Originally Posted By SJHYM I have been posting here for several years and several people have asked about WDW stories as a CM. So I thought maybe it might be a good topic to start for current and ex-CM's to post some stories about mgmt, guests, celebrities, unusual things that happened to them. I'll start. One of my favorite things as a CM was to come upon a guest who would say something you wanted to say but just couldnt to a guest. One of my first jobs was standing at the bottom of the EPCOT Center monorail station checking tickets. Some of you will remember when Disney used to make you produce your tickets to ride the transportation. At EPCOT Center you couldnt ride the monorail with a one day EPCOT ticket. If you wanted to ride you had to buy a $3.00 transportation ticket. (Some trivia...a MK one day ticket and an EPCOT one day ticket were the same prices but the MK included a $3 transportation charge which meant that EPCOT was $3 more expensive to enter since the $3 went to Disney transportaion Co) Anyway, everyday we would get tons of people who wanted to ride the monorail with a one day EC ticket. This one day a guest came up and flashed their ticket and of course I stopped them and explained the whole transportation thing. Well they got pretty angry and stood there and at first wanted to discuss then when that didnt work decided to yell at me. Meanwhile a long line started to form behind the person who refused to step aside to let people by. Finally the guy behind them tapped the man on the shoulder and said... Look if you want to ride the monorail go buy a ticket, the guy has been very nice explaining it to you and you have been a first class #$&*(*&. So move aside and let the rest of us thru. Well the guest looked like he was going to respond but the guest behind him just looked at him and said...I wouldnt do that if I were you. The guy sized the man up and walked away towards the parking lot. I thanked the guest behind him and he said...I was so impressed with how you kept calm and friendly even when he was cursing at you, so I figured I would way what you wanted to but couldn't. You got to love guests like that. More to come. Anyone else?
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: Thank you for sharing, SJHYM, duckling. My sisters and I are cast members--if you stop to realize we belong in the Character Department. But we were let go from there a long time ago. The only memories I have left are as a guest and...well...I'm not allowed to share those in such a public forum. ORWEN: By now all 3 of us SHOULD have been able to unload a TON of stories on you-- ORGOCH: --instead, all Orwen's got is a ton her weight in Krispy Kremes! ORDDU: (sigh) Still, this is a nice topic so don't let us gum up the works by getting too far afield, here.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN My best memories were about how proud we felt being Disney CMs in the good old days and how hard we worked to give guests the best possible show... Sadly, I don't see much of that anymore, except for some Cms who are visibly proud to be there. But most now a days...?
Originally Posted By SJHYM I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Ron Howard and his family in the parks. At one point his wife and one of his children went to get something to eat. Ron and his other child wanted to ride Small World. So I told him that we would take him down the exit. He said No, we will wait on line with everyone else. (It was busy). I said, it would be best to go down the exit. He looked at me and said...it's important to me that my children know that just because of what I do for a living doesnt mean they are better than everyone else. So we waited on line to the amazement and joy of lots of guests. Very impressive guy and a great couple of days with his family.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN We hosted the king of Zaire and his many wives and children at the Columbia Harbour House in the early 80's... The second level was closed off for them.
Originally Posted By CMDad Well I can't give any first hand stories, but I can relate some of the ones my daughter and son have related to me. A short while after DME first started, my daughter was on the front desk and checked in a family. About 10 minutes after they checked in, the father came back and wanted to know where his luggage was. My daughter asked him where he had last seen his luggage, and the guest answered at the airport. When my daughter asked if the had the DME tags on them, he informed her that he thought that all he had to do was have a Disney Resort reservation and somehow DME would know about it and get his bags. He had no tags and had never conatced DME. But he wanted Disney to go back to the airport to pick up his luggage for him. (It didn't happen.)
