Dreaming Our Dreams

Note: I got lazy my last few weeks here in Orlando and neglected to keep up with my blog. I'm home in California now, however there are still a few things I wanted to share with you! This entry should have been written and posted around Monday August 9^th.


I think I may have reached the peak of my musical career last weekend with Dream Our Dreams, the summer show put on by the Encore! Cast Choir and Orchestra. This has been the most amazing production I think I might ever be part of. Not just a concert, but a full-blown 2.5 hour production put on by a cast of over 400 people! We had four performances this weekend and sold over 1200 tickets to each show. The proceeds from the show are going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central Florida.

About 250 in the choir, almost 100 in the orchestra. Not pictured are our 40 dancers,  20-member color guard,  six muses and six spoken word poets (one for each type of dream), and a production team of nearly 50 very talented and devoted people!

Almost every day this week I had work, followed by 3 hour rehearsals. I'm really lucky that in all of Walt Disney World, the venue is in the building right behind my work location at Epcot. I didn't get much sleep, but this was yet another experience of a lifetime that I had access to this summer. The show was nearly three hours with an intermission and contained nothing but Disney music. Take a look at the program here. The full title of the show was Dream Our Dreams! A Musical Tribute to the Legacy of Disney and was split into six different types of dreams: Dreams of Love, Fantasy, Darkness, Adventure, Family, and Discovery. Here's a clip of the opening of the show to give you an idea of how all of these performers worked together through the show: (you can see me playing a modest solo about four minutes into the clip, just under the conductor)





YouTube really doesn't do the performances justice, but here are a couple other decent clips from the show:
Finale Ultimo from Disney's Broadway Production of Beauty and the Beast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa5q7oKQUnI
Poor Unfortunate Songs: The Scoundrel Collection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0mBZGnaLA

© DeanRayPhoto

I also got to play in a piano quintet in the lobby as guests entered the venue. We played, you guessed it, more Disney music. It's a very different dynamic with that group of instruments, it was a nice change of pace for me.

© DeanRayPhoto

Just like I did at work and in my apartment, I met some more amazing people that I hope to see and work with again soon.

Fiddling around with my awesome stand partner Kyle

A Behind-The-Screams Tour

Note: I got lazy my last few weeks here in Orlando and neglected to keep up with my blog. I'm home in California now, however there are still a few things I wanted to share with you! This entry should have been written and posted around Wednesday August 4^th.

Yesterday morning I had the incredible opportunity to take a tour of the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom. Not the tour that most day guests get in a Doombuggy. This one allowed us to explore the mansion on foot.

A few of my co-workers and I got up VERY early and met at the Magic Kingdom at 6am, long before any park guests got there. We rode the cast shuttle to the Utilidor entrance and headed over the the Mansion. The parks are eerie when there are no guests or ambient music, and Magic Kingdom is especially creepy under those conditions. We were met by two ladies who had both worked at the Mansion for many many years and knew the attraction frontwards, backwards and inside-out. They led us on a walking tour through the ride path with all of the worklights on (which still isn't very bright), and pointed out tons of little details, told stories, and explained how things worked. I thought I knew the Haunted Mansion pretty well, but I still learned a lot on the tour, much of which would be impossible to explain or point out to anyone riding the ride.

I don't want to ruin any magic, but I will share a few cool details with you:

As in many dark rides, there are pressure-sensitive mats along the ride path. When someone steps out of their vehicle (or drops something), the ride immediately stops and the operators are alerted. Disney took extra precautions in the séance scene with Madame Leota, as her technology is still a closely guarded secret and people have attempted to steal her ball before. If you activate a pressure mat in this room, the ride will stop AND Madame Leota will quickly float to the ceiling, well out of reach of any ne'er-do-wells.

The stretching room originally had 8 speakers, which didn't really create any cool surround effects. The stretching rooms were recently upgraded to 120-speaker systems that can create some amazing surround effects. I got to see the computer that controls them, and on the screen it shows all of the sound clips bouncing around the octagonal room, just as the guest would hear it from inside the room. I hope California gets that sound system soon.

Look closely at this book in the library scene. On the front cover? Jack Skellington.  The book title? The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Within the ride there are five hidden Jack Skellingtons, from The Nightmare Before Christmas. These were placed after it was decided that it wouldn't be to their advantage to transform the Floridian version of the Mansion each October-January like they do at Disneyland. They are pretty invisible to the naked eye, but if you take some well-planned flash pictures on the ride you might see a few (don't do it—flash photography is not allowed and they'll spiel at you).

"What kind of Mickey Mouse operation is this anyway?"

Sunday night I had an amazing opportunity to shadow the third-shift Engineering Services crew at Spaceship Earth in Epcot. They work all night, every night of the year to ensure that the attraction stays safe and fully functional, maintaining both the ride system and show elements.

Spaceship Earth is Epcot's iconic flagship attraction, located inside the geodesic sphere (golf ball) that stands at the entrance to the park. The building stands 180 feet tall and is covered in 11,324 triangular plastic and aluminum panels. The ride itself is an omnimover, running a continuous loop of vehicles (somewhere around 240 I think), which allows the ride to be loaded and unloaded without ever stopping, giving it a very high hourly capacity (hence the -mover). It's called an OMNImover because while one set of wheels holds the car on the track, another follows a cam path that causes the vehicle to turn wherever the designers want you to look. The vehicles in Spaceship Earth face forward while ascending and turn around backwards for the steep descent.

