When CMs get bored...

[StrangeTikiGod]

Well, let's see...at Trail's End Buffeteria (now there's a swell name), during major lulls we'd color the cute little pictures of Mickey Goofy and Donald, or I'd do a little grumpy looking "Mickey of the Day" doodle for the server station, nothing real spectacular there.

At MGM Backlot Tour shuttles, every now and then we'd try to work a "word of the day" into the spiels, usually something obscure but innocuous. I also had a co-CM at shuttles that would do various voices for his spiel, Pee-Wee Herman, Doc Brown from "Back to the Future," etc. Working unload at the AFI Showcase was tedious in the morning, and after squeegeeing off the dock and sweeping, I'd stand there balancing my broom on a fingertip or toe, or attempting to balance it on my chin as the shuttle pulled up, occasionally getting a smattering of applause.

And working Characters at DisneyQuest Chicago, we'd occasionally take Buzz L. into his Astro Blasters attraction if there was no meet and greet line waiting, and do a little "dodgeball" (when the floor wasn't electrified), or surprise people as they were getting on or off the elevators. Or, my favorite, pose in the greeting area for Buzz and stand perfectly still, with the greeter pointing out the nifty new life-sized "statue" of Buzz, and slowly turn my head to follow people as they passed...we got a lot of people to do a double take, and then freak out when I suddenly waved to them. Nothing terribly exciting, but hey, it kept us occupied.

[Dack48]

Usually at CDF at Innoventions we would just play Snood on our I-95cl's (The pavilion was presented by Motorola and so we were allowed to wear phones that they provided- because CM's cant afford that!) when guests weren't-and were- around. Yay for Motorola for making such an awesome phone.
Another great one was during one fateful night in 2002. We were dead, and someone decided to do something about it....he grabbed the Sully plush from the House of Innoventions and took him around to all of the stops at Innoventions, taking pictures of him doing things like playing Toon Tag, making paper, riding the Segway, sitting in on the Ultimate Home Theatre, sitting on Starnac's arm (he was 101 at the time and Engineering Services wanted in on this) He even put Sully in the fridge at the House and when one of the other CM's opened the door, Sully roared and scared him! Hee-freaking-larious. Eventually, he put together a scrap book of all the pictures entitled "Sullys Day Off". Its legendary even to this day.
The other great boredom activity was done by our awesome Engineering Services crew. One of them approached me and pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket....it was a miniaturized Innoventions Road Map! He took the time to shrink the map, and it was perfect quality too. He gave me one of his copies, but kept the other, saying that he was gonna place it on the mimitronic on the West Side so he had a map and seeing if the openers noticed :)

[Socallica]

Here's some tricks I picked up on slow days, opening shifts, and some really hot days:

I think everyone knows the trick about forwarding the Goofy bday line, but we had a couple variations: sending the Inn Between Menu (Westside if you're in NO/CC), any of the Goofy recordings from the Brown Derby in MGM, or the recording from the Gallery answering machine when they had the Nightmare Before Christmas display.

This past summer one of my friends (who ended up quiting near the end of summer and will remain nameless) initiated a prank war in the ADV/FRT stores. This was probably one of my better summers because of it. One of the main tricks would be to call someone, pretend to be someone from another store, and ask for something (either facetious or real), after they answer give them a couple seconds dead air until they realize they've been gotten. One of my favs that another friend came up with was actually perpetrated on the originator of the wars - "Excuse me this is Jenny from Clothiers, we were just wondering if you had safari panties?" We were lauging for weeks because of that one. Another variation was to come up behind someone and say "Excuse me" acting like a guest. When they turned to discover you there instead, their reaction was usually priceless.

To help sell the mister fans my complex would set up metal tubs filled with ice and fans filled with water. I took it upon myself while in Tropical Imports (my store no matter what it is now) to spray guests and cast members. Most guests were appreciative, some weren't but whatever. Eventually this led to water wars with some other cast members. I don't think I lost a single one. You just had to be careful when spraying the female cast members, cuz those costumes usually ended up somewhat see through.

[GMC]

hmm i'll be wary of water fights in advenutreland, just make sure it isn't green, and if it is, have a vial of tetnis serum. oh and no seat belts at DLR btm, just indy, soarin, tower, and i few other's that aren't exactly e-ticket, or that i just can't think of off the top of my head

[GapToothed]

All-time favorite prank on fellow team members: SeaWorld doesn't carry straws and (until a few years ago) napkins were handed out exclusively by the cashiers. When it was slow, I'd go up behind a cashier and ask, "Do you have any straws?" or "Where are the napkins?" They'd start to turn around and answer only to discover me. Hahahaha. I NEVER got tired of doing that.

[HickfromND]

Whenever I would get bored there were a couple things that I would always do. Being from the North as I was as a CP this fall I would greet guests with my best nortland norwegian accent just to see their reaction. I also had another CP buddy who would walk around with me when it was slow and start canversations with the guests which we would then turn into a comedy routine that left guests scratching their heads. One time we went as far as making a prank call to a guests husband using her cell phone right in front of her.

[DLRFantasmic!Dan]

No niether. Just imagine 15 rows of guests frantically searching for their seatbelts and finding nothing. Its quite hilarious.

I do the same thing at "HISTA", "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience" and say after telling the guests to put on the safety goggles, "Now reach under those seats, grab those safety belts and we can get started!!" The funny thing is, when I look out at the audience, THERE are actually people that try to find them!! LOL The I go, "For those of you who haven't caught on already, I'm JUST KIDDING!!! Or go " HA HA, made you look!!!" I get a laugh for that!!!

[coldfire409]

I would do that at COP whenever I was at monitors. Tell the guests to look under their seat and take the pair of 3-D glasses. I would have to say my speil from the outside while watching the monitors. It was so funny watching the guests looking under their seats, sometimes checking all the seats in their row for non-existant 3-D glasses.