Disney Day 12 (In Costume Training)
Today was absolutely my favorite day so far, aside from the fact that I had to be to work at 8am (which doesn’t seem early, unless you recall that I have to catch the bus an hour and a half before work). Today we got to go into the Emporium and actually work! When we first arrived there was a staff meeting going on, and even that was fun. These people love their jobs! And how could you not? At the end of the meeting we were told to go across the street to the Confectionary (the candy store) for a special treat. Imagine our surprise when the special treat was resistance bands and practicing exercises to prevent injury with the repetitive motions we do at work. Surrounded by sweets and doing a mini workout… brutal. We gave the bands back to the fitness instructors and headed back across the street.
They were getting ready to open the park so our instructors let us grab Mickey gloves from a bin offstage (meaning the back room. I realize I didn’t explain this well before, but onstage is everywhere they guests can go and offstage is employee only areas) and wait on the street to greet guests as they arrived. Seeing the looks of joy and excitement on everyones face when we simply waved at them, welcomed them, or gave them a high four was just so incredible. I can’t begin to describe the joy I felt, but I definitely almost cried a couple of times. Watching adults and children alike, just beaming from ear to ear, and speed walking up the street towards the castle, especially the ones with a first visit pin on, was absolutely magical. A few of the kids came up and gave me high fours, and they were so excited! I saw one little girl across the street kind of looking around in awe, and I smiled and waved at her and she gasped. She grabbed her mom’s arm and said, “Mom, did you see that? She waved right at me!” It never really hit me how much every cast member adds to the show until that moment. To that little girl, I was a part of this mystical world she had just entered, I was a fairy tale character. I definitely didn’t think I would ever get a reaction like that from a child who is excitedly looking forward to meeting her favorite princesses. That little girl made me feel like a princess in that moment. That feeling is truly indescribable…
After we welcomed the first wave of guests into the park, we headed back inside to learn on the registers. I felt slightly overwhelmed just because at Disney World, cashiers do everything that guest service did at Target in addition to cashiering. I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly, although I struggled every time I had to fill out a resort delivery form. For my first day though, I feel like it was pretty successful. I got to make so many magic moments for people with pin trading, and taking their heavy shopping bags and promising to send them directly to their hotel. I just loved every minute of it! We got to listen to all the shows go past on Main Street, and when our area had nothing to touch up, we just got to talk to guests (which includes singing along to any music and/or playing with toys so guests just see you having fun at the happiest place on earth). Every single trainer and leader I have had thus far has asked, “How many of you got in trouble for talking in school?” followed by, “Well, that won’t ever happen here. We encourage it.” Sometimes at the Emporium, your job is literally to stand outside and play with a bubble machine and interact with guests. I’m sure the excitement will wear off eventually, but right now I’m just incredibly stoked to be here.
We got two half hour breaks, which seemed odd to me, but it was essentially the same as working at Target. One half hour break counts as your lunch and the other is essentially your two fifteen minute breaks combined. It will definitely take some getting used to… Other than that I absolutely love it! Zoning is so much easier here since the stock team comes in and makes everything perfect for the morning every single day, and cashiering is much less stressful because management encourages you to take your time with each guest and give them each a personalized, individual experience. (Fun fact: At Disney, shot glasses are not a thing. If you purchase one, it will show up on your receipt as “toothpick holder.”) Additionally, to help maintain the illusion of the show, and keep the magic, cast members are encouraged to use some variation of the following lines (which are different in each area of the park, relevant to the location and era of the park) “I’m off to tea” for going on a break, “I have to go visit the mayor’s wife” for going to the bathroom (Don’t say that you’re going to visit the mayor though, that would be scandalous… We shouldn’t even show ankle on Main Street.), and “my carriage has arrived” to indicate the end of your shift. It seems like it might be difficult, but the park does such a good job alone creating that place that the guests become so immersed in the story, which makes it so much easier to go along with the show.
After work I finished my laundry from the night before, finished my bucket list, and cleaned up the apartment a bit in preparation for the upcoming housing inspection… :P Then I decided to check the mail since I was pretty sure no one had since we moved in. One of my roommates and I walked down to the mailboxes and found ours completely stuffed full! We literally each had an armful of mail, and were still reaching in and pulling out the strays that had been shoved into the very back of the mailbox. Apparently forwarding addresses aren’t much of a concern around here as not a single piece of mail in that box was addressed to any of us. It was a lot of magazines, but also a few important looking pieces of mail. The apartment complex front desk closes at 7pm so I wasn’t able to bring it down. at this point I’m not sure what they would do with it all. The amount of mail is ridiculous and the majority of it was for one person. Nothing for me to worry about I guess, I’m sure they have some sort of process for handling this (aka dropping it all in the trash…).
Since I haven’t gotten a solid nights sleep in about a week… I’m going to head off to dreamland. Keep the magic!
