'Real' conversations with CM's

[AgentGabs]

I remember once going to see Terk over at DAK, and while there asking the attendant for directions to tusker house, and the attendant (who confessed it was her first week there) didn't really know where to go.
Out of no where Terk shows up (she was playing with the kids in line) and starts pointing to the map and in the direction we had to go.
She traced a path with her finger and started making these hand gestures. After a while of playing Yes and No and a fun game of miming we figured out where we needed to go.

We then asked Terk how she knew those directions so well, and the attendant reminded us that sometimes Terk does a meet and greet celebration thing at night at Tusker House.

Lots of fun, and not the first time a character gives better directions than the attendants.

 

[Rhonna]

One warmer fall day we went mid-morning to breakfast at Cinderella's Castle and Cindy and her Fairy Godmother were taking pictures with people. Not too crowded. When we finished our picture and were about to walk away, the Fairy Godmother whispered to me "You smell really nice." I had just showered and had light perfume on, it was the start of the day for me. I was surprised she broke character but thanked her and realized they must get all SORTS of odors from people - especially if people don't feel the need to shower before the parks or when it's hot weather most of us can't keep fresh all day. I mentioned that and she said something along the lines of "you have no idea"! LOL! I usually try because I can't stand to be sticky, sweaty and smelly all day. We go back to the resort and shower before dinner at the nicer restaurants - unless we are already in the park we are eating at.

We tried September once and just melted. Just aren't used to that humidity and heat. We only go in the cooler fall months now.

But the look on her face about the "smells" they are subjected to still makes me laugh.

 

[Philagoofy]

Not really breaking character, but a few years ago there was a young man working at Space Mountain. My son has Down Syndrome and used a wheelchair at the parks. For a few days in a row, this young man was working the wheelchair line and DS got to "playing" with him while waiting and really took a liking to him. On the third day (yes - we have to ride every day), DS wanted the CM to go on the ride with him. He went and got permission to leave his post then did just that.

What a wonderful story & a special CM to do that.

 

[ktlm]

Boomer!!

Sooner!!

 

[PolyndianPrincessJes]

Sooner!!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

In Dec. 06 we were at Epcot in the Wonders of Life Pavillion. I was waiting near the exit of Cranium Command for my husband and son and there were 2 CMs standing near me. They were discussing their boss and the fact that they didn't like how he did the scheduling. They didn't seem to care that I was close enough to hear them and they just kept going on and on. I finally said something like, "Sounds like you guys don't like working for Mickey, huh?" One of them said, "I wish we worked for Mickey! He would be nicer to us than this guy!" Then they gave me an earful about their schedules and how the "favored" people get better hours. It was unprofessional of them to be talking like that within earshot of guests, but I didn't mind. They were actually kind of funny.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

This wasn't a conversation we had however a few years ago on the Great Movie Ride as the bad guy was walking past us to get that thing from the Indiana Jones scene, my dad says as a joke what if I stold his hat and we heard the bad guy laugh.

 

[cassiez76]

i have 2.

my mom and i went in '00, '03 and '06. we ate at 1900 park fare for breakfast each time and it was the same mad hatter all those years. on the last trip in '06, i had brought a pic of him from the other years. he broke character and said how much he enjoyed his job and thanked us for coming back to see him. lol sadly he wasn't there when my hubby and i went the following year. i hope he's doing well!

2nd time, hubby and i went to o'hana for breakfast in '07 and my hubby does a great stitch voice. he turned into a 5 year old at breakfast. the hostess heard him and said i have to send stitch over. well she must have told EVERYBODY backstage about hubby. all of the characters came over to talk to him in his stitch voice. a bunch of the plain clothed cast members came over, also. he still talks about it.

i always think it makes the experience a little more fun when things like that happen.

 

[frazzledrazz]

Back in May I struck up a conversation with one of the CM's while waiting for rope drop at MK. I've been considering applying to the college program and I noticed on her name tag that instead of a hometown she had a college listed. So I asked her if she was in the college program and we spent about 20 minutes talking and she told me all about it. Her major was dance, and I used to be a pretty serious dancer, so we had fun talking about dance, where she was from, and how much we love Disney! She told me that she enjoyed the college program so much, that this was her 2nd semester in it!

