Three weeks in!

Yesterday marks 3 weeks since I arrived in Orlando and I still love it here! For the past week and a half I have been doing on the job training and so far I love my job (will discuss this more later in this post). As of yesterday I am completely finished my training which means I am a full on cast member, ears and all! (when you are training you have a little ribbon on your name tag that says you are “earning your ears” hehe) I really love being able to interact with guests and having the ability to make magic for guests of all ages is truly an amazing feeling!

The last time I wrote it was shortly before my birthday! My birthday was Friday, September 23rd and it was actually my first day of on the job training. Work on this first day was a little overwhelming, as it is with all new jobs, but by the end of the day I was feeling positive and looking forward to my next shift! I finished work that day at 5:30pm and then I stayed at Epcot to meet up with some friends for dinner and some drinks. While I was waiting for Eileen to meet me at the park, I rode The Seas with Nemo & Friends and Figment’s Journey into the Imagination (FAVE), then she met me at The Land and we rode Soarin’! (ps the new Soarin’ Around the World is AMAZING). Then we headed over to the world showcase for dinner at the American Adventure where we met up with my UK friends Heather and Feeney (her name is Lauren but we call her by her last name). As for drinks I had a spiked chai latte in America and a frozen lime margarita in Mexico! Then we stopped in Germany to watch Illuminations… This was the first time I got to watch Illuminations since being down here and boy was it emotional! Emotional because it’s my home parks’ show and it really made me feel lucky to be where I am and to be a part of something so amazing! After Illuminations we headed back to our apartment where I face timed with Matts family for a bit and then we went for a night swim! Our complex actually has two pool which are awesome and are open until 1am! After we got out of the pool we tried to go to Applebee's for apps but they were closed so we went home, made some mac & cheese and the went to bed. (ps. fun fact: if you say “Kraft dinner” to anyone not from Canada they have no idea what you are talking about) (ps again. if you come to visit me, please bring me Canadian KD because it’s way better than America's)

After my birthday, I worked three more straight days, had a day off, and then on Wednesday, September 28th I had my first assessment. Working in food and beverage in the Canada pavilion means you begin by working a variety of roles and then you slowly work your way up to becoming a server in the restaurant. In the beginning there are two main roles you have: podium and popcorn cart. My first four days of training were on podium, and podium roles consist of greeting, seating and setting. I really love greeting and seating because it involves a lot of guest interaction. The greeter is the first person you see at the restaurant who checks guests in for their reservation. Once a table is ready for a party, the seater brings the guests down to their table. The setter is the person who busses and sets the tables in the restaurant, which is a very fast paced job and great for people who just want to put their head down and work. Working at Disney, my favourite part is the guest interaction so setter is not my favourite role, but I know that it's an important role nonetheless. After you have been trained on each role you have an assessment where your trainer and managers basically just want to make sure you are competent in the roles. After I passed my podium assessment, I had another day off and then I started on the popcorn cart. Popcorn cart is fairly straightforward… You sell popcorn and beer! So I had to be trained on cash, how to make popcorn, how to tap kegs and where to find stock. One of the really important things about popcorn cart is responsibly serving alcohol! Many people like to make a game out of drinking around the world and if they start in Mexico, by the time they get to Canada it is not a pretty sight which means we often have to cut guests off in the evening. (fun fact: Walt didn’t even want there to be alcohol in Epcot) We in Canada are actually known as being the strictest pavilion not only in terms of cutting guests off but also for IDing people. Did you know that if you present a foreign driver's license as a piece of ID in Disney they can’t serve you unless you also have a copy of your passport (either a paper copy or a picture on your phone)? Yeah, it's definitely not fun telling people you can’t serve them because they can’t present you with the required ID. But the rules are in place for a reason, and it helps to keep the park family friendly.

