Working with the public from around the world, you see the good, you see the bad, then you see things that you can only classify as "What The Hell. . ."
The number one pissed off guests comment is "THIS IS NOT ACCEPTIBLE." I wish I could just once say. "I am sorry that you were too igorant to read the information that was sent to you, but the world does not revolve around you." But that would be un-Disney-like. You can make a room request, but I can not gaurantee requests. Why? Because they are requests. The more requests you ask for the less likely you'll get them, especially when a specific request doesn't exist. Three connecting rooms, poolside, on the 12th floor of the Wilderness lodge and everything is to be ready by 7:00 in the morning when I arrive on Easter Weekend. (here's your assignment, go to Disney.com and find out why that won't happen. . . ever) Yelling at a cast member or manager and pitching a crying fit in the lobby won't change the fact that a specific room is already occupied.
If you come to Disney from June to August, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Martin Luther King Day, March to end of April due your self a favor and Make Dinning Reservations as before you get here. Although we can usually find something, somewhere, it's usually not in a park or it's at 9:00 at night or 7:30 in the morning. Dining is the second biggest reason for a melt down. "Oh My God, My life is ruined if I can not eat dinner at 6:00 every night in my favorite restaurant." My answer to that, "You lead a sad, sad life if that's all it takes to ruin it."
I can not tell you how many times I have suggested a restaurant and have had a guest ask me," Do they have good food?" Do you really think I'm going to say, "No that place Sucks."
We had a guest come to the front desk at the Lodge in a fit of rage and screamed at the cast member, "I SHIT IN MY BED LAST NIGHT AND IT'S STILL THERE." . . . I have a hard time figuring out which is more disturbing. The fact that a grown woman would 'S!!T' in her bed AND admitted it. Or the fact that a houskeeper could make the bed with out seeing the stuff and change the sheets. Ewww. We're moving on.
On the Concierge floors at the premium resorts we provide breakfast, snacxs, wine, cheese, bottled beer and cordials through out the day. Recently we had some guests who were waiting for the elevator with a stroller covered in jackets. However, when they hit a bump in the floor, a bottle of beer fell out. These people had tried to wipe out the lounge's beer supply and stuffed it in their stroller.
In another case of the classic, give them and inch they'll take a mile, my managers will usually refuse to give a written guarantee to anything. Apparently people have taken the good will deeds of a manager or two in the past and photocopied it to give to thier friends or worse yet sell it on ebay. I'm not sure if it ever cost anyone thier job, but who wants to take that chance.
Disney offers discounts to Florida Residence for tickets. People try to con us by saying that thier Florida ID is in the room or it's in thier car and they get upset when we refuse to sell them tickets at the Resident rate. At this point, I wish I could say A)Unless you plan to support me the rest of my life, when I lose my job, I'm not selling you tickets at a resident rate, B) As a resident of this state and having to deal with all of you tourists, if getting into the park a little cheaper is a perk Disney is willing to put out there, I AM NOT giving that perk away to anyone who does not live here, C)If you can afford to stay in a premium resort, you can afford to pay for tickets to the park.
Not every W T H guest encounter is an angery one. We had a young guy hanging out in the merchandise shop one day and kept asking people if they spoke french. He didn't speak french, he just wandered how many people he could find who spoke the language. I believe he was asked to leave.
I was looking up a guest's record and asked for a first name. The lady's answer "His first name is Doctor." "Mam, that would be a title."
A Sheriff Deputy walked through the lobby and we started talking. He said most of the traffic stops on property are cast members who are late for work. However, they stopped a guest one day who got a $105 speeding ticket. When asked why he was speeding, the guest said, "I have to go pee." I had another guest so excited about being at Disney, even a little souvenier from the Florida Highway Patrol didn't dampen the mood. She admitted that when asked why she was speeding, she said, "We were trying to figure out the words to the song 'The wheels on the bus go round and round' and I wasn't paying attention." She said the Trooper was not amused when she asked him if he knew the words to the song.
While at Coronado Springs, one of my manaagers needed to walk guests to the Yacht and Beach club. (Simply, when we get over booked, we make arrangements at a different resort for them.) These guests refused to go. Coronado is a Moderate price resort. Yatch and Beach is a premium resort. Still, they pitched a fit. Next to them were some cast members checking in (using a discounted cast member rate). They said they'd take the room if the guest's didn't want it. Long story short, cast members didn't just get a room at a high end resort for just over $100, they got a water view suite. My best guess is that it was a $400 or up room. After the 'fit pitching' guests heard this, they said, "well, maybe we will take that room." My manamger said, "Sorry to late, thier names are already on the room." I know what he wanted to say was "You are such a LOSER."
Not all of the W T H momnents belong to the guests. I was in the elevator with a couple construction workers and over heard thier conversation. Apparently they just caught a painter dumping a five gallong bucket of paint in the a planter. We reached our floor, they went one way, I went the other, so I never found out what happened after that.
And on that note i must now go to work and gather more material for next time
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A PARADE CALLED 'ALADDIN'S ROYAL CARAVAN'
Way back when, the powers that be used to have big, grand unveilings when a new movie came out. And we always knew we'd have a new show to open soon or a new parade to dress. When Beauty and the Beast hit theaters, we openned the Beauty and the Beast show. Which as of March 2009, it's still going strong. Since then, there's been Ninja Turtle shows, Muppet shows, Pocahontas shows and the much loved Hunchback of Notre Dame show. In between the stage shows we had a Dino parade, Mulan Parade, Toy Story parade and . . . either you loved it or you hated it, The Aladdin Royal Caravan parade.
The costume designers got real creative with this one. 'I know, let's put character performers in huge blow up cotumes and make them walk down the street while doing a dance routine'. And POOF . . . Inflatable Costumes came into being. Dressing performers in the inflatables was like building an erector set. There was alot of insert tab A into slot B and hope you don't whack someone in the head while doing it. Once the frame work was assembled we had to attach the batteries, zip the performer inside and watch it blow up. You'd think with fans blowing inside the costume to inflate them they wouldn't be as hot in the 100 degree August summers. Wrong, at the end of the parade route costuming was half dressers, half health coach. We had an arsenal of gatorade, water and wet towels set up at step down (end of parade) everyday.
THe Acrobat costumes were large and heavy two piece contraptions that we had to climb on a four foot high platform in order to put it together. Once together they looked like two or three cartoon clown acrobats on each other's shoulders. A good friend of mine fell off the platform one day. No, I take that back, she fell Under the platform. We were running late and the parade was leaving the park so my friend "S" ran to the Acrobat dressing area, missed the step and ended up underneath the thing. She survived.
THe Jewlery attendants were just kind of wierd and creepy. They were over sized shirtless men with baskets of fake gold and jewlery on their heads. They were simpler to assemble, but still really heavy. If you remember the movie, at one point Genie splits himself in half and the legs run around on their own. We had an inflatable for that too.
