Photo Update

MMMM!! Yakitori! Yeah, they're not on kabobs anymore. :-(








I like to have late night photoshoots, there's
about a hundred others just like this one!










Like the photo says, this is Chase.
The guitar is named Jessica, funny huh?










This is Karly and TJ. Karly is a CP (college program) at the Seas. She's done in a couple of weeks, but is staying in Florida to pursue other endeavors. TJ used to work as a trainer at the Seas, but he's now on the Dream Squad and I'm so jealous.





This made me realize how few photos I have of my friends, so I shall work on that for the next update.

Update

So, it has been brought to my attention that I suck at updating this. I'm sure you've all figured out I've been really busy. Work has been off and on, the hours are not steady, one week I'll have 32 and the next I'll have 55. So you take it where you can get it. I've been able to get in with the coordinators so that they come to me when they need extra hours, so that's helped immensly. I worked a 15 hour day last week, from 8am to 12am and that was killer. I got stuck on the ride almost the entire day, and a good portion of that time was walking on the belt. I could not even focus by the end of the night. Tomorrow I have 13 hours, so hopefully I'll get to spend a little more time at Turtle Talk for that one.

I finally met with my manager and it was good and bad. Good that he helped me figure out some ways to get more hours. He also let me know that trainers will be needed in a few months and he will help me secure a position doing that when it comes time. The bad news is that I can't cross-train (unless a miracle happens and they have extra trainers and no trainees, I'm not holding my breath) for another 6 months. He also said they are lengthening the 6 months you're required to spend in a position to 9 months starting October, one month before my 6 would expire. I am not sure how I feel about this. The way it's going right now, I'm planning on working my way up here until I can get myself into something better, hopefully entertainment. I have attended an audition at Disney and at Universal. Neither went as well as I would have hoped. So I'll just have to keep working at it.

I have gained a lot of great friends, in a few different groups. So between work and my social life I haven't had a whole lot of time. We have made Jellyrolls, the piano bar a weekly adventure. I like that a lot, seeing as how it's good music and free. The other night I went out with some new friends to the park and we had a blast, they were big dorks just like me screaming on Thunder Mountain, not afraid to look stupid. So we had such a great time. I've been spending a bit of time with Chase, I think I've mentioned him before, he's one of our turtles. The one who said I was the best host they have. I can't tell you if it's dating or not, because we're not totally sure, it's officially the most confusing relationship I've been in, but for some reason I'm ok with it. He just makes me so happy, he believes in me and pushes me to follow my dreams, he says I'm too talented and smart to get stuck where I am. He's such a funny person, and he actually laughs at my jokes too! He plays guitar and sings, and he's really good, so it's fun to listen to him and have musicians around again. We just have a lot of fun together and that's ok with me.

My phone has been giving me trouble, I went over on my minutes last month because the phone is still in central time even though I'm not. So, hopefully I can figure that out soon, or just not talk. I think it's all moms fault, seeing as how she was the majority of the calls. I added a text message package, because that's how everyone communicates now. Even when they're in the same room, it is pretty fun though. I am getting very excited to come home and see everyone. I am coming bearing gifts too. We had out SALSA (Spend a Little Save a Lot) sale and I had a good time. It was a huge warehouse of discounted Disney merchandise all 70% off. They had a pin party and I got a bunch of pins for anywhere from $1 to $3 a pin, which were originally $8-$12. So that was a pretty good deal, I'm excited to get out in the parks and trade them for some of the ones I've been eyeing that are more expensive. I really want to get the Year of a Million Dreams pins, but they're hard to find, because the only way to get them is to win them.

I'm sure that's not everything, but it's a good start, hopefully it'll hold everyone over until I get a chance to update again. I've heard that mom was getting phone calls wondering what was going on. So, for her sake, I'll try not to make it so long between updates.

Lazy Friday

Yep. I accomplished pretty much nothing. I had so many plans, but I didn't follow through on any of them. I slept until 11, then I laid in bed until 2:00. At which point I got up long enough to get an apple and some string cheese for my brunch. I watched some Disney movies and sat on the internet.

