Today Housing hosted a special welcome event with our favorite toys! Woody and the gang stopped by to welcome the new CP arrivals and to give us who have already been here a chance to relax. I had work today from 8-4:30 but since this event lasted from 4-7 I was still able to meet up with some friends and go!
Everyone gathered around for some Western pictures and line dancin'!
They served some food there as well: hot dogs, mac and cheese, and drinks. It became apparent to me yet again that I must be messed up for not liking mac and cheese!
The really fun thing about events like this are the characters! There's no families or screaming kids around and chances are they are inside. Woody and Jessie came around earlier but then we got to meet Jessie and Bullseye! For those who don't know, Pascal and Bullseye are my favorite Disney animals so I was SUPER excited!
Andy's Room comes to Chatham Square!
It was definitely fun! Even have a cowboy hatof my own! Always try to make it to Disney Housing events because with free food, characters, and oftentimes a lot of free goodies, what could go wrong! 2 weeks until the Monsters University welcome event!
I'll
remember this for a long while because they were all just too cute. On
my way out of the MK the other day I needed to stop by the News Stand to get
some stamps, usually it's pretty quick and easy but this time I walked
into a sea of kids in yellow tshirts lined up around the counter. They
were all so little, with their money in little ziploc bags and deciding
whether they want a soda or a toy. I figured
hey, I have nowhere else to be so I might as well jump in line. One of
the girls started waving her Mickey Mouse doll for me to look at and I
went "Isn't he adorable! He's my boss!" and there we went! Next thing
you know I was sitting on the floor with all of these kids around me and
we were talking about their trip and they were asking me what I do and
we were talking about all things Disney. It's funny how polite they were
because Sophia went and said that it's a good thing I wasn't a mean
stranger otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to talk to me. Then one of
the others girl chimed in and said I wasn't a stranger anymore. I had
just come from Guest Relations to get a Mickey sticker and they gave me a bunch so I
started handing them out to them and next thing you know the phrase was
"If you talk to the nice lady she gives you a sticker!" The
real kicker was when I asked them to sign my book. One of the girls
told me it would be a dream come true because she never got to sign one
before. They were all telling me how they were 7 but could already sign
their names in cursive.
We kept talking while they were on
line (there was A LOT of them) and it was just so much fun. The little
girl Caity told me that she was going to go home and tell her daddy that
this was the best day ever and that she would try and come visit me in
Epcot some time.
You don't have to have your name tag on to be
a CM, I don't see a lot of people where I work so my main interaction
comes when I get out of work or on my days off. Yesterday I took a
family photo for a group and because they seemed bubbly I decided to
play around with them and told them that on the count of 3 they had to
shout Mickey's favorite food (cheese, duh!) and it's just the little
things like today that make it so special. All day in MK I noticed kids
crying and throwing tantrums and I thought to myself maybe today was
national throw a fit in Disney day and then I came across this great
bunch of kids and had an awesome, awesome time.
Oh goodness it's been a while! I always start blogs thinking that I will never fall into that phase where I go weeks without posting...and that's exactly what I did. Whoops! I've just been passing out after work and spending all my time off in the parks and scoping things out that I often forget to even post about it. I've officially been here a month already and that's a bit scary! I just filled you in on my trip to Be Our Guest a few weeks ago in my last post, but what else has been going on?
Because there's so much to catch up and it's picture heavy, click read more!
One of the key components of the New Fantasyland expansion that opened in December 2012 was the long awaited for Be Our Guest Restaurant. Tucked away inside Beast's castle, you can dine in the grand ballroom, visit the forbidden West Wing, and stroll through a gallery of portraits of life in the castle with Belle and the Beast. While the reservations for dinner's table service have been filled for months in advance, quick service lunch is an option until 2:30. I paid a visit yesterday thinking maybe you can stroll around during lunch to take some pictures but in order to get in, you have to get past the ordering section. So what, I had to eat lunch there, did I have any complaints? Not at all!
This post is very picture and text heavy so continue reading by clicking read more!
