by a line of guests. The whole way he kept yelling, "Can't this thing go any faster !!". I ducked my head and just kept driving.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
W T H
In today's Blog I'm starting a 'W'hat 'T'he 'H'ell moments section. I'm sure I will have many additions over time.
Anything political brings out the best in most people. The day of the last Obama/McCain presidnetial debate I had a gentleman (I use this term losely) come to the desk and question why we didn't have FoxNews on the cable system. I told him we had Fox Network. He blew up. "I DIDN'T SAY FOX NETWORK. I SAID FOX NEWS. IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT YOU DON'T HAVE FOX NEWS. I WILL NEVER COME BACK TO DISNEY AND I WILL NEVER STAY HERE AGAIN. He had his finger in my face as he yelled, then stormed off. I was floored and speachless. I went to the back office and the only thing i could say was, "What the Hell was that all about ?" I later found out that FoxNews has the reputation for being ultra conservative Republican. So Mr MadMan had to have been McCain Repulican Supporter Poster Child.
As I have said before, we are a swamp state. We have bugs and we have reptiles. That's not to say we like them, BUT most of us under stand that there are more roaches and mosquitoes than humans and bug spray can only due so much. I had a guest at AllStar get upset about a cockroach in an out side laundry room. I tried to explain that it had rained alot recently and bugs, like people, tend to move to drier ground. He said, "Is that acceptible to have roaches around here ?" I said, "No, but bug spray can only do so much." He came back with, "So you have roaches in your house." "No i Don't." "Then why is it acceptible here ?" . . . basically he wanted to pick a fight, so I sent him to a manager.
I love the "My plane broke down. We're 12 hours late. How are you going to compensate me." comments. I tried to explain to this guest that we are not an airlines. We don't have anything to do with the airlines. "It was Disney that booked this flight." "Mam, Reservations books alot of people on a lot of different flights." She came back with, "It's not my fault I lost a day. You are the ones that booked me on that flight." ". . . Did I mention that WE ARE NOT THE AIRLINES."
My first day back from several weeks vacation, I had a guest at the Wilderness Lodge ask me, "Where's the Geshia ?" He spoke with a heavy spanish accent, so I could barely understand him, but he kept asking about the Geshias. I kid you not, in the back of my mind I kept thinking, 'I know I've been gone for a while, but I didn't think it had been THAT long.' When the elderly gentleman asked again he made a hand motion for water. I FINALLY understood. He was asking about the Geysers. The Lodge had our version of Old Faithful down behind the pool.
I got this guest moment second hand. Apparently, at All Star Resort, a lady has a wee bit too much to drink and on her way back to her room either fell into the bushes or passed out in the bushes. However, she was wide a wake when an armadillo decided to run up her leg. She came to the desk and claimed she had been 'raped' by an armadillo. The terrified animal could not be found for questioning.
I was working at the bus stop for Boardwalk Resort one morning and heard a child tell her mom. "I finished my Goldfish(crackers)." I didn't too much about it, until the buses came and the crowds left. Then I realized that her version of "I finished my Goldfish." meant she had dumped the bag of crackers on the ground. After the large group of guests waiting for the bus trompled through them, the entire bus stop floor was covered in orange cracker crumbs.
Bless thier hearts, some people get so confused. I can't tell you how many times I have had people ask me where The Hulk Roller Coaster is, or where is the Beetlejuice Show? I can really mess with thier heads when I say, "about ten miles north of here." "Huh ?" Sometimes when we tell them that a particular ride isn't at Disney, people will want to argue with you. I have been known to say, " Look I work at Universal Studios too. Trust me when I say that ride (or show) is at Universal, not Disney."
Jumping over to our Studios for a moment. For those old timers who may remember Super Star Television, I have some precious children moments to share. Did I say Precious, what I meant to say was, W T H moments. Super Star would pick 20 to 24 people out of the audience, costuming would dress them in costumes then send them out on stage for thier acting debute. As the moms of the entertainment world, costuming people became pretty darn good at preventing melt downs with the younger kids, most of the time.
