Cast Memberies

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Cast Memberies

Post by UmbrellaFish »

Here’s a thread for forum members who are current or former Disney cast members who’d like to share their stories about working for the Mouse and for other forum members who’d like to read their stories and ask questions!
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Re: Cast Membories

Post by blackcauldron85 »

:mickey: :minnie: Great idea!!! :idea:

(Tomorrowland Merchandise, WDW, 2004)

I already mentioned this in another thread, but one of my favorite Membories (I love it!) was in the MK CM cafeteria: Cinderella with her hair & makeup done but in a sweatsuit was eating lunch with the Mad Hatter! I didn't take a photo, but I wish I had!

My homebase was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, but I also worked at the other Tomorrowland shops and carts. One of my favorites was working at the Space Mountain gift shop, because I could grab a plush Mickey and "wave" to the guests! People got a kick out of that. I also liked working at the Toy Story merch cart. The hat cart and Tomorrowland Speedway didn't have as much fun merch, so those weren't as fun. I don't have any special memories of Merchants of Venus or Star Traders, but Star Traders had some fun merch.

Oh, one unique aspect of working in Merchandise on a ride that takes your photo is that a CM is in charge of deleting any "questionable" photos! Think middle fingers, nudity, I think obscuring your face was one of the guidelines for deletion. A CM didn't stay doing that position for long on one shift. Disney does try to keep it fresh by assigning you to different locations throughout your shift usually, even if it's just from Buzz cash register to Buzz photo number writer-downer. Another unique aspect of being on a "photo ride" was actually printing the photos, which was actually pretty neat (and foreshadowed me working at Walgreens Photo Center years later), and having to try to up-sell photo frames, photo packages. I am not, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be a salesperson, so that was my least favorite aspect.
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Re: Cast Memberies

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I couldn’t decide between Membories or Memberies so I switched them haha.

‘18-‘19 College Program participant. Boardwalk custodial and Magic Kingdom park greeter.

I have shared so many stories already. I’ll think of some more later, I’m sure. Maybe I can share some pics I had with more rare characters I met through College Program events?

Oh wow, Amy, I always wondered who was in charge of reviewing the photos. In my head it was some shadowy figure in a closet somewhere at their attraction (I thought they’d be an Attractions CM) but merch makes so much more sense! So when my MagicBand didn’t pick up a photo or when it didn’t show up on screen at the end of a ride is it probably because a CM flagged it for some reason?

What was it like working in spaces with repetitive soundtracks? Or did you think they were repetitive? There was no real soundtrack to worry about at the Boardwalk and as an MK park greeter our soundtrack was a playlist of all kinds of different movie and parks music so even though it was on a loop it never got too monotonous. I always felt bad for the people at churro and pretzels carts next to the Mine Train ride because their soundtrack was a “clinking” sound that would have drove me crazy!
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Re: Cast Memberies

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UmbrellaFish wrote:Maybe I can share some pics I had with more rare characters I met through College Program events?
Yes, please do!!! I LOVE seeing the rarer characters. While I was in college, I wasn't a CP, but I do have some photos with rarer characters, and I can post those here, too.
UmbrellaFish wrote:So when my MagicBand didn’t pick up a photo or when it didn’t show up on screen at the end of a ride is it probably because a CM flagged it for some reason?
Yes, that is extremely possible. I mean, you go through the photos fairly quickly, so sometimes it could just be a reflex of hitting the button when you didn't mean to (I don't remember that happening, but I worked there half a life ago!).
UmbrellaFish wrote:What was it like working in spaces with repetitive soundtracks? Or did you think they were repetitive?
Does Buzz even have any music?! Venus or Traders?! The carts didn't...Yeah, I don't recall any music!
UmbrellaFish wrote:as an MK park greeter our soundtrack was a playlist of all kinds of different movie and parks music so even though it was on a loop it never got too monotonous.
Was it ever not so busy and you just hummed or sang?!
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Re: Cast Memberies

Post by UmbrellaFish »

https://imgur.com/a/8NCuUR2

Here’s some character pics— most of them aren’t super rare, I don’t think, but still! I could have met Sebastian (which I’m still kicking myself for missing) and Mickey Mouse dressed in his Steamboat Willie costume (which I was going to go to but it actually looked really weird in the early pics from my friends on FB, it was the B&W costume but they gave him his regular head!). Immediately after I left, Hades and Pain and Panic were meeting in the MK tunnels (training for the new Villain parties which were just about to start) and then the DCP did a Welcome Party after I left and I swear... it’s hard to make out, but I think it was supposed to be Chernabog!!! Oh and then I had some friends post new pictures with Quasimodo!!! I was so jealous!

