Bunny Ears?

Bunny Ears?

8^th April 2012

During the second sea day, travelling towards St. Maarten, we always feel that the managers stick things in our schedule, because they simply don’t know what to do with us. Originally, we thought this was the case. Usually, on the second sea day we shoot Disney Friends with appearances from Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Pluto.

Today there were only two sets of characters coming. Once we’d set up the lights, Csaba told us one of the lights needed to be moved from the left side of the ship to the middle. Now we were confused. About fifteen minutes before the characters arrived, we were told it was a gathering. A gathering basically means that it’s one line for the guests to see all, or in this case both, characters.

Kate was shooting face painting which meant nothing to any of us. Since when do we shoot face painting and where was she shooting?

While we were setting up, we saw numerous people walking around with bunny ears on. There were a number of people wearing baby blues, pinks and yellows, too. And why were people carrying around little wicker baskets? Was there an event going on that we didn’t know about? Well, in fact, there was.

Kate bounced over in her usually jolly way “Oh my God! It’s Easter – Happy Easter everyone!” Wow! It’s Easter already? It’d completely bypassed all of us. Again, we’re in our cruise ship life bubble, not knowing what’s going on around us. On land, you can’t help but notice future events, the shops would be cramming in Easter eggs, months before hand!

Turns out, we were shooting an Easter Special features four characters coming down in twos. First up were Donald and Daisy Duck wearing their Easter outfits of greens, yellows and pinks.  A complete contrast from their usual attire. Next up was Goofy sporting bright colours and overwhelming pink shoes! Alongside Goofy was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

Wes, my greeter (all characters have greeters to hold the guests things, get their Key to the World Card for photographers to swipe and even take the guest’s photos with their own cameras), had never worked a gathering before and hadn’t know anything about it, until a short time ago. At least we were in the same boat together!

Poor Wes was running around the place like a headless chicken. I wasn’t much better, trying to help him out by grabbing cards, while he collected the children’s autograph books. In the end, things started to slowly sort themselves out as we worked together and through the muddle this gathering had rapidly become.

At one point Daisy, Donald and Goofy got together for a photograph, something we could sell as a stock shot and as a bit of a souvenir for us shooting/greeting. What we stupidly hadn’t anticipated was a massive surge from the crowd. No word of a lie, the crowd looked like it was going to stamped. Everyone was surging forward, pushing people out the way, clambering over children. I quickly fired a couple of shots of before turning around and giving Wes a hand to get the crowd to move people back behind the barriers. There were an odd few who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, so we literally had to talk to them like a teacher would tell off a child. It was madness!

One of the greeters, who was managing the queue of guests waiting for their chance to meet the characters, cocked up on an epic scale. He thought Daisy and Donald would be making a third appearance when in actual fact, they were only making two and they’d just finished their last. So, the greeter separated the line into two. One for those wanting to meet White Rabbit and Goofy and the other for the Ducks. Wes and I were trying to comprehend why he’d spilt the lines, until he told us what his intentions were. Wes predicted there’d be murders and he wasn’t wrong, either.

About ten minutes later, the greeter had to explain to the one of the lines that Daisy and Donald weren’t coming back for another session. Some were disappointed while others were fuming. One lady with her three children had been waiting for apparently thirty minutes, only to find out she was queuing for something that’d never happen. We understood her frustration but her reaction was somewhat over the top and unnecessary.

Talking to Wes in between my few seconds off from taking photos and him running around for cards and autograph books, there was only one thing we could do. Wes was to signal to the character that the interaction between them and the guests was to be cut to a minimum. Wes was to hurry the guests through as fast as possible and I was to shoot as quickly as I possibly could. One thing is for sure, I don’t think I’ve shot so fast since coming onto Disney Magic. It was like shooting a gangway all over again!!

Luckily, for us, we managed to get everyone through within the characters appearance limit (30 minutes each - maximum). How we did it, I don’t know, because the two lines were stubbornly moved into one, snaked half way down one side of the ship. By the end of the session, I had 400 images of Goofy and Donald. Of course, the cramping wrist came with the image count, but I was pleased we’d managed to do so well considering the circumstances…

Happy Easter from the Caribbean Sea!

Daisy, Donald Duck and Goofy - Easter Special


Daisy and Donald Duck


White Rabbit

Goofy