Cruising The Seven Seas: To The Magic Kingdom

To The Magic Kingdom

2^nd February 2012

Today didn’t start off as planned. At 23.30 last night, Luis from Image, contacted me to confirm that I was to wait outside the hotel at 08.10 for the shuttle to take me to Disney training. I was there five minutes early, just in case. After ten minutes, I walked into reception and asked to be put through to Clarita’s room. Clarita is another Image photographer attending Disney training. Her alarm hadn’t gone off but she’d been told we were due to be picked up at 06.45. At 08.30 it was obvious no one was coming.

Luis contacted Clarita to find out what was going on. We explained. Disney then called us and said they were arranging a taxi. Unfortunately we had to pay for the taxi – a whopping $28 for a 15 minute ride.

Once at Disney Casting, we were sent from place to place, no one really seemed to know what we were doing there. This all added to our confusion. Finally, we found someone who could help us. She took us into a small room where we had to fill out three pieces of paper consisting of numerous questions from eye colour to weight to passport number. Anymore and they’d be asking our bra size!

We were told a taxi was coming to collect us and take Clarita and I to Celebrations. We were then left outside the casting building, still confused and unaware of what was going on. In many senses we were passed around, place to place and then just left without any clue as to what we were supposed to be doing.

To top it off we were asked about three or four times why we were late. This caused the Disney workers some dismay at the fact we were all told different times. To be honest, the entire thing was completely shambolic!

Finally a taxi pulled up. It wasn’t long until we realized we were heading back in the direction of the hotel. When the cab pulled up at the hotel, we didn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The cab driver couldn’t believe that we didn’t know Celebrations address or that we’d just been piled into a cab, with no idea as to where we should have been going in the first place. In the end it made more sense to get the driver’s name, go to our rooms and call Disney Casting.

The lady that I spoke to at Disney Casting was most put out that we’d been sent back to the hotel, even though someone from that department had ordered the cab. After explaining the situation, the reply I got was “and you let the driver leave! Why?” What else were we supposed to do? We were put on hold for a few minutes listening to “A Whole New World” from Disney’s Aladdin. “Ok. You didn’t need to go to Celebrations because you are photographers. You have the (Disney) passes, so make the most of them”. Turns out we weren’t in the wrong after all.

The best part about going to Disney Casting today was the fact that we were given two day complimentary park hopper (passes) for Disney World. It was still early so we gathered our stuff and Clarita and I headed off to Disney’s Magic Kingdom to do some exploring.

The moment we arrived at Magic Kingdom, Clarita and I both reverted into a childlike state. “oooh” and “aaaarrr” were the most over used words coming from our lips! The cameras were out within seconds. Just the Ferry Boat to the Magic Kingdom had us with our mouths dropping open. You could see the famous Disney Castle getting closer and closer, hyping us up more and more.

Magic Kingdom was a completely different world, it looked absolutely amazing! Stunning! The Main Street made you feel like you’d walked into another era, stepped back in time. Kids were running around like headless chickens, unable to contain their excitement and we weren’t far behind them.

The Disney Castle was probably the highlight, it is simply breath taking. The entire Magic Kingdom is, but the Disney Castle had that little bit extra. It was the cherry on the cake!

The only let down of Disney were the queues. Some rides had 50 minute waiting lines. The first ride we went on had the shortest queue and once on the ride, we found out why. “The Happiest Cruise You’ll Ever Go On” said the banner… this should be interesting.

Hopping into little boats we bobbed along the water and soon the most irritating music started playing “it’s a small world after all… it’s a small world after all… it’s a small world after all”. Looking around there were hundreds of childlike moving puppets, singing, dancing and playing instruments. Even their eyes blinked! Being surrounded by moving dolls is only one below to being surrounded by a room full of spiders. In short, I was terrified! Clarita was enjoying my obvious discomfort but after a while, she too, began to feel a bit freaked out.

We headed back to the Castle for a show. “Dreams Come True” featured a large number of well-known Disney characters; Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Peter Pan, Snow White (and Prince Charming), Sleeping Beauty (with her Prince Charming) and Cinderella (yes, she was with her Prince Charming, too), the evil witch from Sleeping Beauty and Captain Hook. It was great fun for us but the kids were over the moon. They were bobbing away with their little Mickey Mouse ear caps on their heads.

