Day 191: Last Day As A Disney Cast Member

So guys, today was the day. It was my last shift as a Disney Cast Member. It's definitely a bittersweet feeling, because while I am super excited to go home and see my family and go back to school, I will miss being down in Orlando, and getting to go to the parks on my off days.

I worked 10am-5pm today which was a weird shift since I never got afternoons before. I packed up all my costumes to get ready to turn them in after my shift, then I was on my way. Right out of the gate, I got spur grouper. People today were really rough. Just not listening, the regular stuff. I moved outside for a while after that then got my first break. About an hour into my shift, I got a 'special task', which was to go to the manager's trailer for a meeting. It was my final day evaluation, so I sat down with two of my leaders and we talked about my performance. I got pretty good comments from them, especially for my attendance because I didn't call out at all.

I tried putting in for an ER just so I wouldn't have to take my unpaid lunch, but they were tight on labor apparently, since I didn't get it. My lunch came kind of late, I ended up getting back from lunch with roughly an hour and a half left in my shift. When I got back, I pulled two tasks. I was sitting in the office when a coordinator walked in and asked if I was comfortable going to the mini-lift to pull a train back on. Apparently while I was at lunch we had gone down to 4 trains because of some brake issues.

I headed back to the mini-lift with another cast member. While I had taken trains off of the mini lift, I hadn't pulled one back on since my training. Luckily, the maintenance guy who was out there with us was super helpful. Once we signaled to the Train cast member that we wanted to pull a train on, we opened up the swing bridge and started moving the train. Good thing nothing went wrong, because we could have backed up the operation a lot. We pulled it on part of the way, then went back into the station to let the other cast members finish pulling it in.

I ended up getting my bumpout early, around 4:40, so I sat in the office for about 10 minutes with some people before I could clock out.

No, thank you Mickey.

I said my goodbyes, then headed to the tunnels. I hopped into the shower in the Utilidors to freshen up because I wouldn't be going back to my apartment until way later in the night. I turned in all my costumes, then went to Vista Way to pick up Sydnee! We went on a few errands, like me getting my nose pierced (no more Disney Look), and going to the Disney Character Warehouse at the outlet mall. We had dinner then went to our former co-worker Lynn's apartment where some of the Contemporary CP's would be getting together for one last night.

After I got to say goodbye to those coworkers, I went to pick up some of my fellow Thundercats to go to Steak n' Shake with a bunch of other CP's. It was nice to be able to say goodbye to so many of my coworkers.

I ended up getting home around 3 in the morning, just enough time to get a few hours of sleep before our big day tomorrow. We're going to hit all 4 parks in 1 day to celebrate our last day in the parks.

'Til next time!

Day 190: My Last Night Shift at Thunder

So today was a pretty short shift, 5pm-11pm. It was also my last night at Thunder. It was pretty stormy outside, so of course I ended up being outside around when the rain started, and without my rain gear! Just very typical of my luck.

I had my last break around 9, and when I came back, I got main unload. I ended up making it around to main dispatch by the time Wishes started, so I didn't get to see it tonight. That's ok, I'll see it on Wednesday during our last day in the parks.

Since I was out at 11, all the PAC people were out and about, getting ready to clear the street while I was walking to the tunnels. I had to say some goodbyes today because I might not see these people tomorrow.  I can't believe that tomorrow will be my last day here.

'Til next time!

Day 189: Last Stretch of Work

Today was my third to last day. I worked 2pm-11:15pm. The first thing I pulled was grouper assist. I was rotated pretty quickly to main dispatch, but it took a long time for the next rotation to come around for me to get to grouper. And again, it took a while for the rotation to come around.

While I was on main grouper, I had my first guest cuss at me. It was super exciting. Basically, the way I grouped her family, they would be on the same train, but just in different cars. That's the way it goes, and a lot of families have this happen to them. It is literally unavoidable, so I can't make exceptions for people.  Let me put a handy diagram below for you.

