Disney
ICP & CRP
Blog

Working

12th Apr 2012

Fish, Chips and Duelling Pianos

My day off on Saturday started with a trip to get my hair cut in the MK Tunnels. Not the best haircut I have ever got but at $10 it is hard to complain! I also went to Walgreens to pick up a very strong cough remedy which worked pretty well and was much stronger than anything you can buy in the UK, drugs here are expensive though so it cost me about $15 for 2 days worth of dose. On the long walk back to block 28 I bumped into Geraint who was also off and we decided to head to DHS in the afternoon. We managed quite a lot including RnR from the Single Rider Line where we actually got to ride together with just a 20 minute wait – I love it when that happens.

On Sunday and Monday it was back to Chippy training with Sophie and Dave. It is quite easy once you get the hang of it and to be perfectly honest we have not been that busy considering it is still technically spring break. I did have a minor scare when I came to bank out on Monday when my till was massively out but it turned out I had forgotten to include the wrapped stack of 100 $1 bills – silly me!

On Monday night I went to my first UK Lads. I was very undecided about going until the very last minute but thought I should probably give it a try. Despite the rumours and stories I had a great night and it was a brilliant chance to meet people but what happens at Lads stays at Lads so that is as much detail as you are going to get here! I would however say to anyone coming out that you should give it a try, ignore the hype and the rumours and try it once before you make up your mind.

On Tuesday was back to Chippy early (feeling very little ill effects of the night before) and opening on my own. I think I got most of it right but because the paperwork wasn’t ready when I went down I forgot to grab a clipboard and a radio – lesson learned for the future though. I got pulled to seating for the end of the shift and spent most of the time bussing tables for Janet – I feel like I am getting faster at bussing which is nice and Janet seemed to be appreciative of my efforts.

After work Canadian Sam drove Craig, Emily, Sian and I to the Boardwalk to go to Jellyrolls. It is a piano bar with duelling pianos that take requests and can pretty much play anything you want. To make a request you just write the song on a napkin and wrap a tip in it and then place it on the bar – we only made one request and we did not get it this time! We get in for free with Disney ID and the drinks are pretty reasonable. I had a fantastic night and will definitely be back again.

Wednesday was back to Chippy again and we actually got quite busy towards the end of the day. It was my first proper long run on Chippy Tills on my own and at the end of the day I was only 20c out on a fairly hefty total which I was pretty pleased about.

I came home on the bus with Fiona, Katy, Katie, Sarah and Geraint. We originally planned to walk to Longhorns to get food but once we got there it was already closed so we walked back to Commons, got changed and called Kojak (Orlando’s friendliest taxi) to take us to TGIs at Crossroads. I had their 3 for $16.99 deal which is pretty cheap for what you get.

Off for the next few days and no specific plans yet although Corin has just sent me a message with just the word ‘Pool’ – that is always a good plan!

Scroll Down for another archive post after the break

Enjoy this post? Click Like to share it with your Facebook Friends

7th Apr 2012

First real shifts

Monday was spent at DHS with Sian and we managed to do a lot of stuff although none of the big attractions. We also managed to get in to Fantasmic which was awesome, it is the first time I have seen the show since 2008.

Tuesday was my first proper shift. I had to open Greeter, which was fine and was on greeter for the entire day. The greeter is the first person guests meet in the restaurant and this means a lot of talking and then a lot of typing to enter their details into the computer system along with any special seating or dining requests they might have. I made a few mistakes but thankfully Janet who was assigning fixed them fairly quickly. She was also training Laura to assign so I felt bad about making things more difficult for her. It was a fun day but I came home very, very tired. We went to Emily’s for Pizza in the evening which I was happy about since I do not think I could have walked anywhere.

On Wednesday I started at 4pm and for the first hour and a half I just got tasks from CDS (Cast Deployment System), these are little extra jobs that need doing like arranging strollers, sweeping the restaurant and bussing tables. This was a bit annoying but I eventually got greeter once again. I think I did a bit better but I ended the day with a sore through. It is probably partly all the talking and the ‘Commons Cold’ which everyone seems to get after being here for a few weeks. Lots of people were going to BDubz after work but I felt really horrible with my cough so I decided to give it a miss.

The rest of my arrival group had to get up at 5am to go to the Social Security Office on Thursday. Since I already have a Social Security Number I did not have to go but this meant I was working. I was opening greeter again but I was only on until 4pm. After work Sian, Emily and I came back to Epcot to watch Illuminations and we realised that MK was open until 1am so we dashed across to catch Wishes as well, the others were naturally very tired after their early start so we headed home soon after.

Friday was my first day of Chippie training. I was supposed to be trained by David Sergison by due to some call-ins he had to work as Stocker and I was trained by Melissa. She did a great job and she is not even officially a Disney trainer! I spent the day on Chippie tills which were not too difficult to get the hang of since most of my Matra (till) training from 2008 came flooding back. It is slightly different in F&B compared to Merch but most of it is the same. When we banked out at the end of the evening I was only out by $1 which was more than I would have liked but still well within what is acceptable. Craig managed 10c so that was a bit annoying!

I’m off today when nobody else seems to be, I need to get my haircut and find a stronger cough remedy to get me through the rest of the week until this stupid cold goes away again.

Enjoy this post? Click Like to share it with your Facebook Friends