What is the craziest/weirdest thing you saw during your College Program?

So I get this question a lot actually. Especially when I talk to my friends about working at Walt Disney World (so casj). Here are some of the highlights of working at Walt Disney World:

I once sold a family roughly $300 of chocolate milk. The story is funniest if I just leave it at that sentence, but basically these folks came in and loaded up 3 shopping baskets worth of individual bottles of Nesquik chocolate milk, and some iced tea. We told them that we had bulk size chocolate milk, but they didn't listen, and merely responded, "We really like chocolate milk." I'm sure you do.

I didn't personally witness this, but the story traveled fast around the mountain, and it's a pretty common occurrence unfortunately. One of my fellow Cast Members was at the Grouper position putting families onto the train, when they noticed someone's backpack was moving. They asked the family what was in the backpack, and the mom responded, "It's a toy we bought earlier today. It's motion activated." The Cast Member asked them to open up the backpack and show him, but they refused, saying that they shouldn't have to do that. Eventually they did when the Cast Member made it clear that they would not start the ride until this was resolved. It was a baby. They tried to smuggle a baby onto a roller coaster. I'm not sure how successful they thought this would be. What I did witness was on a separate occasion, someone carried their baby all the way up to where I was at Grouper. They weren't trying to hide their baby, but come on, really? Obviously a roller coaster is not a safe environment for someone that young.

I was at Main Unload one day when I hear our coordinator call for us to lock the gates on the Main side. I thought this was odd, because we don't normally do that on Main Side, rather on Spur Side. I see my coordinator then walk through the exit of the ride with a few people in tow. As he passed me, I asked him what was going on. He leaned in and whispered, "You'll see" with a glint in his eye. A train then pulls into the station with only the last two rows occupied. At this point it's fairly obvious that someone really famous is on the ride because by locking the gates, we're effectively stopping crazed fans from mobbing the innocent, and the empty train as well was a giveaway too. They exit the train, when we're given the all clear to open the gates. The party strolls past me, one gentleman nods his head in thanks, as I recognize him. 'It's that guy, from that band', I said to myself. Indeed, it was Liam from One Direction and his posse. We brushed shoulders, so you can say things are getting pretty serious.

Besides my intimate encounter with a member of One Direction, two other celebrities rode my ride while I was operating it. Both football players: Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, and Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Troy was such a tease- he had his hair pulled back in a bun, and went to retie it. He shook it loose and his hair spilled everywhere. He got a reaction from the peasants- I mean regular guests- when they realized who it was, and all he had to do was look in everyone's general direction and smile- they all swooned so hard that day.

I once sold a gentleman a $250 Dooney and Burke purse for his 7 year old daughter, on the condition that she promise to take care of this one. No judgment, because that's an awesome gift, but when I told him his total, he didn't even flinch. Can he adopt me?

One day while working in the Market, a gentleman came up to make a purchase. He saw my name tag and that I went to the University of Alabama and he got very excited. He wanted to show me his tattoo. He repeatedly would ask, "Do you believe that I have a tattoo?" Like I'd have any reason to doubt you sir. So he starts rolling up his pant leg, and keeps rolling, and keeps rolling. All the way up to mid-thigh, dusted with leg hair, was Big Al, our beloved mascot. He shouted Roll Tide! and then bought a fifth of vodka. Bama Alum: Keeping it classy since 1994, or whenever he graduated.

My largest sale was for over $1,100- all in Alex & Ani bracelets. If you've worked in merchandise, this can often be a point of discussion. What was your biggest sale? Especially if you worked during Star Wars Weekends, I've heard of people having over $25,000 transactions, so mine pales in comparison. A couple came into BVG while I was working at the jewelry counter, and they wanted to see our new collection of Alex and Ani bracelets that had literally Just come in that morning. It was the Cinderella line, since the live-action movie was released in the middle of my program. We had three new bracelets, one standard that said, "Whistle While You Work", and two 'wraps', one with a carriage, and one with the word "Dream" in silver. The woman approached the counter and asked how many we had in stock, so I told her I could take a peek below and see. She said she wanted to make two purchases. The first being for her, one of each of the three new bracelets. The second 'order', as she put it, being ten of each of the brand new bracelets that were just released this morning. Now, the Contemporary was one of only a few shops that would get new jewelry fairly soon after its release, the others being World of Disney, Uptown Jewelers, The Emporium (for Alex and Ani), etc. This woman knew what she was doing- buying all the merchandise available, since there was no hard cap on what we can sell per transaction, so it wouldn't be available in the parks anymore, and therefore its resale value would skyrocket and one can make a nice profit. I think this is horrible. Some people who are vacationing from all over the world don't get opportunities to buy the park exclusive bracelets, or any other merchandise for that matter. When someone comes in to do this, just so they can flip it for a profit, it really angers me because it hikes the price for these folks who just want a nice souvenir from their time at Disney World /end rant/ And the kicker in all this? She used her annual pass to get a discount on the merchandise.

I had a shift that was scheduled to end at 4am. Like, on purpose. The night was July 3rd. Yes, the popular Fourth of July Eve. It was a Friday, and we had the special perimeter fireworks both the 3rd and the 4th, due to high crowds. The park closed at 1am, with extra magic hours until 3am. Normally, the latest Magic Kingdom closed to regular guests was midnight, and extra magic hours would be until 2am. The only night of my entire program that I closed the Lost and Found position was this night. That position stays the latest out of everyone, because we close Tower, which means we supervise the track walk, and then we take everything found throughout the day to the Lost and Found office, located at the front of Main Street, or the opposite end of the park from Thunder Mountain.