Because of the complicated costumes, cotuming had to walk the parade wearing a kaftan (sorry if i spelled it wrong) and a hat along with carrying a radio, so we could let people know when a unit went down and where we were. For me, the kaftan was always too big, the hat always fell off and the radio was always hard to understand what anybody was saying. By "a unit going down", I mean anything could happen with the inflatables. Batteries died or melted down (sometimes literally melting). The metal frame work would sometimes break. A performer would get over heated and have to be quickly removed from the Hefty Bag. . . . I mean costume. You name it. It happened. There were certian points in the parade route were we could exit a performer safely. Sometimes they made it there. . . .and sometimes they didn't.
Beleive it or not, the Aladdin parade orginally had concubines as well. They always cast the real butch guys to do it. The costume was a dress and coconut shells for breasts. Needless to say, they didn't last.
THe next time you go to Magic Kingdom, next to Tiki birds is the Aladdin Magic carpet ride. The two gold camels that are by the ride, used to be floats in our parade. I'm not sure if the still spit, but in our parade they did.
We also had an Elephant float that Aladdin and Jasmine rode on. The only way on and off the float was by fork lift. Aladdin's Prince Ali's costume is a cream almost pale yellow shirt, pants, cape and turban. The turban is supposed to have a big purple fluffy feather. One day, with a thunder storm fast approaching, Aladdin and Jasmine settled on thier elephant float. The fork lift was no where around and mother nature decided pour down the rain. We ran for cover and watched as Aladdin and Jasmine became completely drenched. Aladdin's feather wilted and rivers of purple dye ran all over his costume. Needless to say, we soon had a white feather for the possible rain days and the purple one for sunny days.
Speaking of rain days. One day the parade didn't go out because of bad weather. We were bored. The performers were bored. Being the mischievious children that they are,
a couple of performers talked us into letting them 'ride in the dryer'. By the second time around, they were ready to get out.
SSHhhh just don't tell the managers that someone went for a spin in the industrial dryer.
The costume designers got real creative with this one. 'I know, let's put character performers in huge blow up cotumes and make them walk down the street while doing a dance routine'. And POOF . . . Inflatable Costumes came into being. Dressing performers in the inflatables was like building an erector set. There was alot of insert tab A into slot B and hope you don't whack someone in the head while doing it. Once the frame work was assembled we had to attach the batteries, zip the performer inside and watch it blow up. You'd think with fans blowing inside the costume to inflate them they wouldn't be as hot in the 100 degree August summers. Wrong, at the end of the parade route costuming was half dressers, half health coach. We had an arsenal of gatorade, water and wet towels set up at step down (end of parade) everyday.
THe Acrobat costumes were large and heavy two piece contraptions that we had to climb on a four foot high platform in order to put it together. Once together they looked like two or three cartoon clown acrobats on each other's shoulders. A good friend of mine fell off the platform one day. No, I take that back, she fell Under the platform. We were running late and the parade was leaving the park so my friend "S" ran to the Acrobat dressing area, missed the step and ended up underneath the thing. She survived.
THe Jewlery attendants were just kind of wierd and creepy. They were over sized shirtless men with baskets of fake gold and jewlery on their heads. They were simpler to assemble, but still really heavy. If you remember the movie, at one point Genie splits himself in half and the legs run around on their own. We had an inflatable for that too.
Because of the complicated costumes, cotuming had to walk the parade wearing a kaftan (sorry if i spelled it wrong) and a hat along with carrying a radio, so we could let people know when a unit went down and where we were. For me, the kaftan was always too big, the hat always fell off and the radio was always hard to understand what anybody was saying. By "a unit going down", I mean anything could happen with the inflatables. Batteries died or melted down (sometimes literally melting). The metal frame work would sometimes break. A performer would get over heated and have to be quickly removed from the Hefty Bag. . . . I mean costume. You name it. It happened. There were certian points in the parade route were we could exit a performer safely. Sometimes they made it there. . . .and sometimes they didn't.
Beleive it or not, the Aladdin parade orginally had concubines as well. They always cast the real butch guys to do it. The costume was a dress and coconut shells for breasts. Needless to say, they didn't last.
THe next time you go to Magic Kingdom, next to Tiki birds is the Aladdin Magic carpet ride. The two gold camels that are by the ride, used to be floats in our parade. I'm not sure if the still spit, but in our parade they did.
We also had an Elephant float that Aladdin and Jasmine rode on. The only way on and off the float was by fork lift. Aladdin's Prince Ali's costume is a cream almost pale yellow shirt, pants, cape and turban. The turban is supposed to have a big purple fluffy feather. One day, with a thunder storm fast approaching, Aladdin and Jasmine settled on thier elephant float. The fork lift was no where around and mother nature decided pour down the rain. We ran for cover and watched as Aladdin and Jasmine became completely drenched. Aladdin's feather wilted and rivers of purple dye ran all over his costume. Needless to say, we soon had a white feather for the possible rain days and the purple one for sunny days.
Speaking of rain days. One day the parade didn't go out because of bad weather. We were bored. The performers were bored. Being the mischievious children that they are,
a couple of performers talked us into letting them 'ride in the dryer'. By the second time around, they were ready to get out.
SSHhhh just don't tell the managers that someone went for a spin in the industrial dryer.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
When cast members come out to play.
As I've said before, most life time cast members don't spend a lot of time in the parks. We clock out and go home. I had one guest ask if they provided a place for us to sleep and live on property. Yeah, they do. It's called College Program. Several thousand college kids and international college kids are brought in to work at Disney for predetermined amounts of time. THey are the ones that "eat, sleep and live Disney". As for the rest of 50,000 cast members, we high tail it to the real world. As for me, I'm about 30 to 45 minutes north.
THe one event that probably brings the most people back to the property on thier days of is the Epcot Wine and Food Feastival, or as we refere to it, 'drinking your way around the world'. Some people don't wait for the festival in order to do this. For them any excuse to drink around Epcot is enough. During the run of Hunckback of Notre Dame, we had a show emergency one day. Quasimodo performers had called in sick and the show was unable to go on with out the star. The stage manager decided to call some one in to work who had the day off. THe problem was, this person had been enjoying the wine and food feastival, with much emphasis on the wine. He told managers he had been drinking, after all it was his day off. Manager said for him to come into work anyway. So we, in costuming, had to baby sit a tipsy quasi all day.
The Studios has a scavanger hunt / trivia game every year that they call Goofy's Mystery Tour. I did this a long, long, long time ago. My friend and team mate managed to get bitten by something that night and her face swelled up like a ballon by the next morning. . . it was fun. Any way, there are teams of four, bungeed corded together, running through the park in search of clues to solve a master riddle. In the process you can get bonus points for answering trivia questions along the way. THe year we did it. . .we lost, badly. I'll always remember a fellow losing team that night. THey too had realized they had a snowball's chance in h#$$ of winning, so they ended up skipping (yes skipping) through the park chanting "It just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter." It wasn't until they scored the trivia test that we realized just how bad we had done.