That was really the extent of my day. I was going to get up and go places, but when I decided to do that there was a sudden down pour. I just figured that was mother natures way of saying, you have the day off, just stay in bed. So I oblidged. I got my hair piece set in curlers, so in another week I'll be able to wear that. I was going to dye my hair, but I keep putting it off cause it's such a pain. I watched confessions of a teenage drama queen starring Lindsey Lohan with Kim and Julie. I think I annoyed them a little, because I like to talk through movies, sort of like Mystery Science Theatre. I comment on everything and point out the obvious, I also try to guess the plot. So eventually I just shut up and watched. By the way, don't ever waste your time, it was wretched. That really was about all I did, sad I know.

Answer to Yesterdays Trivia: How many individual triangles make up the exterior shell of Spaceship Earth?
11,324

Looooong Day

I slept late today, I did not hear the alarms go off. I woke up with about 15 minutes to get ready. I normally have an hour. And on top of it, Julie was in the bathroom, I was in my room spazzing out. I got out the door, about 10 minutes later than I wanted to, but I made it to work on time. I picked up a ride position, so I headed down there to see where we were at in the opening procedures. Turns out CDS had mis-scheduled (like that never happens) and didn't assign anybody to help open the ride, so they were behind. They already had all the opener positions taken, but I stayed anyway to watch because they were training how to open on the console, and I'm still shaky on that, so it was good practice. We got a brand new ADA car, so we had to test a few more things with that. We opened a little late, but they coordinator walked the people through slowly so we'd be ready.

I felt like I spent all day at Load 1, saying watch your step. I had a short time on load 2, which is the position that freaks me out, but Moises taught me this great joke. Now you have to read your audience for it work, you just ask them to put their seat belts on (we don't have seat belts) and they just keep looking for them and can't find them. Of course when they look up I have a huge grin on my face and they get all mad and say they can't believe they fell for it. It certainly passes time faster. Someone today told me they do the lap bar one (where you have to pull a bar from over your head down to your lap). I haven't tried that, but it would be funny to see if people really do reach for it. I of course, have to be sure there are no children around, because if they overhear to put on their seat belts and realize they don't have any, I may freak them out. So I only get to do it every once in a while, but it's entertaining.

I had a training on my schedule for an hour, but it said Soarin'. Everyone thought it might be a meeting of some sort, but when I signed in it said it was a training. Luckily, the coordinator was in the room, so she called around for me and concluded that it was a mistake, and then put me back into rotation for the hour. Once the hour was up, I ended up getting the pavilion greeter. I spent a couple hours outside doing that today, and of course since I was late this morning I didn't get the sunscreen on. Luckily it was a pretty cloudy day, we even had a few light showers while I was out there. We had a little bit of a problem on the ride and were stopped for a while, so our wait time doubled to an hour wait and just as I was about to start telling people, I got to go on my break! Yeah, I didn't have to deal with it.

CDS went down, which meant the coordinators had to figure out by hand where everyone should go and who needed breaks or bump offs. It was craziness for a while. When it was time for my bump off I was so excited. Today was 10 hours and 45 minutes. Ick. I will probably do it again though. Now, I'm horribly tired and I have tomorrow off, so I am going to catch up on my beauty rest.

Today's Trivia Question: How many individual triangles make up the exterior shell of Spaceship Earth?

I LOVE Turtles!

So, today I started out at the Seas for 3 hours. That was pretty normal, a little slow going for the morning, pretty relaxing. Then I got to head over to the Wonders of Life pavilion, I can't remember the last time I was in there, for a Turtle Talk workshop. We went over teamwork and supporting each other, interactive theatre, how to pump up the crowd, what not to do or say, some tips on making the show flow smoothly, and then we got to put it into practice and try out our spiel in front of the group. I did my spiel and Eddie (our facilitator) told me if I was his kindergarden teacher he would do anything I said. If I told him to punch another kid he'd get all excited and ask which kid. I always play my spiels to the kids, because that's who the show is about, that's who I need to get pumped and feeling comfortable. Plus, dad was so right when he said engage the children and the adults will follow, it works every time. Eddie also said that if he had his eyes closed during my spiel he would have gotten everything I was trying to get across, because my inflections were great, there was variety and it was interesting. I was so pumped, what great compliments, and especially from someone whom I respect so much.

