Julie Pici Unmasked

Pictures of the 3:00 parade at the Magic Kingdom, as Ariel, Belle and Mary Poppins:

I have more pictures of Ariel than any other character, simply because I was cast for 2 years in her role.  I had a lot of fun with her character but the dress was so heavy! (These pics are from the DVD, so they’re grainy.)  The Ariel and Belle pictures were taken prior to my Equity contract and before the death of my dear friend Javier Cruise, which changed this parade (and all future ones at WDW) forever.  Javier would be character dancing behind the Princess float and at certain times during our routine, he would make a huge heart sign with his hands and in return I would blow him a kiss. Little things like that really made this job even more fulfilling. I miss him…

Depending upon where I was within the choreography, and on the bridge from Liberty Square to the hub, I would always look at Cinderella Castle and thank God for this opportunity.  I was one lucky girl.

Mary Poppins

This is the only one I can find of Mary Poppins in action on route.  I’ll have to dig around for some more.

The Chimney Sweeps who danced behind this float were awesome for several reasons: 1). They danced, and I mean danced, the entire parade route.  It was a tough routine. 2). They were so much fun to interact with.  And 3). They were great with the guests and the children. Even when it was over 100%, they were so tired and sweating from their routine and thought they couldn’t go another inch, they would still get the crowd excited over the parade.  My hat’s off to them!!! Truly professional and talented!

Belle

I didn’t do her often because the dress was so heavy that it would fall down.  Costuming designed a hip pillow for me to use underneath the dress - so nice of them!  The princess dresses were about $30K each and the Belle and Ariel dress weighed about 10 - 15 lbs.

Cruella De Vil

This was a fun one! I was cast in the parade, as her and Mary Poppins, towards the latter part of my employment there.

I remember one day I was yelling at all of the guests who were smiling and waving at us.  I yelled out, “Why are you smiling?! I want boo’s!  I want my boo’s!” Then Malificent, as evil as she is, but since she and Cruella share the villainess sisterhood felt it her duty to pull me aside on the float and said, “What are you saying???!!!  Think about what you’re saying!!!” Then I realized that I was meaning that I wanted the guests to boo us.  What it sounded like was one of two things: Where are my boobs, or I want my booze!  I was mortified thinking, “Great - I just gave some guests reason to sue Disney!”  See what happens when you improvise?  Needless to say, nothing came out of that incident, whew!

I was on deck for eventually learning the routine for Snow Queen, but I never got the chance. I did learn the MGM Studios parade routine for both Cruella and Snow Queen but never got the chance to perform them either.