They were sitting in the two rows circled in red.

The mother was asking if they could be in the same car. I told them that they would be on the same train, but that's all I could do. They asked repeatedly, but I told them the same thing every time. When I went back to group the next train, they tried moving themselves so they'd be in the same car. I asked them to move back to their original rows, but she was getting more snippy and less cooperative. Eventually, she yelled "F*** you! What's your name?"

I got my first break about 2 hours in. After that, I pulled main unload, which meant I was going to the same positions: grouper assist, main dispatch, main grouper. Rotation was moving a bit faster this time though. After I came back from lunch, we went down for weather. I pulled a task, then got Fastpass entry. That meant I got to go outside and tell people we were closed. We kept asking people to not stand in line because they're really not supposed to do it, but they all refused to move.

Just as we re-opened, rotation came around and I ended back at main unload, grouper assist, and main dispatch. After my last break, I was fully expecting to get that same cluster of positions, but I ended up getting spur unload. Since my last break came early, I made it all the way up to Tower where I stayed until my bumpout.

'Til next time!

Day 184: Got To Make A Magical Moment

Today was my Friday! I worked 5pm-11pm, so a really short shift. I started by pulling the main side rotation, so I was at merge for about an hour and a half, alternating between being 'the traffic cop' and assisting with the fastpass part of the line. We had a few tour groups go through, but we didn't get backed up too badly. I went outside to the Fastpass entry position for about 10 minutes, then I got my break.

After my break, I went to Greeter 2 outside, and was there for about an hour and a half. By the time I rotated inside to main unload, my second break came around. I pulled Stand-by greeter and headed outside around 9:15pm, which meant I would be at wheelchair assist for the fireworks! Around 9:30, several guests came up to me and asked when would be the best time to get in line so that they would be on the ride during Wishes. Girls after my own heart! I told them that since it was about a 30 minute wait, if they got on soon, they should be good to go.

They hung around outside the entrance for a minute while I was scanning FLIK cards and checking heights, but as they were about to enter the line, I 'dropped' some fastpasses into their hands so that they could guarantee they'd be on during the fireworks. They were so happy! They told me that they were doing the '4 Parks 1 Day Challenge', and they were Disney-bounding as characters from Inside Out. There were only 4 of them, so they found 1 cast member in each park who they thought was awesome, and posed in a picture with them as the characters from Inside Out. They asked me if I would be 'Fear' in their Magic Kingdom picture, and I told them of course, I would be honored!

I ended the night at wheelchair, but I never did see the girls after they got on the ride. I sure hope they got a wonderful view of the fireworks! Tomorrow starts my four day weekend!

'Til next time!

Day 183: So Hot Outside

Today I worked from 4:15pm-12:30am. For those of you keeping track, this was my last closing shift at Thunder! I have a few more night shifts but I'm not closing. Since I was out at :30, that meant I was closing at our mini-lift and moving trains back into the storage facility.

I started at fastpass greeter, and it was so freaking hot outside! Normally there's some kind of breeze or the sun is behind the clouds for a little while, but today, nothing. The guests were probably feeling it too, as it was difficult to engage with them.

Later in the night, I was at stand-by greeter right when the fireworks started. During the fireworks, rotation went around, so I got to see the finale from our wheelchair assist position, which is the best view. After my last break, I was back out at fastpass.

I had a guest come up to me at fastpass who wanted to use his paper re-add because Space Mountain was down (which it was), so I let him through. He stopped and said that wait, he wanted to use the ticket here, but keep them so that he could go to Guest Relations in the morning and get a free day of park admission so that he could come back to go on Space Mountain. I told him that probably wouldn't work for multiple reasons and that he would have to give the ticket to the cast member at the top. He said he would, but that he would still try to go to guest relations in the morning. I told him good luck, then I rotated to main unload.

