Can What's Old Become New at Disney's Boardwalk?

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Kouzzina by Cat Cora at Disney's Boardwalk is closing September 30, 2014. And naturally, Disney fans everywhere are wondering about its replacement. Disney has been rather closed-mouth about it thus far, but I'm not about to let that stop me from speculating!

It's not that I necessarily think the Boardwalk is lacking in dining venues. The Flying Fish Cafe is (outside of Victoria and Albert's, which shouldn’t really count) quite possibly my favorite Walt Disney World restaurant. Chef Tim Keating is an absolutely amazing talent, and his attention to detail and desire to please guests is truly remarkable. Additionally, the sports fan in me adores the ESPN Club, and the bartenders there are some of my favorite on property. I've even enjoyed a meal or two at Big River Grille and Brewing Works...but then again, I liked Kouzzina, so that tells you what my opinion's worth. ;) However, since there will be an open space, I'm certainly not lacking for ideas!

The moment I heard about an opening on the Boardwalk, I immediately recalled some interviews I had heard with Disney historians/experts Jim Hill and Jim Korkis. Both had mentioned some of the previous ideas that had been floated for this area, and I found them absolutely fascinating. (Side note: As I discuss the information shared in their interviews, any “insider” or historical content is completely due to their knowledge and hard work. Any mistakes or misinformation would be my fault entirely.)

One idea that was originally floated as a dining option for the Boardwalk was a 900-seat supper club themed to The Little Mermaid. As the resort officially opened on July 1, 1996, I can see why this idea was appealing at the time. But much like The American Idol Experience at the nearby Disney's Hollywood Studios, this is a concept whose time I believe has come and gone.

On the other hand, I find the concept of Walt's Attic absolutely fascinating. This would have been a more upscale dining experience with music and entertainment – perhaps something similar to the Top of the World restaurant that used to occupy the space that is now home to the Contemporary Resort's California Grill. They were planning to join forces with the Disney Archives, so that you'd be dining surrounded by fascinating artifacts from Disney history. Just the chance to be up close and personal with the likes of Disney's special Oscars for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or early pieces of Walt Disney World concept sketches would be worth the price of admission alone! (Also, I really loved Top of the World, and I miss it. I also desperately miss the Papeete Bay Verandah at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort Hotel and found it vastly superior to 'Ohana, but that's another discussion entirely.)

Perhaps my favorite concept, however, was The Family Reunion. Do you miss the interactive experience of The Adventurers' Club? Then this may have been a venue for you. You'd have walked in and been greeted by a large man dressed in drag who'd be portraying your dear aunt (picture John Travolta in Hairspray). You'd be given a name tag (because apparently you come from a very extensive family), and would then be ushered into the “church basement” for the reunion. Cast members would portray zany, eccentric, and occasionally annoying family members as you are served old family favorite dishes in Pyrex and CorningWare. Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic for the heyday of Pleasure Island, but I think this sounds like a blast.

But who am I kidding? The way my luck goes, we'll probably end up with a restaurant serving the typical menu of strip steak, chicken dish, pasta/vegetarian option, grilled fish, and the same Disney drinks and desserts you see throughout Walt Disney World. It could be worse, though; they could lease the space to Landry's for another Rainforest Cafe. (Okay, seriously, I'm just joking about both of those options. By all that is right and holy, I sincerely hope and trust that Disney will do neither of these things.)

What would you like to see Disney bring to the Boardwalk? Share your thoughts and ideas over at https://www.facebook.com/disneygene! 

I Don't Think I Can Walk the Walk

There is a practice among Disney guests – in particular, DVC members – with which I was completely unacquainted. It's referred to as “walking your reservation”.

Are you familiar with this? If not, let me break it down for you.

