You Mean Everything to Me

Betsy. 19. Accepted to the Disney College Program for Fall 2016.

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09/12/2016

I worked my picked up shift today from 9:45 to 2:30, so I only got a 15 minute break, but my day was short and I was off early, which was super nice. And best of all, I didn’t have to close, so yay for not closing.

I got a fast pass for 1 something at Jungle Cruise and I went to MK after work. The Jungle Cruise is funny, I’ll give it that. So. many. puns. Honestly. I don’t know how the people doing it constantly could manage. It’s funny for awhile, but I would probably die. And there was a boat covering, but it would still be deathly hot to work out there all day.

Then I went to Sleepy Hollow and got the fresh fruit and nutella waffle, and it was a delight. Truly. 10/10 would absolutely recommend. And then I stood on the covered porch/entryway of the Diamond Horseshoe and watched the 3 o’clock parade, which, shockingly, starts at 3 o’clock. One of the ladies working greeter at the restaurant said that even though she watched the parade almost every day it didn’t ever get old, and I can see how that would be true.

It had nearly everyone in it - Anna, Elsa, Tiana, Rapunzel (and Flynn and some ruffians on swinging things high up in the air, which was a little bit scary to watch), Ariel (who looks amazing btw), Belle and Beast, the 3 fairy godmothers from Sleeping Beauty and Phillip (and the fairy godmothers are on some sort of wheeled thing, like a car, but it’s their skirt - it looked scary to ride, but they seemed to have no issues), Peter and Wendy, Alice and Hatter, Snow White, the 7 dwarves, Pinocchio, Mickey and crew, and I think more - it’s crazy and magical and the music is good and the non-princess cast members who are dancing in the parade wear crazy elaborate and beautiful costumes and it makes me think of Sienna, because I feel like she would maybe have fun being in parades like that.

I also went on the Liberty Belle, and it was a nice slow ride down the river and the narration was funny, but there were not really any seats, and by the end all I really wanted to do was sit down.

I also went into the Hall of Presidents, and, embarrassingly enough, it made me cry. History makes me cry. And it makes me think about Humanities. And it made me stressed about the upcoming election, because I don’t qualify for an absentee ballot or early by-mail voting, and I probably will end up not voting at all, which isn’t really what I want.

I wandered through Pecos Bill’s and the Smuckers food/merch outpost shop thing. And I bought a pair of Marie earrings that I really love.

Then I went home and did homework and folded my laundry (but did I put it away? I did not, because I am, in fact, a mess).

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09/11/2016

I had today off again, and I didn’t wake up until about noon, when I heard my roommates heading out for the day (the went to grocery bingo, which I didn’t even know was happening, and then they went to Publix and got groceries). I got up and didn’t do much for a while. Pretty useless, really. I did a little bit of homework and watched the movie Wild Child with Emma Roberts in it. It was surprisingly good, and definitely falls into one of the genres that I pretend not to love, but really do love. 

I also finally did laundry again, and this time the card machine was working, and it was super smooth and really pretty painless, and $2.50 every two weeks for laundry is honestly not so bad. I fit basically every piece of clothing I brought with me into that one load, so it worked pretty well. I left it a long time in the washer, though, because I forgot about it. And then I left it even longer in the dryer and didn’t get it out until my roommate got up to get hers (and she’d put hers in long after mine) and it reminded me that if I didn’t get my laundry, I would be out every piece of clothing I own. So I got my laundry, and promptly forgot it in the living room until one of my roommates asked if it was mine and I took it into my room before bed.

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09/10/2016

I worked today. I did a bit of filler, a bit of busser. And then I got out at 4:15, which was alright, considering I didn’t start until 9:45.

After work, I put my stuff in my locker and met up with my roommate in the mouseketeeria, and we went up into Magic Kingdom from there. She showed me another way into the park, but over by Frontierland, though I’ve honestly already forgotten where it is. We started in Frontierland and we took the ferry over to Tom Sawyer island and walked all around and went through the caves, which were super cool, and went over the bridge to the Fort (where there is another cave), and it made me want to reread Tom Sawyer, because I couldn’t really remember any specifics of the plot. But it was super cool, if a little bit odd to see at Disney World, and the literature fan in me was overwhelmed.

Then we went to the Country Bear Jamboree, which was funny and odd and truly quite questionably child appropriate. And wholly out of place in the middle of Magic Kingdom. It reminded me a little bit of Carousel of Progress, though.

We also got to be a part of the Frontierland street show, which is basically a flash mob of cast members of sorts, and you can tell it’s coming when you see a bunch of cast members standing around looking as if they’re trying to to look out of place, but still looking very out of place. I’m very curious to know if they’re entertainment dressed in place appropriate costumes, or if they’re cross trained between dancing and, say, foodservice. But one of the dancing cast members pulled us in to the midst of the dancing and I absolutely failed at the line dance, but I managed the hokey pokey and it was hot, but really very fun.