Entertianment folks are always willing to "put on a show" in order to raise money for a fellow cast member in need. During the run of the show Doug, one of the cast was in a really bad car wreck days before his health insurance kicked in. Entertainment folks from across property gathered thier resources and put on a song and dance show (after hours) to help raise money for thier fellow actor to pay off some of his medical bills. THe character department did this again when one of thier coordinators came down with terminal cancer. Unfortuneately he was too sick to attend. He passed away a short time later.
During my time in Studio Costuming, it wsa like pulling teeth to get anyone to participate in anything. Even potlucks had sketchy turnouts. My current resort is the polar opposite. There's a baseball team, a marathon team, bowlers for Jounior Acheivement and pot lucks at a drop of a hat. In fact, one of the concierge folks was on the resort's soft ball team and decided to stop a line drive with her bare hand the other day. . . . She had a glove on the other hand, but for reasons unknown to her, she didn't use it. Have you ever tried to type with a broken finger ? Let's just say, it's not fun. At the Lodge you always know when there was a game the night before. Everybody's moving a bit slower in the morning. THe aspirin box is a little emptier. And people in their thirties and fourties are groaning like thier in their nineties.
As a concierge i really should spend more time in the parks, nahhhh, why start now. Although it is fun to seek revenge on stupid people. Case in point: when an attraction's host says, "Please move down to fill in each and every available seat," DO IT. I can not tell you how many times see people stopping in the middle of the row and totally ignore the cast member. Consider this a fair warning - If I see you and your party stop in the middle of the row and refuse to move to the end, I will step on your feet as I try to squeeze by you. It's all about courtesy folks.
I keep saying that "some day, I'm going to check out this restaurant or that show," but after a decade and a half of working for the company. . . why rush things. :)
THe one event that probably brings the most people back to the property on thier days of is the Epcot Wine and Food Feastival, or as we refere to it, 'drinking your way around the world'. Some people don't wait for the festival in order to do this. For them any excuse to drink around Epcot is enough. During the run of Hunckback of Notre Dame, we had a show emergency one day. Quasimodo performers had called in sick and the show was unable to go on with out the star. The stage manager decided to call some one in to work who had the day off. THe problem was, this person had been enjoying the wine and food feastival, with much emphasis on the wine. He told managers he had been drinking, after all it was his day off. Manager said for him to come into work anyway. So we, in costuming, had to baby sit a tipsy quasi all day.
The Studios has a scavanger hunt / trivia game every year that they call Goofy's Mystery Tour. I did this a long, long, long time ago. My friend and team mate managed to get bitten by something that night and her face swelled up like a ballon by the next morning. . . it was fun. Any way, there are teams of four, bungeed corded together, running through the park in search of clues to solve a master riddle. In the process you can get bonus points for answering trivia questions along the way. THe year we did it. . .we lost, badly. I'll always remember a fellow losing team that night. THey too had realized they had a snowball's chance in h#$$ of winning, so they ended up skipping (yes skipping) through the park chanting "It just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter." It wasn't until they scored the trivia test that we realized just how bad we had done.
Entertianment folks are always willing to "put on a show" in order to raise money for a fellow cast member in need. During the run of the show Doug, one of the cast was in a really bad car wreck days before his health insurance kicked in. Entertainment folks from across property gathered thier resources and put on a song and dance show (after hours) to help raise money for thier fellow actor to pay off some of his medical bills. THe character department did this again when one of thier coordinators came down with terminal cancer. Unfortuneately he was too sick to attend. He passed away a short time later.
During my time in Studio Costuming, it wsa like pulling teeth to get anyone to participate in anything. Even potlucks had sketchy turnouts. My current resort is the polar opposite. There's a baseball team, a marathon team, bowlers for Jounior Acheivement and pot lucks at a drop of a hat. In fact, one of the concierge folks was on the resort's soft ball team and decided to stop a line drive with her bare hand the other day. . . . She had a glove on the other hand, but for reasons unknown to her, she didn't use it. Have you ever tried to type with a broken finger ? Let's just say, it's not fun. At the Lodge you always know when there was a game the night before. Everybody's moving a bit slower in the morning. THe aspirin box is a little emptier. And people in their thirties and fourties are groaning like thier in their nineties.
As a concierge i really should spend more time in the parks, nahhhh, why start now. Although it is fun to seek revenge on stupid people. Case in point: when an attraction's host says, "Please move down to fill in each and every available seat," DO IT. I can not tell you how many times see people stopping in the middle of the row and totally ignore the cast member. Consider this a fair warning - If I see you and your party stop in the middle of the row and refuse to move to the end, I will step on your feet as I try to squeeze by you. It's all about courtesy folks.
I keep saying that "some day, I'm going to check out this restaurant or that show," but after a decade and a half of working for the company. . . why rush things. :)
Friday, February 6, 2009
WHEN OBJECTS OBJECTS. . . OBJECTIONALY.
Not all of the stories from Disney involve people and animals. Some times inanimate objects are the center of attention.
Epic (Indiana Jones Stunt Show) has a very large bolder that chases Indy at the end of scene one. This "bolder" isn't a real rock, BUT it's no feather either. Think of a 500 pound basketball. The ball launcher mechanism gets the ball spinning to a predetermined speed then launches it onto the track. Indy sees it coming and runs for his life with the bolder just grazing his shoulder the whole way. Some times it doesn't quiet work the way it's supposed to. On at least one occasion the ball was launched too fast and it hit Indy, dislocating his shoulder. On another occassion the ball rolled up Indy's back and out of the track. Which meant a 500 pund ball was bouncing towards the audience. . . Seeing that coming towards you will make you wet your pants, I'm sure. Fortuneatly, some trap doors from earlier in the scene were still open on stage and the ball hit one of them and bounced away from the audience. Needless to say, the show was over for the day. I heard it took a fork lift to put it back in the track.
THey had bought a new Indy bolder one year and stored in the parade float building while it was being painted. We watched the painter/artist spend hours upon hours making it look just right. Eventually the management saw it and liked it, so the techs
moved it out side and set it next their props tent. In case you haven't seen the show, this bolder is about as tall as a one story building (if not taller). It was a hot summer day. Less than an hour later one of our Epic cast walked in the trailer and said "The ball just blew up." Of course we had to all go check it out. Sure enough, it looked like one giant flat tire. Apparently te painter had painted over the pressure relief valve and as the sun heated it up, it popped like a balloon.
