House of Mouse (Part Two)

I must apologize to everyone for my lack of blogging lately. Some things have come up recently that have needed my full attention but now I am back! :-) As you recall in my previous post, House of Mouse (Part One) Trevor and I had both received parts in the Christmas Fantasy Parade. We were ecstatic! We soon discovered though that we received full time parts. We both had to re-arrange our school schedules to fit in the rehearsals and our working hours.

Our first day was surreal to say the least. Who would have thought that we would not only have working jobs as dancers, but at the Magical Kingdom? We walked in and were promptly given our name badges and a tour of the backstage areas. Very hush hush. You see, Disney likes to preserve the "Magic" so at all times you are called Cast Members and are never to be out of character when guests are in your presence. We learned all the rules and a couple of the secrets! Like there are actually 5 people who play Mickey in Fantasmic.We then received our rehearsal schedules and were on our way. Rehearsals are done differently. You arrive at the park around 8PM and learn your routines in the backstage areas. Every so often a person will be pulled out to be fitted for their costume. After a couple of days of indoor rehearsal we had to go out and actually learn to travel the routine. At the time I suffered from really bad asthma and to perform the same, insanely crazy and hyper, routine over and over was very difficult. I would die by the end of our rehearsal. Then it came for us to rehearse in our costumes! 3" thick foam costume with a 24" diameter head with a mesh covered opening for air! AHHHH! Needless to say, my lungs got strong quickly and I lost a few pounds over the course of the season. Soon it was time to rehearse in the park. We waited until the park closed and the cleaning crew did their thing then we went out costumes and all and performed to a dark, empty park. It was very creepy!

Cast of "A Christmas Fantasy"

Once Thanksgiving rolled around it was time to open the show. We performed 2 parades daily for all the kiddos and their parents. It was the most wonderful experience. The cool thing is that there was a cast member family night where we soft opened the parade and they filmed the whole thing. My mom and Aunt came down to see and enjoy the parade and the completely empty park. The next year when California Adventure opened the introduced a new ride called Soarin' Over California. At the end of the ride our parade from that night is featured! I am forever emblazoned in a ride! Well at least until they change it! It was the most awesome experience and I will have these memories forever!


Please enjoy the video of our parade, you can't tell who is who; but it is me and Trev!