We need every space jockey we can get!

Life on the Disney College Program is more busy than I ever could have imagined. It's proved pretty difficult to keep up with school while not only working full time but never working a set schedule, and finding time to fit in all the fun things I want to do.

Star Command has been exciting as ever! Sometimes, the people really can be a bit crazy or even difficult, but there's always a sweet guest right behind them to make up for it. Just as soon as it seems things get monotonous, there's a new recruit at Star Command to make me smile. Sometimes the looks of joy and kids faces are so incredible that you can't help but smile back.

Just yesterday, I saw a little boy with his grandpa getting ready to ride. Grandpa had a hold of the little boy's hood as they were walking on, but the boy had his arms fully outstretched in front of him and his legs were running in place double time because he was so eager to get on the space cruiser. His smile pretty much took up his entire face.

And then there are the adults and kids alike who love playing along with the magic. When the ride recently opened again after its rehab, we experienced quite a few down times as Buzz worked out some of the kinks of his new system and schedule - he is a very busy man! During one down time, I spent my time outside at the Greeter position letting people know we would be back open later. When guests would ask why we were down, I would tell them the truth: that Buzz had been called away on a top secret but urgent mission and was trying his best to get back as soon as possible. It's amazing how much the simple truth can make people smile and take a ride's down time so much better :)

I  really and truly do love this job - there is something new every day and new guests every day. One of the best feelings in the world is being able to make someone's day better just by doing my job. I like being able to take time each day to make a magical moment for someone - whether it be handing out fast passes to a family who seems to really love Buzz or a newly engaged couple, or letting a group waiting to ride in on the secrets of getting a high score. I'm not sure there is a job in this world that's better than this!

I also recently went down to Hollywood for a few hours and got to check out some landmarks around there:

 

 

 

Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater

Hey, that name looks familiar! 

 

 

 

Yay, Hermione!! (I also went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 the next night and LOVED it!)

One of the dragons outside Grauman's

The El Capitan, with advertising for Tangled

The Roosevelt hotel

I'm hoping to post some pictures of Christmas at Disneyland soon - it's a really beautiful time at the park right now!

Disney Legends and Dreams

The last few weeks have been pretty busy and exciting for me here out in Anaheim! This program truly has had a TON of opportunities for me, some of which have recently included:

Meeting Disney Legend, Marty Sklar //   If you don't already know who Marty is, take a look at his Wikipedia page. He was one of the greatest Imagineers Disney has ever had, and even got his own window on Main Street in Disneyland recently (which is a pretty big deal - his up there with people like Walt and Roy). He's now retired. The college program students had a chance to attend a "conversation" with Marty, and I jumped at the chance to sign up.

Marty is a fascinating and humble man. He got his start as editor of the Disneyland Times, a tabloid newspaper that sold for ten cents on Main Street when Disneyland opened. He worked closely with Walt throughout his career, and wrote personal scripts and pieces for Walt's use. He brought quite a few clips and short films he helped with as part of the Public Relations team for Disneyland Resort. One of the more interesting things was a clip that was used to encourage General Electric to sponsor the original Carousel of Progress when Walt took it to the World's Fair. There was also a clip for a really
 catchy song that was meant to secure Ford as a sponsor for an attraction as well - which they ultimately declined. Marty also shared with us how he was a part of ensuring that Space Mountain actually became a reality, and the back story to the attraction's creation. He then took questions from the group on anything we wanted to ask to him. He told us how he was always amazed that Walt had time to go over things that seemed insignificant, such as meeting with him to discuss the Disneyland Times when they were getting ready to publish it. Walt always had time for the details, which are what make Disneyland what it is. He also told us what John Hench, another famous Imagineer said once about Disneyland's purpose, that I think is now one of my favorite quotes: "Disneyland is not about escapism or escaping reality. It's about reminding people that reality can be okay, life can be nice. You can talk to a stranger in a public place. A public place can be clean. That's what Disneyland is - a reminder that life is still wonderful."

Touring the Dream Suite // The Disneyland Dream Suite is a luxury suite that was built above Pirates of the Caribbean a few years ago in the former location of the Disney Gallery. It was built as part of the Year of a Million Dreams promotion (Disney World has one too, inside Cinderella's Castle). It was given away to a lucky family each night. Now days, those who can afford it and like the appeal of staying in a suite inside Disneyland stay there, as well as contest winners from various places. Jon Storbeck, VP of Disneyland Park, told us during his presentation for the Leadership Speakers' Series that he recently arranged for a young girl who is losing her sight to stay there with her family. He wanted her to have  a memory that that could stay with her long after her sight is gone, and the Dream Suite was the most beautiful place he could think of. He even arranged for Cinderella to meet the family; she presented the little princess with a dress and accessories of her own.

