randinicole
just another girl working for a mouse.
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2015
Monday, June 15th
Today was another early morning – I had to be at EPCOT for a day of meetings and conferences by 8:00 a.m. I changed into my lovely (but actually really comfortable) costume, donned my name tag, and headed out the door by 7:15.
Before leaving, however, I packed a change of clothes because after work Jessica and I were going to...
...but more on that later.
Today’s meetings were with all of the sixteen Seas Interns as well as the two Chemistry Interns that would be spending their time at both The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I have to admit, walking for the first time from my car in the Cast Member parking lot to The Seas Pavilion was quite bizarre! EPCOT wasn’t yet open - Cast Members were out and about power washing the sidewalks, opening their merchandise locations, and doing other fun things to prepare for the day ahead; a feeling of ‘this is my new role, this is my new home’ rushed over me and, to be quite honest, I was in love.
My previous role never had me operating in a park before opening (I hardly operated in a park at all) so this was such an incredible and new experience!All of the Interns met at a backstage conference room between The Seas Pavilion and The Land Pavilion and settled in for a morning of Guest interaction and interpretation learning. One of our two instructors was a retired elementary school teacher which, of course, made me smile and got me thinking about my future career within the Company.
After our class was over at 2:30, another Cast Member stopped by for a brief class on marine mammal husbandry. She taught us a variety of ways Disney Cast Members care for and interact with The Sea’s marine mammal residents (including dolphins and manatees) and (shocker) I was absolutely enamored. While I can’t share specific details just yet (I’m not fully trained in the subject matter and would hate to explain something incorrectly or with too little detail), this video does skim the surface of marine mammal husbandry at The Seas Pavilion:
Once our second class wrapped up around 3:00, Samantha, Jess, and I and were free to go – the other interns had a few more role-specific meetings to attend. Samantha and Jess are the other two Conservation Education Instructors at The Seas and in the few days that we’ve gotten to know each other, we have been getting along incredibly! (Jess is not to be confused with my roommate Jessica who is a Guest Relations Intern at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.)
I walked back across the park (this time alongside Guests – I even got to answer a few questions!) and as I came into the Cast Member changing rooms, I ran into my roommate Ashlie! Ashlie is a seasonal Cast Member at Mouse Gear and typically works evenings Monday through Friday. Mouse Gear, I learned, is the second largest merchandise location on Walt Disney World Resort property only after The World of Disney Store at Downtown Disney. Ashlie and I chatted while I changed into my ‘people clothes’ and then I was on the road to Magic Kingdom! Actually, I had to Security first to [finally] pick up my Cast Member ID.
Imagine my surprise (and utter excitement) when I learned that my ID would include a photo!
My hair hadn’t exactly reacted well to the heat that day so my picture isn’t nearly as beautiful as I had hoped but oh well, I WAS GETTING A PHOTO ID! (College Program Cast Members do not get a photo on their ID and most Professional Internship Cast Members that I had met did not have a photo either so I was not expecting it – apparently, however, because of my transfer between CP and PI, I was considered worthy of an illustrious picture!) Okay, okay, so after that lovely experience, I was now on the road to Magic Kingdom!
Jessica (my roommate, not the Seas Intern) and I decided that the Kingdom would be the perfect first park because...well, does it even need an explanation?
I literally skipped, twirled, and sang my way down Main Street, U.S.A.
I. Was. Home.
We stopped for a few pictures while Jessica admired the new Hub ‘grass’ for the first time. Despite the skirt, I decided it was appropriate to lie down and bask in the astroturf magic.
Our first stop of the day was Mickey’s PhilharMagic – partly because it felt right to combine some of Disney’s greatest characters and movies for our very first attraction at our very first park and partly because everything else we wanted to do had a pretty long wait time.
As we were walking out of the PhilharMagic theater, it hit me. Today was going to be one of my favorite park days. Today was going to be
Drum roll please...
Thanks Animal!
UNDERAPPRECIATED ATTRACTIONS DAY!
Thanks Animal!
UNDERAPPRECIATED ATTRACTIONS DAY!
Underappreciated Attractions Day is one of my favorite park touring ‘strategies.’ I first came up with the idea of Underappreciated Attractions Day one night on my College Program when my friend Jasmine and I were visiting Magic Kingdom. We were, dare I say it, bored with the headliner attractions on that particular evening and decided to rendezvous with some of the lesser-loved rides and shows such as the Walt Disney World Railroad, The Barnstormer, and the Tomorrowland Speedway.
So, keeping with the Underappreciated Attractions theme, Jessica and I next visited the Liberty Square Riverboat. I know for certain I never rode the Riverboat on my College Program and couldn’t remember when I last rode it as a child so it felt, in my book at least, very underappreciated.
After taking a moment to channel my inner Rose on the boat’s bow (Titanic is one of my favorite movies), Jessica and I settled nicely onto a bench and watched the Disney world roll by. We chatted about the miscellaneous audio-animatronic figures and animals scattered along the Riverboat’s path and wondered if the real animals in the surrounding woods thought anything of these ‘fake’ inhabitants. Huh.
