Scott Wolf: Did your reign begin on January 1st?

AR: Yes, officially at midnight on January 1st.

Did you do anything on January 1st?

AR: Yes, the Ambassadors are a part of the countdown here at Disneyland, so when we do our big New Year's party the Ambassadors do the countdown east coast at Small World Mall and then we are part of the ceremony here at Sleeping Beauty Castle. So it's like you get your countdown and then it's, "Okay... now we're on."

Everything changes for you when you're Ambassador, right? You now have an office, or at least a cubicle, and you're no longer in the park.  What was all that like for you?

AR: I know that the day of it, January 1st, it's basically kind of like our training wheels are taken off. In this case, our training wheels were our previous Ambassadors, Andrae and Becky. They were always there. We all shared an "Ambassacube" together but this time they're gone and you're pretty much on your own. We started training in I think October, so we went through maybe a two and a half month training process. So I was officially out of my parade role as of October. Then I was here training, learning the office, learning (Microsoft) Outlook, and learning basically what does the day to day Ambassador role look like if there's not an event or if you're not traveling.

Is there a typical day?

AR: It's different every single day.

We have office duties, emails, making sure we're up to date with Cast updates, writing articles for the Line (the Disneyland internal newsletter), thank you notes, all kinds of office type things when we're not out on an event or out traveling, but usually most of the time is preparing for that event, especially if we have a script or something that we need to prepare for.

What was one of the first events you ended up doing?

AR: The first thing I remember being terrified of are our radio remotes which are basically going live on the radio and talking about what's going on at Disneyland. I was most fearful about that because I was not really knowing what I was going to be asked and if I knew the answer. So it was one of those things where it was like, "Oh, I just don't know about this. I don't know if I can have the right answer and use the right language." All those things.

I remember one of my first radio remotes and Rick Dees was my first like, "Alright Adonis, sit down and let's talk," and I had an absolute blast. It was so much fun. Of course, I get comments all the time about my hair and about my name, like, "Your hair! Oh my gosh!" I know, it's totally out of control. It's my Ambassadoo.

You've got your whole Ambassatalk.

AR: Yeah, the Ambassacube, Ambassaclothes.

Anyway, about my hair and about my name like, "I was expecting some type of buff man." Sorry, you just got me. So it kicked off with he asked me about my name and then the Ambassador program, "Tell me about that," and then we just started talking about Rockin' Both Parks. We had Rockin' Space Mountain and Rockin' California Screamin' so I thought I was going to have a hard time with that but it ended up being an absolute blast.

Throughout the year, did you feel more comfortable with those types of things?

AR: Yes and no. Yes, because I had done it before, and no because every disc jockey is different. It's just like, "Alright, let's see, what's he going to hit me with?" You can be prepared to talk about the holiday at Disneyland or Year of a Million Dreams and then you're on the air for three minutes talking about Lost & Found. It does become easier, but it's not something you can develop a comfort in and lay your guard down just because you could be hit with any type of question and you have to be prepared to answer that.

Was there anyone you met this year that really stands out?

AR: I got to spend some time with Jane Seymour which was a lot of fun. She had painted a picture of the castle  so she was here for a signing so I got to spend some time with her.

During our "Pirates" (movie) premiere I got to host George Lucas' family, and that was neat, they were a fun, fun group.

Did they turn out all the lights and project the movie on Tom Sawyer Island for the premiere?

AR: Yes, all of New Orleans Square was set up with bleachers and the projection screen on the island. It was like the classic drive-in kind of feel. You got your little blankets and your cocoa. Then for the preshow the ship comes out and you're like, "This is awesome!" Then the movie starts.

Oprah Winfrey was here. She had done a surprise trip to Disneyland for some guest on her show. I didn't meet her but we were like this far apart. It was neat because I was just back helping out and I was with Ed Grier, so she had come up and was like, "Hello, nice to meet you," and we took pictures. So there's been a lot of fun faces.

What kind of traveling did you do?

AR: This year we had an opportunity to experience an Adventures by Disney vacation and we went to Spain, and we went to Madrid and Barcelona.

Those are big, extravagant versions of Disney travel, right?

AR: Yes. The packaging and Disney heritage and values and family fun taken outside into the world. Experiencing Spain the way Disney would experience Spain. World class tour guides and the best of the food. They take care of every single detail for you. As soon as you get off the plane you're taken care of. So there's a lot of promotion going on with that this year so we had to go and experience that and do some work while we were there.

We were in the outskirts of Barcelona in the middle of nowhere and the people were like, "Where are you from?" and we'd say, "We're from California." "Really, where abouts?" We'd say, "Disneyland." "Really?!" and their face would just light up. Some people speaking very little English but yet knew Mickey Mouse, Disneyland transcends all of that. It was amazing.

Did you do a lot of other traveling?

AR: You know, every year is so different, depending on what's happening at the resort, then what initiatives we're having and promotions and all those good things. This year was a lot of travel. Now that we have Ambassadors at all four resorts we don't need to travel as much, but we got to help with (Disneyland) Paris' 15th anniversary. It was amazing! They have a dragon underneath their castle! This seething dragon had smoke and animatronics.

It's a walk through attraction?

AR: Yeah, you just walk through and there's this dragon bound to this castle. It just added an extra flair to the fairy tale.

We actually got to go to help out with their VoluntEAR of the Year ceremony. As the Ambassador we are on the VoluntEAR Leadership Council, so we're able to assist in all kinds of volunteer events at the park, and we got to go to Paris and assist with their ceremony. We were only there I think three days, so it wasn't a whole lot of time but we did get spend one day in the city and we got to see the Eiffel Tower.

Was it both you and Garnett?

AR: Yes, the whole worldwide Ambassador team went.

What was Disneyland Paris like?

AR: It was funny because it was a rainy day. It felt like home but with all these neat ideas attached to it. Their castle is beautiful and it just swept you away so you felt like you were in a faraway land. And just simple things, especially now since their celebrating their 15th, everything is decorated, like our 50th was. Everything had their 15 on it and the banners and flowers and everything everywhere.

Just to the point how we have Main Street and we have our stores on Main Street, they actually have a back tunnel so if you're wanting to shop you don't have to fight the parade traffic. There's an inner tunnel where you can come in through the back to go shopping. It's a whole enclosed tunnel area where you can stay inside and shop and not have to be outside on Main Street if you don't want to. I thought, "That's a neat idea!" Everywhere we went it felt like we had the idea but they elaborated on it a little more.

Like with Space Mountain, you know how our rocket kind of takes you up into space and then it goes crazy. Theirs shoots you up into space and then you crazy. It shoots you from the outside in, through a tunnel. Half of it is enclosed and the other half is open again and then it's enclosed again.

Now that it's coming to an end (in November), do you know what's next for you?

AR: I hibernate for a month!

This is one of the busiest times of the year for the Ambassador program. We're doing lots of events on top of holiday events and radio and all that kind of stuff. You're training the new team because they're in training right now and then you're trying to figure out what's next. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Is it fun to train the new team?

AR: It's funny because Garnett and I have different pockets of work and Garnett is overseeing their training here but we just had the worldwide team here doing training this week so I was overseeing their whole week of training. It's been great just having new bodies, an extra set of hands around the office, but a great thing is just being able to pour what we've learned into them. The weird thing is that it's like we were just here. The time has just flown by, but I feel like we raked every month for everything it was possibly worth.

More from Adonis:
Her start as Ambassador (interview from her Ambassador year)
A very special memory (interview from her Ambassador year)
Ambassador memories

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