- Joined
- Dec 17, 1999
- Messages
- 3,412
Hi Folks
I had an awesome pin-trading experience that I wanted to share with you all.
It began rather innocently with me taking a few hours out of my day to search for the few cast only lanyard series pins I was missing for my collection. I started at Downtown Disney, at the Marketplace - hit all the shops and stopped several Cast Members along the way. I did fairly well, picked up a few I needed and found the odd Limited Edition pin on a lanyard or two, which is always a good thing.
Feeling confident, I decided to hit some of the resorts and try my luck there. First I went to Old Key West and found one and chatted with some great CM's who seemed to enjoy talking pins.
Next I swung into Port Orleans Riverside where the really interesting part of my story takes place.
I pulled into the parking lot and got out of my car to find a cast member (a manager, obviously identified by the tie and dress shirt) just ending a call on his cell phone with a nice shiny pin lanyard on. I stepped up to him and asked him if I could see his pins. He was very gracious and held them out for me to see. Unfortunately there were no lanyard pins, and nothing else too interesting - then I saw he had one of the new letter pins (pins made for each letter of the alphabet with a Character on it as well).
As a matter-of-fact, he had two "E" pins with Eeyore on them. Seeing he had two, and knowing that a lot of people love Eeyore and he makes a pretty good trader, I asked the gentleman if I could trade for one of his "E" pins. He very politely said, "Well, these are actually part of my name - see it spells LEE - but I will gladly trade anything else off my lanyard with you". Sure enough he had the L-E-E altogether on his lanyard.
With that I looked at his nametag that did indeed say "Lee" and looked up at his face and realized I was speaking with Lee Cockerall head of Operations at the Walt Disney World Resort. I recognized Lee from my days as a Cast Member and having met him once, briefly, with Pete when Dreams Unlimited Travel met with some of the executives of the Walt Disney Travel Company.
I'm pretty sure he didn't recognize me, as I was dressed in shorts and t-shirt with my sunglasses on - but he was very nice and polite and we struck up a conversation about the whole pin trading phenomenon at WDW.
I then thanked him for his time and told him I that I would leave the pins on his lanyard for someone else to trade. With that he reaches into his pocket and says "I want you to have something, it's a pin I give to members of my management team when they go above and beyond the call of duty and show extraordinary leadership".
With that he pulls out the "Leadership pin" from his pocket and hands it to me. For those of you who are not familiar with this pin it is only handed out by executives at WDW and is very rare. You can check it out on pinpics http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=10659&sid=3812.1025650119
Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed - I tried to be cool though. I thanked him very much and told him how much I appreciated the pin. We parted company - and I immediately called everyone I knew (who would understand) and gloated over my encounter and my pin.
Thanks for letting me share my story with you all!!!
John
I had an awesome pin-trading experience that I wanted to share with you all.
It began rather innocently with me taking a few hours out of my day to search for the few cast only lanyard series pins I was missing for my collection. I started at Downtown Disney, at the Marketplace - hit all the shops and stopped several Cast Members along the way. I did fairly well, picked up a few I needed and found the odd Limited Edition pin on a lanyard or two, which is always a good thing.
Feeling confident, I decided to hit some of the resorts and try my luck there. First I went to Old Key West and found one and chatted with some great CM's who seemed to enjoy talking pins.
Next I swung into Port Orleans Riverside where the really interesting part of my story takes place.
I pulled into the parking lot and got out of my car to find a cast member (a manager, obviously identified by the tie and dress shirt) just ending a call on his cell phone with a nice shiny pin lanyard on. I stepped up to him and asked him if I could see his pins. He was very gracious and held them out for me to see. Unfortunately there were no lanyard pins, and nothing else too interesting - then I saw he had one of the new letter pins (pins made for each letter of the alphabet with a Character on it as well).
As a matter-of-fact, he had two "E" pins with Eeyore on them. Seeing he had two, and knowing that a lot of people love Eeyore and he makes a pretty good trader, I asked the gentleman if I could trade for one of his "E" pins. He very politely said, "Well, these are actually part of my name - see it spells LEE - but I will gladly trade anything else off my lanyard with you". Sure enough he had the L-E-E altogether on his lanyard.
With that I looked at his nametag that did indeed say "Lee" and looked up at his face and realized I was speaking with Lee Cockerall head of Operations at the Walt Disney World Resort. I recognized Lee from my days as a Cast Member and having met him once, briefly, with Pete when Dreams Unlimited Travel met with some of the executives of the Walt Disney Travel Company.
I'm pretty sure he didn't recognize me, as I was dressed in shorts and t-shirt with my sunglasses on - but he was very nice and polite and we struck up a conversation about the whole pin trading phenomenon at WDW.
I then thanked him for his time and told him I that I would leave the pins on his lanyard for someone else to trade. With that he reaches into his pocket and says "I want you to have something, it's a pin I give to members of my management team when they go above and beyond the call of duty and show extraordinary leadership".
With that he pulls out the "Leadership pin" from his pocket and hands it to me. For those of you who are not familiar with this pin it is only handed out by executives at WDW and is very rare. You can check it out on pinpics http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=10659&sid=3812.1025650119
Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed - I tried to be cool though. I thanked him very much and told him how much I appreciated the pin. We parted company - and I immediately called everyone I knew (who would understand) and gloated over my encounter and my pin.
Thanks for letting me share my story with you all!!!
John
