Stories about guest behavior in theme parks.
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The reason why your dream job doesn't exist is because it makes too much sense!Cheshire Figment wrote:I think my WDW Dream Job does not exist. My costume would be to generally dress like a tourist. The duties would be to wander around the parks and resorts and observe and talk to both the Guests and CMs. The job title would be "Freelance Internal Auditor" and would report directly to the President of WDW. Additional duties would be to act as Devil's Advocate for discussions of new plans and also to be responsible for publicly reporting that "The Emperor is not wearing any clothes", when people come up with a harebrain scheme.
In other words to improve the Guest experience and protect the CMs from management stupidity.
Since that job does not exist, I will continue to generally have fun in my current one.
Actually, I had done a CP before being a character attendant. So I was used to all the backstage stuff by then. But no, seeing all that did not hurt my love of the characters. I can be working and get off work, and want to go see Mickey. When I get to Mickey, I just see Mickey.EmptyCinema wrote:Did working as a character attendant help or hurt this love? I'm just kinda curious if seeing them backstage affected you.
I used to not be a big character fan, and am still not a big fan of the face characters... but in my mind, there's something SO relaxing about having that 20 seconds with Mickey, Minnie, Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore (oh, I could go on).
I hate to admit this, but the two CMs with the worst attitude my GF and I have ever run into were character attendants. The first was using her cell phone and having another CM take her photo with Sorcerer Mickey while the line was ~30 minutes. She spent several minutes doing this, including asking us to step out of the shot when we went up to meet Mickey. She had previously been texting on her phone, with the ringtones turned on, so we could hear the incoming messages while we waited. The second was described above (pushing us out of the way). Don't get me wrong, the CMs rock, but there's always those bad apples (I guess it just happens with 55,000 CMs).
Trust me, as one of those photographers, a lot of us wish that some of them would get off their lazy cans and start snapping those pictures also. A lot of us do, and it's rare when I'm shooting that I don't try to take at least a couple of the candid shots. There are some that we can't really do, for a variety of reasons (bad angle, trying to get a picture of them walking off with you doesn't look as good in a picture as it would on video or real life, inappropriate in some cases), but all of the photographers should be trying to get at least one or two pictures beyond the standard couple of posed ones, if not more.EmptyCinema wrote:I do wish the photopass people would take more "fun" (unposed) pictures, especially since my GF and I do spend the $125/trip to buy the CD. (She scrapbooks.)
We try to be quick, but hey: we're paying to come have fun too! Odds are we've probably been photographed by your fiance at some point... photopass CMs have started to recognize us.
What's really bad is the number of times I've had CMs ask me if I'm a CM... the odd part is that I sport a full beard and mustache...
If you get one that looks like he might be standing there, tell them as you approach the character to please take some candids- you're getting the cd and to please shoot away. They should be doing that anyways, but unfortunately some of them need a good kick every now and then.EmptyCinema wrote:Some people just don't know when to quit.
Speaking of quitting... any tips on keeping the Photopass from quitting taking photos? It always seems like it's just two posed shots.... If we're buying the CD, how about a few candid shots or shots of character interaction? I don't want to seem rude, so I'm trying to figure out a polite way to ask for LOTS of photos.