Good-bye.

  I was able to make it home to say good-bye to my Mom.  Cancer is a horrible beast, it had her in pain and the mom I knew left to battle, her body worn and bruised from the war waging within her.  A war I knew she could not win.  But in these final hours my sister, and my cousin and myself were able to comfort her and care for her.  Talking to her, not knowing if she could hear us, but praying that the last stage of her journey would finally give her peace and take the pain away. 

It was not until 3 a.m. saturday morning that she finally began to rest easy, but unfortunately other things began to happen as well.  Things that none of us were prepared for, but we handled them as best we could.  All of us so worried about hurting her even further, it was the proverbial rock and a hard place.  But God gives us strength when we need it if we ask, and trust in Him.

Mom was being read her bible scriptures by my cousin.  And she told my mom that her daily devotions were done now, and my mom took her last breath. She passed away at 10:30 am, June 27.  Through our tears we held her hand and knew that her journey was finally over, and her new journey ahead of her.  It was a relief to know that now she would no longer suffer, and there was no more worries for her.  And I am very thankful that I was able to say good-bye.

Getting ready to say Good-bye.

 It seems that as I age the things I feared are coming to pass.  Saying goodbye to loved ones as they age.  I lost my Dad several years ago, and now it is just a matter of time before my Mom leaves me.  She was told that it could be a matter of a few weeks.

Unfortunately my life is on end here, and can not get to her right away.  My greatest fear is I will not be in time to say good bye.  And that is painful since I was not able to say goodbye to my Dad.  He just passed in the night.

I will be driving home to Ohio in a few short weeks,  so afraid of what I will see.  Not knowing how I will face seeing my once strong mother in her last days.  I wonder how much my heart can take.   It is a huge comfort knowing how much faith she has, I know she is ready to go.  Its just hard to say goodbye.

Andy’s Room!

 Just thought I would post a story that happened today at Toy Story Midway Mania.  A family was exiting the ride, all of them talking about their scores, and I overheard them talk about their identical twin sons.  They had decided to split the boys up into two different cars, and it ends up that both of the boys got the very same score!  I asked them if what I had overheard was true and they said it was.  Just love stories like that!

Happy Anniversary Toy Story Midway Mania!

  May 31st we will be celebrating a year in Andy’s Room.  Just a few short months after opening we had our millionth guest.  I really can’t imagine how many have been on it since. 

  I have been fortunate to go to the rope drop ceremony the last couple mornings.  Facing down a few thousand people as they prepare to come into the park for the day.   And my favorite thing to do is shout out , “How many are going to Toy Story Midway Mania first thing?”  and just about everyone raises their hands.  And I always laugh and joke with them about the fact so many toys are coming to visit!

 The ride is still as popular if not more so then it was when we first opened.  We still have kids crying when they have to leave the vehicle, and we still have guest lined up for hours.  But even better we still have guests getting off of the vehicle and they still have smiles on their faces!

 Of course there are those guests that are so frustrated with the wait in the long line, or the fact they missed out on fastpasses.  But they are outnumbered by the guests that are having a great time.

  I am not sure how long I will stay there.  But until I can make a decision I will remain forever a toy in Andy’s room.

From Hurt to Hugs.

 Yesterday was tough on me at work.  I had a guest go to a manager and complain about me.  This has not happened to me in my Disney Career.  Or at least this was the first I heard of it. 

 A mom with her baby got to the merge point of our attraction and asked for a rider switch.  This means she was going to hold the baby while the rest of her family rode the ride, and then she would go on.  First the mistake was if she wanted this she should have asked at the very front of the attraction.  Because for me to give her the rider switch it would mean making her leave the attraction with the baby, and go back through the line she just had waited in.

 When she asked for the rider switch, I just told her that she did not really need one that everyone could ride, including babies.  The baby would be safe on her lap and then told her how they should do the seating, her and her baby and husband, and their two boys (about 10 and 11) right behind them.  She did not say anything else to me but went up the stairs and rode the ride.

Little did I know that she rode the ride but then searched out a manager to complain about the fact that I refused to give her a rider switch.  GRRRRR! had she really wanted one it would have been no problem and I would have given it and sent her back out the door.  But nooooooo I was the bad cast member making their family miserable by my actions!    It was completely soul wrenching to me that someone left that park thinking of me in a bad light. sigh.

