Sunday the 15th I worked at 2:15, but the girls were heading to Studios earlier so I went with them to hang out before work! I got the most amazing milkshake from Prime Time, and watched the Little Mermaid show, which is adorable despite being so short, and then we watched Beauty and The Beast again, which I would happily watch over and over again if given the chance.
Then I had work, and I was feeling nervous because it was my first day alone without a trainer!I was doing streets, and found out that I was assigned the rock in roller coaster courtyard and ride line to take care of for the afternoon and evening. Panning and brooming the area was fun, I talked to guests and took photos for people by the guitar. The trash run was harder since I had to squeeze through the line to get the garbage, but it was so cool to watch the cars take off at the loading area. Overall it was a good first day
Monday was my first restroom day, so I was assigned two restrooms to maintain for the evening. I felt stressed out at first since I wasn't sure if I was rememebering what to do properly, but it got easier with time.
Tuesday the 17th I had my first class, Disney Guest Services at Chatham! This was a great class all about the different roles that you can have at Disney and how disney strives to make each area have great customer service. The teacher was great and the classroom was beautiful. The class was from 11am-1pm, and I then had to travel home and get ready for work from 3:45-9:45.
I was assigned fantasmic restrooms, but since it was raining the shows were cancled so myself and the other fantasmic custodians didn't have a lot to do.
Wednesday was my day off! Before I could go have fun, I had to figure out where my maingate pass was, because all my roommates had got theirs in the mail but I had not and neither had Abby! So we went up to the clubhouse to ask and found out that our passes had both been sent to Patterson for some reason!
So Abby, Megan and I made the jaunt over to patterson, which was lovely of course and made us very jealous of our friends living their, and got our passes.
Then we hopped on a bus to our destination for the day...Animal Kingdom!! First on our agenda was to find Sydney, who was working in Africa!
_____ .
We found her, doing a great job selling merchandise, and then we went to get lunch at Pizzafari.
Afterward we saw festival of the lion king, which was a great show although I wish it were a little longer!
Then the girls went on Everest while I went down one of the animal trails and took photos of tigers.
When they were finished, we headed to Finding Nemo the Musical, Which I was surprisingly impressed with! The show was very colorful and the music was good!
Then we went and met doug and russel from Up, and Phocahontas!
Then we wanted to see Abby's resort, The Yacht and Beach Club, so we took a bus over there and explored there. It was beautiful, especially on the beach side looking out over the boardwalk.
It was freezing cold at this point, but we really wanted ice cream from beaches and cream so we, went in the to go line and got some amazing ice cream cones that we ate in the Yacht club lobby.
We had a bit more bus trouble on the way home--Megan thought the bus was arriving in 3 minutes so we ran all the way to the bus stop only to find out it actually wouldn't be there for another 20 minutes! Three cheers for DCP buses!
Thursday the 19th I had another day off so I met up with my friend Steven at Animal Kingdom, because I still hadn't seen a lot of that park. We rode dinosaur, which was a ride I have been looking forward to riding ever since I realized it is the same ride as Indiana Jones in Disneyland! The ride vehicals and loading area were exactly the same, however once we got inside the ride didn't pick up speed for a long time, and it kept pausing to "identify the dinosaurs." Towards the end it was fun and immersive when we went faster to escape the aesteroid, but I really think they could make that ride a lot better if they wanted to. Or they could just change it to be Indiana Jones themed and my life would be complete
We also went over to It's Tough to Be a Bug which was cool since it is inside the tree of life, and the experiance itself was good for being so short. However, I thought it was way too creepy for small children, so many children were crying by the end of it! Spiders coming down from the ceiling makes me think of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and no body wants to be in that situation!
Then we went over to Epcot since I really haven't done a lot at that park either, and rode the Donald Duck Mexican ride, and watched the American Adventure show. I liked the show but my favorite part was the singers at the begining.
Then I had to leave because I had to go to class at 4 at Chatham, but once again, I was met with bus issues. We had decided to take the monorail to the TTC rather then go through backstage Epcot to get to the DCP bus stop, but when we got there we discovered that the next bus wouldn't be arriving until 4, the time at which I was supposed to arrive at class! So I ended up being about 25 minutes late to Disney Heritage which was awkward but thankfully the teacher didn't say anything since it was the first day. The class was great, for a person like me who reads Walt Disney biographys, hearing all about Walts childhood and where he grew up and how his parents influenced how he came to be who we know him as, was terribly interesting. After class I went out and looked at the Chatham pool and again became very jealous of everyone I know who is living there lol!
That night maitnence came and fixed our wifi, so we had a lovely evening on our laptops getting everything done that we couldn't do for the past 3 weeks while the wifi wasn't on!