I can’t wait to see your pics!!

And I sang the songs all the time haha!
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Re: Cast Memberies

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Those are AMAZING!!! PJs Daisy and Donald!!! Thumper and Miss Bunny!!!!!! Graduation Minnie and Mickey!!!! And Maleficent, and the Sanderson Sisters--- soo soo cool!!! I'm most jealous about Thumper and his girlfriend!!! <3 <3 <3

I have no idea how to make an album in IMGUR, so I just uploaded like 80 photos, and my account is private, so I am trying to figure out how to post a link!

*edit* Sorry; I can't figure out how to make them an album...
(Keep in mind that some of these are from 14-16 years ago, so they were taken with a real camera & were scanned into the comp, so they're lower quality!)(And I have a LOT more photos, but these are what I'm posting!)(And on some of these you can clearly tell where I cropped out my ex...!)(I cropped my husband out of the Kylo one, just because I don't think he wants to be on the forum!)(And where you see smiley faces-those are people I don't know so I don't want to post their faces!!)

Some were just fun moments:
Kylo Ren https://imgur.com/5jG6eLQ & https://imgur.com/1QR6QQS (This was within the last couple of years)
Goofy https://imgur.com/Q1Ltgr6, https://imgur.com/ovDxzh0 & https://imgur.com/5fihyGH
Donald, Kenai, & Koda https://imgur.com/unEiVdR (with Goofy) https://imgur.com/ig5fmRb
Pluto https://imgur.com/zg1x9v0 & https://imgur.com/yFqxrSU
Aurora https://imgur.com/kQRwnU5
Goofy at Cape May https://imgur.com/HpjYZFa & https://imgur.com/QyrBQEu
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum https://imgur.com/PQvSLCM

Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs: https://imgur.com/U9x1JJl & https://imgur.com/uOPFsMn (This is not my family. They were out doing meet & greets, and we were in line. They left (for what we thought was a break). We had waited in line FOREVER because we were told that they'd be right out, but they never came out. So, a cast member saw that I was disappointed and she escorted us to meet Snow White, which was a magical thing to do.) So I'm grateful that I at least got these photos since it's super rare.