But to make it a bit better the manager did tell me that when the guest had said my name he knew right away that I had not done anything inappropriate.  But still he had to talk to me about the issue.  Its his job.

Today was a day that made up for the day before.  I had found a family outside of the attraction with a lovely woman in a wheelchair wearing a birthday button.  Ends up she was celebrating her 89th birthday.  Well I could not let that pass, got her and her family some fastpasses.  But also made sure that everyone on Pixar Place knew there was a celebrity  in their presence in this dear lady. 

I was lucky enough to see her get off of the ride and she gave me such a hug.  And that made the day for me. 

As I was driving home it hit home how lucky I am to work someplace where I can get a hug from someone that I have made happy.  I don’t know how many cast members get hugs.  I know there are probably quite a few.  And we are so very lucky, we may not get paid the big bucks, but we get magic!

What will I celebrate?

The new Celebration this year at the Disney Parks is “What will you Celebrate?”  at first it was very hard for us Dream Squad people to get over our mourning the loss of our beloved Years of a Million Dreams.  It was hard to see it go.

 But the other day the new celebration really showed me that indeed it is a great promotion, and as much as what Disney does is always money driven, this new celebration has great personal meaning to our guests.

We give away buttons at our guest relations locations at all our Disney parks, they range from Birthday, to Anniversary, Just married,  First Visit, and a new button that just says ” I am Celebrating” and then with a marker it is written in what they are celebrating.  I have seen many things, from “celebrating Spring Break”  “Celebrating Girls Night Out”, but the other day there was nothing marked on this guests button.  I asked her “What are we celebrating?” and she said, “I am in remission”,  I stopped and gave her a huge hug and said ” I will celebrate that with you every single day from now on!”. 

And then it was if the entire promotion came to focus in my eyes.  That there are so many things in the lives of our guests that are indeed celebrations.  And they come to the Disney Parks to make it that much more special.  And I am very lucky to be a part of that.

Not the Greatest of days.

  Most of you know how much I love my work, and generally never have a bad day.  But today was a challenge to keep my spirits up.   It really was not going to bad until I had to deal with a party of 13 at the grouper point.   I asked how many in their party got the number 13, and then apologized to them and told them that because of the size they would be split up.  And I needed them to break up into twos and go on the ride.   Well like chickens with their heads cut off suddenly nobody knew who they wanted to ride with.  LOL.  The adults were trying to pair up kids and the kids were refusing to ride with whoever it was they were being paired with.  And it was a huge mess.  Meanwhile I know that with my limited time if I did not get this settled an entire vehicle was going to leave empty!  I just told them I really don’t care who rides with who I just need two at a time and started pairing them off as fast as I could and told them which direction to go in.  I got them settled as much as I could.  And then moved on to the next party.  I look and the so called leader of the 13 is looking at me and shaking his head, I excuse myself from my line and go to him “sir, is their a problem?” and he says how awful I was  that I had said “I don’t care and that I was not very Disney”,  I just shook my head and walked away.    I was not going to argue with him.

I love my job, sometimes it is so impossibly hard to bite my tongue.  But yet I do.  There is no way that I can begin to tell a guest how important it is to me for them to leave happy.  So knowing that this family thinks I was some kind of horrible person eats at me.  It is hard for me to let that go.  I guess it is why I am here blogging it out.  A way to vent a bit.  I just have to realize no matter what I will never be able to make them all happy, all the time!  I can only do the very best I can.   sigh

Partners.

  The other day at work I was called into the manager’s office.  I could not imagine what it was for, or what I had done!  ends up it was all good news.  I have been nominated for the Disney Partners in Excellence Award.   This is one of the highest awards that a Disney Cast member can receive.

  This will be my third time being nominated, but it will be the first time that I eligible to win.  I had to be with the company at least 3 years.   Just to be nominated is such an amazing thing for me.  I can’t even allow myself to dream of winning it, because if I did I really think I would faint.  It means more to me than I can possibly find words to say.  Almost more than a heart can dream for.

