"Earning my ears" again

Today begins my second round of training. I am excited because even though this is my 6th out of 8 days in a row of work this week. I will be learning about being a hostess at my area. I know it will involve a lot of guest interactions and talking, but other than that I do not know too much about it. I will obviously find out when my training starts at 12:45... We had safety audits last week at work. Basically, every few months at work has their area audited by safety people to make sure the employees are running the attraction properly, are educated on all the safety precautions for their area, and the area is a safe environment for all guests. The auditors will watch the employees work and then pick a couple employees to ask safety and operations questions to. As soon as the auditors came last week I thought I was in the clear because I was on my lunch break... I was wrong. As soon as I got off lunch I was sent to positio and was not there for more than 2 minutes when an auditor came over and asked me operations questions. It really was not bad at all and I luckily got the questions all right so we passed our first portion of the tier 3 safety audits. I thought I was all set and would only get audited once... Wrong again. As soon as I came back from my 15 minute break a couple hours later another auditor came up to me and asked me safety questions. My first full week on my own and I got audited twice, that was a tad nerve wracking. The safety audits conducted show how well their business is run and how safety for their guests and employees are their first priority. It is extremely important that all employees are well trained and perform at the highest level possible to perform the safest and most enjoyable experience for the guests. That is what makes it such a safe and magical place!

How you deal with long shifts...

So after two days of 10 hour shifts and 4 more days of work to go I took it upon myself to get everybody who wanted to go to Beaches and Cream after work tonight to get the "Kitchen Sink"... here is how it went with 5 of us...

 Before...

After...

Management Structure

Today is the start of my third out of eight days straight of work, as well as my second eleven hour day in a row... The last two days have been quite exhausting, especially once the nine hour mark comes around. The main thing I have noticed since I started the program and specifically working at my location is how much different their management structure is opposed to other jobs I have had. At the yacht club I had one manager and at MAIFE I had two supervisors who were above me and those were the only two people who made contact with me. However, here I have five managers that I know of, there are probably more, and about three coordinators on staff each day that oversee my work. Those are just the people that I deal with on a day to day basis. Above my managers are area managers, and the list goes on and on. I am slowly learning about the structure that takes place in order to make it run the way that it does. It is amazing how many people it takes to create this magical place and make it run so smoothly day in and day out. Our work environment is pretty structured, where we clock in each morning, get an assignment, and then go to our assignment. Every hour or so we rotate to a different location, go back to the computer, and get a new assignment. Our breaks have already been pre-designed by scheduling and they give us a full two week schedule so we can plan accordingly. It is very organized and helps the company run as well as it does, in my opinion. The way the company works reminds me similar to MAIFE because of how structured it is as well as all of their rules for cast members that make it so successful. However, it definitely runs a much more successful company than MAIFE organizational wise, which I would attribute to the fact that they have multiple coordinators, managers, and area managers per location. Well, I have to get ready to head off to work 8:45-7:30, but have a magical day everybody!

Tomorrow begins my 8 Day work week....

Sunday and Today were my days off. Let me tell you, it was fabulous. The weather here has been crazy warm here for this time of year. Yesterday and today were both in the 80's and the rest of the week until the weekend is supposed to be just as warm. I spent yesterday relaxing by the pool and then went to House of Blues for the night with my friend Cady and some of her roommates. Today I was busy running errands in the morning and then spent the afternoon at Magic Kingdom with a coworker. Tomorrow begins my 8 day work week, I work until the following Tuesday... In total it will be about 70 hours, 64 hours if you take out my lunch breaks each day. That definitely is going to be extremely exhausting. I've only worked 5 days in a row so far and I have never worked that many days or hours in my life so I'm scared about my fate at the end of it all. However, it looks like Sunday I might be starting new training. Getting work to cooperate with the internship paperwork seems to be a huge pain. Initially, UMW was the big problem with giving me credit. Now that that problem is solved after over 4 months of a battle, they refuse to sign the paperwork and are making me jump through a million flaming hoops. Just fantastic. I am remaining positive that it will all work out in my favor. I am going to try my best to keep this updated throughout my crazy work week. Stay warm and have a magical night to those of you up in the cold! Caroline, eat some Fish and Chips!

 My tool to fight crime in Orlando. Not really though. Happiest place on earth remember?