Meg & Phil https://imgur.com/JN9EMXI
Kim & Ron https://imgur.com/utiN6yN
Koda https://imgur.com/Lzl7qDM
Kenai: https://imgur.com/6rg0HFu
Mr. & Mrs. Easter Bunny https://imgur.com/G3bidcx & https://imgur.com/xYevcHv
Robin Hood https://imgur.com/mgNIUrt
Prince John https://imgur.com/qrI0rQL
Jojo & Goliath https://imgur.com/aFdPjPj
Little Einsteins https://imgur.com/1IiIPGF & (with blurry Handy Manny) https://imgur.com/9sCiOzt
Lucky https://imgur.com/JLbgzSv
Abu & Genie https://imgur.com/upYHdv3
Rafiki https://imgur.com/9uRwtCa
Max https://imgur.com/pkAEwLA
Jane & Tarzan https://imgur.com/uno1I3D
Green Army Men https://imgur.com/DXdrcxp
Atta https://imgur.com/VIDesJT
Launchpad https://imgur.com/nvkstDS
Tomorrowland Chip 'N Dale https://imgur.com/vmlZepA
Tomorrowland Pluto https://imgur.com/jjG1Ofy
Copper Dino https://imgur.com/86bTfKX
Green Dino https://imgur.com/VKadHiA
The Three Caballeros https://imgur.com/Z3TA459
Fairy Godmother (DL) https://imgur.com/gBvIgay & https://imgur.com/MmzCho3 (WDW)
Chicken Little & Abby https://imgur.com/TnoYHPj & https://imgur.com/9eBKOjb
Merryweather https://imgur.com/segqZMV
Captain Jack https://imgur.com/DE3mZyE
Halloween Eeyore & Piglet https://imgur.com/Bje1paU
Terk https://imgur.com/F4srAT9
Brer Fox & Brer Bear https://imgur.com/thNivEa
Gepetto & Gideon https://imgur.com/GmnQG9c
Tuscan Raider https://imgur.com/cDeso4Z
Duffy https://imgur.com/ovzLaYV
Bullseye https://imgur.com/z5re1uv
Christmas Lilo & Stitch https://imgur.com/vhJSSes
Figment (wearing 3D glasses!) https://imgur.com/LzOooGc
Tigger, Piglet, & Pooh https://imgur.com/HyfOf3n
Mary Poppins https://imgur.com/6leZ7tM, https://imgur.com/1rin2zy & https://imgur.com/G519Nbl
Mr. Penguin https://imgur.com/BTSlnHz
Playing Cards https://imgur.com/lqTkWz5, https://imgur.com/gR6406P, https://imgur.com/0nGUxy7, & https://imgur.com/kLlKqvI
Farmer Mickey https://imgur.com/PrBLbdG
The Tremaines https://imgur.com/sagQxoH
Frozone https://imgur.com/ffjW6Yu & https://imgur.com/PPtSRc2
The Incredibles https://imgur.com/xbqJLPJ
Peter & Wendy https://imgur.com/fQO0Jez
Marie https://imgur.com/i3XVlSh
Friar Tuck https://imgur.com/roMuIFC
Alice/Mad Hatter https://imgur.com/P93Zpbm
Jedi Mickey https://imgur.com/ZwGd1IU
Remy https://imgur.com/AzxKqOW
Prince Charming https://imgur.com/wVRWVpA
Safari Mickey https://imgur.com/Ef4I4ZN
Santa Goofy https://imgur.com/R5Kiyz5
Perla https://imgur.com/hfbFvG0
King Louie https://imgur.com/Z2xvwK0
Provincial Belle https://imgur.com/fIDUVTV
Mermaid Ariel https://imgur.com/EXY11h6

(I could've sworn I have Wilbur and Lewis from MTR, but I overlooked it I guess...)
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Re: Cast Memberies

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Thank you for posting these pics I loved looking at them!!! As a kid, this was the whole reason I wanted to go to WDW so I loved meeting the characters and I love looking at other people’s photos!!

I had no idea you could meet Phil, he looks adorable!!

Kim and Ron— I love it!! They met a few times while I was on my DCP but super irregularly so I missed out!

Aww Koda and Keani!!! They look so cuddly!!

Disney has the cutest Easter Bunnies.

Oh my goodness, JoJo and Goliath!! They look wonderful as “fur characters.”

OH MY GOSH LUCKY!!! I’m so jealous!!! What was that like?!?

Princess Atta!!! I would have loved to have met her and Flik.

Chip and Dale’s Tomorrowland suits could also double as a St Patrick’s Day ensemble lol

Wait they had dino walk arounds in Dinoland USA?!? Why did they get rid of them that’s awesome!

I would have loved to have met the 3 Caballeros. It was a kinda big deal when I was there and they added them (and Max Goof) to the move it shake it mouske-Dance it parade. Does Donald have sunglasses on his bill in that picture?

I love Merryweather and all the fairies!! I think I just saw... either Disneyland or maybe one of the foreign parks uses face masks for their Three Good Fairies...

I love Eeyore and Piglet’s Halloween costumes (are those Mylar balloon flower petals?) !!! When I met them at Halloween their costumes were completely different, should I share it?

Gepetto!! One of my regrets— some rare Pinoc characters came out on National Photography Day but I missed it... definitely Pinocchio himself and I think Jiminy Cricket?

Haha I love the Tuscan raider!!

When did Duffy meet in Epcot?

Omg Bullesye!!!!

I love Lilo and Stitch’s cute little Christmas outfits!!

Figment!!! Why oh why is he not a walk around anymore??? I don’t get it...

I love your Poppins pics!! Did you get to meet her in her traveling costume?!?!?!? Where/when?!?!? The Grand Flo? I didn’t know she ever met in that costume, that is my dream to meet her in that costume!!! I love it!!! So pretty!!

Mr Penguin— can we talk? One of my biggest regrets as a cast member, I wanted to meet the Penguin but I never really thought I would. Well, Easter Day last year I was working the touchpoints and apparently Mary and Mr Penguin walked out of the park to board the ferry and I totally missed it. :( I never saw him.

