Last Day of Training and my first day off!

The lovely Minnie Mouse!

Winnie the Pooh- too cute for words!

Yesterday I had my last day of training. It was a lot of work on registers and becoming familiar with pirates. We started our day by watching Captain Jack's Pirate tutorial where he teaches little kids how to be a pirate. It is a lot of fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy it! She allowed us to watch so that we could get into character for working in pirates.

The cool thing about pirates that makes it different from the other shops I will be working in is that basically the store will always have people in it because when people get off the ride they empty out into the shop. It is a really cool place to work because the merchandise is unique to this shop where the kids and adults can find anything pirate related. I will definitely be coming home with some pirate merchandise!

I am really excited to work pirates because the people who work there are tons of fun! The best of them all is pirate Bob. He has been working in pirates for a long time and is always a pirate saying "ARR" in the middle of every sentence. He is really nice (for a pirate) and I am just excited to watch him interact with guests. Supposedly a lot of guests know about Pirate Bob and they make a point to see him at some point during there visit. There is also this really sweet older married couple that work together at pirates, which is pretty much the most adorable thing ever!

Basically, we were given the opportunity to get on the registers and ring up guests for practice purposes. Then we had to take our assessment, which is an online test that is graded to show that we know the information that is presented. We also got to meet with another one of our managers who is tons of fun and wants the best for us. It is sad that so many people are terminated from this program for such stupid reasons! All you have to do is behave yourself and be on time and you will be successful. It is ridiculous that some people can't handle that.

To celebrate our last day of training we went out for drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings and this was no ordinary buffalo wild wings. At 11:00 this sports bar turns into a night club with a DJ outside and karaoke inside and the place was packed! It was one of the weirdest Buffalo Wild Wings experiences ever! I got wrist-banded for being over 21 and everything! I have never heard of a B-Dubs having this. We had fun, but it was definitely not what we expected!

Today was my first day off and we headed over to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We were there almost the entire day and pretty much rode all the rides we would have wanted to ride and got pictures with tons of characters! The Kilimanjaro Safari, as always was lots of fun and we saw an adorable 3 month old elephant!

We saw Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore and they are pretty much the cutest things ever! Then we went to Camp Minnie Mickey and saw Minnie, Goofy, Turk from Tarzan, Thumper and his girlfriend from Bambi (I kissed Thumper on the nose!). On the way to the parade we also saw Lilo and Stitch. So we did pretty well for ourselves! It is just the beginning. My goal is to have pictures with as many characters as possible and today I got a pretty good start. I am hoping to go to Magic Kingdom tomorrow since I have the day off to get some more pictures. I don't have another day off until next Saturday and I feel like I have to make the most out of my days off!

We watched the parade at Animal Kingdom as well which was extra special because I got to see my friend Jill dancing on stilts in the parade!

Tonight we are going to Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic which is always a great show! I am actually getting really excited (I know I keep saying excited) to work without a trainer on Saturday ad I get to work pirates which makes it even better!

I hope everyone is well back home! Miss you terribly!

I forgot to mention Flik from A Bug's Life! 

 

 

 

 

Harry Potter world!

Butterbeer! It tastes like rootbeer and cream soda

The frog choir! Pretty much hilarious....2 beat boxers....2 singers.....2 frogs (the ultimate acapella group)

Hogwarts castle!

Cinderella's Castle.....absolutely beautiful!

Donald and friends in Mexico at Epcot!

More Training

It is becoming very interesting to me how many training courses we have to take online. I mean it makes sense since 65,000 people work at the Walt Disney World Resort and there is no way to teach everything everyone needs to know in classes. This is why we take online little courses. The online courses can be kind of boring, but it is very useful information and the courses you take are specific to your line of work. I just thought I would mention that so that you all can see how the Walt Disney Company does everything they do!



Today, we applied all we learned in the cash register simulation yesterday. We rang up actual customers and did the last of our training in Adventureland. Tomorrow we do more of the same, but on the pirates side of things.

The thing that is so interesting about the Walt Disney World guest is that they are relaxed because they are on vacation. I started talking to some guests today and they would have just stood there talking to me if i had not ended the conversation. When I worked at Bath and Body Works most customers wanted nothing to do with us. That is why we call them guests because they are guests in our home and our park. I really like that we use the term guest because it allows us to enjoy their company and not sell sell sell (as I had to at bath and body).


I am excited to really start working. Training today was from 10:30-7:00 and it was a long day! My other shifts, at least at this point, are not as long. The thing that is tricky is that I have to get on the bus an hour and a half before work and I don't get home until anywhere between 30-60 minutes after my shift ends. So even though my shift may not be that long, it still takes up my entire day. It kind of cuts down on the social life! I can't wait for Thursday and Friday when I have time off!


