Day 162: Fun Day Shopping with Sydnee!

Today I got to hang out with my old coworker Sydnee. I was awesome catching up with her and hearing about how the Contemporary is doing. We went to lunch at the Ale House, which was delicious. We then tried to plan the rest of our day. It was kind of rainy, so we didn't want to go to a park. Instead we decided to go thrift shopping.

There was a thrift shop kind of near our apartments, so we headed there first. It felt more like a pawn shop than a thrift shop, considering how much the prices were, but we still found some cool stuff. We each found a Pocahontas cup that Burger King used to sell, so that was awesome. We also looked around in the book section, and I found a book of Auburn jokes, so of course I had to get it. When we went to check out, the guy gave me the book for free! It's like it was meant to be mine.

After that, we went to Goodwill. I found a faded Vera Bradley backpack for $7 so of course I snatched that right up. I also found a Hercules coloring book and a VHS of Zero to Hero which is a Hercules prequel kind of thing. Jackpot! Then we went to Cast Connections to look around. I ended up getting some discounted Disney make-up which came with a super cute Haunted Mansion makeup bag. We headed to Target to look for luggage for Sydnee, but we ended up buying minion goggles and agreeing that we would go see the Minions movie when it comes out in a few weeks. So excited!

We both left with a pretty good haul. Definitely a day well spent!

'Til next time!

Days 158-161: More Work

The next couple of days were pretty standard work. Even though there's always something kind of exciting that happens at work, it's all pretty much the same. I had my first celebrity sighting at Thunder though during this stretch. It was Drew Brees, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. Jessica Alba was in the park on the same day, so we thought it was her group, so everyone was looking at the women in the party, but once we spotted him, we figured it out.

I also had a day where I got stuck in the same loop of positions the entire night. I would pull wheelchair assist which involves running between stations to bring wheelchairs around, then get rotated to spur unload to send trains and check lapbars, then get rotated to spur exit where I take the wheelchair parties, save them rows, and get them on the trains. That was pretty annoying, but it was still better than working in one shop all night like I would do at the Contemporary. Thank god for rotations.

Tomorrow, I get to see Sydnee again! I'm not sure what we're doing, but it'll be fun!

'Til next time!

Day 157: My Last Day at Hollywood Studios?

Since I only have a few weeks left on my program, I made a list of everything I still want to do- take pictures with certain things, meet certain characters, ride certain rides, etc. Then I made lists by park of those things, so that the last time I went to that park, I could do everything I wanted to do!

Since I had today off, I went to Hollywood Studios with Tess. We went to the Animation Class, and we got to draw my spirit animal, Russell from Up. It was so much fun! After that, we met Hiro and Baymax finally! We scouted out the umbrella from Singing in the Rain to take a picture with it, and after that, another one of our roommates Chelsea met up with us! We went to see the Frozen sing-along because that was the only ride/show left in Hollywood Studios that I had never done. It wasn't half bad! I just wish the characters would have been on stage more instead of them using the videos as much as they did.

My last selfie with Walt :(

We went on Toy Story Midway Mania before heading home to relax for the rest of the night.

'Til next time!

Day 156: The Easiest Shift of my Life

So today was a "one in a million" kinda night, as my coworkers referred to it. Basically, I got to work at around 4:30, and the park closed at midnight. We had been down for weather before I got to work, and it continued all through the night. We did not reopen until 10:30. So for those first couple hours, there were no guests in the station, and all the cast members got to just talk and hang out. It was pretty fun! At that point, so many people had left the park, that we were able to operate with only one station open, which meant we did not need the full staff there. I was able to get an ER (finally!) and was home around 11.

'Til next time!