Wait you could meet the Playing Cards??? I don’t know how I feel about them being face characters though...

I wish I’d met the Tremaines... I could have but I never did. Dumb.

The Incredibles— here’s my thing, I think they would work better as face characters? Woody and the whole toy story gang, too. What do you think?

Marie is so adorable!! I wish I could have met her!! I think her brothers meet sometimes too!!

Alice and the Mad Hatter I love so much!!

Jedi Mickey is super rare now right?? I wish they’d bring back all those Star Wars themed costumes...

Question: where you met Belle in that picture, is that where Merida meets today? By the castle?

I always have love for Ariel!!!
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Re: Cast Memberies

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You're welcome-thank you for sharing yours!!! I love seeing all the characters (Disney Wiki has all the characters ever on their site, and I've definitely spent time looking at all of those.)

I've only met Meg and Phil once (I believe I saw Meg one other time but didn't meet her??). Koda and Kenai were regulars in the Canada pavilion (and Animal Kingdom, maybe a little less common than at Epcot??) once upon a time. Yes, I love the Easter Bunnies. Lucky was really neat...I mean, he's a dinosaur who walks around on his own! It's not like he wandered around a big area or anything, but to see a dino walk by himself was super cool. So when I was going through all my photos, I saved Flik, the plastic Flik from the playground, but I did meet Flik once, but I don't want to go through 18 years of photos again to find one photo! :p Atta I believe I only met once. I agree about Chip N' Dale's suits = St. Patty's Day! When I met the Dinoland Dinos, it would've been 2005-2007 I'd guess, but I think they were fairly regular for a few years. The 3 Caballeros used to be more regular, but now it's rare to have all 3 together. Yes, Donald is wearing my pink sunglasses! :p Yes, I've seen the fairies using face masks- I feel like that's more common, but in this parade she was a face character. I don't know if I actually touched Piglet's petals...I'd think they'd not be actual balloons, but it was so long ago, I'm not certain. I did have a pic or two of Pinocchio-- one I think was a parade. If I had one of meeting him, my ex would've been the one next to Pinoc, I guess, so it's not here. But I don't remember now if I had only a parade pic or if we met him- I went through so many old photos today! I did have a pic of Jiminy, too, but same thing- was it parade only, or did he meet him? A lot of these were at the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party- it's such a great way to meet a lot of characters!! Off the top of my head, I'd say Duffy was 2007-2008? But I'd have to research to be sure. (I just looked online and it said that Duffy came to the US parks in 2010)...my ex and I broke up at the end of 2010 so wow that pic was probably one of our last Disney trips! Bullseye was taken when I was a cast member (obviously I was off-duty) in 2004. I don't know when they took Figment away as a walk-around; this was at I want to say the entrance? to his ride...but maybe it was the exit. My memory's not so great!!! Maybe it was the little area between his ride and Honey I Shrunk the Kids/Captain EO? Maybe there... Mary in her traveling costume I believe must've been the Grand Flo-- those pics were taken before a character breakfast. I believe I got there late so I couldn't meet her, but my ex's family did. Mr. Penguin was another 2004 one. He is too adorable. I don't believe I met the Tremaines; that's why a stranger's kids are in the pic!

Um, I think I'd have to see what the Pixar characters look like as face characters to see what I'd like better. I think they work this way, but I mean, having them talk would be really fun. I think with Mr. Incredible's long chin, he'd need prosthetics? I don't believe I've seen Toulouse & Berlioz available to meet? Alice & Mad Hatter obviously aren't rare, but I wasn't sure if them together was maybe a little rare, so I included them. Yeah, I believe Jedi Mickey got the boot. Yes, where I met Belle is where Merida is now; Belle had a Storytime with Belle little show there; this would've been 2004 as well. Yes, Ariel is amazing! I included her because I'm not sure if everyone has gone down into her grotto to meet her.

