December (Part 2)

Saturday December 6th Heather, Rebecca, and I got up very earl to head to the Magic Kingdom to attend the taping of the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade! We arrived there around 7am only to find out that in order to get in early you needed a pre-purchased e-ticket. So we headed to the main gate for those who didn't have tickets, dissapointed. The message we'd received was that without this ticket you wouldn't really be able to see much at the parade, and we'd arrived early in the hopes that we'd get up front and potentially be on TV! Fortunately, Heather decided to ask a manager for more information. He told us the main gates would open up at 9am and that there would be the opportunity to go in the taping viewing area... YAY!

So we waited until 9am and then headed in. We managed to find a spot around 2 rows back from the front of Main Street, right in front of the Emporium. They had an MC (m MM lss... or for non-F&B people the guy in the long sleeved Mickey Mouse shirt) who entertained us in between shoots and let us know what was happening. For those of you who remember the Barbie show at Epcot... he was Ken in that show. How cool is that?!

Taping the parade is nothing like watching the parade. Some of the scenes are much slower, they don't all happen on the same day, and they definitely don't happen in order. First was the taping of the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" segment. The segment took over an hour and a half to tape. First they taped the segment with the Broadway stars in front of the Confectionary shop (several takes), then they did several takes of the dance (with hundreds of dancers all along Main Street), finally, there were a couple of takes of the walk off Main Street.

Next, they filmed the snowflake dance, a song by some kids show stars (the Imagineers?) followed by a run-through of parts of the parade. The parade filiming went pretty quickly, as it was only one take, but I doubt that they filmed all the floats as it was a pretty short parade! Through all of this people kept leaving as it was a very long process. By the time it got to the parade Rebecca, Heather, and I were at the front!

After the parade filming they took some crowd shots... lots of video of Heather, Rebecca, and I... hopefully we'll be on TV. I'm hoping I'll be on TV with Minnie! Because I was wearing my Minnie ears a camera man asked me to stand in front of him and wave at her as the float went by... fingers crossed you may see me on TV Christmas Day!

By the time this was all finished it was about noon so we went to Cosmic Ray's cafe for some food and found out that Miley Cyrus would be filming a number at the Castle stage in the afternoon! So after lunch we went and watched her perform! She was amazing and very professional. As you can see by the pictures we had a pretty good spot in the crowd too!

After Miley, her dad filmed a number too! He wasn't as good, and definitely wasn't as professional... but it was fun!

When it was all over we headed over to Adventureland for some Dole Whips and then headed home to grab some sleep... it had been a very long and tiring day (though a fantastic one)!

Sunday December 7th I was able to sign up for the 5pm Virginia Madsen shows! She is incredibly beautiful and wore a lovely long gown... unfortunately, it was freezing, much colder than it's been for awhile, so even with the heater at her feet she was shivering. After Candlelight I went to Downtown Disney for some Christmast shopping, came home, and relaxed watching some movies. Definitely a nice relaxing day after a busy Saturday!

Monday December 8th I went to Hollywood Studios in the morning to continue my Christmas shopping... with my discount I wanted to see what all the parks had to offer so I could get the best things for everyone. Then I worked from 2:15-8:15 seating, well... bussing in the restaurant. When I was done I went shopping at Mouse Gears in Epcot... I'm almost done my Christmas Shopping.

Tuesday December 9th I got up early so I could see the opening of the Magic Kingdom and go Christmas Shopping! They must have thought I was weird coming back on the tram at 10am! No one leaves the Magic Kingdom that early. But I had to make it to Epcot for my 11:30am-8:45pm seating shift. That's a really long shift as far as seating shifts go, but it didn't seem too long. Actually, it flew by! There were lots of nice families to talk to which always makes the day enjoyable. The only dark cloud on the day was that a wheelchair accidentally ran over one of the squirrels that hangs around the Candian pavillion and broke it's leg. Newton (as Heather had named him), was okay, but was taken to Animal Kingdom to their vetranary centre so that he could be all patched up. After work I went to Mouse Gears one last time to finish my Christmas Shopping. Yay... I'm so happy to be done!

Wednesday December 10th I worked as AM greeter. It was nice, because it was the first day the new arrivals were at work! Spencer and Nikki did a really good job! Because of call-ins it turned out that it was only the two trainees and their trainer seating for the first chunk of the morning, which could have been a problem but they picked everything up really quickly and were seating tables on their own in no time! It felt good to see new people and be able to help! After work I went to do the late pair of Candlelight, but unfortunately I was the first person not to get in. I guess Marlee Matlin is a really popular narrator, and they had an almost-full guest choir so they didn't need many people. So I decided to go home and sort Christmas presents into boxes, and do laundry instead. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't sing, because Rebecca was supposed to have VIP seating to the 6:45 show... but as it turns out she wasn't feeling well and couldn't go, so it doesn't matter that I didn't get to sing.