Days 151-155: Probably the Worst I've Felt

So guys, my time here has been mostly awesome. There were some days I felt sick, or just didn't think I could make it into work, but nothing really as bad as this five day stretch. Day 1, I worked 14 hours. That was, by far, the longest shift I had ever worked, and it's not the only time I'll work 14 hours, I'm sure. Day 2, I had my PAC training, which is training for the parades and setting up/taking down the ropes/stanchions, and how to control traffic flow and whatnot. This was a 10 hour shift, but in the direct Florida sun. Day 3, I worked 12 hours. Day 4, I worked 12 hours and closed the ride. 8.5 hours later, I was back for Day 5. I guess the only upside to that was that I was done by 5pm, and I went to go see Inside Out which was super cute by the way.

During this five day stretch, I felt like calling out every day. I tried putting in for an ER every day and it got denied every day. I wanted to just go back home and call it quits. I'm still frustrated that this happened to me, but it's been happening to a lot of CPs, so I don't feel targeted or anything, it's just very frustrating to have that much work to be expected to do. /rant over/

'Til next time!

Day 150: The Wilderness Must Be Explored!

Today, myself and my roommates Tess and Kaitlyn went to Animal Kingdom to become Senior. Wilderness. Explorers. Y'all jelly? Even though Tess and I had started collecting badges and helping protect and explore the wilderness, Kaitlyn had never done it, so we decided to go through it all again! We got to the park bright and early, and set about planning the day. We wanted to get through all 30 badges, so we needed to have a plan in place. 

We made fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari, and Expedition: Everest because we would need to ride both of those while we pursued our badges. We also went on Dinosaur, but that was just for kicks. We started in Asia, backtracked to Dinoland, and from there, went in a circle around the rest of the park. We kept running into some of the same cast members who were working that day, so it was fun to let them know how far we were making it.

It was a good thing we made fastpasses for the safari, because the wait time was over an hour long when we made it there. But luckily, we could just hop right on! There was a rhino that walked two inches from our vehicle!

Once we successfully became Senior Wilderness Explorers and got our final badges, we went to Tastee Freeze for some delicious and well-earned ice cream.

'Til next time!

Day 148: Time to Relax!

So I missed a couple days there, Blogger. Basically, work goes by quick enough, it's just a lot of hours, and I'm outside a lot more than before. So it's still taking some time to get used to everything, but overall, things are about the same.

Today was the first day of my three day weekend, a rare occurrence when you're working at Magic Kingdom. I was scheduled to work this morning, but I traded away this shift last week! I slept in this morning because I worked until midnight last night. I've been itching to do some crafty stuff since I have a good amount of free time the next couple of days, so I went to the craft store and bought some ribbon so I can make some hair bows!

While I was out, I decided to go to Culver's, and get a taste of home. It was a little bit of a drive, but honestly it was so worth it. I was trying to get plane tickets home for this three day weekend, but they were really expensive for such short notice. Instead of getting to go home, I had some cheese curds. Close enough, right?

I dropped my stuff off at home, and decided to go to Magic Kingdom to watch Wishes. I made some fastpasses while I was there, and went on Space Mountain, Mine Train, and met Ariel! If I can find the pictures, I'll upload them later.

I parked myself at my favorite spot on Main Street and was taken away by Wishes again. Seriously, it will never get old! When I got home, I popped in a movie and made a few hair bows. Tomorrow I think I'll do the same thing again.

'Til next time!

Day 144: Back at Thunder!

Today I worked from 4:30pm-1:15am. The park is closing at 1am almost every night this week, which is kind of weird to me, but since I close, those are the hours I get! I started out at merge, and I was there for about an hour and a half. I moved down to fastpass+ entry, when within two minutes, I got my lunch. It was so early still! The coordinators moved my breaks back a little bit though, to keep things spaced out, which was nice.

I got back from lunch, and went back outside. I was doing Greeter 2, who helps with Disability Services, and wheelchair parties. One of the coordinators needed help taking down the extended queue for fastpass, so I helped her do that, then within 5 minutes, my position was dropped. I guess I'm not meant to be outside for very long.

