Most memorable CM encounter?

[ChairborneRangr]

Oh I forgot to tell you about another CM named Shanon.

My kids have received Disney Dollars, "Have fun at WDW" cards, Disney Barbie dolls, movies, hats, shirts, etc. Every birthday, and every Christmas something comes their way (for each of 4 kids...)

This CM is my cousins wife

well, former CM now. She used to work in the Denver Disney Store.

 

[Nicoal13]

All these wonderful stories are exactly why I love the magic

 

[jubileegirl]

I teach 4/5 year olds in the UK. One of my pupil's parents told me that on their recent trip to WDW their daughter had been standing close to Donald Duck when it was time for him to take a break. As he turned to leave he didn't see this little girl and accidentally bumped into her and she fell over. Donald still hadn't notice and disappeared leaving the child quite upset. Her dad told me that within no time at all someone 'official' was right there asking what had happened and this little girl was then taken somewhere behind the scenes where she was able to meet several characters and have their undivided attention. I just wondered if anyone knows about this 'go the extra mile'. It was certainly a highlight for the child who spoke about it at news time regularly so I've no reason to disbelieve her dad. My 15 year old DD says she'll give it a try when we visit WDW in July!!!!!

 

[ChairborneRangr]

OK, here is a real one...

In Fall 2000 we were on our 15th anniversary trip. The first time my wife had ever been to the world and the first time in 23 years for me. We were enjoying downtown disney atmosphere, walking and talking. We grabbed the east side to west side boat, got off, walked all the way through DTD then got back on the boat. This time we stayed on the boat chatting as it went back and forth. After some conversation, the CM took us on a tour. The Boat run was scheduled to stop, so he took us around for an extended, very slow last run. It was great.

 

[Alice28]

This isn't something that a CM did specifically for me or a family member, but Christopher is one of the funniest CM's I have EVER heard on the Jungle Cruise! He was our skipper for our journey last October and I was dying- he was so funny, so original! It made our day giggling over his jokes. I sent an email to Disney commending him on a job well done- I hope his supervisor got it.

 

[ShadowWind]

One time, at EPCOT, I'd borrowed one of those full size camcorders from a friend and was walking around World Showcase when the eyepiece got knocked off, landing in the street. I didn't notice it until I got to American Adventure. I was frantic, because the eye piece was very expensive to replace. I ran out of the restaurant and found the first CM I could find, a girl running one of the portable carts. "Have you seen an eyepiece?" She said, "You mean this one?" I could have kissed her.

Jim, who is the ragtime piano player at MK, really makes my day. Everytime I stop there, he asks what song I want to hear and plays it for me.

On my recent trip, there was a great CM who gave me a ride to my room at Pop Century, and it was the first time he'd driven one of the luggage carts. He had trouble getting it started and going, and we were cracking up. Was a fun time.

And then there is a CM that I know there that is always fun to talk to and gives me the inside scoop about what's going on. I won't mention the name because I don't want to get her in trouble, but she is one of the highlights of all my trips to WDW.

ShadowWind

 

[litlpixie]

Above all, the best encounter w/ a CM was during our last trip in May. Our DD has this shred of satin that used to be part her baby blanket---I mean this thing can barely be called material any more. It now permantly grey, always sticky, the grossest thing you've ever seen (and I hand-wash it once a week), but to our DD, it's perfect in every way. Anyway, we came back 1 evening and realized that we did not hide "tee-tee" from mousekeeping and came to the conclusion that they threw it out (I know I would if I saw it on the floor) a knock at the door shortly after proved to me that pixie-dust was running rampant at the POR, because our mousekeeper was there with "tee-tee" expalining to us that it got caught up in the towels she was removing from the room. She must have thought that we were insane because every single one of us in my family were giving her a group hug, she had no idea what she had done to deserve such attention, but she totally saved our vacation!!!

 

[KimberAnn]

litlpixie - as a mom to three who all have "silkies" that have been left everywhere, I can totally understand the overwhelming gratitude and relief that you must have felt!!!

My story -

On our last day, we went back to the MK. All week we had two extra adults so someone always had their eyes on the kids. But this day it was just me, dh and our three kids.

DH went to the bathroom with DS. I was holding the baby and started walking to the stroller line, yelling over my shoulder to DD "you're with me."

Apparently, she didn't hear me and kept walking.

I soon realized she was lost and started freaking out running in circles and yelling her name.

A CM asked me what happened and before long, she and to other CMs were helping me search.

We found DD with her father - he had come out of the bathroom and found her chatting with another CM.

We had a very tearful moment, and then two of the CMs who helped me look, each gave DD a pin off their lanyards.

