Monday 19 July 2010

3 firsts in one afternoon...

Yesterday was a rather entertaining shift. It started with being on Vader which is my favourite rotation so I did Fastpass Distribution, Merge and Sim 2 for a while before getting my first break. After that I was on Yoda for practically the whole day which did suck however, a few things brightened my day.

1) My first: lost child.... Well, I was on Fastpass Return and this boy who was about 12 years old came up to me and started babbling about something. Couldn't really understand him but he seemed quite deterred by the fact he'd lost his parents. I think he may have had some sort of hyperactivity disorder by the way he was speaking but after getting Ally to keep an eye on Fastpass Return, I went for a walk with him into the Backlot Express Restaurant which is next door to Star Tours and eventually we found his parents. I think it was more the fact he didn't want to get MORE lost which is why he asked me to come with him to find his parents but there was no issue and everyone was happy.

2) My first: child who wet himself... a little boy aged about four couldn't hold it any longer and managed to pee all over the loading area for my Sim. So there was a puddle of pee on the floor which we had to get custodial to come and clear up and I directed the guest and his mother to the restrooms... little did I know that she then went to the photocell person and asked them if he could still ride. With pee all over himself. Ewwwww.

3) My first: massively fat person... I went to the wheelchair ramp and there was a lady who was VERY large in an ECV and her 5 other family members waiting there. So after getting over the initial shock of how fat she was, I asked the normal questions of "how many in your party?" and then asking the person in the ECV if they were going to ride (sometimes they don't want to)... to this she said "well, will I fit?" This completely threw me because I had two options. 1) No. and 2) We can try. So... being Disney I went with the second option mainly because it felt too harsh to say "no you're just too fat". So... the woman went round to Unload where Caitlin was and I waited to load the sim. When I went inside, Caitlin informed me that the woman would like to try and sit in the seat so we'd give it a go... the worst part was that the sim was quite full and there were then about 35 other people just sitting there, feeling reeeeally awkward and watching this fat woman trying to get into the seat. I couldn't think of anything to say to the rest of the guests apart from checking their seatbelts which takes all of 10 seconds so it was probably one of the most awkward moments of my life! Fair play to Caitlin though - she dug around in this woman's fat to put the seatbelt on (which did fit!) and the woman got to ride Star Tours.

Later on, Caitlin told me that when the woman got back to Unload after the ride, she was crying because she appreciated our efforts so much. Now, I don't have much sympathy (I don't think most people who work at Disney do) for the massive fatties because they got themselves into that mess. But regardless, this woman paid for her overpriced ticket into the park and as a Disney cast member I think it's important to go 'Above & Beyond' to at least attempt to get her to ride a couple of rides. Obviously, things like Rock n Roller Coaster are out of the question, but Star Tours is very accessible for disabled people (and fat people, clearly.). She said that she was so happy to have been able to ride and that Disney make the effort to accommodate her whereas at "other" theme parks (the Dark Side - aka Universal - for example) they don't even bother to try, they just say no. So, for me, it was a little magical moment that this woman got to have 5 minutes of fun at Disney and the fact she actually appreciated it was really nice. :)

The day ended with another random trip to ihop, this time with Sjonnie and Andy and a nighttime tour of south Orlando to take Sjonnie home!

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