While I wasn't hacking up a lung from this terrible cold I've been dealing with, I still managed to find myself in a park or two! My main reason for getting myself out of bed was to head to Magic Kingdom for Long Lost Friends Week. This year Disney parks are doing something called Limited Time Magic. Different weeks will have a different theme, for example last week at Epcot Mickey and the gang did a 'street beat' where they played drums and had tap dancers do different dances and moves for the audience. This coming week we have Christmas in July where the Main Street Bakery will sell some of their Christmas cupcakes. Long Lost Friends Week involved the public voting for some characters that don't usually make regular appearances to come out. This is who decided to show up!
Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Prince John from Disney's Robin Hood
Dr. Facilier and Louis from one of my personal favorites, The Princess and the Frog
Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Rabbit from Song of the South (and Splash Mountain!)
Chicken Little and Abby Mallard from Chicken Little
Autograph cards from the characters
It was a great photo op, and a great chance for me to get sunburn! In my opinion it paled in comparison to Disneyland who got friends such as Esmeralda, Jane, Terk, Tarzan, John Smith, you name it there were there. I also spent that day getting some pins to add to my collection thanks to my handy dandy CM discount!
It keeps growing! I added the Mickey Wallet Pin (CE LE 500), Minnie Poster Art (on top, LE 2000) and the Walt Legacy of a Dream pin set. I also have a Monsters Inc. one for trade if you like!
I also paid a visit to Hollywood Studios to walk around (which turned out to be walking around in the pouring rain, not good for my cold) and to watch Fantasmic! That is always a must see show on any trip to WDW!
I've been back at work and tomorrow is my Friday. These past few days have been really great though. I've worked mostly with this one guy who has been there for a while and he really takes the time to make sure he explains everything. Granted, I am a senior in culinary school and have 2 industry experiences so some of the things are a bit basic but it just goes to show he wants to cover all the bases which is great for a trainer. I even got to finally mix something, woohoo! I'm so used to mixing at my job back home and scrapping 80 quarts of cheesecakes and mousse but since I'm brand new I think they are waiting until our head chef comes back on vacation which I definitely understand. I'm doing more and more things so there's more things that I'm familiar with than not which makes me more comfortable which helps my brain calm down. But all I have is this 1 day of work then it's 2 days off for me and hopefully I'm better by then! I hope to stalk the UK pavilion waiting for news of the royal baby!
So today is already my Friday, our lingo here in WDW for your last day of work before your days off. I'm sorry I didn't post as much during the week while things were still fresh but I often found myself passed out on my bed or watching Glee (yes, that is how I'm dealing with it. Oh how my heart broke) and figured I would just do a summary post. I'm currently righting this sick, joy. I never got my Spring allergies so I guess I had to get sick at some point. So on my day off I have to take a trip to the pharmacy, yeay!
But these past 3 days I have officially been in the Epcot production bakery. It's alright, I do miss my beloved Polynesian but once I get more used to it I think I'll be ok. I just hate being new, I hate asking questions and I hate being unsure of things. It's also weird because I'm the only CP there making me the newest and the youngest. Like for instance, today I piped a lot of mousse onto these brownies and my first few weren't too great, I'm the kind of person where I may not do it right the first time but that's how I learn, from my mistakes. Eventually they came out good but I will always dwell on the fact that I made a bad one versus a good one.
There's a lot to do in the bakery, we bake for 7 pavilions, 2 restaurants and probably other things I don't even remember. It's different than the Polynesian because they had shifts and each shift had designated duties so you always knew what was on your agenda when you walked in the door. My job back home is also a production bakery but I feel like I was on a looser leash there, I got to mix and bake and get experience with every aspect but since I'm new here, I'm not quite doing that yet. I've turned on an itty bitty mixer to make royal icing, something anyone can do, when I'm used to digging into an 80 quart mixing bowl of cheesecake or mousses. I know it won't be like this forever, eventually I'll get confident in what I'm doing and know my way around more, I just hate the beginning.
