You Can't Keep A Good Genie Down

Today was my merchandise computer training, so not much to report. BUT, I do have something to share anyway.

We're going to quickly hop over to the West Coast to talk about the Disneyland Resort really quick. One thing I really recommend doing if you haven't already, is stopping by the Hyperion Theater to see the Aladdin Musical. Even if Aladdin wasn't your favorite Disney movie, you really need to experience this attraction. It's got all the makings of a Broadway show, and it is fantastic!

I was really excited when I came across this post at the Disney Park Blogs the other day. Aladdin has been scheduled to close to make way for a Toy Story musical as part of the refurbishments to California Adventure. And although the show has had a good run, I was very sorry to see it go. But according to the parks blog, the show's run has been extended! Apparently there was a bunch of guests disappointed in the announced change, so Toy Story has been pushed back for now. How long? Who knows...

Anyway, the best thing about the musical is by far the character of the genie. Genie is a great character to begin with, but onstage he is pure dynamite. He manages to work tons of pop culture references into a show about the middle east... and it works! So courtesy of the Disney Parks blog, here's a video to show what I mean (feed readers might need to click over to the actual blog to see this... it's worth it, trust me):

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!

Even More Orientation

So today brought the experience of park orientation, which for the Magic Kingdom is called Once Upon A Time... Is Now. Honestly, I liked this much better than the class I attended for the Studios. We did a lot less computer based training (although I just know that's going to come up later) and our park tour went a lot more in depth than before as well. We got to MK right as the Welcome show was happening, which is something I've never seen before for any of the parks. So now I've made a resolution that I will go to rope drop at least once for all for parks this summer. Let's see how that turns out...

We also got to do two rides this time around, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and The Haunted Mansion. Both are favorites of mine (although Disneyland's Buzz is much, much better) so that was fun. Saw some weird stuff backstage too which I can't really talk about, but here are a few things I did learn today:

1. Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland is the 2nd busiest restaurant in the world. And not Walt Disney World, like, the real world. The only thing that's busier is a McDonald's in Moscow (as in Russia) which is winning because it has one more cash register.

2. The previously mentioned Buzz Lightyear ride is one of the busiest in all four parks. About 95% of the people visiting the resort go on that ride sometime during their vacation. No doubt Toy Story Midway Mania will pass it up in a few short years.

3. (This one creeps me out a little.) Every few months the cosmetology team has to go into "it's a small world" and cut the dolls' hair. Because it grows. The hair is made of yarn and after awhile gravity stretches out the yarn, making the hair look like it's growing. Ewww.

The tour finished with us getting our lovely costumes for our areas. In the hot Florida weather, mine feels like it's made of about 200% polyester. Ugh.

Well, tomorrow is the first day of in costume training. We'll just have to see if anything interesting happens.

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!

Traditions

So today was Traditions. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's like company orientation. Apparently the College Program class is an abbreviated 4 hour version. Last time our group got stuck in a room with a regular class so we got the full 8 hour version, which I loved. Our trainer was very entertaining, even when the material we were covering wasn't always fun in and of itself.

Anyway, today I got the abbreviated version. Not much changed, and it seemed like we did a lot of the things we had done before, so I guess it was just condensed a lot. Actually, the first part of the class was a new computer-based training session and I thought I was going to die of boredom from listening to it. They had one of those dynamic talking computer characters hosting it, but it still sounded like a computer voice. Luckily I only had to sit through that for about 40 minutes.

A couple things were different this time around. We actually got a visit from The Boss (Mickey Mouse) while in class, so that was lots of fun. He brought us our name tags, which apparently weren't pre-printed like they were last time. And we only got one instead of two. I'm hoping I don't lose it so I have to spend the day being "Ramon" again.

The other thing that was new was we went for a brief visit through the Utilador underneath the Magic Kingdom. We were looking for examples of some of the things we had learned in class, and so all 40 of us trudged through the tunnels, up to Main Street, down around the castle into Fantasyland, and back down again. It was kind of creepy, but I guess I'll need to get used to it since that's my new home now. I also had the chance to peek at the Fantasyland merchandise costume I'll be wearing. Not my favorite thing, but it's better than the Tomorrowland costumes, so I'm not complaining.

And we also got our Disney IDs, so now I can get into the parks. Yay! In fact, I was planning to hit Epcot as soon as I came home to change, but I ended up getting a super bad migraine headache. So I stayed home instead, and now the headache is gone I'm here writing this. So my headache is your gain I guess. I'm still dying to go to the parks though. My fingers are just itching to trade pins. Tomorrow, I guess.

So tomorrow is park orientation and then Friday I start my first day of on-the-job training. I'm hoping they won't hit me with the merchandise training day again, but since I've only gotten my schedule through Friday I'll have to wait and see.

And speaking of Friday, it starts off Star Wars Weekends on Friday as well. I'll have to see if my new schedule gives me some time to hop over there to see what's going on a little bit. Hopefully I'll be able to snag at least an hour or two there...

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!

Arrival Time: I'm Here!

So my internet decided to work finally, so I finally have a moment to blog.

I'm back here in Florida, and the humidity is killing me. It's really not that hot yet (only about 75) but oh, it feels so much hotter. Oh well, I knew it was going to be bad. :)

My arrival yesterday was quite different than my first program. We had a weird program date just for our school last time around, so when we arrived we did all the paperwork the first day at our housing meeting, casting the second day, and Traditions (company orientation) the third. When I arrived on property yesterday they had everyone fill out the paperwork right away in the clubhouse, and there were A LOT of people. Lots of alumni coming back to the program I guess.