First, it helps to know how the DVC program works. As a DVC member, you buy points at your “home resort”, which can also be used at other DVC properties. Where you buy is usually determined by where you like to stay, the going cost per point, annual dues (which differ from resort to resort), and contract ending date. I, for example, bought at Saratoga Springs Resort. While perhaps not my favorite DVC resort, it had one of the lowest costs per point, low annual maintenance fees, and a contract good through 2054.

Why does your home resort matter? In one word: availability. You can book your home resort eleven months in advance of your trip, but all other resorts only seven months. For example, if I were to log into Disney's DVC website, here is how they would describe my options:

“You can start requesting up-to-7-night reservations for arrival as far out as:
Home Resort - Arrival Date : October 04 2014
Non-Home Resorts - Arrival Date : June 04 2014”

This ensures that owners at, say, The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa -- who paid $150 per point to own at that resort -- have a much better shot of getting a room there than I do... which is only fair, since I'm skating in on a purchase price of just $67 per point.

That being said, I've had pretty good luck at getting the resorts I wanted so far. On our first trip as DVC owners, we stayed in our home resort. It's a perfectly lovely resort, but its biggest draw is its proximity to Downtown Disney – which, during this area's construction phase as it transitions to Disney Springs, isn't so much of a draw right now.

On our next vacation, we stayed at Bay Lake Towers. It was our last trip with our daughter Kira before she left for college, and she'd never stayed in a monorail resort. I wanted a theme park-view room, but was only able to secure a lake-view. That being said, it was still my first choice of a resort, and our “lake-view” ended up having a wonderful view of the Magic Kingdom!

Our last trip was to the Villas at the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. This is the only DVC resort at Disneyland, so it was imperative that we be able to get a room there for our West Coast trip – and we did. So as I said, thus far we've totally lucked out. But...

My husband and I would just love to get a concierge level studio at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. AKL is the only DVC resort that offers a concierge option to members, and we'd really like to give it a shot. However, there are only five concierge studios. That's right, five. So the odds of us as non-Animal Kingdom Lodge owners getting one of those for a week are close to nil – unless...

Here's where the “walking” comes in. This is a method DVC members have devised to help secure some harder-to-get reservations. How does it work? You make the first day of your reservation start earlier (perhaps seven days or so) than when you really intend your vacation to start. You then call into Member Services every day moving the start date of your reservation back one day and extending it on the end by one day. Eventually, you'll end up getting the dates you originally wanted. This gives you a head start on all of the people who followed the rules and waited until seven months from their actual vacation dates.

Sigh... I can see why people do it, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do so. While I don't think this hurts Disney at all, I do think it's being unfair to the other guests – both those who waited until the official date to book their trip, and those who may have been trying to book for the dates you were “walking over” -- the dates you booked and canceled (thus making them unavailable at the seven-month mark), that you were never even intending to use in the first place.

I contacted Disney Vacation Club to see how they felt about this practice via the chat feature on their website. Here's the exact conversation (although I changed the Cast Member's name to protect his anonymity):

Teri: Hi Gaston!
Gaston: Welcome Home!  How may I assist you today?
Teri: I'm wondering if Disney has an official policy regarding members "walking" their DVC reservations...
Gaston: No, we do not. They are basically modifying the dates of their existing reservation.
Teri: So there's nothing to be done to discourage this policy? Does Disney have any feelings on it one way or the other?
Gaston: There is no way to discourage this policy because they are modifying their dates and Members are allowed to do this.
Teri: Okeydoke. Thanks!

So there you have it. Disney doesn't seem to have a problem with it (at least not a big enough one to do anything about it), even if I do. What do you think? Am I just being a prudish stick-in-the-mud, or is this as unfair to other guests as I think it is? Or is the real problem just that I'm too lazy to go in every day and modify my reservation? Speak your mind here or on Facebook!

A Tale of Two Coasts

I'm back!

