40-Something Kid
Mouseketeer
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- Oct 15, 2004
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Super Soap Weekend November 2006
This is my very late blog about Super Soap Opera Weekend last yearalmost time to go again with my sister and her 2 teenaged daughters. Some of this blog is a much-shortened repeat from an earlier post.
Disney schedules Soap Opera Weekend on the second weekend of November at MGM Studios to promote its ABC Daytime line-up of All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. Our party arrived on Wednesday to have some true Disney time, in addition to Super Soap Weekend. The second night of our trip (Thursday) just before Super Soap Weekend started, my sister Carrie, her 4-year old Olivia and I had dinner at Citricos, a nice restaurant in the Grand Floridian. But Olivia does not get nice restaurants, and we are dumb to repeatedly take her. There is usually at least one point in the meal where Olivia decides to roam. During this meal, she got up during appetizers, and promptly accelerated into the kneecap of a man with a familiar facewe recognized him immediately as Helmut, who is Susan Luccis husband. I looked up and saw that Susan and the rest of their party were a few steps ahead and in the process of being seated. Carrie said hello to Helmut, and told him that her older daughters middle name was Erica, in honor of Susan Luccis character, Erica Kane. Helmut smiled at us and said that he hoped that the other daughter was better behaved, but he said it very kindly, teasing us, and wished us good night.
We saw Helmut and Susan again the next morning, but this time the meeting was planned. It was Friday, the day before the official start of Soap Opera Weekend. Susan holds a fundraiser breakfast at the Brown Derby restaurant in MGM studios that supports an orphanage in New York. Breakfast is pricey, at $75 per plate, with all money going to the charity. With baby Olivia and her father Mark snugly sleeping in, the rest of usCarrie and her 2 teenaged daughters--went to the 7 am meal. This was our first Susan Lucci breakfast.
Most unexpectedly, each attendee was greeted at the door of the restaurant with a jam-packed gift bag. It was an extremely generous assortment that included spray cologne, skin exfoliation and moisturizer set, Christmas CD, hairbrush, hair conditioner, and several other Susan Lucci products, all full-size--not samples. I estimate that these gift bags would cost at least $150 each, which seems confusing, because arent we there to donate money? How is it that we end up financially ahead? Must be Susans doing.
Of course, Susan addresses the packed restaurant, and at the end, we line up for the meet and greet and photos. She is warm as always, and looks 35 up close. Maybe she gets some help, but I think she is pretty grounded in good health habits.
I would say that SSW 2006 continued a trend toward expansion to 3 days. The unofficial start, Friday, is clearly intended to be the big-time merchandising day---one of the fast food restaurants, The ABC Commissary, partially converts to a Super Soap Weekend shop, and the line just to get into the shop was an hour long. That store was open all weekend, but was never as shoulder-to-shoulder crowded as it was the first day.
In the store, you can buy the seen-everywhere Super Soap T-shirt, matching coffee cup, photo album, CDs that the soap stars have recorded, and so on. Best though, is the assortment of fashions that the stars have worn on the episodes, all in Size 0 and Size 2, of course. This means that teen-aged girls, i.e., like my 14-year-old niece Kristen, can buy stuff for glamorous events that will hopefully occur while they are still Size 0 or Size 2. So about $250 lighter, and 2 hours later, we finally have survived the line and the chokingly crowded store, and we have scored two evening frocks for Kristen that have been Seen on TV.
Later in the day on Friday at MGM, Luke and Laura (of GH, of course) reenacted their wedding from way back when I was a 20-Something Kid, but we did not stick around to see it because we were tired and needed to rest up for our middle-of-the night wake up call. Plus we were getting pretty bad cases of Florida Hair, which is ultimate limpness, topped off by serious frizziness. My sister and I have deadly weak fine and wavy hair to start with. Florida Hair is an epidemic for which there is no known cure or truly effective treatment.
