8 years ago
Friday, October 1, 2010
Ryan's Magical Moment
I had to choose the guest of the hour at work today (yes, STILL at Flame Tree). I asked the manager for advice as this was my first “Magical Moment.” He told me to choose any guest, give them the special certificate and get all the other guests and cast members to make a big deal! I don’t have the best public speaking skills (but working at Disney is helping them to improve greatly), so I was just a little nervous. After scanning the crowd, I noticed a cute little boy wearing an “It’s My Birthday” button. I went over to him and whispering so only he and his parents could hear me, I asked if he wanted to be my guest of the hour! His whole face lit up, he was so excited! After finding out how old he was, I dug up my courage and made some magic happen. At the top of my voice I shouted, “Everyone, I’m here with my new friend Ryan and he is our guest of the hour! Can you please join me in giving him a big round of applause?” To which they all clapped and cheered. When the noise died down again I yelled “Ryan is here celebrating his ninth birthday, so to make today extra special for him, let’s sing “Happy Birthday!” Ryan could not stop grinning when I handed him his certificate and a giant birthday cupcake! It was so wonderful to see how excited Ryan got because I took the time to recognize his special day! And it made my day a lot better too! My heart was racing and I felt like I was shaking like a leaf, but when you feel like that on the inside, my instructors, trainers, managers and parents have always given me the same advice: “Put on your show shoes and never let them see you sweat!”
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Yesterday was a BLAST!! Scott and I went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom! However, before I was able to enjoy the party with Scott, I had to spend the day at work (yes, I’m still at Flame Tree). Work was not so fun. We were having major technical problems with the printers not working in the kitchen, so orders were being skipped, and then right when the lunch rush hit, both soda machines decided to STOP WORKING… thus, we had to hand pour each and every soda. Needless to say, by the time 4:45pm (or 16:45 as I continue to learn to recognize military time) rolled around, I was ready for some fun. And while I was “struggling” at work, Scott went and got our tickets!
So, like I said, it’s 4:45pm and I head for the cast member bus stop with a spring in my step because I just know that my day is going to improve 100% once I make it to Magic Kingdom. However, getting there was a NIGHTMARE!
To start off, I was catching the 5:18pm bus, which I was surprised came EARLY for once! However, the bus driver was training, and he missed the turn to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we pick up and drop off more cast members. So, it took us an EXTRA 15 – 20 minutes to get turned around and back to the lodge. And because of this misfortune, I missed catching the F or K or D buses that would get me back to Chatham faster than the J bus (which I was on). Therefore, I had to sit on the bus at Vista Way for 15 minutes because it was during a driver switch time slot. I was so mad! Of all the days for THAT to happen! Once at Chatham, I practically ran all the way to Patterson because I still needed to shower and change and get back to Chatham to catch the A bus that would take me to Magic Kingdom.
Finally I make it to the Magic Kingdom and it’s around 7pm and I make the mistake of thinking that NOTHING ELSE CAN GO WRONG…. When I find out the monorail is currently not working and all guests must take the ferry, which takes around 7 – 12 minutes compared to the 2 – 3 minutes on the monorail. By now I was thinking the universe must be against me or something! I could come up with no other explanation as to why there were all these delays! Not to mention, the whole time I was trying to get there, Scott has been waiting for me in the park! I felt so bad because it was taking FOREVER!
But just when I thought I was never going to see Cinderella’s Castle or the Magic Kingdom Train Station, there it was, beckoning me to come and leave my trouble at the turnstiles. And so I did… and the rest of the evening was magical, the end. Just kidding, you want to hear about the party!!
Like I said above, we had to buy special tickets to be there as the park actually closed down to the public and only those of us with the cool Halloween wristbands could be there from 7pm – midnight. To start off the evening there was the villains mix and mingle. This was a special show on the castle stage featuring all the classing Disney villains! Afterwards, Scott and I were the first two in line to have our pictures taken with Maleficent, the evil queen in Sleeping Beauty.
Then we were off to find CANDY! There were candy spots located all over the park. There was even a candy trail in Toontown. These awesome locations were marked with a sign that said Goofy’s Candy Co. See one of those, and you knew there was candy close by! We ended up leaving the park with 2 full bags of candy each!!
Not only did we collect candy, we enjoyed the “shorter” wait for the rides as well! We went on Space Mountain (the picture of Scott from this ride was really funny! He’s so goofy!), Pirates of the Caribbean (in the gift shop of this ride, Scott showed me where the actual key and coin from the movie are located, many guests miss seeing them because they are kind of hidden), we went and saw Mickey's PhilharMagic 3D movie (where I’m not sure if I was more entertained by what I was seeing on screen or Scott, who was making little kids jealous by grabbing the jewels out of the air with a mysterious red light, the same little red light that he was using to entertain me all night long! It's cool watching him do different magic tricks!).
Of course we went through The Haunted Mansion, where the bride was sitting outside talking to the guests as they were waiting in line (while we were on this one, it stopped a couple times), then it was Peter Pan’s Flight and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (where I had no idea what I was doing!) And I feel like I'm missing some rides, but you get the idea, we were busy! We even had our picture taken in front of Cinderella's castle!
