'Real' conversations with CM's

[stitchlovestink]

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.

I said something similar to one of the CM's at the Haunted Mansion where you get out of the doom buggy. It was kinda like your story. I asked them "Isn't it frustrating that you spend all day walking and never really get anywhere?" The CM did crack a smile and laughed a little and replied, "Yeah, really!"

 

[ccudmore]

In April this year we were coming back from Toontown through Tomorrowland while the 2nd Spectromagic show was going down Main Street. All the rides were closed so the streets in Tomorrowland were deserted. As we were crossing over the bridge to the hub we noticed two female security CM's with their backs to us. As we got closer we saw that the two CMs were dancing together in synch with the music and dancers in the parade. Once they noticed us watching us they were embarrassed but I said watching them get into the parade really made my day. I chatted with them and they admitted that it's every female CMs dream to be in the parade.

 

[bdiddy]

oops

 

[Haley]

I had a CM in Germany use the F word while selling me a pretzel... does that count?

 

[kmadams]

While looking for something different to do on the last night of our vacation this past August my 20 year-old son and I went on the Animation Tour at DHS for the first time in many years. After watching the movie my son struck up a conversation with the CM who interacted with Mushu during the movie and another CM who was going to lead the next tour. They were very passionate about animation at Disney and one of them told us he was very excited about the new head of Disney because of his previous animation ties. The CM went on to say they had hopes for the animation studio to start back up depending on the sucess of the new movie, "The Princess and the Frog." They let us go up on the small stage and sit at the animators desk. My son asked him about the drawing that were in the cubby holes of the desk and the CM showed him the drawings, explaining that they were done by the various animators that host the tour/movie. We also discussed the last time I went on this tour, when actual animators were still in the building and you could see them working on actual Disney movies.

It was great, really made my son's night, and I had no idea that the people working this show were animators. They were the most open cast members I had ever talked to, and their love of animation and Disney really came through in the conversation.

 

[kristainohio]

When we were at POTC a couple weeks ago, I noticed that the instructions for the ride are spoken in English (in a pirate-y voice) and then repeated in Spanish. I joked with the CM "I didn't know pirates were fluent in Spanish." He laughed and laughed. Then when we got off the ride, he was at the exit now and was doing a great job of harrassing guests in a pirate-y voice and telling bad pirate jokes and puns. When we got off, he said "I can't tell you anything in Spanish....I'm a mono-lingual pirate."

 

[FreezinRafiki]

A few years ago we were in line to see Rafiki in Town Square. The girl ahead of us was about 6 years old and was posing for a picture with him. After the picture, she swung around to give him a hug goodbye. In doing so, her elbow flared out and caught him right in the, um, primate private parts. He gave the hug, and waved goodbye, but them turned around a leaned one hand on the wall behind him and hung his head for a few moments to recuperate.

 

[tlenzendorf]

Several years ago we went in January and one morning it was freezing. low 30s freezing. record cold temps freezing. Anyway, first thing in the AM in AK, we got pictures with Tigger and I said to the CM that he/she was probably nice and warm in the costume. The CM didn't say anything, but vehemently shook his/her head and rubbed his/her arms to indicate that he/she was cold too. not quite breaking character, but it amused me greatly

I wonder if that was the same year we went, lol. Was there some ocean effect snow over night and a lot of rides shut down due to cold? We are from WI, so it wasn't a big deal to us, but it sure did suck since we went to get away from freezing

 

[xipetotec]

We were at EMH at DHS getting in one last TT ride, and the CM there got sort of, well not made fun of, but jibed by some friends or kids he knew anyway, he took it in good humor ( and character ) but when we came back around for YET ANOTHER ride ( we still had 5 minutes ) he recognized us, was totally relaxed, asked where we were from and was talking about test videos they show them to prepare them for the safety that is REQUIRED for the ride, just a candid chat, out of character. I love that kind of stuff as much as the in-character CMs

 

[jacksmomma]

I just thought of another character break experience from our last family trip. DS was 18 months and Thrilled with Donald Duck. As we waiting in line to see him DH or I had to hold DS back because he kept trying to run to Donald. He kept shouting "Da Duck," all the while Donald's "handler" and the photo pass photog were cracking up. When it was our turn Donald knelt down and picked DS up. When he signed DS's autograph book he asked us DS's name and put that on the autograph along with the date and a heart. That is the only siggy we have ever gotten that is not the standard autograph. As we walked away I told DH that Donald must have been a female because she was so caring with DS and had girly writing.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

We were in ToT one year, about 20 people back from actually loading the elevator. My wife is listening to the girl asking the size of the party and assigning the rows. DW turns to me and says, "she's from Wisconsin, I can tell from the accent." Sure enough, we get to the front of the line and her college is listed on her name badge as UW-Parkside, a college about 20 miles from our house. We mention that we are from Racine, and she gets all excited because she was too. As she is loading the rest of the car and giving the safety talk about seat belts and what not, she asking what high school we went to and getting all excited that we lived almost in the same neighborhood. She was still talking to us as the doors closed. I have a feeling she was very homesick.

