Celebrity sightings at WDW Resorts...

[JADEMM]

ADAM SANDLER. Our kids went nuts and still talk about-although we never said anything to him. He sat right behind us at Honey I Shrunk The Audience Christmas week 1998. It may have been New Years Eve or New Years Day eve.

 

[ozziewags]

I saw the mom from Wonder Years, with her husband, Orson Bean a few years ago. We were at the YC and they were at the BC. What is her name? Allie?
Then we saw Kevin Bacon and his brother at MGM 2 years ago, but they were appearing on New Years, so I don't count that!

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Apparently I am a magnet for celebrities, however I am not alert enough to see them. Thank goodness DH is like a bird dog on point when he sees them...

Last December (the week of Walt's Birthday) was a mass of celebrities as you can imagine. Regis and Kelly broadcasting from MGM all week, all the media, the Candlelight Processional, etc.

It started at Epcot on Test Track. In the singles line we were merged in and about to get into "our" car when out of a door on the opposite side came out a couple of CMs with several people who took our car but promised the next was ours. DH grabs me and says "That's Wayne Brady!". I turn into a total goof and holler "Mr. Brady! I love your work!". He graciously turned in his seat, smiled and said "Thank you, baby!". Off they go and the rest of the line starts saying "Who was it? What!?". Friends in the car behind us had no idea and could not believe we did not buy his Test Track photo (DUH! Never thought to even look at it!). A little while later we attended the Candlelight Processional and there he was (as the reader).

Jump ahead a day: We are at Animal Kingdom using our fastpass to do the safari. As we merge into the line to board, DH says "It's Wayne Brady again!". Sure enough, behind us is Wayne and wife along with CMs. He is obviously trying to be low key, so I hold off on the tacky hollering (this time) and quietly say as we pass his group "I really enjoyed your reading last night" and again got his gracious smile and a thanks. We thought we would be bumped, but rode the same vehicle on the safari and got a picture of the back of his head (hey! I missed out on the TT photo!). We saw him everywhere we went (we joked he was stalking us) but DH drew the line when I asked him to go into the men's room in Africa, LOL! It wasn't like I asked him to take a photo or anything!

During the same trip we saw Kelly Ripa (could someone be cuter and tinier?), Regis Philbin, Howie Mandel, weatherman from Today show, movie critic from Today show (what is his name?? Lord knows I hollered it out when he went off the air and he said hey to me) and much to my pride DH actually sited Mickey Rooney in a huge crowd entering One Man's Dream. Due to his height and the size of the crowd, I was most impressed with this siting. We were standing by a man who listed a bunch of others entering that we were not familiar with- famous animators and "voices" from past movies.

On our final day we lounged in at the WL and watched the Regis/Kelly show in bed. Much to DH's shock, the woman on JAG was the guest that day. DH LOVES the show and adores this woman (who is lovely). I had to giggle when I watched him try and leap out of bed and get dressed to rush to MGM- he finally realized his folly and dejectedly gave up the quest. I tried to console him by letting him know I didn't get to see Smashmouth either, but he was not impressed (hee hee!).

 

[disneyfriends]

On our honeymoon in June 1990, we were given tickets to the premiere of "Dick Tracy" at the theaters at Pleasure Island. We got there quite a bit early and were just wandering around when we spotted a "news" crew who turned out to be from MTV. Nia Peeples was there with a microphone. There was not another soul in site except for us and them. One of the bodyguards came up to my husband and shoved him and told him to go away. We continued to walk around and noticed a red carpet on the side of the theater, again not another soul in sight. We stood there talking for quite a bit and several people with news cameras began to congregate. We were suddenly roped in with the media and out came Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Paul Sorvino, and several other actors. They were all very nice, gave autographs and pictures. The rumor was that Madonna was on the outs with Warren and refused to come to the premiere, staying at her room in the Dolphin. What a great memory of our honeymoon!

 

[SAINTHOUSE]

I love reading about all these celebs, although coming from the UK, I don't know many of the names!