In the Bonanza scene we'd put a vest and tie on a child and the techs put them on a fake horse. In the camera shot it's supposed to look like they're one of the Cartwright brothers. One day I tried to put the tie on a girl. She said, "No." I said, " Can you try it for five minutes ?" "NO." "Well, then you need to go sit back down." "NO." "You're going to get stepped on if you stay in the middle of the floor." "NO." I gave up. I don't think she ever did move.
After Little Ms. NO, we had Damion child. Super Star had three large turn tables with large sets on them for the differnt scenes. Damion child kept trying to jump on the turn tables everytime they moved. During scenes he'd stomp around back stage with his Mickey ears in one had and a pair of Mickey glasses in the other. Apparently, he wanted more attention, so he threw his hat and glasses down and fell to the floor. The other guests thought he was hurt. He wasn't. Finally one of the techs literally picked him up and said, "You're staying with me for a while." . . . or at least until the end of the show.
A ride operations host working at Star Tours was bored one day and began acting like a animatron as the guests were leaving the ride. One guest stuck her hand down his shirt to see if he was real and in the process, ripped several buttons off his shirt. When questioned later, she said she wanted see if he had nipples. (I don't elaborate on this stuff, I just report it.)
I have been told that Guest Relations, you know them as them complaint people, have been asked why Disney World wasn't covered so that people wouldn't get rained on.
Speaking of rain. Can anyone tell me why people Keep Running for Cover in the rain after you're already soaked to the bone ? You are already wet. You can't get any wetter than wet.
Though I have never worked there, i was told that a typical day at Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground consists of:
HISK Cast Member
(clears throat)
"Get down from there. Get down from there. Don't climb on
that. Get down from there. You lost you mom ? Don't worry
we'll find her. Get down from there. Get, get, get, get,
down. Yes You!. "
HISK Cast Member exists stage left with mental break down eminent.
HISK Cast Member
"What The Hell !!"
Anything political brings out the best in most people. The day of the last Obama/McCain presidnetial debate I had a gentleman (I use this term losely) come to the desk and question why we didn't have FoxNews on the cable system. I told him we had Fox Network. He blew up. "I DIDN'T SAY FOX NETWORK. I SAID FOX NEWS. IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT YOU DON'T HAVE FOX NEWS. I WILL NEVER COME BACK TO DISNEY AND I WILL NEVER STAY HERE AGAIN. He had his finger in my face as he yelled, then stormed off. I was floored and speachless. I went to the back office and the only thing i could say was, "What the Hell was that all about ?" I later found out that FoxNews has the reputation for being ultra conservative Republican. So Mr MadMan had to have been McCain Repulican Supporter Poster Child.
As I have said before, we are a swamp state. We have bugs and we have reptiles. That's not to say we like them, BUT most of us under stand that there are more roaches and mosquitoes than humans and bug spray can only due so much. I had a guest at AllStar get upset about a cockroach in an out side laundry room. I tried to explain that it had rained alot recently and bugs, like people, tend to move to drier ground. He said, "Is that acceptible to have roaches around here ?" I said, "No, but bug spray can only do so much." He came back with, "So you have roaches in your house." "No i Don't." "Then why is it acceptible here ?" . . . basically he wanted to pick a fight, so I sent him to a manager.
I love the "My plane broke down. We're 12 hours late. How are you going to compensate me." comments. I tried to explain to this guest that we are not an airlines. We don't have anything to do with the airlines. "It was Disney that booked this flight." "Mam, Reservations books alot of people on a lot of different flights." She came back with, "It's not my fault I lost a day. You are the ones that booked me on that flight." ". . . Did I mention that WE ARE NOT THE AIRLINES."