I am getting really excite for halloween and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! I have heard it is amazing! It is good to have something to look forward to that isn't work!


I am hoping to post some pictures tonight. Our internet is really inconsistent!I haven't taken very many yet because it has been mostly training.....but it is just the beginning!

Huge Update

The internet has been causing lots of problems for us so I have not been able to blog for a while! So I have to backtrack to Saturday I think which was my Magic Kingdom theme park training. The training was really fun. They decided instead of lecturing us in a classroom we would go out and experience the park! They told us all of these really cool things. For example, Main Street USA which is the entrance to the Magic Kingdom slopes upward to slow people down as they come running into the park. When the park opens people come running down main street to be the first to ride their favorite ride. Also, since human nature is to go to the right, the entrance to Tomorrowland is wider than the other lands. Then as I mentioned before the park slopes downward on the way out to make it easier for tired guests to make it down Main Street to wherever they need to go. Throughout the day we heard tons of cool information like that. We also got to ride Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear and it was lots of fun. At the end of the day we got our training schedule and our more specific assignments which included getting our costumes!

Sorry, no pictures yet but just wait until you see how awesome my costumes are! I am working in Adventureland, Pirates of the Carribean gift shop and also Glow (I will explain what this is later). For Adventureland I wear the costume they call pajamas. They are super comfy but a pretty loud print. They are supposed to look like Aladdin-esque. We call them our MC Hammer pants. Then I have a pirate costume which is pretty sweet. Finally I have glow, this includes the carts that sell the light up merchandise during fireworks and at night, also squeeze-breezes during the day. It is actually pretty cool because we will walk in the front of parades and get to watch the fireworks and stuff. Also, we will get lots of hours between our Adventureland shops and glow. The glow costume is white knickers and a blue and white striped blouse, with an optional white hat during the day. I am pretty excited about my location. Aladdin and Jasmine come and visit our shop, Agrabah's Bazaar so I will get to see them a lot which is going to be tons of fun.

After training a friend that I will be working with, her roommate and I went to Epcot and hung out there. It was pretty much pouring rain (like it does every day here) the whole time we were there, but I got a pretty sweet picture with Donald wearing a sombrero and drank maragaritas in Mexico and had a quiche in France. I am a lucky girl!

Yesterday, we had our first day of on-the-job training, which was basically a general overview of working in Adventureland training. Pretty basic stuff, but my trainer Deepa is really nice and we enjoyed our time with her. it was a very long day though and we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day. One thing we learned about was the Pirates League. Every kid should do it! It is a place where kids and parents can be transformed into pirates! It is so much fun and so cool! I highly recommend it! I was given my own pirate name: Constance Redgrave! Everybody who comes to the Pirates League gets a pirate name. If pirates, is not for you the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is super cute where princesses come and get their hair done by a fairy godmother in training. The girls look so cute and I see them all over the park!

Today was another day of training, but at Disney University. We did some online tutorials that all cast members have to do and then we did register training. It was so interesting because they had a room full of training registers for us to practice on! So, we had simulations we had to do with partners and learning how to do things the Disney way. It is quite different than my work at Bath and Body Works.

What I am most excited for is Magical Moments. Disney is all about making Magical Moments for our guests and I can't wait to interact with the kids! We got lanyards with pins on them and if you have never been to Disney before pin trading is huge here! That one day of on the job training I got stopped by at least 10 people in the maybe hour and a half I was out there asking to see my pins and trading. It is great because it allows us to talk to the guests and the kids are so cute because they are constantly searching for that one pin that they want.

I have 2 more days of training and then I am ready to work in Adventureland. I will not be trained on Glow until September 9, so I have a bit of time before I have to worry about that. I also will be trained on stock room next week. Speaking of next week, I got my schedule and it is pretty crazy! I will be working Pirates Saturday-Friday for on average 7 hour shifts every day. Luckily, I have Thursday and Friday off this week and my friend and I already have plans to go to Animal Kingdom!

I had a pretty rough start at first making the transition here. I love my friends at school and at home so much that it was hard coming here and not having them all here! I miss them so much and it is hard to start over, but things are getting better and I have met some pretty cool people that I think are going to be my friends through this whole program. I knew that things would work out and it would take time, but I just hated feeling so lonely. I feel so much better now especially with working and finding some really great friends.

I love you all so much and I miss you all already! This is why you should all come down to visit! :)

Wow this was a long blog, but I hadn't written anything in a while so I figured I should. I promise pictures will be coming soon!