We got Mickey pretzels and glasses of water on our way out of Frontierland, and then we hopped on the train and took it right over to Storybook Circus, and from there we went to Under the Sea and used a Fast Pass to get in, and I think it may have been better the second time, honestly.

Then we went over to Enchanted Tales with Belle and waited about a half an hour for our Fast Pass time, and then the line was still pretty long, but it was much faster than the standby line would have been, and we got to watch all the little kids in our group be cast in a reenactment and Belle was there and she was super adorable and took pictures with all the super cute little kids, and they were shy or scared, but there parents really wanted pictures of them. :) It was super cute.

Then we met up with some of my coworkers for dinner at Harbour House and I got a side of fries and drank about half the slushy of one of my coworkers. I didn’t love the fries, but the slushy was good.

After that, they headed over to the Tea Cups ride and my roommate and I went up to Main Street and bought more charm bracelet charms - I got Rapunzel and then I also got a Property of Disney hat. Which they didn’t charge me for, so I had to go back and ask them to charge me. I’m still not wholly decided on what I should really have done at that point.

We missed part of Celebrate the Magic, and then I had to use the bathroom, so during Wishes we got split up, but Wishes was absolutely magical and an amazing firework show. Much less show than Fantasmic, but far more fireworks, and more artfully done fireworks imo. Then we stuck around on Main Street and got to watch the later Celebrate the Magic in full and all of the Electrical Lights parade, which was also magical. It had Alice, Pinocchio, some of the princesses, and a lot of really spiffy dancers.

A guy a little ways behind us proposed to his girlfriend right as Wishes was ending, and everyone stopped to see and they took a bunch of super cute and romantic pictures and it was definitely worth standing in backed up traffic to get a glimpse of it. It made me want to honeymoon at Disney. (a little bit. not enough to pay for it, though)

Then we headed back down to the locker room, grabbed my stuff, and took the bus home. And went right to bed, of course.

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09/09/16

I had today off too, and still didn’t get much done. I got up around noon and got some school stuff done. I fed myself. I read a lot of Narnia fanfiction. All I really want to do is read fanfiction and watch movies. And read actual books that aren’t for school. My book list is so long and I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to read them all. I just want to quit work, quit school and just read.

The one and only thing that sucks about going to the parks by myself is that they put me in my very own seating section every time, rather than trying to fit me in with an odd numbered group and cut down line time. It doesn’t really matter, but it makes me feel bad when there’s a long line and I’m sitting in a half-empty pod with room next to me.

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09/08/2016

I had today off, and I slept all morning, afternoon, and evening. I to up at 9pm-ish and I ate a meal (which one? I couldn’t tell you) and watched Pride and Prejudice and went to bed.

I love Pride and Prejudice. I love Jane Austen. I love romance movies. And I love Kiera Knightley. So it was a win of a movie all around.

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09/07/2016

I got to be Filler all day today. And I got to take out the first order of both breakfast and lunch, so that was exciting. I got an extraneous amount of questions I didn’t feel qualified to answer. But I answered them. And got better at answering some of them. I got to do plates in West Wing as my closing sidework, which was much easier than silverware in the Rose Gallery. And now I know, there are 76 places in West Wing, so if I ever get plates again, I’ll know exactly how many to grab.

I went right to Magi Kingdom after work and hung out there by myself. I ginally ventured over into Adventureland and figured out the Fast Pass kiosk over there in the breezeway. I went on Aladdin’s Magic Carpets, which was similar to a swing ride, but not quite. One of the seats (not mine) even gets wet when the camel facing the ride spits water. I also went on Pirates of the Caribbean, which was /sort of/ a water ride. It’s like It’s a Small World, if I’m remembering correctly, and you sit in a boat type thing and it takes you through different rooms of different pirate-themed scenes. I like that they didn’t change it to copy the movies after they came out. It has a similar feel, but it still feels like its own thing.

I got dole whip. After all the hype, I was expecting more. It was pretty eh. It was like pineapple flavored ice cream/whipped cream, which was weird. So it was good the first few bites, and then it mostly just made me feel ill. But I didn’t want to waste it, so I ended up eating the whole thing.

I also went to Friar’s Nook right when I got to the park and I got the mac and cheese with breadcrumbs on it, and the mac and cheese was pretty good, but the breadcrumbs absolutely ruined it (I asked the staff if the breadcrumbs made it better or worse, and they said better, and I feel personally betrayed). I didn’t end up eating all of that.