When he heard that I was an engineering student, my manager arranged this gig so that I would get a good look at the mechanics of another attraction other than my own and see what goes into maintaining just ONE of our attractions at Epcot. I went with one of my co-workers who is also an engineering student on the college program. We arrived at Epcot about 11pm and headed over to the base of SSE. The front column under the ball is usually flush and covered in tall mirrors, but as we approached we could see that the panels had been opened up to reveal a large freight elevator.

The freight elevator is located in the mirrored column in the front center of SSE. It serves five levels, from the ground all the way to the highest track elevation, 163' up.

Up we went, to the 4th floor. We walked out into a big bright room. To our left was a tool storage area. To our right, the ride track (with vehicles on it). Ahead and to the right of the track was a lot of rock work, indicating that we were at the point in the ride just before we see the cavemen. After meeting the foreman and his team, we watched as the guys removed the metal skirts from the front and rear of a single vehicle, unpinned the upstop wheels, and screwed in eye-bolts to the floor of the car. They used an electric hoist to release some of the pressure on the car, then disconnected the car from the loop. They used another hoist mounted on a track on the ceiling to lift the car from the track and place it on a dolly on the floor. One of the guys then rolled the car into the elevator and disappeared with it! Our foreman explained to us that they remove three vehicles each week from the loop and replace them with cars that have been in the shop for a week. This is entirely preventative maintenance, whether the car needs it or not, though they still do frequent inspections of all the vehicles and track (Fun Fact: many attractions at WDW with tubular steel rails run compressed air through the rails. If the rails are ever compromised, the computer will know instantly when the air pressure drops). Watching the guys work reminded me a lot of hanging out in the driveway with Dad when he's working on a project.

The ride system is a continuous string of these vehicles, interrupted only by "spacer cars" (cars that don't hold passengers, only electronics) and one maintenance car. They can rotate backwards during the last portion of the ride before they descend.

After watching a couple of vehicle change-outs, we took a coffee break (in a Christmas tree-lighted cave beneath the aforementioned rock work). There we overheard two other maintenance guys talking about the Audio-Animatronics figures that needed work that night. I immediately perked up and asked if we could tag along on their next repair, and they agreed!

This is the figure we watched them repair. Sitting on that stone wall for an hour, I really noticed a lot of details in the theming (like the melting ice and grime on the sidewalk) that you wouldn't notice even after riding many times. The figure itself was pretty detailed as well: it had a full face with a moving mouth and eyes. There are several theories as to why it now faces the wall and not the ride vehicles.

We walked up the track from there, all the way past the Gutenberg Press scene. The guys pointed out that the little paperboy who stands in the corner had a hydraulic fluid-soiled sweater (something you would never see from the ride with the worklights off), indicating that there was a leak somewhere in the figure. So, the clothes come off, and soon we're looking at a clear plastic exoskeleton filled with many tubes and wires that cause all of the boy's movements. They proceed to take apart his arm, and soon find a small steady drip coming from a hose connection in the boy's elbow. The guys eventually determined that the leak was caused by an old o-ring, about the same size and shape as an orthodontic rubber band. They swapped out the ring, and no leak! The whole process of taking apart the figure, troubleshooting, and reassembling took about an hour. We were able to test the figure's motion with the technician's laptop, which told the main show control computers what we wanted the figure to do. It was fun to twist the knobs and see what motion resulted. I would love to shadow the guys who work on the AA's in Dinosaur.

I wasn't going to risk my job by taking pictures that night, but I did find this photo online of a Pirates of the Caribbean AA from Anaheim. Normally the whole figure is encased in the translucent plastic (see the pirate's right leg), which gives is a human shape and protects the costume from the innards and vice-versa. Over the plastic there is a simple jumpsuit that really just protects the costume, and then finally the actual costume goes over that. The maintenance guys aren't allowed to put the costumes back on the figure (regardless of their fashionable tendencies), a cast member from costuming must be sent out in the morning, lock out, and enter the ride to replace the costume.

We did some more exploring of the ride before our evening was up, so if you want more details, feel free to ask. I'd love to talk about it more. This was a great experience that I will keep with me, regardless of the career I eventually end up with. It's amazing to me how much work goes into just keeping ONE relatively simple attraction running smoothly day in and day out all year long.

Welcome to our 3D space fantasy!

That's an actual line we're suggested to use from the operating guide for Captain EO, who made his official debut at Epcot yesterday! EO replaced Honey, I Shrunk The Audience and the Imagination Cast Members who work there could not be happier.

Captain EO is a 3D film starring Michael Jackson in a 17-minute musical space adventure. Jackson leads a "ragtag crew" through the cosmos on a mission to deliver a gift. EO and his crew crash land on a dark planet, full of dirty scrap metal, steaming vents, and decidedly unfriendly alien creatures. With the power of music, the team is able to save themselves from the wrath of the Supreme Leader and transform the planet and its inhabitants into a beautiful utopia.