Training

Last night we had that "Be Our Guest" Welcome Party, which was fun until it started to torrential downpour. This was kind of funny because half the people were in the pool (forgot to mention it was a pool party) and it didn't matter to them while the rest of us were soaking wet outside of the pool. It all worked out in the end. We got free pizza and I got to meet one of my all time favorite characters: Belle! She was fantastic. When I walked up to her she said, "I love your skirt. Those flowers must be enchanted!" It was pretty much the most amazing thing that anyone could have said. While the group of us that got the picture walked away, she said "Goodbye princesses." Also amazing.

Then I got to meet Mickey which was tons of fun. he was wearing his chef hat for whatever reason and I of course got a picture! I am waiting until I have a few more pictures to bother with uploading them. Not much else exciting since I had to get up at 5:30 this morning for training. It was called Traditions and I learned tons of cool stuff about the company, I got to go underground and came up in Main Street USA where I saw Peter Pan and Wendy (so cute by the way!), Mary Poppins and Bert, and even the Fairy Godmother. It is such a magical place. I love seeing all the little girls all dolled up after going to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!

Then we came back and I got my official ID which gets me into all of the parks (including water parks) for FREE! I also got my official name tag with Illinois State on it. I am really pumped for tomorrow and my Magic Kingdom theme park training. I am so lucky to be working in the Magic Kingdom. It is really my favorite place!

This afternoon I am going with some people I met over to the Magic Kingdom to hang out so that should be fun. However, I can't be out too late since I have training early tomorrow morning as well!

Ta-ta for now!

Disney Day 2

So my roommates and I all went to bed early last night given the crazy long day we had tomorrow. Honestly, last night wasn't too exciting. We don't have a TV and all of us kind of just stared at each other wondering what there was to do, which was really nothing. There is a "Be Our Guest" Welcome Party tonight that is going to be a lot of fun, but other than that I have nothing to do today. It is definitely the calm before the storm because tomorrow I have Traditions, which all CP kids must attend for 5 hours. Then I have Magic Kingdom theme park training on Saturday from 7:15-1:00 and Merchandise Tire 1(still not sure what this is) from 9:30-6:00 on Sunday. So, I should enjoy the break while I have it. The tricky thing is there is really no way to go out and meet people other than going to the pool. It is so different than college where you walk down the hallways and see people's doors open, go in and just introduce yourself. The complexes are very separated and the doors are all closed and locked and you would pretty much be a creeper if you went and knocked on doors. I have a feeling that I will meet people in training and will really become friends with the people I will work with.

Now I realized that I did not give info about roommates because on my last blog I had none. So, my roommate is from Louisiana and really cool! She wants to do Sound Programming or something like that so we have music in common. We are going to get along great! The room next to mine is 2 girls from Puerto Rico that are best friends from home. They have been teaching me Spanish and some Puerto Rican sayings they have. It is great and very different from any rooming situation I would have had at ISU. The third bedroom has 1 girl from Washington (the state) and this is her fourth program, which is proving to be very helpful and we ask her tons of questions! The other girl is from Arizona and is really fun too. So, I got really lucky and have pretty great roommates!

I just need to be patient and know that I will make lots of friends and it really is only the second day. I am super excited for tonight though!

One last funny thing. The two girls from Puerto Rico have a friend here that has been working for a couple months. He came over last night and he looked at me and said I look like Cinderella. He said he would know because he has met her. Then he proceeded to call me Cinderella the rest of the night. That pretty much made my day! (oh and it was not a pick-up line as my brother thought because "I am not his type" if you know what I mean:) )

Anyway, I will blog tomorrow after training and such!

Move-in Day!

Whew, holy cow that was a morning! We left the hotel at 6:30am because we were told to get there by 7:00am. I walk up and am instantly nervous because all of the people around me already have roommates or were matched with roommates online. Since mine decided not to come last minute, there was no time to find a new roommate. I met some really nice people and I think it is going to be just fine though. I still don't have a roommate at the present time, but in my 3 bedroom apartment there are at least 2 other girls here, only 1 here now.

So, this morning we did all of the housing stuff and I got Chatham Square, which is the place I wanted to be, in a 3 bedroom as I already said. The apartment is super nice. a dining area, big kitchen, large closet and bathroom for every 2 people. It is super nice, especially compared to the apartment I had at school.

Then we went to casting, which made me super nervous because that is where I found out my placement. I am super excited because I was placed in the Magic Kingdom in Adventureland! I was told that I will have a comfortable costume, not the coolest looking, but at least it will be comfortable which is great.

So, this afternoon I have a Welcome Session at 2:45. Nothing tomorrow, and then I have a Traditions training class super early on Friday and a Magic Kingdom theme park training on Saturday, which I am super pumped for as well.