After two days of popcorn training, I then had my popcorn assessment, which was yesterday, Monday, October 3rd. After I passed my assessment, I was officially done training… Yay! I was able to take off the “Earning my Ears” ribbon and after my assessment in the afternoon I continued working that evening to close the popcorn cart. This was the second time I worked until close on the popcorn cart and I love being able to listen to Illuminations while I clean the popcorn machine (I hope it never gets old! But pretty soon I’ll probably be know all of the words and parts of the show :p).

The past week and a half haven’t been all work though! There have been a couple of really awesome things that have happened. The first is I went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! This party is a special ticketed event held at the Magic Kingdom. As a cast member we unfortunately still had to pay to go to the party but it was most definitely worth it! I went with Eileen and Darien and we dressed up as Mike, Sully and Boo! We made our own costumes with stuff we got from Walmart and we got so many compliments on our costumes! For this event we were able to get into the park at 4pm but the party officially began at 7pm. At 7pm all guests from that day were escorted out of the park so then it's only party guests left in the park for the rest of evening. One of the things that made this party worth it was having half the number of people in the park. We walked onto almost all of the rides! We also loved being able to see characters who aren't normally out in the parks as well as being able to easily meet lots of characters! We met Tarzan, Terk and Jane, Jafar, Cinderella, Aurora, Rapunzel, Tiana and then had a dance party with Mike, Sully and Boo in Tomorrowland! The dance party definitely made our night especially since we were dressed up as them. Then the shows of the night… Oh my goodness the shows! The first show we watched was the Hocus Pocus Villain party where the Sanderson sisters came back and conjured up every single villain in the Disney World! It was so cool because some villains in the show you really never ever see in the parks… Like Hades from Hercules! After the show was the Boo to You parade. Again, it was amazing! I love how creative Disney is! And finally, and this was the best part of all, was the Hallowishes fireworks!!! Wishes is one of my favourite night times shows as is, but add in the Halloween theming… Oh man, you should have seen my face watching these fireworks! I can't even describe in words how good they were, but those fireworks alone made the price of the ticket worth it. And finally, the thing that really topped it all off was the trick or treating! So many treats! Disney gives you a bag to fill with treats throughout the night but we thought this bag was too small so we bought a bigger one at the Emporium. I think I will have treats to last me… To last me… The week? Lol I LOVE TREATS. (Jk jk I promise to try to make them last at least 2 weeks *wink*). Overall, as you can tell from my raving reviews, I really loved this event and would recommend it to anyone! It definitely made me feel like a kid again, dressing up and going trick or treating, something I haven’t done in over 10 years!

The other awesome thing that happened this past weekend was the 45th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom! On Saturday, October 1st the Magic Kingdom celebrated its 45th birthday and I can actually say I was in the park that day! I had to work that afternoon but I got up early to see the 9:30am celebration show which included SO MANY CHARACTERS on stage and some inspiring words from the Walt Disney World Resort president. After the show was over I went over to Tomorrowland to ride one of Walt’s favourite rides, The Carousel of Progress, then I hopped on the People Mover before I decided it was time to leave because the park was a ZOO. So I went over to Epcot and spent sometime there before my shift began at 2:30pm, but Epcot was also a zoo because it’s Food & Wine right now so Friday's and Saturdays are crazy busy! I used this as an opportunity to check out the Food & Wine festival centre and I also rode Test Track before going to get ready for work. This day also happened to be Epcot’s birthday! Epcot was celebrating its 34th anniversary on this day and as we walked into work cast members were given a little cake to celebrate! We were also allowed to “break show” on this day and wear the Magic Kingdom 45th anniversary buttons at work, which was awesome!

This week I am working steady closing shifts on podium (seater) and popcorn. My next day off is Saturday, which will probably include some laundry and also visiting a park! Days off definitely need to be productive days because one days when you’re working you have no motivation to do anything before or after! This is also the last week of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Walt Disney World before it moves to Disneyland so I definitely plan to head over to MK either one night after work this week or Saturday evening! It’s my favourite parade and I am so sad it’s leaving, but I know Disney probably has something else in store that's equally as amazing! And hopefully if I get the chance to visit Disneyland in California this year I will have the chance to see it again!

Until next time xoxo