Having just returned from a glorious week on the West Coast, I wanted to take a quick minute to give you a look at Disneyland through the eyes of a Walt Disney World veteran. While many of the more obvious comparisons are well-documented (Disneyland has a better Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney World has the superior Twilight Zone Tower of Terror), there were a lot of differences I noted that I haven't heard mentioned often, so I thought I'd highlight a few for you:

1. Better Tasting Water – Hey; I never said they were life-altering differences. That said, Disneyland has tolerable-tasting water, unlike the foul fishy fluid that comes from Florida taps. We actually filled our water bottles out of the sink in our villa at the Grand Californian and chilled them overnight for use the next day. You couldn't pay me to do that at Walt Disney World.

2. Better Healthy Food Options – At Walt Disney World, your choices generally seem to be between an apple, an orange, or an under ripe banana. At Disneyland the fresh fruit options are more varied, including my personal favorite: Mango with Lime and Chili Spices. Yum!

3. Convenience – Okay, this is a “depending on how you look at it” sort of thing. Flying to Los Angeles from Ohio? Not even remotely convenient; Florida definitely has the edge there for me, personally. But once you're on Disneyland property, life is awesome. Two words for you: No buses. You want to head to the Disneyland Hotel for dinner at Steakhouse 55 or a drink at Trader Sam's? No problem; it's just a pleasant stroll through Downtown Disney. You get off Pirates and want a real drink instead of a kiddie Mint Julep? Sure thing; let's just cross the Esplanade to Disney California Adventure. I can't overstate how awesome this was. Even navigating inside a particular park was easier due to the more compact size. And being that close to the parks can make for a nice view from your room. I'm telling you, I believe that had I shouted from my balcony, guests in the park could have heard me. (That surprises no one; I know.)

4. Speaking of Drinking – What can I say; I have my priorities. While I very much missed my annual tour of Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, between the Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale and the fantastic wine samplings at the Mendocino Terrace, I was a happy girl. A very happy girl.

5. Navigation – Getting around was a lot easier, thanks to the general lack of Electric Conveyance Vehicles hogging the paths. I'm not criticizing anyone for using them. I'm just saying I saw far fewer of them in California.

6. Shopping – Walt Disney World definitely has the edge here. Maybe it was the lack of Epcot. Perhaps it was the smaller Downtown Disney. Heck, it could have even been due to the small number of resorts to tour, but any way you look at it, I felt a little short-changed in the shopping department... particularly when it came to jewelry.

7. Dining – In-park restaurants sometimes quit taking reservations an hour before the park closed! That would never fly at WDW, and was something of a disappointment. But that said, it was really nice not to be tied to a strict schedule of ADRs. And the food itself was great. Steakhouse 55 was our favorite restaurant of the trip – including the time we spent in Los Angeles and on the coast. Nothing else even came close.

Well, there you have it. This isn't a complete list of the differences between the two resorts – heck, it isn't a list of the major differences. These are just the ones that really stuck out in my mind as being noteworthy and not necessarily excessively documented. I hope this information helps you if you ever decide to head west!

What's Old is New

It's finally happened: my baby has left for college. For the first time in eighteen years, it's just my husband and me. And wouldn't you know it -- since it'll just be the two of us, my husband's one request for our vacation this year is that it not be to Walt Disney World.

Fine. This time, we'll go to Disneyland.

Okay, technically, I did bend a little more than that. We're splitting our week between Disneyland and Los Angeles. I get some quality Mouse time, and he gets to camp out in Meltdown Comics for two days. That's a fair trade, right?

Seriously though, planning this trip has been a little weird for me. I'm a Walt Disney World veteran, and I know that resort like the back of my hand. Disneyland? Not so much. It feels quite strange to be a novice at planning any sort of a Disney vacation.

I'm sure a fair number of you find this whole topic a little nuts. The non-Disney geeks (why are we friends, again?) are sitting there thinking, "Disney World/Disneyland; what's the difference?" And most of my Disney friends are probably tearing their hair out: "We have over 42 square miles, four theme parks and two water parks; why in the heck are you flying all the way out to California?!" (P.S. I know some of you want to correct me on the square mileage, but don't forget that we sold off some land a couple of years ago for that whole Flamingo Crossings thing. Whatever happened with that, anyway?)