Having seen the film about six times a day for the last three days, I've already had my fix. That's not to say it's not fun, I love watching people exit the theater smiling and singing along with "Another Part Of Me." Imagineering said that it wasn't possible to re-create all of the in-theater effects from 1986 (lasers are considered dangerous now, and the smoke and starfield effects were a little more than was in the budget), but they made use of some of the HISTA effects, including the mouse tail ticklers, the dog sneeze blasts, and the pneumatic floor. For those of you who've seen it recently in California, the floor here does not bounce much with the bass in the musical sequences, but gives a small shudder. During some of the battle sequences, it moves a lot more than it ever did for HISTA.

We're really glad to have new costumes! The shirts are a lighter, silkier material and have vents in the back. The guys pants aren't too different, but apparently the girls pants are not as "heinous" and high up on the waist. They're still not particularly flattering, as is the case with most Disney costumes.

I don't think the labcoat is allowed over in the theater, but whatevs.

Thanks to Captain EO and the 4th of July holiday, I have 53 hours of work this week! Which is a great improvement to the 30 I was getting before, when we only had the ride running next door. Because many of our new CP's are not yet trained in the ways of the 3D theater, they still spend their whole day on the ride. This means that I spend most of my day over in the theater, but usually still spend a little time in rotation over there.

This is the original Epcot Captain EO marquee from 1986! Imagineers found it hanging on a sign shop wall, preserved and in pristine condition.

All in all, I'm still having a blast out here in Orlando. I only have about 6 weeks left, which is sad, but I'll be so ready to leave the Imagination Pavilion and be back in San Luis Obispo for a while. I'm am almost sure that I will be working for Disney next summer in one way or another.

Badasses of Fantasyland

Encore!

I've now had four Encore rehearsals, two with my section leaders and two with the full orchestra. I am totally blown away by the talent that is in this group and the production that is planned for this August!

In total, there are 101 musicians in the orchestra and 300+ in the choir. We also have a troupe of dancers and models that will be part of the show this summer. The show is called Dream Our Dreams! (with an exclamation point, or course), and is a musical tribute to the legacy of Disney. The show opens with Let the Magic, Music, and Mayhem Begin from our new fireworks spectacular at Magic Kingdom, A Dream is a Wish and Circle of Life, at which point the orchestra will be dramatically revealed to the audience. We continue on into Dreams of Love, which includes Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Bella Notte, He's A Tramp (can only be described as "hot"), and You'll Be In My Heart. We segue into Dreams of Fantasy, which includes That's How You Know from Enchanted. I Put A Spell On You from Hocus Pocus plunges us into Dreams of Darkness, which also includes This Is Halloween, Grim Grinning Ghosts, Poor Unfortunate Souls, and Be Prepared. We have a brief intermission, then jump start the second act with music from Pirates of the Caribbean and Dreams of Adventure, which also includes music from The Princess and the Frog, Tarzan, Hercules, Mulan, and Pocahontas. We then have Dreams of Family (my favorite from there is Shadowland from the Broadway version of The Lion King), and finally Dreams of Discovery, which includes many themes from Future World attractions at Epcot.

The finale of the show is Dream Our Dreams, which actually came from an unpopular parade that ran at Disneyland for all of ten weeks back in the 90's. The music itself is really cool though, we get to rock out and fiddle the theme from the Main Street Electrical Parade.

The rehearsals are a lot of fun, but very long. It's tough to sit upright with a violin for three hours every week. It's a fun group to work with, we have two keyboardists that crack jokes all night long, loud enough for me to hear but out of our conductor's range. Most of the musicians don't play for Disney, they have regular day jobs in the parks just like me. This orchestra provides a great venue for all of this creative talent to be unleashed! I cannot wait to see how this show is going to turn out.

ADDENDUM: Kyle is my stand partner. He's pretty cool. But he really needs to replace his A string, it's bringing the whole orchestra down.

Mischief Managed

Yep, that's a wand in my right hand! I got to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this week, and it was totally amazing! I had high hopes and I was not disappointed in the least. I'll be visiting again this week, so I'll tell you more after!

June Excitement

A lot of the last two weeks has been business as usual, but I still have some exciting things to report on:

My friend Sam J visited WDW the first week of June. He was one of my first friends who really shared my same affinity for the Disney Parks, not to mention an endless barrage of trivia tidbits. I'm glad he was able to visit, it's always fun park-hopping with seasoned pros!

Last week I was fortunate enough to get a Wishes shift in Fantasyland, as a "castle guard" for the fireworks. Because there are many pyrotechnics that launch from the castle and the rooftops in Fantasyland that supplement the big ones out back, the immediate area is cleared out about an hour before each show so that the cannons can be inspected and tested. This poses a challenge for guests who are coming in and out of Cinderella's Royal Table, which is located inside the castle. My job was to stay under the back archway of the castle and direct guests safely to and from the restaurant while the testing was going on. Of course nobody can walk out there when the show is going on, so a couple minutes before the show we held all guests in the castle breezeway. I think they were disappointed that they were stuck there, but they actually had a really "up-close and personal" view of the show, and I got to chat with several princesses-in-training while we were waiting for clearance from the pyro team. I would take that shift over a parade shift any day.

