Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Random Nonsense


Hello loyal blog readers!  Sorry I haven’t posted too much in a while.  Working and living in Disney is definitely time consuming to say the least.  Over the past couple of months, I’ve worked quite a bit; usually starting late afternoon till closing.  I actually don’t mind these shifts, since it’s much cooler than it is in the daytime and we aren’t too busy near closing time.  We’ve had some interesting days – plenty of resets and the occasional evacuation.  I wish guests would just learn to stay in their logs… haha. 

Other than work, I’ve spent lots of time in the parks.  I’ve become addicted to collecting Sorcerer cards from the Magic Kingdom; I have a binder with the card holders (nerd alert).  Luckily I’ve passed the addiction on to my roommates as well.  My 22nd birthday was on July 31st, so I went to the Magic Kingdom with my roommates and had lunch at the Crystal Palace, which was absolutely amazing!  The only bad thing about spending time in the parks is all the delicious food that calls my name.  ;)


In recent news:  cast members can now get into the water parks for free!  I was so excited for this, since I’ve never been to either.  I recently went with some friends to Typhoon Lagoon.  We didn’t spend too much time there, but I do love that lazy river.  And the wave pool… dang that’s powerful.  I wouldn’t recommend going out too far unless you love to be knocked over by very powerful waves (learned that the hard way haha). 

In food news, I got to met Iron Chef Cat Cora!  I’m a huge food network fan, so this was such a wonderful experience.  She was very sweet and quite tiny in person.

I shall finish out this blog post with some pictures for you all to enjoy.  I have to work at 3:45, so I’ll talk to you all again soon! 














































Monday, August 13, 2012

Disney College Program Classes

There are three different types of classes:

1.  Collegiate Courses – these are taken for credit (if approved by your school).  They are going to involve purchasing a textbook, writing papers, and doing assignments.

2.  Exploration Series – these will teach you more about the Walt Disney Company.  They require a lot of participation, but have no homework or tests.

3.  Professional Development Studies – these are major-specific and are reserved for students in these majors (engineering, business, finance, theater, law enforcement, etc).  They will have homework, exams, and the like.


Since I have already graduated, I don’t need to take any of the classes for credit; aka, hello exploration series.  When we first arrived, we have received multiple emails stating that course registration would begin on June 25th.  Just kidding everyone, registration actually started a few days before.  Since I wasn’t on my computer as soon as registration opened, the class I really wanted to take, Exploring Disney Heritage, was full :(  I did request to be placed on a waitlist.  Since the exploration series is free, I decided to sign up for another class just in case the other one didn't work out.  I choose Exploring Guest Service!  This class is held once a week for 2 hours in Chatham (very convenient!), starting in October and ending in December right before the Christmas rush.  Fast forward to August 6th...  I opened my email and discovered that there is an empty seat in the Heritage class!!!!!  I was so pumped when I read that!  This was the one class that I really wanted to take, so I was ecstatic that I got in :D 

Any class is definitely going to be an asset and skill builder, so I’m very excited for both of these to start.  This is a great opportunity to network and meet Disney leaders, so I would definitely recommend taking classes if you have the chance.  If anyone has any questions about classes, let me know!       

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Things People Say


FASTPASS

1. Fastlane
2. Fasttrack
3. Speedpass
4. Speedlane
5. Speedtrack
6. Flashpass (my personal favorite)

Maybe we should start calling them Splashpasses?


Rider Switch
1. Baby Swap
2. Baby Exchange
3. Baby Pass
4. Switch-A-Roo


Questions

“Was this ride based on the Jungle Book? Isn’t that where all the giraffes and elephants are from?”

“Where was the big drop?”

“Was that Bugs Bunny?”

"Am I going to get wet?" (I love this question, especially when it's raining outside...)

"Since when did you change the track? I liked the other one better."

"Are they building Everest over in Fantastyland?"

"Do you work here?"

Yup, these were all serious questions. And then you get to play the lovely game of charades with all the people that don’t speak English. It’s quite a sight. Haha


Cute Story 

I was at Fastpass return the other day and needed to measure a little boy.He stood up nice and tall for me and I told him that was good to go.He looked so happy and said “I’m so tall because I’ve been eating allllll my vegetables every night!”It was so adorable!You should have seen all the parents waiting in line… that boy totally melted their hearts.


Indentured Servants


From the always reliable Wikipedia:  Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. 

Some refer to CP’s as slaves.  I prefer to say that we are indentured servants.  We live and work on Disney property, are provided transportation, and put all our paychecks back into the company.  Seriously though, we are the only cast members that are basically living out Walt’s original dream for EPCOT:  Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.  We live, work, and play in Walt Disney World.  Pretty neat if you ask me. 

Monday, August 6, 2012

Cast Member vs. Guest


I find it really east to switch from Cast Member mode to Guest mode.  Sure I still want to say happy birthday or happy anniversary to everyone with a button and I want to compulsively check people’s heights and occasionally pick up trash, but other than that I’m good to go.  I know some people think that working at Disney will ruin the magic, but I don’t think it does at all.  Sure you may see a princess putting her dress on backstage or see Woody putting his boots on, but when you visit as a guest, that’s still Cinderella and that’s still Woody.

I absolutely love the fact that I can go visit the parks whenever I want.  I honestly can’t even tell you the last day that I didn’t go to the Magic Kingdom.  Even though I work there, I still go there on my days off or even in the mornings before work.  I love just walking around, getting ice cream, and playing the Sorcerer game (way too addicting).  The only bad thing about visiting the parks is that I usually end up spending money, haha.  Most people I know spend their paychecks away and don’t save anything.  If you budget wisely, however, and only go out to eat once a week and don’t buy too much merchandise, you can easily save money.  So far I’ve saved about $500 in a month and a half; not too shabby.  All this talk about the Magic Kingdom makes me want to go there for a nice, refreshing ice cream sundae from the Plaza.  Oh look – I don’t work until later this evening, guess I’ll make a quick stop there before work. ;) See you folks later!