But I digress. Back to "Why Disneyland?" In addition to technically fulfilling my husband's request, that is. For starters, it's the perfect time for us. We have airline vouchers that need to be used by October and one less ticket than usual to purchase, so airfare that would normally be out of our budget is now ours for the taking. But who am I kidding? That's not the real reason.

This is Disneyland we're talking about. The original. The park that actually has Walt's fingerprints all over it. I'm going to dine at Steakhouse 55 in the Disneyland Hotel. I'm going to see classic attractions like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Matterhorn. Best of all, I'm going to take the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps Tour. I'm so excited about the tour that I can barely keep myself from squealing like a twelve-year-old girl every time I think of it!

Sure, there are a lot of other reasons to be juiced up. I'll get to visit some long lost friends like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Snow White's Scary Adventures -- favorites from my childhood that are gone forever from WDW's Magic Kingdom but can still be found at "The Happiest Place on Earth". (By the way, did you know that phrase is technically only Disneyland's tagline? Walt Disney World's is "The Most Magical Place on Earth" or "Where Dreams Come True". I don't make this stuff up, folks.)

Of course, there are a lot of totally new (to me) things, too. Haunted Mansion Holiday will be celebrating its 13th anniversary during our trip, and I am totally stoked to check that out. There are the Storybook Land Canal Boats,  the Indian Jones Adventure, and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin just waiting for me, and let's not forget the totally revamped Disney California Adventure Park with the out-of-this-world Cars Land that everyone's buzzing about!

But as I mentioned earlier, planning this trip has me a little out of my Disney comfort zone. Some things are just strange to me. For example, dining reservations can only be made 60 days out. What's even more bizarre is that for the four nights we'll be on Disney property, I only made one dining reservation. This would be my idea of heresy at WDW. I can only assume that this is what Eddie Valiant felt like as he fell from the window without a parachute. Everyone says, however, that ADRs (Advance Dining Reservations) aren't generally necessary at Disneyland, so I'm going to trust them and (gulp) play it by ear.

Another difference: My idea of doing a Disney vacation properly is to get up at 6:30 so that I can be showered, dressed, and travel across the aforementioned 42+ square miles to be waiting at the front gates of the theme park of my choice at least a half hour before park opening. But Disneyland's parks won't be opening until 10:00 AM on the days we are there. What the heck!? And since we are staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, I'll be able to practically fall out of bed and land at the front gate of either park. Considering the time zone difference and my level of excitement, I'll probably be pulling a Buzz Lightyear from the old DCA commercials and get caught trying to peer over the fence while waiting for the parks to open. Admit it; wouldn't you?

New Fantasyland

As you may know, I like to plan.  Some say I over-plan; that  I'm an anal, obsessive planner. I say fortune favors the prepared, but whatever. However, even I have to admit that when unexpected surprises throw your best-laid plans out the window, an opportunity arises for true Disney magic to triumph.

Such a moment occurred on our recent visit to the Magic Kingdom. We arrived early (of course), rode Space Mountain, Kira and I kicked Ray's butt on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (we will never let him live this down), and then headed back to Storybook Circus for a few quick photo ops.

 

Kira, Dumbo, Me -- I hope you can figure out which is which.

    

 

We then started cutting through Fantasyland on our way to the other Disney mountains. (I had a schedule. I stick to schedules.) On our way, we stopped for a quick peek at the still-closed New Fantasyland. We saw several people asking to go in, but all were denied. We struck up a conversation with a few friendly Cast Members:

The CMs asked if we'd like a sneak peak.  "Um, yeah!" I was so excited, I nearly cried. I did hug all of them. :)

For the record, I'm not the world's greatest photographer, and all I had was my phone. But without further ado (and with a minimal amount of exposition from me), here is a pictorial tour of our New Fantasyland preview. I hope you enjoy it!