(Oh, when I was driving to the vet today, I totally thought of another CM experience to talk about. So, you cannot just get hired to be a furry character- like for me, I got hired for Merchandise, but then you can do the audition. The audition was one of the funnest things ever. You auditioned with dance and with motion (like for me, I pretended I was Goofy eating a huge ice cream sundae- really big arm movements, and I remember being big on my face movements, too. I passed but was put on the waitlist (I'm 5'1", so in the real world I'm pretty short, but for Disney they had an overabundance of people my size, and sadly I never got called to be a character. BUT, with my tummy issues, there's no way I would've survived being in FL in a furry suit). But it was a great time.)
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Re: Cast Memberies

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UmbrellaFish wrote:The Incredibles— here’s my thing, I think they would work better as face characters? Woody and the whole toy story gang, too. What do you think?
blackcauldron85 wrote:I think with Mr. Incredible's long chin, he'd need prosthetics?
So, the Disney Wiki shows Syndrome at the Parks (https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Theme_Pa ... Characters) and so yeah, Mr. Incredible could work this same way.
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Re: Cast Memberies

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It’s too bad Koda and Kenai aren’t still in Canada. They would make very cute walk around characters. I did see Koda a few times at those dance parties in DAK though! I think I saw Meeko there, too, who I would have loved to have met. This just occurred to me, but maybe when the parks reopen they will cut back the face characters and bring out some more of the obscure fur characters? That would be fun— I always found the fur characters so much easier to engage with than the face characters...

Thank you for answering all my questions!!! Especially the one about Belle— I met her at the Storytime thing in 2003 when I was a little boy, and years later when I met Merida on my CP I was hit with this incredible deja vu... I thought it must have been the same place but I wasn’t sure... I’m still so psyched by some of those pics (Lucky and Mary especially!!). Did you ever see Push the talking trash can? Or was he in Disneyland? Idr.

And you did an audition!!! You should be very proud you got through, although like you said it may have been for the best that it didn’t happen. I don’t envy the character performers on those hot, hot Florida days!!

Thank you for that pic of Syndrome, I’d never seen it!! My big problem (esp. with the Toy Story characters) is that they feel so uncanny. I don’t think they really look like themselves tbh and since they’re humanoid figures I think they would make great face characters!

***


One of the unique experiences I got to partake in as a CP was taking a special class on stagecraft at Disney World.

I don’t remember her name, but one of our instructors had done a lot of work for Disney in all kinds of capacities, and early in her career she auditioned for and won the part of Mulan for the scratch tracks that accompanied the storyboard reel presentations.

We had a whole class that was kind of a Q & A with the team behind the “Happily Ever After” fireworks show. I can’t really remember a lot of what was said, I just remember the director of HEA hinting that he had another big project coming up— that was Harmonious, I guess? Or maybe the special party fireworks shows? Not sure.... One thing he talked about was how he (the director) pushed for “lesser-known” (I put this is quotations because everybody knows them but they aren’t like the music from TLM BATB Aladdin or TLK) songs from Tarzan and Hercules.

The most fun I had was a backstage tour of Fantasmic with this class. It was hot as Hades that day but we got to tour the whole set of Fantasmic. We went everywhere and saw everything from the prop closet (I touched Aladdin’s lamp!) to the place where Maleficent is stored (they make her breathe fire with coffee creamer which is apparently extremely flammable) to the backstage costume area. The best part was touring the Steamboat Willie used for the show. We all got to “steer” the wheel of the ship but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of anything.

Another really interesting thing we got to do was a Q&A with big wigs from the Entertainment divisions from all the parks. Some interesting nuggets at the time that I remember...

The DAK person was really pushing for both Moana and Zootopia to join her park. I don’t remember what she said about Moana (if I were her, I’d still be making those calls to get Moana in my park and she probably is) but Joe Rodhe ruled Zootopia out of DAK (the rule about Mickey and Friends being the only DAK animal characters who can wear clothes)

People tried to get a lot of info from the DHS guy about the plans for Star Wars (this was 13-14 months ago). He talked about the roaming droids (which I don’t think actually ended up happening). He said that the Green Army Men were in Toy Story Land in part to “train guests” to get them ready for the roaming characters in Galaxys Edge. Someone asked them if they would renovate Fantasmic soon ala Disneyland and he basically said, ‘yeah it needs it but people always come to the show anyway so why waste the money’ and I thought that was so disappointing.

Epcot didn’t have much to say, or at least I don’t remember much.