The other thing that I forgot that I did right when I got to the park was go to Tomorrowland. I went on Buzz’s Space Ranger Spin, which was pretty lame. It would be fun I think if I liked shooting games (or was any good at them) or maybe if I’d had someone else there with me. But it also kept stopping throughout due to technical difficulties. Which was fine, it just didn’t enhance the experience. Then I went on the PeopleMover, which had no line and was surprisingly fun. It takes you all around Tomorrowland and you even go through Space Mountain, but at a slower pace. 10/10 would recommend and would like to do again.

After Adventureland, I went to Storybook Circus and rode on Dumbo. I had Fast Pass for that too, so I didn’t even have to stop in at the play area inside the tent. The ride itself is basically the same as the Aladdin ride, but with Dumbo shaped seats instead of carpet shaped seats. But it was fun, and also about as close to a swing ride as it seems Disney will get. Then I got in line for the Barnstormer, but the line was long and I ended up stepping over the rope and getting on the train instead and taking the train to Main Street.

I went to the Emporium and bought a Winnie the Pooh charm and a Belle charm for my bracelet. And then I headed back up to Fantasyland and went on Under the Sea. It has a very similar format to the Nemo ride in EPCOT, but it’s better. It basically just follows the plot of the movie, and it has music and animatronics and it’s really pretty cool.

The last thing I did was get a Fast Pass to the Barnstormer. The line still took a while, but it was a tolerable wait. The ride was like 45 seconds, though, which made the wait slightly less worth it. I’m excited to go on rollercoasters when I get home and see if they’re manageable too. Or if I’m only suited to the Disney rollercoasters.

I headed out between 8 and 8:30pm and I got home in time to get some school stuff that was due Wednesday night done, and then stayed up way later than was necessary or healthy.

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09/06/2016

The U started classes today, and I finally had to face how much apprehension I’m having about taking 14 credits, given the intensity that is apparently involed in PSY 1001 and the amount of writing for ENGL 3006. We’ll see. I’m committed and I’m not going anywhere, so whatever happens, happens.

I worked again today. I bussed morning and closed filler, which is, quite honestly, optimal. I much prefer bussing in the morning, if only because of how the dishes fit in the cart. And I much prefer filling in the afternoon, because time goes faster and closing is easier. Sort of. I had to do silverware in the Rose Gallery as my closing sidework, and, since I’d never done that before, I had no idea what to do. So I went and got a cart full of silverware, but the wrong spoons, of course. And then I started setting just forks and knives, but then someone came over and told me (not very nicely) that we only set half the places in the Rose Gallery (because of course I should know that, having never helped switch over Rose Gallery ever), so I redid the couple tables I’d already done. And I got about half the room and the person on I think roses got the other half. Fun fact: I try hard, but I’m slow, and stress only makes me slower, so...oh well.

I got home and I ate dinner and I tried to stay awake and do school stuff, but at about 8:30pm I fell asleep. And finally dragged myself up out of bed at 11pm. And I showered and washed my face and went right back to bed.

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09/05/2016

I worked again today. Mostly filler, a little bit of bussing. I am content in my job. I’m happy with my coworkers. I’m happy with my apartment. I’m happy with my roommates. I’m happy where I’m at and I don’t really ever want to return to the real world of Not-Disney. 

I got home from Disney and went right to the computer lab. I spent the entire evening in the computer lab, working on Classics Club newsletters for the entire semester. I helped two actors trying to print their resumes for the Tokyo character auditions tomorrow figure out the weird printer (solution: turn the printer off and when you turn it back on again it prints out the paper that was already queued to print). At about midnight, I realized I’d been in the computer lab for about 6 hours and I hadn’t eaten dinner and I needed to be up relatively early for work. So I went home. I got there at the same time as one of my roommates got home from work and I ate yogurt and I went to bed.

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09/04/2016

Today was my first day working all on my own, and I have to say that it was quite stressful. I was on Bev Island 1 for a good part of the morning, which was fun, except that I had no tea bags and no idea where to find them and I couldn’t get the cream container to open when the first one ran out. But Busser 1 was super helpful and she got the cream container open and I discovered that part of Bev 1′s job is also to pre-bus the West Wing, which is much more fun than standing about not knowing what to do when everything is already stocked.

I spent the rest of the day as a Filler, which was simple enough. It’s quite an adventure, though, answering all sorts of questions and dealing with all sorts of guest recovery while also trying to fill orders as efficiently as possible. I must admit that I am not, perhaps, the most efficient of fillers, but I had fun.

