Things I Love About My Job

For Valentine's Day last month Disney went around asking people to give a reason why they love their job.  I couldn't pick only one...

1.     You’d think working at Disney would make you feel like a number, but I’ve never felt like that.  From my first manager who drastically improved my resume writing skills to my more recent managers who support me in every role I want to pursue, I’ve always had an excellent experience with my leadership teams.
2.       The “above and beyond” attitude just fits in with what I’ve been taught my whole life. It may be partly due to the church I was raised in, or because my dad was a teacher, but I’ve been taught since I was young about the difference between getting the job done and actually putting forth a good effort.  You can get A’s in school, but if you don’t actually learn anything does it really matter?  You can get a decent job, but if you don’t love what you do you’ll never love your life.  I love being pressured to always find new, creative ways to make things not just good, but incredible!
3.       Getting to dress as a manager and walk through the tunnels is always fun.  People think I’m a manager and straighten up as soon as they see me coming.  Sometimes they even ask me questions as if I know what I’m doing!
4.       It’s a Small World After All.  Seriously, despite the fact that tens of thousands of people are employed by Disney World, and thousands are CPs who come and go every few months, I still find myself running into the same people again and again.
5.       Going upstairs to watch shows, fireworks and parades on my lunch break are one of my favorite parts of the job.  I don’t think there’s any job anywhere else in the world that provides that.  I literally hear the fireworks every single night!  Days off aren’t half bad either.  “Hey, I’m bored… what do you wanna do?”  “I dunno… should we go to Disney World?”  “Eh, I guess so.”
6.       Everything is always themed.  Even backstage.  There are Mickey posters everywhere reminding you to be safe.  When they show pictures or videos in classes we take of people doing things the “wrong” way it’s always a character like “Maleficent.”  Timon and Pumbaa I’m pretty sure were the characters of some of my training videos.
7.       I love fixing things.  It makes me feel so accomplished.  My favorite calls are the wacky problems where people tell me, “This weird and ridiculous thing happened… can you help me?”  And then we figure it out!  I also love that I’ve been here long enough that I can help teach other people stuff.  “Oh, you don’t know how to make that change in CDS?  Let me explain it to you.”  I still don’t know everything.  And I still make mistakes.  But for the things I do know, I really love it.
8.       The old couples who work here.  I love it when a man from ESPN calls me on the phone to change his time and says “And can I change my wife’s time too? I know her number!”  So cute!  I love seeing the old couples walk through the tunnels holding hands on their way to work.  And if I see their matching last names in CDS I always try to make their breaks at the same time.
9.       Disney World is famous.  I’ll admit it, that gets kind of fun sometimes!
10.   Themed cast parties.  I love them!  Piles of free food.  Leaders serving you.  Raffles.  Prizes.  Free food.  Desserts.  Music.  Food.  Characters.  And all the while there are unknowing guests just chilling in the parks. And did I mention piles of free food!?
11.   The Cast resources we have.  Libraries where you can check out books and even Disney movies!  Computers and other learning resources.  And also discounts around Orlando.  Nothing super great, but it’s always nice to be eating out at a random restaurant and then realize you get 10% off the tab!
12.   Disney lingo.  ER.  FT. TA. MNSSHP.  MiSiCi.  DTD.  FOLK. DAK. DAAR.  DHS.  ST.  NCNS.  ADO. BOG.  I could go on forever.
13.   I auditioned for a teaching job on Friday.  Disney is the only place I know of that makes you audition for things like this.  I was given a script to memorize and everything.  Smart idea, though.  Everything is themed and everyone is part of the show.
14.   Every single thing at Disney has a story.  Every. Single. Thing.  Everything is so detailed and there’s a reason for all of it.  The Imagineers are artistic geniuses!  And I love getting to learn the stories behind everything.  Look for the ring stuck in the pavement by the Haunted Mansion next time and learn the story behind it.  Ever notice in the ceiling of the Sir Mickey’s store in Fantasyland, how it has what looks to the be the fingers of a giant lifting it up?  Pay attention to the detail on the roofs of buildings, especially in Animal Kingdom.  It just blows my mind.
15.   I’ll be honest.  As sad as it is that my office has no windows, I kinda like telling people I work in the dungeon of a castle.

