Terrifyingly Awesome Places to have a Disney event

If you have ever wished to have a wedding reception next to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz or in the courtyard of a haunted hotel from the year 1949, then turns out you are in luck! Walt Disney World has the awesome opportunity for anyone to have a reception of any kind hosted on Disney Property in places like the Great Movie Ride or the Hollowed Tower of Terror.

For a paltry $2,000 and a food and beverage minimum of $850, you can rent out the Tower of Terror Courtyard at Disney's Hollywood Studios after park hours. For an extra $6,500 you can rent out the ride itself, plummeting into the Twilight Zone as many times as your full stomach can handle. 

Although this space only accommodates about 35-40 guests, it would be well worth it for anyone wishing to enter the Twilight Zone after hours. 

The Great Movie Ride is also a glamorous place to have a Disney reception. Starting at $8,500 this venue offers the choice between the Western scene, Gangster scene, and Wizard of Oz scene as locales for the event. Because the tables and events will be set up along the ride path it is not possible to buy out the ride during the time of the event, but why would you want to slowly glide past Dorothy when you can spend an hour or two basking in her presence? 

As any true Disney fan knows, when boarding the Great Movie Ride you will either be hijacked by a gangster or an outlaw, and depending on preference you can spend some quality time in either of these scenes, hopefully sans gunshots or burning buildings.

Last, but certainly not least, was my home for six months- the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show Theater. While working at the show, I worked multiple special events shifts such as music awards ceremonies or show buyouts for private groups. People could pay to have a private show put on just for them and their pals, or they could use the 5,000 person stadium and have awards on the stage, or even have tables set up where cars and explosions normally fly around throughout the day. 

This transition from tires screeching, men jumping off building, and cars jumping over things to people calmly sitting at tables always felt quite strange, since I was used to seeing this every day and trying to prevent people going down into that area.

This is just a short list of possible places to have Disney events, and there are plenty more places available to host a magical party. 

All pictures courtesy of the Walt Disney World Company.

Is Disney World too Hot to Handle?

     Accidents happen all the time, and Walt Disney World is not an exception. No, there is not a magic bubble to keep you safe whatever you try to do, and when burning fireworks fall on flammable materials, it will light on fir no matter how much pixie dust is in the air.

     This explains why the Seven Dwarves Mine Train ride caught fire on November first, and you can read the CNN article about that here. Apparently wishes was just too hot to handle and caught a building outside the ride on fire. This is most definitely not the first fire to happen at Walt Disney World, or a "signal 25" as all cast members are taught to call them.

     During my college program, I literally put out a fire. No, it most definitely was not as big as the Mine Train fire, but it was big enough to cause a little bit of panic. I was outside Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt show greeting after a show one day when a guest tapped me on the shoulder and said that the bushes were smoking. Not quite understanding what was going on at first, I glanced to where they were pointing and saw a small billowing of smoke coming from a waist high planter with mulch and bushes in it. The smoking section had been recently moved to that area, so I guess someone decided it was a great idea to throw their lit cigarette on mulch. I ran over to see a tiny flame  about two inches high building in the mulch. One of the merchandise girls nearby had heard the commotion and came over to asses the situation. "I have ice! We can put that on there!" she hurriedly said as we both assessed the situation. Thinking fast, I ran over to our supply closet and grabbed a rag and two cups over water. Remember something about oil fires and them building if you put water on them (Don't ask me why this applies to a piece of mulch lit on fire by cigarette ash or why that was the first thing that cam to mind), I threw the rag on the fire and smothered it. The mulch was still smoking just like the onlookers in the nearby smoking section, so I poured the two cups of water on it, and the fire was no more. In reality, probably about five people actually knew what was going on at the time, but it was still a memory that will forever be burned in my memory.

     This was not the only fire at Disney's Hollywood Studios while I was completing my College Program there. In fact, that same week there were two other fires- both were caused by firework fallout, the same as the Mine Train fire. 

      The first fire was when a piece of fallout from the Frozen Summer fun fireworks fell on a Photopass backdrop and lit it ablaze next to the Studio Backlot Tour. One minute we see the Frozen backdrop smoking, and the next it is put out and replaced. I have never seen something like that taken care of so quickly I almost doubted it had happened in the first place. 