I got to close Filler as well, which was fine for the most part. The biggest part of my job was placing roses on tables in the Ballroom, which was doable enough once I’d asked someone where to find the roses. But then I had to sweep the ballroom, and I couldn’t find a broom, so I skipped that and went right to cleaning out the Ballroom closets, but I was so overwhelmed by the entire day that by that point when I asked I was on the verge of tears. So I cleaned the closets, worked on getting myself together, and then found a broom and helped sweep the Ballroom.

One of my coworkers drove me home and I laid in bed and stressed about the start of the school semester until about 8 pm, when I finally decided I had enough energy and motivation to get up out of bed and go to Walmart and go grocery shopping. I got on the bus at 8:30 pm, spent an hour at Walmart, and was home by 10:45 pm.

I realized halfway to the bus stop that I’d forgotten my reusable bag, but in the interest of not missing the bus, I didn’t have a chance to go back and get it. So I will just have to endeavor to try again. It was a semi-successful trip. I got what I needed, but I was shopping lonely and I was shopping sad, so I also got far more than what I needed and since I wasn’t keeping track I ended up spending double my grocery budget. So I am hoping to avoid going grocery shopping at all next week to make up for it.

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09/03/2016

I had today off too, so I slept in until about noon, and then I checked in with my roommates, but because it was rainy out we decided not to go to the parks and thought maybe we would go to Walmart. So I went into my room and worked on some school stuff that finally got uploaded and opened up and made a grocery list.

And a little bit after 3pm my roommate came in and said that they’d decided to go to EPCOT for the evening. And I waffled. I thought about staying home and trying to accomplish things, but I knew if I stayed home I would regret it and I wouldn’t accomplish anything. So I went along.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. We hit shift change-over time again, so we sat at Vista for about a half hour, which was annoying, but not an issue.

When we got EPCOT, we followed everyone else who got off the bus, and ended up going into costuming and following a pair of girls who were in plain clothes and had backpacks on and seemed to know where they were going. And they followed the winding path all around backstage over to an exit into the park. And voila, we were in. It didn’t feel like the proper way in, but, honestly, there was nowhere else to go from that bus stop but into costuming, so....

Right out the gate we got in line for Test Track, a car testing simulation thing that does jolts and fast turns and high speeds. They had a single rider only lane with a wait time of about 35 minutes, and since the normal line had a wait time of over 2 hours, we decided to all go as single riders. The line moved quickly (for Disney at least), and the ride was surprisingly and disappointingly short. It was fun, but I was expecting frighteningly high speeds for at least a somewhat sustained period. But the high speed part was very brief, and the rest was just jolting along in a simulator type thing “testing” our efficiency/responsiveness and what have you. I would give it a 7/10, but if I’d waited in line for over 2 hours, I’d probably end up giving it more like a 3/10.

We finally went to a Fast Pass kiosk to figure it out and it was super easy and super free. But all the (like two) good rides at EPCOT were full already, so we picked Mission: Space and the Nemo and Friends ride. But the time was out a little bit, so we walked all the way around the lake where the different countries are, and it was spectacular. Each country was very distinct and there was live entertainment at some of them and the food everywhere smelled amazing. But most of the places are reservation sit down places and the majority of what they sell at EPCOT is alcohol. So we got all the way around the lake without finding anything we wanted to eat, so we just headed on over to Mission Space.

The Fast Pass line went impressively fast. And that is where the positive ends. We got into the ride and stood through all the intro “we are prepping you for space flight” stuff, and we finally got into the actual physical ride and sat down when a cast member came over and told us we needed to get out of the ride and head out of the room, and they pulled everyone from the ride, no explanation, no anything, just herded everyone down the hallway and out into an area where there were no handy cast members to yell at for explanations, so we just headed right on out. So I’d give that experience maybe a 2/10 for the ease that using Fast Pass affords. The least they could have done was offered the slightest explanation beyond “we need you out.” Like, I’m not even upset about it, so there must have been guests who were fuming. There’s already only about five rides at EPCOT, and when we went into and came out of Mission: Space, Test Track was down and there was a huge long line waiting for it to come back up.

So after that one of my roommates got a Mickey Pretzel and I got a strawberry Slushy, and we went into the Coca-cola Flavors Around the World taste testing area, where they had about eight different sodas sold around the world that people could try for free (I know, at Disney, I can’t really believe it myself!). Most of them were nasty, but a few were alright.

Then we went on Nemo, and that was fun. It was a slow dark-ride that basically followed the events of Finding Nemo as you go through and at the end you go past actual tanks of fish and sea life and there was a person (I assume cleaning) in one of the tanks, or I would have just thought the tanks were a projection or video or something like the rest of the ride. We hung out for a short while in the aquarium area.

And then we headed home. We ran into security backstage at EPCOT, but we just had to pull out our blue ids and we were good, so that was a relief.

