I think you can volunteer for crowd control, but I'm not 100% sure and I know you can't get paid for it since you can't work outside of your pavilion.
I was on stage for the christmas tree lightning in Epcot and had to do crowd control twice I loved "tree lightning" soooooooooooo much. Crowd control was a pain in the a**. Guests are sooo rude and they just ignore you. Did anyone else do crowd control? When I got the assignment the second time I walked up to my manager and said "I only do it, if u join me to see how rude guest are".. She did and was shocked A friend of mine also had the chance to do the christmas parade at MK... U can also be part of the choir - candlelight procession if you are good enough and able to go to the rehearsal ( ???). Good luck!
well, since there's no parade at epcot anymore, that's kinda difficult! but then again, i was happy when i did not have to do crowd control! people would just not listen to you, cross the street when they weren't supposed to (which could be quite dangerous for both them and the puppeteers), so eventually the guest and the managers were pissed off at you...only good thing was that you could watch the parade first row! only thing i liked was doing rope: you were walking at the end of the parade holding a rope to make sure noone would run into the parade...and you got to make kids really happy by inviting them to join and help you...and the walk back from the mexican pavillion to germany could take be a verrrryyyy long one! ;-)
I did the Tree lighting too Dani! How awsome was that! Riding on the Disney bus with all the characters, waving at everyone. ;D I was holding hands with Chip (or was it Dale ??? ;D). UK merchies used to have to do crowd control every night for the start of illuminations (the initial cannon which begins the show launches from the UK pavilion and the promanade had be closed off completely while it fired). They don't do it any longer however, since an incident involving a similar cannon on a barge in the lagoon exploded during the day and they have no idea what happened ). It was mental doing "cannon" as we called it. Great fun but plenty of abuse from guests too. : ;D I bet most merchies have great cannon stories to tell (infact I believe there is a thread here somewhere about it). I also did crowd control on the prom between Canada and towers on NYE. Talk about mental! There were only three of us merchies working that area and around 9 million guests! Okay, I'm exagerating, but it sure felt like that. ;D Alas, there are indeed no parades in Epcot...... at the moment. Thre are whispers that there may be a new parade in the works for Epcot's 25th birthday next year. I guess we shall see. ;D Ona x
I loved doing stairs (the Canadian equivalent of Canon)! Even if I'd had an awful day with moronic guests and was soaking wet a freezing the fireworks would always put me in a good mood. Every time I saw them I'd have one of those "pinch me" moments where you can't believe you're getting PAID to do something. I still get all sappy when I hear the Illuminations music! Hehehe I'm such a nerd! ~*~Linda~*~
Hmm.... well I'm not sure now. :-\ In January, at least, Cannon was not in operation. I know management were looking for any excuse to get rid of the set up of cannon. It is def. not a guest pleaser (in terms of irritating folks by sending around through the back of the UK) and causes more than a few problems. : Also, from a labor managment perspective, it's more than a little inefficient. In essence, 4 or 5 CMs must be scheduled for several extra hours longer than they would be needed purely so that there are enough bodies for the 15 mins of cannon. Not doing cannon would mean fewer headaches for alot of folks. :-\ But if I was back in the UK pavilion, I would sure miss cannon. :'( ;D Is it still there? I don't know. I do appear to be waffling rather a lot today however. : ;D Ona x
I got to do "Stairs" in Canada too! Some days were great, others were not so great. I'm just as big a nerd as you Linda!! I loved going "behind the scenes" where guests could see, and putting the speakers up!! The look of wonder from them was priceless!! We also got to be on the bus for the lighting of the Christmas Tree at EPCOT!! I found that the taller you were, you got to be with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto....etc... And the shorter you were, you were placed with Donald, Chip, Dale, etc.... I was on the bus four times, and was always placed with Mickey or Minnie. What a blast dancing up there with them!! A few of us in the Canadian Pavilion also got to do crowd control over at the American Adventure for the singing group "American Vybe" when they still performed there. I think they moved now. We would go about three times a week, from 3:30p.m. until 8:00p.m. to do their crowd control, and then have to stay to do crowd control there for the fireworks making sure people weren't going into the "stadium" to watch. It was okay the first few times, but it got rather repetitive, and people started asking us why we were wearing Canadian Costumes working the American Pavilion. "Because I'm a proud Canadian helping out my neighbours!" I guess they couldn't get any Americans to help out in their own pavilion. We also got to help out for the "Food and Wine" festival where there were "big names" performing. So I know there are lots of opportunities for Canadians to help out, but you would have to check with your managers in your pavilion. Because I honestly never saw anyone else from other pavilions doing this thing. The occasional U.K. person, but usually just us Canadians.
Hey, Cannon is no longer!!! The first firework of illuminations that used to be launched from behind the UK pavillion is now launched from just in front of the rose and crown on the lagoon!! Gives the guests sat on lower deck a bit of a scare!! Michelle xx
I got to do the x-mas three lighting. We rode out on the characters on holiday, went on stage with the carachters, i stod next to chip and dale ;D ;D Then they had a show on stage infront of a huge crowd. It went from the store at the start at Worldshowcase and down to the water fountain. DAMN. But was good fun ;D
Yeah unfortunately you can't actually be in the parades (although the other week I was dancing to spectro and a manager from another area said I should be in it LOL) but PAC is an adventure in itself (well at least in Liberty Square it is!)
You can always get in on the parades the same way the guests do. A few of us were in the Animal Kingdom parade on Gay Days which was highly entertaining!