The pirates take over Cinderella Castle during the new Summer Nightastic! fireworks at the Magic Kingdom

I also got to Emergency Stop the ride a few days ago when a kid was jumping from car to car. Because he had gotten out of the vehicle, we had to run into the ride to find him. I think he could have been ejected from the park for what he did, but after we talked to him he seemed a little intimidated and was willing to cooperate. I just felt bad for the people who were stuck on other vehicles in the ride and had to listen to One Little Spark for five extra minutes!

Other excitement includes my first Encore rehearsals and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I will create separate entries for these soon.

Don't Rain On My Parade

Despite all my singing this morning, it did, in fact, rain on my parade.

A shift-swap had left my Sunday schedule wide open, and I sure as heck wasn't going to church, so I picked up a Parade Audience Control shift on Main Street. I was super excited at the chance to wear a new costume and try out a new work location. A nice change of scenery. I had a few reservations about how to get to my work location, where to clock in, etc. Luckily Tyler (from Encore) had also picked up the same shift, he guided me through the Utilidor and around the backside of the Emporium to the PAC briefing room, which is located upstairs in City Hall. After clocking in, the manager and coordinator talked to us in general about what was expected today, then called roll and gave us assignments. I was given Confectionery 2, and other than where the Confectionery is, I had no idea what to do. The manager assured me that my partner knew what she was doing and would help me out.

Turns out the shift was a lot of fun, despite the rain. We put masking tape down on the sidewalk to delineate where guests could stand or had to keep clear, put up a big rope along our corner of the street. I spent most of my time pointing guests down the sidewalk and asking that they continue moving down the narrow pathway, as it's the only path in and out of the Magic Kingdom during the parade. As the last float went past, we picked up our tape and ropes, and followed the float all the way to the bridge at Liberty Square, where we lined the middle of the street and kept guests moving on the right-hand side of the path in either direction, as that bridge gets very congested following the parade. After the traffic had cleared, we headed back to the south end of Main Street for PACtivities. This involves bringing out jumpropes, hula hoops, and bubbles to play with kids until the end of our shifts. Who knew that parents would pay thousands of dollars to bring their kids to Orlando and have them hula hoop with us?!

I have another PAC shift for SpectroMagic tomorrow night, which I think segues into Wishes. Getting paid to watch the evening entertainment is a real drag.

Universal was awesome. I didn't have really high expectations, but the park was really clean, not super crowded, the employees were pretty friendly, and most of the rides were really cool. I especially liked the Revenge of the Mummy coaster, E.T. Adventure, and Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. There is also a really great section of the park themed around the world of Dr. Seuss. But the most exciting part of the day was definitely walking through the middle of Hogsmeade to get to the Dragon Challenge coasters. Granted, there were modular walls keeping us from seeing all the scenery, but we could see the rooftops and Hogwarts Castle. I'm soooo excited. The coasters themselves were pretty cool (though they're already ten years old), they're suspended below the track and dispatch at the same time, and though the tracks don't mirror each other, they have three points where the trains look like they're going to collide. One of the coolest ideas for a roller coaster I think I have ever experienced. Brendon was a great tour guide! Since he works for Disney and Universal, he knows a lot of stuff! Looking forward to my next visit!

A Post With Class

To enhance this post's class, be sure to hit play on one of the Brubeck clips just up and to your right --------->

Today marks two months of me being here in Orlando. Two months of pure awesome. A few unexpected bumps in the road, sure, but I am having the time of my life, learning a lot, and I'm so glad I made the decision to come out here on the program. A few updates since I talked to you last:

I've had two meetings of my class now. It's called Creativity & Innovation: Gaining the Edge. I'm not sure that I would call it a really "academic" class, I don't know where it would fit into my curriculum, though parts of it remind me a lot of my Philosophy of Design class that I took last quarter, ME 234. That's not to say the class won't be challenging though.

We meet once each week for four hours (it's death---I've never sat in class for more than two hours before), with two short breaks. We have writing assignments, a midterm, a research project, a group presentation, and almost daily journal entries that make up our final grade at the end of the course.

The classroom itself is set up with innovation in mind: we all sit around hexagonal tables, and there is an obligatory whiteboard on the main wall flanked by two enormous monitors hooked up to the teacher's computer. One wall is covered in photos showcasing the many attractions we have at all four theme parks. And there is not a single fluorescent light fixture in the room. This setup really helps our unconventional class, we utilize the board and monitors about half the time, and spend the rest of the time in discussion with our groups at each table. This week we had tubs of Play-Doh in the middle of our table; our teacher says that she provides it because many of us learn better when our hands are busy. I don't know that I fall into that category, though when her lecture got boring it gave me something interesting to do. Last week we had a Barrel of Monkeys. That was a little more distracting.

Today we talked about the nature of innovation. To practice the process of innovation, we picked a topic and discussed it at length, how we could better understand the problem, how we could imagine solutions through many different perspectives, how we can apply our findings to action, etc. I mentioned to my table that I wasn't very impressed with Disney's Environmentality campaign.I felt that yes, Disney was making a small effort to be environmentally responsible, especially in sight of the guests. But being such a huge company with so many resources at their disposal (bad word choice?), shouldn't Disney be playing a bigger part? Even things as small as providing recycling bins for our Tell-A-Cast schedules or guests' park maps. Not too difficult or expensive. My whole table agreed and we had a lot to talk about. I'll be developing my ideas more and more in that journal that I'm supposed to be writing in.