We also watched Mickey’s Boo To You Parade. It started off with a ride by the Headless Horseman and was followed by characters dressed up and ready for Halloween! The parade featured the classic Disney villains as well as the cast from The Haunted Mansion. One of my favorite parts included the grave diggers who had flint shovels. They would scrape them along the road and they’d let off sparks! It was so cool, but the sound reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. The parade ended with Goofy’s Candy Company and cast members handing out (you guessed it!) EVEN MORE CANDY!!
And let’s not forget how awesome watching HalloWishes was in front of the castle. (We were so close to the castle, at times it felt like the fireworks were going off feet in front of me, which they weren’t. The colors were amazing! Ahhh I can’t even describe how cool it was to see, many of the villains had a part during the show. To see the fireworks yourself, check out Scott’s vlog!
At the end of the night we were both so tired, and it was somewhat frustrating waiting for the bus to come pick us up. And my goodness, what a full bus that was. I don’t remember the ride home, I think I fell asleep. And after such a full and exciting night, sleep was a wonderful thing to get as I had to be up bright and early for work.
So, like I said, it’s 4:45pm and I head for the cast member bus stop with a spring in my step because I just know that my day is going to improve 100% once I make it to Magic Kingdom. However, getting there was a NIGHTMARE!
To start off, I was catching the 5:18pm bus, which I was surprised came EARLY for once! However, the bus driver was training, and he missed the turn to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we pick up and drop off more cast members. So, it took us an EXTRA 15 – 20 minutes to get turned around and back to the lodge. And because of this misfortune, I missed catching the F or K or D buses that would get me back to Chatham faster than the J bus (which I was on). Therefore, I had to sit on the bus at Vista Way for 15 minutes because it was during a driver switch time slot. I was so mad! Of all the days for THAT to happen! Once at Chatham, I practically ran all the way to Patterson because I still needed to shower and change and get back to Chatham to catch the A bus that would take me to Magic Kingdom.
Finally I make it to the Magic Kingdom and it’s around 7pm and I make the mistake of thinking that NOTHING ELSE CAN GO WRONG…. When I find out the monorail is currently not working and all guests must take the ferry, which takes around 7 – 12 minutes compared to the 2 – 3 minutes on the monorail. By now I was thinking the universe must be against me or something! I could come up with no other explanation as to why there were all these delays! Not to mention, the whole time I was trying to get there, Scott has been waiting for me in the park! I felt so bad because it was taking FOREVER!
But just when I thought I was never going to see Cinderella’s Castle or the Magic Kingdom Train Station, there it was, beckoning me to come and leave my trouble at the turnstiles. And so I did… and the rest of the evening was magical, the end. Just kidding, you want to hear about the party!!
Like I said above, we had to buy special tickets to be there as the park actually closed down to the public and only those of us with the cool Halloween wristbands could be there from 7pm – midnight. To start off the evening there was the villains mix and mingle. This was a special show on the castle stage featuring all the classing Disney villains! Afterwards, Scott and I were the first two in line to have our pictures taken with Maleficent, the evil queen in Sleeping Beauty.
Then we were off to find CANDY! There were candy spots located all over the park. There was even a candy trail in Toontown. These awesome locations were marked with a sign that said Goofy’s Candy Co. See one of those, and you knew there was candy close by! We ended up leaving the park with 2 full bags of candy each!!
Not only did we collect candy, we enjoyed the “shorter” wait for the rides as well! We went on Space Mountain (the picture of Scott from this ride was really funny! He’s so goofy!), Pirates of the Caribbean (in the gift shop of this ride, Scott showed me where the actual key and coin from the movie are located, many guests miss seeing them because they are kind of hidden), we went and saw Mickey's PhilharMagic 3D movie (where I’m not sure if I was more entertained by what I was seeing on screen or Scott, who was making little kids jealous by grabbing the jewels out of the air with a mysterious red light, the same little red light that he was using to entertain me all night long! It's cool watching him do different magic tricks!).
 |
| Waiting for Mickey's PhilharMagic to start!! |
Of course we went through The Haunted Mansion, where the bride was sitting outside talking to the guests as they were waiting in line (while we were on this one, it stopped a couple times), then it was Peter Pan’s Flight and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (where I had no idea what I was doing!) And I feel like I'm missing some rides, but you get the idea, we were busy! We even had our picture taken in front of Cinderella's castle!
We also watched Mickey’s Boo To You Parade. It started off with a ride by the Headless Horseman and was followed by characters dressed up and ready for Halloween! The parade featured the classic Disney villains as well as the cast from The Haunted Mansion. One of my favorite parts included the grave diggers who had flint shovels. They would scrape them along the road and they’d let off sparks! It was so cool, but the sound reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. The parade ended with Goofy’s Candy Company and cast members handing out (you guessed it!) EVEN MORE CANDY!!
And let’s not forget how awesome watching HalloWishes was in front of the castle. (We were so close to the castle, at times it felt like the fireworks were going off feet in front of me, which they weren’t. The colors were amazing! Ahhh I can’t even describe how cool it was to see, many of the villains had a part during the show. To see the fireworks yourself, check out Scott’s vlog!
At the end of the night we were both so tired, and it was somewhat frustrating waiting for the bus to come pick us up. And my goodness, what a full bus that was. I don’t remember the ride home, I think I fell asleep. And after such a full and exciting night, sleep was a wonderful thing to get as I had to be up bright and early for work.
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