While I was a castmember at The Walt Disney Co. I had the great pleasure of always having my office in one of the parks. First it was Epcot, but for the final portion of my tenure my office was the TV and film production studio on the backlot at Disney’s Hollywood Studios; Disney Production Services, Inc.
Preview tickets
Being in the park you get certain perks when there are new attractions. While developing these attractions, they are tested frequently with castmembers; I forget how many times I rode Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster before it opened, but it was a lot.
One of the other perks is you get invited to the premiere of these attractions as well. Here are a couple of the tickets I found from the Studios days.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
I recall how during the early development of the ride, they were working on the magnetic launch system. When our first turn to ride came up, we were told to leave our wallets in the office. This naturally had many of us perplexed until it was explained that the magnetic system was wiping the data from credit cards and any other thing with a magnetic strip.
Fantasmic
Wrapping it up
I was able to watch this park grow up first-hand and am honored by that privilege. Working on the backlot with lots of famous and talented people was a great challenge and helped me develop great skills that serve me to this day. I am glad to have played a minor role over the years at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
[subscribe]