Disney Audition

I guess I should start off by clarifying that while I did indeed go to an audition today for Disney, it was in no way, shape, or form an entertainment audition.

Last week I went to the info session for ILT (Instructor Led Training) and basically encompasses a LOT of the training classes that are taught here at Disney World.  However, I will specifically be teaching the CDS class (the computer system that is used most in my department) (assuming I actually get the job).

In the info session they mentioned we'd have a script to memorize for the audition.  They told us not to worry, that the script would only be 23 pages long.  Immediately, I was reminded of Safaris.  "Oh good," I thought to myself, "I think the Safari script was more like 28 pages..."  Then I realized they were only joking.  The script was two pages. Also, I'm a little bit blond sometimes.

So, I memorized the script and practiced on my roommates and today was the big day.  The audition part went well... at least that's what I'm telling myself.  I didn't expect to make them laugh as much as I did.  Part of me was grateful that they were so entertained, but part of me was worried because my audition was a lot more relaxed and "silly" than the two girls who went before me.  Theirs were well rehearsed, but much more formal. I have a lot of trouble coming across as all business-y.  I take comfort in the fact that I don't think Walt Disney was a terribly serious man.

Anyway, then we did the panel interview part.  They sent us all out in the hall to wait and then came and called us one at a time.  I felt like I was in a doctor's office.  After the first two went in, it was my turn.  "Dianna?  We're ready for you."  Just like a doctor's office.  As I went in, I kid you not, the main interviewer told me, "Don't worry.  This will be quick and painless."  I couldn't help but just start laughing.  "Oh no, I am at a doctor's appointment!"

They asked me about CDS and quizzed me on random system questions.  They listened to how I explained priorities and rotation bumps.  Then they asked some general teaching questions. 

"What would you do if the computers suddenly broke on you in the middle of class?"  Well, would I have a white board and marker?  They said yes.  I'd draw stuff on the board and explain things the best I could that way.  One of the interviewers  responded, "Orrr, you could try to get the system running again, right?"  "Oh yeah.. that..."

Her answer was so much better than mine I just wanted to melt.  Then I just had to tell them, "Well, in my defense, I just came back from teaching English in China.  When my computer system went down there, I couldn't get it working cuz it was all in Chinese.  And I had to improvise because I had 40 six year olds who would start running down the hall if I looked away from them for a second!"  Then they laughed.

Ah well.  I hope it went well.  Now for the waiting game!

Real World vs. My World!

Real world problem:

I've got to figure out how to pay all these bills with little to no money!

Problem at my job:

I've got to figure out how to get all 15 positions covered with only 6 cast members.

I like to think I'm learning to deal with real world problems in my job!

That Time I Called 911 By Accident...

I accidentally called 911 at work the other day.  I thought I was making a routine phone call to ask a Cast Member if they could come in a little early the next morning and suddenly I heard a voice ask me, "911, What's your emergency?"  Confused, I quickly explained that there was no emergency.  I mean, if the CM couldn't come into work, it wasn't going to be that big of a deal!

Lesson learned, though.  If you have to dial a 9 to get an outside line.  And then a 1 before the area code.  And if the area code begins with a 1 (because the CM apparently put the wrong phone number into the system) then you automatically get 911.  Fail.

So, the other mistake!  Well, the guy sitting beside me gave me his radio because he had to go to the bathroom.  Therefore I was watching two radios at once.  Then I promptly forgot that I was watching both radios.  His radio rang and I answered it and it was the EPCOT Vacation Planning leader.  I forgot that I was watching his radio and thought this leader was calling me on my radio.  So I explained to them that they had the wrong radio.  They were confused.  "We always call this radio!"  They said.  Then I freaked out that I hadn't been doing my job right because I wasn't watching their area like I should have been.

Then the guy came back from the bathroom.  And I remembered that I had two radios.  And everyone laughed at me.  FAIL!

In my defense I worked from 7am to 9pm yesterday!

The Disney Difference

I've had a few meetings over the course of the past week or so trying to catch up on training and such.  Disney meetings are unique in many ways, but one that entertains me the most is how Disney begins their meetings.