4:30 Saturday morning. The lighted walk from our rooms at the Yacht Club is about ½ mile long, and runs next to the Disney waterway that connects MGM to the EPCOT resorts. As the 4 of us (my sister, my 2 nieces and I) get nearer to MGM Studios, I hear a very loud Christmas fugue, which is surprising considering how early we are. Who are they playing the music for at 5 am? Turns out, there is a good answer, specifically the thousands of people who are in line already.
So we wait for two and a half hours in the line that doesnt move with interesting and funny women, who talk about their lives and their kids. If I had written this when I was supposed to back in November, I would remember this part better, but there was one woman who made me laugh because we both had experienced so many sports injuries with our sons. She said she always told her son to Shake it off! and Rub some dirt in it! whenever he got hurtonly an experienced mom could do that; your kid would definitely let you know if he were really hurt.
At last, the line starts to move. We did not go through the turnstiles, but had our card visually checked and stamped as we were lead through a makeshift entrance on a very long snaking march through vast expanses of the normally unseen parts of MGM. There was a coffee stand at one point. My sister warned me not to risk getting out of the snake line, but I could not fight the urge; I ran out, and I threw my money down to handle my bad caffeine addiction. I fumbled with those little creamers as fast as I could, and somehow managed to run and find my group again. My day instantly improved, and so did Carries, as I caught up to her holding 2 cups of coffee, otherwise known as the caffeine delivery systems.
At a couple of points, our line snaked around so that we were face to face with the most exalted First In Line people. And of course, we had to ask, What time did you get in line? Turns out, they never left Friday evening, and spent the night on the asphalt. Wow, I dont know whether to commend them for their fortitude or just shake my head. Even crazier than the rest of us, and stranger still, a couple of them were wearing General Hospital scrubs.
Finally the snaking line came back to where it started, basically, and turned into 3 lines, one for All My Children (AMC), one for One Life to Live (OLTL), and one for General Hospital (GH). I must say, GH has by far the most fans. We got in the GH line for Laura Wright (another hour-long process). During the next few hours, we went to the back of the lines for 2 more sets of tickets, for Cameron Matheson (Ryan on AMC) and Aiden Turner (Aiden on AMC). Each Fastpass had a specific time and place to meet the star, and thus our day was mapped out. By 11 am, all 3 lines had finished dispensing Fastpass tickets.
One thing about rides during Super Soap Weekend--they are just props for us--large, buildings that serve only as navigation aids. When we are not waiting our turn to see a Soap Opera star, we are shopping, or having lunch (Sci Fi on Saturday), or watching one of the many events on the stage in front of the giant Mickey Sorcerers Apprentice hat. This is where there are group interviews of the stars pretty much all day long. At night, this area becomes the music stage. Without Super Soap Weekend, I would never have known how versatile soap stars are required to be, but apparently, they all have bands and recording contracts.
We end our Saturday evening at MGM rather late, with 8:20 reservations at the Brown Derby, all of us exhausted by the time we trudged back to the Yacht Club. We showered at 10:30, knowing that the wake up call would ring at 4 am, and that we would once again enjoy the lining up experience.
Sunday morning at 4 am, last day of Super Soap Weekend, the phone rang. It was time to get up and get in line to see the soap stars again. OK, new plan--sleep 5 more minutes. Kristen was in the bed next to me, and Carrie and the rest of her family were in the adjoining room. The late hour of 4:15 am rolls around. I begin to realize that I have become paralyzed during the night, and cannot move at all. OK, maybe strength and feeling will return in a few minutes. Carrie storms in, Get up, or we wont get to see so-and-so! She repeats the process several times. Kristen, Bunny and I give very feeble responses from the beds, until Carrie is so frustrated, she yells, Stay in bed, then. Im going alone! This really upsets Kristen, who pleads, Mom, please dont go. Youll get killed walking alone out there! We all really thought hard about getting up for a few more minutes so Carrie would not be alone, but it was no use. Finally, Carries patience ran out, Im leaving. Call me when you get to the park. And Kristen replied, Okay, bye, Mom.