Kira and I outside Maurice's Cottage

Moving inside the cottage:

We were then transported trough a magic mirror into Beast's Castle, where Kira and I both got to help tell the tale of Belle's first meeting with Beast.

Next we took a tour of the village, where we got to meet the main man, Gaston!

Of course, we had to check out his tavern, where Ray felt right at home.

By the way, we tried LeFou's Brew, and loved it!


It wouldn't be me if there wasn't some shopping involved, so made a brief trip into Bonjour Village Gifts.

I love the CM's costumes.

 I saw a t-shirt I wanted, but all they had were Large and Extra Large. A Cast Member heard me lamenting this, and volunteered to check for other sizes, as she believed they had just gotten in a new shipment. Helpful cashiers volunteering assistance -- only at Disney!  Sure enough, they had it -- so of course I bought it!

We got some wonderful pictures of the rest of New Fantasyland  (including our meal at Be Our Guest Restaurant), but I feel as though I've made you sit through enough of my photos for now. It's rather like our generation's version of the slide shows our parents used to subject people to, isn't it? ;)

Thanks so much, and I'll be back soon with more!

"The Avengers" - Behind the Scenes (Part 2)

Teri S. was in “The Avengers” with Mark Ruffalo. Mark Ruffalo was in “In the Cut” with Kevin Bacon.  Wow, that was easy.

Yes, it made for crazy days and very little sleep. Yes, I used up a large chunk of my vacation days. Yes, the pay was mediocre ($10/hour for the first 8 hours each day, time and half for every additional hour.)  And if I could do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat.

We’ve all heard that the entertainment industry works in a “hurry up and wait” fashion.  They aren’t kidding.  As I mentioned previously, I could be on the set for 10-14 hours per day, but if one hour of that was actually spent in front of a live camera, I counted myself lucky.

We (the “Group Hug” extras) were held in a cafeteria in the lower floor of a downtown Cleveland building. Depending on the planned filming for the day, it could be groups of 75 – 300 people anxiously waiting for their chance to be on camera. More on that later.

As I mentioned previously, I usually arrived around 6:00 AM. We’d give our costume number to the wardrobe department (mine was DNY-281) and they’d bring us our freshly laundered and pressed costumes.  In my case, the laundering was more of a freshness than a cleanliness issue. Why?  Because the “D” in my “DNY” stood for dirty.  I’m serious. I was designated as a “dirty New York pedestrian”, and they took that appellation very seriously. Once I finished in wardrobe, I went up to hair and makeup.  As I had already done my own hair and makeup at home, all that was left for them to do was dirty me up.  And boy, were they good at it.

Every time we came out of the bathroom, they’d touch up any dirt that we’d washed off of our hands. Before any time on camera, they’d make sure we’d been freshly covered in more dirt. During the filming of one scene, I was actually on the set with Robin Swoboda, Cleveland news anchor and icon. (You hear her towards the end of the film giving news updates.)  She took one look at me and cracked up laughing. “Do you have any idea how dirty you are?”, she chortled.  I smiled wryly. “Yes, yes I do,” I replied. It was actually a pretty sweet moment.  You see, generally people didn’t talk to the extras.  We weren’t really actors, just props that were capable of moving themselves.  That said, I absolutely adored the crew, and the few “real” actors with whom I interacted were great.

The crew: I just loved them.  First, as I previously mentioned, was the Extras Casting Coordinator, Maryellen Aviano.  I felt pretty cool that out of 1,500 extras, she remembered my name. Even better, I had my own nickname: The Cookie Lady.  Hey, I take what I can get.

Then there was the Set Production Assistant Ryan J. Pezdirc, AKA “Pez”.  Pez reminded me of The Claw in “Toy Story”.  You remember, “The claw is our master.” “The claw chooses who will go and who will stay.” That was Pez’s job. If, out of the 300 extras sitting in the holding pen waiting to be called only 10 were needed, Pez would come down and select the 10. Needless to say, competition got stiff.
Don’t get me wrong. Holding wasn’t that bad. How often to you get paid $10 per hour to play euchre and Trivial Pursuit?  (And if you know me, I never pass up a chance to play Trivial Pursuit!)