Epic'c green room is the place were all furniture goes to die. They bought new heavy wooden couches one year thinking it could stand up the the extreme abuse of the trailer. WRONG. The railings on the armrests became good things to hold on to while stretching out for the show. . . until they all broke off. THen the railing pieces turned in to mini baseball bats, until they were all taken away. At one point, a leg fell off the couch. I'm not sure how, neither does any one else. Instead of calling maintenance to fix it, they shoved a water cooler bottle under the corner of the couch.
Not to think Epic had all the fun, In the late nineties, the costuming building had an event that will alway be known as "The Great Fall". Wardrobe building was wall to wall clothes and four tiers high. Bottom two tiers held clothes for daily issue. Any one who works the attractions, merchandise, custodial, you name it we had it. Third tier was back up storage. The four tier costumes hadn't seen the light of day in nearly a decade and if it weren't for the racking collapse, it would probably still be there. (Even though another department now has that building.) Anyway, I still had a few hours until i had to leave for work, when my friend calls me at home. "You gotta come into work, main issue just fell down," she said. Needless to say, i dropped everything and when to work early. To say it looked like a bomb went off would be an understatement. All four tiers of galvanized pipe racking tilted to the left and just kept on going. One of the rails even impaled the clock on the wall. I believe four or five people were trapped underneath mounds of clothes and pipes. No one was seriously injured, although one or two did go to the hospital just to be safe and one person was so traumatised she never came back to work. THey had trucks from all over property and every department gathering costuming and sorting out the mess. And of course it started to rain, so any sense of organization turned into "Get in it inside something." It took months for management to track down all of our stuff after that.
One sure fire way to wreck your day at Disney is to wreck a car at Disney. To REALLY wreck your day, try backing a truck up into the celebrity motorcade's parade convertible. Back many, many moons ago, during Aladdin parade (I believe), my coordinator had the lift gate down on the parade transport truck and was trying to reposition it for the parade. . . Let's just say, she missed her intended mark and creamed the side of the candy apple red Saab Convertible. She didn't lose her job over it, but she didn't stick around long after that either.
On a lighter note, I have a question. How hard is it to load a stapler? Apparently it's the equvalent to brain surgery. Wilderness Lodge back office and bank room is the place for misfit staplers. They never work and on more than one occassion, I have found staples put in upside down. . . HOW CAN YOU LOAD A STAPLER WRONG????
There I said it. Let's move on. I'm going to end with my friend the Segway. I had always wanted to learn how to use this thing. At All Star resort, I had my chance. In the short time that I used before I transfered I had only two 'Oh Shit' moments. Moment number one was when I learned to never, ever turn going full speed ahead. I didn't flip it, but it came pretty darn close. THe second moment was when I came close to hitting a guest as she walked out of her room. She scared me, I scared her. THe feelings were mutual. One of my fellow front desk runners learned the hard way how not to enter a building with wet tires. At one of the All Stars, the floors are a high gloss finish. Rubber tires, shinny floor and a dab of rain led to him not only falling off the Segway, he said it lost traction and threw him to the ground.
Epic (Indiana Jones Stunt Show) has a very large bolder that chases Indy at the end of scene one. This "bolder" isn't a real rock, BUT it's no feather either. Think of a 500 pound basketball. The ball launcher mechanism gets the ball spinning to a predetermined speed then launches it onto the track. Indy sees it coming and runs for his life with the bolder just grazing his shoulder the whole way. Some times it doesn't quiet work the way it's supposed to. On at least one occasion the ball was launched too fast and it hit Indy, dislocating his shoulder. On another occassion the ball rolled up Indy's back and out of the track. Which meant a 500 pund ball was bouncing towards the audience. . . Seeing that coming towards you will make you wet your pants, I'm sure. Fortuneatly, some trap doors from earlier in the scene were still open on stage and the ball hit one of them and bounced away from the audience. Needless to say, the show was over for the day. I heard it took a fork lift to put it back in the track.
THey had bought a new Indy bolder one year and stored in the parade float building while it was being painted. We watched the painter/artist spend hours upon hours making it look just right. Eventually the management saw it and liked it, so the techs
moved it out side and set it next their props tent. In case you haven't seen the show, this bolder is about as tall as a one story building (if not taller). It was a hot summer day. Less than an hour later one of our Epic cast walked in the trailer and said "The ball just blew up." Of course we had to all go check it out. Sure enough, it looked like one giant flat tire. Apparently te painter had painted over the pressure relief valve and as the sun heated it up, it popped like a balloon.
Epic'c green room is the place were all furniture goes to die. They bought new heavy wooden couches one year thinking it could stand up the the extreme abuse of the trailer. WRONG. The railings on the armrests became good things to hold on to while stretching out for the show. . . until they all broke off. THen the railing pieces turned in to mini baseball bats, until they were all taken away. At one point, a leg fell off the couch. I'm not sure how, neither does any one else. Instead of calling maintenance to fix it, they shoved a water cooler bottle under the corner of the couch.
Not to think Epic had all the fun, In the late nineties, the costuming building had an event that will alway be known as "The Great Fall". Wardrobe building was wall to wall clothes and four tiers high. Bottom two tiers held clothes for daily issue. Any one who works the attractions, merchandise, custodial, you name it we had it. Third tier was back up storage. The four tier costumes hadn't seen the light of day in nearly a decade and if it weren't for the racking collapse, it would probably still be there. (Even though another department now has that building.) Anyway, I still had a few hours until i had to leave for work, when my friend calls me at home. "You gotta come into work, main issue just fell down," she said. Needless to say, i dropped everything and when to work early. To say it looked like a bomb went off would be an understatement. All four tiers of galvanized pipe racking tilted to the left and just kept on going. One of the rails even impaled the clock on the wall. I believe four or five people were trapped underneath mounds of clothes and pipes. No one was seriously injured, although one or two did go to the hospital just to be safe and one person was so traumatised she never came back to work. THey had trucks from all over property and every department gathering costuming and sorting out the mess. And of course it started to rain, so any sense of organization turned into "Get in it inside something." It took months for management to track down all of our stuff after that.
One sure fire way to wreck your day at Disney is to wreck a car at Disney. To REALLY wreck your day, try backing a truck up into the celebrity motorcade's parade convertible. Back many, many moons ago, during Aladdin parade (I believe), my coordinator had the lift gate down on the parade transport truck and was trying to reposition it for the parade. . . Let's just say, she missed her intended mark and creamed the side of the candy apple red Saab Convertible. She didn't lose her job over it, but she didn't stick around long after that either.
On a lighter note, I have a question. How hard is it to load a stapler? Apparently it's the equvalent to brain surgery. Wilderness Lodge back office and bank room is the place for misfit staplers. They never work and on more than one occassion, I have found staples put in upside down. . . HOW CAN YOU LOAD A STAPLER WRONG????