When I came back, I was tasking, so I went to help out grouper. That can be really tough if there's no assist, which is what I was doing while I was tasking. After that, I pulled wheelchair assist. It was getting close to fireworks time, so I was hoping I would be out there for Wishes, but I got bumped inside the station about 15 minutes before.

I stayed on Spur unload, then moved to Main unload for the rest of the night. There were so many Cubs fans out today! It was awesome. I finally got my new name tag, that has my hometown on it, so that was really cool, getting to connect with my fellow Illinois-ans.

'Til next time!

Day 143: Roomie Day!

Today was my day off! I wanted to take it easy because the last week had been pretty much "go, go, go". My roommate Chelsea and I decided to go to the Dine-in movie theater at Downtown Disney. She wanted to see Pitch Perfect 2, and I was like, "I will watch this movie for the fourth time in theaters", so we went!

After that, we just strolled around the Marketplace. We went through World of Disney, and I found the one plush I've wanted since I've been here- the Baby Pegasus! Since I love Hercules, and this is pretty much the only non-pin related Hercules merchandise at Disney, I had to have it!

We went to Basin, my first time there, and washed our hands, went to the Lego Store, and got free samples at Ghiradelli. All in all, a great day!

'Til next time!

Day 142: At Last I See the Light

Today was Day 8 of 8 in a row. Finally! It was a pretty slow day, I started at merge assist, just tasking for a few minutes. They didn't really need any help, but I hung around in case anything changed. I worked a few positions including spur exit and spur dispatch. Everything went great today! Except we closed for weather while I was at dispatch. I did pretty good though, nothing bad happened. I did what I was supposed to do on time, and got my lunch pretty quick after that.

When I came back from lunch, we were getting ready to re-open from the weather, and I was at merge. A bunch of people started jumping over the chains in the line, but since I was the only one at merge, I could only yell at them to stop, not actually drop the chains to make the line shorter. Eventually I got rotated, and moved outside to fastpass entry. Just in time for Wishes! I stayed out there, until someone came over and said it was time for my bumpout.

I got an E.R., so I got out around 10:30, instead of 12:15. That was wonderful! I came home, watched a little TV, then went to bed!

'Til next time!

Day 141: Will I Ever Leave?

I was right back at Thunder today. I worked 4:30-1:15 tonight. I was kind of struggling today- I just don't think it was my day. I was at main grouper (again) for a while to start my shift. After my first break, I headed to spur exit (are y'all starting to sense a pattern here?) Basically, I kind of struggled with loading guests when they wanted the front, because I've really only put the wheelchair parties in the back of the trains.

Later in that rotation, I was at spur dispatch. At dispatch, we also control closing the gates once everyone has gotten on to the train. I always give it a few seconds to make sure no one accidentally crossed the yellow line, and needed to get back. As I was pushing down on the button, a little girl ran from the train towards the gate, as she had realized her family was not in the train, but still waiting. She almost made it, but her leg was stuck. I tried to lift up on the gate button, but accidentally lifted up on the lap bar button. I fixed it pretty quickly, but it still sucked and I was kind of down for the rest of the night.

Thunder went down for technical difficulties yet again tonight. I stood outside and told people that they couldn't ride, and explained how to redeem their fastpass somewhere else if they wanted to. Eventually, we re-opened and I was at the Fastpass entry position. After my last break, I headed to spur exit. This late in the night, spur exit does that and wheelchair assist.

It was going alright, kind of stressful because I was concerned if there might be a guest waiting outside the station for me, but I needed to stay inside the station and wait with my current party. Eventually things really started slowing down, so it was fine. My last guest of the night needed a little extra assistance, a transfer accessible vehicle. I had never gotten to use one, so I'm glad I finally got the chance. He needed to transfer back into his chair, so I helped him with that. It took a tad longer than we really had, so things started to get backed up. But this man was a trooper and managed to work his way back into the chair.

'Til next time!

