Today, in recognition of Labor Day, instead of a poll I thought I’d ask blog readers to participate in a different way. Please Comment on this post, sharing your favorite Disney Cast Member interaction story. I’ll start, by sharing the story of a terrific CM interaction at Hollywood Studios this past January.
As many of you will remember, my daughter injured her leg shortly before our trip for the DISDads Convention back in January, and she was in a wheelchair for the trip. On our first day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, she was terribly disappointed when the Jedi Training Academy CMs told her that she could not participate in JTA in a wheelchair (Note: we went back a few days later, and different JTA CMs found a way to accommodate her and allow her to participate, but that’s a different story). My daughter was crushed. JTA is one of her favorite things to do in all of Walt Disney World.
While my wife and son headed to JTA, I wheeled my daughter over to the American Idol Experience. She’d been asking to audition at American Idol since our first trip, but she’s too young for the show, so we’ve always avoided it. I decided to go ahead and take her in and see what they could do for us. Though she couldn’t appear on the stage, she was ushered in to sing for one of the “screening” CMs. The screening CM was AMAZING with her (and I wish I’d gotten that CMs name). She really listened to my daughter’s singing, and gave her constructive criticism and encouragement. That 10 minutes or so of interaction completely turned our day around. My daughter went from sad and disappointed to glowingly proud and happy. I don’t think I’m overstating it saying that American Idol Experience CM singlehandedly saved the day for us.
So what are your best CM stories? Tell us about them in the comments!
The one memorable CM moment actually came from Security Check at the MK gate.
So let’s hop in the way back machine. 2002 and we were at out local amusement park here known as S.F. Here they have Looney tunes characters. So Bugs and Silvester were in the gazebo doing pictures, so we thought we would take the Princess, then 2, and see how it went. Amazingly she went up with open arms, and it was then I knew we were same to plan the trip to the World.
F.Forward to several months later and the terrible twos are in full effect. We had park bag in hand an the Princess was being her normal self. We had to stop at the Security Check point to have the bag searched. The Security Officer stepped right in to get her attention, and attempt to calm this Tude wielding toddler. He not only managed to get her attention, but also managed to make her smile. He removed his hat and placed it on her head. She was Security for the moment, and it made her happy. We got the picture and it was one of the most memorable moments of the trip.
While we’ve been fortunate not to have any disasters that required CM attention, there have been so many that have added their own touch of magic to make our trips as fantastic as they have been. Here’s a few:
We were in line to meet the Princesses onboard the Disney Magic, and our youngest ONLY wanted to meet Belle. Well, first up was Ariel and our little redhead wanted nothing at all to do with her …. until Ariel put her hands on her hips and gave the sass right back at our daughter. That must be some secret communication sign between redheads because that split second action changed Emma from scowling to laughing. When she got to Belle, Emma still nearly knocked her over from the leap she gave into her arms, but because of Ariel, she waited patiently in line to do so.
Every CM I’ve had during the Jungle Cruise. There’s been good ones and great ones, but they’ve all been entertaining. They brighten my day every time I go on board.
The CM’s out at Rafiki’s are great. There was one older lady who talked to us for 45 minutes, keeping our girls entertained with informative stories about pythons and other snakes. She was awesome, but I have a sieve like memory and can’t recall her name.
There were also two CM’s near the Asia area of AK who were showing people how to write their names in different languages. They answered all my girls questions. Why is this so special? Because at the time my girls were riding a sugar rush and their questions ranged from “What language is that?” to “Why don’t you use the alphabet for letters?” to “Why does my sister have freckles and I don’t?” to “Are those real monkeys?” to “Why does that man have one leg?” to “HowManyChocolatesCanYouEatInOneDayIHadFiveMySisterHadFourButIHadFiveFiveNotFourFiveButI’mFourNowIWillBeFiveSoonOnMyBirthday?” …. The CM’s not only answered each rapidly fired question, but gave my wife and I that brief moment to catch our breaths and remember that patience is the key to enjoying the parks. The smile they gave us told us we brightened their day a bit, but they took our day from the brink of a meltdown to sheer joy with 5 simple minutes of interaction.