Happy Tears
- jessilittlej
- Jan 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 19
Today I cried happy tears.
My day started with a taste of what my Disney Legacy class is going to be like. All the Destiny cast members met in the Aladdin/Black Panther Studio to get trained in being a "Character Greeter". Everyone is assigned this in some capacity. Character Greeters are those that stand or walk with the masked characters.
The class hit on many things but here is what I want to share:
(OH! Before I do, if you post anything publicly about me doing this contract, don't post anything like, "Jessi is playing Zayah", and don't call Zayah a character. Disney policy. You can say "Jessi is hanging out with Zayah, or spending time with Zayah." But probably easiest just saying that Jessi is performing on the Disney Cruise, running around doing comedy shows and story telling. Even if ppl ask in the comments if I am playing a specific character, it can't be out there in plain language publicly. Si? Thank you.)
We were asked the question, "When people think of Disney, what is their first thought?"
Maybe money, excellence, magic, story telling, and theme parks, but there is probably an even simpler answer that pops in everyone's brain and that is Mickey Mouse.
The Disney legacy really is the characters.
The room was full of the main stage actors for Frozen and Hercules, character performers (Maleficent, Loki, Moana, etc) , and some of the masked characters. Hint: some.
We watched this video below, which I had seen before and just LOVE. It celebrates 100 years of Disney Animation (the two humans in the beginning are the youngest and oldest animators currently on the lot). It's so good! Watch!
Post video we went into the details of what we actually do at Disney: We make happiness.
This was followed by stories from past cast members of life changing guest interactions and a Disney Make-A-Wish video, which naturally, got a lot of us emotionally. Then they really drove home the fact that so many guests we will be interacting with have been saving for years to take this trip. Meeting Stich could be on their life bucket list. And here we are getting to help facilitate it all as greeters.
That portion of the speech ended, and music began to play over the speakers. Whatever the song was, it was magical.
The music swelled, the doors opened, and who should dance through the door?
Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip and Dale! My heart soared! The specificity of each characters mannerisms was a true testament to Disney excellence. We were all on our feet. They performed a choreographed number then danced around with all of us and gave hugs. I was in tears as we cheered on our new friends underneath the masks, but mostly cheering for the real Mickey Mouse & his pals, because in that moment, that's how it felt. Real and innocently joyful.
It was pretty cool.
That was today, Thursday. Yesterday, Wednesday is below.
When a cast completes a show they do an Open Invite Run. Anybody from Disney is allowed to attend. Zayah and Gamble's longest and most prop heavy show is the Marvel, sketch comedy show and we were ready for our run.
We had a bunch of Destiny and Treasure cast members come and support as well as folks from the office. The run went well! It was so fun to have that energy in the room.
Post lunch we blocked two of our smallers shows, plus getting through a half of a medium show. Go, go, go.
Caulumn and I celebrated our run thru with dinner at Planta - a delicious vegan sushi restaurant in downtown Toronto.
Disney Song Inspiration Post #4: "Start A Wave" from California Adventure's nighttime show "World of Color" - by Cody Fry.
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