We slept in for another 3 hours. It was so good. Kristen, Bunny and I finally make our way to the park, after I have had my fill of caffeine. Of course, we three are not getting the coveted multiple Fastpasses, but thats okay.
Not surprisingly, Carrie had not needed us at all. She avoided the dreaded Disney pathway stalker Kristen was so concerned about. And, because she is socially advanced and way outgoing, Carrie has met 2 new best friends who I will call Paris and Nicole. They live in Florida, and attend Super Soap Weekend every year. They are continuously wise-cracking, and have a million funny stories about their husbands and families. They adopted my sister that Sunday. Thank you, Paris and Nicole, for taking care of my sister. It was a lot of fun to meet you, and well look for you next year.
I would say that the SSW crowd is pretty friendly and outgoing, but does have its odd elements. There are a few people that approach meeting the soap stars with a ton of stuff for them to sign. Its like a mortgage settlement. Another thing that surprises me is just how many people wear the SSW T-shirt. I dont think anyone looks good in it. Oh well, at least they are covered.
One of the weirdest sights was the male soap star who delivered a little too much affection during this event, including over-the-top fan grappling and mouth-on-mouth kissing. Yuck! There were girls in line all waiting for equal treatment, and he was committed not to disappoint anyone. The germs! We watched from a distance, in dismay, open mouthed ourselves. We passed around the germicide to each other and moved on.
Well, I will wrap my report with an endorsement of SSW. My advice is to
Prepare for the brutal early wake-up calls. Have dinner early, and get to bed early.
Smile and enjoy meeting the soap stars. They are really fun people, and good sports.
If you can, go Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday---there is a lot of information available, you can buy souvenirs, and youll be in the Disney vicinity to start the official weekend.
This is my very late blog about Super Soap Opera Weekend last yearalmost time to go again with my sister and her 2 teenaged daughters. Some of this blog is a much-shortened repeat from an earlier post.
Disney schedules Soap Opera Weekend on the second weekend of November at MGM Studios to promote its ABC Daytime line-up of All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. Our party arrived on Wednesday to have some true Disney time, in addition to Super Soap Weekend. The second night of our trip (Thursday) just before Super Soap Weekend started, my sister Carrie, her 4-year old Olivia and I had dinner at Citricos, a nice restaurant in the Grand Floridian. But Olivia does not get nice restaurants, and we are dumb to repeatedly take her. There is usually at least one point in the meal where Olivia decides to roam. During this meal, she got up during appetizers, and promptly accelerated into the kneecap of a man with a familiar facewe recognized him immediately as Helmut, who is Susan Luccis husband. I looked up and saw that Susan and the rest of their party were a few steps ahead and in the process of being seated. Carrie said hello to Helmut, and told him that her older daughters middle name was Erica, in honor of Susan Luccis character, Erica Kane. Helmut smiled at us and said that he hoped that the other daughter was better behaved, but he said it very kindly, teasing us, and wished us good night.
We saw Helmut and Susan again the next morning, but this time the meeting was planned. It was Friday, the day before the official start of Soap Opera Weekend. Susan holds a fundraiser breakfast at the Brown Derby restaurant in MGM studios that supports an orphanage in New York. Breakfast is pricey, at $75 per plate, with all money going to the charity. With baby Olivia and her father Mark snugly sleeping in, the rest of usCarrie and her 2 teenaged daughters--went to the 7 am meal. This was our first Susan Lucci breakfast.
Most unexpectedly, each attendee was greeted at the door of the restaurant with a jam-packed gift bag. It was an extremely generous assortment that included spray cologne, skin exfoliation and moisturizer set, Christmas CD, hairbrush, hair conditioner, and several other Susan Lucci products, all full-size--not samples. I estimate that these gift bags would cost at least $150 each, which seems confusing, because arent we there to donate money? How is it that we end up financially ahead? Must be Susans doing.