These classes/meetings don't begin with introductions and "thank you for being here" statements.  No.  They begin with "In case of emergency, these are the nearest exits, here are the fire extinguishers," and yes, even, "the nearest AED is down the hall."

Then comes the intros, thank-you-for-beings-heres, and don't-we-all-love-mickey-mouses.

Safety first.  Seriously.  I love it!

Broken Fridge

Our fridge has had issues with breaking over the past year.  We thought it was fixed last time they came, but alas, we woke up Sunday to a warm fridge.

Good thing we never gave back our Pepsi fridge!  Our landlord's brother loaned this to us last year when the fridge broke.

Well, the Sears guy came today.  I showed him the fridge and opened it to show him where the little numbers pad thing had dashes instead of numbers.  He reached up, pushed the arrow buttons that turned the fridge colder/hotter, and the fridge magically turned on again.

I felt soooo stupid.  He then explained that he didn't think we were that stupid.  I mean, the fridge had decided on it's own to turn the numbers into dashes.  So he didn't some fancy technical stuff and replaced some computer chip looking things.

As he worked we chatted with him.  "Where do you girls work?" he asked us.

"I work at Basin, and she works for Disney World." Erin responded.  "Where do you work?"

The Sears repair guy just stared at us.

The sad thing is, our blond roommate wasn't even home.

At least we made the repair guy laugh.

Just Like Riding A Bike

My first day of work was Monday.  Terrified, I went into work trying and failing to remember how to take a simple call.  "How do I do a call in again?  What's the number for the Labor Service Center?"  I thought to myself as I walked through the tunnel.

I got to work 45 minutes early, too.  Most people were telling me it was just like riding a bike, but my response to that was, "No.  Riding a bike involves pedaling and steering and that's it.  This job involves about twelve hundred different tasks all being juggled in mid air at the same time and you don't necessarily get immediate feedback if you do something wrong."  But all was well!  Thankfully after less than an hour I had recalled most of what I had to do.  It came back.  This job is a lot easier than I remembered it.

It took a while for me to regain access to all the programs I needed access to.  But now, at the end of the week I have worked nearly 50 hours and I still have another shift today!  Originally I only worked Wed-Sat, but I picked up a shift Monday and during that they asked me to come in Tuesday.  Then they wanted me to come in early Wednesday and Friday.  Ba-BAM!  Hours!

Also, it should be noted.  I really love my job!

I'm Baaaack

 Words will never fully describe my time in China.  It was an adventure.  It was incredible.  It was fun.  It was so difficult.  It was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life.  Well... top three for sure!

To sum up what happened: I taught English to 300 boarding school students grades 1-4 on the Guizhou Province in southern China from August to December.  Three other foreign teachers were with me, but taught the older kids (Grades 5-8).  Together, we had some of the best experiences of a lifetime.

 We saw ancient sculptures and toured ancient cities.

 We saw the Terra Cotta Warriors and visited the place where the guy who had them built was supposed to be buried (but apparently he died early so they didn't actually bury him under this mountain pictured behind us in the above picture).

 We walked across the scariest "bridges" I've ever gone across.  I get scared easily.  But I guess this is how they did it a long time ago.

 We saw Panda bears in Chengdu.

 We shopped along ancient streets with thousands of other people.

 We ate the nastiest most unique food I have ever had in my life.

 And I taught 300 of the most amazing, smart, fun, cute kids in the world!

 We saw funny signs.

 Again with the gross food... that "floss" stuff is dried meat!

 We found a few Western toilets that had directions in English on how to use them.  (but no directions in Chinese... I'm pretty sure if someone can speak English they probably know how to use a toilet...)

 And again with the students.  I can't get enough of these guys!

China totally rocks!  It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life.  But I would never, ever change a bit of this experience.  Thanks to China Horizons for providing me with the best adventure ever!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

DIANNA'S NEW BLOG! From China!

I'm in the People's Republic of China!  Wow!

My dad started a new blog for me, and he's going to post all my emails and pictures and stuff for everyone to share.  (A trifle overstatement, but in general, he'll be my new Blog-keeper for a while.)

Check out the new Blog:   djfchina.blogspot.com    

Pretty lame, I know.  But the URL is easy to remember, especially if you know my initials and can remember the fact that I'm in China now.