Lots to look forward to and can't wait. Everyone keeps telling us that the time here flies and that does not surprise me!

That's all for now.

Fast forward to Arrival!

So, 3 suitcases later and some miscellaneous things thrown into my brother and dad's suitcases we are here! We flew out of midway on Sunday and were to our hotel by around 3. We started the trip at Disney Hollywood Studios because this supposedly awesome ride Toy Story Mania was closing on Monday for refurbishment. We Got to the park got a much needed lunch after really only eating airplane peanuts and headed to the ride, which as you could probably guess had a 120 minute wait. It ended up being really only an hour 45, but it felt much longer. The ride was fun, but I am not sure that it was worth the wait. You basically sit in the ride and move through different arcade games. The games are basically shoot things down to get the most points. I think the wait was so long because of the pausing at each game station. I could see how kids would like it. The. We headed overt Rockin Roller Coaster which us a favorite in our family, which did not disappoint despite the hour wait. Then we ended our Hollywood Studios visit with my all time favorite Tower of Terror. Dad chickened out, but the rest of us enjoyed the ride.

I had forgotten about the crazy long lines that happen at Disney. I think when I was younger had so much fun that I didn't even notice the wait times.

Anyway, then we headed over to Magic Kingdom and basically walk right on the rides over there. I feel like it was weird to not start at the Magic Kingdom because it just did not feel like Disney. Then we headed home for some much needed rest.

It was funny because everywhere we went we noticed how many "merchandise" things are. There are so many places I could be working. I keep saying I can't wait until Wednesday when I will know my placement.

Another new development is that the roommate that I was matched with is no longer doing the program. So, I will be talking to people in line on Wednesday to find a roommate, which kind of makes me nervous. I have no idea who I am living with, where I am working, where I am living and tons of other things. I know that everything will become clear on Wednesday, but it just makes me anxious.

So, today mom and I are headed back to the Magic Kingdom while Dad and Brandon are on the back stage tour that mom and I took 4 years ago. Today is our relaxation day since Harry Potter is tomorrow over at Universal Studios and then move in on Wednesday. I swear these blogs will get more interesting once I start working. For now, I am on vacation!

By the way, it is crazy hot and steamy here. There were multiple times I was dripping in sweat. I hope it is not like this for much longer. I am hoping that in late September there will be a relief from at least the humidity.

Good bye for now!

Packing Day 1

So, today I began packing, which is one of my least favorite things to do. I am usuallly a minimalist packer, but given that I am packing for nearly 5 months, I can't be completely minimalist. The other challenge I am facing is the fact that I am packing for a trip that runs August-January in Florida. I am asking myself questions like, how many pants should I take? Do I really need a ton of sweatshirts? Have I packed too many tops? Do I need a ton of dress clothes? Do I need a formal dress for the Disney version of prom?

The interesting thing about working for Disney is that I will have to keep up the "Disney Look" as they call it. There are restrictions (only when I am "on stage" which means working!) with jewelry, hair color, and make-up. I am not allowed to wear any rings, only silver or gold jewelry that is small, one piece of jewelry on one hand and a ton of other rules. You also have to maintain a hair color that appears natural and compliments your skin tone. This is not hard for me, but it is just interesting to see that they put so much in the "look" that their employees have.

There are also rules in terms of dress when I go through Traditions which is a training course that all Disney College Program (CP for short) students must maintain. We must wear close toed shoes and professional dress. If a skirt or dress is worn, you must wear pantyhose. Since I absolutely hate pantyhose, I will be bringing dress capris and pants to avoid this. I will really only be wearing it for this one session of training and for any classes/seminars I attend while I am down there. I plan to take some seminar-like classes on resume writing, interview skills, and professional development that will help with my job search that I will be starting not long from now.

So, back to the packing fiasco that was today. I really only packed for a few hours, but I am doing pretty well. It is looking like I will need 4 suitcases to move me down there. (Who knows how many I will need on my return trip given my shopping habits and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!) The lucky thing is we are flying Southwest and each person is allowed to have 2 suitcases. So, each of my family members will have their own suticase and one of mine. I am trying to be really organized, but packing at this scale is really hard.

The nice thing is that the apartment I will be living in will be fully furnished including pots and pans, plates, silverware,etc. So at least I don't need to worry about all of this stuff. What might end up happening is that my parents will ship stuff to me so we will see!

I am also getting quite sentimental about leaving. I have never been away from home for this long before and it is going to be a difficult transition, but I know that I will have a blast and I am really excited for this opportunity I have been given!

That's all for now. I promise I will not bore you with packing info all week, but I will try to give some more info about what is involved with the CP.