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Blog v002 – Secrets to where to Disneyland Employees Eat – Hidden Mickey Book Fan Club

The Hidden Mickey Book Fan Club BLOG! – v002

The OFFICIAL HIDDEN MICKEY FAN CLUB!

Secrets to where to Disneyland employees eat

By David W. Smith

Hello Hidden Mickey Book Fans!

Like our Hidden Mickey novels, we hope to inspire some adventure in our readers; consider it a ‘quest’ to decipher some ‘inside’ information about Disneyland and things related to Disney.

BUY THEM HERE

While some people might believe that the ‘cast members’ of Disneyland live off the remains of unfinished Mickey Ice Cream bars or Popcorn found in the bottom of discarded popcorn boxes, the truth is, there are two employee cafeterias at Disneyland. The first one is off Main Street near the hub. As you approach the Tomorrowland entrance, there is a First Aid center just past what used to be the old general store at the end of Main Street. Just past this First Aid center is a Cast Member’s entrance which leads to back stage. Just past this entrance is one of the two employee cafeterias.

 
Author Nancy Temple Rodrigue with her Dad and Brother in 1962

The second one is on the west side of the park below New Orleans Square. Actually, it isn’t really below the Square, it is behind part of Pirates of the Caribbean, and down a large tunnel that starts just behind Indiana Jones and the left side of Pirates.

Another entrance to this cafe is to the right of the men’s restroom in New Orleans Square, just to the left of the Disneyland Railroad train depot in the Square. Down a short hall past the men’s restroom is a door that leads to a stairway. This stairway takes you down to the DEC, or Disneyland Employee Cafeteria (that is what it was called when I worked there). It was nicknamed the PIT, not because of the perceived quality of food, (which was actually not bad!), but because when it was opened back in the early 1970’s the walls inside were painted like race cars. Hence the name PIT, short for Pit Stop.

BUY THEM HERE

There are numerous break areas around the park for cast members too. Behind the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country, there is a covered patio with a ping pong table and chairs to relax or read in. In between Frontierland and Adventureland is a semi-circle of shops and food stops. In the middle of these shops is an open area with stairs that lead up to second floor offices. There are covered break areas up on the balcony of this second floor. These are the offices of various managers of the west side operations.

There are break areas in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland too as well as one behind Toontown.

So there you have it.
The cast members of Disneyland don’t depend on the guests for their meals, unless of course one of the guests asks one of the cast members out for dinner!
Which happens frequently!

Well… that’s it for this issue…

Enjoy, and have a Great Hidden Mickey Day!

Future Book Signings

Be sure to check The Hidden Mickey BLOG for the latest Hidden Mickey news and Book Signing Dates

POST YOUR BOOK REVIEWS online at:
DoubleRbooks.com
AMAZON.com

If you don’t see HIDDEN MICKEY in your local bookstore, please ask the Store Manager to order it, or contact us with the Bookstore name & address, Managers name, (plus their Phone and/or eMail if possible). We will contact them and maybe even set up a Book Signing there.

Blog v001 – Pirates of the Caribbean Secrets – Hidden Mickey Book Fan Club

The OFFICIAL HIDDEN MICKEY FAN CLUB BLOG – v001!

Hidden Mickey Artwork

Pirates of the Caribbean Secrets
By David W. Smith

Pirates of the Caribbean Secrets

Hello all you Hidden Mickey Fans!

Like our Hidden Mickey novels, we hope to inspire some adventure in our readers; consider it a ‘quest’ to decipher some ‘inside’ information about Disneyland and things related to Disney.

 


Hidden Mickey novels are available in Hardback paperback and eBook


Because there are some scenes in Hidden Mickey that take place on Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought it would be interesting to share some inside information about the ride. While working the ride for three years (1981 ‘ 1984), I found there were many elements of the ride, which I become familiar with, and found interesting; some of which I want to share with you here.


Cameras

Regular visitors on the ride no doubt know that there are several infrared cameras throughout the ride. These cameras serve several purposes: One, they are to make sure guests are remaining seated throughout the ride and especially on the two ‘waterfalls’ and the ending ‘up-ramp’ where the boats are moving at sharp angles and at different speeds. Two, they are to make sure the boats don’t back up in a section of the ride. On rare occasions, a boat’s guide wheel will jump the ride flume, (either because of a improperly balanced load of guests or if a boat was rocking due to guests leaning side to side). Three, the use of flash pictures is discouraged due to the blinding light the flash produces for other guests. These flashes show up like nuclear bombs going of on the television monitors that feed the infrared camera images to the cast member who is working the ‘Tower’. (The Tower is the dispatch booth above the load and unload dock which one cast member is responsible for dispatching the boats after receiving a ‘green light’ by the unload host who signals that the boats are loaded an the guests are seated properly by pressing a button on the underside of the handrail on the unload side of the dock.) Also, if people are reaching outside to boat to splash one another, this could potentially harm a guest if the boat were to bump up against the ride flume at the wrong time, possibly pinching the guest’s fingers painfully! Guests who are taking pictures or splashing will usually initiate a loud speaker announcement directed to that particular part of the ride asking for the individuals to resist either/or. The Tower operator has various buttons that direct the speaker to that part of he ride he can see within the range of the infrared camera image.

