I've been busy but I made it to Orlando alright.

[ktulu]

I even had several people see the camera and walk up to me thrusting their photopass cards at me, and getting upset when I tell them I am not a photopass photographer. I even had one threaten to "report me" for not taking their photopass photo, even after I informed them I am just another guest like them, but who has a hobby of photography. ( I told them to go ahead and report me as I DON'T work here, they walked off in a huff.)

I'd have taken the photopass, pretended to scan it (making beeping noises), then took their pictures, hand the card back and then posted the picture here :D:

[Shorty82]

Long day today. Drove to the Contemporary then walked to the MK to watch the opening show. I decided for the heck of it to see if my ID would work during EMH and surprisingly enough it did. First I stopped at the Bakery for some breakfast, got an egg, ham and cheese croissant that was good. Then I went to Fantasyland and walked right on to Snow White and Winnie the Pooh.

After that I went over the the rope between Fantasyland and Liberty Square and when it dropped I hoofed it over to Big Thunder. I was something like the 12th person in line for it this morning. Then I rode Pirates and Jungle Cruise. After that I headed back towards Main Street and hung around a while. I decided to go downstairs to get my costume and take it over to Costuming to exchange it for a clean one but when I was going under the castle I saw the princesses and a few other characters heading up into the castle. That reminded me that I wanted to watch the Dream Along With Mickey show so I headed back up to watch that.

I also watched the Family Fun Day parade and watched interacted a bit with the Streetmosphere characters. Watched the parade then took care of my costume. After that I headed into Toontown for a few minutes and eventually decided to leave and head over to AK.

I rode Mansion somewhere in there but can't recall exactly where.

I get over there and I go watch Bug's Life then head over to watch the Lion King show. After that I wandered a bit and hung out to wait for the parade. Right after the parade I ducked backstage to grab a bite to eat. As I'm walking towards the cafeteria (which turned out to be closed anyway) I saw somebody I thought I recognized. As I walk I stare at him and he stares at me then it hits us me, it's BigWallaby! That was surprising. I gave him a ride home so he could change and then we started on him giving me a tour of property. Didn't see much though, we wound up going to the TTC and hopping the front of the monorail to Epcot. We went on SSE. Journey into Imagination, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Then we decided to head out as Illuminations was about to start and we wanted to beat the crowd. As we go out the gate it starts. We get up to the monorail and again ask to ride up front. We got there just in time, by the time the train got there the platform was packed.

I dropped BW off and headed home. Now I'm about to take a shower and head to bed, I got to work in the morning.

Oh, yeah. While browsing the Gallery today I saw a poster I loved and had to buy. It is similar to those inspirational posters that people get. It shows a picture of the cleared land of the MK before construction actually began and has Walt and the Castle overlaid like a ghost image over it. It is titled "Vision" and has a quote from Walt, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Keep the posts up when you can. It shows those of us that have thought about it that you can get the best job in the "world."

[Randy B]

HA! Great story! As if enough would tell them "not a CM". You better not get one of those red guest nametags like Wombat, or you'll probably get worse abuse from SGs.

I don't know if you want to go Plaid, as you'll really have people screaming at you if you do.

re: red name tags.
I have several. The first ones I have say VIP on them. That is what they were called durring the first year. I have one with my name (Randy B) and one with an old FDC Muck character (FDC DF) and this one has along the bottom a "hometown" of FDC Muck. (BTW FDC was a fantasy fan group called Future Disney Cabinet, and the DF was Dreamfinder. I couldn't get a Disney character name on the badge but the initials worked.)

Then I have one from a few years later with "Guest Of Honor along the bottom with my real name.

