Disneyland Morning Prep?

[Gemini Cricket]

Does any CM or anyone on board know about the morning porcedures at Disneyland? ie. How the attractions are started up before opening, when the clean up crews hit the streets, morning Cast Member meetings, daily quality and safety checks for the rides etc.

An inquiring Disney geek wants to know.

[Garrett240]

I don't know if it's very exciting....

I used to work the nightshift, midnight to 8 am. This was back in mid 90's when the park would open about 8 or 8:30 am in the summer times.

I remember working on Small World one summer. We cleaned all of the boats each night. Each night we would hook up the first boat were they come out of thetunnel and come outside at the end of the ride. There is a rope with a hook on it there. We would hook the last boat there. Then we would clean all the boats as they went by our cleaning station.

In the morning a CM (I think he was the small world lead) would come in. He would unhook the first boat, make an announcement on the small world PA sysytem that he was turning the flume back on, wait a minute and then turn on the flume and music. (The doll mechanial stuff would run all night long) Then the rest of the small world crew would arrive. I don;t know if they had any meetings and mornig coffee and prayer. I had no idea what they did. They were ride operators, we didn't interact much with them...

In the rest of the park, land scapers who had been working early in the morning would be finishing up their projects for the day. The window clears would be cleaninig all of the glass windows. Outdoor venders would be pushing their carts to where they go, or setting up their carts. Foods usually had a lead come in pretty early to start turning on the stoves/ovens and stuff. They would get food stuff out of the freeze and prepared so it would be ready for when the resturant opened. Again, I don;t know if the restruant crew and a morning pep talk or meeting or anything.

Store CM's would be fixing their displays, re stocking. Ticket sellers were also there pretty early with their money drawers. Of all of the "day time" CM's, I think that ticket sellers were the first to arrive (expect for some leads in other departments)

*shrug* There was always a lot of activity going on in the mornings just before the park opened. I don't know what each group or department did. I would assume it was different for each department.

[Gemini Cricket]

I find that totally interesting. So, the ISAW dolls would run all night? Without audio, I'm thinking.

I wonder if there's someone who makes sure that all the rides (well, the ones that they open right away in the mornings) are operating at the beginning of each day.

[Garrett240]

The dolls run all night. Without the music there is a lot of clicking noises as the dolls blink. A few times they turned off all of the dolls for some reason. It was really creepy to me because it was so quiet after having the comforting noise each night before. There would be a mechanic who would check out the dolls each night or each few nights. Also, people from housekeeping would come in and change the dolls' outfits when they needed to be changed. The outfits wore out from the inside out.

Also, all of the "dolls" in the haunted mansion run all night too, you know the jumping heads in the attic, the dancers in the ballrooms. All of those run all night long too. It's easier then having to turn them on and off each night.

I don't know what manager oversaw all of the rides to make sure they all were ready. But before the rope drop all departments would have to check in with somebody (I was too far down on the tolem pole to know who it was) But all groups would have to check in to make sure all of the vehicles were off stage when the rope dropped, all rides were ready ect. I never had to report to anybody higher then my lead...

It was mechanics who got the roller coasters running before the morning cm's came in.

I was thinking about your post. I liked it when the peoplemover was still running. After not running all night, 5 minutes before the people started running, red lights would flash in all of the PM tunnels and a recording would come saying, "Warning, people moving will be in operation in 5 minutes, get the heck out of the tunnels" (or something like that but much more offical sounding). Then 4 minute, 3 minute, 2 minute and 1 minute warnings would be given before the cars would start moving. At night, with the PM track going into so much of Tomorrowland, there would often be mechanics and electricans on the tracks. We would walk the track with our little "trash picker upper claw" so we needed to warning to get off of the tracks.

I was a junitor, in case I forgot to say that....

[Druggas]

Great topic. In fact, the best topic I've read since I joined. Thanks Gemini for thinking up this idea, and thanks Garret240 for your insight. This is what I clamor for when I read MiceChat.

[Alchimedes]

Interesting stuff, glad you could share Garrett.

[meanderingmouse]

Wow...that is really cool to know. I never would have guessed that stuff ran all night. t kinda creeps me out though

Thanks for the info and interesting thread.

[Gemini Cricket]

Cool stuff. One of my longtime dreams has been to get permission to see Disneyland after it closes and stay until morning. I'd love to watch everything that goes on. I'd also like to do a walkthrough of the rides. (Okay, a walkthrough of Peter Pan would be hard... )

[Fantasmic_Freak]

Ok i work attractions and opening maliboomer orange stinger, everythings said is spot on, make sure its clean, your not locked out because maintinace is working on it, if you arnt then somebody laready powered up malibommer and you say a speil over p.a like maliboomer test cycle immediatly, please stand clear of the tower 1,2,or,3. then you check restraints buckle buckles on seats, and get another cm qualified to work on it, and send it up, make sure everythings ok, then you can open the attraction after completeing opening checklist, same with stinger except you gotta turn on the ride, and turn on the orange scent, off the worklights and test cycle with a load person, then opening checklist and good to go.

