By BRODIE H. BROCKIE
EXPEDITION EXPOSITION
So it was that we were planning what we thought would be our next Disney trip, our honeymoon, when I was doing some online research and first found out about the Disney Dream Jobs competition. As part of their Year of a Million Dreams promotion, Disney was partnering with Careerbuilder.com to hold a competition to find 25 Americans to spend a day as an honorary cast member (what Disney calls its employees), five each in five different positions: a pirate apprentice, an honorary parade performer, a butler or maid in The Hauned Mansion, a princess in waiting, or an honorary skipper on The Jungle Cruise. In addition, each winner would be flown out to Disneyland for four days, given a room in the Disneyland hotel, and get a $250 gift certificate to spend at the resort. Contestants were to send in a 45 second video explaining why they would be the best person for the job.
I knew I had to apply.
There were lengthy additional details and contest rules and additional details in legalese and I made a mental note to come back and read them all later. The deadline was coming up at the end of February, and with a week and a half left, I decided I had better get started. That's when I finally read all the rules, and noticed that I was wrong about the deadline. Videos weren't due the next week, they were due the next day. I despaired for a moment, but then I noticed another detail I'd missed before. Videos were not to exceed 45 seconds. Even with only a day to go, I thought I might be able to manage a decent 45 seconds.
So the next day, during my lunch hour, after work (but before I had play practice that night), I managed to shoot two different auditions. I couldn't pick just one. The Haunted Mansion is my all-time favorite attraction in any theme park and an inspiration for my annual haunted trail productions in Marshall, but the job of the jungle cruise skipper looked a lot more active and a lot more fun. Somehow I managed to get both auditions shot, edited, and submitted online with about an hour to spare before the deadline.
This was my Jungle Cruise audition:
A few years ago I met the love of my life, Christa Weddle. As our relationship grew serious, we decided to plan our first vacation together and were both excited about going to Disney World in the early summer of 2005. Our growing love mingled with our love of the parks and along the way the Magic Kingdom and its brother and sister parks became a part of our relationship. When we returned the following year, I proposed to her inside of Cinderella's castle.
Brodie proposes to Christa.
Exactly a week later, on February 27, I was notified that I was a finalist for the Jungle Cruise skipper position. Twenty finalists were chosen in each category and all of our videos were posted on careerbuilder.com. Points had been awarded by judges based on humor, originality, character/personality, and entertaining. From March 6 to March 30, the public was invited to vote for their favorite videos and additional points were added to our totals based on those votes.
On Tuesday, April 3rd, I was notified that I was one of the winners. I was going to Disneyland! I could take three guests with me. Christa got one slot, of course, and the other two went to my parents, Dale and Wendy Brockie of Marshall. In addition to having always been my biggest supporters, they had also taken my on those early trips that had made me love Disney parks.
CONTINUE TO PART TWO: A RIDE OUTSIDE OF THE PARKS