  If I do win I would find out by the end of April.  I will keep you informed,  just know that even if I don’t win.  All of you inspire me to always be at my best.  When the naysayers say that there is no such thing as magic, I know that to be a lie.  Magic exists every day in the place that Walt built.

Still making magic.

 The years of a Million Dreams are now past, and now we are into the “What will you Celebrate?” campaign.  I miss seeing the Dream Squad out in the parks.  It seems to be like a bit of the magic is gone for sure.  There was something about knowing there were cast members out there that would randomly encounter guests and make amazing dreams come true.  Now that it is gone, it really is missed.

  The few hundred of us have now all returned back to our former roles or some have gone on to Guest Relations or any number of roles in the parks.  One dreamer went on to be the Disney Embassador for the Walt Disney Resorts.  I am not surprised at all. 

  As many of you know I love my job at Toy Story Midway Mania.  As tired as I get I never tire of the gift it is to all of our guests.  I never get tired of seeing the smiles, or hearing the excited conversations as the guests leave the vehicles.  How could I ever get tired of hearing “This ride is Awesome!!!”  ?

  Today was a particularly wonderful day.  I was in the role of grouper, the one that asks how many in your party and then sends the guests to the rows to be loaded into the vehicle.  There was a delay in sending the cars out and I had a few extra minutes to spend with a little girl.  Who was telling me how old she was.  We had a wonderful conversation, and then she went on her way to have fun out on the Midway.  I was rotated to another position, unload assist.  And who should come walking up to me but the little girl.  Her arms open wide.  She wanted to give me a hug.  My day was made right then.  And to top it off she came back later and wanted yet another hug!  LOL, this time I asked mom if I could pick her up and then gave her yet another huge hug.  What a special thing for me, as those hugs are why I love my job.

 Later on in the evening I was at our merge point. Where the Standby and fastpass finally come together.  There was a family of 7 with a young girl about 7 yrs old or so.  And she was being very helpful making sure all her family had their fastpasses.  Her mom said that she would make a good cast member.  LOL, well that statement was all it took to get my “magic gears” rolling.  I asked the family if they were in a big hurry to move to the ride they said no, I then told my standby line I would be right back with a special “cast member” to assist them.  I asked the little girl to come to me and I took off my Toy Story jacket and put it on her.  I announced to everyone we had a new cast member here.  And the family was snapping pictures of their little girl who was grinning ear to ear in my oversized jacket.  She had a name badge with her name already so was easy to replace my name off my jacket.  I then had her let in the next few groups and they all were so wonderful to this little girl.  And it was a magical moment that I hope will stay with her forever. Because I know it will always stay with me!

Ladyvader’s Blog Now Mobile!

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You don’t have to do anything special to get to the site, either. Just go to http://www.ladyvadersblog.com and everything will be done for you! If you have difficulties accessing the site on your cell phone, let me know.

My Heart Skips a Beat!

  What a scary moment I had the other day during my On With the  Show class.  Just sitting there at the desk and my heart began to race.  I knew it was something abnormal but hoped it would settle down.  Eventually I allowed for my friend to call 911.  It all seems like a dream.

  They hooked me up to monitors, and began running tests.  And all I could think of was “Am I having a heart attack?”  fortunately it was not.   It was just my heart reacting to too much caffeine over the past few weeks.  Ends up cold medicine has lots of caffeine in it.  And I have a addiction to diet Mountain Dew.  LOL.  And I guess all of this stressed my heart out a bit.

  It all seems so surreal.  But as I was laying there I did think of all my dear friends and my family.  And how important all of you are to me.  I will be going to see a cardiologist in the next week for more tests.  But I promise that I will try to lay off the Dew! and my heart will only skip a beat when I think of how dear all of you are to me.

The Years of Dream Making.

December 31st was the last official day of Disney’s Year of a Million Dreams Celebration, which actually lasted over 2 years.  It was a wonderful celebration with so many wonderful experiences for both all of us on the Dream Squads and our guests that visited both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

It was an honor for me to be selected in the second wave of cast members.  It was still pretty new to all of us.  And together we came up with wonderful ideas to make lasting memories.