In other news, I'm finally getting away from Disney for a day this week. I'll be visiting Universal with a friend on Friday, we're crossing our fingers for soft openings at Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I've been avoiding reading too much up on the attractions there, I want to experience everything with all the "magic" intact first.

I was also selected by one of my managers to help represent the College Program with four other cast members from all over WDW at the 2010 National Association of Colleges and Employers Conference, held here in Orlando the first week of June. I'm very honored, but I have no idea what I'll be doing there. I'm told that I already know everything I will need to know. Yikes.

Queue Shenanigans

Reception desk in our queue line for Journey Into Imagination

Paradise Found

...on the beach at the Polynesian:

HISTA la vista, baby!

Louisa said it best with that line. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience had its final show on Mother's Day, May 9, exactly a week ago. The theater is officially closed for refurbishment, and probably won't be ready again until the very end of June. With one of our two attractions out of commission, that leaves our team with not much in the way of work. I NEVER thought I'd say it, but I kinda do miss HISTA. There was a lot more guest interaction, we didn't stand at a console the whole time, and talking to a crowd of several hundred with the microphone became pretty fun after the first couple weeks (if our EO gets set up like Disneyland's, we'll have just a short safety spiel in the theater). The ride just gets kinda dull after a whole day in there.

I got to open the dispatch console today though :-) Only downside is that you have to be there at 7:30am. I got to stand at the main console and ensure that our track walker triggered all of the video motion detectors, doors, and pressure mats throughout the ride. Once all of those parts are checked, we cycle the whole fleet of trains through the attraction one time. Then worklights are turned off, audio activated, and one of our cast members rides through the attraction (with Maintenance present) to ensure that all show elements are working correctly. For such a simple ride, it's got some very complicated systems all working together to make the magic.

I finally got an email back from the Encore Cast Orchestra and I'm in! They didn't say where I'll be sitting, but I'm just really excited to be part of the show this summer. It's quite a production with over 100 people in the orchestra, and over 200 in the choir. This year's concert is called Dream Our Dreams, A Musical Tribute to the Legacy of Disney. I didn't get a chance to see the whole song list, but I know it includes some classic pieces from the movies and the parks, including Bella Note, Baroque Hoedown, and One Little Spark. Rehearsals start on June 15. I can't wait.

Spring Formalities

Today a little girl popped a squat on the loading platform of the ride. She couldn't have been more than three years old. Just spread her legs, hitched up her dress a bit, and just peed right there. On the loading platform. But bless her heart, she stayed behind that yellow line.

I was at the dispatch console, and about to send the train at that point, but seeing what the girl had just done caught me a little off guard. Her mother didn't seem too surprised, she just apologized deeply and dragged her daughter back toward the entrance before I really had a chance to say anything. Laura had the Nextel and rang custodial for us. I was stunned that two coordinators and a manager got there within five minutes, but it took custodial over 20 minutes to get there! It's something I can laugh about now, but I was mortified when it happened.

Right after work I headed to the College Program Spring Formal, held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in their 60,000 sq ft conference room. I wasn't expecting much, but there were tons of people there, decent food, and good music. These are a few of my coworkers who were available for a Kodak Moment:

A Blog-Worthy Night

Or at least that's what Tyler 1 said (I'm Tyler 2... for now). I'm gonna make this a blog-worthy weekend, as I never got around to publishing this weekend.

Each of the four parks has one night of the week that we stay open extra late for guests staying at a WDW Resort hotel. Epcot's night is usually Friday night, and for us it's usually a snooze-fest since the families with younger kids that frequent our ride usually go home before it gets that late. HISTA is equally boring when you're only spieling to 30 people or stacking 30 pairs of glasses. BUT, we got some excitement last night around 10:30.

I was standing at the podium inside the HISTA theater with mic in hand to welcome the next group of guests, but about 30 seconds after the music cue, I figured we had an empty show. Then my manager came through one of the doors, which I figured was a bad sign. He said we'd had a Signal 25 over at the ride, which is Disney-speak for fire. We have lots of Disney-speak terms, some are used in reference to the "show" that we're putting on (cast member, audience, costume, backstage, onstage, etc), and some are used so as not to alarm the guests or reveal too much info (that would include a signal 25). Anyway, the ride was being cycled-out and we were evacuating the entire building just in case. The building includes the ride, HISTA, and the Imageworks gift shop and play area. It's a lot of building to clear out, luckily we weren't too busy.

I met the rest of our crew out in front of the building and together we blocked off the Imagination Pavilion and told guests that we were currently experiencing technical difficulties. I found that it can be challenging saying this without revealing too much about the problem, since most guests ask further questions. We just did our best to direct the guests to other attractions. In the meantime, the fire truck had arrived and the crew was checking out the building. I'm not even sure if the cause of the alarm was determined, but it seems like it was a computer error, all the sensors were fine in the ride. We grudgingly returned to our posts to finish out our extra magical evening. The otherwise uneventful evening did end with Guest Service Fanatic cards all around (a kind of caught-being-good reward system).

