The Guest Experience

The stories keep coming! We have received so many stories from cast
members about interesting guests and from park guests about the nice (and
not-so-nice) cast members they’ve encountered. Last time, we presented
stories for you from Walt Disney World (link).
Today, you’ll read about the magic makers in California.

Alyssa’s Story

I love reading your column, and wanted to add our story to the list of cast members that just do a little something extra to make guests smile.

We recently visited Disneyland on a Friday to celebrate my daughter, Elena’s, 5th birthday. We had many special family moments, but the highlight was actually as we were leaving, on the Lion King parking lot tram, of all places. On the way to the Timon lot, my daughter and 3-year-old son started yelling at the just-visible top of the Matterhorn, “Bye Disneyland,” over and over, as only kids can do.

We were the only ones in the back car of the tram, and after they had yelled it a few times, the cast member manning the rear of the tram said, “Bye-bye,” in a funny voice over the speakers.

My husband said to the kids, “Listen, Disneyland is saying bye-bye back!”

As I said, as only kids can do, they yelled “Bye Disneyland,” about 50 times on the way to the parking lot, and the amazing cast member kept up with the game and said “bye bye” every time. I’m sure the rest of the tram was a little tired of the noise, but to a 5- and 3-year-old, it was hilarious. It wrapped up the day in perfect Disney magic watching my kids’ smiles. Thanks!

If you say good-bye to Disneyland, it might say goodbye back. MousePlanet
file photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.

Tod’s Story

The Lovely Mrs. Tod and I were in line at the Gibson Girl [Ice Cream Parlor] for the first eggnog ice cream of the season. (She had been looking for that placard to go up for two weeks.) The line was lengthy, stretching through all three switchbacks and extending to the Blue Ribbon Bakery. We were chatting with the people in front of us when a cast member announced that they had the same flavors at the Main Street Cone Shop across the street, and they had no line over there.

A few—not many—people broke the line, and we led a couple of parties
over there ourselves. (When they asked, “Where is that?” we
replied “Follow us.”) There was a line at the Cone Shop, but
it was much shorter, and we got to the front of the line in a few minutes,
where we found out that they did not have eggnog or peppermint ice cream.

Disappointed, we went back to the Gibson Girl, where we saw the people who
were in front of us at the front of the line. I walked over to one of
the cashiers and asked, “Is there a lead around?” [Note: Use
of Disneyland jargon. “Lead”—rhymes with “freed”—is
a supervisor-type.]

She snapped to at once.

“I can get him,” she said, and went to the back room. She came back
a minute or so later with a tall 20ish man in civilian clothes and a nametag.

“Are you the lead?” I asked.

“I’m Chris,” he said, redundantly, what that it said so on
his nametag. “I’m one of the managers here on Main Street. How can
I help you?”

I described what happened.

“”We do have a problem: We didn’t get delivered on the eggnog ice cream,
so I can see why they told you they didn’t have it. But he shouldn’t have
done that. What did he look like?” Chris asked.

I described the cast member.

“Okay, I’ll talk to him.” Big smile.

“What were you going to order?” The lovely Mrs. Tod said that seeing
as they didn’t have eggnog, she wanted peppermint in a cone.

He turned to me. “And you, sir?”

I really hadn’t intended to order. Quick, think of something. “Fantasia,
in a cup.”

“Single or double scoop?”

“Make it a double.”

“Just a moment.”

He headed back to the counter and talked to one of the scoopers. A minute or so later, he was back with a peppermint cone and a cup of Fantasia. I reached for my wallet.

“What do I owe you?”

Another big smile. “You don’t owe me anything. Come back and see us again
sometime.”

I was impressed. And I said so on a compliment form at City Hall. I had a problem, it was fixed at once and I felt good about it. Guest Relations don’t get much better than that.

Jeff’s Story

I wanted to relate a little magic that a cast member made for us on our
last trip to Disneyland, in January 2004.

My son, who is 3, was walking past the Sword in the Stone with me, and Merlin appeared to perform the Sword in the Stone ceremony. My son stopped me, and we watched as a girl about 8 years old pulled the sword from the stone. My son said, “Daddy, I can do that!” After the show, we went up and of course couldn’t pull the sword out. A short while later, Merlin came out again, and my son stopped me AGAIN to watch the show, declaring, “Daddy, I can do that!” I promised him that, after the show, we would go to Merlin and ask if he would let my son pull the sword out.

I fully expected that Merlin would tell us words to the effect that my son would need to prove himself worthy, etc. etc. (basically, “can’t do it, kid”). Instead, Merlin caught my eye and said, “Come back for the 12:45 show and we’ll see if you’re worthy.”

