Dan@Disney

It has been 2 weeks since my last post – whoops! Life got a bit hectic recently and I have not really had time to post but here is the edited highlights.

On the first Monday I had my first ever early finish at 1815 and after going home and chilling out I went to Lads and had a really fun night. It was all great until the last 10 minutes when we came back through security and there was a bit of an incident with one of the Lads and security which to cut a long story short resulted in him being terminated. It is gutting to see great people go home like that. On Tuesday after work we all went out to Buffalo Wild Wings r for a last send off.

Wednesday I was back on podium and spent most of the day on greeter which was pretty uneventful as the parks are generally quite quiet at the moment. In the evening it was back to Emil’s for Beer Pong – it is now becoming a regular feature! I left fairly early and did not drink nearly as much as last time as I was had my first Assigning shift the next day and wanted to be on top form. To top things off I had also signed up for an focus group run by the programs office at 8am (!) the next morning which meant I had to wake up at 7.

I was awake bright and early on Thursday and made my way over to Chatham where I got to meet the general manager of the Boardwalk resort and Housing operations who asked us a lot of questions about our thoughts on the program and whether we had any suggestions for improvements. My big one was that there needs to be more information on future opportunities within the company for international participants in a similar way that it is made available to the domestic college program students. He seemed to be really interested in what we had to say and I hope the department will take on board our comments to make the program even better in the future.

On Saturday I picked up a 6th day working Laura’s Beer Cart shift. It was pretty quiet for most of the day so it was not too difficult and I finished at 1800 which was my earliest finish ever! I met Jaci on the bus on the way home and just as we got onto South International Drive it promptly broke down. We waited on the side of the road for about 10 minutes before we were rescued by another bus that was passing – it was really hot as well so I arrived home a sweaty, disgusting mess! Basically the whole pavilion was heading to Cowboys that night but I was dying after my first assigning shift and a 6 day week and decided I had to give it a miss.

Sunday was my only day off and a whole bunch of us headed out early to Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends – we saw 2 of the shows which included a behind the scenes look at Star Wars: The Clone Wars and a show by voice actor James Arnold Taylor where he showed how versatile his voice was. It was an amazing show which included over 150 different voices and was hilarious – I would say everyone who goes to SWW should go and see it although getting in line early is a must. They recommend at least 45 minutes to be sure of a seat. In the evening we saw the Hoopla again and this time I had my good camera with me and got some really nice pictures (the best ones are below).

Monday was Memorial Day which is a public holiday here so we got paid extra. We get 8 hours pay anyway, whether we work or not, plus if we do work we get our regular pay and any overtime is paid double. I was on a 10 hour Chippy shift so I ended up getting 18 hours pay for that day alone. I love holidays that I don’t even celebrate!

Tuesday and Wednesday were on podium and were pretty uneventful. Thursday night we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings for cheap drinks and good times for Bailey’s birthday. Once again I had to call it an early (ish) night as I was assigning again the next day.

Assigning on Friday was hellish. It did not stop raining for the entirety of Lunch and most of Dinner which meant the park was pretty empty and filling the restaurant was very difficult. Assigning is a lot about keeping lots of different people happy – guests, servers, chefs and managers – on Friday all of these were unhappy at one point or another which was not a good thing. I was just pretty glad when the day was over to be honest. After work we went for a McDonald’s which I really needed and then came back to Commons to meet up with Bailey and the girls who were having drinks and Chinese for her actual Birthday.

Today was another early start to get to the Pavilion for 10am for a photograph to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. We then had a bit fo a backstage party with cake and free food. I left about 12 and came back to the Commons as I had to move apartments. Luckily it was just downstairs from my old apartment and I was done in about an hour.

Due to the lack of arrival groups recently and lots of people going in to service most of podium are now on 6 day weeks and I have picked up a 7th day tomorrow Assigning so it is going to be another busy week but I will try to not leave it quite as long before I post again.