We actually deal with merchandise sprouting legs quite often at Disney. It's difficult to keep an eye on all the guests when you have a line building up, or when the shape of your store is not conducive to being able to keep everyone visible from the counters. There was one woman in particular who apparently was quite brazen in her attempts to free some t-shirts from their confinement of metal hangers. Another guest let us know that there was a woman with sticky finger syndrome wandering near the clothing section, but since we couldn't actually see her take anything, and we can't ask someone to show us the contents of their bag, we had to let her go, let her go, can't hold her back anymore.

On my last day at the Contemporary, we had an interesting situation. There was a guest who was flushing toilets repeatedly to the point of flooding on the first floor of the resort, but he was slowly making his way up to the fourth floor concourse where the shops and restaurants are. Another guest approached me and my manager alerting us to the situation, saying they were concerned that the guest appeared to be unsupervised or perhaps separated from his group, and that someone should check in on him so I volunteered. He was heading towards Bay Lake Tower on the bridge, but as I approached him to see how he was doing and if I could help him find his group, he kept backing away from me, saying he was fine and didn't need help (I mean I too love to flush toilets repeatedly) until eventually he made it inside the resort and we lost him. My manager and I went downstairs to the lobby to let the cast members there know what was happening in case the Wet Bandit was seen again.

TOUR GROUPS. Hundreds of chanting tweens wearing matching shirts and making you question your life choices. Sometimes, you even get to witness multiple tour groups merging together into one super mega ultra tour group and you go numb inside.

If you've ever wondered what a cast member means when they say "Thunder Mountain is currently experiencing technical difficulties", it can mean a variety of things. Sometimes, the ride just stops on its own- A false intrusion, an issue with the track switch, etc. Sometimes, it can be because there was a problem with trains leaving the station, and everything got backed up too long which leads to an automatic emergency stop. Sometimes, it can be because an idiot stands up on the ride and doesn't sit back down despite being spieled at over the speakers. Don't be that guy. Resetting the ride involves evacuating every train, walking the guests down the tracks back into the station, doing a track walk, and resetting each section of the track. Depending on the crew available, this could take well over an hour to do, all because you wanted some sweet air time on the hill.

There's always one person who leaves a lasting impact on your program. It can be a roommate, coworker, leader, or a guest. This person can have such an impact on you that they will never be forgotten. For me, it was the kind-hearted guest who cussed me out while I worked at Thunder. Since the trains on our ride are separated into cars, I can see how sometimes it might be confusing if a party is split between two cars. As I was grouping guests, I put one party in two rows, one in the first row of a car, and the other half in the last row of the next car (they were the next two consecutive rows, just split by the gap). This guest stopped me and looked dumbfounded, and said "We want to be on the same train". I told her that they were, they'll be riding together, they'll just be a few feet apart instead of immediately next to each other. She did not like this, and repeated that they wanted to ride together. I told her I can't move her party, since I've had to do this to other groups in the past (actually all the time, this is super common) and I can't make an exception for her, since that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. Eventually, she got so fed up, she screamed, "F*** you, what's your name?" I kindly pointed to my nametag, and said, "Taylor. Have a magical day!"





And finally, some sage advice from a CP alum:

No matter how delicious the Kitchen Sink looks, just know- someone in your group will get the unlucky combinations of toppings that will make you regret this decision (as if some didn't regret it already). Pineapple and peanut butter, I'm looking at you.

When you get your ears embroidered, make sure the cast member either writes down your name themselves, or knows what your name is. Don't just let your handwriting speak for itself. Because sometimes, you accidentally link the 't' and the 'i' in your name. You expect Kristina, but you get Krishna, and a new nickname.

If you want your jokes read at the Laugh Floor, don't make them politically themed, or about politics at all, actually. Just make them about Disney, or animals, or something cute that kids actually understand.

Don't test the birds on Main Street or in Frontierland. They will swoop down and steal your churros. And if they decide to feast, don't try to salvage your delicious deep-fried cinnamon-sugar stick. Just SCATTER.

If you go to a Mardi Gras parade at Universal Studios, be prepared to get your hands dirty. Children on vacation there are vicious. But what they say at the Horror Make-up Show is true: You don't have to be nice to kids at Universal, it's not Disney World. Throw some elbows if you have to- those $0.25 beads will be worth it forever.

If you work in merchandise, good luck saving money. Because there are things you didn't even know you wanted until you worked among all the plushes, mugs, ears, and other useless but oh-so-cute merchandise.

If your waitress at 50s Primetime Cafe says "I don't think I've ever seen anyone finish that by themselves" after you order the 7-layer cake, don't say "Challenge Accepted". Even with my roommates helping, that peanut butter and chocolaty goodness was toooooo much.

Guess Who's Back?

I have a real problem: I just can't shake the Disney bug. I'm graduating in just a few months, so I'm going through the typical existential crisis of a burgeoning college graduate, and wondering what to do with my future.

I still do want to work in sports, but I also want to work at Disney. What do? This past semester, I applied en masse to baseball teams around my home town, and I got an offer for a summer internship in Madison, WI. I will be a marketing intern for the Madison Mallards, doing crazy promotions and community relations work for the team, and I am so excited. Since this is not a full time job offer, and I have nothing in the fall or beyond, I will be applying for another college program so I can hopefully be a child one more time and live and work at the most magical place on earth.

I'm really thankful for my past experience, as I think I know now what roles I'd really be comfortable with. Better yet, I know some locations I can request in the phone interview, so hopefully in just a few short months, I will receive the glorious acceptance e-mail one. more. time.

I have a post I've been working on for a while now, about some of the crazy/memorable experiences I had while working at Disney World. That should be coming up in a few days. Other than that, you'll hear from me when applications drop in about a month!

'Til next time!