The MK lady was interesting. She’d been with the company a long time as a face character, at least 20 years (she kinda looked like Snow White in fact). She blamed Disney’s selling of autograph books on the reason why characters had to stop roaming— once that started she said the performers would get swarmed and couldn’t move. There was some talk about how they deal with new remakes and sequels— she talked about playing Ariel in the early 2000’s and kids would ask her about Melody and then as time passed those questions stopped. She talked about character using sign language and she said it was really sweet but they had to stop doing it because they’ve had bad experiences where a child meets a character who can sign to them, and then meets them again on a different trip and they are heartbroken because the character won’t speak to them anymore. :( Basically, sign language is not a requirement to be a character performer so it is better if the performers who can use it do not.

This is where I learned about all the weird rules about park characters based on live action movie characters like Mary Poppins and Jack Sparrow. I wanted to ask them about their plans for Poppins now that Emily Blunt’s version was out but I chickened out!
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Re: Cast Memberies

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Yeah, I'd love to meet Meeko, too! I think that having more fur characters makes a whole lotta sense so we will see!!!

You're welcome for answering your questions! Yes, Push is a resident of Tomorrowland @ WDW, so I have seen a lot of him!

Thank you about the audition! I was proud of myself, but would have liked to have been a character (if not for my health).

Google Toy Story on Ice and that shows what they look like as face characters...I mean, Buzz doesn't have his chin but maybe they can do for him what Syndrome has and it'd be fine. (There are less photos of The Incredibles on Ice, but they look fine, too, and Mr. Incredible seems to have his chin.)

So cool that the instructor did Mulan's scratch tracks!!!!! Ahhhhhh! <3 And you touched Aladdin's lamp!!! <3 <3 Whoa, Maleficient breathes coffee creamer- that's amazing!!

I didn't know that there was a rule at DAK for only Mickey & his friends to wear clothes (as far as animals go, because obviously Pocahontas wears clothes :p), but thinking about it, that's true.

I mean, yay the DHS guy was honest with you all about Fantasmic! but yeah, that's a disappointing answer. BUT, if it comes to renovating Fantasmic! or getting something else new in the Park, Fantasmic! is still enjoyable, so maybe it's good to spend the $ elsewhere...?

She couldn't have played Ariel for 20 years, right? I wonder what other characters she played...I thought I had read a while back that there's a time limit on playing a princess. Maybe she was Lady Tremaine? Probably would've been too young for Fairy Godmother, or no? Maybe Maleficent, Cruella, or the Queen- those make sense. That sucks for those guests, but that makes perfect sense about not using sign language...

What were "the weird rules about park characters based on live action movie characters?" And was her answer regarding Melody just that she would answer the questions about Melody (or Tip & Dash) at that time, and just eventually she didn't have to anymore since no one was asking?
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Re: Cast Memberies

Post by UmbrellaFish »

Oh wow @ you meeting Push! I love the Living Animatronic Initiative. Such an awesome way to bring those characters to life. Have you seen Bunsen and Honeydew, too?

Toy Story on Ice- okay, admittedly Buzz still kinda looks weird but I really like Woody and Jessie!

About the DAK animals not wearing clothes thing— I didn’t know if that was common knowledge or not and it struck me as so weird when I first heard it. But man, Joe Rodhe designed a beautiful park so who am I to contradict him— but c’mon wouldn’t Zootopia at DAK be pretty cool??

About Fantasmic I mean that’s true about the money going into other, new projects. But still, Disneyland’s (at least on video) knocks our’s out of the water.

Oh yeah, I wrote this quickly and some things were unclear so I apologize. The MK lady was no longer a face character and the only one she mentioned by name was Ariel. She didn’t specify exactly when she stopped— I don’t remember what her title was at the time exactly, just something important with entertainment at MK. She was the only one of the people speaking in front of us that I ever saw out in the parks, since I worked at MK— she’d usually be backstage observing as the parade finished its course.

They explained why there were no PhotoPass with Mary Poppins— because some of the money from selling those pictures would have to go to Julie Andrews and PL Travers’ estate and I guess Disney figured it wouldn’t be profitable to add a PhotoPass CM to the payroll and then split the profits with two more parties.