But everyone is really really nice. There's actually a woman who reminds me of someone I work with back home, it's almost like their twins, and she's been helping me a lot. There's another girl who has been really friendly to me from the beginning when she volunteered to take me on tour and then I met another man today who really has the material it takes to be a trainer. He tells me everything I need to do and always ends with asking if I have any questions and then he will come around and tell me if I'm doing good or not. It's a good learning environment and I do like that.
I can't really share backstage photos so none of the following are mine but here are some of the things that come out of our bakery. We don't plate them in full, there's usually a pastry chef at each location that takes what we give them and often adds the garnishes or sauce and any extras they have. Again, none of these photos are mine but I will leave a hyperlink underneath so you can go to the original source! And this isn't everything, just things I've actually remembered the name to or actually have a picture of!
Sticky Toffee Pudding from the UK Pavilion's Rose and Crown Pub (I've actually had this on vacation and it's delicious!) What we make: The Sticky Toffee Cake
There's more that we do as well this is just what I know for sure. Hopefully with all these desserts the bakery will pick up. I have arrived during an abnormally slow period and although I'm glad I'm not running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I do wish there was less idle time or waiting for something to do. But my 3 days are up and it's 2 days off. I just came back from a night out with friend, we got some food and drinks at Paradiso 37 in DTD and watched Despicable Me 2, which was adorable! Crashing and hopefully waking up a bit better in the morning (or afternoon) would be nice!
Today was a day of new experiences, new memories, and definitely some new discoveries. Once Traditions is over, you get a special themed training for you location. For example my orientation last year for the Polynesian was called Aloha Day and it was centered around Hawaiian culture and the history of the resort. Today's orientation was called Discovery Day. Epcot is all about learning and embracing cultures and new technology. The core of our orientation was diversity, progression, and culture. To start the day we went back to the original storyteller and man behind Epcot, Walt. In the fall of 1966 Walt put together a video pitch to the state of Florida for his new Disney World and titled it The Florida Project. Walt was ill at the time of filming and sadly died in December of that year and never got to see his Disney World and Epcot built. The Epcot that we have today is different from what was planned, I actually am really curious as to what it would have been like if it went according to plan. Epcot has always been a constantly evolving park, the way Walt intended. We watched part of this video in orientation today and I definitely recommend watching it if you're a Disney buff. The intro is a lot about Disneyland and Walt starts his Epcot spiel at about the 5 minute mark.
Watching videos of him always makes me cry :'(
After that, we went into the park! We had two really great orientation leaders that made lots of great jokes and provided us with lots of Epcot facts. Did you know that Epcot has the 2nd largest parking lot on property and can hold 11,646 cars? The largest is Magic Kingdom's parking lot and that alone can hold Disneyland's Magic Kingdom. That's a lot of cars!Another fun fact, Spaceship Earth is made up of a series of triangles. How many are there you ask? 11,324 triangle panels make up Spaceship Earth. These panels play a key part in the structure of Spaceship Earth. If it's raining, you can stand underneath it and not get wet because the un off water from Spaceship travels through its own drain the be put back into the fountain view near the entrance and World Showcase lagoon. This water also helps to clean Spaceship Earth and it only has to be cleaned by Cast Members about twice a year. Now you know!
We did a lot of walking around the park going over locations of things such as first aid and guest relations, going over the history of the park, visiting key areas, observing Cast Members in action and even riding some rides! As a group we got to go on the ride within Spaceship Earth, Project Tomorrow. This ride features the history and future of our planet and has some great animatronics within as well as you travel throughout the 18 story icon. In addition, we also got to ride the Friendship Boats as a group before they were opened to the Guests. These boats take you all along the pavilions through a sealed boat on World Showcase Lagoon. Our guides gave us a bunch of facts and tidbits along the way. Something I knew beforehand was that Morocco, not part of the opening pavilions, was built with special influence. The prince of Morocco sent over his personal architect to work with Disney in making sure the construction of the pavilion was authentic. It actually happens to be one of my favorite pavilions. I also learned something new! In Norway when Christianity was brought to the country, they built churches without the use of nails. There is a replica of a Stave church in the Norway pavilion that houses a museum on vikings, I didn't even know you could go in it!
