"I Wish We'd Never Have to Grow Up"

Sometimes I just love that Disney is a place for kids of all ages.

I worked in Upper Frontierland today, the location where you can watch all the parades and fireworks. It was an 11-hour day, but to be honest, it didn't feel like it. I spent most of my time at Big Al's, the outdoor location. I spent most of my day playing with bubble guns and string-things and wearing cowboy hats. I was merchantaining at it's finest today, handing out special occasion pins and singing happy birthday. Today myself and my coworkers truly displayed excellent guest service.

There's a quote they say at the Magic Kingdom's opening: "Whether it is your first visit, or your one-hundredth, we know you'll have a magical day."

As someone who's been to the parks countless times, it sometimes stinks that Disney focuses so much on someone's first visit. Of course you won't forget your first time (unless you're like me and you were a baby), but I think the quote says it all. So when I ask someone what number trip it is, and they're not on their first, they usually think they won't get something. Instead I take a marker and make a 1st visit pin say 15th visit instead.

Today I got to be a kid at work. I played with all the toys and gadgets, and I got to watch the parade and fireworks. Wishes always makes me nostalgic, I absolutely love it. And for the second Electric Light Parade I was the only person on my side of the street, so all the characters waved at me, and Mickey even drew a heart with his hands and pointed at me. Yup. It made me happy.

This goes back to saying what I said before: if you choose to be happy, you most certainly will be!

Late Nights and Early Mornings

It is currently 8:45PM. I LEAVE for work in 30 minutes. I start work in 90. I get off work at 4:15AM. Ah, the life of a Disney CP.

In Frontierland most CPs get the late hours. My sleep pattern is used to that, to staying up til early morning and sleeping til early afternoon.

Starting Saturday, however, my sleeping pattern is going to change. Instead of late nights, I'm working early mornings. And no, I don't mean 7AM or later, no. I'm talking about 5AM-1:30PM shifts. 5 of them. And the one that I have next week that isn't a 5AM shift? Yeah, try 6:45AM. Somebody clearly hates me.

My hope is that after this sort of hell week, I'll be able to go back to the late nights. That is, at least, my hope. We'll see how it goes.

Just as Happy When You Leave?

At work today I got to merchantain with a stuffed animal Paschale from Tangled. I had fun with him, with my coworkers, and overall had a pleasant time at work today. On the bus, however, something odd hit me. I wasn't happy.

I couldn't tell you why. I can't seem to pinpoint what's disturbing me, even now. Sometimes we say we unscrew our smiles when we step off-stage. That's exactly what today felt like. Sometimes, you're just not happy.

If 10 years ago someone asked me where I thought I'd be, I would never have thought I'd be working for Disney. Better yet, I'm pretty sure I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be working for Disney, for minimum wage. 10 years ago I thought that at this point in my life I'd be in law school and married (yup, because Annie Banks became Annie Banks McKenzie when she was 22... don't know the reference? Look it up =D ).

Well, times have changed, my life has changed, and I'm nowhere near where I'd thought I'd be. I do, however, firmly believe that in order to be happy you must first decide to be happy. That's what we do everyday at work, and that's why on stage we're always happy. It's just time to bring a little bit of that Disney magic back home with me.

Magic Kingdom v. Hollywood Studios

Ok, so I've been flabbergasted for a bit about how much more on theme Magic Kingdom is. Just the mere thought of walking into Fantasyland in my hoe-down gear slightly scares me, however I always see Mania and Sunset people walking all over DHS. And then it just hit me:

At Magic Kingdom the idea is Fantasy... you need to be totally immersed in you're own land. But at DHS the idea is Hollywood, on with the show... and what happens on a hot set? Actors walk around, all over the set in costumes from whatever show. All of DHS is like a hot set, or a movie studio with costumed actors walking to their scene. It's totally still themed!

A Non-College All-Nighter?

Good evening/morning depending how you look at it! I got off work at 3:15AM and I haven't gone to bed yet. It's now 6:30AM, and we have inspection today.

For those of you who don't know, CPs living in Disney housing must go through monthly apartment inspections to make sure we're not making a mess of the place. There are 4 categories that you can fall under during inspections:

1. Fail - your apartment grossly does not meet Disney cleanliness guidelines. Consequence: They take pictures of your apartment and send them to your work leaders and also send in a cleaning crew (which you will have to pay for).

2. Simple Pass - your apartment is tidy, though not necessarily clean. There are smudges on mirrors/dust on the TV/the bed isn't made. It's not bad enough to constitute a fail, so you get a simple pass with no reward or consequence.