Friday the 20th I had to go back to work at 3:15, but before that Abby and I explored the Vineland outlet mall across from Chathem. It was huge, and had a lot of stores I like from home which was nice. Then I headed off to work for the evening.
On tuesday the 10th I had my first on site training day specific to Hollywood Studios, called "on with the show."from 8am to 1pm. This was a tour day, where we got to find the cast services building and costuming and have a tour of the backstage areas of the park that we will be spending time in, as well as visiting the main attractions in the park.
We even got to ride the great movie ride as part of our tour and skip the line!We also got our "Earning My Ears" training tag for our nametags!:D
After the main tour and classroom portion, we split off into groups by our role and I went with the other custodians to get my costume. There were a lot of different pieces to the costume, some of which were optional but I chose to get one of everything that was available just to be safe. I got 5 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of pants, a belt, hat, pouch, jacket, gloves and rain poncho.
That afternoon I went to Walmart and bought a watch for work.
I also went to the clubhouse and discovered that 5 of the 8 days I
requested off for my families visit had been approved! This wasn't perfect, but I was happy that I at least got 5 days for sure with the family. I also booked my families hotel for their trip--a Cars Family Suite at Art of Animation for 9 nights!! I love Art of Animation. This will be the third time I've stayed there, but the first time out of the Little Mermaid section so I am excited!
February 11 I had my first day of REAL serious job training, so I wore my costume and arrived at Studios at 6:30 am I was paired off with a trainer and started the day by helping film a music video about safety for cast members, which was fun! Me and the two other trainees filmed all over the park and did short routines withcleaning supplies! Then I got to do a trash run and learn all about cleaning the streets and responsibilitys of that job.
After work, I had a reservation at 1900 Park Fare for my birthday!! Okay, I have to give a little bit of back story here. When I was 10 and I first read the Walt Disney World guidebook and discovered there was another Disneyland across America, I was immediately enthralled by the Grand Floridian.
It caught my eye at 10 years old and has been my very favorite resort ever since. So getting to eat there with the girls for my 20th birthday felt very special.
The buffet was really good and I loved the desserts, but especially fun were the characters.
Particularly Prince Charming.
After dinner we went in the gift shops and one of the cast members noticed my birthday button and got me on the phone with goofy to wish me a happy birthday!
On Thursday the 12th, my actual birthday, I got to work at 11:15 for restroom training. They gave me a beautiful birthday card signed by many of the other custodians and a mickey bar, which was so sweet! Unfortunately I got sick halfway through the day and had to leave early, but turns out I didn't miss a whole lot because I got all caught up the next day.
That night I opened my presents from my roommates and family, and had birthday brownies courtesy of Ashley!
The 13th was a great day at training because it was my last day, and although it was an assesment, it was incredibly easy. I went through a small trash run and bathroom cleaning, which my trainer helped me with and answered my questions. Then we walked through every single attraction at Studios to find all the garbage cans, which was cool because I saw the lines for lots of rides I'm never going on like Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster! We also ran into Anna, Elsa and Kristoph backstage about to go on for their show which was super cool--Anna even gave me a hug! Then we had some extra time so we went and watched One Mans Dream which was so powerful, and Beauty and The Beast, which was incredible, especially since I was getting paid to watch it!!
Saturday the 14th, Vday, was my first day off in what felt like forever, and it was time to visit MK! Abby and I got up early for park opening, and rode big thunder and haunted mansion with no wait at all since we were there so early!
Then we watched the main street trolley show which is so adorable, and met Mary Poppins and Tinker Bell! Mary Poppins was just wandering around in the shops on Main Street with her penguin, playing with the merchandise!
I wanted to try a dole whip for the first time, which was good but not as amazing as I had expected it to be. I triedAbby's pineapple version and didn't like it at all. The orange one was a lot better. We also went on a search for Claudia, who was working in Adventureland, and found her at the Agraba Bazar!
Then Ashley arrived at the park and we all got in line to meet Anna and Elsa at the Fairy Tale Hall! The wait was long, but the fairy tale hall was lovely. I especially liked Cinderellas royal slipper.
After that we got seats for the festival of fantasy parade while we ate lunch from pinnochios village Haus.
Then we went over to Gastons tavern and had to wait over an hour to meet him. I didn't mind waiting though because he was so entertaining! There were a crowd of people around just to listen to him, who weren't even in line to meet him! He was quite a hoot.
By the time we said goodbye to Gaston, it was nearly 6 so we decided to try and catch a bus at the ticket and transporation center, meaning that we had to take the ferry across the seven seas lagoon, which I was excited to do.
However the ferry was too slow and we missed our bus so then we hopped on a monorail and went to the Polynesian to pick up a bus there instead. Hooray for DCP bus problems! That evening we all watched a movie together and relaxed.
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