We closed the main side of the station while I was at main unload, so after that I went to the mini-lift. I stayed back there for probably the last 45 minutes waiting for the park to close so we could pull off the last of the trains, then I came back in and clocked out.

'Til next time!

Day 182: 6 Months in Disney

Today marks half a year ('ear') that I've spent working for the Mouse. Wow, has time flown by. I had a 7 hour shift, 8:45-3:45. I started the day at main unload, and it was super chill because we weren't filling the train completely full until I moved to another position. There were a lot of tour groups this morning though, which was horrible.

I asked them to pull up on their lap bar, making the motion with my hands as well, and they would all ignore me. I didn't really have time to explain to them what I needed them to do, so I just had to walk down the train and manually check all the lap bars when they wouldn't do it themselves. I feel bad because I've kind of lost my patience with them, but I'm keeping in mind I only have a few more shifts until I'm done.

After my first break, I went outside to stand-by greeter and stood outside for a few hours. I went to wheelchair assist and was literally running back and forth for the entire 45 minutes. By then my break should have come around. But it hadn't. I moved to spur unload and was there for about 45 minutes as well. Still no break. At this point, I only had 2 hours left in my shift, and I still hadn't taken my lunch. Finally it came around.

When I got back from lunch, I pulled the main rotation, which meant I went up to merge, which would be where I'd end my day. We went down for weather while I was up there, but came back up pretty quickly.

When I got home, I just ate a little bit and laid in my bed for the rest of the night.

'Til next time!

Day 179-181: Down to the Wire

These last few days have been pretty easy. Some pretty short shifts overall. On Thursday, we had another famous guest ride Thunder. I was at spur dispatch when I saw a group come into the station. I recognized one of the family members as Troy Polamalu, NFL safety, famous for his voluminous and beautiful hair. Because I was at the dispatch console, I sent his train and waved to them as they left the station.

The next day, I had a 6 hour shift at night, so I took advantage of this and went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries to last me for another 2 weeks and got some toiletries. On Saturday, I worked a normal 9 hour shift. I was at Wheelchair Assist during the fireworks again. It was still cool. After the fireworks, a guest came in because they lost their reading glasses on the ride. I found them for them, and they gave me a card as they left and thanked me for helping them. It was a thank you card that read "Thanks for making our day magical!" It was super cute, and I will keep it forever.

Around 11:30pm, right before the park closed to non-resort guests, the ride broke down. About 10 minutes before that, Splash Mountain had gone down for technical reasons as well, so all our coordinators/leaders were over there. It took a few minutes to get us started, but eventually I was sent out to evacuate a train, then do a track walk afterwards. My shift ended at 12:30, so I got my bumpout just a few minutes after that and I went home to sleep, because I had a very short turnaround to the next morning.

'Til next time!

Day 176: I Am So Tired

Today was a rough day. As I mentioned, I didn't get home until late last night. By late, I mean 3:45am. When I said I had to be at work early the next morning, by early I meant 7:30. I got roughly 1.5 hours of sleep as I prepared to go into an 11 hour shift. I know I did this to myself, but I tried to put in for an ER, along with another CP who was in the same boat as me. I did not get the Early Release from my shift, but I was tasking multiple times throughout the day.

That was the frustrating part. There were clearly enough people at work, but I couldn't go home early. It was my Friday, so I have a few days to recover. Anyways, just a few more weeks until I won't be working crazy hours. I went home and took a brief nap, then went to the Ale House with Tess and got some food.

'Til next time!

Day 173-175: Work Work Work Movie Night!

The last three days have been pretty bland. Work goes quickly, but nothing really sticks out anymore. I get asked the same weird questions on a pretty regular basis, but beyond that nothing bizarre. I got my last full schedule at Disney on Saturday though, which was pretty crazy! I was scheduled 6 days a week again, but I've been posting to try and give a few away. Some people are interested, so hopefully they go through!