 The next 8 days I am at work, I am going to pretend I'm laying by the pool.

Last minute fun before marathon work week begins! AH!

Week #1 working: Check!

So today was my second day on my own working. Yesterday was my first day, which went pretty smoothly during my 6 hour shift. I did not make any major mistakes, key word: major. The days go by pretty fast. Everybody who works there is super nice and really fun to be around which definitely makes the day easier to manage. I have been speaking a lot of Spanish in my first few days. It is currently holiday season for the Portuguese so we have had a lot of them visiting and a lot of Spanish speaking guests as well. My four semesters of Spanish at UMW has not proven to be as useful as I would like. Everything I have learned still doesn't enable me to understand and speak fluently and be able to talk about work in Spanish... but I'll figure it out sooner or later. Luckily, I have tomorrow and Monday off because the last 5 days have been truly exhausting. I only worked 38 hours this week and have 45 next week so I need to get used to the work load and the body aches and exhaustion. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 80 degrees and Monday as well so I plan to take advantage of the warm weather on my days off. Hopefully some park trips will be in order! GO PATRIOTS! :-)

I earned my "ears"!

YAY! Today I completed my assessment. It was definitely not as terrifying as I expected it to be. Tomorrow will be my first day all on my own for 8 hours without my trainer or anything. That is a little intimidating, but I hopefully will not have any issues. According to my trainer today the plan for me is to work for the next week or so and then get trained as a hostess so they can put me all over and then in the long run get trained on the new attraction coming out. It is definitely going to be a long learning process and a lot of work, but I am excited to be trained at a bunch of different things which will hopefully keep the program busy and interesting. After work I got a lovely phone call and will FINALLY be receiving credit for the program from UMW! I am so excited that my four months of hard work will go to good use towards my credit hours for school. Once that gets started these entries will probably take a more academic turn and focus on any assignments I have related to my program. I'll be sure to keep things interesting and update about my job and anything fun! Two more days of work and then I get two days off :). Yay! Enjoy the cold weather and snow coming your way for those of you in the north. It is going to be 80 here this weekend!

Quick night trip after work to watch the concert and special new years eve fireworks at Hollywood Studios. The best way to learn about the parks and to give guests advice on where to go and what to do is to do it yourself first! 

First Day of "Training"

So today was my first day of official training at Innoventions was today. It was a lovely 11AM-7:45PM work day. Luckily while waiting for the bus this morning I met a guy from Ohio who is working at Sum of All Thrills at Innoventions with me and we happened to be in the same training group all day. It was nice to have somebody to talk to and get to know in the midst of all the craziness. We spent the morning doing more of the lovely E-Learning, which teaches us all about Disney safety, etiquette, etc. Those are definitely thrilling computer videos to watch for hours on end let me tell you. After we finished that we began a tour Innoventions and saw all the different parts of it and began to specifically learn about Sum of all Thrills which is what my training today and tomorrow entails and then I am getting my assessment on it Thursday. To quickly explain what that attraction is is that you basically design your own type of rocket ride, roller coaster, or bobsled ride. You have a briefing period to teach you what to do, then 4 minutes to design your own ride, and then you go up and you actually ride it through a virtual system. It is really cool and only a couple years old so if you haven't been to Disney in a while you probably have never been on it. Training for SOAT reminded me a little of training at Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration where in an 8 hour work today they pretty much crammed as much information into my brain as they possibly could. The only good thing about MAIFE vs. Disney was they gave me 3-4 days of training and let me use notes for the first month of my job while I was learning. It seems like by Thursday I am going to need to know how to work at all 6 parts of Sum of All Thrills which is absolutely terrifying. I am slowly understanding how to work each of the parts and run the actual attraction, but there is so much information, rules, regulations, etc to learn it is absolutely mind blowing. The other major obstacle I have come to realize is the language barrier with guests from other countries which is really prominent at EPCOT of all places. I had a minor run in with guests who people who worked at Sum of All Thrills thought were Spanish when really they were Portuguese. After trying to speak spanish to them for a good 5 minutes I realized they did not understand spanish or english and then they made it clear they spoke portuguese... Way to go haha. I really hope my assessment Thursday runs smoothly and is not as terrifying as I am expecting it to be. I can honestly say that I do not think I am ready to be thrown into the attraction and be working on my own Friday and Saturday. I have never in my life run an attraction and had to learn all the safety procedures, how to load people on and off the ride, and how to actual press the right buttons and run the ride properly. It was all really overwhelming and made my learning pages upon pages of information to make speeches about at MAIFE a cake walk. Fingers crossed my memory proves to be stronger that I think come Thursday. The one good thing about working at Innoventions is that I will be learning a lot of things and every aspect of it is extremely interactive and educational. Hopefully this will come in handy with me getting internship credit with Mary Washington. Well I have to head to work at 7AM tomorrow until 4:30PM for more training and my entire brain is fried so I'll be sure to post after my assessment Thursday! Have a magical night everybody!

