Booo to Mainstreet

So, today seemed like a really short day. I started out in the Disney Basics class. I spent 2 hours learning about what they call the "soft skills". Being polite, courteous, staying in character, keeping the integrity of the show, going above and beyond... things like that. Things that I am already amazingly good at, that should be second nature for anyone in a service field, but is obviously not. The class was just fun, we got to share and play some games. Plus I got a free diet coke, nice.

Then I went over to the Seas, I only worked for 4 hours over there. I got to do one Turtle Talk show. But it was a good one. It didn't really feel like I worked much. It was kind of nice. I went home and took a nap for a while.

I worked the fireworks again, but this time I was on Mainstreet. I got there and headed to the Mainstreet deployment base where my instructions had told me to go. Turns out that was closed, I waited for someone to show up in the area, but nobody did. The message when I clocked in said the scheduling books were in Fantasyland, so I headed over there. I explained my situation to the person working there and she gave me directions to the break room at the front of the park. Well I headed onstage, and of course it's right before the parade so it's crazy busy outside. I saw a group of people dressed like me and someone who appeared to be a coordinator or a manager so I walked up to the group. I was completely ignored, the coordinator took questions from people who'd walked up way after me and then when they finished talking he started to walk away. I couldn't believe how rude he was being. I finally had to get right up to him before he would answer. He gave me some odd directions, I wasn't sure what he was talking about. So I tried my best to follow what the first lady had told me. I found the break room, but there was nobody in my costume. I found a managers office and stood in the doorway, not wanting to interrupt since he was fixing something in CDS (our scheduling system) for another CM (cast member), but he wouldn't look at me. Another manager walked by and I asked for her help. She said they'd already deployed and told me to go to the plaza outside the ice cream parlor. She started to take me out to point out where I needed to go when another CM said she was headed to her break and could take me there.

Once I got there, there was one other person he handed me a sheet and said here are the VIP names then started to walk away. I had to stop him and let him know I've never done this before and ask him to please tell me what I'm supposed to do. All I did was stand at the ropes and not let anybody in unless their name was on the list. I only had one group show up. Otherwise it was telling people they couldn't come down, pointing out bathrooms and the smoking area. It was kind of boring and I didn't feel like I was treated well. In the whole time I was there only one person said Thanks for picking up the shift, otherwise almost everyone was rude. It was a bad experience.

I finished that and we got ER (early release), but by the time we did all the walking between the Fantasyland base where we had to apply for ER and the mainstreet base which was the only area we could clock out, we only had like 5 minutes of the shift left anyway, so it was kind of a waste. Oh well.

I went home and changed quick to meet up with the roomies at Jelly Rolls. It's a cabaret style bar where they have dueling pianos. The format was similar to Erin Schwab and Jay Fuchs shows in Minneapolis at Jitters, except that I knew the songs Erin did. I only knew the Disney medley. It was some girls birthday so I had to watch her stand on stage and try to do head shoulders knees and toes while drunk. It was the most rediculous thing I've seen. And I really hate when women allow themselves to be treated with disrespect by the men in the room and actually egg it on. It's so innapropriate, and it makes men think their behavior is justified. I was pretty much checked out from that point on. It was fun otherwise, but I only knew a few of the songs. They take requests, but you have to pay them, and then wait for them to play it. It was also a bar that you could smoke in which bothered me, but it wasn't as bad as the other one. I only stayed for an hour and a half maybe and then left with Julie. Maybe a night I don't have to work will be better.