Dan@Disney

Everything about working at Disney in December was insane, everything in January has been the complete opposite. I am finally back to working 5 days a week, I am rarely working more than 8 hours in a day and I just about work 35 hours a week. All in all life is good right now and I am having plenty of time to get stuff done.

It has been a while since my last proper post so this post covers about 3 weeks or so. After NYE we were busy until the next weekend when people finally started going home and things began to calm down. That weekend the AMs began and Saturday night I went to Ale House for a few drinks with the latest arrival group and Sunday was HOB which turned out to be really quite messy!

That Thursday I had booked a large group reservation for Crystal Palace – it was originally going to be for 30 but once people had gone out to HOB and Blue Martini the night before it dropped down to 17. It was a really fun morning and I got to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends and enjoy a ridiculous amount of food – who doesn’t love a buffet! The day was mostly spent at MK before heading to City Walk in the evening for Hard Rock for Joey’s Birthday.

Unusually for me I was then out every night for the next few with Cowboys on Saturday and 2 consecutive nights at Ale House for food and drinks and of course Lads on Monday. Work for all of those days was boring since there were very few guests and we have so many people on Podium at the moment that there are about 9 seaters at the peak of the day which means a great deal of time is spent standing around. I spent a few days where I mostly just wandered the street handing out stickers and chatting to guests – great fun!

The next Saturday a group of us went to Splitsville, the new Bowling Alley at Downtown Disney. I discovered I am really not very good at bowling… I lost by a considerable margin but the company was awesome and the drinks, while pricey are pretty good when you take in to account the 20% Disney discount. I really want to go back earlier in the day when they do their full menu – after midnight it is Pizza only and at $15 for a pizza I didn’t feel like trying it on a whim.

Sunday was the official return of after work Maccies which was a good preparation for the activities of the next day. I have been here for 10 months now and been going to Lads for 9 months or so, I have had a few opportunities to get my shirt but I have always turned it down but this week Leon came to me and told me I would have a chance this week if I wanted it. Without a shirt I cannot have a proper last and so I decided to go for it. There was much trepidation on Sunday and Monday as those of us who were taking part were discussing the rumours we had heard but Monday night came and we went to our Picnic with our heads held high ready to do whatever we had to. Suffice it to say it is a pretty difficult couple of hours where but we all got through – next monday there will be 8 new shirted UK Lads. The team work was awesome and the feeling when we finished it was incredible. I can’t wait for Monday now.

Tuesday I worked an AM and was not feeling at my best for obvious reasons but when I got home I had a relaxing few hours before heading over to Jessie’s to watch Tangled on DVD and chill out with some tea. Just what I needed after the previous 24 hours of stress.

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The highlight of the past week was visiting the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness. Hoop is a dinner show which has been running since Walt Disney World opened and the price includes all-you-can-eat Chicken, pork ribs and sides as well as all-you-can-drink Wine, Beer and Sangria.

I originally made a reservation for 40 people but after any of the servers started being scheduled to work 6 days a week we ended up with just 20 of us. With our 50% discount on the late show it came to $36 per person which was really quite reasonable even with $7 on top for a taxi there and back.

Before the show PhotoPass take a group photo of everyone in your party which they late bring to the table for purchase. Ours is the photo above although we did not actually buy the picture (they took an extra on my camera), even with our 40% holiday discount.

Many of the Cast Members who work at Hoop have worked for Disney for decades. Our server Barbara was no exception, sadly however she did not provide the amazing service we have all come to expect from Disney. I never received the Diet Coke I ordered despite asking quite a few times and there were general complaints from the group as a whole about the very slow drink service meaning all of us got very little of the all-you-can-drink offering.

The food, including my vegetarian Pasta alternative, was really good and certainly filled me up.  The show is a massive cliche but it does have its funny moments, Becky and Luke being announced as recently engaged was certainly a highlight of the show on the evening we visited. Especially since Becky was trying to get them to announce Dave and Craig as the recently engaged couple!

Despite all of that it was a fun night and the finale where Andy ended up on stage dressed as an American Indian will be a memory I will have for a long time to come!

I will definitely be trying Hoop again in the hope of getting better service, perhaps in a smaller group though as I fell the size of our group may have been the overwhelming factor in the service we received. Next on my list though is Spirit of Aloha at the Polynesian and Victoria & Albert’s at the Grand Floridian which I cheekily made a reservation for the day of my Birthday last night despite having no clue at the moment how I would manage the $200 per head check even if it does provide 7 custom designed courses of some of the best food Disney have to offer.