Then pretty much immediately they took us to Casting to do our employee paperwork and fingerprints. Last time around we had gone to the Casting building (apparently that wasn't normal for most programs though. Again, weird program date made our group special) but we didn't get to see much of the building except where they did the fingerprints. This time they took us up the main entrance, and let me tell you the Casting building is BEAUTIFUL! They've got all these cool photos, murals, posters, etc. all over the walls and models of the parks too. It was so much fun. Honestly, it would be worth it to work in Human Resources just to go to that building every day for work.

While at casting we also found out where we'll be working. They switched me over from the Studios, so now I'm working Fantasyland merchandise. It will be interesting to see how it varies from my old location.

So today was the housing meeting (since we already went to Casting yesterday) where they pretty much just tell us the rules. And then it was back to the apartment for a quiet day. We won't get our IDs until Traditions, which is our ticket into the parks. So close and yet so far. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the chance to go to a park and play a little bit (finally).

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!

This is so COOL!

This is so sweet, I just have to share this all with you.

As longtime readers of this blog know, I'm heading back to Orlando this summer to do another term in the Disney College Program. And the other person in my family who's Disney crazy is my little brother (you may know him from Disney On The Brain).

So today as a going away present (I leave Sunday) he showed me this:



He edited it together from all the videos I took for him when I was there in 2008. Isn't it so cool? I love, love, LOVE it! You can get his full version of the creation by going to his post about it.

Now, I'm assuming you're here because you're a Disney fan, so for those who want to know, these are the videos he used (in order of appearance):

Test Track
Fantasmic (the finale)
Walking down Main Street, USA (At the Magic Kingdom)
Primeval Whirl
Stormtroopers from Star Wars Weekends
The Great Movie Ride (Western scene)
The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management
Soarin'
IllumiNations
The queue from Star Tours
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Expedition Everest

*I also posted about this (with slightly different infomration) on my other blog*

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!

Ask A Cast Member (1): Gators In Splash Mountain

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm starting a new series called Ask a Cast Member. So today I'm answering one of my first questions. And this one is a doozy:

Question: Is it true there are alligators in Splash Mountain?

Answer: Yes. Haven't you ever been on Splash Mountain? Look, I'll show you:

I couldn't resist, the setup was too easy.

In all seriousness though, the answer to this "urban legend" appears to be yes. Although I never saw a gator in Splash Mountain myself (I did see one in a water hazard at a Disney golf course though) there are YouTube videos of gators in various water habitats throughout the park, such as this one. Before you get all freaked out though, it appears as though this fairly young alligator was in the swampy water that surrounds the ride, and not the actual ride flume itself. Chances are the waters of Splash Mountain are a tad too chlorinated for a gator to be happy for an extended period of time. Nevertheless, make sure when they tell you to keep your hands and arms inside the log, you pay attention. You never know, after all...

Since a lot of the area around the Disney parks in Florida is undeveloped, there is a sizable wildlife population there (and I'm not talking about the wildlife who live at Animal Kingdom). You're going to encounter lots of birds, lizards, and squirrels. We even had a stray cat wander through backstage every once in a while.

Probably the most "wild" animals that I came in contact with at the park were a male and two female mallard ducks who made their home in the Fantasmic pond. We always wondered where they went during the show (since there's lots of boat, fire, and pyrotechnics going on), but in the few hours before the show actually started they were there pretty regular. About May a group of ducklings even showed up. Although there were originally 3 ducklings, after about two weeks, only one was around regularly paddling away after it's mother.

My fellow cast members named it Leroy. Of course, once Leroy's adult feathers started coming in it was apparent that Leroy was actually a female mallard. Oops!

And this concludes my first Ask a Cast Member feature. If you have your own Disney-related question, submit it using this form.

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!

An Announcement and a New Feature

So if you're coming here after visiting my other blog, The Shady Glade, then I assume you've been made aware of some news that's going on around here lately.

And if not, well, you're about to be enlightened.

I've been invited back to work at Walt Disney World this summer for a special alumni summer program to follow up my college program completed in 2008. I'm really excited for this opportunity to go back to the WDW Resort, as I had a blast (and worked really hard) when I was there before.**

So now that that's out of the way, here's the new feature. To celebrate the countdown to my departure for sunny Florida in May, I'm starting a new feature, Ask a Cast Member. Now, I know some of you have been to at least one Disney park before, and I'm sure you've had questions about the parks, whether it's how popular something is, the best time to go, the greatest ride, and maybe some behind the scenes stuff.

As a former (and soon-to-be) Cast Member, I have answers about a lot of that kind of stuff. So lay your questions on me. I'll post a question or two every once in awhile with my answer.

Of course, I can't answer everything, since some things are trade secrets. But if I can answer, I will. So you can ask me anything you want about the Disney parks (I know a lot of stuff about Disneyland too), behind the scenes stuff, my personal favorites, Disney myths, anything you want to know. And if I don't know the answer, I'll find out for you.

So got a question yet? Just use this form to submit it.

And please submit it if you have something. Otherwise I'm like the awkward author doing a book signing who only gets asked questions about where the bathroom is...

**If you want to read about my experiences from my original college program just scroll down to the archives in the sidebar and check out my posts from April 2008 to August 2008.

Have a Disney-related question about the parks, movies, or even about me? Check out the Ask A Cast Member feature and send in your questions!