Epcot night trip!

Magic Kingdom!

The Next Four Months of my Life Began Today...

Today was my first day "working". Today we just got a tour of the park, watched some more lovely informative videos, went to our work location, received our costumes, and learned a bit about our job. I found out where I am working. It seems like it will be really educational and interactive with the guests which should hopefully keep things interesting and make the days go by fairly quickly. Mary Washington was looking for me to work at something that was informative and educational and I am pretty sure Innoventions is almost as educational as it can get. I have two days off before I go back to some serious training Tuesday which will be when the craziness begins. Our costumes are absolutely stunning, if you cannot tell by the picture below. It has not quite been a week yet, but time seems to be passing pretty quickly and my room is slowly starting to get a homey touch with my addition of pictures and such. I will be sure to post again once I have gone through a few more days of training later in the week. On a side note: IT IS FREEZING IN FLORIDA! :(

Jealous much?

 Clubhouse and pool area at Chatham

 Workout room at Chatham

Tennis courts at Chatham

First Day of the Program

Yesterday was my last free day spent at Universal Studios and wandering around Harry Potter World with my mom. It was GORGEOUS outside and definitely a nice break. Then today was official move in and check in day. It started off with a 6AM wake up call at the lovely Animal Kingdom Lodge (Thanks Cady!) and going to wait in line at Vista Way until check in around 8. Lucky for me my roommate got there super early and got us a great spot. We ended up getting the apartment building we wanted with who we wanted (YAY!). After we got our room assignment we were shipped off to casting for a good two hours and went through all the paperwork, background checks, and got our job assignment. I found out where I will be working. It sounds like a really cool attraction so I am excited to see what it is all about. Tomorrow we have a free day and then Friday I have to be up bright and early to catch the 6:45AM bus to traditions for four to five hours. That sounds like it should be extremely interesting as well as informative. Saturday I head off to Epcot for 8AM to begin orientation/training. My apartment is not too bad aside from the ugly green carpet. It is absolutely huge and puts Eagle Landing to shame. The bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets are huge! I cannot really complain. Although I've been spoiled the last semester with my own room and full sized bed and bathroom in a house, this will definitely work. Well, have a magical evening everybody! Stay warm!

First day in Disney World

I officially arrived in Disney World this afternoon. After a six and a half hour drive to Fredericksburg from Connecticut on Thursday, a three day break, then another seven hour drive from Fredericksburg to Savannah, and then a five and a half hour drive from Savannah to Orlando we made it to the Swan resort in Disney World. I have two days to just relax and enjoy the 79 degree weather and the parks before I have to start training, move into my new apartment with three new roommates, and begin working for the next four months. It has not quite hit me yet that I will not be seeing my horse and everybody else for the next four months, but once I get into the swing of things I imagine time will just fly by. It looks like after a couple hours of wearing shorts and a tank top we will be dressing up a little warmer and heading to Downtown Disney for the night for some dinner and shopping. I will be sure to update once I am all moved in and settled officially as a CP after Wednesday! To all you northerners, hope you are enjoying the cold weather and snow!

The Packing Begins

Just 3 days until I start my trip from Connecticut to Florida... The whole packing process is proving to be a lot more difficult than I thought considering I am trying to pack my entire life into a small honda civic. I cannot believe that after applying for the program and interviewing in September 2011 that January 9, 2012 is almost here. There is still so much to do before the trip to Virginia and then the long drive from there to Orlando. Once I am moved in and all settled in Orlando there will be pictures and posts to follow! Hopefully my crazy internship and class schedule will allow me to get on once or twice a week to document my life as a Disney College Program Intern for the Spring 2012 Semester.
Enjoy! :-)