First Day - DAKlimation

First of all, DAK stands for Disney's Animal Kingdom in Disney speak. Just for all those who may not know.

Anyway, today I took the beginning class for DAK called DAKlimation. Now I've officially taken the intro class for each park except Hollywood. That'll have to come later. :)

So I woke up at 6 so I could catch the bus at 7 to get there by 8 to start training at 8:30. The bus dropped us off and I followed the crowd to the cast entrance gate. Normally, the cast entrance gates are manned by security guards and we go through security each morning. At DAK, it was like one of those giant turnstile thingy's that are more like a revolving door. I scanned my card like those in front of me, pushed on the door and.... nothing. It wouldn't budge. So I swiped my card again. Pushed. Nothing. Again. Shook the door. Nothing. Laaame. At this point the people behind me asked if they could go ahead of me. The next thing I knew, everyone I was following had gone ahead and I was stuck at the gate.

I wasn't really freaking out. I had plenty of time, and I knew very, very well that my ID was good and I was fine. But I did need to figure out how to get past the gate. Finally, I found the phone and called security. I explained what was happening. The guy on the other side looked my name up in the system, asked me some random questions, and then told me to walk back over to the machine, and simply tap my card on it. "Just tap my card?" I clarified. "Yep. It'll work." Then he hung up.

I didn't believe him. I wiped my card again. Nothing. Finally, out of desperation, and feeling foolish, I started tapping my card around the machine. Suddenly, the light turned green, I heard a noise, and pushed, and it worked!

Should have known that Disney would have more than one way of reading our ID. My card apparently has a microchip in it as well as the bar code as well as the magnetic strip. It's great!

Anyway, one of the girls in the group that went ahead of me stopped and waited for me to catch up. She noticed that we both went to the same school. I made tons of other friends too, who all work in DAK. We also got to ride the Safari, and now I'm even MORE excited, if that's even possible. Now I finally get to unpack, sit back, and relax until Tuesday when I start my first real day of training! Can't wait!