I was thrilled to hear that Prince William was the Sherriff at the Hoop-de-Doo. My son was chosen 3 years ago, so its nice to think he trod in the footsteps of our future King!

We've seen a number of English soccer players and B-list celebs but I doubt anyone out there would have heard of them!!!

Keep the stories coming.

 

[DIXIEDAYS]

In April, 2001, we had finished dinner at the GF 1900 Park Fare. We were waiting for our car and standing off to the side was Broadway Joe of the N.Y. Jets. Being from Patriot country, meeting Joe was great! He posed for pics with my kids, and of course with the big kid!! Joe signed their autograph books and he talked fondly of the Patriots of his era and now.

As a side note: while Joe was signing autographs, my middle daughter asked her mother who the guy was making balloon animals! He was signing all sorts of things, but BALLOON ANIMALS? AH, the future is theirs.

 

[Disney Pal]

I saw Hulk Hogan also at the Swan last Halloween with his wife. We also
happened to be there Soap Opera Weekend and my husband and I went
over to the Yacht Club and we saw Finola Hughes, Tad Martin, Jessica Buchanan,
Adam Chandler we just happened to be looking for pins and I was shocked to see
these people. You see them on TV and you never actually think you might meet
them someday. It was really cool.

 

[Halle]

My family saw Dan Marino who was exiting the ESPN Sports Club. Show must not have gone well because...a group of kids 7- 11 years old wanted an autograph and he turned to his bodyguard (Disney person) and said keep these kids away! He lost some fans that day.

 

[Mary Ellen]

Originally posted by Tarheel Tink
Much to DH's shock, the woman on JAG was the guest that day. DH LOVES the show and adores this woman (who is lovely). I had to giggle when I watched him try and leap out of bed and get dressed to rush to MGM- he finally realized his folly and dejectedly gave up the quest.

Her name is Catherine Bell. We saw her several times while we were staying at AKL. She is also a favorite of DH and DB. In fact, I think the only reason DB came over from OKW to visit us at AKL, was so that he might have a chance to see her too. Seeing her was the highlight of DB's entire WDW vacation.

We also spotted Joe Rohde (head imagineer for AK development), Dan Jansen (Olympic Gold Medalist speed skater) and Susie Favor Hamiliton (Olympic distance runner). We could have walked into a pro football or basketball player and wouldn't have had a clue who they were. We tend to follow more 'non-commercial' sports.

 

[cdrn1]

We saw Marion Jones (the amazing athlete...fastest woman in the world!) in Downtown Disney the first week of December.

 

[shannonandtom]

October 2001 we saw Grant Hill in the GF lobby.

Tom...

 

[montessori]

Quite a few years ago, we walked down Main Street with Pavarotti and his entourage. Got a close up picture of him.

Talked to Kenny Mann (from ESPN) in The BelleView Room at The Boardwalk, got a picture of him with my husband. We saw him there again the next day and he asked, "Don't you go anywhere but here?"
We DO spend alot of time there.
Saw Michael Eisner heading for the elevator around the corner from The BelleView Room. He was alone. I yelled "Mr. Eisner!", grabbed my camera and ran! He held the elevator door open so I could take his picture. I felt kind of stupid but, oh well. He is very tall and has a nice smile.

Susan Lucci and her husband came in to The BelleView Room for a drink. A few other good-looking people were with them, probably from the soaps. We didn't intrude. Susan looked really good.
We had a fairly long conversation with Tad Martin (I can't think of his real name!) on the Boardwalk. We were just chatting away!

At Atlantic Dance, we sat next to the old lady that used to be Drew Carey's boss on the show. I think she has since passed away?? She was with an old guy but she looked really ticked off about something, he left and then she left about 15 minutes later.

Saw Dr. Joyce Brothers checking in at The Palace in DTD. Woohoo!

We often run into people we know personally there too. That always seems funny to me. "It's a Small World After All!"

Mary Ann :

 

[Joe Cool]

We don't seem to be celeb magnets lately, but...

OK i think I posted about my dad chasing Drew Carey through the GF lobby 4 years ago...

