Do all celebrities get a cast member escort?

need2go2wdw

need2go2wdw

Active Member
Original Poster
I was at Animal Kingdom Sunday and we saw Eva LaRue (CSI Miami, former All My Children) with her family being escorted around by a cast member. After seeing this, I remembered the day before seeing a young couple, all done up, being escorted onto BLSRS at MK (she was too busy texting through her sunglasses to look up, so I couldn't tell who she was), so I assume she was someone famous as well. Again, after seeing Eva LaRue, I then saw people being escorted around of 3 more occasions that day. One of them looked like he was one of the Detroit Tigers, but we weren't sure. One of the others was a woman with a daughter, the woman was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses and looked a little frumpy. I know Disney offers guides at a fee for anyone who wants one, but most of these people didn't look like they were paying the cast member to teach them all about the park as they walked through it. So, I was wondering is anyone knows if this happens all the time with celebrities or if they chance it on their own against the mobs of fans! If it does mean they were famous, I have no idea who all these people were that I saw this weekend! (To be honest, I generally don't pay much attention to people around me when I'm walking thru the parks, so without the cast member standing out and drawing attention to them, I would never have noticed them!)
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
For the most part any celebrity, regardless of how popular they are, will have some sort of an escort in the parks. This simply avoids a ton of problems for the person in question as well as other guests simply there to enjoy the parks. If I am not mistaken Shaq showed up one day unannounced and all hell broke loose due to people acting lake complete star struck morons.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Figment632 said:
Interesting how does this benifit DIsney though? There has to be some sort of agreement or price tag for this?
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Benefits them by helping to maintain order. If a celebrity is snuck in the back entrance, instead of having to wait in line for an hour, it greatly cuts down on people cutting in line to take pictures, climbing on things they shouldn't to get a better look, stuff like that.

Also remember, that the celebrity needs to stay someplace, and eat while there. I imagine celebrities would have no problem paying full price for rooms at GF, or doing all sorts of shopping. And if they bring an entourage? Suddenly a block of rooms are booked, and lots more merch and food gets sold.

Not to mention the simple goodwill. Extending this service to celebrities helps the mouse to keep in the public eye. I imagine sometimes they work out agreements to release pictures of the celebrity or their kids with Mickey, which gets them coverage in all the gossip mags without having to pay for it. And keeping guests happy helps to facilitate drawing names when they need people to open a new attraction, or to walk the red carpet at a premiere. Many celebrities will do things like this in exchange for favorable treatment when visiting. Nothing official or on the books of course, but an extra 30 secs on E Tonight when so and so and their 3 kids are at DLR for POTC 3 premiere, is like gold when it comes to marketing and promotions.
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Figment632 said:
Interesting how does this benifit DIsney though? There has to be some sort of agreement or price tag for this?
Click to expand...
Disney can not tell celebrities not to come to their park. They pay for their trips like everyone else but their presence, through no fault of their own, has the chance to create a crowd control issue. It benefits Disney by not ticking off the thousands of other guests who could care less which celebrity is in the parks.
 
erstwo

erstwo

Well-Known Member
dreamfinder said:
Benefits them by helping to maintain order. If a celebrity is snuck in the back entrance, instead of having to wait in line for an hour, it greatly cuts down on people cutting in line to take pictures, climbing on things they shouldn't to get a better look, stuff like that.

Also remember, that the celebrity needs to stay someplace, and eat while there. I imagine celebrities would have no problem paying full price for rooms at GF, or doing all sorts of shopping. And if they bring an entourage? Suddenly a block of rooms are booked, and lots more merch and food gets sold.

Not to mention the simple goodwill. Extending this service to celebrities helps the mouse to keep in the public eye. I imagine sometimes they work out agreements to release pictures of the celebrity or their kids with Mickey, which gets them coverage in all the gossip mags without having to pay for it. And keeping guests happy helps to facilitate drawing names when they need people to open a new attraction, or to walk the red carpet at a premiere. Many celebrities will do things like this in exchange for favorable treatment when visiting. Nothing official or on the books of course, but an extra 30 secs on E Tonight when so and so and their 3 kids are at DLR for POTC 3 premiere, is like gold when it comes to marketing and promotions.
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Helloooo Suri Cruise......
suri-cruise-disney-world-15.jpg
 
Figment632

Figment632

New Member
Master Yoda said:
Disney can not tell celebrities not to come to their park. They pay for their trips like everyone else but their presence, through no fault of their own, has the chance to create a crowd control issue. It benefits Disney by not ticking off the thousands of other guests who could care less which celebrity is in the parks.
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DO they pay for this guide?
 
Figment632

Figment632

New Member
Master Yoda said:
Disney can not tell celebrities not to come to their park. They pay for their trips like everyone else but their presence, through no fault of their own, has the chance to create a crowd control issue. It benefits Disney by not ticking off the thousands of other guests who could care less which celebrity is in the parks.
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Master Yoda said:
No clue.
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I'd be a little ticked if they are getting a free ride unless DIsney tells them we will give you a guide if you spen x amount in the parks.
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Figment632 said:
I'd be a little ticked if they are getting a free ride unless DIsney tells them we will give you a guide if you spen x amount in the parks.
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What would you be more ticked off at... Tiger Woods getting a free VIP guide or you not being able to walk through MK because Disney did not provide a one? The VIP treatment is for your benefit as well as the safety of the celebrity.
 
Figment632

Figment632

New Member
Master Yoda said:
What would you be more ticked off at... Tiger Woods getting a free VIP guide or you not being able to walk through MK because Disney did not provide a one? The VIP treatment is for your benefit as well as the safety of the celebrity.
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Unless they are paying for the special treatment they should't receive it.
 
joel_maxwell

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
Master Yoda said:
For the most part any celebrity, regardless of how popular they are, will have some sort of an escort in the parks. This simply avoids a ton of problems for the person in question as well as other guests simply there to enjoy the parks. If I am not mistaken Shaq showed up one day unannounced and all hell broke loose due to people acting lake complete star struck morons.
Click to expand...
Who would care if Shaq showed up. Not I. :D

Master Yoda said:
Disney can not tell celebrities not to come to their park. They pay for their trips like everyone else but their presence, through no fault of their own, has the chance to create a crowd control issue. It benefits Disney by not ticking off the thousands of other guests who could care less which celebrity is in the parks.
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I think this is the main point... it isnt fair to the normal quest to have pandemonium surrounding one persons attendance.

Figment632 said:
Also why do I care if they get hounded by people, that is their problem and they make enough money to deal with it.
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On their own turf sure, who cares. When you have thousands of normal quests, like us, trying to have a normal day at the parks and no crowd control or escorts for a celebrity would cause pandemonium.

Let me put it to you like this, what if my wife and I were walking down Main Street near the hub with our 2 year old daughter and a celebrity was spotted by the hub. A flash mob of hundreds of idiots start running towards said celebrity uncontrollably. We risk getting hurt, trampled or worse if we couldnt get away and crowd control wasnt applied.

Another point is that if a celebrity actually had to stand in line, the same effect would be present. Most people in line would stand there turned around trying to take pictures, trying to talk to this person etc while creating grid lock in the queue. It would uncontrollably shut down the attraction.... affecting you and I who may not care for said celebrity.

Trust us. If you were walking through FW in Epcot and couldn't get to JIYI due to a mob surrounding some lame celebrity, you would be the first to complain about it. Who cares if they get special treatment. In some ways it is their fault, but it is society that makes these people bigger then life. Blame them.
 

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