My first day back from several weeks vacation, I had a guest at the Wilderness Lodge ask me, "Where's the Geshia ?" He spoke with a heavy spanish accent, so I could barely understand him, but he kept asking about the Geshias. I kid you not, in the back of my mind I kept thinking, 'I know I've been gone for a while, but I didn't think it had been THAT long.' When the elderly gentleman asked again he made a hand motion for water. I FINALLY understood. He was asking about the Geysers. The Lodge had our version of Old Faithful down behind the pool.
I got this guest moment second hand. Apparently, at All Star Resort, a lady has a wee bit too much to drink and on her way back to her room either fell into the bushes or passed out in the bushes. However, she was wide a wake when an armadillo decided to run up her leg. She came to the desk and claimed she had been 'raped' by an armadillo. The terrified animal could not be found for questioning.
I was working at the bus stop for Boardwalk Resort one morning and heard a child tell her mom. "I finished my Goldfish(crackers)." I didn't too much about it, until the buses came and the crowds left. Then I realized that her version of "I finished my Goldfish." meant she had dumped the bag of crackers on the ground. After the large group of guests waiting for the bus trompled through them, the entire bus stop floor was covered in orange cracker crumbs.
Bless thier hearts, some people get so confused. I can't tell you how many times I have had people ask me where The Hulk Roller Coaster is, or where is the Beetlejuice Show? I can really mess with thier heads when I say, "about ten miles north of here." "Huh ?" Sometimes when we tell them that a particular ride isn't at Disney, people will want to argue with you. I have been known to say, " Look I work at Universal Studios too. Trust me when I say that ride (or show) is at Universal, not Disney."
Jumping over to our Studios for a moment. For those old timers who may remember Super Star Television, I have some precious children moments to share. Did I say Precious, what I meant to say was, W T H moments. Super Star would pick 20 to 24 people out of the audience, costuming would dress them in costumes then send them out on stage for thier acting debute. As the moms of the entertainment world, costuming people became pretty darn good at preventing melt downs with the younger kids, most of the time.
In the Bonanza scene we'd put a vest and tie on a child and the techs put them on a fake horse. In the camera shot it's supposed to look like they're one of the Cartwright brothers. One day I tried to put the tie on a girl. She said, "No." I said, " Can you try it for five minutes ?" "NO." "Well, then you need to go sit back down." "NO." "You're going to get stepped on if you stay in the middle of the floor." "NO." I gave up. I don't think she ever did move.
After Little Ms. NO, we had Damion child. Super Star had three large turn tables with large sets on them for the differnt scenes. Damion child kept trying to jump on the turn tables everytime they moved. During scenes he'd stomp around back stage with his Mickey ears in one had and a pair of Mickey glasses in the other. Apparently, he wanted more attention, so he threw his hat and glasses down and fell to the floor. The other guests thought he was hurt. He wasn't. Finally one of the techs literally picked him up and said, "You're staying with me for a while." . . . or at least until the end of the show.
A ride operations host working at Star Tours was bored one day and began acting like a animatron as the guests were leaving the ride. One guest stuck her hand down his shirt to see if he was real and in the process, ripped several buttons off his shirt. When questioned later, she said she wanted see if he had nipples. (I don't elaborate on this stuff, I just report it.)
I have been told that Guest Relations, you know them as them complaint people, have been asked why Disney World wasn't covered so that people wouldn't get rained on.
Speaking of rain. Can anyone tell me why people Keep Running for Cover in the rain after you're already soaked to the bone ? You are already wet. You can't get any wetter than wet.
Though I have never worked there, i was told that a typical day at Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground consists of:
HISK Cast Member
(clears throat)
"Get down from there. Get down from there. Don't climb on
that. Get down from there. You lost you mom ? Don't worry
we'll find her. Get down from there. Get, get, get, get,
down. Yes You!. "
HISK Cast Member exists stage left with mental break down eminent.
HISK Cast Member
"What The Hell !!"
Sunday, September 28, 2008
WHEN MOTHER NATURE COMES TO VISIT . . . AND STAYS
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.
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.
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)