We ordered Dominoes from the bus (and it still took forever to arrive) and when we got home we ate pizza and popcorn and watched Lilo and Stitch. And I’d forgotten how much Stitch actually talks in that movie. But it was a cute movie and it was fun and it made me want to watch all the other movies too. And I would give that part of my day a 10/10 would recommend eating pizza and watching movies. And when the movie was over, I went to bed,

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09/02/2016

I had the whole day off today, so first and foremost I slept in. I got up probably around noon-ish, and my roommates came home between 3 and 4ish. So we decided to go out to Hollywood Studios for the evening.

We took the bus and ended up taking it at shift change time, which meant we sat at Vista for somewhere around 30 minutes or slightly more. And when the driver changed, he found something wrong with the bus, so we ended up having to move to the next bus back.

The CP bus stop at Hollywood Studios is conveniently close to the Front Gate. It’s basically right there. Very handy (MK should take a lesson in cast convenience from HS perhaps).

We didn’t have a lot of time to spare before the fireworks by the time we got there, so we were standing in line for the Tower of Terror, but I wanted to go on the Great Movie Ride so we split ways. My roommates really enjoyed Tower of Terror, and I am planning to go on it at some point before I leave. The Great Movie Ride was interesting - it’s basically a slow ride where you go through 3D representations of certain scenes from certain movies/genres. They’ve got Wizard of Oz, Indiana Jones, Alien, a gangster movie, a western movie. All that stuff. And you have a guide throughout, who starts and ends as an employee, but in the middle the guide role is usurped by an actor who “steps out of his movie” and takes control of the ride for a brief time. It’s fun - informative. But what I really don’t understand is why all Disney rides have to end up being scary - no matter how fun and little-kiddy they may be. Admittedly, GMR does not pretend to cater to little kids, but rides like Winnie the Pooh, Pinocchio, etc. don’t need to be scary to be good. I just don’t understand the motivation.

We met back up at the ABC Commissary and the food was good (if somewhat Disney World predictable), but the wait time was horrendous. I stood there a good 20 minutes, and when I got my food the people in front of me were still waiting. Yikes. I had a chicken club with bacon, and the bacon was amazing, but the chicken was just good. They put the lettuce and tomato on the side, not on the burger itself, which is quite gutsy, because at most places the lettuce goes in the middle to hide how terrible it looks - so for Disney to not tuck the lettuce away in the sandwich means they are promising good lettuce - and, for me at least, they delivered.

After dinner we headed over to Fantasmic (a fantastic show - 10/10 would recommend). It’s basically a combination theatrical staging/fireworks show/effects display/film projection/water show. It’s crazy and it’s so so magical. I want to see it again at least once before I go, if not more. It centers around Mickey and his land of dream/imagination, and he ends up facing off against the villains, and the story of the fireworks show follows from there up to his defeat of the evil villains and reclamation of his own dream world.

We took the bus home without incident, but there was one especially zealous CP on the bus who spent part of the time singing Disney songs, part of the time quoting a movie with another nearby CP, and part of the time explaining the idea of the Michigan mitten location system to a girl who high-fived him when he put his hand up to point out his place of origin in the mitten. And towards the end of the ride he ended up singing Hamilton with another girl on the bus, and they both got off at Chatham, but he didn’t head home to Patterson until he’d sung the song (and possibly another, I’ll never know - I went home) all the way through.

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09/01/2016

I got to sleep in today for a good part of the day. I didn’t have work, but I did have another training class in the AAA Lounge backstage somewhere over behind Tomorrowland. It was a three-ish hour class and some of my coworkers were there and the class was boring but the people at my table were fun, so it turned out alright.

(Training wise, I’m fully trained now - eek - on dining room, and I should start entrance training in a few weeks, and after that I can potentially request to be cash trained)

After my class, I went into Magic Kingdom and met up with one of my roommates. We mainly walked around Fantasyland. We got to meet Tigger and Pooh and took some pictures with them (even though they disappeared and came back twice in the time we were standing in line - we nearly left the first time because we didn’t know they were coming back, but the employee at the back of the line told us to stick around, and sure enough back they came about a minute later. Where did they go? Nobody knows). We went on the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride, and then the Mad Tea Party teacups spinning ride. We were going to go on the carousel, but decided to go to Mickey’s Philharmagic first. Philharmagic ended up being a show about Donald chasing Mickey’s wizard hat through several 3D renderings of familiar musical scenes from Disney movies, including Be Our Guest and A Whole New World among others. It was cute and very fun.