Keep Moving Forward

I've been avoiding thinking about this upcoming month at all.  I don't want to think about how my internship is coming to a close.  I don't want to think about organizing all the stuff I own into what I want to leave here, what stays in VA, what goes to donations, and what goes with me to China.  I don't want to think about leaving my friends, figuring out where to stay, things to do before China, insurance, medical, my car, just everything.

But today was the day.  I had to accept that my life is about to change.  Yet again.

I began packing today.  I actually got quite a bit done.  I really enjoy packing.  It's just the stress of leaving and moving that makes it difficult.  Then I went down to the pool for a little R&R.  I did a few laps and got shown up by some 80 year old lady who had flippers on.  Sad.

Then I went to work.  It was a fantastic day at work and my coordinators were just great.  Suddenly one of the managers started calling across the Base so everyone could hear.  He made the announcement that some people who have "been with us these past several months are leaving soon,"  and I started wondering, "Oh, I wonder who that could be."  Then he called out the first name, a fellow intern of mine and it hit me.

I'm leaving.

We all received our little Mickey trophies (One my most prized possessions now.  I know it's silly, but I am seriously so ridiculously proud of that trophy!) and posed for pictures.

And now my life will forever be changed.  Again.

Bring on the next challenge, world.  I'm ready.

Cast Members Overheard

I was in the cafeteria the other day and overheard these girls talking about their schedules.

"I'm so excited, I actually have a real weekend next week!"

"Oh, that's so exciting!"

"Yeah, two entire days off, I don't even know what I'm gonna do!"

"Is it Fri/Sat, or Sat/Sun?"

"What?"

"Or did you get Sun/Mon?"

"No, no.  It's not a real real weekend.  It's Tues/Wed, but it's two full days!  I'm so happy!"

It's okay, CPs.  Someday you'll get a real real weekend. :)

Also at work yesterday I was sitting at the Merch table (the most boring table during the day, but at night, Foods becomes slightly more boring).  We have TV screens that play the news all day but the sound is off.  I wasn't watching the TV, but overheard some people talking about what was on TV.

"I can't figure out what this commercial is for!"

"I thought it was for adult diapers?"

"But with football players?"

"Why would football players need adult diapers?"

At this point I curiously looked up.  Just in time to see the "Febreeze" logo shoot across the screen.

Note to Febreeze advertisers: Yer doin' it wrong.

Then again, both adult diapers and football players smell nasty... so they may have a point.

Anyway, today's terribly sad.  It's the first day of my weekend.  I was so happy to finally get to see the sun.  And it's raining.  Can't go to the pool.  Don't wanna go to Disney World.  And there's nothing to do but clean the apartment.

Ah well.  Maybe tomorrow.  After all, I have a real two day weekend this week! (First time in a month!)

Leadership

One of my teachers in college had a knack for trying to give us "life experience" in the classroom.  He was one of those "different" teachers who was "different" in a really good way.

Well, one day he had the class separate in half.  He sent my half to another room to tell us a story about two businessmen.  Our group was one businessman, and the other group was the other.  I don't remember the details but he basically created a conflict between our two groups.  Our group, he told us, was the innocent one.  We were very successful, had tons of clients, had worked very hard to get where we were, and the other group, the bad guys, we trying to rain on our parade.  The other "guy" just barely started with the company, but, due to his superior interpersonal skills, and what we perceived to be unfair arrangements, had made it just past our level.  Now this "new" guy was trying to take away our clients and give them to other people which was completely unfair.

Well, I don't remember the details well and it's not important.  The important thing is that the teacher went from room to room, allowing us to pass messages to one another for communication, but we had to trust the teacher to deliver our messages, exactly as we put them.  Finally, after this went on for a few days of class, we were able to convince the teacher that we wanted to meet in person and figure this whole thing out.  I still remember as my group walked back into our classroom, my friends who were in the other group were acting all mad at me.  They told me, "Wow.  Sorry your group had to be the bad guy in this case."  I thought, "What?  You guys are in the wrong!  Not our group!  What the heck?"