Now DD hadn't had any pins before. We didn't want to get her started as once she decides to collect something we have to hear her whine constantly for more. So we had avoided the whole pin conversation.

But for the rest of the day, she proudly showed off her new princess pin and her new Lilo pin, which we pinned to her backpack straps. And she told everyone that the nice CM ladies gave them to her for getting lost and then found.

 

[litlpixie]

kimberann, I understand that scary moment, happened to us too, our boy thought it would be more fun to follow Piglet into the CP, than follow us. That was the slowest 45 seconds of our life/ But BAM!!! Those CM's came outta nowhere for us.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

We just returned from Disney World (post trip blues now), but I wanted to share something that became extremely special to my son.

My ds, 6, is autistic. He spent most of his time at Magic Kingdom collecting these little Mickey-shaped confetti's that were here and there on the park grounds. He was really obsessed with this! He wasn't very excited to be dragged to Cinderella's Castle (princesses are for girls, after all). While we were waiting outside, he was collecting Mickey's here and there, so I explained to one of the castmember's why he was on the ground picking up things. She commented that he was picking up pixie dust.

We went inside (and got a surprise visit with Cinderella plus a bonus ride in the elevator with her magesty!), and were seated in the restaurant. The castmember we had spoken with downstairs appeared with a handful of Mickey confetti's for my son. The look on his little face was priceless!!! He's got a bag of pixie dust under his pillow so his wishes will come true.

It's just these little things that make Disney World such a magical place. I can't wait to go back!

 

[ktulu]

Woo! I have a couple.

Back in 2000 my wife and I are on our honeymoon. We're at Dixie Landings (POR). We're having a great time, we left tips for our mousekeeper and found our various stuff animals we purchaed arranged in different stories. Some of them were:

Looking out the window waiting for us to get back.

All in bed watching the Disney Channel, baby Eyeore had the sniffles and had a tissue.

We were floored by this attention to detail and story telling. We traded notes with her, but never got to meet her. We left her a Ghiradelli chocolate bar. When she found out it was our honeymoon, we came back to find a gift of a Mickey Mouse from her. That really made our trip!

Another one is when we went for my 30th birthday. We had decided that we wanted to visit the Territory Lounge for some adult beverages. We found a nice comfy place to sit, and the waiter comes up. I notice he's from Richardson, Texas. We live in Lewisville, so we strike up a conversation with him. I forgot his name, but I would call him 'Richardson' instead Well, we're enjoying or drinks and decided we needed some snacks. We asked Richardson if he had any pretzels, he said he didn't, so my very tired Wife started heading to Roaring Forks to see if they had some snacks for us. She is about out of earshot when Richardson returns with a bag of pretzels for us! Needless to say he got a nice tip that night, and each time we returned. We still talk about it.

Same trip for my 30th, a CM was emptying the trash, it was an E-ride night, and our tradition of eating a hotdog from Casey's was in full swing. We listened as the CM told the people how him and his friend signed up to work at WDW during the summer from college. His friend was a Monorail Pilot, and he was taking out the trash, but I never caught a hint of jealousy about this, he was happy where he was and that time he spent talking to those people made them happy, and it made us happy just listening!

I really think that true Disney magic comes from the Cast Members, no matter if they are sweeping main street or greeting wide eye children dressed as a character.

Arrrrrr, next time me be payin me mateys a visit, me will have to look for Captain Hook, perhaps challenge him to a duel! Arrrrrr!

darrrrrren

 

[msteddom]

The last time I was at WDW with my parents all three of us managed to lose our sunglasses while riding Space Mountain. So we approached the CM at the ride entrance expained our situation and she radioed inside. A few seconds later a CM named Miguel came out to meet us. He took us inside and hadus go through a lost and found box. My sunglasses were there, but the other two were not. Figures since mine were the cheapest pair of the 3. He then put us at the front of the line so we can ride again. Whe we started to protest, he got all idginat saying that if he couldn't find our glasses, the least he could do was put us on the ride again.


The next day we were on Rock n' Rollercoaster at MGM, and who is the CM loading parties on to the ride, but Miguel. He greeted us by name and asked if we had found the other pairs of glasses. We hadn't so he replied that he had no choice but to make us ride again. Thanks to Miguel we rode RnR 3 times straight without leaving our seats. He really turned something that could have ruined our trip in to a fond memory. Thanks Miguel!