There is a part of the tour that I have sworn to keep a secret. Seriously, we had to raise our hand and repeat an oath swearing to never ever, ever ever, share the secret so help me Mickey. You'll just have to come work for Epcot to find out! It really made us feel at home. In fact, everyone did. We didn't have our name tags on in the park since our tour guides wanted us to be 'their Guest' but we had our IDs around our necks. Every CM greeted us, waved, and welcomed us to the team, it really felt like a family.
After that at about 12ish, I finally got to go see the bakery! I was met by a leader who took me to get my costume and locker, answered some of my questions and took me to see the bakery! It is actually underground under Innoventions, I never would have guessed that! We bake numerous desserts for a majority of the pavilions and restaurants like Coral Reef and Sunshine Seasons. I got to meet my chef and she was so nice and welcoming, I felt really comfortable with her and in that kitchen already. Last year I remember being a bundle of nerves and then we met the GM of the Polynesian and it was as if he just took them all and threw them away. She made me talk about myself and what I expect to get out of this. I mentioned I was a bit nervous but excited but she emphasized that she doesn't want me to feel stressed, she works to have it be a stress free environment and to not feel pressured. She said we will get tired of course but have fun doing so. I really feel confident working under her. I met the rest of the crew, I'm the only CP, but they were all welcoming and friendly and one of the girls gave me a tour of the kitchen. It's even smaller than our kitchen at ShopRite, there's 2 ovens to bake for all of Epcot! But a lot gets done so I will see on my first day on Monday!
I had a little chat with my mom and feel even much better after that. I feel like it's going to be harder for me to make friends this time around. I'm living and working with people not necessarily my age. My roommates are 25 and 30 and being the only CP in the bakery makes me the youngest. At 21 I thought maybe I would go get drinks in Epcot with my roommates or like last year my roommates and I would have little dance parties in the living room and goof around, that's what you get with college kids! I work well with everyone, at my work back home I'm the youngest there too, but on a college internship you expect different. But this is week 1, come fall more CPs are coming to the bakery for Food & Wine and while a lot of my rep friends are leaving, one of them is coming over too. I also do hope to meet people from my other blog and make friends through that as well. I'm just a Disney person, I want to go to the parks all the time, I want to go out and explore Orlando and go to Universal and Sea World and the Titanic exhibit and stuff, and I know that even if I do that on my own it will get done, but I wish I had more people to go with but I think that will happen over time. Just like Epcot, this program is full of new discoveries!
Phew! It certainly was a busy day yesterday, hence why this post is the day after. Although busy and long it was nothing short of magical as yesterday was Traditions, the orientation into The Walt Disney Company. No matter what your status or your role, every single Cast Member sits through Traditions at some point. I actually didn't have to go because I am an active CM already but I asked them to let me go, that's how much I love it. It's not often one is excited to wake up at 5 AM!
Traditions takes place in Disney University which is a really great building near MK. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any pictures and google isn't of much help. The lobby is a great decorated place with Disney quotes on the wall, characters coming out of tiles of the ceiling, and a TV area playing the biography of Walt Disney. The halls are lined with photographs of Disney legends and animators with their work, I always love walking past Ollie Johnston's. The classroom where Traditions is held is bursting at the seams with pixie dust with 2 of the large walls containing painted murals of various Disney characters. You get your ID (aka entrance to the parks-yeay!) and sit at tables with new friends! I met a really nice gentleman named Lee who had a really interesting story. He spent 20 years as a graphic designer but always wanted to do culinary so he decided to switch on over and here he is! It's never too late to go after your dreams!
I admit, the beginning of the program may seem boring, especially at 8 AM. There is this animated intro into to the business practices and ethics of the Walt Disney Company. It's given by Chris, an animated body in an animated monorail but with a CGI face, can you say creepy?
