The Fabulous Disney Babe
Page 3 of 20

Lunch at the Soap Opera Bistro
The actors work in shifts of two to three actors at a time, starting shifts every fifteen minutes. For example, on Sunday, Cameron Mathison and Marcy Walker started at noon, Alicia Minshaw and Eden Riegel at 12:15, etc. These appearances are NOT mentioned in the literature you get; you'll have to ask the reservations Cast Member when you make your lunch reservations AS SOON AS THE PARK OPENS. Usually, I would recommend the Wharf as the most heavily themed and romantic area of the restaurant. If you have a camera, however, try to be seated in the Chandler Mansion or the One Life to Live (thanks, Cindy) Wedding Garden, as they are well-lit and your photos will come out better. Keep in mind that there is a fifteen-dollar minimum per person for food, there is a one-hour limit for dining to discourage camping out (I never felt rushed), and that you CAN order the Fun Fondue dessert from the children's menu.

If you are really hardcore, do the 11:45 lunch and the 5:15 dinner.

(c) Disney
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(925 X 765, 128,674 bytes)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
As soon as you have your lunch reservations, go get your Millionaire tickets. They will stamp your gate pass when they give you the ticket; I'm not sure what they do for Annual Passports - will someone please let me know? Thanks. Why? First reason: extremely high demand, of course. Second reason: everyone in the audience gets a prize, determined by the point amounts the stars reach. For 1000 points, each guest gets a merchandise gift certificate good in the park until April 21. Next, a vinyl SoapNet tote bag. If they reach the million-point mark, everyone in the audience gets a special edition Super Soap Weekend t-shirt - white, not gray like the ones for sale in the park. Queue up a fifteen minutes early or so for this one. There really isn't a bad seat in the house. My media host, Kris, got the highest score for the audience, the smartie.

Merchandise
Event-specific pins and t-shirts, costumes worn by the actors, the usual stuff they have at SoapLink, and a kewl KISS bowling shirt that I must own.

Smartest merchandise move on Disney's part: Selling Sharpie pens for a buck each right next to the t-shirts; people buy a shirt, have all of the stars sign it, and never wear it. What a great souvenir. Also, I noticed people buying extra sharpies (sharpies are permanent markers with a sharply conical tip, making for nicer writing than the slanted permanent markers) Everyone who stood in line at the autograph sessions got a personalized autograph on 5X7(ish) headshot of the actor. Many people would hand the actor the pen, the actor would sign the photo, and the fan would keep that pen with the photo as a remembrance. One woman described to me how she planned on matting and framing the pen J. Eddie used together with the photo he signed.

Dumbest merchandise move on Disney's part: You know how we theme park fans are always whining about how there isn't enough attraction-based merchandise? There was no All My Children Super Soap Weekend Merchandise! There was generic All My Kids merchandise, there was generic Super Soap merchandise, but nothing specific. I cannot believe the Kings of the Pin World dropped the ball on this one. Character merchandise would have been popular too, from what people kept telling me.

The cast of All My Children (c) Disney
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(550 X 770, 131,104 bytes)

Cavalcade of the Stars
This isn't, like the superior version at Walt Disney World, a relaxed motorcade, where fans can take lots of photos of their favorite stars in twos and threes. The stars all board a float with two staircases which moves rather quickly through the parade route. People can snap a couple of photos, but half the cast is on the other side of the float from them, making for disappointed fans. There is a lot of yelling and shoving. Susan Lucci was at the top, facing the back, so that everyone could see her. She blew a kiss near Pacific Wharf and people screamed and fell over. I kid you not. Look at this view of the backside of soap. I didn't see crowds like that follow a parade when it was electrical, and those crowds got bad near the end of its Magic Kingdom stint.