We came out of Philharmagic to discover that it was pouring outside. Not raining - pouring. There were deep puddles in the streets it was pouring so hard. I had my umbrella, but I gave in and bought a Disney plastic poncho for $6 (40% off) and I’m glad I did. We caught some of Wishes, because it was raining super hard and there were signs of a tornado very near Disney, so they pulled the Wishes run time up about an hour and started herding guests out of the park. Wishes was quite honestly magical, and I cannot wait to see it again without the pouring rain.

We stood in line for the monorail to Contemporary, only for them to announce that the monorail was having technical difficulties and was no longer running. So we went back down to wait for the boat to Wilderness Lodge, but the boat was showing no signs of arriving any time soon, and we had no idea where the CP bus would pick up once we got to Wilderness Lodge, so we ended up asking a helpful cast member where the walking path to Contemporary was. By that point, the rain had stopped, so we took the 6 minute walk back over to the resort and just missed the bus. So we went into the resort and walked around for a few minutes before going back to the bus stop and finally taking the bus home.

All’s well that ends well, after all.

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08/31/2016

Today I was an hour late for work. On assessment day. Yep, I’m quite honestly surprised they didn’t term me on the spot. I woke up at 6:15, exactly the time I was supposed to be at work, so I panicked and called the call in line and they asked when I could get in and I said no later than 8:30, so they said come in. So I came in, and lo and behold, everyone at work thought I’d called out, not called late, so that was awkward. But apparently my co-trainee also woke up at about 6:10, but she shook her roommate with a car awake and rushed half dressed to work and got there at 6:35, while I couldn’t catch a bus until 6:35 and got to work at about 7:35 (which is honestly still much earlier than I thought possible). But there was a mix up with our leader’s time, so he wasn’t there until 6:45, so while I was still late, my co-trainee’s brief lateness was waved due to extraordinary circumstances. So that sucks.

The assessment went well, and I passed - so I am now certified and expected to work on my own. (Yikes!) We’ll see how it goes I guess.

For our assessment we went through each of the positions, so we opened beverage island (mostly my co-trainee) and ran it for a little while, then we did silver stocker, and I got the radio. So we filled ketchup and stocked soda and stocked the beverage case and even filled the outside water. And then another employee came up and asked if I could ask over the radio if she could take a bathroom break, and I hard-core struggled, so she ended up just taking the radio, asking herself, then giving the radio back. We did busser in the Rose Gallery, and the cart was neither a large one, nor one with a radio, so it went pretty smoothly, especially since there were two of us doing it at once. Then we got to filler, and we switched between me and my co-trainee each time. There was one guy who corrected my French pronunciation and I was just like ???? Do you think I know French? Or am from France? If you hear what you think you’re hearing as a dish name, you can just assume that that is what I’m saying, please. Because I cannot make it sound French even when I try, so...

There was another table that I brought food to that had dishes on the table, but they were sitting down and using their phones when I came up and checked their receipt, so as I said the name of one of their dishes, they said, “Can you have someone come and clear this up first?” *pointing to the dishes at the table* And apparently they’d sat down at a dirty, un-bussed table, and my trainer didn’t let me put the food down on the table before it was bussed, as that is apparently a very serious no-no. Again, yikes. If the table is not yet yours, don’t make it seem like it is. It honestly would never even have occurred to me the dishes might not be theirs with the way they were sitting at that table.

One of my coworkers offered me a ride home, and when I got home, my roommate and I went to Publix to check it out. Let me tell you, it is much more reminiscent of Cub than Walmart is, and it’s more expensive, but it has more real food, like produce and dairy and such. I got a honeycrisp apple and it was $2.50 because they’re currently $4.99/lb (but they weren’t priced, so I just hoped for the best). I didn’t get a ton, and I finally bought a reusable grocery bag (so I don’t have to bring home 9 million walmart bags each trip) and all of my groceries fit in that bag. I also finally bought eggs. And we bought brownie mix and made brownies when we got home, which was heavenly.

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08/30/2016

Today I was supposed to learn Dining Room Assistant, but as of about two days ago they decided to stop training CP’s in DA position, so instead it was more a review day of sorts for our assessment tomorrow.

We got to do Beverage Island 3 for a little while in the morning, and then in the afternoon we did Silver Stocker and Filler.

Bev. Island went pretty well. The Rose Gallery is a pretty chill place to work, and when we got in there, it had only just opened for the lunch crowd, so there weren’t that many people in there, and most of them just got coffee and sat back down. But the hot cocoa machine wasn’t working (and apparently is always pretty spotty, which is a little bit concerning).

Silver Stocker is not my favorite position. I really really don’t like ladling ketchup into individual serving containers, and that’s about 90% of that position quite honestly. The other 10% of keeping the cooler stocked and the water cart filled isn’t nearly so bad, if it didn’t require doing ketchup as well.

