New here!

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

It's been about 20 years since I worked for the Mouse, lol.

I do, in fact, have a trip coming up. I'm headed down in March w/ a former Railie friend. We're staying at BLT & looking forward to checking out the Flower & Garden Festival.

Behind the scenes tips? Hmmm... Quickest way to get to the Contemporary from TTC? Ride an exterior (express) train to MK, then jump on a lagoon (resort) train. Next stop? Contemporary! That's about all I've got. Told ya, it's been a while. I worked mousekeeping (which really was only known as housekeeping, back in the day!) at Yacht & Beach, with infrequent trips to other resorts. My favorite memory from housekeeping was being shipped over to the Disney Inn, where I got to clean a suite. It was themed like the Dwarves' cabin! So cool! I've looked for pictures online, but I can't find any.

Disney faves? MK - BTMRR, Mansion, PoC, & SM; EC -Soarin' & Maelstrom; DHS (which will always be Disney MGM Studios to me!)-Star Tours, TSM

I don't care for AK at all...

Resorts... Not sure I can pick a favorite. We own at BLT. I have a soft spot for all the monorail resorts, since I spent so much time at each of them. But they each have something special about them, if you ask me.

Restaurants... I've only been to V&A's once, but that was pretty yummy. The Wave was good. Columbia Harbour House in MK isn't bad. Narcoossee's was good too.

My favorite quiet spot to ponder life is the end of the pier at the Contemporary, late at night. I always found that to be very peaceful. Watching the MK fireworks from the observation deck (outside of the California Grille) & listening to car alarms go off after each of the big booms is a fave memory, too.

I remember working one winter when it was COLD. We all had 3 layers on & our big peacoats were merely nylon shells w/ fur collars - no liner at all. We were freezing. There was ice hanging from the railings. Guests thought that was Disney magic, lol.

Hello, everyone! And thank you again for the warm welcome.

How fun was driving the monorail? Um, yeah, it was actually a very cool job! We had a lot of fun working. However, in this day & age, a monkey could drive those trains. Top speed in the Mark VI trains is 40, I think. (It's been 20 yrs.!) The Mark IVs, however, didn't have speed governors on them. Many, many stories of taking 5-car gold (think less weight!) out on the EPCOT straightaway at P-4 (full throttle), lol. Rockin' & a-rollin' into the S-curves... Aaah, the good old days! Can't do that with standing passengers though. I originally drive-trained on the Mark IVs & got to drive-train on the Mark VIs as well. I even got to work some of the late-night testing shifts. Not many though.

Things have changed greatly since I worked there. When I was there, there NEVER would have been the crash that took that poor pilot's life. Never. They've come to rely too much on technology & no one (not the central lead, the platform operators, the driver of the train that survived or the poor young man who passed.) was paying attention at a critical time when the safety systems were bypassed. It's an utter shame.

On to a more upbeat topic... my upcoming trip is Mar. 20-23, with a fellow former pilot. We're heading down specifically for Flower & Garden, but I am certain there'll be lots of reunion time w/ fellow railies who still live down there. We don't have anything set at this point beyond a lakeview studio at BLT. I asked about ADRs or extra; she's deferring to me & I haven't been motivated to make any decisions. It'll be a great time regardless!

Oh, and you'd asked about the cockpit... The space was shaped like a U. The doors would be at the top part, the nose cone the bottom. As you walked in the door, there was a seat against the back wall; the back wall also held some controls, bypass switches & gauges, IIRC. The bottom curve of the U was simply a bench seat, going from door to door. Directly in front of the chair was a console stand, where there was the microphone for radio/spiels, the throttle handle (up to go, down to brake) & gauges for the psi of the air brakes. There was also forward/reverse switches & things like that...

Yep, Greenfield Village is our local attraction. It's actually a pretty cool place, as is the Henry Ford museum. For those who don't know, way back in the day, Henry Ford bought up some historical buildings & had them moved to the site in Dearborn. Thomas Edison's lab is there, the Wright brothers' bike shop is there, Noah Webster's house is there - stuff like that. The collection of these buildings is known as Greenfield Village. It's set up like an old time town, with streets & 'districts'. They have model T's you can ride in, horse & buggy rides, an old locomotive that runs around the park. It's a pretty unique place, IMO.

In the Henry Ford museum, there's all kinds of transportation-related history - planes, trains & automobiles, literally. There's the car Kennedy was riding in when he was shot, the bus Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on, other presidential limos & I think a pope-mobile. They have the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. All kinds of neat historical artifacts, really. We are lucky to have it! And no, it's not WDW, that's for sure, lol.

Yes, there is. It's the largest Arabic/Muslim population in the country. It's a great town with fantastic people.