Sometimes you just get lucky. I’ve heard someone won a contest and was able to play a round of golf with Tiger Woods. Maybe you’d like to prepare a meal with Emeril Lagasse. Or how cool would it be to play bass guitar with the Stones on “Satisfaction”? I haven’t done any of those things, but I recently had the distinct pleasure of enjoying the newest Walt Disney World attraction prior to its official opening date. Not cool enough? I was accompanied on the attraction by one of the Imagineers who designed it. Now is it cool enough for you?
Let me tell you how this happened. We (most of my family and I) were getting ready for a Walt Disney World vacation and, representing MousePlanet, I had requested an interview with an Imagineer. I specifically requested someone that had worked on a recent attraction, but to be honest, knowing how busy they are I would have been happy talking with the cast member who sells balloons on Main Street (how do they keep them organized?).
The day prior to the interview, I was thrilled to learn I would be speaking with Jonathan Ackley of Walt Disney Imagineering, but still had no idea which attractions Jonathan had worked on. I was able to prepare the typical generic questions for an interview, but nothing very specific. I met Jonathan along with Benjamin Thompson and Diego Parras in Epcot’s Germany. Benjamin is a Public Relations Manager for Disney and was kind enough to set up the interview for me. Diego is a Media Relations & Broadcast Manager for Walt Disney Imagineering and was there accompanying Jonathan. As it turns out, Jonathan was one of the Imagineers heavily involved in the design, development and implementation of the new Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure (and now I was really regretting not playing the game yesterday when I saw they were in “soft opening”).
I had come equipped with a notepad and a voice recorder and was asking Jonathan what would be the best way to conduct this interview when he said, “Why don’t we just play?”
Uh… OK.
We chatted a bit as he walked me down toward the nearest Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure distribution cart in Italy. These carts are very nondescript except for a very subdued “KP.”