I got to be the one with the radio this time for silver stocker, which makes me flustered, because I can’t ever really hear the people talking to me, and then I miss stuff, or more than one person asks for me to do something at once, and today I had my co-trainee with me on the position, but if I ever do it alone, it will just be me there to do all the things. And I don’t have a super strong grasp on what all those things necessarily are without being prompted.

When we did filler and I got a chance to do it, the first one I did I forgot to hand out the dessert, so I said Bon Appetit and the lady asked if they got their dessert later, so I apologized and got a little bit flustered and gave them their dessert, but I felt bad that they had to ask.

During lunch, it was Cast Appreciation Day at Sodexo, so they had lunch for 99 cents, so there was a bun, bbq pulled pork, and baked beans (and I requested no potato salad) as well as a small drink, and they have one of the magical drink machines, so I got raspberry sprite and it was weird, but alright.

I went straight home after work and fell asleep on the bus, and then stopped in at the Clubhouse and ate a free cookie and got my new package (another book), and then headed home only to check my email and realize my ticket package had gotten to the office while I was on the bus home. So I changed and checked the mail and went back to the office and got my first complimentary ticket.

My room-roommates and I decided to check out the Tangled Welcome Housing Event, but it was drizzling out and when we got there it was all set up, but there was not food and absolutely no housing event people to tell incoming CP’s whehter the event was canceled or rescheduled or moved or what have you. So we stood around for quite some time and I took a few pictures of the Tangled-themed setup they had for the rained-out event.

Then we went to security to ask them if the event was canceled (because, mind you, there was no email announcement, nothing on the blog, no signs up, and no one monitoring the event location), and they said that it had been replaced with a movie night at Commons, but that they had not posted it anywhere, but rather were spreading the word via word-of-mouth, which, in my opinion, without a designated staffer to direct people over to Commons, is not especially possible to get out there to everyone. What would have been the easiest way of communicating would be email announcements when plans change or are cancelled, but, of course, there was no such email sent out, and it was I guess just assumed that everyone should know? I just feel so ????? about the whole situation.

So in the end we ended up going home and ordering dominoes pizza (because the housing event promised free pizza, and we’d all been planning our day around eating pizza for dinner, but with the unannounced canceling comes a distinct lack of free food). And we watched part of the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean and then headed to bed. 

[headheldhigh-touchthesky]

08/29/2016

I got to train in filler today, so I got to sleep in and get to work at 8:30 (*sighs in relief*). But I was running late and nearly missed the 6:50 am bus...except that the bus was 20 minutes late and didn’t come until 7:10, so one of my coworkers, who was scheduled to start at 8, had to call another employee and have them come and pick her up and bring her to work, because riding the bus would have made her late for work.

Filling itself was fairly simple and straightforward. You get a cart with an upper closed off area for hot foods and a lower rack for desserts/drinks (and an extra lower rack for support purposes mostly, as it’s not sanitary to store food that far down). Then the expediter gives you a receipt that you match to an order number and they fill your cart with food, so you grab any refrigerated drinks and make sure all the food is in the cart. Then you bump the selected order and the tables talk to the dishes and the dishes relay back to the kitchen which table each order needs to be delivered to.

When lunch was over and all the orders were filled, I got to stay through closing process/dinner switch-over, so I got to set silverware on all of the tables in the ballroom, and other people put out plates and napkin roses and candles and made the room even more dignified than it already is. It made me want to work evenings (or at least have the option to - but my trainer says there’s no chance I’ll be able to cross train in that at all, so...there’s that).

I stopped at costuming on my way home and returned a full set of clothes and picked up another set of pants/shirt.

Some of my roommates were home and we finally went through the tv channels and wrote down what all of them are, so we don’t have to just flip through aimlessly looking for a specific show.

I’m behind on Shakespeare. I need to get back on top of that. But I got most of my books finally from the Clubhouse, and when I said I had a lot of packages and gave the desk my card, the guy said, “Oh, so you’re the famous Elizabeth,” and I had a ton of packages, and he offered a cart, and I said “no, it’s not that many books” (because it wasn’t), but he seemed worried about me and my capacity to carry all of them home. But honestly, I’ve carried stacks of books basically as tall as I am before, so it was no big deal.

I went to bed later than I wanted to, so I didn’t get a ton of sleep. :/

[headheldhigh-touchthesky]

08/28/2016

I went back to work again today and I took the 6:04 bus, not even thinking about how training is still in full swing, and once again the buses were crammed full before even arriving at Vista. I honestly don’t understand why they don’t run a second A bus at the same time during training weeks, given the amount of people at Vista that can’t get on their bus.