There I said it. Let's move on. I'm going to end with my friend the Segway. I had always wanted to learn how to use this thing. At All Star resort, I had my chance. In the short time that I used before I transfered I had only two 'Oh Shit' moments. Moment number one was when I learned to never, ever turn going full speed ahead. I didn't flip it, but it came pretty darn close. THe second moment was when I came close to hitting a guest as she walked out of her room. She scared me, I scared her. THe feelings were mutual. One of my fellow front desk runners learned the hard way how not to enter a building with wet tires. At one of the All Stars, the floors are a high gloss finish. Rubber tires, shinny floor and a dab of rain led to him not only falling off the Segway, he said it lost traction and threw him to the ground.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING WRONG, DO YOU? . . .THE TRICK IS JUST DON'T GET CAUGHT.
While working at a place like Disney, it's really kind of hard to get fired. Not showing up for work with out 'Calling in' twice will do it. Too many 'call ins' will also do it. There's a matrix of how many call ins are allowed in a certain alotted time. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people play the game and get burned in the end. For the first nearly five years of my Disney career i had perfect attendance. At that time they offered a $500 bonus for perfect attendence. When I heard that they stopped the bonus. . . I Called in sick the next week.
Damaging property doesn't neccesarily get you fired. Story has it that one of my managers in costuming flipped a pargo (golf cart) yeaars ago. I never got the complete story on how she managed to do that. She probably got a reprimend or two, then it was forgotten about. I had another manager put the pargo in the 'area formally known as the swamp'. She to still works for the company. By the way, 'the swamp' has since been replaced by Lights, Motors, Action Stunt show.
When Disney MGM Studios had a working animation studio, they built them thier own parking garage. They have since left and the building is used for administration. The parking garage gets a work out during the holidays when hourly cast members have to park inside the park, so more guests can park in the lots. At various points in time, fellow cast members would give each other pargo rides to thier cars at the end of thier shift. After arriving at my car, I dared my friend with the pargo to just let it roll down the parking garage to see how fast it would go. He did. I followed with my car and clocked him at 30 to 35 mph. . .I didn't think those little things could take corners that fast.
While at Epic, one of the costuming folks had a huge delemna. Her son had to go to a doctor's appointment, but she knew he wouldn't go unless she took him. However, she couldn't get out of work. We had all worked together for a very long time and tended to watch each other's backs, so we told her to go and we'd cover for her. So she left work (still on the clock) for four hours. The show went on with out a hitch. Our manager came in we told him that she was at Creative costuming picking up repairs. She came in while our manager was there and panicked. I took her to the back, told her everything was fine and just act like you got back from a supply run. She did. He never suspected a thing.
Similarly, one of the dressers did something that started simple enough, but soon turned into a monster: Go get chinese take out for everyone. Two problems, the restuarant was around fifteen miles (45 minutes away) and the number of people ordering kept growing each week. The epic cast,which is a huge cast, started adding thier orders. Soon Hunchback of Notre Dame cast and crew would stop by the stage on thier way to work and drop off their orders too. THe driver always got a free lunch out of it, but the fact that we were off property for nearly two hours could make for a short Disney career.
Don't get me wrong, you are allowed to leave property for your 60 minute lunch break. However, it usually takes much longer to get to your car, drive to a restraunt, order, eat and get back. When you work in shows and miss the 15 minute 'places for show' call, you're toast. Just ask the performer at Beauty and the Beast who was at Taco Bell and completely missed the show. For character integrity sake I won't say which role he played, but lets just say, he was a huge part of the show. They replaced him on the spot. The only thing that saved his job was, while they were in the process of terminating (firing) him, the replacement performer fell off the stage during the next show and was pretty badly injured. So Taco Bell Boy went back to the show, finshed the day AND saved his job.
It's not uncommon to see people sleeping under the clothes line duirng show breaks. It's out of the way, noises are muffled and managers can't find you. . . usually. One day back in the mid-nineties, we had a long time cast member come to work at Epic and she was sick as a dog. She asked to go home, but the manager wouldn't let her. (Why is the subject for a whole other blog). It was at a time when Epic was in the boondocks (the park had since grown and EPic is in smack dab in the middle of everything) and it could be literally weeks or months at a time with out seeing a manager. So we told our co-worker the go to the back of the trailer and sleep it off. In case i failed to mention it, sleeping on the job is another immediately fireable offense too. But in this case the wardrobe person slept most of the entire shift and we coverd for her.
I'm sure making pipe bombs would be considered and immediate fireable offense as well, but on a bored rainy day someone desided to see what would happen if they put dry ice in a hard plastic Evian bottle. Let's just say, it crackled, and clouded up, and crackled more. The master builder got a bit nervous over what he had done and desided to kick it inside the building. Thank God it didn't make it that far, since inside the break room was wall to wall mirrors and I know the precussion that followed would have shattered them all. Any way, in the process if kicking the bottle up the ramp, it got wedged under the dry ice bin. It exploded with such force that I know half the park heard it and most people I talked with thougth it was pyro from Epic. Hard pieces of plastic shrapnel went everywhere and not a single part of the bottle was reconizable. Needless to say a lesson was learned and I believe we all probably needed new underwear afterwards too.
Damaging property doesn't neccesarily get you fired. Story has it that one of my managers in costuming flipped a pargo (golf cart) yeaars ago. I never got the complete story on how she managed to do that. She probably got a reprimend or two, then it was forgotten about. I had another manager put the pargo in the 'area formally known as the swamp'. She to still works for the company. By the way, 'the swamp' has since been replaced by Lights, Motors, Action Stunt show.
When Disney MGM Studios had a working animation studio, they built them thier own parking garage. They have since left and the building is used for administration. The parking garage gets a work out during the holidays when hourly cast members have to park inside the park, so more guests can park in the lots. At various points in time, fellow cast members would give each other pargo rides to thier cars at the end of thier shift. After arriving at my car, I dared my friend with the pargo to just let it roll down the parking garage to see how fast it would go. He did. I followed with my car and clocked him at 30 to 35 mph. . .I didn't think those little things could take corners that fast.
While at Epic, one of the costuming folks had a huge delemna. Her son had to go to a doctor's appointment, but she knew he wouldn't go unless she took him. However, she couldn't get out of work. We had all worked together for a very long time and tended to watch each other's backs, so we told her to go and we'd cover for her. So she left work (still on the clock) for four hours. The show went on with out a hitch. Our manager came in we told him that she was at Creative costuming picking up repairs. She came in while our manager was there and panicked. I took her to the back, told her everything was fine and just act like you got back from a supply run. She did. He never suspected a thing.
Similarly, one of the dressers did something that started simple enough, but soon turned into a monster: Go get chinese take out for everyone. Two problems, the restuarant was around fifteen miles (45 minutes away) and the number of people ordering kept growing each week. The epic cast,which is a huge cast, started adding thier orders. Soon Hunchback of Notre Dame cast and crew would stop by the stage on thier way to work and drop off their orders too. THe driver always got a free lunch out of it, but the fact that we were off property for nearly two hours could make for a short Disney career.