Sunday night, we did something cool. I can't talk about it too much, because our manager had to talk to a lot of people for us to be able to do this, but it involved watching a movie with the other Frontierland CPs in a very cool place after we all were done with work. I got done very late, and had to be back very early the next morning. It was a super fun experience, but I was sooo tired.

'Til next time!

Day 172: Back to Hollywood Studios to Draw!

Today I had a short shift, 6:15pm-12:15pm. Tess and I decided we wanted to go to the animation class one more time because it would be closing that weekend. We got there and rode Toy Story with our fastpasses, then headed for the animation class. The line was so long, apparently a few people had the same idea as we did.

Once we got inside, we were wondering who we would draw. If we were given an opportunity to request, we wanted to draw Flynn Rider, but the artist had someone in mind already. It was Baymax from Big Hero 6! It was a lot of fun, as usual. After that, we went on Tower of Terror, and headed home so I could get ready for work. Since it was a six hour shift, I just got 2 short breaks, but it went by quickly.

'Til next time!

Day 169: My First PAC Shift

Today was my first time doing PAC outside of training. It was kind of intimidating, because while they used to have little index cards that described what every position does, they lost them so I felt very confused about my job responsibilities. I was given Splash 3, who really doesn't do a whole lot, thank goodness. We actually stood by the carts backstage that held the stanchions, and brought them out following the parade so that we could take down the ropes/stanchions as quickly as possible behind the parade route.

Because we were backstage, we got to still see the parade, but we weren't responsible for watching the guests or anything like that, so we got to enjoy the Festival of Fantasy parade. Considering I probably won't get any more PAC shifts, this was super cool! As we followed the parade, I pulled the cart next to the ropes so that we could unclip everything while the parade was still going. It was kind of stressful, because a lot of the people were training for PAC or it was their first shift too, so there was a bit of miscommunication but no one died/was hurt, so it was a success!

After that, I went into rotation at Thunder for a few hours. I pulled my break right away, so I was talking to someone else doing PAC. I was supposed to go back to the night parade, but she had an earlier end time while staying in rotation for the rest of the night. Because I was really tired from the parade earlier, I traded with her so I stayed at Thunder the rest of the night.

I was at wheelchair assist during the fireworks for the first time, and wow, that is really the best place to watch the fireworks. I sat talking with a family who had a guest with a wheelchair, and they wanted to wait until the fireworks were over to go on the ride. They had never seen Wishes, so I was kind of explaining the cues because you can't really hear the music over the Frontierland music we play.

Right after the fireworks ended, our ride went down for technical issues. This was also right when my bumpout came so I didn't have to evacuate any trains or reset, but this poor family was so close to going on Thunder, I tried to give them some re-adds but they said they were good and thanked me for sharing the fireworks with them. All in all a cool night!

'Til next time!

Day 168: Rainy Day Means Going Home Early

Today I was scheduled to work from 10:30am-11:15pm. I'm not a fan of these shifts at all, for multiple obvious reasons, among them being they're over 12 hours, and they take up the entire day so I can't do anything other than work. I spent the day in spur rotation in the same 3 positions, wheelchair assist, spur unload, and spur exit. Those positions can make time go by quickly, but overall, those are some of my least favorite positions. I would much rather be outside.

I finally pulled a different rotation, the main side rotation, which starts up in merge. Within a couple minutes, we went down for weather. The rain was coming down pretty hard, so that drove a lot of people out. The park was actually really empty, my theory is that they all came to the park last night to see the fireworks, so they were at different parks today.

I had put in for an ER for around 10, but my coordinator called up to merge and asked if I wanted to go home at 7 (right now) instead, so of course I said yes. Myself and one other person got to go home very early which was super nice, so I could relax!

'Til next time!