3. Pass (Looks Good) - your apartment is clean and tidy, although only one thing might hold it back from the next level. This can be someone forgot to put a dish away, or something small. Reward: small snacks for the roommates.

4. White Glove Award - the most prestigious award for cleaning the apartment. Your apartment must be spotless, nothing out of place, nothing with smudges. Reward: a box of Ferraro Roche Chocolates.

This is my apartment's first inspection. We decided about a week ago to split our tasks. There are 6 of us, 2 per room. This is how we split our tasks:

Kitchen - trash/dishes; own side of room

Kitchen - counters/floors; own side of room

Living Room - vacuum, dust, clean; own side of room

Bathroom 1; own side of room

Bathroom 2; own side of room

Bathroom 3; own side of room

I can't say it went off without a hitch, especially now that it's the morning of inspection and we're not yet White Glove-worthy, but I would definitely consider our apartment clean. I hope we can keep it looking this way, because it looks lovely right now.

I just deleted a long paragraph about roommate relations and cleaning. Let's just say that everyone should clean up after themselves and there would be no issues.

So it's almost 7AM right now and where am I? Watching the sunrise on my balcony. It can be easy to take the Florida scenery for granted when you've grown up with it, but our sunrises and sunsets often take your breath away.

I've gotta figure out now what I can do to stay awake for the next 3 hours before inspection. Luckily I have the day off, so once they swoop by I'm going right to bed!

Til next time!

UPDATE: We got the White Glove Award!

It's a Zip-a-Dee-Do-Da Day

Once again, seems like it's been awhile in between posts. I always seem to remember to post on Saturdays.

Work's been great. I'm still loving Frontierland, although, as always, there are some disadvantages. For example: Splash Photos and Gifts is at the exit to Splash Mountain. When the ride breaks down (or shuts due to weather) all the people on the ride or far in line at the time still have to exit through our shop. This means we get many angry, upset guests. Here's an important note you should remember: Merchandise and Attractions are two separate departments (both hard working, however not with each other). Also: It is not our goal as cast members to purposefully break a ride.

It is, however, our goal as Merchandise Cast Members to Merchantain our guests to the best of our abilities, and to make the best out of unfortunate situations. You can imagine how disheartening it might be in one of these situations where you get told by guests "Thanks, you just ruined my child's day", "Happy now? You made my children cry," and, my personal favorite: "Go f*** yourself". It's a great lesson in guest service, which is an area in which I'm highly interested.

One last note: never ever ever ever ever take the ice from a cart that's open for everyone and put in in your mouth or in a place where it will eventually end up on your face. SO many people put their hands, their hats, their rags in these ice bins that it is in NO WAY sanitary. Please, for your own health and safety, never do this. It is our duty as cast members to warn you, but we can't actually stop you from taking the ice.

Tomorrow I have work from 9:15PM - 3:15AM. Suffice to say, I'll update again next week =P

Upper v. Lower

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted! Time sure does fly by when you're working at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Today ends my week-long stint working in Lower Frontierland (the Briar Patch and Splash Down Photos and Gifts). Of course most of my shifts will be in this area, but this was the first week where I worked here, free of a trainer. I'm happy to say I enjoy it almost as much as I enjoy working in Upper. In Frontierland Merch there seems to be a divide - most CPs enjoy Lower better, most Full Timers enjoy Upper better. Honestly the one reason I truly enjoy working at Upper is because I love working at the Trading Post, where guests come to buy and trade pins. I love seeing all the different pins, hearing what they're looking for, and most of all, I like being able to hear the parades and fireworks. I do very much miss working at Upper.

Lower has its perks and quirks as well. The best part about Lower is, of course, the pictures. At Splash Down Photos we get to see all the photos of people on the ride. Selling them, printing them, and setting them up for Package Pickup or Resort Delivery is really fun. The only two parts I don't enjoy about Splash Down is Preview (where guests first see their picture and get their number) and Register 2 (which is all by itself and not at all involved with pictures, just merch that no one really buys). Preview would be better if it wasn't outside, but in general you just have people flashing pictures in your face and screaming in your ear. It's not their fault; they're excited, they're on vacation, they don't realize you're there.

Briar Patch is fun, but when it rains the store becomes WAY overcrowded!

I'd write more, but I gotta run to work. Story of my life these days =P Hopefully I won't be too tired to write some more tonight <3