I can’t tell who was more excited as we raced back to the show—my son or me. We arrived, and Merlin had already started! But just as Merlin was casting about for a child to pull out the sword, he caught my eye, and my son was chosen. He pulled the sword from the stone, just like he said he would! Merlin made magic for both of us, just by my son’s asking. It truly made the trip special for the whole family, and we stopped by Guest Relations to ensure Merlin got the praise he deserves.

Howard’s Story

Thanks so much for these wonderful stories. Here’s one that happened
to me. I had the privilege of being at Disneyland on the day of their
40th anniversary (July 17, 1995) and it was an experience I will never,
ever forget.

The day started with the entire cast assembled on Main Street for a cast photo to be placed into the time capsule, which was buried later that day in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. There were throngs of collectors, news helicopters, free cake all day, cardboard 40th anniversary hats (still have mine) and Randy Travis singing from the top of the Matterhorn around 11 a.m. with fireworks (the only time I have ever seen pastel fireworks, mid-day to boot).

But, what stands out in my mind in regard to a cast member making magic happen
was going into the Country Bear Jamboree. There, during the program, we
found that the skunk that did the tap dance on the bear’s head, was wearing
one of the cardboard 40th anniversary hats! It had been cleverly placed
there by some unknown cast member who felt that the show, on that particular
day, needed just that little additional touch of “Disney Magic.”

Tony’s Story

I was reading your guest experiences column this morning (as I do regularly), so I thought I would submit some magic moments from our most recent trip to the Disneyland (DL) Resort.

First off, I am a Southern California native currently living in New Jersey, so it’s tough for the family to get to Disneyland with any regularity these days. However, in 2003, my wife and our two daughters (Carson, age 7, and Sophie, age 4 months at the time) made the trip out to visit during Easter weekend.

On one occasion, we were having dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen in the Disneyland
Hotel where they have all the characters in the dining area. Understand
that Carson is a huge Disney fan and a huge 101 Dalmatians fan
(she aspires to be a dog at some point in her life). Well of course, this
being our first trip to DL as a family (Carson is my stepdaughter), Carson
was absolutely beside herself watching all the real-life characters in
the restaurant. As we were eating, though, who manages to visit our table
but Cruella herself! Carson was speechless, and Cruella—with a bit
of disdain—looked down into Sophie’s stroller and said, “Your
puppy has no spots!”

Of course, this cracked us all up. We checked later, and indeed Sophie was spotless.

While in DL park itself, Carson was wearing a T-shirt that had just about every Disney character in existence on it somewhere, and featured prominently on the front was Tinkerbell. Later in Fantasyland, Carson was somewhat impatiently waiting in lines to fill her book with character autographs. When she got to Captain Hook, he saw Tinkerbell on her shirt and playfully refused to give her an autograph. After making her “suffer” for a few moments, he asked her to turn around and then he took the pen and autograph book and used her head as a writing desk to give his signature. Carson’s response later was, “He really doesn’t like Tinkerbell, does he?” Of course, she talks about that to this day. Anyway, these stories aren’t as wonderful as some of the others I’ve read, but they are special moments coated with pixie dust that made those few moments we all remember when we think about the trip. Thank you.

Luke’s Story

First off, I stumbled across this site four years ago while researching Disney lore for a project. Since then I come to your site all the time for all the Disney info. It is here I learned about Club 33 and the “Hidden Mickey.” In fact I have been privileged to find a girlfriend who is a member, and we make the club a visit every time I come to Los Angeles (I live in Las Vegas).

In January of 2001, an old girlfriend from Idaho came to celebrate the New Year. I really wanted to see the snow falling at Disneyland and talked her into making a 24-hour road trip. We left Vegas and arrived at DL around 9.

Toward the end of our day, my friend wanted to ride Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. There was a little boy in front of us (maybe 5 years old). It was his birthday and a cast member named Kevin got everyone to sing “Happy Birthday.” It was great and we all had a good laugh until my friend told the cast member that it was my birthday.

While it was most certainly not my birthday, the same cast member got every
one to sing happy birthday to WeZeL, which is my nickname. I was so happy
and excited to have a very unbirthday. Later on that evening we found
ourselves on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Again we saw Kevin who again had every
one sing happy birthday to me, followed by taking me to the front of the
line so I could ride in the weasel car. He then wished me “Happy
Birthday” and took my picture. Lastly, I ended my night by doing
a tradition of riding Peter Pan. Again I saw Kevin and again he had everyone
sing to me. I caught up with him after the end of my ride and offered
him 20 bucks to say “thanks.”He declined the tip and was pleased
to make my unbirthday a magical one.

Kevin truly was what Walt wanted in magic. He didn’t have to spend a thing to make me feel special.