But that’s not what we were there for.  We all wanted screen time, and we’d do everything we could to get it.  For example, I learned to moderate my intake of fluids. I did not want to be in the bathroom if/when someone came down to pick a group for a shot. I also learned to keep an eye on the spot where the production team would usually enter, so that I could make sure I was nearby when they started picking. I was also a firm believer in eye contact, and wasn’t above jumping up and down like a fool to get noticed.

Once we got on the set, we were usually under the direction of Julian Brain and Greg Hale , Second Assistant Directors.  Twice, though, I actually got to appear in scenes directed by Joss Whedon himself!
In one, I was outside after a large explosion tending an injured pedestrian.  Thanks to people in nearby buildings taking pictures and then posting them online, I was able to find a photograph of that moment:

It’s a good thing I did, because this scene was cut from the final film. (In case you can’t tell, I’m at the very top of this picture. Matt Haltuch is with me as I tend to “Massive Head-Wound Harry”, as we dubbed him.)

My other scene that was directed by Mr. Whedon was in the bank. This was the special Saturday shoot for which I had been called in, and we were all very excited to be there.  The prime character in the scene was The Waitress, portrayed by Ashley Johnson (little Chrissy Seaver on “Growing Pains”). Speaking of sweet people, she was just a darling. We joked about everything from her hailing from Michigan (always a bit of a rivalry with us in Ohio) to the proper way to tackle someone. Again, very cool.

But I’m sure you’re all wondering, “What was Joss like?” The thing that struck me about Joss was how quiet he was.  All of his assistants were running around yelling their lungs out, but Joss was very reserved. When he spoke to “Ash”, as he called her, his direction was concise, but not rushed or short. I just wish I’d have gotten the opportunity to speak with him directly.

Then came the months and months of waiting for the film to come out. I saw it Friday May, 5, 2012 in 3D. To my dismay, I didn’t see myself at all. The “Head-Wound Harry” scene had been cut completely, and the bank scene almost entirely, as well. But then I went back to see it again in 2D. This time, I found myself four times: crouched in front of a car, in the bank behind the waitress (in the upper left quadrant of the screen), leaving the bank, and finally fleeing into a subway.  All told, maybe 2 seconds of screen time total. My face is only visible in the brief glimpse in the bank.  Mostly, it’s more shots like this:

(What do you mean you can’t tell that’s Matt and me?  It is, I swear.) Oh yeah: Out of hundreds of extras, Matt and I are together in all of our scenes. Weird, huh?  It’s because we strategized together on how best to get on camera, I’m just sure of it. ;)

Of course, once “The Avengers” comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray September 25, 2012, you can bet I’ll be combing through it scene by scene for more Teri sightings!

Have you seen the movie yet?  What did you think?  And more importantly, did you spy me at all?  Let me know over at www.facebook.com/disneygene!

"The Avengers" - Behind the Scenes (Part 1)

A little movie came out last month; perhaps you heard of it – “The Avengers”?  What you may not know, however, is that I, your humble Disney Gene, am in that movie!

(Me, in my Black Widow costume for Halloween)

Well, barely.  I was one of the 1,500 or so extras that were used on the Cleveland portion of the filming. Still, it was one of the coolest experiences of my life, so I thought you might like a look behind the scenes of some of the Hollywood magic.
 

It all started on a hot July day. The potential extras were told to assemble between noon and 4 PM July 15, and 10 AM to 4 PM July 16, 2011 at the Holiday Inn Independence for their chance to audition. Interested people “should dress in their best business executive outfit and must be well-groomed”.  We were instructed to bring our own pens to fill out an application, and photos would be taken at the casting.