     The second fire, two days later, was much larger than the backdrop fire. Once again, a piece of firework fallout did not completely go out, and this time it actually lit the top of One Man's Dream on fire, the Disney Museum in Hollywood Studios, right next to the now closed Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow. This fire grew to the point of having flames atop the building before the fire department was called, and the building was quickly and calmly evacuated. No one was hurt, the building was fine, and everything reopened without most of the guests even knowing what had happened. Once again, a great example of how Disney handles accidents extremely well, and how you are probably the safest you could ever be on Disney property, even though accidents happen. 

     

     One of the scarier accidents that happened during my college program was actually an accident during the show at Lights, Motors, Action, and I happened to be in a position that show where I was right in from of the unfolding action. To fully understand what happened here is an article on thedisneyblog.com, and here is a video of the mishap during the show. 

     As you could probably guess, the back half of the red hero car was not supposed to shear off like it did. I have never heard two thousand people be as silent as they were in the two minutes after the car came to a stop. Normally the car flies over the moat in the midst of an explosion, and thank goodness the explosion did not go off.

    Even though this incident looks scary, the driver walked away from the accident, was checked out at the hospital and was totally fine, and came back to work within a week. The roll cage in the car protected him from possibly having the part of the car he was sitting in being sheared off, and kept him super safe. Accidents happen, but once again Disney had a lot of safety measures in place to make sure the driver was still safe.

     These are some of the experiences I had while on my College Program, but there are many more examples of fires or accidents at Walt Disney World, and yet most of the time everyone is completely fine. For example, there was another Lights Motors Action crash, this time involving a motorcycle, a Kilimanjaro Safaris truck fire, and a minor bus crash. In all, Disney World has accidents just like any other place, but they handle these hot situations with finesse.

Tan Lines, Fireworks, and Trading Pins

    At this point you are probably wondering what makes me qualified to write about the Disney College Program... To say it simply, I lived it for six months! I participated in the Spring Advantage program in 2014, and I worked at Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show and a temporary attraction called Wandering Oaken's Frozen Funland at Disney's Hollywood Studios. My program was a little bit different than other college program experiences, and here are a few reasons why:

1. I worked outside for six months in the Florida heat, getting some pretty rad tan lines. Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt show is a completely outdoor attraction, and working for Disney you have to wear "Disney look" socks, which cover your ankle bone. This leads to some awesome tan lines, including the lines from the longer costume shorts as you can see by the picture below.

2. Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show is closed by 5:30 each day, so I actually got evenings to hang out with friends. Most College Program kids get the late shifts wherever they work, since part time or fulltimers do not want to stay till two in the morning closing an attraction. That being said, I got to hang out a ton with my fellow cast members, and have a blast during my program playing in the parks and hanging out with the coolest people ever.

3. I also got to work some pretty awesome fireworks shifts. If you have never had the opportunity to stand around in a hard hat, safety vest, and safety goggles while holding a light wand and telling people they cannot go that way because of fireworks fallout, you should totally try it. People get pretty angry, especially when the fireworks are not supposed to start for another twenty minutes. The anxiety from these conflicts all melts away when the fireworks start, however. Being so close to the fireworks that you could feel every explosion reverberating in your chest is an amazing experience that will stick with you forever.

4. I worked in Hollywood Studios during the 25th Anniversary of the park being open. Along with being able to work in Hollywood Studios during a really fun time including fireworks, a motorcade of characters, and a ton of freebies. We received keychains, awesome tumblers, and a really cool cast member exclusive trading pin. It was a time that made me extremely proud to work for such an awesome company, especially for the anniversary of 25 years of magic.

5. Lights, Motors Action! Extreme Stunt Show is the most intense show on Disney property, and  dealing with 5,000 people twice a day gets pretty crazy. Working at a show is a pretty easy job- you mostly just stand outside and greet all day, and only do about two hours of actual work during your entire shift. Those two hours can get pretty intense, though, when you are trying to seat 5,000 people in less than thirty minutes. This involves a lot of yelling and trying to get people to slide down, frustrated people at having to climb stairs, and lots of apologies as you try to find any kind of space for people to sit to watch the show. All of this frustration goes away as people watch the show, though, because it truly is a really awesome show. The only comment I really heard afterward was always, "That was such an awesome show!"

Overall, I had a super fun program that was unique, but every person's program is going to be unique because of your work location, your role, your managers, your fellow cast members, and whatever happens to be going on in Walt Disney World at the moment. Each person makes their program their own depending on the super cool stuff they do, so apply and start your own adventure!