September 10 - Day 7 - Imagineers do have the best jobs in the world!
Since I had an 11:30 ADR for Dining with an Imagineer at the Brown Derby this morning, I decided to start the day at HS. I was in no way done with riding TSM, and in general the studios seemed like a good choice for the cloudy skies and possible heavy rain scenario predicted for today. I watched Stacy give her peppy pep talk preview of fun while I had breakfast and then made the short drive over to HS and was well in time for rope drop.
The streetmosphere players were a different crew than I'd seen the other morning and since they put their own slant on the show it was fun to watch again. Even the other CMs were smiling at the performers, despite having seen the show a jillion times. I was impressed at how they powered through a performance at 9 am. They were clearly not drinking Disney food court coffee to get ready for their day.
When we got our cue to enter I joined the power walking pack surging toward TSM. I got a Fastpass and then went through the short standby line.
The crowds stayed low for quite a while so I ended up riding six times, finally using the Fastpass the last time after picking up another one for later. I couldn’t believe how many times I got to ride given how crowded it had been since it opened.
I got in a couple of rides on TOT, loving the unpredictable rushing up and down. Sometimes I couldn’t even tell which way we were going which was an awesome sensation.
I walked around the studios for a short while after that, using up the time until my lunch reservation. Sights from my walk:
Thematic bench (lunch foreshadowing)
Then it was time for lunch so I checked in at the Brown Derby and got my cool jaunty red nametag. I joined the rest of the folks who were already waiting and then we waited for quite a while after that. Our Imagineer came in and was taken off to the lunch spot. Finally the last person in the group showed up a half hour late and then tiresomely (and tirelessly) insisted to the CMs at the desk that the lunch was at 12:00. We were all rolling our eyes, as the whole rest of our lunch world was in agreement that it was 11:30. Our hostess came and gave a short talk about the history of the original Brown Derby and the tradition of the caricatures, as well as a little bit about the making of this re-creation. Then she led us off to the cool private room where the lunch takes place. Called the “Bamboo Room” it is a fabulous quiet spot with great atmosphere.
Even the ceiling is bamboo and provides the room with great texture and warmth. The dining table ran down the middle of the room and featured elegant settings on bamboo placements. At one end of the room there was a bar, with some inside joke wine on the counter.
The light fixtures were like little lanterns and added to the artistic sense of the room. (These are most especially for you, LL!)
Our souvenir glass plates were already laid out and waiting on a long table at the other end side of the room. We were seated, received our personalized menus and went over the ordering process with the attentive CMs. The meal was huge - delectable bread, soup, a Cobb salad, then a choice of entrees and desserts.
The soup was luscious and too good not to eat every drop, despite the massive amount of food still to come.
When the salads arrived each one had a different vegetable creature perched amidst the chopped meats and vegetables. I went a little crazy taking pictures of the salads and the other guests were very nice about my obsession. We opened the wooden blinds to let in a little more light for the salad photos and saw that the rain was sheeting down outside, guests donning ponchos and running this way and that for cover. It was lovely to be in our cozy snug room with a stream of fabulous food flowing while the rain poured down outside.
I had gone with hearty and selected the steak and Creme Brulee. On a previous meal here I’d had the Grouper and Grapefruit Cake and both were outstanding. In keeping with that experience the steak was a terrific piece of meat, perfectly cooked and accompanied by crispy and savory accompaniments.
The Creme Brulee was a great rendition of a classic, utterly creamy with a rich vanilla flavor.
The food and service were outstanding. The cast members working the room had great timing and were perfectly present without being obtrusive. The beautiful quiet room and the attention of the servers made it a very white glove kind of experience.
As we ordered and the different courses arrived and departed, our Imagineer Melissa talked about her work and how she came to have what she considers the best job on the planet. It was her first time hosting this event, and she was younger than most of the guests. She works as an assistant project manager. She was first inspired to work for Disney when she was a college student and saw a television special about Soarin’, then in development. She found and applied for an internship on the project and was chosen, so she ended up working on the ride that inspired her in the first place. After she graduated she worked on getting a full time job as her first priority. Her fiancee was also a Disney fan and they knew they both wanted to work for the company. He got a job in the finance end while she ended up as an Imagineer. She said she feels like the luckiest person in the world and absolutely loves going to work in the morning. She manages a variety of kinds of projects (the re-signage of the HS when the name change occurred was one) and said she her favorite days are when she put on a hard hat and boots and goes out into the field to be on a project in progress.
The luncheon participants were a mixed group. Some hard core Disney fans, a father and son who received the lunch as a birthday gift from their family, a couple of people who had never been to Disney World before, and unfortunately, the late person, who turned out to be a giant wet blanket on the proceedings. I’ve rarely met someone with as many disappointments and disillusionments, and she shared her negative experiences readily and often. Every time we got some flow going in the conversation, or some good juice and energy would get going, she would bring up some negative thing and totally suck the energy out of the room. I was embarrassed for her, and felt really sorry for our cool young Imagineer who kept the lunch boat afloat despite the whining.
Melissa told us a personal story about her quintessential Disney engagement that set the bar for all such things at a stratospheric height. Her sweetheart told her one day that a box would be delivered for her at work, and he would call and tell her when to open it. When he called she opened it to find a dressy outfit and accessories. He told her to meet him on the 15th floor. She had to figure out that he meant at the California Grill, where they had sushi and cocktails. He then took her to dinner at Victoria and Albert (is this not already incredible?) and after dinner told her to meet him at their special place. They had a hammock at the Poly that they had traditionally met at during vacation visits, so she went there. He showed up with 24 gifts, once for each month they’d been together, and then proposed. Sigh... but it's not over yet! THEN, he contacted the Poly and asked them if he could purchase the hammock so he could give it to her as a present. He submitted his story to them and they ended up giving it to him and he gave it to her for Christmas. Talk about romantic! I wonder what he'll do for their anniversaries?
At the end of the meal, Melissa signed our plates for us, making each inscription a little different. I wanted to get my picture taken with her, so we of course had to think of a cute pose. Melissa came up with presenting the plate as if it were a diploma at graduation:
Super cute! Then everyone else had to do it too.
As we were finishing with the plates, a streetmosphere performer came bursting into the room. He was hilarious, and when he discovered there was a birthday person there, sang a ridiculous song. It was like an extra dessert for the occasion.
Even if the trip is months away it makes such a big difference!