Don't get me wrong, you are allowed to leave property for your 60 minute lunch break. However, it usually takes much longer to get to your car, drive to a restraunt, order, eat and get back. When you work in shows and miss the 15 minute 'places for show' call, you're toast. Just ask the performer at Beauty and the Beast who was at Taco Bell and completely missed the show. For character integrity sake I won't say which role he played, but lets just say, he was a huge part of the show. They replaced him on the spot. The only thing that saved his job was, while they were in the process of terminating (firing) him, the replacement performer fell off the stage during the next show and was pretty badly injured. So Taco Bell Boy went back to the show, finshed the day AND saved his job.
It's not uncommon to see people sleeping under the clothes line duirng show breaks. It's out of the way, noises are muffled and managers can't find you. . . usually. One day back in the mid-nineties, we had a long time cast member come to work at Epic and she was sick as a dog. She asked to go home, but the manager wouldn't let her. (Why is the subject for a whole other blog). It was at a time when Epic was in the boondocks (the park had since grown and EPic is in smack dab in the middle of everything) and it could be literally weeks or months at a time with out seeing a manager. So we told our co-worker the go to the back of the trailer and sleep it off. In case i failed to mention it, sleeping on the job is another immediately fireable offense too. But in this case the wardrobe person slept most of the entire shift and we coverd for her.
I'm sure making pipe bombs would be considered and immediate fireable offense as well, but on a bored rainy day someone desided to see what would happen if they put dry ice in a hard plastic Evian bottle. Let's just say, it crackled, and clouded up, and crackled more. The master builder got a bit nervous over what he had done and desided to kick it inside the building. Thank God it didn't make it that far, since inside the break room was wall to wall mirrors and I know the precussion that followed would have shattered them all. Any way, in the process if kicking the bottle up the ramp, it got wedged under the dry ice bin. It exploded with such force that I know half the park heard it and most people I talked with thougth it was pyro from Epic. Hard pieces of plastic shrapnel went everywhere and not a single part of the bottle was reconizable. Needless to say a lesson was learned and I believe we all probably needed new underwear afterwards too.
Friday, January 16, 2009
YOU'RE KIDDING . . . Right ?
Lately, I've been scribbling down notes from various people's stories, waiting until I had enough to blog about. So with out further adieu. . .
Did you know the Buzz Lightyear is on the International Space Station ? In 2008, the astronauts brought a Buzz doll with them to leave on the station. Apparently there is an on going kid's educational program and Buzz is the spokes-doll (is that a real word?)
I heard today, on the news that Barack Obama's girls was going to be wearing Disney made, princess inspired dresses for the inaugauration. I can see it now, we'll have a Princess line of dresses AND a Presidential line of dresses in our stores.
If it looks like pot and smells like pot, it must be . . . pot, right? Well, according to Disney Horticulture folks, maybe not. I was working crowd control for the Pirates and Princess party in 2008. Stationed in front of the train station, I began smelling something rather strange. Several other people I was working with thought the same thing I did. The plants around the flag pole looked like marijauna, smelled like marijuana, BUT apparently, was not marijuana. Believe what you will, I think the Horticulture people were messing with us.
Guests are what keep this blog going. THe things we see and we hear never cease to amaze me. Disney Vacation Club. (a.k.a. Disney time share) has a representative in the resort lobbies. One of the DVC reps mentioned that they have turned into the non-official information booth. I asked him what his most absurd question was. His answer: "If my dad buys a vacation club, does he get a monkey ?"
A tree had fallen across the boradwalk leading to the ferryboats to Magic Kingdom at Wilderness Lodge. A front desk cashier was working part of her shift at the bus stop helping people find thier way on the right bus. She had a very irrate guest confront her and demand that SHE move the tree, right then. After being yelled by the guest, the cashier left her post, walked in side and informed managers that she was never going back to the busses again. Thanks the the 2008 economy issues, that post was perminately eliminated.
A story about Port Orleans comes from many years ago. The person who told me this believed it happened back when it was still two separate resorts (Port Orleans and Dixie Landings). Apparently they have a place called Alligator Bayou and a brainiac was feeding an alligator. Let me remind you, a) this is Florida, gators are everywhere, b) it is a criminal offense to feed alligators, c) Gators are not the sharpest tool in the shed. When this guest ran out of food, the gator was still hungry and followed him to the building. The building had automatic doors. When the gator reached the door, it opened and yes, it went inside the building. Needless to say, they removed the automatic door opener soon there after.
At All Star Resort, I had a lady who had just got off of a very long and trying plane flight. They took her cigarette lighter from her a the airport. The fight was delayed. She was aggitated one moment and crying the next. When she asked if I had a lighter or cigarettes( of which I had neither), i knew her problems had little to do with us and more to do with nicotine withdrawls. It made me really glad that I did not smoke.
In closing I want to leave you with a recent story to start out 2009 right. One of the concierge Cast members was helping a guest, when someone came to the counter and said, "there's a naked child running up and down the hall way." THe cast member looked at her guest, who told her to "go do what you need to do, we'll wait." By the time Disney staff got there, another guest had corraled the child, wrapped him in a towel and had him sitting down. The managers used the master key to open the door to the child's room. There was nobody in the room. One of the managers noticed shoes by the balcony door. He pulled back the curtian and quickly closed it again, but he had seen WAY MORE than he had ever cared to. Let's just say, junior was about to be a big brother. Junior's mom and dad were, of course, a bit miffed at being caught with thier pants down. . . literally and figuretively, but the manager explained to him that his son was running up and down the hallway buck naked. Apparently, they laid Junior down for a nap and decided to expand thier family out on the balcony. When Junior woke up, mom and dad were gone, so he walked out of the room and the door locked behind him.
Tuned in next time for more tales of the absurd.
Did you know the Buzz Lightyear is on the International Space Station ? In 2008, the astronauts brought a Buzz doll with them to leave on the station. Apparently there is an on going kid's educational program and Buzz is the spokes-doll (is that a real word?)
I heard today, on the news that Barack Obama's girls was going to be wearing Disney made, princess inspired dresses for the inaugauration. I can see it now, we'll have a Princess line of dresses AND a Presidential line of dresses in our stores.
If it looks like pot and smells like pot, it must be . . . pot, right? Well, according to Disney Horticulture folks, maybe not. I was working crowd control for the Pirates and Princess party in 2008. Stationed in front of the train station, I began smelling something rather strange. Several other people I was working with thought the same thing I did. The plants around the flag pole looked like marijauna, smelled like marijuana, BUT apparently, was not marijuana. Believe what you will, I think the Horticulture people were messing with us.