As our groups talked to each other, we figured out where the other was coming from.  We found out that the man who we thought was the bad guy was simply trying to get his clients back because we had, without realizing it, stolen them years before from a third party (complicated situation, hard to sum up, but you get the point).  In the end, both sides were just doing what they thought was right, and both thought they were the ones being treated badly.

Situations like this come up in life all the time.  One of the most difficult things for me to do is to continue to be nice to someone who I think is being an ungrateful jerk person.  There's a certain person who has basically made a name for himself by yelling at the people in my office and just being rude.  It's hard for me to change my thinking from wanting to punch this guy in the face, to wanting to understand why he hates us so much and feels the need to yell at us.  Maybe he just doesn't understand.  Maybe we just need to take him down to our office and show him how our system works so he realizes how unrealistic he's being sometimes. He just doesn't know.  Maybe we should just be patient and explain it to him.

Anyway, I'm highly impressed with management at Disney World.  They are some of the greatest leaders I've seen.  One called me the other day concerned about someone in our Department who he felt wasn't doing a very good job.  Instead of getting upset and giving them bad feedback right away, he contacted me and asked (making sure I could keep the conversation secret) if this CM had a reason for doing a not-so-adequate job.  And actually, he was right.  This CM was doing the best they could, but due to reasons beyond their control they just weren't able to do a tip top job that night.  I explained the situation, and the Manager gave appropriate feedback.  Instead of saying "This person was a terrible DA and we ran into all sorts of problems and they didn't get fixed in a timely manner" he was able to give much more constructive feedback understanding where the CM was coming from.

I only hope that I can be that sort of leader someday.  If and when I ever get to lead an operation.  And I'm certainly grateful that I get to have so many great leaders in my life to learn from.  Seriously, most Disney leaders I've met really have it right.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

It's funny.  Holidays at Disney World are either the most wonderful thing in the world, or so horrible you just want to throw things and collapse on to the ground from stress! 

It's the most wonderful thing ever because of the crazy amount of happiness, love, unity, magic, joy, family, music, adventure, fireworks, etc. that you get to experience.  Worst thing ever from the crowds, stress, bad weather warnings, stress, crowds and stress.

I choose to look at the glass half full, though.  Today was a great day, despite things going just terribly on the "let's keep CDS going well" side. 

And I was lucky enough to get to watch the fireworks!  Best. Thing. Ever!  I've become fairly numb to the "normal" Disney fireworks shows since I've seen them so many times.  I mean, they're still incredibly impressive, but I've seen them so much I don't stop in my tracks anymore.  These fireworks tonight literally blew the pants off of any fireworks show I've ever seen in my entire life though, comparable to the Christmas ones and maybe even a teensy bit better!  And we got a great view, too, without having to deal very much with the crowds.  Geez, I'm sooooooo glad I'm not a PAC CM anymore.  At the same time, I absolutely respect anyone who works a PAC shift at Disney on a Holiday.  One of the hardest things I've done in my entire life... and I had to do it several times.

But the fireworks?  So.  Freaking. Awesome.  I love my job.  I love my life.

God Bless America.  I love this country.  And will be slightly sad to be leaving it in just 47 days...  However, I do hear that China has decent fireworks too. :)

You Know Your Job Rocks When...

I love the smell of smoke from the fireworks in the tunnels.  One of my favorite things, EVER!

People in my department think it's funny to make me laugh right before answering a phone call.  We just get too crazy sometimes.  Today I had a few calls where I just plain couldn't stop laughing...

I worked in Foods today.  It's the easiest of the areas I can work because I just wait for people to call me and then answer their requests.  Really nice and relaxing.

Even now that I've worked here since January, I'm still learning new things.  Every day, it seems, something new happens (or breaks) and I have to figure something else out.

I love parking in the "Manager" parking lot.  It makes me feel official.  I don't really choose to park there very often, but it's always fun when I do.

My favorite phone calls are the ones that aren't time changes and call ins.  I love super random calls.  Especially when I ask people where they work and their answer is, "Oh, Disney World."  No wait... that last thing I hate.

I love getting phone calls from people I know and then being all like, "Yeah, I know you!  Muahahaha!"

I love going home at night right when the fireworks begin going off!  LOVE IT!