My husband and I decided to hit the Saturday auditions.  Reports of long lines on Friday had us arriving about 9:00 on Saturday, but the lines were already snaking through the parking lot.  All told, we waited about four hours standing in the hot sun. In business suits. And heels (for me, anyway.)  And best of all, I’d been stung by a bee on my foot on Thursday, so my foot had, quite literally, swelled to three times its normal size. Boy, was that fun to cram into a dress shoe, and then stand on for four hours.  Hey, I said it was exciting, not glamorous. I mean seriously, it was wicked stepsister shoving her foot into the glass slipper material here.

Estimates of the number of people who auditioned for these 1,500 spots ranged from 4,500 to 10,000, depending on which report you read. To make a long story short, I made it but my husband didn’t. Don’t think that didn’t make fore a wee bit of tension in the household. ;)

I actually didn’t hear back from them for quite some time, so I didn’t think that I’d been selected. But when sitting at rehearsal for the Bellevue Society for the Arts’ production of “Move Over, Mrs. Markham”, I got the call. I couldn’t believe it!

I got a gist of how things would work right away. It was 7:00 on a Thursday evening.  “Can you come in tomorrow morning to downtown Cleveland for a fitting?” I was asked. Well gee; I do have this thing called a job… Oh, what the heck.  “Sure.” I said. Fortunately, my boss was cool about it. She was very excited for me, and completely understanding about the flexibility needed in the use of my vacation days over the coming weeks. Brad Rowe, my director in “Move Over, Mrs. Markham” was an absolute sweetheart about it, as well.  I had to have been a director’s worst nightmare during that time, but Brad was always patient and supportive!   

Friday morning: my fitting.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with the quote by Randy Pausch, “Be good at something; it makes you valuable…. Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.”  I believe in taking that quote a bit more literally than most people. So when I showed up for my fitting, I didn’t arrive empty-handed; I brought my special homemade sugar cookies. They were a hit.

I was originally slated to be on the set from 3-5 days, depending on how filming went.  But a couple of days after my fitting, I was laying out by the pool when I get a phone call. “The director wants to know if you would be available for a special scene to be shot on Saturday. Can you make that?”  Um, let me think… “Yes!”

So Tuesday August 16, 2011 I reported to downtown Cleveland at 6:00 AM… with cookies. This time, I made 10 dozen cookies – I didn’t want anyone to miss out! I sought out the Extras Casting Coordinator, Maryellen Aviano.  Upon catching sight of me, she exclaimed,  “The Cookie Lady’s here!”  You can bet your bottom dollar that I was determined at that point to show up every day with cookies in hand!

Here is how the days went: the night before I was to be on the set, I’d call the hotline for my scheduled arrival time (usually 6:00 AM) and the designated parking garage.  I’d get up at about 3:15 AM for shower, hair, make-up and clothes, then drive an hour to an hour and half (depending on traffic) to join the rest of the “Group Hug” extras (possibly the least effective secret identity in movie history).  We’d usually be on site until around 7 or 8 PM, at which point I would drive home, make cookies for the next day, collapse into bed, and then get up the next morning and do it all again.  My husband thought I was crazy to make the cookies each night after those long, crazy days, but I just had to.  Why?  Quite simply, the crew was working their butts off.  When I got there at 6:00, the hair and make-up people were all set up and ready to roll. The costume people had already laundered all of our costumes from the day before. And there were days that in addition to our daytime shoots, they also had to take care of the extras that were there to film the nighttime scenes in Germany. I figured those people needed and deserved a sugar boost, so the least that I could do was try to help!  So I brought cake bites, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, chocolate chunk cookies, and oatmeal scotchies.  I hope that the crew liked them, because I really appreciated all of the hard work they did for us!

I’ve already rambled on for nearly 1,000 words, so I’ll stop here for now.  Next time, I’ll give you a look at our days on the set, as well as some info on my appearances in the film.  Thanks for reading!