Guests are what keep this blog going. THe things we see and we hear never cease to amaze me. Disney Vacation Club. (a.k.a. Disney time share) has a representative in the resort lobbies. One of the DVC reps mentioned that they have turned into the non-official information booth. I asked him what his most absurd question was. His answer: "If my dad buys a vacation club, does he get a monkey ?"
A tree had fallen across the boradwalk leading to the ferryboats to Magic Kingdom at Wilderness Lodge. A front desk cashier was working part of her shift at the bus stop helping people find thier way on the right bus. She had a very irrate guest confront her and demand that SHE move the tree, right then. After being yelled by the guest, the cashier left her post, walked in side and informed managers that she was never going back to the busses again. Thanks the the 2008 economy issues, that post was perminately eliminated.
A story about Port Orleans comes from many years ago. The person who told me this believed it happened back when it was still two separate resorts (Port Orleans and Dixie Landings). Apparently they have a place called Alligator Bayou and a brainiac was feeding an alligator. Let me remind you, a) this is Florida, gators are everywhere, b) it is a criminal offense to feed alligators, c) Gators are not the sharpest tool in the shed. When this guest ran out of food, the gator was still hungry and followed him to the building. The building had automatic doors. When the gator reached the door, it opened and yes, it went inside the building. Needless to say, they removed the automatic door opener soon there after.
At All Star Resort, I had a lady who had just got off of a very long and trying plane flight. They took her cigarette lighter from her a the airport. The fight was delayed. She was aggitated one moment and crying the next. When she asked if I had a lighter or cigarettes( of which I had neither), i knew her problems had little to do with us and more to do with nicotine withdrawls. It made me really glad that I did not smoke.
In closing I want to leave you with a recent story to start out 2009 right. One of the concierge Cast members was helping a guest, when someone came to the counter and said, "there's a naked child running up and down the hall way." THe cast member looked at her guest, who told her to "go do what you need to do, we'll wait." By the time Disney staff got there, another guest had corraled the child, wrapped him in a towel and had him sitting down. The managers used the master key to open the door to the child's room. There was nobody in the room. One of the managers noticed shoes by the balcony door. He pulled back the curtian and quickly closed it again, but he had seen WAY MORE than he had ever cared to. Let's just say, junior was about to be a big brother. Junior's mom and dad were, of course, a bit miffed at being caught with thier pants down. . . literally and figuretively, but the manager explained to him that his son was running up and down the hallway buck naked. Apparently, they laid Junior down for a nap and decided to expand thier family out on the balcony. When Junior woke up, mom and dad were gone, so he walked out of the room and the door locked behind him.
Tuned in next time for more tales of the absurd.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS, OH MY
Living in a town with three major theme park companies, you start to see where each develop their special niche. Universal Studios it's Halloween. With all of the classic monster movies to pull from, they have became the masters of the things that go bump in the night. During Holloween Horror Nights they scare the snot out of normaly sane individuals with deranged clowns, Bloody Mary, demented nursery ryhme characters and thier own creation: The Chain Saw Drill Team.(zombies chasing people around the park with real chain saws. . .with the blades removed of course.) I have heard of many occasions where half drunk guests try to challenge the cast for thier chain saws. Word to the wise, unlike at Disney and SeaWorld, scare characters at Universal can and do fight back.
Sea World always seems to have a 'We are the World' feel. For a while anyway, Fourth of July was thier niche. They had special patriotic Shamu shows and firworks. At the time I'm writing this, they had just been bought out by a foreign company, so time will tell if that will still be thier niche. A side note, they have a Shamu show called 'Believe'. My friend saw it the other day and said it was really cool. . . until the whales stopped believing. Apparently something happened and they started aggressively circling the tank. Needless to say, the trainers bailed out of the water until they get them calmed down.
Disney's niche in the holidays is Christmas. Nobody can even come close to all of the details that Disney puts in thier displays. There's a Forty Five foot Christmas Tree in the lobby of Wilderness Lodge. Although the uneven placement of the Teepee ornaments has bugged me all Season. Yacht and Beach club had a chocolate carousel. Boardwalk had a gingerbread gazebo with a moving train set running around it. Why a Gazebo? I'd like to know. If anyone has an answer, emial me. THe Grand Florida has a huge ginger bread house in their lobby. Our guests in the campgrounds who set up for the whole season have taken it upon thier self to decorate thier motor homes with lights and christmas displays to such a degree that is has drawn the attention of a travel channel television show.
The Millions of lights in the Osbourne Family lights display at the Studios lost alot of it's charm once residential street was plowed over for the new stunt show. The Spectical of Lights, or as we call it, S O L . . .(Yeah we have a few other choice discriptions as well), anyway, it all started in Little Rock Arkansaw. Mr Osbourne managed to tick off some neighbors with his massive Christmas light display every year. Law enforcement was called in to manage the crowds and government officals fined him for disrupting the peace and creating traffic jams. Story has it that a particular neighbor got mad, so he bought their house and threw lights on it as well. As this battle was spinning out of control, in steps Disney. They offered to pay off his fines and in return Disney would have the rights to the displays. And thus a Disney legend is born. A little side note, I was told that in 2008, as the metal globe that sits above the display was being installed, it was accidently dropped from the crane and it rolled several hundred yards into the park before stopping. It survived. Dented, but survived. One of my favorite memories of SOL, was back when they used to hand out 3D glasses. With them on, you'd see angels every where. One day, I came across a five or six years old child, standing inches away from a tall lit up candy cane. She'd put the glasses look at the lights. She'd take them off and look at the lights. Put them on, take them off. She must have done this five or six timed in a row. It was like she was trying to figure out where the angels came from.
Epcot always has the warm fuzzy 'all is well with the world' shows. Besides Illuminations, during chriatmas, they have a retelling of the Christmas story by guest celebrity narrators. It's always standing room only, which is why i haven't seen it yet. When you work for the mouse, you tend to not wait around when the lines are long.
Magic Kingdom, being the grand daddy of them all has a Christmas parade, an electric light parade, fireworks and characters out the ying yang. One year back in the nineties, it was a rainy, nasty mess here in Orlando on Christmas day. But the Disney Christmas parade that was televised showed bright sunny skys. So we had guests from Tampa decide to take a drive over to Orlando and get into the sunny side of the state. . . I mean after all, it was sunny on TV. Ooops, Faux Pas. Most, if not all of the Parade is filled in advance. This year Millie Cyrus was supposed to host it. I didn't have the heart to tell Millie's fans that her parts were aleady taped.
New Years has it's usual fireworks and confetti. On the eve of the new millenium, however, Disney had planned for everything from a mild hiccup in the computer systems to an all out Armaggeddon. They had high powered construction lights at every intersection in case the Y2K struck down our power grid. THey had lengthy plans in case of senario A, B and X. THEN. . .nothing happened. Universal Studios, in contrast, gave us one sheet of paper with some meager instructions in case of power outages and/ or Y2K mayhem. Again, nothing happened.