With Depp, it sounded like they worked out a deal to use PhotoPass but they mentioned he required that some kind of particular digital photo frame had to appear on any pictures taken of Sparrow in the park with guests— I guess like the pics of the rides usually have some kind of digital frame around them. Tbh I have no idea what they were talking about here bc I don’t remember that happening when I had pics made with Jack Sparrow but idk...

And yes, that’s what I meant about the questions about Melody: she said she’d have to answer a lot of questions about them at first, but then people just stopped bringing her up.
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Re: Cast Memberies

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I believe I've only seen Bunsen & Honeydew online, but it is super impressive! Speaking of Muppets, one of my favorite Park things that I've only been able to see online is Great Moments in History at Liberty Square- I think that's so creative and funny.

I think that Zootopia could fit into Animal Kingdom by maybe having a nature trail with exhibits with animals from the different regions (Sahara Square, Tundratown, Rainforest District)...that would make it educational, but I also can see if they wouldn't want Judy and Nick meet 'n greets maybe, because they want the park to be realistic (to an extent); they did have Grandmother Willow (but she's part of nature, not a bunny with a job), and Kenai was really a man, but besides that, the characters that you meet and see in Animal Kingdom are ones you'd find in nature. (Playing Devil's Advocate here!)

Whoa @ Mary Poppins. At least you can meet her (*cough* Giselle *cough*). I hadn't noticed that she never has a photographer. That makes sense, and I'd rather still be able to meet her than not!

When I met Captain Jack (like with any character encounter I've had), we just used our own camera. My ex's aunt used to purchase the ride photos, though.

I wonder what the Ariels had to say about Melody (but again, what would they say about Eric or anyone, really)- Oh, she's looking for treasure with Tip and Dash! or Eric's posing for a statue for Grimsby or something.
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Re: Cast Memberies

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I wonder what the Ariels had to say about Melody (but again, what would they say about Eric or anyone, really)- Oh, she's looking for treasure with Tip and Dash! or Eric's posing for a statue for Grimsby or something.
The last time I met Ariel, I was wearing a button for the end of my CP and I guess Ariel asked me if I was going to see the fireworks and of course, I said, yes. And then she said, “The first time I saw Eric, it was with fireworks! And every time I see fireworks, I think of him. Maybe when you see the fireworks tonight, you’ll think of Eric, too!” I thought that was *such* a weird thing to say, but bless her heart, it can’t be easy trying to talk to a 6ft tall bald guy sitting next to you when you’re wearing a mermaid costume haha. So I always tried to keep that in the back of my mind when I interacted with the performers, but I did have some experiences where the cast members really did an excellent job.

Okay and the memory I came here to share haha:

I just read that the 2020-2021 Brazilian cultural program was cancelled. That’s sad, especially because there is so much less global travel nowadays, but it brought back some happy memories of working for the Mouse.

One of the “tasks” we had to do as a park greeter when we weren’t at a touch point was to re-fill the map kiosks at the front of the park. I think it’s two or three rows of English language maps and then one or two rows for all the other languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and a special English language disability access map.

Obviously, the English maps went the quickest. This is all based on my personal observation, but I think the majority of guests are English-speaking people from across the US, and we had guests from Canada and the UK (UK guests, when I worked there, were easy to spot because the whole family would wear Toy Story Land MagicBands. I thought that was so weird until a cast member from the UK explained that they were all booking through the same agency and the agency gave the whole family those Toy Story Land Magic Bands— I assume now it’s Galaxy’s Edge or something else new to advertise). I don’t remember ever meeting an Australian guest, but we had tons of Australian cultural representatives— some of them became very good friends, although they didn’t make good on their promise to let me try Australian fairy bread!

The next most used map was the Portuguese-language map. A lot of Brazilian tourists come to Walt Disney World, but there are not many Portuguese-speaking cast members. I have seen Spanish-speaking cast members attempt to speak to Portuguese guests because apparently the languages are very similar, but I also had cast members tell me that sometimes it’s worse— the languages are so close and yet not the same, so sometimes these interactions would leave the Brazilian guests extra frustrated! That’s why there’s a large Brazilian cultural representative program (although the programs are short, 2-4 months during peak summer and Christmastime only) even though there is no Brazilian pavilion in the World Showcase.

