Sorry everyone who possibly might read this! I've gotten behind on my blog already! I've been in Disney for almost a week now so I'm going to give yall a recap on check in and my training.
First of all I don't think I mentioned here that my roommate situation changed a few days before I arrived. My original roommate KT ended up getting a job on the Disney cruise line for the Disney Dream and had to turn down her internship. I'm so excited for her even though we don't get to live together. She's going to have such an amazing time! So like 2 days before I got here I found a new roommate from facebook....ironically also named Katie! She's super nice and we get along great together and also with the other 2 girls in our apartment. Let me start from the beginning though....
I got to the check in line at the apartments at 7am and met up with one of the girls I had been talking to on facebook (Nicole) and we found my roommate Katie in line already. Nicole's roommate Rebecca (who we also talked to on facebook) wasn't there yet because she took a flight in that morning so she checked in later. We didn't wait very long since we were there early, they let us in around 8am and we went through a series of tables where we received papers, signed papers and got our apartment set up.
Then we got on the bus to casting (the door knobs in the front are from Alice in Wonderland!) where we got our work locations (I'm working on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom!! aka I get to watch fireworks and watch parades every night :D) and got more papers, signed/handed in more papers, got fingerprinted, set up direct deposit (or our Partners Visa....more about that later), got our training schedule, and finally took an awesome picture at the end.
Then we took the bus back to the apartments (at this point I was separated from my roomies but it was ok because everyone is super friendly and talks to each other since we're all in the same boat and don't really know anyone.) I went back to my apartment and unpacked and my aunt came with a tv for our living room and then we went out and ate lunch at the Golden Corral. I had a boring housing meeting from3pm-5pm and then I was done for the day. This is pretty much how your schedule will be if you get there around 7-8am, get your assigned apartment, go to casting, unpack your apartment/eat lunch, and then go to the housing meeting in the afternoon. The next day (June 7th) was a free day where my roomies and I went to Walmart and bought things for our apartment.
On Wednesday (June 8th) we had Traditions. Now everyone says Traditions is long and boring. Well it is long (about 4 hours) but I didn't think it was too boring, we watched a lot of videos about Disney World and being a cast member and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside lol. We also got to go to the Magic Kingdom and Mickey Mouse came to visit us in class :) At the end of the class they give you your official cast member name tags and you also get your Disney id in the beginning which gets you into the parks for free! That night there was a pool party at Vista Way that my roomies and I went to. It was ok, I'm not really into parties but there was free pizza which was worth going for in my opinion :)
The next day (June 9th) I immediately started training for work. This doesn't happen to everyone, some people have time off before they start. My roommates had Thursday off and then 2 had Friday off as well and didn't start until Saturday. I had orientation at Magic Kingdom on June 9th which started at 7:15am so I had to take the 6:05 bus. The busses (at least for people working in MK) are not that bad, I will definitely be using them instead of driving my car everyday and wasting gas. Plus it's nice because you meet people while riding. Anyways it sucked orientation was so early but it was really fun. We went in the underground tunnels under MK. The tunnels are like top secret, they don't let anyone take pictures of them because it would "ruin the magic." Sorry! :) We learned all about how the cast members keep the magic and fantasy alive in the Magic Kingdom while walking around the park. It was really interesting and made me love Disney even more. At first I wasn't excited about working in MK cause they can have really late hours (which CPs usually work since we're at the bottom of the totem pole) but now that I did orientation I'm so excited I get to work in the one park in Disney World that Walt actually planned out and designed himself! :) I got my costumes for work at the end and also got the rest of my training schedule. YAY!
A little off topic but Disney is soooo thorough with training which makes me so happy. Whoever is nervous about coming don't be!! I was really nervous to start because I was afraid I wouldn't know where to go or what to do or who to see but they do everything the first few days in groups so we're all going around together. Even this morning when I had to go to training by myself (no roomies this time) I found people going on the same bus to my orientation. They even told us they don't want everyone walking around like a deer in the headlights so they literally take you step by step from orientation to costuming to your specific work location and show you where each and every location you'll need to know is so you feel comfortable and know what you're doing. They even tell us which busses to take and what time to take them the first day! I think I have like 6 days of training which is awesome. I now understand why Disney is so famous and is on the Fortune 100 list of top companies to work for!! :)
But yeah I've basically been training all week. On June 10th (Friday) I had an orientation for my work area. We were basically just shown all around our area to become comfortable (no learning the register or anything!) We got our pins to trade that day and wore them around the park which was fun. Everyone wanted to see what we had. I had Merchantainment class on Saturday (June 11th) which was also long (all the shifts I got so far are 8.5 hours long but don't worry they go by fast and you get used to it!) but we practiced on the practice cash registers during class and learned more about working in Merch. Yesterday (June 12th) I actually got to work on the register for real and I loved it. We started off in the Confectionery (where they sell all the candy) and I got to work the register and also pull the cookies and fudge for the guests and wrap them up. I really loved working there and I think I'm going to have a great time. I also rotate to all the shops on Main Street East (the hat shop, 2 carts, the jewelry store, and the art of disney) so I also trained at one of the outside carts right by the front entrance. This was amazing because we got out there just as the parade was starting and it still felt as magical and incredible as it always had! :) I'm really excited for Wednesday because I get to do specialty training and learn how to make cotton candy and stitch names into people's mickey ear hats!! :D
Anyways, today I have the day off so I'm off to play in the parks! Disney is really great so far! We'll see what next week brings! Hope everyone has a magical day!
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