Journal FirstNoel's Journal: Where the Magic is stored in the Magic Kingdom... 1
Disney was nice...75-80 degrees, as opposed to 29 here in the 'Burg this morning. It's always amusing to me to see the local Orlando weather guys doing the weather outside saying "Wow, what about this cold snap?". Silly weather guys.
We did our tours: Segways in Epcot, Keys to the Kingdom at the Magic Kingdom. Both were very nice and informative about the 2 parks.
I did like the Segways the best though. They gave us an hour of training, and then we rode around on them through the "World Showcase" for another hour. Those things are actually very easy to control, just lean forward or back. The steering's on the left hand side, it's a little ring on the handle bar you turn. They told us that there were 3 key to them, Black, Yellow and Red. Black allows you to go upto 5 MPH, yellow goes to 9, and red lets you max it out, I think it's 17 MPH, but I'm not sure. Since we were newbies they only gave us the black key. The instructors had the yellows, the reds they said were buried under the Cinderella's Castle along with Walt's frozen head. Even got a special Segway pin, for all you pin collectors out there.
The Keys to the Kingdom was a longer 5 hour tour, we walked around the park. The guide explained rides like the river safari and the Haunted Masion. He pointed out things that you typically don't notice. Like the windows in Main Street USA, they have people's names on them like in the opening credits of a movie. We saw the staging area for the parades, workshops for painting and maintenence. The guide took us down the the Utili-corridor...the "secret city" under the park it is not. It's just a corridor that rings around the park, it has some offices and break rooms. To me it reminded be of a backstage at a theatre, just a little bigger, and with electric carts. It was in the corridor, that you get to see Disney as a business. I could see myself getting just as irritated and grumpy working for them as I do for my current job. They have stict rules of dress, your "costume", not uniform, has to be just so. You're only allowed a mustache, no gotees or beards. And simple earrings, no hoops. While I can see some of it for safety reasons, I know it would just drive me nuts.
The Utili-corridor is the one thing that bothered my wife though, as nice and as kept up the park is, the Corridor isn't. Not to say it's totally trashed, but it is a working area, kind of like a factory floor or backstage area. I saw a spot where water leaked from a pipe on to a PA speaker, and now the speaker was just in pieces. Paint scrapes, old equipment and decorations were sitting around waiting to be put away. No exits were blocked or anything, it just reminded me of my garage.
Did get to see Rent at the AMC in Downtown Disney. I like the theatre version better, but the movie was decent. Jesse Martin was a good Tom Collins, Roger didn't seem to have a spark to his character like in the Broadway version. Some good songs left out, but over all they got the feel of the live version. Of course some older citizens came in watched half and left, just like when I saw it in Hershey. I'd give it a B-.
Ate at Wolfgang Puck's for lunch the one day, I ordered the chicken with mashed potatoes...which I though would be a cornish game hen with a bit of mashed tots.
No.
It was a fricken' Perdue Oven-stuffer Roaster with mashed tots. The thing was HUGE. Very very good, but HUGE. I ate way to much down there. But I didn't gain any weight, weird. I guess it was all the walking we did.
If I think of any more stories I'll post them. But I should get to work.
Sean
disney data (Score:2)
I have colleagues who've done support for them, and even the vendor support people have to meet certain standards. No tie, no access to the machine room.
Glad to hear you had a good time....