Breakfast with Amber

March 2023: Must Do Daphne

Now, this one, I have a lot to write about, and I should because this project occupied many a waking thought for over a year. It all started in March of last year when we went to Disney World for spring break. At some point during the course of the trip that I got nostalgic for the "Must Do Disney" video that would play on loop on the hotel TVs. (And I would watch it on loop because I loved it that much.) I remembered how much I wanted to be the host of "Must Do Disney" as a kid, but then I had a realization, probably while I was using my phone: this phone had a camera on it that I used all the time. What was stopping me from roping my parents into filming me at different places all around Disney World and then editing it all together to make my own Must Do Disney? It could be called Must Do Daphne! So I got to work.

I started writing the script while I was still in Disney World in March of 2022. It wasn't finished by the time I got back to campus, though, but I was still determined to get this script done. In experiential design, I'd pull the script up on the computers in the computer lab. In any other class, I'd use my laptop. I wasn't right in Disney World anymore, so I had to pull up the maps of each park so I could remember what the parks looked like and what attractions were in them and then write funny little quips about each one. I ordered the attractions by location so that I could create a seamless path through each park. For example, in the Magic Kingdom, I started out with the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train since that's the big E-ticket attraction and then went counterclockwise, continuing through the rest of Fantasyland and then into Liberty Square, Frontierland, Adventureland, Main Street, and then finally Tomorrowland. Not only did I include the four theme parks, I wrote segments for the water parks, Disney Springs, and even a quick tour through some of my favorite resorts.

Once I had the script done, all I had to do was wait a year because we had already decided to go again the next spring break. That would be when we'd get started on filming. I had to make a few cuts as I prepared for this video to become a real thing and not just an idea in my head. For example, we didn't have any plans to visit the water parks, so those got cut, as did Disney Springs. I also cut the resorts segment initially, but there wasn't anything stopping us from doing a little resort-hopping while we were there, right?

Three weeks before the trip, I decided it was finally time to do some recruitment (after a week of putting it off, of course), and what better way to ask my parents for help with a personal project than with an e-mail with the subject line "I have a favor to ask"? I told them such things as, "I know what you're thinking: Daph, what's with the sudden email with the cryptic subject line?'" "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to film me for this video," "Alright, ONE more thing: do you mind sending me that one photo of me on Triceratop Spin with Dad when I was little? I want to show it in the intro," and "This message will self-destruct in five seconds, but not really."

And they did choose to accept it, including the resorts, so I added that back into the script.

On March 11, I returned to Disney World and met up with my parents ready to get to work on this bold new project...tomorrow. I was hoping to knock out a few of the resorts since we weren't going to any parks that day, but I didn't arrive in Orlando until 4:40 pm, and I was already too tired to get any filming done. On March 12, however, we were in business.

That day's theme park was Animal Kingdom, and we busted out of our hotel at 7:11 so we could get there for rope drop at 7:30. Sunrise was at 7:39. Anyway, as we rode in the car to Animal Kingdom, I looked over the script on my phone to make sure I wouldn't mess up my lines when I was actually at the park. We parked in the massive Disney parking lot, walked to the entrance, and was presented with my first task: stand in front of the entrance and sing "Naaaaaaaants ingonyama!" It took a few takes before I finally got one I was satisfied. Then my mom suggested that I wait a second before I start talking so that I don't get cut off at the beginning. If you watch the Animal Kingdom segment and notice that the "Naaaaaaaaants ingonyama" starts without any sort of pause at the beginning, that's why.