Originally Posted By CMDad <<He looked at me and said...it's important to me that my children know that just because of what I do for a living doesnt mean they are better than everyone else. So we waited on line to the amazement and joy of lots of guests. Very impressive guy and a great couple of days with his family.>> That is in line with everything I have ever heard about Ron Howard. He tries as hard as possible to have an unremarkable/normal family life. Obviously reflecting the way his parents brought him up.
Originally Posted By MrToadWildRider But he actually does the voice doesn't he? I assumethe jokes aren't meant to be mean spirited - especially seeing as how he provides the voice...
Originally Posted By vbdad55 if you were called Dopie Opie for as long as he was, my guess is his sense of humor is very good.
Originally Posted By SJHYM During the 15th anniversary of WDW. I was assigned to work with the film crews for the tv special. The show was filmed over several weeks. I spent a whole week with Betty White and Bea Arthur. Betty was very very friendly. Bea was very quiet, polite and seemed shy. She was nice but in a reserved way. The next week I spent 2 nights with the Monkees and then a night with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. I spent 2 seasons working for the Mickey Mouse Club doing audience coordination. Got to spend a lot of time with the Mouseketeers. Each day of filming was looonnnngg. And often parents would complain because filming was going up but they had plans to be somewhere. The deal was once the audience was seated they couldnt leave. A couple of years later I worked for Dick Clark productions and Lets Make A Deal in the prize dept. Disney was very nice in lending me out to many different depts and companies. I was able to do things most people could only dream about.
Originally Posted By SJHYM Yeah, of course she was young...they all were. I had no idea a the time that any of them would go onto be big stars. They were on a pretty strict schedule because of school requirements and the laws that govern the amount of hours they can work in a day.
Originally Posted By MrToadWildRider Honestlly the only member I remember was a girl named Lindsey because I was about their age (I'm like a year or two younger than most) and I had a crush on her. And I remember the adult guy with the white hair but I forget his name - I want to say Gary or Dennis but those are probably way off
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <The next week I spent 2 nights with the Monkees and then a night with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. < I met Brian at a fundraiser several years ago -- this is still a guy who has no idea how much impact he had on American music........ and doesn't realize the fact that most people can't sit down and write like 4 songs in a weekend..................
Originally Posted By xzoocrew The first job I had was at "The Florida Sunshine Tree" orange juice stand in Adventureland. During the typical summer afternoon thunderstorm my lead notices a family of four with Dad carrying around one of the table umbrellas for cover and sent me out to take it away from him. I walked up and said "Sir I'm sorry, you can't carry that umbrella around." He gave me a dirty look, kind of puffed out his chest and growled "Why?" as if he's ready to get into it with me. I replied "Well sir, you are basically holding a lightening rod." His bluster immediately stopped and at that point he couldn't hand it to me fast enough. Not such a tough guy after all.
Originally Posted By SJHYM ^^^Great story I was a supervisor in World Showcase when Illuminations started. When I was on in the evening I gave the final go ahead to start the show...What power!!! One night before the show I noticed some guests up in the portico at the American Gardens theater. I climbed up the stairs and asked them to come down. They did but then the man of the group said to me "Do you know who I am?" Well no I dont. "I happen to be Michael's Eisners best friend". Ok, but you still cant be up there. "Well we want the best seat in the house" Sorry you cant sit up there. "What would you say if I told you that I could call him right now and get you fired" Well after I thanked you Michael would probably say thanks for saving my best friend from the lasers and fireworks that were going to be shooting around his head. The looked at me then walked away.
Originally Posted By smctopia >The next week I spent 2 nights with the Monkees and then a night with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys.< Do tell how the Monkees were. I imagine Davy was a handful if he was around any alcohol. Visit Walt Dated World <a href="http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com" target="_blank">http://waltdatedworld.bravepag es.com</a>
Originally Posted By SJHYM The Monkees were great. Mickey and Peter were very friendly. So was Mike. Davey played it up with the CM's who were there as an audience. We filmed at 10pm at night in Adventureland. But Davey wasnt as friendly to behind the scenes.
