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.