At the end of my time at the Boardwalk, I briefly worked with a Brazilian CP and we worked together on New Year’s Eve (which, btw was a lot of work but a lot of fun). He told me how in Brazil, New Year’s Eve is a very big deal and they all wear white, and that’s how he could pick out his fellow Brazilians at the Boardwalk that night. He said he spoke Portuguese to one guest, and she took him and she hugged him and said she was so sad he wasn’t spending New Year’s with his own family, so to think of her hug as one from his own mother. Very sweet.

The next language that got used the most was Spanish, but really, Portuguese outpaced every other language besides English by a country mile. At the Boardwalk, I worked with a lot of wonderful people who were Spanish speakers and one of my best friends was from Mexico, so I tried to pick up a little Spanish. Well, I picked up just that— a little! But it did come in handy, not so much at the Boardwalk, but as a park greeter. I knew very, very basic things like colors etc. and sometimes I could give people directions based on my limited vocabulary. I was very proud when I was successful! But many other times, I had to ask for the assistance of Spanish-speaking cast members and usually there was someone nearby. One time a guest came up to me with Google Translate and we communicated back and forth this way, and I thought that was absolutely brilliant!

I didn’t hear any other languages used as frequently as English, Portuguese, and Spanish and a lot of times you didn’t need to restock the Japanese (the Japanese guests always have the cutest Disney merch, and when you ask them where they got it, it’s always Tokyo Disneyland) or German maps at all. There was an uptick of French-speaking guests during Holy Week, I assume perhaps that is spring break for the French or maybe the French Canadians? I took French in high school and so I’d try to greet French speaking guests with a “bienvenue” or something but maybe that was cringey haha?

But anyway, I loved the multiculturalism of working at Walt Disney World. Coming from a very homogeneous region, it was so wonderful and exciting to have conversations with people from all over the world— if they were from a nation with a World Showcase pavilion, sometimes I’d ask them if it reminded them of home and invariably they’d say no, but I expected that. And I made some life-long friends around the globe, too. That’s truly one of the best gifts I was given when I worked in Orlando.
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Re: Cast Memberies

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I understand the cringey part-- In high school, we had activities to perform for Spanish class; ordering in Spanish at a restaurant didn't go well for me, so hopefully the French-speakimg guests at least appreciated your effort!

Why doesn't Disney hire more Portuguese-speakers?! Seems like a no-brainer! I've definitely seen the Brazilian tour groups...just stinks they're such a huge fanbase and can't easily communicate with CMs.

I definitely think it's cool that you got to meet people from all over!!!

And awww, Ariel <3
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Re: Cast Memberies

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blackcauldron85 wrote:I understand the cringey part-- In high school, we had activities to perform for Spanish class; ordering in Spanish at a restaurant didn't go well for me, so hopefully the French-speakimg guests at least appreciated your effort!
Oh no! Between high school and college, I think I took a combined total of 6 semesters of French but I never spoke to a native French speaker until my senior year of college. It was nerve-wracking! Haha. But at WDW, since I stuck to simple phrases, I was less scared. But maybe I should have been! Haha
Why doesn't Disney hire more Portuguese-speakers?! Seems like a no-brainer! I've definitely seen the Brazilian tour groups...just stinks they're such a huge fanbase and can't easily communicate with CMs.
I just assumed that there wasn’t a large group of Portuguese speakers to hire from— it didn’t seem like there was a ton of immigration from Portuguese speaking countries. Guest Relations were usually people who spoke 2-3 languages, but I think Portuguese is so specific to the Orlando tourism industry that most people learning languages maybe don’t have it in mind? Idk.
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Post by blackcauldron85 »

I went to Valencia and UCF, and I don't even know if Portuguese is offered...At UCF I continued with Spanish because that's what I took in high school (where Portuguese was definitely not offered)...
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Re: Cast Memberies

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Oh wow, you’d think if Portuguese was taught as a foreign language at any university, it would be universities in Orlando! So it seems like there’s just not much opportunity for students who want to learn Portuguese.
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Re: Cast Memberies

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I just looked, and UCF does offer Portuguese (I never looked before because I took Spanish...):
https://mll.cah.ucf.edu/languages/

Valencia does not offer it:
https://valenciacollege.edu/academics/d ... ources.php
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Re: Cast Memberies

Post by blackcauldron85 »

So, this is not my cast memberie, but holy cow is it a good one!

Disney Friends Dance Off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIS1dxmuJfE
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