Saturday night after work I had my Encore Cast Orchestra audition. I was scheduled until 9 and auditions went to 10:30, though I was doubtful I'd make it with our sort-of-reliable bus system. LUCKILY my co-worker Margaret, who has a car, agreed to drive me out to Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK) Wardrobe where the auditions were being held. I ended up being the very last to audition that night, but I felt it went alright. The judges had their poker faces on, and there weren't many others there, so I have no idea how I did in comparison. I did make a new friend there, however. His name is Tyler. He lives in my apartment complex. And he plays the violin. Any Tyler who plays the violin must be pretty cool, right? I'll hopefully get an email from the orchestra directors in the next week. I'll let you know how it went then.

Today's work wasn't super exciting. Ride and show operated without problems. We are now required to wear actual safety goggles when we're down in the maintenance bay washing glasses. I don't really see why, since the machining tools that maintenance uses are back behind a huge vinyl welding curtain, and they only ever use them at night, but I guess it's not a huge deal. We have been washing some new glasses in our machine these last few days. They're the latest from Dolby, and they're a lot cooler than the flimsy yellow glasses we use in the parks. These have some serious frames on them, they look like Oakleys, and the lenses are clear, except for a redish sheen on one side and a greenish sheen on the other, which comes from the polarized lenses. We are sending quite a few pairs through each day, some are getting taken out of the cycle as we go along. The glasses will be sent back to Walt Disney Imagineering at the end of the week so they can determine the results of the durability tests. From what I understand, Disney currently uses similar glasses to show 3D movies on their cruise ships. Each pair of glasses costs quite a bit more than our flimsy yellow ones, so they're embedded with RFID tags that set off an alarm if they get taken out of the theater. Cool stuff.

It's Official...

It was announced at this morning's Track Talk, Captain EO will be returning to Epcot (his original home!) on July 2nd. I'm very excited, and it does mean there will be quite a few changes for us currently working at the Imagination Institute.

HISTA will close next next weekend, and the theater will undergo refurbishment for about two months. For those who are cross-trained on other attractions in the park (many full-timers also work at Soarin', The Land boat ride, Innoventions, the Seas, etc), they will move to those other attractions for that time. All of us who only work Image, we'll be exclusively at Journey Into Imagination for those two months.

The current story of our pavilion is that we are scientists who work at the Imagination Institute, welcoming guests to tour the institute's sensory labs at Journey, and presenting our annual Inventor of the Year Award next door at HISTA. When Captain EO arrives, our current costumes (red/orange collared shirts with lab coats) won't really fit in with Captain EO's theming, so they're currently working on costumes that we can use at both attractions. We're speculating that the shirts will change, and we'll wear our lab coats at Journey and take them off at EO.

Being at Journey Into Imagination for two months straight may be a drag, BUT how cool will it be to claim that I was part of the re-opening team for Captain EO at Epcot??!! Another feather for my Disney hat.

To think, I learned those spiels for nothing! Not really, I'm actually really grateful for the experience. Talking in front of a few hundred guests a few times a day has done wonders for my public speaking abilities. But I will miss watching full-grown men scream like little girls when the "mice" enter the theater.

My Very First ER

I took my very first ER today. I think it stands for "early release." We can request one through our computerized Cast Deployment System, and depending on how busy we are or how many cast members we have, we may be granted the request (we can also request to extend our shift through a similar process). I don't think I'll be doing this very often, as I don't want to cut my paychecks short, but since this week I was scheduled only one day off, I felt it was deserved.

Clocking out at 3pm, I took the opportunity to change into street clothes, make some phone calls and enjoy some more of Epcot. It's definitely my favorite park, and there's still so much I haven't seen there! I spent some time at The Seas, watched the manatees for a while. I was told that the main aquarium there is large enough to fit all of Spaceship Earth (the big Epcot ball, seen in the photo at the top of this blog), and still have room for a Disney bus to drive around the bottom! I'm not really sure, but would be really cool if it was.

I then took an obligatory ride on Test Track, my favorite attraction in all of Walt Disney World. I ride it every chance I get, though I don't go out of my way for it. It's the fastest attraction that Disney has ever built (your vehicle usually hits 64mph), and the longest attraction at WDW.

I also made my way to the Italy Pavilion to check out the Italy Liberation Day festivities, but when I got there there really wasn't anything going on. No big deal though, walking through World Showcase is pretty awesome anyway.

I've been at home for a few hours now, watching the HUGE storm outside from the couch. It's so cool, one minute torrential downpour, the next nothing. But lots of lightning :-) Looking forward to a full day off tomorrow.

Re-Theme

Changed up the Blog heading a bit. I figured it was more appropriate, since I'm not working at the Magic Kingdom. Maybe I'll work on an Imagination Institute theme for later :-)

Making Magic

Making Magic with Figment

Busted!

Today I got busted for having my spiel notes sitting on the console in front of me at the photocells (an alternative type of turnstile) at Honey, I Shrunk The Audience. It's not that I don't know my spiels... it's just kind of a security blanket. I don't want to get caught in the middle of my spiel and get stuck, that's really embarrassing! So, the coordinator who busted me confiscated my notes and told me that if a manager had seen me with them, my certification for that attraction would have been revoked. Which would be really bad for me.