It was great getting to talk to her because I was just waiting around for rope drop, so this definitely made the time pass much faster! So by talking to me "out of character" she was actually doing me a great service!

I had a very similar experience on our trip a month ago although the conversation took a whole nother turn LOL.

We were waiting for a bus at Coronado and one of the CM's was at the stop doing some sort of bean bag game while guests waited for the bus to arrive. No one else was there and he struck a typical Disney CM conversation up with us... "Where are you folks off to? Having a good day? etc etc". I noticed from his nametag that he goes to college right near my hometown, so I brought that up and he instantly started talking about how homesick he was and how he can never get used to the heat (we live near Chicago and it hardly gets that humid).

I started asking him about the college program because I had considered applying a year ago but I just graduated so I missed my opportunity. From there he went into how tired he was and that he only got two hours of sleep bc he was out late partying, got hammered, and showed up to work still drunk from the previous night. The party scene among the cast members is huge I guess! I enjoyed hearing about it but my Mom was a bit mortified!

 

[CursedCarolers]

Two, I s'pose:

At Rainforest Cafe in Animal Kingdom the waitress for me and my friends saw my Legend of Zelda t-shirt (it's a video game) and she was like "OH MY GOD! I'm going to show you something and I could get fired for doing so." It was at this point where I got a little concerned...but she just wanted to show me that she had a Zelda tattoo on her ankle. She spent the rest of the meal being really "Buddy-buddy" with us. She started randomly telling us about how protein spills is the Disney word for puke, etc. She was funny. We were tempted to ask her to hang out that night but thought it would definitely get her fired.

and this ones really short.

It was New Year's Eve. After the countdown the park stayed open for about an hour or 2. On the way out there was a guy standing at the exit waving people goodbye with a melancholy look on his face. My friend and I asked "You just want to go home, don't you" and he was like "Yooooooou are correct." and so we gave him a hug and all laughed and went on our way.

 

[stitchlovestink]

Well my older DD almost got a CM 'out of character' on our last trip in Nov 08. We were on the GMR in MGM and it was going thru the gangster track. well we had a 'girl' gangster take over our 'car'. DDs and I were sitting in the front row and I was next to the 'girl gangster'. Well, when she got on, she make a comment about something being the scariest thing she'd ever seen. DD16 responded to her, appearantly you haven't looked in a mirror lately then. The CM almost busted out laughing but was able to stifle most of it. They bantered back and forth for a while. She ended it with asking DD if she had anything else to say and DD responded, "Nope, your face says it all." I saw the CM trying to hide her smiles and giggles. Overall, she did a good job staying in character, but I could tell it was taking some effort on her part. After the ride, she said what a 'hoot' DD was to talk to. DD has a very 'dry sense of humor' that you would expect from someone much older than a teen.

 

[dizzyc uk]

At Pop Century a CM struck up a conversation with us and was asking my son if he liked soccer (which we call football!) - my son told him which team he supported and told the CM that he once played with David Beckham at his academy in London (which is true). The CM got all excited and called another 3 CM's over to tell them my son had played football with David Beckham, they kept asking loads of questions and seemed amazed that my son had met him in person.

We must have been stuck ther for at least 20 minutes while they asked him loads of questions, when we finally left my son said "I wish I hadn't said anything!" I think he was a bit embarrassed.

I thought it was lovely though, I felt really proud that wanted to hear all about my son's training day with DB.

 

[FINFAN]

* warning*
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my story is not a *magical* one......
yes, at the Animation Studios at DHS( MGM at the time). I won't go into detail, but it was sadly one of the most depressing, disgruntled, miserable but probably honest CM( in the CP) conversations I have ever had. I was very thankful my kids and especially my DD who now in college for 3D Animation- were in the lower level doing the interactive stuff. I believe I was getting the truth, though I think he was a "little" dramatic. I have 2 firends who's kids have gone through the CP and Loved it, this CM was older and I think that had a lot to do with his frame of mind. It was a valuable conversation that I will always remember, especially given my DD's choice of career.

 

[DisneyObsessive]

Durring star wars weekends in 07, we spoke with a CM as we were on line for Darth Vader. He was telling us about how he had met Johnny Depp in the parks recently, and he that he's def a little strange, but a total sweetheart.