Thursday December 1th was my Floating Holiday! Floating holiday's (or paid days off when you choose) are the best things ever. I spent the morning being lazy, and then went to Walmart to get wrapping paper and other Christmas stuff. When I got home, I managed to pick up all 3 candlelight shows at 1:58pm (you have until 2pm to pick up/drop shows)! Talk about lucky! I relaxed with Heather, made fajitas, and then went to Epcot for the shows.

After only one song with Marlee Matlin I could understand why yesterday was full. Sorry, NPH, Marlee Matlin is definitely my favourite narrator by far. For those who don't know, Marlie is deaf and only has 2% hearing so she signs the entire show. She has a sign language interpreter that speaks everything she says. Together they are SO enthusiastic, and do a marvelous job. She is so nice, always turning around and smiling at the choirs, and dancing to the music. When it comes to Silent Night, she signs the part where the audience sings and it's just beautiful. Throught the entire performance you can just tell how appreciative she is to be there, always saying "thank you" to Disney for letting her narrate. I think the awe that is Marlee Matlin's narration can be summarized in her long speech. I've attached a video of it. Unfortunately, you can't see her, or her emotion, but you can hear her interpreter and hopefully that will help give you an idea of how amazing she is. To date, I believe she is the only narrator I've seen get applause following this speech, just because it is so empowering.

As well, we had a guest conductor, Dr. Mitos Andaya tonight. She was absolutely amazing. Always smiling and enthusiastic. You just couldn't help smiling back and I think it made the entire show 100 times better.

Friday December 12th I worked as AM Greeter, and there was another new person, Tracy, training for AM seating. After work I went to Candlelight and made it into green robe on standby! They must have had quite a few Soprano no-shows. A lot of people are complaining that others aren't cancelling in advance when they can't make a show, but rather just not showing up. It sucks for most people because then they can't pick up extra shows, and not a lot of people like to just come to Epcot on the chance they can sing standby. It works out well for me, though. I sang the late pair, and again I was SO happy to do Marlee Matlin shows. Plus, we had the same amazing guest conductor, so the shows were just incredible!

Saturday December 13th I'd heard about this sale at the World of Disney for annual pass holders, and since my pass doesn't expire until the 21st I thought I'd go. Now, in typical US fashion the sale started really early and had different highlighted sales at each hour. I wanted to arrive early, because the first sale was on Disney plushies! So I got up at 5:30am, got ready, and headed into Downtown Disney to find out that over 500 people were already there (I know, because they were giving out prizes to the first 1000 people, and extra ones to the first 500). It was CRAZY. Just like you hear about at any big sale people were pushing and grabbing the major sale items. Fortunately, some people saw I was nice and not-pushy and so they took pitty on me and grabbed me some stuffies and a mug. After the rush I thought that would be the end of my worries, but the lines to check out were HUGE. It took forever just to pay, and I wasn't even buying much. It was definitely an experience, though. Can't say whether I'd want to brave another big US sale or not... I guess it depends on what's on sale. Afterwards I came home, cleaned, napped, and then went to sing the late pair with Monique Coleman. Now, I haven't commented on what people have worn at Candlelight, but I found her outfit choice... interesting. It was a low V neck, tight, short, red dress. Looking at some video I found on You Tube it didn't look so bad from the audience, but I didn't think it was as appropriate as what other narrators have worn.

Sunday December 14th I worked as an AM Greeter. Overall it was a really good day, I met a family from Chatham that had just been ice fishing in Southampton (it's always exciting when people know where Port Elgin is!), and I got to talk about Princesses and good books with a very nice family. What made the day interesting, though, was that for half of my shift I was training! They hadn't actually scheduled someone to train Dave at greeting so he was half split between Rebecca and I. I don't think I did too bad a job, but I definitely wasn't prepared to be training today! After work I went and sang the late pair with Monique Coleman. She was wearing a different dress than the previous night. This dress was white, long, and flowing. She looked absolutely gorgeous.

Monday December 15th I worked the AM shift on Popcorn Cart. It wasn't too slow or busy, so it was a nice shift. PLUS I got to meet some more of the new arrivals and chat with them. Overall, it was a nice break, but I definitely missed singing Candlelight. After work I came home, made my chicken pasta (which really is delicious), and relaxed.

Tuesday December 16th I was AM greeter again, but after work I was too sick to sing candlelight, so I came home and had a night in with Heather. We made dinner (sesame chicken), watched Rent, then Per came over with McFlurries and we made a halloween chocolate cookie house (see pictures), and we watched Joseph. A good night in for two sick girls!

Friday December 17th I worked AM Seating, but before work I went in to Company D and picked up my Candlelight sweatshirt. It's a little big, but I knew it would be. Still, it's really comfy and it's Candlelight! I'm so excited! I was feeling sick, so when I was offered an ER I took it so that I could sing the 5pm show instead of the late pair. It was Chita Rivera and I had to sing at least one of her shows! She was really nice and actually came out to talk to us and wish us a Merry Christmas before the show!