The suite was a dream of Walt's, and he had actually started work on it in that space before he died. He wanted to have a place to entertain high profile guests as well as stay with his family inside his park (his firehouse apartment is not very large). Once he died, however, his family didn't wish to continue on the venture without him, so it eventually transformed into the Disney Gallery for many years. It's finally completed as Walt's Dream Suite, and it really is an amazing place. The entrance is behind Tarzan's Treehouse, via a hidden elevator.  It includes a concierge office, a concealed outdoor patio, a master bed and bath, a walk in closet, a living room,  a second bedroom, and a second patio for Fantasmic! viewing. Here's various pictures inside the suite, that I, of course, stole from my room mate Ellen!

The Adventureland master bedroom - you can hear Tarzan's Treehouse through the window.

   

  




The suite during the "Goodnight Kiss" - a fun little thing guests can choose to play up to 3 times during their stay. The room goes dark, and the painting at the head board comes to life with the mermaids from Neverland. The bed becomes a waterfall, and you can hear the mermaids giggling and music.

The end of the "Kiss" features the lamp becoming a moon and Captain Hook's pixie-dust enhanced pirate ship actually flying by.

The bathroom in the master suite is Fantasyland themed. The bath tub features this stained glass window, and faucets in the shape of swans. 

There is an "enchantment" with the bathtub where soft music plays,  and the walls fade into stars, including an appearance from a certain mouse!

The vanity inside the bathroom.

The smaller vanity inside the Main Street themed walk in closet

The concealed patio, featuring Pirates of the Caribbean music

The fireplace in the living room. Every so often, the sparks from the "fire" become fireworks.

Portraits in the living room of the two castles that Walt used for inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle

The living room has three "enchantments" using the grandfather clock. When each one happens, something else in the room comes to life as well, and music plays. The morning one features the birds from the Tiki Room. A small cage on the mantle with tiny mechanical birds comes to life for this one. Our guide told us the cage is one of two that Walt personally bought in New Orleans and used to come up with ideas for the Tiki Room birds, his very first animatronics. Those little birds are the fathers of everything you see in Disneyland today. 

 The afternoon enchantment features the Pinocchio characters.

During this one, the mirror over the mantle lights up with an image of the castle and a twinkling star in the top corner while "When You Wish Upon a Star" plays

The night time enchantment has Cinderella and her prince, and plays "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes"








There is a glass case with various knick knacks in the living room. During the last enchantment, a glass slipper sparkles and a figure of Cinderella and her Prince dances.

 

A second bedroom is attached to the living room and has two beds in it. It is Frontierland themed, and a shelf lines the upper wall filled with little toys.

The "Goodnight Kiss" in this room involves a toy train coming to life and traveling the shelf, bringing the little toys to life as it passes.

 The view from the second patio, for Fantasmic! viewing

John Lasseter's signature inside the guest book 

In the living room, under the custom made chandelier 

 It's really a place out of a dream! I am really glad I got to see inside it, I can't imagine what it's like to actually stay there!

The Adventures of Duffy the Lumberjack!

Disney recently introduced a new character to its stateside parks - Duffy the Disney Bear! He was already a really popular character at Tokyo Disneyland, and decided he'd like to see what America was like. He arrived back in October, and has his home in California Adventure park on the Pier. To give you a little background on who he is, here are some photos of the story boards outside his tent on the Pier (that I shamelessly stole from my room mate, Ellen):

I went to a Cast Member preview a few months ago and got to meet Mickey's teddy bear in person before he made his debut:

Duffy and a Space Ranger

Guests can also get their very own Duffy to travel the world with, just like Mickey, in the little shop next to Duffy's tent. He comes with outfits from all over the world. When I saw the Canada outfit, it was pretty much no turning back for me and I had to have my own Duffy. I mean, he looks like a lumberjack!


One afternoon when I had a day off, I decided to take Duffy to Disneyland with me to document our adventures. It was quite an eventful day! The pictures I have are a low quality, thanks to them being phone pictures - my camera decided to have a dead battery that morning, sadly. Oh well, just an excuse to have many more days with Duffy to take pictures of!) Enjoy the photos from our day! :)

Our first stop was to get a pumpkin spice cupcake on Main Street to celebrate  Halloween! That cupcake was one of the most delicious things I have ever had. We sat on Main Street and listened to the Dapper Dans perform - a perfect fall afternoon!

Duffy at Snow White's wishing well, enjoying the sunshine.

Watching ducks in Frontierland - Duffy is a simple bear. This little corner of Frontierland is one of my favorite places in all of the resort.

Riding one of my favorite rides, Big Thunder Mountain Railway. Duffy was a little scared, so I had to hang on to him.