Sometimes I miss working on stage.  I miss having funny guest stories (even though I have quite a few funny Cast stories I could tell, but not sure I should) to tell.  I miss being in the middle of the magic and happiness.  I miss walking around instead of sitting in a boring chair all day long.  But still, I have to say, I LOVE my job.

Oh CDS

In case I haven't mentioned it before, they tried to update CDS again this week.  And, again, it keeps crashing.  Fortunately, the updates continue to improve and I didn't have tons of trouble.  Just that random, uncalled for logging you out in the middle of something.  Annoying.  I wonder if it'll be any better today than it was Tuesday, the last day I worked.

I feel like a lot has happened lately.  My roommate and I tried to go to the beach on Wednesday because we both actually had the day off together!  Super exciting actually!  We went to Port Canaveral.  We were on the beach for less than an hour before they closed it down due to weather, though.  Unfortunate... but we also got to go in the cool shops... and had roommate/girl bonding time.  It was fun!

Thursday I went to EPCOT with a friend.  And then Institute was that night.  I stayed after and played basketball with some guys.  Apparently there's this game called "21" in basketball which is basically 1 on 1 plus 1.  We were each on our own team individually.  Three players.  I scored 2.1 points, thank you very much!  I ended up making them count when I hit the rim as .1 point because I fail so bad!  Actually, I'd rather look at it as the fact that Mike is just really good.  I'm not sure they necessarily went along with my .1 idea.. but I liked it!  In my defense I was playing barefoot (I didn't wear basketball shoes to Institute). (Also, I just noticed that 2.1 is 21 with a dot... so technically... I should have won, right?)

Anyway.  This morning I went to work my first official shift at Give Kids the World by myself.  I worked in the Hula Hut and set out breakfast and such for people to come eat.  It was a lot of fun, actually.  I seriously can't even WAIT to volunteer again.  This is just such a great organization and I learn so much from the people I work with.  Everyone just has such interesting stories.

So now I'm headed off to work soon.  I'm in Merchandise today.  Recently they've been sending us all around the department.  I didn't even realize I was technically trained in Foods and Merch, but I've been working shifts there so I guess it's good.  But I do miss Operations.  I miss the people in Operations and I miss the structure.  Foods is the least structured.  When I worked there I literally just answered the radio when it rang.  I didn't have to worry about regular updates or the number of minutes we were behind on breaks or even the bumpouts!  Crazy!  Merch is a little harder, and we do give regular updates.  It's a lot more straightforward than Ops though.  You can just drop certain registers if you have to and you don't have to worry about safety critical things in most areas.

I love Ops.  It just feels like home.  I'll be back tomorrow.  But today is Merch.  Also the new interns started this week.  And one of them shadowed me on Sunday!  I decided I like it when people shadow me.  It makes me feel like I know what I'm doing! Gosh I love my job!

Funny Guests

As stressful and difficult it can be to work with guests, I do miss it sometimes.  It makes for great stories, that's for sure.  A few weeks ago I was working Safaris.  I was at the departure dock opening the gates to let guests on.  This woman came up to me and asked in her cute English accent, "How can you be so jolly with all these darn people around!?"  I appreciated the compliment. :)

Today I was working the Fastpass entrance queue.  A family came up to me and I noticed the older couple had on the "Happy Anniversary" buttons.  As I let them through I said, "Oh!  Happy anniversary!  How many years?"  The husband answered, "50!"  "Wooooow.  That's wonderful, congratulations!  That sure is a long time." "Yeah, well.  It wasn't all with the same one.  It's fifty all combined together ya know."  He said this sarcastically enough that even I realized it was a joke and the whole family was laughing.  I didn't quite know how to respond.  Then he continued.  "She's my fifth.  Every ten years or so I get an upgraded edition.  This is the best one yet."  The old woman walked past me laughing, "Yeah, right.  Do I look like an upgraded edition?"

I can't believe he said that about his wife.  But I couldn't stop laughing about it for five minutes.

Also, I have to admit, I still haven't stopped using my elephant fact of, "The mother elephant carries it's babies for 22 months!"  I can't get enough of hearing the little kids in the back ask their parents, "But mom... where does the mommy carry the baby?"  Those conversations get really funny, really quickly.

Also, I got to see baby warthogs for the first time today!  I'm so happy I finally get to see them!