Once the boat docked, we decided to stop for a leisurely dinner at my most favorite (and also underappreciated) quick-service restaurant – Columbia Harbour House.
A Lighthouse Sandwich was calling my name. Actually though, if we’re being honest, when aren't I in the mood for one of these hummus and broccoli slaw babies? YUM.
We wrapped up at Columbia Harbour House, filled up our water bottles at the ridiculously bizarre water fountains throughout the restaurant, and headed to our next underappreciated beauty – Country Bear Jamboree! I really love this show as much as the next Disney diehard but my goodness, Jessica is obsessed! She clapped her hands and stomped her feet and definitely kept up with ‘em! Watching her in her element was incredible – in that moment I knew that I found my Disney person and what do you know, she was also my roommate! It was perfect.
We then visited another favorite underappreciated attraction of Jess’s – The Hall of Presidents! Just like the Riverboat, I definitely did not visit the resident presidents (he he he) during my College Program and was anxious to see all forty-three of our country’s most famous men (well, besides Elvis and Walt Disney of course). The last time I visited The Hall of Presidents was at least ten years ago so my history-obsessed self was excited to get back inside! I was literally so blown away by the show and actually began tearing up at one point. I attribute it to a combination of swelling patriotism and incredible storytelling – I think The Hall of Presidents has easily become a new favorite and no longer underappreciated attraction in my book.
With (happy) tears in our eyes
, we said farewell to the past and hello to the future! We set our sights on three very underappreciated (well, two underappreciated, one just completely unnecessary) attractions – Stitch’s Great Escape, Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover (forever known as the WEDWay PeopleMover in my book), and Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. If you’re wondering which attraction I deem unnecessary, I question your gratitude for Walt’s finest contributions to the world. Just kidding (kind of...), I mean if Stitch is your thing I thank you for standing in his line and not my beloved Tomorrowland attractions. I have an insane amount of love in my heart for the WEDWay and Carousel of Progress – like, if I had a pager, I would still reach out to Mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow. And has anyone else ever wondered about the mysterious little girl who appears with the first Carousel family but is never seen again? Mysterious.
But alas, before we ventured towards my favorites, we paid a visit to Experiment 626 – who oddly refers to himself as Stitch despite not yet meeting the adorable Lilo. Even more mysterious. Maybe I’m a little unfair in my blatant disregard for Stitch’s Great Escape but it’s not without reason. When I was little, my parents forced me onto ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. I cried. I screamed. I blacked out.
I mean hello people, the word ‘terror’ is in the title. It’s even capitalized! But no, that didn’t stop my mom and dad. So, imagine my happiness when the good people at Disney came to their senses and replaced Alien Encounter with oh so adorable Experiment 626. Well, apparently my fear hadn’t quite subsided and I was still terrified of Stitch’s Great Escape. Maybe it was the aggressive jumping on my shoulder restraints – heck, maybe it was the fact that I still even needed to wear shoulder restraints on this attraction – or perhaps it was the chilidog but Stitch’s Great Escape still did not bode well with me. So, it was today, as a 22 year old, that I was finally ready to make peace with the past and cross Stitch’s Great Escape off the list of most-feared attractions. 
...was that seriously it?!? Where was the darkness? Where was the screaming? Where were the terrified memories? Experiment 626 seemed more tame than I remember. Perhaps it was the time that had elapsed, perhaps it truly just wasn’t as scary as I thought, perhaps it was the fact that I kept my eyes open this time – mostly – but really? All of these years of horrible memories for that?
Oh well...I guess that’s progress for ya (or aging...whichever). But, speaking of progress, we had a Carousel to get to and a song to sing. For the next twenty-one minutes, Jessica and I were in General Electric heaven. I almost died when Jess mentioned her speculation over the unaccounted for (and thusly underappreciated) daughter (niece? neighbor, perhaps?) as well. I knew I liked this girl!
We sang our way out of Carousel, glided up the ramp to our mass transit system, and made a grand circle tour of Tomorrowland.
And as we approached the eighth wonder of our world, we got to thinking...
Would it be unethical to ride Space Mountain, what is possibly the most appreciated attraction in all of Magic Kingdom, on a day devoted solely to underappreciated rides and shows?
...apparently not.
So, we caved. We couldn’t help ourselves – we were right there and the queue wasn't long and it just seemed too right. But I’m willing to overlook this minor detail if you are.
Once our rocket landed safely back on Earth, we said our goodbyes to the kingdom of magic, journeyed back to our cars (that we wished oh-so-desperately were resort busses bringing us back to our hotel room), and tucked ourselves right into bed as soon as we got home.
Tomorrow was another early morning of meetings!
[continued in next post]
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. My tour guide told us that she too was interested in the mystery behind this little girl so she emailed one of the original Imagineers that first worked with Walt Disney on the project and asked about her storyline. Apparently the man wrote back and told her that there wasn't any explanation at all and that she, and of course countless other COP fans like ourselves, were looking for a story where there wasn't one at all. 