But it gets better! Trust me! Our Traditions was lead by 2 great CM leaders: Scott and Vivian. They keep the atmosphere upbeat and fun and if you participate they give you little 'critters' to keep, this time I snagged 2!
A critter for each name tag!
You play some games like organizing the Disney history into order and having your table leader (which ended up being me!) write down as many Disney characters in a time frame. We ended up getting 38 and the winning team got 39, bummer!
You also watch some videos from special CMs by the name of Tom Staggs, Meg Crofton, and Bob Iger. If you don't know who they are and you want a career with the company, stop reading (but of course come back after!) and go to Google. They are very important CMs to the company, especially Mr. Iger. Something I will always remember from his little speech is this: “If you’re like most people, you already have a
relationship with the Walt Disney Company. However, beginning today, you
will no longer be like most people. Because now, you are part of the
Walt Disney Company” It's just so weird to think that I am a part of this company that has been with me my whole life, that I get to work for the company that one of my heroes built and created from a couple bucks in his pocket in his suitcase. With Campus Rep included, I've been with the company for a year and I still can't believe the mouse is my boss and I have a castle in my backyard, pinch me!
There are certain elements of Traditions that make it special. Places that you go to, a special guest that stops by to bring you something special but I'm not going to ruin it for you. I'm sure if you're really curious and snoop around the internet that you will find out what they are but I made a promise to Mickey not to tell.
I do have to mention one thing though, on Traditions you are representing the company. You might not have your name tag on your shirt but a group of people dressed in professional attire being led by a CM, it's pretty obvious. So please try and act professional. I take my Disney career and things like Tradition seriously. This isn't the place to complain that it's hot out and then exclaim 'air conditioning!' as you walk in the doors and other CMs are walking out, this isn't the time to see a character getting dressed and point it out to everyone or to squeal in the park that you need to take a picture or hug someone. It's also most definitely not the time to complain that the floors are not heel friendly, everyone tells you NOT to wear heels for this reason. I think it's pretty obvious why I'm mentioning these things but I just want everyone to understand this is professional. Sure when I'm at home I sing Disney songs and kick my feet like a little school girl during the boat scene in Tangled, that's me being a disnerd in my own element. But when I represent the company, I become a professional Disnerd. Just a bit of a heads up.
Traditions will most likely be one of your favorite days as a CM, a day you will look back on years and years in the future. I truly love it and am glad I was allowed to do it again. It's more than just getting that park access (although I did take advantage of that last night!) but it officially begins your career with Walt Disney, YOU become a Cast Member.
Boy have we been spending quite a bit of time in the Common's clubhouse lately! Tonight, two of my roommates and I went to the clubhouse at 7 to watch one of my favorite films, Despicable Me!
I meant to take pictures but alas, I forgot. There is a large screen in the center of the room and other screens surrounding the walls so there is always a good seat in the house. The line wasn't too long so we got in right away. Upon entering you get some free popcorn (which thanks to my vegan roommate we learned was gluten and also dairy free, Disney thinks of everything!) and soft drinks and you could also enter a raffle to win a dvd copy of the film. In front of each seat there were also little Disney Internships & Programs key chain lights.
Earlier today my roommate and I went grocery shopping at Publix. I always hate those initial stops where you have to get everything like your spices and flours and everything else. But, I did manage to get mostly everything and stay within a relatively ok budget for the initial shop. I believe I've mentioned it before but be sure to get at least 2 reusable bags. Disney gives you a free blue one and I always take that as a spare but I always try to limit my purchases to fit in those 2 bags. It makes it easier for you to carry on and off the bus, believe me!
Calling it an early night since Traditions is tomorrow! Technically I wasn't supposed to go and considered a bypass because I'm still an active Cast Member but I asked to be put in and thankfully they did. I have never been so excited to get up at 5:30! No of course I have, for last year's Traditions! I can't promise tons of pictures since it's professional and on the clock but I will try and capture something for everyone! So excited to see my boss tomorrow!
I also get my park access after Traditions and plan on hitting up New Fantasyland and watching Wishes! from within Main Street this time as opposed to the beach :)