What a great day!  People really are quite funny.

Disney's New Art of Animation Resort!

My roommates and I were allowed to go to a "test night" at the new Disney's Art of Animation Resort this past weekend.  It doesn't open until the 31st to normal people, so this was really, really exciting that we go to be the first people to be there!  We even got the first test night, too!

I have to say, I didn't think Disney could blow my mind anymore.  But really, when it comes to staying in a Disney resort as opposed to some other hotel around property, it's totally worth it.  Despite the higher price.  Although our price was free, so I can't really judge. :)

 

Elizabeth, standing outside the Animation Hall (the main building where you check in).  It's incredibly colorful, and all about ART! 

John Lasseter himself signed one of the paintings on the chandelier.



 The resort consists of four "sections" of buildings you can stay in.  Currently, the only set opening is the Nemo building.  So we stayed in Nemo.  Cars will open next, then The Lion King, followed by The Little Mermaid themed section.  Of course, I can't wait for The Lion King to open.  But that won't be until August, just days after I leave.  I'm terribly offended by this.

However, the food court still have a Lion King themed section you could sit in.  This worked for me!  I made us sit here as we ate our meals.  Which also happened to be free!

We then proceeded to the room. The room keys had the little chips in them so you don't have to swipe.  Just hold your key up to the door and it clicks open!  And there's a "hidden Mickey" on the lock.

I had never gotten to use an Inova bed before.  So this part was pretty cool.  And actually, this was the bed I slept on.

I LOVE the picture of sleeping Nemo on the inside.  You can only barely see it in this picture, but there are some LED lights above and a little dial where you can turn off the lights and such without getting up and without taking up space on the nightstand!  And in this picture you can sort of see into the master bedroom.

 This is the living room.  I love how ocean themed it is.  Every detail is just so well thought out it blows my mind!  And below is the master bed.  We decided it was kind of small.  We don't get why this bed isn't King size...  It was still nice, though.  And, of course, no Disney room is complete without a Mickey Mouse towel!

 One of the two bathrooms.  Notice how the mirror says "Fish are friends..."  They were going to put "not food" except that they serve fish in the food court... so that wouldn't have really gone down very well...  So they just stuck with the first half of the quote I guess.









Back in the living room.  The TV was great and the drawers were nice and big.  That orange chair looks really cool... but I found it incredibly uncomfortable.  My roommate liked it though.

 Just another part of the theming.  I just love Disney and their creative towel pet things.  We had stuff like this at Pop Century too. 

 This is the other bathroom, I think.  We were literally the first people to ever stay in this room.  Ever.  That said... we did have some trouble turning on the shower for the first time.  It was stuck really tight.  We eventually got it, though.

 They gave us free popcorn to "test the microwave with."  Really awesome, but it smelled kind of funny!

 Next Elizabeth and I visited the arcade.  We got there way earlier than our other two roommates.  I totally beat the snot out of her at air hockey.  Actually... I think it was a close tie.  Whatever.

A storm was coming, so I didn't really get a good photo of the pool area.  Which is lame, because the pool totally rocked!  It's the biggest pool on Disney property.  And it has underwater speakers.  It was possibly the coolest thing ever to listen to Hannah Montana above water and then old country music below water.  Loved it!  Plus there's a kid play area around there too.  And a pool bar called "The Drop Off."

 This was our building.  There was talk about how often the seagulls are going to go off saying "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!"  At first they were going to have it going all the time.  But then they decided that would get annoying to the lifeguards and those in the pool.  So then they considered once an hour on the hour.  And even that seemed like too much.  But for now they said they're going to leave it at every hour and go from there.  They were completely turned off for our stay though.

 This is long enough.  But stay tuned for the photos of the Cars building!  We got to take the tour in there.  Even though it's not opened, we were allowed to do a walk through.  It's so stinking awesome! This was the best 18 hour vacation of my life!

Loving Safaris and DAR

I haven't worked at Safaris in a while.  Since I last worked, they've gotten three new lions (cubs... sort of... more teens in lion years), baby warthog piglets, the pregnant rhino had her baby, and there's a new reticulated giraffe.  And there is no longer Wilson which means it's the new spiel.  And some minor operating changes (particularly the new Fastpass stuff, yeah, it's been a while).  I've been trained on all of this, but have yet to have actually practice any of it.