But I don't wear these badges on my vest. First they have a bad habit of coming loose and I don't want to lose them. Also I have so many badges and buttons on it already they would just get lost in the clutter. I always have my RADP button and now my SGT button on the vest. And until this last trip I had up to 8 100 years of magic buttons. These were the buttons that interacted with some of the attractions. For example in Pirates, just before the drop they would pulse red like a heart beat with some sparkles added. When all 8 went off at once it was VERY impressive. One time at a RADP meet at Pirates I was in the front boat that refused to line up with the track at the top of the drop. So we sat there for quite a while with my badges flashing up a storm while a CM tried to figure how to get our boat to move. We finally solved the problem ourselves by, in unison shifting our bodies forward that caused the boat to shove forward. A few times and we made it over the falls. :D:

BTW I have now reduced the number of badges to just the RADP and SGT badges because my camera neck strap kept getting caught on the badges.


re: coloring the vest

I am trying to keep it a light/neutral color. I don't want white, and I don't look good in pastel colors. Dark colors are too hot in the Fla sun. So I think a nice pseudo plaid on the olive drab vest will be enough different that the SGs won't immediately think I am a photopass person, but the style of the vest itself is so very different from the guide vests that it won't be confused for that either. At least that's the plan.

Randy

[Shorty82]

I forgot to mention, I saw my first heelie brats yesterday. I've seen a few kids wearing the damn things but they weren't skating around like these ones.

Last night as BW and I were approaching the monorail station to leave Epcot we saw these two kids running up the first ramp then skating down it. Thankfully it wasn't to crowded and their parents did finally made them stop but only so they can continue on up to the platform. Passing them I was itching to clothesline the one doing the most skating and BW told me later he had to hold back saying something as it wasn't his place to do so.

[glendalais]

I forgot to mention, I saw my first heelie brats yesterday. I've seen a few kids wearing the damn things but they weren't skating around like these ones.

Last night as BW and I were approaching the monorail station to leave Epcot we saw these two kids running up the first ramp then skating down it. Thankfully it wasn't to crowded and their parents did finally made them stop but only so they can continue on up to the platform. Passing them I was itching to clothesline the one doing the most skating and BW told me later he had to hold back saying something as it wasn't his place to do so.

You saw and documented your first SG! Congratulations!

:congrats:

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

You saw and documented your first SG! Congratulations!

:congrats:

Shorty has entered a larger world!!!

[Shorty82]

Work went very well today. I started out in the Chapeau sewing. That was cool and enjoyable and the time went by fast there. I went on break and when I got back I was on the rotation and was at the Train Cart for a while. That was also pretty enjoyable, being right there at the entrance. Then I got rotated to Uptown Pins, in the back of Uptown Jewelers. I was alone back there most of the time and it was slow a lot so I was bored stiff. I couldn't wait for the breaker to come. The only CM other than me back there the entire time was the Manager On Duty (MOD) when I called him for assistance when I didn't know something and he was only there for a few minutes at a time and only twice. I finally got broken and was sent to the Firehouse.

On my way there I ran downstairs to use the bathroom quickly then went across to the shop. As soon as I get there I'm broken for my second break. I head back across Town Square to head downstairs and on the way get stopped by a guest who wanted to pin trade. I did that and disappeared backstage as fast as I could. Being stopped for a minute to pin trade wasn't too annoying even though I was on break but from now on when coming or going from the Firehouse I'm going to use the tunnel instead of cutting across Town Square. It didn't help that PAC had the ropes set up getting ready for the parade. More annoying than that was the fact I ran downstairs quickly to go bathroom, ran back up to get to the Firehouse only to go right back down on break.

After break I was back in the Chapeau sewing until I was broke to clock out. I love the ten minute walk time MK CMs get, I clocked out at 5:20 but was paid until 5:30. I had gotten my personal things from my small locker below Main Street and had walked to the locker room and had changed my clothes by the time 5:30 hit. I played for a little while then, I walked around a good bit, Fast Passed Big Thunder, and watched the Country Bears. I killed time for a while and watched Spectromagic. I then came home.

Talking about PAC, I was looking on the EHH trying to get some more hours earlier. There's not a lot for merchandise in the MK for the days I'm available so I decided to check out PAC as they always need help. For some strange reason though most of the PAC shifts except for the ones during the P&P Parties requires the person to either have worked or been trained in Attractions in the last 6 months. I don't understand the limitation, I don't see how being trained on an attraction will help out with PAC.

[Shorty82]

Strange. Now that I'm home the only PAC shifts coming up on the EHH require attractions training. I'm not seeing the ones during the P&P Parties that don't require training that I saw while looking at the EHH from a Hub kiosk.

[Zazu]

Shorty has entered a larger world!!!

Yup. Pity it's a stupider one.