The last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving here in the USA and they take it very seriously, it is probably more important than Christmas.
I was originally scheduled off on Wednesday and Thursday but actually ended up working on both days making this a 7 day work week. Since it was my last one on podium it seemed appropriate that I did a tonne of overtime! Wednesday a bunch of us came in early to do a Whiskey tasting of a lot of the Single Malts that we sell – it was really interesting and I learnt a few bits of information that may help sell a few more flights down the line. When the restaurant opened G and I decided to go for lunch and I ended up having Fish and Mashed Potato as the chip fryer was having some technical issues! Dave texted and asked if I fancied a day at Universal which I jumped at – it was pretty busy but we got quite a lot done. We left as the park closed at 9 and went back to Dave’s to watch movies.
On Thursday I was asked to come in to do AM Greeter. It was crazy busy with a lot of very large parties coming in as whole families to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal. Luckily I got out at 5 before it got really crazy. On Thursday night 16 of us went to the new “Be Our Guest” restaurant in New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. After a few reservation issues where they would not let us add an extra person we were seated in the amazing Ballroom. The food was amazing (I had the Ratatouille) although the service was a distinctly average and felt quite rushed. With entrees and desserts we could have been out in less than an hour. My overall impression was that the restaurant is beautiful but I would not rush back again for the service. I feel you get a similar experience for a lower price at the Quick Service lunch.
Friday and Saturday were my last podium shifts. On Friday I greeted all day with just a 15 minute break after I extended until close. Greeting is my favourite position on podium and I was really glad to get one final day of it. I have loved dealing with the happy guests and the angry guests and Friday I had doses of both. 2 guests went to managers and guest relations about me. One to complain I was a terrible Cast Member for not getting them a same-day reservation and one to say I was amazing for managing to get them a lower-deck table just before the fireworks. On Saturday, my last day, I was assigning. I set myself the very ambitious target of 1000 guests for the day. I missed this by a long way due to a very quiet park where I could not get any walkins for about an hour, I think I probably managed about 900 though which I am still fairly pleased with.
I have loved my time on podium but it is finally time to move on. Food Runner training with Katy begins Monday morning!
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The next day Rich, Stacey and I took Kristen to Universal Studios for the first time. It was really quiet with nothing more than a 20 minute wait. We covered most of the major attractions and I got a lot of photos of Kristen looking super-excited as we took her around the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the rest of the 2 parks. I had to leave fairly early as Dave had bought me a ticket for Mickey’s Verry Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom. I was going to get a cab by myself but the others decided to call it a day early and head back to the Commons which made my cab a little bit cheaper – yay!
Very Merry was amazing, I actually preferred it to Not So Scary. There are less characters but the decoration and the snow on Main Street is unbelievable and the fireworks are pretty spectacular We also got to see the new ‘Celebrate the Magic’ projection show which replaced ‘The Magic, the Memories and You’ – it has some really cool new effects including a holiday section which is just around until January. We spent a good hour or so in one of the dance parties with Woody and Jessie which was a great laugh, by the end of the night there were only about 10 other people in there!