I finally got a training partner, as she did her first two days on my days off, which was interesting. Observation: I have trouble working alongside others who do things better than I do, and I am too competitive for my own good.

I got to learn the positions of Beverage Island and Silver Stocker. For Beverage Island, there is a drinks bar along a wall in each dining room, and the BI person is responsible for keeping drinks made and cups/lids/straws/sugar packets stocked. They also do a lot of guest interaction, answering questions and directing guests. I like that position quite a bit, and I think I could be fairly good at it once I get the hang of it.

Silver Stocker is responsible for stocking drinks in the upstairs cooler for the fillers to grab and take out to guests with their orders, changing pop syrups downstairs, keeping ketchup/mayo/mustard/honey/butter/jelly fully stocked (which can involve ladling out insane amounts of little single-serving ketchup bowls), as well as filling the outside water pitchers.

Our trainer taught us how to brew all the drinks and made sure we knew how to change over pop syrups (it is exactly the same as at Subway, just infinitely larger/more boxes), then had us run silver stocker for an hour and a half.

When we took a break, our trainer got a call regarding a family emergency, and had to leave immediately, so we were entrusted to two other trainers to watch us for the afternoon. They reviewed concepts and got us out for a little bit more on the job training before we did an abbreviated and fast paced close of half of Beverage Island 2, as our two new trainers were scheduled off an hour before we were, so we had to make closing out fast (it’s just doing a few dishes and wiping down counters primarily). So were were dumped on two more other trainers, who each had a trainee already doing filler day.

I learned how to set up the place settings for the dinnertime TSR reservations and where/in which order to put the silverware. as well as the rose-folded napkins and plates.

I got home and two of my roommates were home already. We each ate dinner, then they headed off to the gym for a very brief stint (I want to go, but I have exactly zero exercise clothes and no interest in paying for any). I channel surfed all morning, and there’s not much for channel organization, so someday I may have to sit down and get it all out.

And then I went to bed, and I’m so pleased because it’s still before 1 am, which is the marker of no return.

[headheldhigh-touchthesky]

08/27/2016

Today was my second day off and I slept in (and also through my alarm :/ ). I went with two of my roommates to Magic Kingdom at around noon, and we took the bus to Contemporary and from there took the monorail over to the Main Entrance of MK.

We wandered through some of the shops on Main Street USA and one of my roommates bought a pair of Minnie ears from the Emporium.

We stopped in at the fire station and signed up for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, an interactive card game/scavenger hunt type thing that we can work on every time we go to the park.

For lunch, we went to Columbia Harbour House, a colonial-era, nautical-themed restaurant in Liberty Square. I got chicken and fish sticks with a side of fries, and the chicken was amazing.

After lunch, we walked across the square to the Haunted Mansion, because my roommates wanted to go on it and I am determined to ride on every ride in MK while I’m here this semester. We all three fit in one seat and I sat in the middle, and it made a remarkable difference being surrounded by other people versus being in there alone, and I kept my eyes open the entire time, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the ride is far more spooky than grotesque, and the animatronics and effects and beautiful architecture of the mansion are definitely worth suffering through the ride occasionally.

While we were standing in line, I experienced my first flash rain, where one minute it’s sunny, and the next minute it’s pouring rain, and a few minutes later, the rain has stopped again (and it’s sunny the entire time). Luckily, the Haunted Mansion line is fully covered by awnings, so we were mostly able to stay dry.

Then we headed over to the Tomorrowland Speedway, where we got all the way around the track just in time for it to start raining again and for the ride to shut down due to there being lightning in the area. It was a fun ride, but fairly simple and not all that fulfilling.

As we left the Speedway, it started to pour, and we decided to go to Space Mountain because it was inside and then call it a day. We waited in line for the ride for probably at least an hour, and then the roller coaster itself was about a minute or two ride, but it was awesome and totally worth the wait. Space Mountain is a dark ride, so you spend the whole roller coaster ride unable to see the turns and drops and honestly I think that made it infinitely less scary, because it took out the dread factor of seeing what’s coming and not wanting it to come.

On our way out through Main Street, we stopped at the Ice Cream Parlour and I got a double scoop strawberry and mint chocolate chip cone. It was Edy’s ice cream and the scoops were huge, and it made me want to eat ice cream more, but there’s no good way to get it home on the hour long Walmart bus commute, so I may have to go to Walgreens or Publix on foot at some point soon. (thought that may not be any easier to get home from in the heat).

We took the monorail back to the Contemporary and the bus back home and we ate dinner and hung out for a little while, and then everyone drifted off to bed and I found The Help on tv, and I didn’t want to watch the whole thing, but I accidentally got super emotionally drawn in and watched it all the way through.

And then I went to bed way too late.