Of course, Susan addresses the packed restaurant, and at the end, we line up for the meet and greet and photos. She is warm as always, and looks 35 up close. Maybe she gets some help, but I think she is pretty grounded in good health habits.
I would say that SSW 2006 continued a trend toward expansion to 3 days. The unofficial start, Friday, is clearly intended to be the big-time merchandising day---one of the fast food restaurants, The ABC Commissary, partially converts to a Super Soap Weekend shop, and the line just to get into the shop was an hour long. That store was open all weekend, but was never as shoulder-to-shoulder crowded as it was the first day.
In the store, you can buy the seen-everywhere Super Soap T-shirt, matching coffee cup, photo album, CDs that the soap stars have recorded, and so on. Best though, is the assortment of fashions that the stars have worn on the episodes, all in Size 0 and Size 2, of course. This means that teen-aged girls, i.e., like my 14-year-old niece Kristen, can buy stuff for glamorous events that will hopefully occur while they are still Size 0 or Size 2. So about $250 lighter, and 2 hours later, we finally have survived the line and the chokingly crowded store, and we have scored two evening frocks for Kristen that have been Seen on TV.
Later in the day on Friday at MGM, Luke and Laura (of GH, of course) reenacted their wedding from way back when I was a 20-Something Kid, but we did not stick around to see it because we were tired and needed to rest up for our middle-of-the night wake up call. Plus we were getting pretty bad cases of Florida Hair, which is ultimate limpness, topped off by serious frizziness. My sister and I have deadly weak fine and wavy hair to start with. Florida Hair is an epidemic for which there is no known cure or truly effective treatment.
4:30 Saturday morning. The lighted walk from our rooms at the Yacht Club is about ½ mile long, and runs next to the Disney waterway that connects MGM to the EPCOT resorts. As the 4 of us (my sister, my 2 nieces and I) get nearer to MGM Studios, I hear a very loud Christmas fugue, which is surprising considering how early we are. Who are they playing the music for at 5 am? Turns out, there is a good answer, specifically the thousands of people who are in line already.
So we wait for two and a half hours in the line that doesnt move with interesting and funny women, who talk about their lives and their kids. If I had written this when I was supposed to back in November, I would remember this part better, but there was one woman who made me laugh because we both had experienced so many sports injuries with our sons. She said she always told her son to Shake it off! and Rub some dirt in it! whenever he got hurtonly an experienced mom could do that; your kid would definitely let you know if he were really hurt.
At last, the line starts to move. We did not go through the turnstiles, but had our card visually checked and stamped as we were lead through a makeshift entrance on a very long snaking march through vast expanses of the normally unseen parts of MGM. There was a coffee stand at one point. My sister warned me not to risk getting out of the snake line, but I could not fight the urge; I ran out, and I threw my money down to handle my bad caffeine addiction. I fumbled with those little creamers as fast as I could, and somehow managed to run and find my group again. My day instantly improved, and so did Carries, as I caught up to her holding 2 cups of coffee, otherwise known as the caffeine delivery systems.
At a couple of points, our line snaked around so that we were face to face with the most exalted First In Line people. And of course, we had to ask, What time did you get in line? Turns out, they never left Friday evening, and spent the night on the asphalt. Wow, I dont know whether to commend them for their fortitude or just shake my head. Even crazier than the rest of us, and stranger still, a couple of them were wearing General Hospital scrubs.
Finally the snaking line came back to where it started, basically, and turned into 3 lines, one for All My Children (AMC), one for One Life to Live (OLTL), and one for General Hospital (GH). I must say, GH has by far the most fans. We got in the GH line for Laura Wright (another hour-long process). During the next few hours, we went to the back of the lines for 2 more sets of tickets, for Cameron Matheson (Ryan on AMC) and Aiden Turner (Aiden on AMC). Each Fastpass had a specific time and place to meet the star, and thus our day was mapped out. By 11 am, all 3 lines had finished dispensing Fastpass tickets.
