Starting Training, Eating Dinner at Epcot, and Shopping at Magic Kingdom

Saturday morning the 7th, I put on my Disney name tag and headed out to Disney University for my first two orientations--Welcome to Operations from 8-11:30, and Welcome to Park Operations from 12-2. The first class was slightly boring, but it provided me with a lot of broad information, such as what to do incase of an emergency when working, and techinques for lifting or bending without hurting yourself.

Welcome to Park Operations

Then after lunch everyone who had a role that was specifically for Parks (attractions, guest relations, vacation planners, parking, main gate operations and custodial) split into their own class where we talked about the specifics of those roles, and how best to make magic in the parks for guests.

Path to the clubhouse

Once my classes were over I stopped by the Cast Member store where I got some discounted merchandise and a few groceries. Later I went over to the Vista Clubhouse and asked the very friendly librarians/computer lab cast members to help me set up my Disney Hub Access so I could request some days off in May when my family visits. I also did laundry, which was interesting since I am no expert on laundry machines, but it seemed to work okay! 

Finally, after all my chores were complete Abby and I headed over to Epcot to meet Claudia, Ashley and Megan for dinner at Biergarten! 

Plate Number one

The cast members here had lovely german accents, and the restaraunt was set to look like it was outdoors at night in a German town! The buffet included a lot of meat, fish, veggies, rolls, and German food I didn't recognize but tried anyway. 

For Dessert they had Bavarian cheesecake, a rasberry chocolate treat, chocolate chip cookies and apple strueddle! I enjoyed the meal but wasn't entirely impressed with the food, especially my long-awaited pretzel rolls. They weren't very flavorfull. 

We headed out of the park after our meal and saw Illuminations as we walked, which I had never seen before! It was actually pretty cool, I didn't realize how immersive and musical it was, despite the lack of Disney refferences.

Sunday I was the only one with the day off, so I started by getting some chores done around the apartment before catching a bus to the Polynesian. 

I walked along the beach there to visit my favorite resort, the Grand Floridian (except for their cast bus stop) and went inside all the stores there because I was trying to decide what I wanted to buy with the last of my 40% off cast member discount that ended on the 12th! 

The Castle and The Crain

Then I caught a monorail to MK, where I proceeded to go in every store I could find, finally completing all my purchases except for one thing--the pillow my mom requested which aparently was only available in Downtown Disney! 

So I walked to the Contemporary, which should have been an easy walk had I not been laiden with my MK purchases! From there I got on a bus to Downtown Disney, and managed to secure the pillow for my mom, along with a couple other things for me...oops!

Later that evening I went back to the clubhouse because we still don't have wifi in our apartment, and tried and failed to update this blog. I ended up coming back and watching a movie with the girls instead.

Notice all the cleaning supplies lined up for us to practice with!

On Monday the 9th, I got to sleep in a bit (7:45!) and headed to Custodial Core at Disney University from 10-4:30. This class was small, and pretty interesting! 



We were taught exactly how to do a trash run, how to pan and broom the streets, and how to do the restrooms, which may sound simple but it was really nice to learn the details of how it all works. Disney has lots of neat tricks for making the guests experiances better, like the fact that we put our foot on the bottom of the trash bag when we pull it open so we don't hit guests, and that we put our hand over the end of the broom when we sweep so we don't knock into guests.

Then we were sent across the street to MK costuming to pick up our free custodial shoes, which was great because those shoes look quite expensive! By the time we were done with that, it was pouring rain so I went straight home, and really didn't do much of anything for the rest of the day, which was fine since I had been so busy the past few days.