 

[abandcsmom]

If by CMs you include character handlers or hotel staff, then yes. My 7 year old has a knack for starting conversations with people, so she has talked at length with MANY MANY MANY CMs who usually comment to me at the end of their conversation with Caroline what good questions she asked and how impressed they are with her. She's found out about people's pets and cars and where they are from and how long they have worked for Disney and if their family comes to visit them all the time and what their favorite ride is. She even told Donald's character handler at the EPCOT Character Spot about how Donald had taken her Pal Mickey and held him up by his tail at Tusker House and the character handler fussed at Donald when it was our turn for a picture and Donald covered his face and acted embarrassed. The list goes on and on. So while we have had all these "real" conversations with CMs, I don't necessarily count that as breaking character because I think it's just part of their job to interact with the guests.

We also were waiting in line for a meet & greet with Pooh and I noticed that the character handler was from Charleston, so she and I started talking. Turns out she had grown up not very far from our neighborhood. She gave my girls a few stickers.

Thinking back we also recognized our favorite "Aunt" from 50's Prime Time in AK one day and talked to her for a little while, too. Of course, she was out of character and we just recognized her.

 

[Rainkiss]

Hubby and I had dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace. Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eyore were making the rounds. Tigger was a bit ahead of Piglet, about a table ahead. He got to the table before ours, and the little three-year old girl launched herself out of her seat and ran... right past him to fling herself at Piglet.

Tigger came over to our table, where hubby and I were chuckling, I made some comment along the lines of "poor Tigger, dissed by a toddler, I always loved you best." Tigger kissed my hand.

 

[smcabee]

On our last trip DS was asleep when we got to the front of the line to meet Snow White. She commented that she liked little men who were sleepy and then mentioned how peaceful DS looked. She said that her little one was like that too. She never came out and said "My child" but it sounded like she was talking about her children. It was sweet.

Now that would make for an interesting career day. What does your mom do susie? She is Snow White.

 

[cascarlet]

This is in DL at Goofy's Kitchen. My dd was around 5 or so. She was scared of any character that wasn't a princess. Mulan came over and talked to dd and Rafiki came by and my daughter ran into Mulan's arms because she was scared.

Mulan whispered in her ear " Don't worry princess..look at him, he's silly, he has a BLUE BUTT!"

After that dd would laugh instead of cower everytime he walked by. Pretty much after that she found something to laugh about any of the characters she was scared of. Thanks Mulan!

 

[DisCopper]

I have three:

First was riding in the front of the monorail. The driver was telling us that they had speed limits in certain areas and could get "tickets" for going too fast. When I asked what happened if they got too many tickets, he said, "Then I sell popcorn."

Next was a castmember visiting a friend at a shop in DHS. He was whining about how he auditioned for a part, but didn't get it. (High, shrill voice) "I danced my *%$ off for that job!"

Finally (some adult content here)......
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At Mannequins, I was talking to the bartender early in the evening. He told me, "If you can't get laid here tonight, you've got big problems."

 

[kristin t]

Not a character, but a cast member - in May my son got picked to "help out" for the Dinosaur ride. We got to go up front, ride all by ourselves, and then we got lanyards and a certificate. While we were talking to the cm who was with us, I noticed his name tag said he was from Chicago - and we love it there. When I told him, he said actually he was late for work that day and just grabbed someone else's name tag, so it wasn't his name, or where he was from.

 

[zarvgirl]

Not sure if you could say that Mary Poppins was completely out of character...but definitely responded to a reference of her movie....

...we were there in April 09 for breakfast, our 2 yr. old DD's all time favorite thing is to watch Mary Poppins, so this was a must event for us.......Eventually Mary Poppins comes over, our 2 yr. old starts to have tears come, she is soooo excited to see Mary Poppins, MP thought that she was scared, when I explained that if our DD had her choice she would watch the movie continuously, Mary Poppins pauses, looks me straight in the face and says "my, you must have patience!!" then continues to wipe my DD's tears away.

This was an unforgettable moment for all of us. It's all my DD talks about happening at WDW was having MP wipe her tears!!

 

[phorsenuf]

We were at 50's one night for my sons birthday. There was a manger there just standing against a wall in one of the dining rooms observing. My husband referred to him cousin wallpaper (not to him but to us). As they usually do one of the cm's passed around a birthday card for people to sign. When they gave it to my son and we started reading all the names one was signed cousin wallpaper.

 

[ChocoKat]

My favorite:
It was our first MNSSHP, DH and I had been doing our rounds for candy after the fireworks and parades and were riding everything walk-on several times in a row. We got into HM and it was sorta empty and more spooky that way even.

As we walked to our Doom Buggy DH suddenly grabbed a sneaker bar (fun sized) from his bag and sneakily handed it over to the extremely solemn and totally decked out CM (they get extra cobwebs and make up on party nights) loading us into the buggy. He quick as lightning opened the candy and stuffed it into his face and then acted as if nothing had ever happened.

It was so out of the blue, I don't know when my DH thought of it or how the CM reacted that fast, but it was just perfect.

It was hilarious! The guests behind us thought it was a riot.