"THE Palace"

Today was a little special. I went in as a spare at the Magic Kingdom about noon. I went and got comfortable in my little designated loser corner of the tunnel, ready for a long day. After killing some time working in the costume department, I headed back to check in with the duty captain. He told me he had a job for me. It was at this point, I was praying to myself, “Please not dining. Oh, Lord, if you’re merciful, please not dining.”
“We’re gonna send you, David, to Crystal Palace.”
For those of you who don’t know, Crystal Palace is one of the most difficult dining locations at Disney. So, it was a bittersweet moment for me—I was getting a job and leaving my sparing spot behind, but at the same time, I was walking into Gettysburg unarmed so to speak. I hurried down to Crystal Palace and tried to memorize the dining rotation. Fortunately, the manager, Alejandro, was awesome and more than willing to take me upstairs and walk me through it. After that, I ran back down to the cafeteria to each a quick lunch (made mostly of my Fatoosh salad…mmmmhmmmm). After lunch, I ran, pulled my costume, tether it to a pulley, and hurried to my location. I got there about an hour early so, it gave me time just to breath and meet the cast members I’d be working with. All of them were great and more than willing to give me a hand to ease my work schedule. So I put on my armor so to speak, jumped into the elevator, and ascended to the battlefield. The first rotation went fairly well. My costume had a tail, so that became the highlight of every child’s night. There were multiple instances where I thought it had been ripped off—oh the joy of working with children ☺.
One of the hard parts about dining is being on stage for 45 minutes at a time. By the time your manager tells you to head back to the base, you want to get on the ground and start kissing his feet (though at that point, you’re so tired, to bend over that far would result in a character unable to get back up).
I did enjoy working in dining. The only difficult thing is that, you really have to be so careful not to bump into things, at least at Crystal Palace. Everything is very close together and to turn around quickly, means some child will have an elbow to the eye or a lap full of macaroni. When I work outside, I can feel free to animate, but inside I have to tone it down.
Today, I felt the Lord’s presence. It was just one of those days where it seems like the Lord continually does random things to remind you of him. For instance, the tunnels under the Magic Kingdom are continually filled with music. Today, they had it on the Christian radio station! The company that has a gay week, and it’s on the Christian radio station?! Then I find out that in mid-September, Disney is hosting it’s annual “Night of Joy” where they pack out the parks with Christian contemporary bands and singers and its just like two massive days of worship. Huh? Then I find “I can do all things through Christ” etched in the wall of the bathroom stall. That might be pushing it, but hey, I choose to look at it as a smile from God. Overall, it was a comforting day.