[Garrett240]

Oh..gee thanks everybody for the nice comments and such... Because I'm not under the thumb of the Mouse any more, I can say what we did

The park after hours is very different. I worked in the mid 90's, so I'm not sure how much has changed but this was how it was back in the day...

All of the big gates that lead to the backstage areas would be opened. So, the gate behind the corn dog stand on Main St would be opened, the gate next to the fire station, the gates where the parades entered and exited the park were opened. There are two gates right next to FL that lead to the Thunder Mt trail. Those gates would be opened, but then block the FL/Thunder Mt trail.

At night, the lines between onstage and offstage were blurred. Some big 18 wheel trucks would come on stage to drop off food and supplies for the resturants. Security would drive around in black and white electric carts. Tractor like trucks would pull trains of wagons filled with stuff for the stores. They would drop off each wagon at the right store so that the retail CM could resupply their stores. The night custodial had little electric carts we drove around in too. Some had a big hose rolled up on the the back of the cart, looks kind of like what one would imagine an old firetruck would have.

Darkbeer took a picture earlier this week of the submarine area. That hose they are using is the same type of hose we used to hose down all of the streets each night. http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/gallery/1354118/5/63961104

Everybody on the hose crew had their favorite nozzle they would keep in their locker and wouldn't let anybody else use. Many had their favorite electric cart too. The hose crew's carts had the "spool" (I guess that's what you would call it) that carried the hose and a big squeegee on the back. The squeegee was attached to a handle so the driver could raise and lower it he as drove the cart. It was used to dry the park after hosing all night long. That was fun too do. I would play "bombarder" as I drive the cart and the drop the squeegee as I hit the big puddle and drag the water towards the drain.

If my last sentence didn't clue you in on how big of a geek I am, this paragraph will... When ever I would see female CM's who worked in Fronteerland in their long dresses, I would wished that I wore hats so that I could tip my hat to them as I said "hi'.

It's like Frantasmic Freak said. Before any ride is powered up or cars start moving when they were stopped for a long time, an announcement would be sent over the ride's PA system. We would announce when we were unhooking the boats in IASW or hooking them up, turn on the flume pumps or turning them off.

Also, many rides like the coasters, monorail and I'm sure others had a detailed lockdown method. If somebody was going to be on the track for any reason, they would put a padlock on the ride's controls and take the key with them so that somebody didn't turn on the ride while they were on the track. Getting stuck in the Matterhorn's tunnels when the ride started would suck, bad...

Wow...sorry to go on and on so much.

[BFJen]

When I did the GCH fitness walk - we went at 7 am and I thought something interesting were the trucks of flowers! Gardeners were ripping out dead flowers and planting nice full blossomed ones. I wish I had someone to do this in my yard every morning!

[Redsix]

Back in the late 80's I used to work in FL on the Mike Fink Keel Boats. In the summer we would start very early in the mornings. Showing up at 0600, which was our first shift. At this time the MFKB were pretty much in the same area where they stored the Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes (down from the Hungry Bear). Some mornings as you have read in Mice Tales, usually at this time they had Canoe races on Rivers of America. This usually went on for about a hour. During that time we would run checks on the Gullywhumper and the Bertha Mae. This always consist of going over the 2 vessels to make sure nothing was wet inside the boat. Yes we were really Seamen getting the vessel to make way. Engine checks and brightwork polishing. After they had cleared the races on the river, we usually took the boat out around TSI. This was always a peaceful run and you could always see the hustle of the park as the deliveries to all the shops and the Food Services in FL and NOS. Once we docked both boats and we would sit in front of them just before the park would open. It was a great feeling and it never seemed to get old. After I left Disney I joined the Navy, so MFKB left a big impression on me.

[speederscout]

Great topic. In fact, the best topic I've read since I joined. Thanks Gemini for thinking up this idea, and thanks Garret240 for your insight. This is what I clamor for when I read MiceChat.

What?? You don't come here to find out how drunk someone got last night, or to hear some know-it-all climb behind their virtual podium and grace us with knowledge and wisdom, or decipher someone's "alternate-universe" Disneyland plans? Get a life!

Actually, this is a great thread; some fascinating stuff, along the lines of the water data just available last night in the sub thread. I seriously would never have thought that so much mechanical stuff remains on when the park is closed (yeah, a little creepy; that Twilight Zone episode about the store mannequins comes to mind!). I actually love when a ride goes 101 if I happen to be in a position where I can watch the CMs resetting the attraction; it's just fascinating to me. Thanks for the glimpse behind the scenes, guys.

[mamabot]

What?? You don't come here to find out how drunk someone got last night, or to hear some know-it-all climb behind their virtual podium and grace us with knowledge and wisdom, or decipher someone's "alternate-universe" Disneyland plans? Get a life!

Different people come to MiceChat for different reasons. Before you judge those who MiceChat alongside you, maybe you should remember the following: To each his own.

I understand that your post was meant in jest, but it comes off fairly snarky. And picking on the DMCA, that's original.

[Hyperbole]

Really fascinating information guys! I've been wanting to see if I could arrange an after hours visit under the auspices of doing a news story on it. This thread has piqued my interest in that regard!!!!