Poor Thanksgiving tends to get over looked alot. Management always gets a turkey and/ or ham for us and we potluck the rest. One year, Epic had several turkeys delievered to the stage on a tall, metal catering cart. The cart was pushed outside to give us room in the trailer. And there it sat . . . and sat . . . and sat. It had to have been nearly a month that it was forgotten outside of the Epic trailer. When one day, some one decided to send it back to catering. It was then that we realized we still had aleast two roast turkey's in there. Needless to say they were a bit fuzzy.
Martin Luther King day, I never really thought much about him, UNTIL his day turned into a paid holiday.
November is Native American Month and at the Wilderness Lodge, we have a tribal leader bless the lodge. Maybe that's why we're staying busy in the slow periods. In our lobby we have two totem poles. Since it is considered to be bad luck to have them face each other, ours are off set just a bit, but I was told that the totems almost facing each other is another reason we get it blessed every year, in order to keep all of the bad spirits, karma, ect away.
Another November memory was the year Disney decided to float the Macy's Thanksgiving day ballons over New York street. I was told that there had to technicians on the building roofs 24/7 to keep the helium ballond from tearing up or getting tangled up since they would sink in the cool night air and could possibly over inflate in the heated up day time air. We still managed to kill the a few ballons. I can'r remember if we did that one or two years, but when the Osbourne lights moved in the Macy's ballons moved up the road to Universal.
THanks for readiing. Keep coming back each month for more inside the insider's view of Disney
Sea World always seems to have a 'We are the World' feel. For a while anyway, Fourth of July was thier niche. They had special patriotic Shamu shows and firworks. At the time I'm writing this, they had just been bought out by a foreign company, so time will tell if that will still be thier niche. A side note, they have a Shamu show called 'Believe'. My friend saw it the other day and said it was really cool. . . until the whales stopped believing. Apparently something happened and they started aggressively circling the tank. Needless to say, the trainers bailed out of the water until they get them calmed down.
Disney's niche in the holidays is Christmas. Nobody can even come close to all of the details that Disney puts in thier displays. There's a Forty Five foot Christmas Tree in the lobby of Wilderness Lodge. Although the uneven placement of the Teepee ornaments has bugged me all Season. Yacht and Beach club had a chocolate carousel. Boardwalk had a gingerbread gazebo with a moving train set running around it. Why a Gazebo? I'd like to know. If anyone has an answer, emial me. THe Grand Florida has a huge ginger bread house in their lobby. Our guests in the campgrounds who set up for the whole season have taken it upon thier self to decorate thier motor homes with lights and christmas displays to such a degree that is has drawn the attention of a travel channel television show.
The Millions of lights in the Osbourne Family lights display at the Studios lost alot of it's charm once residential street was plowed over for the new stunt show. The Spectical of Lights, or as we call it, S O L . . .(Yeah we have a few other choice discriptions as well), anyway, it all started in Little Rock Arkansaw. Mr Osbourne managed to tick off some neighbors with his massive Christmas light display every year. Law enforcement was called in to manage the crowds and government officals fined him for disrupting the peace and creating traffic jams. Story has it that a particular neighbor got mad, so he bought their house and threw lights on it as well. As this battle was spinning out of control, in steps Disney. They offered to pay off his fines and in return Disney would have the rights to the displays. And thus a Disney legend is born. A little side note, I was told that in 2008, as the metal globe that sits above the display was being installed, it was accidently dropped from the crane and it rolled several hundred yards into the park before stopping. It survived. Dented, but survived. One of my favorite memories of SOL, was back when they used to hand out 3D glasses. With them on, you'd see angels every where. One day, I came across a five or six years old child, standing inches away from a tall lit up candy cane. She'd put the glasses look at the lights. She'd take them off and look at the lights. Put them on, take them off. She must have done this five or six timed in a row. It was like she was trying to figure out where the angels came from.
Epcot always has the warm fuzzy 'all is well with the world' shows. Besides Illuminations, during chriatmas, they have a retelling of the Christmas story by guest celebrity narrators. It's always standing room only, which is why i haven't seen it yet. When you work for the mouse, you tend to not wait around when the lines are long.
Magic Kingdom, being the grand daddy of them all has a Christmas parade, an electric light parade, fireworks and characters out the ying yang. One year back in the nineties, it was a rainy, nasty mess here in Orlando on Christmas day. But the Disney Christmas parade that was televised showed bright sunny skys. So we had guests from Tampa decide to take a drive over to Orlando and get into the sunny side of the state. . . I mean after all, it was sunny on TV. Ooops, Faux Pas. Most, if not all of the Parade is filled in advance. This year Millie Cyrus was supposed to host it. I didn't have the heart to tell Millie's fans that her parts were aleady taped.
New Years has it's usual fireworks and confetti. On the eve of the new millenium, however, Disney had planned for everything from a mild hiccup in the computer systems to an all out Armaggeddon. They had high powered construction lights at every intersection in case the Y2K struck down our power grid. THey had lengthy plans in case of senario A, B and X. THEN. . .nothing happened. Universal Studios, in contrast, gave us one sheet of paper with some meager instructions in case of power outages and/ or Y2K mayhem. Again, nothing happened.
Poor Thanksgiving tends to get over looked alot. Management always gets a turkey and/ or ham for us and we potluck the rest. One year, Epic had several turkeys delievered to the stage on a tall, metal catering cart. The cart was pushed outside to give us room in the trailer. And there it sat . . . and sat . . . and sat. It had to have been nearly a month that it was forgotten outside of the Epic trailer. When one day, some one decided to send it back to catering. It was then that we realized we still had aleast two roast turkey's in there. Needless to say they were a bit fuzzy.
Martin Luther King day, I never really thought much about him, UNTIL his day turned into a paid holiday.
November is Native American Month and at the Wilderness Lodge, we have a tribal leader bless the lodge. Maybe that's why we're staying busy in the slow periods. In our lobby we have two totem poles. Since it is considered to be bad luck to have them face each other, ours are off set just a bit, but I was told that the totems almost facing each other is another reason we get it blessed every year, in order to keep all of the bad spirits, karma, ect away.
Another November memory was the year Disney decided to float the Macy's Thanksgiving day ballons over New York street. I was told that there had to technicians on the building roofs 24/7 to keep the helium ballond from tearing up or getting tangled up since they would sink in the cool night air and could possibly over inflate in the heated up day time air. We still managed to kill the a few ballons. I can'r remember if we did that one or two years, but when the Osbourne lights moved in the Macy's ballons moved up the road to Universal.
THanks for readiing. Keep coming back each month for more inside the insider's view of Disney
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