PI Group

Our training leaders invited us to an event through our Disney emails.  We have those, ya know.  They told us it wasn't required but was "highly recommended" that we all go.  Just the twelve PIs that is. 

What was this event?  They told us we'd be playing in Hollywood Studios and then having dinner at Applebee's.  Well, they didn't lie.  But we figured out pretty quick that they didn't give us the whole truth.  We spent days trying to guess.


We went to Rock'n Roller Coaster! And not only that, we got to ride with the lights on and music off.  Coolest.  Thing.  EVER!  It's actually scarier with the lights on, though.  And I still had trouble figuring out which way is up.  At the end we were held for a while while they put some limos away.  It's actually kind of scary to be trapped in those restraints at the end for an undetermined amount of time with no one else around.

They considered this a learning experience since in my job we have to know the operations.  But we just found it awesome.

We're such a great group!

I love my job!

The Circle of (My) Life

I still remember the first day I worked at Disney in 2009.  I was scared to death, because the Dianna in me was freaking out, as usual.  The first guest I ever dealt with as a cast member came to my register.  It was register 2 at the Imagination Pavilion.  My trainer was standing next to me and I froze for a second, scared to death thinking about what was going to happen next, entirely unsure of myself, with my mind speeding through every possible scenario of how I would mess this up.  Then, the guest spoke.  "Hi!  Is there any way I could get this shipped to my room, please?"  Her little girl beside her kept messing with the little bouncy balls that we keep by the counter.  It was so normal.  She had no idea I was training.  Her confidence in my abilities to do my job, and the complete calmness she held completely overwhelmed me.  And then, just like that, all that worrying went away and I just did it!  I did my job.  And I did it right.  And it was awesome!

The same thing happened at safaris just months ago.  I was nearly paralyzed with fear as I drove up to the dock to pick up what would be my first set of real guests ever!  I stopped the truck and put it in park and just sat there for a second.  I think I may have even told my trainer, "I can't do it.  I can't."  I was nearly crying.  He told me to say the word.  The code word we have to say showing that we're ready for guests to board.  "Karibuni everybody!"  I said in the most confident voice I could muster, still shaking with fear.  The gates opened and the people flooded on.  As they were chatting amongst themselves, finding their seats, I realized their confidence in me.  Their confidence in Disney, really.  Confidence that this ride would be worth the money.  Worth the wait.  And their confidence that I could present them with that.  And then, just like that, all that worrying went away and I did it.  I continued my spiel not even thinking about worrying.  There was so much stuff to think about there was no more room in my brain for the worrying.  And I did it!

Now I'm encountering those same feelings again as I train this job.  I feel like each time it gets progressively harder.  Today, as my trainer had me answer phone calls and even call a manager for an update, I felt those same feelings rush back.  I called the Future World East manager.  My hand was shaking the radio as I said, "Hi, this is Dianna at Deployment, are you ready for an update?"  My mind was racing with worries of the manager hating me, of stumbling over my words, of not knowing what to say, of saying too many things, of getting things wrong, all the way down to the computer suddenly crashing.  She responded, "Oh yes!  I'm so glad to hear form you because I was just going to call you.  I needed your help with something else, but go ahead and give me the updates and then I'll tell you what I need too.  Actually it's two things, but go ahead with your update."  No questions asked, she had confidence in me and my abilities to do my job right down to the point where she had questions for me.  A manager.  In EPCOT.  With problems... for me to solve.  Me! But I did it.  Just like that, the worrying went away, and I did it.  And I fixed the problems she had, with help from my trainer, of course!  :)

And so continues a circle in my life.  The lackage and then gainage (I know they're not words.  Deal with it.) of confidence.  I'm grateful for the lessons I learn here at Disney.  I'm glad I can trust my trainers never to give me more than I can handle.  I am learning so much not only about the company, but about myself.  I'm (hopefully) becoming a better person with every semester.  I don't think I'll ever fully be confident with myself.  But that's okay.  I like me anyways.

Also, I like Disney.  And my job.  And my friends.  A whole, stinking lot.

First Day of School!

There's a stuffed Nemo toy we sell who, when you squeeze his fin, says "First day of school!  First day of school!  I really LOVE the first day of school!"

That's how I felt this morning getting ready.  Except I'm not in school.  And I'm not four years old.  And I'm not a clownfish.

That said, my job rocks!  It's all I thought it was and more, which is super awesome.  We met this morning and walked to the tunnels because they wanted to make sure we all knew how to get around.  Then they stuck us in a room and showed us Powerpoints for three hours.

Well it wasn't quite that boring.  I introduced myself like five times in three different ways including when they forced me to draw pictures of my life.  I stuck at drawing, but at least it made people laugh as I tried to explain them. Then we filled out a survey online and had to email it out to people.

They also made me fill out that thing that determines what learning style you are.  I'm not even kidding, the last three times I filled out one of those I got one each of the tactile, auditory and visual.  Today was visual.  Silly tests.  I wrote on the other survey I filled out that I tend to learn when I'm sincerely interested in what I'm learning about.  If I'm interested, I guarantee I'll learn no matter which style you use.

Then we got to shadow for a while.  Each "computer" has two monitors.  TWO!  I got stressed out at home with my mom's computer that has two monitors.  It just throws me off.  And every time I'd drag the mouse up to the top right corner to close a window it would slide to the next screen and click on something.  That'll take some getting used to. Did I mention this will take six weeks of training?  Six weeks.  Cuh-razy!  Safaris was seven days.

But I'm totally excited and love my job.  And that's the point of this post.  To let everyone know that.  I love my life!

Back In Florida

Driving back to Florida the other day I was thinking about my life.  Cuz, ya know.  Ten hours in a car... you get a lot of time to think.

And I started thinking.

"I'm going to Disney World."

Wait... "I'm going to Disney World!?"

"I'm going to DISNEY WORLD!"

And that's when I realized I haven't played in Disney for like a month.  Which seems like forever.  Which is awesome.

New Years

I never got around to a New Year's post.  Or really a post about my final days on my final College Program.  I began posts on each, but due to many random reasons I elected against it.

So to sum up, my last day of Safaris was absolutely awesome, amazing, incredible, great, spectacular all jumbled into one.  I was sad to leave, but excited to begin the next chapter of my life. I was delighted to have a little boy jump off the truck and run to my manager, who just happened to be standing there on the dock, and say in the cutest voice, "That was the best ride ever!  There was this bridge that fell over, but it's okay, we made it across because I crossed my fingers, just like this!"  He proceeded to show us all how he could cross his fingers.  "And then there was a baby elephant that we saved because we chased away those bad guys!  And we saw cheetahs too!  It was so cool!"

Oh yeah kid.  Yes, tell my manager what an awesome driver I am.  You'd think I'd paid him to do that.

New Year's was mostly uneventful.  Not in a sad or depressing way.  But still, uneventful.  I won't go into it.

Then I drove up to Virginia.  After dropping my roommate off at the airport at 5am, I drove straight from there home, stopping twice for gas and grub.  I got here around 6:30pm.  A loooooong time to spend in a car, that's for sure.  I crashed my parent's dinner date at Applebee's.  It was great getting free food again!

So here is my mini-update.  I'm sad it's not really your typical "first post of the year."  But hey, I did me best.  And you probably didn't really want to hear about all my New Year's resolutions I'm making to myself either (and I didn't want random strangers judging me when I didn't fulfill said resolutions.. yeah, that's right, I said "when").

I won't be updating for at least another week.  So I guess I'll see ya in Florida!