Tink Talks
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Us with the Captain at Palo's on the ship
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One night we dined at Palo�s, which is THE gourmet restaurant on board the ship. It has a Venetian flavor with hand crafted masks from Venice on the walls and gourmet Italian food. As it is at the top of the ship, there is more motion there than anywhere else but luckily this was a smooth night so there was little motion. Bradley (South Africa) from Guest Relations and I had arranged a little surprise for Margaret. In fact whenever we needed anything, it was Bradley we turned to. I had told Margaret that Bradley and I had arranged a surprise and to dress more elegantly for dinner at Palos as I would be taking pictures, which of course I did. When we arrived there, we discussed the beautiful masks and Carnival in Venice, while waiting for our table to be ready. And when I saw the Captain arrive, I brought it to her attention and of course, loving to talk, she went over and began chatting. Eventually she told him that she didn�t want to keep him from his dinner and it was only then I told her that the Captain had invited us to dinner with him. I know Margaret enjoyed herself and to be honest, it was the thrill of a lifetime to have dinner with Captain Thord Haugen of Norway myself. He had brought with him one of his officers, Trevor Enderby from the United States, who was great company as well. Of course the service, food and company were perfect. And before leaving Palo�s, the Captain told us that he would be inviting us to visit the Bridge on the next day at sea!!!! This was the icing on the cake.
Us with the Captain on the Bridge
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The next day at sea, we received a phone call from Abby (Philippines), who is the Captain�s assistant, making arrangements for us to meet so that she could escort us through the security to the Bridge as the Captain had promised. The Captain graciously posed for another picture and told us about the various functions of the controls and introduced us to the crew on the Bridge. We met Mary, first mate (Nova Scotia, Canada), who was running the ship by herself at that time with four crew members coming in and out. She was able to do this with the help of a computer which even docked the ship. There was Marko from one of the Russian countries, as well as Abby, both officers. It was a large spacious area about 80 feet wide which could substitute for a dance floor. There was a Christmas tree, as well as a large table and comfortable leather like seating area around it, like in a dining room, used instead for staff conferences. The view of the sea was glorious and an old Captain�s wheel remained which Margaret insisted we tug over to amuse the watching and adoring crew. Margaret is a gracious caring lady, who loves people but is also a well trained actress, who never takes a bad picture. And not only because she is the well loved Tinker Bell, but also for the reasons mentioned above, everyone wants to be near her. She is always on stage. If you have to be somewhere at a certain time, you have to leave extra time to get there or be rude and cut people off, which she never does. And it also means that you can never finish a conversation with her in public as someone always appears wanting to talk to her or take a picture or get an autograph or just touch her. In the beginning of the cruise, it was easier as people did not recognize her. However after the television interview that she did with Taryn of the Disney Magic Art Gallery on the fourth deck and after her talks on the ship, everyone recognized her. Acme Archives is the company that hired Margaret to appear professionally, talk about her career and Peter Pan, as well as sign the art pieces that they had for purchase and for auction on the ship.
Margaret on stage
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ACME produces original production cels which are complete set-ups dictated by the original exposure sheets with the proper background or background reproduction. The cels are generally in pretty abused shape after they are used during production, so ACME's Ink & Paint Department performs restorations that take the cel back to the condition it was in just before it hit the camera stand.
In the case of the creation of limited-edition art, ACME always tries to use artists that have worked on the particular show or film they are producing the edition from. For some of the older Disney classics, they receive generous assistance from the wonderful folks at Disney's Animation Research Library, Disney Archives and unsurpassed production work from the world-famous Disney Ink & Paint Department. You will see the definite quality difference between Disney limited-edition cels that are produced through Disney Ink & Paint and ACME and those produced and sold for much lower prices at some other Disney attractions, which is something to keep in mind when looking to buy limited-edition Disney hand-painted cels.
Margaret emphasized that she did not do lectures, but rather talks. She told of how she had been in show business since she was four years old in Our Gang Comedies, and was the ingenue lead in the film with Eddie Cantor entitled If You Knew Susie, where she danced on table tops. She showed the enthralled audience clips of those wonderful moments, along with other memorable ones. She talked about being called to audition at Walt Disney Studios for a miniature pixie and was told that she would be pantomiming as the pixie didn�t talk. She did the pantomime she performed of preparing a meal without words for us. She told us when requested to appear the following Tuesday for work by the Legendary creator of Tinker Bell, the genius Marc Davis, she asked if she should act silly or austere and he replied that he wanted her to just be herself and that is what she did.