Duffy and I stopped to celebrate Dia de la Muertos before we left Frontierland.

We stopped by to take a picture with Buzz's pumpkin in the Hub.

I had never ridden the Astro Orbiter before, so as part of my mission to make sure I ride every ride in the resort before I leave, Duffy and I went on. He enjoyed the view.

           

 

 At home in Tomorrowland!

Next, we headed over to California Adventure and swung by the Mission Tortilla factory for a free sample.

We explored the area around Grizzly Peak, and Duffy found all kinds of interesting little spots.

Duffy in his natural habitat.

 

Duffy was very excited to meet little Lumberjack Duffy!

So if you didn't know I was a huge kid at heart before, you do now - I spent a very lovely day with my teddy bear in Disneyland. Duffy is a pretty adventurous bear and loves getting out of the house, so you can expect more pictures from him soon! 

  

First half of Leadership Speakers' Series!

Part of my program here at Disneyland involves taking at least one class through Disney University. A handful of courses were offered to us, varying from actual collegiate courses with homework to a speakers' series. I chose to take the latter, the Leadership Speakers' Series. Each week, a leader from a different area of the resort comes into class to talk about what they do, how they got there, and take questions from the class.

It's been a fascinating experience altogether.We've heard from everyone from the manager of Resort Enhancement to Jon Storbeck, VP of Disneyland Park.We've heard some information I can't truly repeat in this blog as well,since it has to do with financial information about the resort.

But, some of the interesting things I've heard that I can say are:

• The most expensive attraction in Disneyland Resort to upkeep is "California Screamin'", a roller coaster in California Adventure
• Disneyland cost $17 million to build in 1955, or, in today's dollars, $84 million
• In comparison, "Tower of Terror" cost $100 million to build
• Resort Enhancement is a really fun department. They are not only in charge of decorations around the park, but props inside attractions (such as the apple in the Old Hag's hand on the "Snow White's Scary Adventures" ride, which guest frequently steal)
• The resort Horticulture Department does all their work from midnight to park opening. Much of the transformations of planters and such have to happen over night. The manager we spoke to was a really great lady - she got her start just because she was an avid gardener and applied for a job for the heck of it. She thought she was really under qualified, and still got the position. She said everything from the Mickey floral planter out front to the smallest of bushes on the Rivers of America are cared for and have specific requirements
• Industrial Engineering is a actually a really fun sounding profession. The two women who came in to talk to us even had us work through problems with them so we could understand exactly what they do - which is make sure attractions and their lines are moving efficiently, and that there are the proper amount of restaurants, bathrooms and other amenities.
• How much money it takes to do even the seemingly tiniest things, like a display in a window on Main Street, is astronomical.

I've got a few more classes left, including this week's speakers from the Special Events department. I'm particularly excited about this one, and will hopefully be able to get contact information from them and speak to them more outside of class. This is the department I really want to get into with Disney, so wish me luck! :)

grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize....

So now that it's officially done, I thought I'd do a wrap of what Halloween was like here in Anaheim. Disneyland Resort celebrated Halloween September 17th - October 31, (though there were still decorations up for a few days after) so there was plenty of time to enjoy the season! However, starting the middle of October, Christmas decorations were already popping up, causing a bit if an overlap. Some nights you'd see Jack-o-Lanterns surrounding the Partners Statue with a snow-capped castle in the background. All in all, it was quite an exciting time!

Buzz's jack-o-lantern on Main Street

DISNEYLAND \\    Disneyland was fully decked out for the holiday! The park had a Halloween party every Tuesday and Friday night, which were separately ticketed events. They featured the chance to dress up in costume, trick or treat through Disneyland, see Halloween themed fireworks and a parade and have much shorter waits than during the day. I saw many creative and homemade costumes, right down to a stroller that had been turned into a full blown pirate ship with a mast and lights and 3 year old Peter Pan and Tinkerbell at the helm. Interestingly, I saw a TON of Mario/Luigi (and one group that were each a Mario Kart character, and full detailed karts around them, and even one person as a "?" box) and Ghostbuster costumes. And, of course, quite a few little Buzz Lightyears!  

Frontierland's entrance

A couple of Disneyland's attractions had Halloween overlays - Space Mountain became Ghost Galaxy featuring an alien-like ghost and nightly projections on the building and scary sounds. Over in New Orleans Square, Jack Skellington invaded the Haunted Mansion for Haunted Mansion Holiday, and will be staying until January. The main entrance to the park featured huge pumpkins that looked like Mickey and his friends, and Main Street was home to over 300 pumpkins all carved by one (apparently amazing) man in the Resort Enhancement department. And of course, there were all kinds of Halloween treats and food throughout the park! Frontierland was also home to Ray Bradbury's Halloween Tree for the month and half.