Walking around, taking it all in we came across a Pirates of the Caribbean ride which didn’t seem to have much of a queue. Getting into another boat we started floating down barely lit tunnels. This was payback time as Clarita was now starting to get scared. Suddenly we were in pitch black and the boat took a dip down a sharp slide. “This is going to be a laugh” I thought, but my expectations were short lived as we came to a near halt.

Slowly drifting along, we came to a huge open space where a battle was taking place between the Black Pearl and another pirate ship. Flashes and smoke were coming out of the ship’s canons and “exploding” close to our little boat, splashing us all. The kids loved it and so did we, even if it did look like I’d wet myself, thanks to a canon ball!

Moving on, we slowed down again, drifting into a dungeon type area with grotty looking mannequins – again Clarita and I started to feel uneasy about the things looking so life-like and blinking. It was the blinking that really gets you nervous.

Towards the end, Jack was sitting in a throne, surrounded by gold and treasure, as drunk as a skunk and singing while waving a goblet of booze about. Ride over.

Unfortunately time was ticking so we had a nose around some of the shops as Clarita was determined to find a set of Mickey Mouse ears and I had to buy a magnet. While pratting around in one of the shops I tried on a pair of Mickey Mouse ears headband with a wizard’s hat (think Fantasia). In a way I was reluctant to hand over $15 for something so silly as Mickey Mouse ears, but I simply had to join in the with the crowds and act the clown.

For sure, in six months I won’t want anything to do with Disney after being driven mad by it all. Until then, I thought I might as well goof around while being in a place where it’s seen as legally sane to walk around with great big mouse ears sticking out from your hair!

Before going in search for the shuttle bus back to the hotel, we decided to cross the little river and have a look on the small island. Clarita has my Park Guide and I cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of the island. Either way, we waited 20 minutes to get there to find out here was nothing – and I mean nothing there. A couple of mine tunnels which lead you around in a circle and a windmill. That was it. We actually felt quite defeated by going through all the effort to get there, to find nothing.

Going back we got stuck in a huge queue, waiting to cross the "river". People asking the same question as us, “what was the point in that?” What felt like a life time, turned out to be 45 minutes, we were back on the raft and back on “main land”.

Quickly popping into another two shops – I got my “Walt Disney World” magnet – we decided to head back on the free shuttle bus rather than forking out for $20-$25 for a taxi.

While chatting at the bus stop, a girl called over and asked if we were going to work on Disney Cruise Line. Turns out Aideen, from Ireland, is also joining Disney Magic (same as Clarita and I) and works for Steiner. She’s a spa girl. It was her first contract and she seemed quite unsure of what to expect and what she was experiencing. The whole way back to the hotel we were answering her questions and reminiscing about our first contracts. Turns out Clarita was on the Mariner of the Seas too (way before me) and was later transferred to Adventure of the Seas.

Back at the hotel, I received a call from Luis asking how things had gone. I gave him the whole story and to be honest, he wasn’t impressed with what I’d told him. Apparently, this wasn't the first time it's happened. He agreed it was completely shambolic and said it was unacceptable. Now he was trying to get to the bottom of it all to avoid these sort of cock ups, miscommunications and so on in future.

Meeting up with Clarita and Aideen again, we headed out to a Chinese buffet just down the road for something quick, easy and cheap to eat. Me, being a royal bozo, I forgot my wallet in my room so Aideen was good enough to pay for me. I’ll pay her back tomorrow when I see her at training.

Aideen told us the shuttle bus was coming to pick us all up at 07.45 but we should probably get there 15 minutes early to avoid anything like what happened this morning. It was a great laugh with the two girls tonight.

The funniest moment came when we opened our fortune cookies. Clarita was basically told not to flash her treasures to avoid people wanting them. This had us rolling up laughing, thanks to our dirty minds. Mine was something about keeping a certain distant “HE” close. It left some head scratching but later a penny dropped. What the hell, it’s a coincidence – nothing more!!