I went back to work and when we got back the ride was down (it was down when I left yesterday as well, our ADA(wheelchair) car had a problem). So because the ride was down there weren't any jobs for us to do, so everyone kept getting tasks. I of course, went right over to Kidcot to hang out with my new bestest friend Brandon. He is a ton of fun! I spent about an hour with him. He even came back with me to get an assignment and then took me on a mini tour of the aquarium and pointed out some of the fish to me. While we were hanging out one of the other CMs said when I did my spiel he thought I could be a face character, he said my voice was just so pleasant. And then he said he thought I looked like Cinderella. I just said thanks, but I really wanted to say stop getting my hopes up!

The ride went back up and I went over to load one, where all I do is say "Go right ahead, watch your step. Go ahead, watch your step on the platform. Go ahead. Watch your step. Watch your setp on the platform. Go ahead." Yep, it's very redundant, and you can't make conversation with anybody cause there's barely enough time for a hi, sometimes there's not even that much time. The day still felt pretty short, I only had a couple hours left after the workshop and I hung out with Brandon for half of it.

I didn't have time for a nap today, I just had time to eat dinner and get ready. But, today was fantasyland so I was excited to go to the fireworks. It was a totally different group of people, and there was a different coordinator. She was nice, but she hadn't done it in a while, so she said she was kind of rusty. I was supposed to get the same position I was the first time, front of castle. But they had people helping from toontown, so because they had a different costume, they had to be the front of castle positions. I got Snow White exit. We set up ropes so that during the fireworks there was an alternate entrance and exit because the whole area is blocked off as a fallout zone. My job was to direct people where to go and make sure nobody jumped the ropes. Now, if only people listened right? I had some people who went right under and when we asked them to come back they refused, and were of course very rude. It drove me nuts because not only would people not listen, but I had a partner who was the other side of the line, and she wouldn't pay attention. We could have prevented a lot of them if she was watching and caught it immediately. There are some people who walk through that you just keep your eye on, because they look like they may jump the line. She wanted to look the other direction instead, which made it hard because I would get halfway to where she was standing to get someone back before she even turned around and realized what was happening. And then I would get yelled at because I left my post.

I had one group go through I had very clearly instructed them to go all the way to the other end of the rope. But there was a kid, probably about 12 who decided to go under the ropes and into the restricted area. I immediately ran over and told him to come back right now. Well the kid just stood there, so I got very stern and said he could not be in that area he needed to come back on the other side of the ropes right now. Well, the kids father got in my face and said don't you dare discipline my child, you ask me first and I will take care of it. To which I said, I'm very sorry sir, but it's an issue of safety, that is my number one concern. They guy flipped out and said he was tired of cast members berating his children and he needed to see a manager right now. Well I let him know I could not leave my post. So he wanted to know where the main office, clearly someone who isn't very educated on the structure of Disney. I told him to stop by guest relations, and he stared at my nametag like it would intimidate me and stormed off. I know that I was correct. Yes, most times you want to be polite, but safety is number one above all else, and I need to do whatever I need to, to keep our guests safe. The manager then came over and started to yell at me again for leaving my post, but the pyrotechnics specialist in the area came over and defended me and said I was correct, I was dealing with a guest who was in the danger zone.

The fireworks were super loud, because there was a good portion that were being lit of right in the area. I didn't even attempt to look, because I was so concerned with getting people through the area, I was afraid they may stop and try to look and then jump the line to get a better view. So I was on high alert. The other lady wasn't even phased, I don't think I'd like to work with her again. They wet the area with sprinklers in case there was any fallout, and people kept asking if it was raining. I kept getting wet though, since it was right on my back. When we finished I was putting the poles and ropes away and who walks into the Philharmagic but some of my coworkers. So I got to say hi to them and chat for a bit, and then we were done for the night. Pretty simple, although much more stress this time.

Answer to Yesterdays Trivia: How many happy haunts reside at the Haunted Mansion?
999, but, there's room for one more... Any takers, hmmm?

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.

MK Envy

Today was kind of a low key day. I started at 8:30, which I thought meant I was going to go to our morning meeting. Nope, I got area cleaning. Which meant I had to walk around with a picker and a bucket and pick up garbage. Not exactly fun. But I did get to see the bunnies, who are very used to people so they let you get pretty close. Then I finally got a ride through! Yeah, I always wanted to get that task. After I did that for 15 minutes, I picked up the 2nd wheelchair assistance position. It was really early to pick it up, especially since there were so few guests let alone wheelchairs. But, I got to talk to TJ for a while. TJ used to work at the Seas and is now on the Epcot Dream Squad. So I was talking to him about that. I am so jealous!!!