Frontierland also featured Dia de la Muertos decorations through out HalloweenTime and through November 2nd for All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The decorations were up in the area next to Rancho del Zocalo, a Mexican restaurant. There was a face painting station as well as a really neat informative plaque letting guests know what Dia de la Muertos is (hint: it's not Halloween).

Above: some of the residents of Rancho del Zocalo. Below: a traditional Dia de la Muertos altar

 

The beginning of November also brought with it a really exciting opportunity - I got to tour the Haunted Mansion after park closing on November 2nd! Our tour guide was really fun, and gave us all kinds of information on the Mansion's history and what Walt's original plans were for it (like entering through an abandoned church and continuing to the house).We got a walking tour with the lights on, and learned about the background on the holiday version of the ride. It w(as incredible to be able to see how some of the effects are done in the ride, and how much like a movie set the attraction really is. We were able to walk down the "never-ending hallway" where Zero the ghost dog floats (a candelabra in the normal version), peek in the ballroom, and even see where the original pet cemetery is located at.


Our tour guide also spent some time debunking urban legends about the house. I can tell you the ones that are false - that's not a real seance table in Madam Leota's room, there's no seance book underneath it, no one died of a heart attack from the ride being too scary originally, that's not Brigham Young's hearse outside, and there's not Satanic rituals held there during Halloween (that one makes me laugh). One neat thing I learned about the overlay - in a few of the scenes, singing red Venus flytraps can be seen. These have nothing to do with the Nightmare Before Christmas, and are just from one of the designers' favorite movies - Little Shop of Horrors and are called the "little Audreys". It was probably one of my favorite events I've done during this program. It was super fun to see the historical side, and to see behind the scenes of the holiday version, since its based on one of my favorite movies!

KNOTT'S BERRY FARM HAUNT - UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS \\   It's been my goal for a long time to make it to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights, and it finally happened! Before that, I also got to go to Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm. This turned out to be quite interesting, as I haven't been to Knott's since I was five years old. My first experience back involved it being utterly dark, foggy, and filled with monsters! We were able to do some of the rides as well, and I was chased into the bathroom by a ghoul. As you can tell in  the picture to the right, I also got completely drenched on the log ride, which was themed for Haunt as Sleepy Hollow. (also, notice the epic photo bomb behind us in the picture).


I got to go to Universal a few weeks later. The place was insanely busy - it took us around a half hour just to get through the main gates and security. It definitely did not disappoint! The "scareactors" are pretty relentless in their chasing of you. I don't think I will ever forget chasing after two chasing wielding clowns who were chasing my sister and then watching them keep her pinned on the ground with them. I also will probably always be scarred for life after discovering the person pulling at my pant leg was a child (or child sized adult) dressed as Chucky. There was a lot of laughs and screams, and the event is amazingly well done. There's something to be said for being able to make people feel beyond nervous and shaky because they have to leave the store they're in and go back outside into whatever crazies with chainsaws are waiting outside. We planned fairly well and made our longest wait about 50 minutes (pretty good for a night that saw 120 minute waits), which was for the maze themed after Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses. The house used 3D "zombievision", which turned out to mean much of the house and props were blue and red. I didn't leave my glasses on, mostly because they prevented me from seeing what direction things were coming from and therefore what direction I needed to run. The maze had really cool detail - it really was a house we walked in through the front of, and traveled through the living room, bedrooms, backyard, and underground tunnels. There were some pretty horrific scenes in it but also some pretty good use of humor. My best scare of the night happened in this house in the form of what I thought to be a fake headless body in the corner. As I walked by, it stood up and came after me. All in all, I would definitely want to make a trip back again!

CARVING PUMPKINS \\  Of course, Halloween wouldn't be complete without pumpkin carving! My room mate Ellen had never carved pumpkins before, so it was really fun! The store was out of orange pumpkins, so we grabbed white ones which turned out really neat anyway. I made roasted cinnamon - nutmeg pumpkin seeds, and watched the premiere of the show that is my new addiction, 'The Walking Dead". I do miss October and Halloween in Wyoming quite a bit - especially how everything smells, and the scenery. But being able to carve pumpkins out here made it a little easier. While I'm not the best pumpkin carver ever, I decided to claim mine (on the right) was supposed to be my Ali cat's face :). (speaking of which, I sure miss that kitty!)

yay! So proud of myself.

Effectively, my program is just two holidays - Halloween and Christmas. Now that one half of my program is done, one holiday is done and the next is moving in. November 12th officially starts Christmas Time at the resort - and I'm assigned to work events that day and help out with the lighting ceremony for "it's a small world". Even though I loved Halloween, I'm looking forward to Christmas!

Until next year!