Not to worry though, I did get my notes back later. I got the full, more reasonable explanation from another coordinator: I'm allowed to keep the note cards with me, though I can only refer to them offstage. I'm not supposed to have them out in front of me while I'm spieling. I'm okay with that.

I really just didn't like the feeling of being "in trouble." I knew that many of the other CP's had kept their notes on them for a few weeks after their trainings, so I was really frustrated that I'd been scolded for it. This, on top of trying to re-learn my tasks during set shows (now that the spring break crowds are gone, we are doing shows every 30 minutes instead of 20, which requires fewer people running around doing more things). I was quite flustered.

After this little scare, I'll probably never need to look at my notes again 8-)

Not so bad after all

Okay, I know I kinda trash-talked my attractions a couple weeks ago, but now I'm over it. Let me start by saying I LOVE Epcot. Working at Epcot is awesome for a lot of reasons. I get to ride the bus to work with all of the international students who work in their respective World Showcase pavilions, and so I get several different languages buzzing in my ears every morning, and I've met some really interesting people. Also, the Flower and Garden festival is going on and the gardens all around the park are amazing:

T

The dark glass pyramids in the background are the Imagination Pavilion (where I work)

 

Both of my attractions are usually open from 9am-7pm (except for Extra Magic Hours Fridays until midnight), which is waaaay better than Magic Kingdom's hours last week, 7am-1am (EMH until 3am). Also, IllumiNations is definitely the coolest fireworks of any of the resorts.

I really love working Journey into Imagination. It's fun to work with all of the families with kids, who think the ride is pretty cool. I love pressing buttons. My favorite is walking the track at the end of the night checking for lost and found items and anything unusual. The ride system is actually pretty interesting because the trains stop and go between scenes and rotate to face the walls. One of my coworkers was telling me that there are a lot of old components from the old version of the ride still in the building behind some of the scene walls. I'm looking forward to a more in-depth tour soon!

 HISTA is still kinda fun, but I really don't like spieling. HISTA seems to be a lot more popular here than in CA, we nearly fill the theater for every show between lunch and dinner times (575 people!) I have a three-page script that with spiels for the show. I have them mostly memorized, but I still refer to my sticky notes before I pick up the position in rotations. I was soooo nervous about getting on the mic in front of all those people, but now that I've been doing it for a week, it's not really a big deal. I've stolen a lot of jokes from my coworkers. It's fun to watch people watching the show. Seeing them scream and pick up their feet every time the "mice" enter the theater never gets old. When the snake comes around we almost always have to let mothers and children out of the theater, despite having verbally warned them twice about the nature of the show (and numerous printed warnings). Park guests are an endless source of entertainment.

Did you know that the Imagination Institute staff cleans not only the HISTA glasses, but all of the 3D glasses for all four theme parks? This includes MuppetVision 3D, Mickey's Philharmagic, Toy Story Midway Mania, It's Tough to be a Bug, Innoventions, and more! That's one of my positions in rotation is operating the glasses cleaning machine. It sounds like a drag, but it can be a nice respite from crazy co-workers and park guests.

At home, we've got two new roommates, bringing our total count to 8. They're cool, I'm really glad that despite having that many guys in the apartment we all get along really well. One of the downside of having that many people is that all 8 of us will never have free time together, e.g. one roommate works 5am-1pm, I work ~11am-7:30pm, and the new guys work 5pm-2am.

I've got lots more to talk about, but I'll have to save it for another night! :-D

Wow what a week...

Hey Guys!

Computer is broken so I haven't really been able to get online much, other than from my cell phone. I'll try to fill you in with my recent adventures!

Housing

My apartment here is pretty cool. It's a four bedroom/three bath with eight beds, though currently we have only six (would love for it to stay that way). Our building is in the back of the complex, but we have a great view of the lake...

...and I'm told that security doesn't hassle us back there too much. There are four complexes here that house over 7,000 College Program students and International Programmers! And there are over 60,000 cast members at Walt Disney World in peak season between the four theme parks, two water parks, the Downtown Disney District, and 17 hotel resorts!

To get around the resort and our apartments, we have an elaborate bus system that runs 24/7 to get us where we need to go. It may take me 45 minutes just to get to my theme park, but you meet a lot of interesting people on the bus. There is also a bus that takes us to Publix (grocery store), Wal Mart, and the local outlet mall.

Work
Starting work here has been a very long and convoluted process, but I'll explain what I can to you. We had a couple days of just paperwork, background checks, etc before we could start any training. My first training session was yesterday (Friday), a class called Traditions where we're taught all about the history and legacy of the Walt Disney World Resort. This was a four-hour class that started at 8am, so we had to board the bus at 6:45am to get to the Disney University on time, dressed professionally in our best "Disney Look." A few parts were kinda boring, but the highlight of training was walking through the Utilidor (intricate network of tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom) and popping up in the middle of Main Street. From there we walked to Fantasyland and made observations about how Disney Cast Members maintain Safety, Courtesy, Efficiency and Show.