One thing about rides during Super Soap Weekend--they are just props for us--large, buildings that serve only as navigation aids. When we are not waiting our turn to see a Soap Opera star, we are shopping, or having lunch (Sci Fi on Saturday), or watching one of the many events on the stage in front of the giant Mickey Sorcerers Apprentice hat. This is where there are group interviews of the stars pretty much all day long. At night, this area becomes the music stage. Without Super Soap Weekend, I would never have known how versatile soap stars are required to be, but apparently, they all have bands and recording contracts.
We end our Saturday evening at MGM rather late, with 8:20 reservations at the Brown Derby, all of us exhausted by the time we trudged back to the Yacht Club. We showered at 10:30, knowing that the wake up call would ring at 4 am, and that we would once again enjoy the lining up experience.
Sunday morning at 4 am, last day of Super Soap Weekend, the phone rang. It was time to get up and get in line to see the soap stars again. OK, new plan--sleep 5 more minutes. Kristen was in the bed next to me, and Carrie and the rest of her family were in the adjoining room. The late hour of 4:15 am rolls around. I begin to realize that I have become paralyzed during the night, and cannot move at all. OK, maybe strength and feeling will return in a few minutes. Carrie storms in, Get up, or we wont get to see so-and-so! She repeats the process several times. Kristen, Bunny and I give very feeble responses from the beds, until Carrie is so frustrated, she yells, Stay in bed, then. Im going alone! This really upsets Kristen, who pleads, Mom, please dont go. Youll get killed walking alone out there! We all really thought hard about getting up for a few more minutes so Carrie would not be alone, but it was no use. Finally, Carries patience ran out, Im leaving. Call me when you get to the park. And Kristen replied, Okay, bye, Mom.
We slept in for another 3 hours. It was so good. Kristen, Bunny and I finally make our way to the park, after I have had my fill of caffeine. Of course, we three are not getting the coveted multiple Fastpasses, but thats okay.
Not surprisingly, Carrie had not needed us at all. She avoided the dreaded Disney pathway stalker Kristen was so concerned about. And, because she is socially advanced and way outgoing, Carrie has met 2 new best friends who I will call Paris and Nicole. They live in Florida, and attend Super Soap Weekend every year. They are continuously wise-cracking, and have a million funny stories about their husbands and families. They adopted my sister that Sunday. Thank you, Paris and Nicole, for taking care of my sister. It was a lot of fun to meet you, and well look for you next year.
I would say that the SSW crowd is pretty friendly and outgoing, but does have its odd elements. There are a few people that approach meeting the soap stars with a ton of stuff for them to sign. Its like a mortgage settlement. Another thing that surprises me is just how many people wear the SSW T-shirt. I dont think anyone looks good in it. Oh well, at least they are covered.
One of the weirdest sights was the male soap star who delivered a little too much affection during this event, including over-the-top fan grappling and mouth-on-mouth kissing. Yuck! There were girls in line all waiting for equal treatment, and he was committed not to disappoint anyone. The germs! We watched from a distance, in dismay, open mouthed ourselves. We passed around the germicide to each other and moved on.
Well, I will wrap my report with an endorsement of SSW. My advice is to
Prepare for the brutal early wake-up calls. Have dinner early, and get to bed early.
Smile and enjoy meeting the soap stars. They are really fun people, and good sports.
If you can, go Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday---there is a lot of information available, you can buy souvenirs, and youll be in the Disney vicinity to start the official weekend.
I'm tired just thinking about it.
We all have Annual Passports, so that was not on our minds. I can see that if we had other tickets, we would have paid a lot more attention to that! Susan Lucci's staff did take down our names when we ordered the tickets (sent me an e-mail request), so getting in at 6:30 am on Friday required us to be on the list of names. Of course, Friday does not have the throngs of people at the gates, so finding the person with the list, and physically getting to the Brown Derby was not an issue. Hope to see you there. It is really relaxed, totally unlike the rest of the crazy weekend.
