WDWCP: It Is Important to Have Character

I've mentioned it a few times... the characters terrified me! Seriously. I can only think of one photo prior to my college program where I am alone with a character. There's just something about them. They are cute from afar. I love to see them in a parade. I get excited when I see Mickey come on TV in commercials for the parks. But in person? I avoid eye contact. I try to slip away unnoticed. I take the photos of other people so I can avoid being in them. Well, when you live in Disney's apartment and work for the Mouse, basically you'll have a hard time hiding!

I'm including this photo of Mickey and I again, because this is the day I started trying to overcome my fear. On September 17th, I had Once Upon A Time. Our training for the day was awesome! We were upstairs looking out over Main Street USA for the 3 o'clock parade. That was so cool, but something even more exciting happened. Mickey Mouse came in to personally give us graduation gifts. I was really nervous. Graduating and become one step closer to actually working was so thrilling, but I was freaking out about having to meet the Mouse. So I had my photo taken to commemorate this moment. I was almost crying, but I hid it well! 

For the rest of the internship I would try to take advantage of moments to meet characters. It was rare I was alone with them, however. You might notice something about this photos as they go along. I'll just tell you ...

You won't see me with face characters!!

If I get nervous communicating with a silent one, what the heck would I do if I had to actually engage in mutual conversation??? To this day I think I mostly only do face characters during runDisney races when you swoop in fast, get the photo, and then go. When I'm with my baby, she gets the spotlight, so the characters ignore me - as they should!

Pecos Bill Cafe is on the parade route. Every day at 3 o'clock we would hear that music and that voice..."When you wish upon a star.... It's time to remember the magic...." I spent a lot of time collecting trays, so I would make sure when the parade came by I would be outside so I could watch while I work. It felt like he knew I was scared of them, but Jafar. Dang it, Jafar. Every day he'd come over and look down at me. I'd almost scurry off as quickly as I could without being obvious. Years later, during the Walt Disney World Marathon Relay, I made a point of getting my photo with Jafar just so I could help teenage Ronda work through her Jafar fear!

I had seen Robin Hood and some other characters come through the Mile Long Bar before, but they were on a mission and ignored me. This particular day Brer Bear and Brer Fox were sitting in our break area. A fellow Cast Member on the Pecos counter knew I was scared of the characters. He tricked me into coming out back. A couple of his friends of his were there and he wanted me to meet them. Ugh, I can still feel that sick to my stomach feeling when I went outside and there were the Splash Mountain villains waiting for me. And laughter erupted as I took off running back into the kitchen!

I do remember one night at Pecos that WAS particularly cute and fun. Spectromagic, the nighttime parade, was going by, so our restaurant was virtually empty. The Country Bears ended up coming in and running all over the place wreaking havoc on all of us. They were taking packets of crackers from behind the counter and throwing them around. All of this while the parade gently floated by. That was a total highlight for me. I loved those moments where I felt I was being paid to be a tourist!

I've gotten much better with my character fear over the last 20 years I can say. I still get nervous and I don't go out of my way to engage. My best photos are always during races when I'm in the running zone and my worry is on my legs, not on how stupid will I sound to the character I'm talking to!

*A year after our program I was back in WDW on vacation and had a rather special moment with a dancing frog during the Artimals parade at Disney's Animal Kingdom. For some reason this frog really looked like my roommate Danielle.....

**A few years later I, of all people, actually went through the character audition process and made it into the Character Pool .... then I came to my senses and realized, No. Too hot!! And instead ended up working in an air conditioned office where I was often too cold!

See ya real soon!  °o°