Day 167: Happy Birthday America! (Or As I Call It, Happy Phase Closure Day)

Today I worked at Magic Kingdom to celebrate the birthday of the greatest country in the world, Murica. I worked from 3:45-12:30, so I pretty much slept right until I needed to get ready for work, considering I got out of work at 4am yesterday. I started off my day by tasking, so I headed up to merge because a coordinator told me it was really busy.

As I was walking up the steps to enter our covered queue, I saw a bunch of bottles and drink cups getting lined up on a railing. People were leaving their trash there instead of taking it to a trash can. So I picked it up to take it to the trash, when someone walked past me and left their trash right there where I was cleaning up! I had my arms full walking towards merge and dumped all the trash off, when a coordinator came by and thanked me. He wrote me a Four Keys card for keeping everything clean!

Later in the day, I got off my break around 8:45pm and pulled stand-by greeter! That meant I would get to see the fireworks, finally! I had heard they were so absolutely cool so I was pumped to see them in person. Someone was telling me they were perimeter fireworks, meaning they would go off 360 degrees all around Magic Kingdom at certain points in the show.

No one was really walking on to the ride, instead opting in to see the fireworks, so we got to watch the fireworks almost the entire time. The finale was without a doubt, one of the coolest things I have seen probably ever. It felt like you were surrounded by the fireworks, and I could not stop staring with my mouth open and eyes wide. It was an awesome experience.

Since the park closed at 1am and I was out at 12:30, I didn't have to close. So I got to go home and sleep because I have to be back in at 10:30 tomorrow.

'Til next time!

Day 166: The 3rd of July Extravaganza

Today was the latest I have ever been at Magic Kingdom. I worked from 7:15pm-4:00am. That's right, 4 in the morning was when I left the park. It was really odd. The park closed at 3am for extra magic hours, and I was the lost and found closer, so I had to close tower, and run our lost and found to the front of the park at the end of the night.

The fireworks were scheduled to go off at 9pm, which meant I would get to see them if I went on break. It was a very rainy day, so the fireworks were getting delayed. They ended up going off around 10:30pm, which was about 5 minutes after I got back from my lunch. I was at main dispatch, so I missed the fireworks barely.

During extra magic hours, I was in tower for the whole time. I gave someone their break at 1am, and since I was closing tower, I took my break and came right back to pull trains off. Lost and found was really easy because we had a bunch of staff earlier in the day, so someone took stuff to City Hall before I did.

I was done pretty fast in tower, so I dropped the stuff off at City Hall and headed to the shuttle and went home to sleeeeep.

'Til next time!

Day 165: He Walked Right Next to Me!

Today I worked from 3:30-12:15. I started at main grouper, and was kind of cycling back there through the rest of the night. Grouper/grouper assist have slowly become some of my favorite positions to work (relatively, because I'm struggling to find a position that I really really like), because it keeps you really busy and time flies. Also, it's not as repetitive as some of the other positions can be.

In the same rotation as main grouper is main unload. You're kind of on an island by yourself for that whole time, unloading guests, checking lap bars, and sending trains. It can get kind of boring, and very hot because the only spot of air conditioning is halfway up the train, whereas I spend most of my time near the back of the train which is where our console is.

While I was at main unload, a coordinator comes over and tells our dispatch person to lock their gates. Normally, when this happens, we would check for lost and found then re-open them right away. I asked if that was what we were doing, but the coordinator just smiled and said, "You'll see". Very cryptic, if you ask me.

The next train pulls in to the station and it is almost completely empty save for the last two rows. There's a guest relations cast member with the party, so it must be someone important. Once the guests get off the train, they unlock the gates so the next group of people can get on. I look at the group as they're exiting, and it is one of the singers from One Direction. I'm not a huge fan of theirs, but I knew enough about them to know who it was, so that was pretty cool. I guess we locked the gates so if he got recognized, he wouldn't get mobbed.

The rest of the night went very smoothly, and I was out at 12:15, which meant I closed spur exit (wheelchair assistance) and filled out closing paperwork.

'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 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 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 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!