 


Hidden Mickey novels are available in Hardback paperback and eBook



Transition Tunnel

Many people believe that the rides at Disneyland go ‘underground.’ Well, this is a slight misnomer. Actually, because parts of Disneyland are built higher than the main entrance level, (yes, you are actually walking slightly up hill as you go up Main Street and head into Adventureland and Frontierland. Thus, when you go down the ‘waterfalls’ on Pirates, or go down in the ‘Stretching Room’ on Haunted Mansion, you are actually going down to ‘street level’ of the park. If you look behind the Disneyland Tram loading station in Downtown Disney, you will see several very large buildings behind the vine-decorated fences. These are the Ride Buildings that house Pirates, Indiana Jones, and Haunted Mansion.

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is such a large show that there are actually two Ride Buildings that house all the scenes below Park level. As your boat leaves the Treasure scene on Pirates you enter a dark, low tunnel that lets out in the large open area where the large pirate ship is having a shootout with the fort on the opposite side of the room. The dark tunnel that separates the treasure room from the fight scene between the ship and fort is called the ‘Transition Tunnel”it basically is the connecting tunnel that moves the boats from the first Ride Building to the second.

Well… that’s it for this issue…
Enjoy, and have a Magical Hidden Mickey Day!

 


Future Book Signings

Be sure to check The Hidden Mickey BLOG for the latest Hidden Mickey news and Book Signing Dates

 

POST YOUR BOOK REVIEWS online at:
DoubleRbooks.com
AMAZON.com

If you don’t see HIDDEN MICKEY in your local bookstore, please ask the Store Manager to order it, or contact us with the Bookstore name & address, Managers name, (plus their Phone and/or eMail if possible). We will contact them and maybe even set up a Book Signing there.


 

Click to hear Walt

 

Hidden Mickey: Sometimes Dead Men Do Tell Tales!

Nancy & Dave at Disney's D-23 Expo 2011
Nancy & Dave at Disney’s D-23 Expo 2011

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What would you do if you found Walt Disney’s long-lost diary hidden somewhere in Disneyland? What if it gave a cryptic clue and hinted at a treasure that only those who followed the clue – and the ones to come – could find? Would you drop what you were doing and immediately get to work? Would you put your life on hold as you got deeper into the mystery that the Master Storyteller had put into place over 40 years earlier? What if your friendships were put to the test, possibly strained to the breaking point?

These are the dilemmas facing the heroes of the first novel: Hidden Mickey: Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales! While on a group road rally at Disneyland, Adam and Lance stumble upon Walt’s diary hidden somewhere inside Walt’s apartment over the Fire Station on Main Street. What they do next is the start of a fun-filled, elaborate chase as they track down the clues Walt himself had put into place so many years ago.

Adam, Lance, and, later, Adam’s ex-girlfriend Beth, find themselves face-to-face with condemned buildings, privately-owned property, a missing Studio, glassed-in displays at Disneyland, and darkened warehouses. Adam, the moral compass, points out that what they are doing would be considered “breaking and entering.” Lance, who brushes caution aside with a flick of his hand, suggests to Adam that, “since they didn’t break anything, wouldn’t it just be termed ‘entering’?” Perhaps it will take the family of lawyers behind Lance to get them out of trouble. Too bad he isn’t on speaking terms with any of them…. And Beth, her heart still broken after five long years, with her vast Disney knowledge, struggles to help in any way she can without further damage to her fragile feelings. Can bridges be mended after so many years?

What about you? Do you know a lot about Walt’s history? I designed the story so that many of the chapters end with the next clue. If you want to make Hidden Mickey: Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales! more of a challenge, see if you can figure out where Adam, Lance, and Beth need to go next before you turn the page.

The places they visit are right out of Walt’s life. Through flashbacks, you will even meet Walt himself as he either puts the clue into place, or visits at some point in his life. This way Walt can be the hero of his own story!

I hope you will come along with Adam, Lance, and Beth on this fascinating journey and come to see the Happiest Place on Earth in a whole new light!

All the Hidden Mickey and Hidden Mickey Adventures novels can be found at Amazon.com, Barnes Noble, and my own web site at HiddenMickeyBook.com.