The coordinator came over and asked if anyone wanted ER (Early Release). I obviously didn't, I've been trying to pick up more hours. Because we were overstaffed. I went to Kidcot for a short time, and then we had two people who were on modified duty who came to help out, so they dropped me and had me go over to Turtle Talk. I did all the positions outside, but didn't get to go in. I only got one show in all day. But I've never laughed harder than I did. We had a little boy that Crush asked if he had a question and this is what the boy said, "My question is, you said you were a hundred and fifty. But the thing is the oldest turtle on record was a hundred and fifty. And he's dead." My mouth just dropped, there was a gasp in the audience. And Crush gave the best face, swam over to the hydrophone and said, "Security. Yeah, is this thing on. We've got one of those kids." It was great.

It was only a six hour day and I got 45 minutes worth of tasking which made it go by pretty quick. I went over to MK (Magic Kingdom) costuming on my way home. I had picked up the fireworks shifts and so I needed to get the costumes. They were so nice in there. It was set up so much nicer and neater than ours at Epcot. They had signs in every aisle that said what was in the aisle as well as a mannequin on the end that showed exactly how the costume should look. I had an older gentleman point out where mine were and he chatted with me for a while about his career and Epcot. He was very nice. The Fantasyland costume is super comfy. It's breathable fabric, unlike the stuff we wear at the seas, and it's soft. I took a short nap when I got home and then got ready.

I was really nervous to go over for the shift because I didn't really know what was going on. When I got there, I made my way to the deployment base like my instructions had told me. There was a lady who helped me out. Apparently they don't meet in the deployment base like they tell you, I don't know why they don't change it on the sheet. But they told me where to wait and who I was waiting for. The coordinator was really nice and helpful. They had lanyards you wore that listed all the duties of your position which was really helpful. I also got the radio which saved my butt a couple of times. The people seemed really nice and were very welcoming.

I got the position in front of the castle on one of the ramps. All I had to do was rope off the ramp and prevent anyone from going up. Seems easy right. Big white rope, the Disney sign for do not enter here, surely the guests will know that and obey. Of course not, they all tried to jump the rope, walk under, some even wanted to hop the fence and cut through the grass. There is apparently a whole different breed of people who come to Disney in the summer. They are rude and have short tempers and think they can get away with anything. I had quite a few guests come up and yell at me because they couldn't get through the crowd like I'm going to wave my hands and the crowd will magically part like the red sea just for them. What did you expect with 10 minutes until the parade, you should know better. I don't know what they wanted me to do. I even had one guy who was standing at the base of the castle try to pass his child up over the railing onto the ramp. I asked him to get down and the guy freaked out. "Well he has to 'tete' are you going to come down here and get us through the crowd then so he can 'tete?'" Then he just sat back down, so I doubt he really had to go.

I did have a really nice family who kept saying what a hard job I had. They chatted with me and ended up staying the whole night. The mom was really helpful, she would stop people from jumping the rope and let me know when someone climbed on a trash can. They were such pleasant people. Although she was very technically minded and so she wanted to know all the "secrets". She asked me things like how many Cinderellas are there? What is that line coming out of the castle. I was so excited to hear that last question because I finally got to use my favorite response ever: "It's a magical line of pixie dust so that Tinkerbell can find her way home in the dark." Then I just got to watch the fireworks. That was pretty much all there was. I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun, I can't wait to do it again.

I also have to say that the people at MK are so much nicer. At Epcot nobody, I mean nobody will smile back at me. It's really frusterating, plus a lot of the people are just downright rude. And I don't think they have chilvary in any of the other Epcot countries because the boys are jerks cutting in front of you in line. At MK everyone smiled at me and some even said hi. It was such a change of pace and I loved it. I talked with some of the girls about what they do, they usually run the attractions in Fantasyland, so we were discussing the differences between our rides. It was fun, I enjoyed myself.

Answer to Yesterdays Trivia: How many Mickey Bars are sold at WDW each year?
3 million

Today's Trivia Question: How many happy haunts reside at the Haunted Mansion?