Day 140: Sooooo Tired

Even though I got out of work at 2:15 yesterday, I still agreed to go to Trail's End with Tess this morning at 9:45. I crawled out of bed, barely awake, but ready for food. We drove to the Wilderness Lodge and took the bus to Fort Wilderness. Trail's End is awesome, because it's a breakfast buffet, but because there are no characters there, it's super cheap, especially for cast members, who get 40% off. It was really good, too!

I worked 4:15-12:15 today. My shortest shift at Thunder yet! I started at main grouper, that's basically my home now, because I'm there so much. I had a lot of people choosing their own row today, which sucks especially when you ask them to move and they get kind of mean, because there's not much you can do at that point. Then it takes a while to get everything moving smoothly again, and it's just a huge hassle.

I spent a lot of time in spur station, mainly spur exit. Spur exit can either be really chill or really slow depending on how many wheelchair parties you have, and how good your grouper is. It got pretty crazy for just a little bit, but slowed down eventually.

Eventually I got moved to tower. Everything was going so smoothly, then I heard the ride breakdown spiel going. The ride auto e-stopped for something that's apparently pretty rare. I left tower to go evacuate a train that was almost at the top of one of the lifts. The people were super awesome, especially considering how hot and stuffy it was up there. Once we got back, I headed back into tower and helped move trains around. It was getting pretty close to park close and my bumpout, so another cast member took over in tower so I could go home. I stayed back and watched, just to make sure I would know what to do if it happened again.

'Til next time!

Day 139: In the Home Stretch

Today was Day 5 of 8 in a row for me. It was also my longest scheduled shift, 10 and a half hours. My upcoming schedule has a 13 hour shift though, so that'll be interesting. To start my shift, I was at main unload. The rotation for that involves main dispatch, main grouper, and grouper assist. I got my lunch really early in my shift, and when I came back, I jumped right to grouper and stayed there for a pretty long time. I moved to the spur rotation, and did spur exit for a while, which means assisting wheelchair parties onto the ride.

Around 9:30, someone decided it would be a good idea to stand up at the top of one of the lifts. The Tower cast member e-stopped the ride, so we had to evacuate everyone in the cars. Since I was grouping on the spur side of the station, and there was a train parked in the station, we started having people exit out through the train. We opened up one gate and had everyone file out single-file and gave them all a re-admission ticket. By then, all the guests were evacuated off the track too, so I did part of the track reset. I did the back section again, because I was pretty comfortable with it. It went super quick on my end, but the whole reset took a while. Eventually we came back up though while I was on break.

Once we hit extra magic hours, we stop admitting fastpass+, and only allow resort guests to ride. Because there are so few guests in the park compared to the day, we don't rotate as often. So from around 11pm-1:30am, I was grouper. I grouped for two and a half hours in a row. That was absolute insanity. Near the end, there were so few people, we weren't filling the trains at all. Someone rotated me, so I pulled greeter, and scanned people's tickets and magicbands to confirm their resort reservations, then let them in. I closed greeter, by closing the line and bringing in all the electronics. Then I finally went home at 2:15am.

'Til next time!

Day 138: Thunder Was Struggling So Hard

Today was my first closing shift alone. I visited my friends Amanda and CJ before heading into work. I started at 4:15, and it started raining probably around 4:35. The rain didn't stop for about 2 hours with lightning in area. We were down for weather, then during our weather downtime, we went down for maintenance. I was greeter for most of the time, basically getting to tell people that we were down.

I was moved to spur dispatch eventually, where I did the back section of the track reset. After we finished with that, we re-opened the ride, and added the fifth train. Guests started pouring down the ramp, and not 3 minutes later, we auto E-stopped and had to evacuate the ride. I went out with another Cast Member, and finally got to evacuate a train. 

After the people were safely off the ride, I went back out and did a track walk looking for people. Since we went down pretty quickly, it took a while for the problem to be resolved. I went outside after break, told even more people we were closed, had fun. We saw Wishes from our standby post, which was awesome. We reopened the ride shortly after the finale.