Today I am going to a special gathering of all of us who were fortunate to be a part of such an amazing thing.   I look forward to seeing familiar faces, and giving hugs to good friends.  I am sure there will be a tear or two.  Because over the past two years there were stories that were so heart warming.  We were the fortunate cast members who got to spend  more quality time with guests with special needs so our stories are limitless. 

I have been lucky to have this site to post my memories.  I do remember it was the first thing that our manager told us, you will want to keep a journal.  And I did through my old site and now this one.   Even though Disney will now be moving on to “What will you Celebrate?”  I will always think of Disney as being a world of Dreams that come true.  It was born from the brains of marketing,  but ended up being the heart of Disney.

Happy Holidays!

  Happy Holidays all of my dear friends that still come and visit this site.  Not sure how many of you still come and visit, but know that all of you are very important to me.  And thank you for all the smiles this year, and thanks for the shoulder to lean on when I needed one. 

  It has been quite a year,  a new job, and a new daughter.  Lots of changes,  I wonder what next year is going to hold for me.  But know that whatever it is you all will be right there with me.

Welcome to Hollywood.

  Some of you know that I am one of the lucky few that get to welcome new cast members to Disney’s Hollywood Studios by giving them a tour of the park and talking to them about being a cast member.  This is something that I enjoy doing so very much.

 Not always are there just new cast members who have never worked for the company, but often or not it will be cast that has transferred from other parks or other roles with the company.  Many of them have been with the company for years and years.  Always makes it a challenge for me to make the class interesting for them.

I have had so much fun my past few classes as we are welcoming many new people to our park from entertainment to open up our newest attraction  American Idol – The Experience.  

I always hope that I can bring back some of the excitement to cast members who may feel a bit burnt out.  And when I see them smiling and adding into the class with their stories of great guest interaction I think it works.    I left them with the thought that where else can you work for a company that when someone says you are so Disney, everyone knows just what kind of person that is! 

I told them in this world it said that there is really no magic, but I told them that here at Walt Disney World there is magic everywhere.  That little princesses and pirates walk our streets everyday.  Magic is what we do the best.

“We Just had Disney Magic”

 Yesterday started off so hectic at TSMM, big wigs coming to check us out, a couple celebrities riding for the first time.  Each day is always an adventure.  My favorite part yesterday happened out at strollers when a mom came up to me and asked me if the line would ever be less on the ride, I told her sad to say but no.  Maybe briefly before we close tonight.  She then told me that her and her family had just rode the ride but her one son in his excitement to play the game forgot to put on his 3D glasses. 

  Well all of you who know me, know what I thought of that!  I told her go get her family for me please and bring them to me, that Mr. Potatohead would never talk to me again if I did not see that this matter was put right!  I was able to get other cast members to cover my position and walked the family through the fast pass line.  Telling the boy that I had done much the same thing with my 3D glasses, I had them on top of my head until half way through the first game!

  I introduced the family to all of the cast members, and made sure that the boy had his glasses and then told them to go enjoy themselves!  the look on their faces and the thank yous that I got from the family was enough to make me feel happy the rest of the day.  About 3 hours later a cast member comes up to me and says I am needed outside a guest wants a picture with me.  Well, I am not used to that for sure, I mean that is usually a request for Mickey not me!  And sure enough it was the family I had helped.

The mom told me that her son had cried when he realized that he had really missed seeing the game.  And she started to tear up, and told me that what I had done for her and her family had meant the world to her.  She had told her family that what they had happen was Disney Magic. This nearly had me in tears when she told me that.  I told her that what I did was my pleasure and what makes my job so wonderful.  Of course I had to give her a hug!  She wanted a picture of me with her kids, so somewhere there will be a picture of me with three small children and a huge smile on my face.  Because I was a recipient of the Disney Magic as well.  The opportunity to make a difference and bring smiles to people’s faces. 

And best part of all was getting the hugs from the kids, and looking into the faces of their mom and dad and knowing that what I had done had wiped away any sadness or worry they had for that day.  Sometimes life is very good.

Congratulations its a Girl!

  When I first considered having children.  I always wanted a girl.  But as life and fate would have it I ended up with two boys.  Two wonderful boys.  They filled my life up with so much.  No doubt about it they are  my crowning achievement in this lifetime.

