A Visit to Craig's "Secret" Project (Craig's perspective)

[A guest post from Craig]

One of the most exciting days I ever have doing my job is taking my family to see something I helped create. I remember when taking both my kids and Laura to The Making of Harry Potter. I was so proud of what the team had done and so excited to share something I had spent so long creating with those I love.

I got to that again yesterday. The biggest project I’ve ever done and certainly the longest project (10 years!) I’ve ever worked on I was finally able to share with Laura. I brought her to the dusty site, suited her up in PPE (Personal Protection Equipment, i.e. hard hat, high-vis vest, and boots) and take her out to walk the park. The tour took us more than two hours and we walked over four miles. I took her through all the lands and most of the attractions, getting a chance to walk the ride paths of the rides and attractions, with a few minor exceptions.

There’s so many details to explain, so many stories to share, so much background. I wanted to share it all. I talked continuously as we went. There’s so much dust, construction, noise, and smoke that by the time we got about 60% of the way around the park I started to get horse. I could see Laura wasn’t feeling well—there are a lot of semi-toxic fumes from paint, epoxy, and lord knows what else, I think it was all getting to her.

We eventually completed the tour and emerged from the park to the blinding sunshine. We went back to the construction trailers for a bit before returning to the park to begin attraction programming, where we were to stay until about 9 pm, but with many technical SNAFUs and other problems, we called it a night early out of frustration.

Still on the island, Laura and I drove to the hotel cluster and went to a “Mexican” restaurant. The food was good and we were starving because we had a pretty mediocre KFC lunch.

It was wonderful, while we were at dinner, to hear Laura talk about her experiences in the park—the things that impressed her, the things that surprised her, the things she looked forward to. As I said, I’m a proud papa showing off my very-long-in-the-making baby. I’m so proud of the work we’ve done and Laura has seen bits and pieces on my laptop over the years. It’s remarkable for me to see it all come together—so many bits and a litany of details—I can only imagine what it’s like for someone to see it for the first time.

I’ll take her back to visit when we leave for LA at the beginning of May so she can see how things have progressed in the month and half between visits. That’ll be interesting, too. Then, she probably won’t visit again until the grand opening festivities when everything is finished.