I was moved to Fastpass+ merge, then pulled tower to close the night. Once the trains were moved back to storage, I also closed lost and found, which meant I walked to City Hall at the front of the park to hand over our items that were found on the track walk. I almost got lost back there, but now I know how to get to lost and found!

'Til next time!

Day 137: First Day On My Own

Today was my first shift on my own. My first position ever was.... Main dispatch. A tad underwhelming, but it will now always have a special place in my heart ❤️❤️ I opened at this position, so I didn't go to walk down, instead I stayed in the station until the guests arrived.

 I was put into rotation and quickly moved to grouper on the main side. It went awesome! Literally so smooth, nobody was choosing their own rows, it was great. By then, it was already time for my first break. I sat in the office and read The Princess Bride. After break, I pulled grouper... Again!

Eventually we rotated around and I was moved to grouper assist, main unload, and fastpass greeter. I also did greeter 2, who handles the disability access services and wheelchair return times. One gentleman came up to me and had a sheet of paper from guest relations saying he had a fastpass good for any ride and that he wanted to use it at Thunder. I hadn't encountered this type of situation yet so I deferred to a coworker. Basically after about 5 minutes it was resolved, but he was mistaken/trying to abuse the system.

To end my first day alone, I headed to wheelchair assist. I was there for about an hour and I was struggling by the end. It was just a lot of walking uphill to the other exit, our machine went down, etc. it really tired me out. I went back to the apartment and took a shower, then Tess and I then headed to a new comedy show that was downtown and it was awesome! Wayne Brady from Whose Line performed in this troupe long ago, so you know it was good!

'Til next time!

Day 136: Earning My Ears... Again

Today was assessment day! We started out by taking the paper test, and I missed about 10 questions. We went over the ones we missed and what the right answer was, then started doing all the positions. We did greeter first then fast pass greeter. Then we moved to wheelchair assist, spur exit, and spur unload. We did spur dispatch, grouper, and tower to end it. 

During my run in grouper, I asked a woman how many were in her party. She said 9, so I started putting them in rows. Then she said "do you want me to count the kids? If so, we have 11". Really? Then we went to lunch. We headed back up to the training room to do some updates on disability services, fast pass, and radio use, then we passed! We took the red "earning my ears" ribbon off our name tag and we were official!

We talked with our trainer about the college program and housing and whatnot until the end of our shift then we went home. I ended up going to bed pretty early because tomorrow is my first shift on my own, and I'm getting there just in time for park open.

Day 135: Last Day of Training

Today was my last day of OJT training at Thunder Mountain, with Jeremy. We started by reviewing positions we needed more help with, like wheelchair assist, and tower. It was raining pretty much consistently all night, but we didn't go down though. After our lunch, we played Thunder Jeopardy, and reviewed for the assessment. We did a ride through near the end of the night, and timed it so we were on it during Wishes. It was so pretty! We went on B Lift during the finale, which is the one that's outside. 

We went to Tower for the last 2 hours. There was some group with glow stuff hanging out of the train, and they were waving it around. We almost had to E-stop the ride with 3 minutes until closing because they wouldn't put them away. Luckily they did on their last warning. 

We closed Tower, and got to send trains back to storage, and monitored the track during the final track walk. I finally got home at 12:45, but I'm very happy I finally got to do a closing shift, since that is what I'll be doing most of my time here.

'Til next time!

Day 134: Back to the Old Stomping Grounds

Today was the last day of my glorious 4 day weekend. I had plans to meet up with Sydnee later, so I chilled at the apartment for a couple hours until she was ready. I met up with Sydnee and we went to dinner, and got to catch up. She told me all about working Star Wars Weekends, and I told her about Thunder Mountain.

 It was still pretty early in the night, so we decided to go and visit the Contemporary. There were quite a few new people, and not many CPs, and they were really busy, but it was still nice to see everyone. Sydnee and I left, and went shopping for a bit at the outlet mall near our apartments. Tomorrow is my last day of training!

'Til next time!