Scott sent this great trip report of his and Elliot's trip to Disney World. I am posting it without permission. Vivid descriptions let you feel (and smell) like you are there!!
So the experience was pretty cool. We had the whole morning to ourselves in the Magic Kingdom. At 2:15pm we all met to the left of the Pirates of the Caribbean entrance. Our Cast Member guide Chris, a really tall guy who looked like a blond version of the Subway spokesman who lost all that weight, took us through a door to an alley behind the attraction. He stationed me to guide our group through the door and say "No photos, no cell phones" to everyone as they came in. Then he walked us down a hill to a tree behind a concrete warehouse-looking building. In the shade he welcomed us as honorary cast members and gave us the rules- no bare feet, no staring at cast members in their character costumes without heads (or pointing and commenting- "how would you like it if while you were at your job people pointed at you?"). Though the building we were next to looked like the back of Home Depot, it was actually the back of the Pirates attraction. Two marching bands in the parking lot next to us were warming up, and we were taken to a prefab building next to Pirates, which was our changing room. Our tour bus was in the parking lot, so we obtained our tuxs and instruments, suited up, and loaded back on the bus for the drive around to the entrance by our venue.
Behind our dressing room prefab was a warehouse, through whose open doors you could see parade floats parked. Outside were piles of spare chairs for various cafes- white iron for Main St., shiny metal for tomorrowland, etc. A loading dock full of wagon wheels, a stack of spare fake crates from Jungle Cruise scenes. An old fantasyland cafe umbrella for the employee break area outside.
Later one of the floats was being driven around. It was a float of the bad guy from Aladdin, but without the giant head on top (to get through the garage?) and the part covering the driver off too, so the driver's head was in open air (better visibility?). In that configuration it looked for all the world like the evil float at the end of Animal House.
From the road around the back of the Magic Kingdom, we could see the scaffolding underneath the "rocks" of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We saw a headless Stitch walk by. Then over some railroad tracks and there it was- the yard for the Disney railroad, and I thought of you. It was an enclosed shop not unlike the T-yard you see from Comm Ave. in Brookline/Brighton. But with a brightly painted Disney car rather than a T-car sticking out.
We pulled up at a sunken loading dock obviously behind Fantasyland. It looked and smelled like any loading dock- like garbage. Cast members were loitering about, obviously waiting for the bus to take them to their parking lot. Then down the utilidor, a 20ft-wide corridor that reminded me of the big corridor under Johns Hopkins- steam pipes overhead and all. But this one had occasional inspirational posters for the cast members. We passed the employee cafeteria, or "Mouseketeeria" (I figure was somewhere under the Dumbo ride) which was full at 3:30pm. I asked our cast member how the food was, and he said it was a lot of fried food and in answer to my question he brought his lunch most days.
We also passed a big wall schedule of opening and closing times for the day, and later a big map of all the stairways leading upstairs to the Magic Kingdom ("Stairway 25- To the Carousel of Progress")
We walked by a huge wardrobe shop full of costumes on racks. Of course maintenance guys on all manner of golf carts and golf cart pickups going up and down the corridor. Finally we came to a door with a tiny sign: Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe Stage. He opens the door and there is a tiny room with a wooden floor, black walls, overhead theatrical lights, and our music stands and chairs all set up. The bongos, snare drum, and keyboard we needed were already in place.
We sat down, started to tune, and our Guide said we were on in 10 minutes, adjusted the microphone booms over our shoulders, and closed us in. Then he told us over an intercom "2 minutes". We warmed up and talked over our cues. Then he said "you're on" and we began to rise. Daylight appeared between our ceiling and the floor of Ray's above. We began the opening of "The Lion Sleeps", me watching for the conductor's cue to start the song proper after repeating the intro enough times to get us up the the restaurant level. I get my cue, I cue the kids watching me, and we're off. We were so keyed up that I got only one chance to glance around. I saw one of my nurses who happened to be there taking pictures (those are the ones I'll probably send later, she is still there with her family) in the corner of my eye for half a second, and a fat guy drooling burger down his shirt front, but otherwise it was all music and rests and cues and pianos and fortes and keeping the kids on the beat.
We played well and then it was more "Lion sleeps" as we sank back down into the floor. Then the door opens and back out to the utilidor to retrace our steps to the bus, same views on the way back. There was a lot more loud talk among the kids (6th grade to high school) on the way back "I missed my entrance there", "Did I sound OK?". Back out to the sunshine of the loading dock and on to our bus. Then we changed, left our stuff back on the bus, and were escorted out the same door next to Pirates. We were back to being regular park patrons, and walked over to Ray's to watch the school Choir do what we had just done, at 5pm. So Elliot and I got to watch the stage come up as we did. Beforehand while sitting at the tables by the stage, sipping cokes, I tell the Choir kids' parents what was happening to their kids' adrenal glands right down there as I point to a spot twenty feet under the stage, which is currently occupied by an animatronic alien keyboardist named Sunny Eclipse telling corny jokes.
Then Elliot and I caught the monorail to Epcot and had a lovely dinner at the Rose and Crown, and I had two pints of Bass ale, and then it was Mission Space (I bravely held on to my lovely dinner and pints) and Test Track to finish off a perfect day.
Scoots
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