Then he was telling us that one year Depp was at a princess and pirate party and was dressed as Jack Sparrow, and everyone just thought it was a CM. Don't know if that's true or not but thats what he told us.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

When we visited WDW for the third time in 2004, we were there when hurricane Charlie blew right over Orlando!

Being from PA, we've never experienced a "real" hurricane, before. By the time most hurricanes reach our section of the US, they're just really, really windy/heavy thunderstorms. It wasn't very scary watching it from POP, we felt very safe, but I imagine the effect would be completely different in your own home! Lots of Orlando lost power, though Disney never did.

Disney handled it expertly (of course). We were absolutely astonished by the way that three of the Disney parks were open -- on-time! -- the morning after! Only AK and the water parks remained closed an extra day due to extensive landscaping damage.

I struck up a conversation with a CM in DHS who explained that not only does Disney have a rock-solid emergency plan (just about everything, including TREES, gets tied down), but some CMs wait out the hurricane <i>in the park</i> taking note of what gets damaged as it is happening and radioing it in.

People are at work in the repair shops on the repairs/replacements as soon as they know what's needed. So, if a big piece of the facade of Mickey's Philharmagic were to blow away, they'd have the replacement ready to go before the storm even ended!!

And, as soon as it's safe for people to be about, a "small army" of repair workers descends on the parks and gets to work! It was AMAZING!!

Except for the downed trees all along the roads, inside the parks you'd swear that hurricane Charlie took a detour AROUND the parks!!

 

[Christopher Robin]

Aurora, when I asked her where the Princes, told me they were off that day, playing Paintball. Not sure if whe was 'in character' or not, but ...

 

[jacksmomma]

Aurora, when I asked her where the Princes, told me they were off that day, playing Paintball. Not sure if whe was 'in character' or not, but ...

Sounds like some princes I know!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

When DS (2.5 at the time) and I ran into Peter Pan, he asked DS where he was from. I answered that we were from Indiana. Peter Pan in turn replied, "I know some uh... Pirates that live in Ft. Wayne and some lost boys from Lafayette."

I just about lost it!

 

[AgentGabs]

I have another story a friend of mine reminded me of today.
My first name is Gabriela...with one L

Well when I was a CP, one day during the ESPN weekend I was assigned to stand in front of the Hat at studios to let people know that the HSM2 show was going to be over at the Fantasmic Courtyard instead of the at the Hat.

Well throughout the day I kept getting families asking me the same question.

"So the show is at the hat...are you going to be singing?"

After the third family I finally got what they were talking about!
The main female character of the movie is "Gabriella"

Mind you I look nothing like her, so I would play along. Saying things like "No I have the HSM 3 Graduation Rehearsal" or "I have laryngitis"

But it was fun to make the guests laugh.

And those first three families must have had a good laugh catching me off guard.

on a related note, the same friend who reminded me of this story just happens to look exactly as the girl who plays "Gabriella" and one night during Pirate and Princess (she was handing out treasure), people actually thought she was the actress and out of no where a lined formed of people wanting to take pictures with her as opposed to getting their treasure.

Now every time she sees something HSM, she takes a picture of it and sends it to everyone...wondering when her royalty checks will come in the mail from using her image

 

[MineMail]

Re: autographs of less-than-famous people: my husband has a friend who pulls this prank all the time at events. We went to a ball game and ran into him sitting further down in our section. He looked around and said "Hey, do me a favor. Send your kids down with their programs and I'll sign them." We thought it was funny, so we had the kids walk down with pens and programs. A LINE FORMED to get his autograph because people thought he was someone famous. They're probably still trying to read his writing to figure out whose signature they acquired that day.


While on the Keys to the Kingdom tour, I was waiting for a Doombuggy at Haunted Mansion. The CM looked really bored and tired - I didn't think it was just part of his "on stage persona."

So I said, "Man, how many miles do you walk on this treadmill while you work this ride?" He glanced to see if anyone was listening, then quietly said "I wore a pedometer once - three miles in one very long shift. It's good exercise, especially if I walk backwards."

As I was leaving my Doombuggy, who was now working the exit? Yep - he smiled and winked at me.