  My oldest was married yesterday.  Oh wow, when I saw him in his Tuxedo.  Of course they were tails!  I could never imagine him in anything else.  I raised that boy to do everything with class and style, and of course his wedding would be nothing less. 

  And my youngest taking one for the team, and getting himself into a Tuxedo.  Looking so very, very handsome.  When did he grow up as well?  It seems that just yesterday the two of them were little boys.  It really was just a blink of my eye.

  And now the Princess will forever be my daughter.  I am so thankful to George Lucas!  Because my son and his love met at Star Tours.  Working side by side with light sabers in tow.  I guess a real time Leia and Han.  Not many that can say that they really did meet in a Galaxy, far, far away.

  The look on my son’s face as he saw his Princess for the first time in her wedding gown.  The knowing that this was his true love coming towards him.  And the pride in his eyes that in a few moments they would say the vows that would hold them together forever, it was amazing to see.  It really was wonderful to see the first moment of two people beginning their lives together.

  It is my honor to welcome a beautiful princess into our family.  And I really could not be any happier.

To my Son.

  Wow, your wedding is just days away.  Come Saturday you will begin your life with your Princess.  I knew when I sat down to finally write this, the tears would start.  Hahaha, I may be wrong about alot of things but not that, here they come.  Grabs a tissue.  Grabs the whole box.

  I am so excited for you.  I know how much you love her.  I know how much you have loved her from the very start.  When you told me “Mom, I will wait for her, no matter how long it takes”, I knew.  And I was so happy that you had found someone that stole your heart.  I mean I always knew I would have to give it to someone one of these days and I am so glad its to her.  Because I love her too.

  You found someone that matches you so perfectly, someone that shares your dreams, and now will share your life.  Its really a beautiful thing.  This is where the anime cherry blossoms start falling from the sky.  LOL.   I am so very proud of you.  And I love you so very, very much. 

  I remember a little boy saying he wanted to marry me.  Yep, you asked me first.  I told you that I get to keep you with me for a long time but someday you will meet a girl and fall in love and off you will go.  And now that moment comes rushing back, and here we are just days away.  When I see you all dressed up to the nines in your tails.  You will take my breath away, but I know when you see your Princess coming towards you, your breath will be stolen at that moment.  She will be all you will see, and your heart will just be so full of love for her, and this moment of yours will be what makes life worth living. 

 Lives are full of wonderful moments, and on Saturday, all of the memories of your childhood, will come flooding back to me.  Each wonderful, precious moment will be here in your mom’s heart.  And I know that really I am not losing a son, but gaining a princess.  She fills my life as if I have known her all my life.  Thankyou for bringing her into our family.  And my dearest son, I wish you all the happiness and joy that a life can possibly hold.  I love you so very much.

Mom

Exhausted.

  I still love my job.  ToyStory Midway Mania is probably the best thing that Disney has ever done for family enjoyment.  I don’t think I will ever get tired of seeing the smiles on our guest’s faces after they have experienced the ride for the first time.   No doubt its a crowd pleaser.  Still our lines are huge, it doesn’t matter what time of the day.  

  Yep, I love my job.  Even though I sit here exhausted from work.  Not many people get a job that you get to smile all day long.  Of course sometimes I feel like I can’t possibly smile anymore.  Or say another word.  If I had a nickel for every time I said,  “sorry we are out of fastpasses for the day” or “please push down the lapbar and then just let it go” hahahahahaha, I would be a rich person! 

 I remember that when I first started this job I could not wait for me to finally just be comfortable with running an attraction.   And I guess I am finally settling into that.  I know what I am doing.  Of course I worry about our guests and I guess I always will.  But I guess that will always keep me on my toes. 

 And how I love the people I work with.  They make me smile.  We have become a team, and we lean on each other when things get rough.  I will be sad as they move on to go to other locations.  There are not many of the original team left.  This has been such an experience.  It will be interesting to see if I ever move on from being a toy, I am thinking that it would not be such a bad life to be a permanent Toy in Andy’s toybox.

My Sweet Friends

A Simple Truth