On this last trip in March '02, I was standing in line for the AK Safari and heard a really familiar voice...it sounded eerily like Sam from The West Wing. I looked in front of me and, sure enough, it was Rob Lowe (the actor who plays Sam) with his family. He had a rather large security guy following about 4-5 people back in the line carrying a camcorder...I know that at least one person recognized Rob Lowe, because whenever they took his picture, the security guy took <i>their</i> picture.

And that's not all. I happened to be touring around alone that day, and ended up sitting in the front row of the safari truck next to Rob's wife, Sheryl. It was so funny, like, they didn't know I recognized them (i didn't drop any hints), but Rob just acted like a normal person, driving the driver crazy with comments like, "so...how do they get these tress to grow in Central Florida?". The driver was like, "what am I gonna do with this guy? What are you talking about, Central Florida? This is EAST AFRICA...". LoL!

So...uh...ok on that trip, I also walked past James Garner (actor) in the GF lobby, he was talking to another old guy followed by two 800-pound gorilla bodyguards. Oh, and there was a young african-american woman who <i>looked</i> like a celebrity in disguise staying in our building at the GF...she kind of walked around the grounds <i>reeeeal</i>ly nervously, leading her 5-year old (?) daughter by the hand like she was going to get assassinated if she stopped moving. Hunh. And...I saw Heather Locklear somewhere (i can't remember where) in WDW. She didn't have sunglasses on or anything, but she was surrounded by a bunch of "zee beautiful people" and at least one security guy.

JC

 

[Richyams]

As many have mentioned, there were lots of celeberities there last December. We saw Kelly from Regis about ten times, I didn't think she was particularly good looking, I mean she was certainly attractive and skinny, but there were definitely better looking women in the crowds.

We saw Eisner a few times, once with Jeb Bush. We got a handshake, hello and "how are you enjoying your stay?" from Eisner the third time we saw him. He recognized us and I got the feeling that he would have liked to have talked more, his men were herding him away.

We saw some olympic athlete, a gold medel runner, she waved back, my sister-in-law recognized her eating in Tusker House at the AK.

 

[RLMS56]

During our Thanksgiving trip last year we were in the YC lobby and met Gloria Estefan. She was very gracious and shook our hands and said she was happy to meet us. BTW, she is very petite and adorable.
We just returned from WDW and although we didn't see any celebs in the park we did have one on our flight down from NYC to MCO... Alex Baldwin was in 1st class. My son spotted him and went up and asked for his autograph and shook his hand.

 

[teroot]

Two years ago we saw Scott Hamilton at the mco airport . It was 6:00am .

 

[DeeP]

If you want to see alot of tv soap celebrities go to YC/BC or BWI during the Super Soap Weekend in Nov. The vast majority of them stay in these resorts and you see them all over in the lobby at the restaurants etc.
We saw several of the Backstreet Boys at YC about 4 years ago, I thought my DD was going to have a heartattack! LOL
We have also seen Michael Eisner and Rosie O'Donnell both at YC. It seems the Epcot resorts are good places to spot celebrities.

 

[Disney Doll]

A couple of years ago, we saw Angela Lansbury walking with just a Disney guide in front of the Land in Epcot. In January, we saw Wayne Brady(Whose Line Is It Anyway?) in the MK, watching the afternoon show at Cinderella's Castle. he had 2 friends and a Disney guide with him. I waved to him, and he waved back...very nice!

 

[MichaelH]

A few years ago my wife and I saw Judd Reinhold. He and his family I believe walked by my wife and I at MK. We both just stopped and lookd at each other and said was that Judd Reinhold. We looked back and sure enought it was him.

 

[magic cruiser]

We saw Whitney Houston on the DCL Magic May 2001. Bobby was with her and her daughter. She was friendly to everyone, but of course had her body guards there. I asked one of the bar waiters at Castaway Cay if she was a good tipper...he said her body guard handled that and that no he wasn't. One night on the ship they had a family dance and there they were...Whitney even sang !!