Melissa

 

[poohtown]

past January - Epcot Morroco - waiting for Genie

first it was an unusually cold day that day. I have already posted about waiting to meet Belle and how great she was, but another great person was the photographer while we waited for Genie. For some reason Genie was taking a long time to return. The photographer kept telling us 5 more minutes, 5 more minutes. He was talking to dd8 and the other kids. He says to dd ' you are not a follower are you?' she wasn't sure what he meant so he explained 'you have alot of friends and are involved in alot of stuff aren't you?'. I laughed and said how we (the family) were just joking that we were surprised we'd been in Florida for two whole days and no one has known her yet. (she's just one of those kids who where ever you go someone seems to know her from somewhere - she's always in a newspaper for something). So finally Genie came and the photographer personally introduces my daughter by name and says 'soon everyone in Florida will know her'. LOL. The next day we saw Genie again, he walked past us, did a double take and came over to say hi again.

 

[Partridge4ever]

I have 2. One was when DD was almost 3. She got her foot caught in the fence at the waiting area for the boat across the lagoon at Epcot. When she pulled her foot out, the shoe fell in the water. A CM attempted to retrieve it. They even went out in a little boat, but just as they almost got it, a duck came and caused it to sink. I thought we'd have to head back to the resort to get her extra shoes, but a CM told us we could go to Mouse Gear and pick out a pair, free of charge! On the way over, the characters had just gotten off the Characters on Holiday bus. The CM could see DD wanted to watch the show, so she told us to enjoy the show, then go get the shoes.

The other was just last week at MK. DH had staked out our favorite spot for Spectro (the wall beside Pecos Bills) over an hour ahead of time. A CM had to ask us to leave because they've changed the rules and no one is allowed to sit there anymore. He did let us sit just at the edge near the steps if we promised not to let the kids dangle their feet. And he gave us each a fast pass for BTM.

 

[LtlTee]

On one of our August trips we were at the Boardwalk at about 2 in the afternoon and it was about a million degrees. Everyone was getting a little cranky, so we stopped to get something to drink from the restaurant that has window service down near ESPN (the name escapes me right now). We got a large drink for my husband and I to split and a large drink for my son and daughter to split -- my son was only 5 at the time and never would have finished a drink on his own. Big mistake -- the kids immediately started arguing over who got to hold the cup, who had taken a longer sip, etc. I went back to the window and asked the CM for an empty cup so I could split their lemonade and they could each have their own. He gave me another large lemonade, telling me "This is on me -- I have kids of my own, I know what it's like". It was a small thing, but instantly made everyone happy.

 

[gshoemate]

My favorite CM works at AK in Camp Minnie Mickey, usually at the FoTLKand his name is Paul. We used to go so often that he started recognizing us. He always gives me a big hug when he sees me. We even seen him at Epcot on his day off and he still knew who we were. Right before Christmas we were at FoTLK and DD ran up to him and gave him a Christmas card, he was so touched that he came up to me in the stands and gave me the cutest Minnie pin for my lanyard...thats one that I won't be trading.

And then there is Fran at the Boneyard at AK, she is an absolute doll.

And Anita that used to work at the Boneyard and I think she is at one of the resorts now....we miss you Anita.

I think thats all....for now.

 

[AngieBelle]

Hey, I know Paul! I work at Camp Minnie Mickey too and see him all the time. He's a real nice guy.

 

[donnajon]

It was my DD's 4th birthday and we were waiting to meet a few characters when we started talking with a couple of CMs (we later learned were entertainment managers). My DS 7 mentioned he wanted to meet Peter Pan and the CM told us where Peter would be all day. That afternoon we went to find Peter and the Chip hotline said he would be back in 5 minutes. We waited and waited but no Peter. We called the Chip hotline again and they said they didn't know why Peter wasn't out but he would be back out again at 5pm. DS said he really wanted to wait to meet him. After waiting about 40 minutes the CMs came walking by and said hello. We asked if they knew where Peter was and they said he was on the float and would not be coming back. They called the Chip hotline for us and told them they had wrong info. They did take DS's book and have Peter sigh it. Then they gave my DS and DD each a pin. They asked if there was anyone else we wanted to meet. I knew my DD wanted to say bye to Belle and Cinderella. They said they Belle was in the castle in her gold gown and escorted us over to her. While we were walking to the Castle, I mentioned that I had to get the Belle in the gold dress andBeast dolls for DD's birthday. After meeting Belle, they took us to toontown - up the back hall to meet Cinderella and Suzy,
Tigger and Dale, and Pluto and Minnie. Then the CM came back with the Belle and Beast dolls for my DD! Talk about feeling special. I think the best part was when I asked who I could write tell them how great they were and to thank them, they replied, "The smiles on your faces are thanks enough!"

 

[newholiday]

Ranger Stan on top of the Wilderness Lodge Oct 10, 2001 while we raised the flags

 

[FatCow]

Can anybody help me find out how to contact a CM named Paul (he is a mixing engineer at "Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage")

We spent hours talking about live mixing and recording technology after the show and he gave me his e-mail address by alas I lost it.