At the conclusion of Traditions we were given our WDW ID's and name tags...

...giving us free access to the theme parks. So, naturally we hit as much as we could that afternoon. One of my roommates will be working Attractions on Sunset Boulevard at Disney's Hollywood Studios, so we stopped there first to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster...

...and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. We then water taxi'd over to Epcot to sample some of Future World and Illuminations (nighttime fireworks over the lagoon).

This morning (Saturday) was my Discovery Day at Epcot, a four-hour class about the history of Epcot, its diverse lineup of offerings and its Cast, and a quick tour of the park. Again, we spent a lot of time observing what Epcot cast members do to keep our guests as happy and safe as possible.

At noon today I got my official work location assignment, the Imagination Pavilion, which houses Journey Into Imagination and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience *sigh*. I am really disappointed that out of all of the possible attractions I could have been assigned to, it was HISTA, but such is life. One perk is that my hours are excellent there, the attractions both open at 9am and close at 7pm almost every night. I will make the best of it :-)

On-the-job training commences on Monday, and lucky me, it's Spring Break for many students and these two weeks are in the top ten busiest weeks of the year for WDW. I have a sane training schedule for this coming week, but it's possible that I'll be working 50+ hours the following week. Yay!

Arrival in Orlando

Arrived in Orlando today safe and sound, but WOW what a long day of traveling. The flight from Orlando to Chicago was especially pretty, the red sunset was reflecting off the clouds below us, through which city lights were twinkling. I tried to get a good picture but just couldn't do the scene justice.

I swear half the people on my flight were either headed for a vacation at Walt Disney World or they already worked there. The guy seated next to me on the plane worked in Entertainment. He's an actor at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor and at the American Idol Experience. The girl seated ahead of us overheard us and turned around to talk about her recent experience in the College Program (she's a seaonal cast member now). She also said she worked in Entertainment, but was really vague about her position. I'd guess that maybe she's one of the princesses in the parks and didn't want kids on the plane to overhear? She definitely had the princess mannerisms down.

The time change is a little weird, but I'm tired enough that I don't think it will matter too much tomorrow. Tomorrow morning is program check-in, where I'll get my housing assignment and learn my work location. I don't think I'll know specifically which attraction(s) I'm assigned to until my Traditions class, which could be anywhere between Wednesday and Friday. Since this is week one of the the three-week spring break crowds, I'm really hoping they just throw us into our roles as quickly as possible. Can't wait!

P.S.
The 10 o'clock news announced that Universal Orlando will officially announce the opening day of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this Thursday at noon. And when announcements are made about anouncements of announcements, you know this is gonna be good
=-D

The “college” part of the College Program

I got an email from the College Program today reminding me to look into the "educational opportunities" I may want to sign up for during my time in Florida. I've determined that it's not really worth trying to work these classes into my Cal Poly degree, since I'd have to pay an extra quarter's tuition for them and they won't really count towards my degree. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to take them!


Here are some of the courses I'm interested in taking:

Engineering Professional Development Study
This course is specifically for engineering students in the WDWCP to teach us all about how engineers play an integral role in keeping the resort running, from the monorail mechanics to the Audio-Animatronics technicians to Walt Disney Imagineering! I'm enrolling in this for sure.

Creativity & Innovation: Gaining the Edge
"This course introduces students to the main theories of Creativity and Innovation. Students will learn various tools to promote creativity within themselves and others, processes to increase innovation, how to contribute to a creative team, how to manage creativity and how to establish a culture of creativity within an organization. As a result, students should have greater understanding of and appreciation for the creative/innovative process and be better able to harness and direct those forces for themselves and others."

Exploring Communication Processes at the Walt Disney World Resort
In the last couple years I've been increasingly interested in sharpening my communication skills. I feel that I'm a very strong 1-on-1 communicator, but I'd especially like to improve my public speaking abilities. Maybe this can help me?


Between classes and work, I think I'll stay plenty busy! Oh, almost forgot: I got an email from the director of the Encore Cast Orchestra inviting me to audition in May! I'm really excited that I'll have an excuse to keep playing while on the program.

Preparations Are Underway…

I hope you can handle ellipses, because I might use them a lot through the course of this blog. Just a warning.

I'm getting increasingly excited and nervous for the College Program. Excited to live on the other side of the country for five months, to be taking a quarter off from Cal Poly (though I'll still have some classes in Florida), and to be working in and learning about an industry that I've been enchanted by since my first visit to Disneyland at age four. Nervous about being away from California, my apartment, my friends, my car, my current LIFE for five months. This is big.

I've purchased my plane ticket and will be flying out of Sacramento on Monday March 22. That's like, seven weeks away. I've been thinking a lot about what I will try to take with me on the plane, and what I'll have shipped after I arrive in Florida. I've been fantasizing about a cool job on an E-Ticket attraction in the Magic Kingdom (fun fact: my first choice would be Splash Mountain), and having nightmares about getting stuck with something boring like Honey I Shrunk the Audience or a lengthy script on The Great Movie Ride. Regardless, I think I'll get plenty of knowledge and experience just from being there for so long. I can only hope for the best :-)

I have a few more very intense weeks of school and work ahead of me. To that I say, "Bring it."