I've been wanting to pick up shifts there for a while, but it just hasn't worked out.  But today, I finally found a 10.75 hour shift on EHH.  And I definitely just picked it up.  Bring on the extra hours!!!

And, bring on the Safaris!  I have no idea what's going to happen next week when I work this brand new safari with a totally different spiel!  But I am sure it'll be awesome!

You know what else is awesome about next week?  My roommate, who is on the opening team for the new DAR (Disney's Art of Animation Resort) gets one free "test" night to stay in a room with some friends (and apparently "test meals" are included too, but we're not sure that all four of us will get to participate in that just yet).  And so the girls of our apartment will be chilling in the new resort next week for FREE before it's even opened!

Oh, and I just paid for my plane ticket to China today.  Just throwing that on top there as well.

I have the best life EVER!

Lessons Learned

We had a meeting today.  It was actually incredibly informative.  And it made me feel really important, you know, being a meeting and all.  It was complete with a Powerpoint presentation.  However, there were only four slides.  And one of them was the intro slide that just said something like "Ops Meeting, May 5, 2012" or something.

I've really been learning a lot lately about companies and how they're run.  And how everything is interconnected. I mean, just how the simple act of dropping a position for a few hours could affect that area's workload for a year from now!  There is so much detail and research done to figure out things like budgets and workloads and efficiency it blows my mind!  I've been learning about budgets and how money is spread throughout organizations.

I've learned how much our department depends on other departments.  We are all so interconnected.  The front line workers really depend on our department to get things right.  When other places make mistakes, it messes us up.  And when I make mistakes, it messes them up.  We all really, really depend on each other.

We looked at some charts and graphs in the meeting today showing trends in our area.  The goal was for the red graph to show a downward trend, and the blue one to go upward.  As they showed us certain areas that were doing better than others, I was surprised that no individual names were mentioned.  While Disney certainly has enough research to pick and choose names of the individuals making these graphs worse, the leaders didn't do that.  They simply pointed out that, as a team, we are improving, but certain areas are struggling more than others and we need to continue to work hard to get these numbers in the right directions.  It made me realize how I really am part of a team.  And that as much as I can succeed individually at what I do, and even get recognized for it, the team as a whole needs to be successful.  And if the team isn't successful, then my success isn't really even there.

I've learned about being detail oriented.  It's oh so easy sometimes to try and change a CMs shift as quickly as I can and skip over important steps.  Like in some situations it is kind of annoying to take those extra steps to recalculate someone's breaks.  But, if I skip it, first of all that's illegal because that person's getting paid incorrectly and could go to the union and create all kinds of mayhem.  But second of all, chances are I'll get a call a few hours later from their leader telling me to fix it anyway.  Or I'll just be creating more work for someone else.  It's best just to do things right the first time and not try to skip steps because I think I'm in a hurry.

I learned a lot about people working as a front line Cast Member.  But now, I'm definitely grateful for the experience of working in an office.  It's not something I want to do long term, that's for sure.  But for now I'm really learning a lot and loving every minute of it.  Even if it gets stressful at times.

Also, I've learned about Murphy's Law.  And how it applies.  Every single time I choose to answer the phopne, my radio will go off as soon as I pick it up.  Every time.

Dumb Technology...

Technology has not been on our side this last few days.  On Sunday (or maybe it was Monday... I don't actually remember), the radios decided not to work.  Like, the signal just plain wasn't there most of the day.  And in the rare case that it was there, it would cut out in the middle or we had to keep saying "10-9?" "What?"  "Repeat please?"  So weird!  However, I learned it was much easier to deal with that, than the problem we encountered the next day.

We had CDS issues next.  They "updated" it.  I came into work Tuesday and stood by the guy whose radio I was taking.  "How's it been?"  "Terrible."  Now, the people in my office have gotten into the habit of lying to me because they think my gullibility is funny.  So this time I didn't believe him.  And this time, he was telling the truth.

I sat down, logged in, got some calls, and began working on it.  I clicked on the box where we open up the tree to go to a specific location.  Except that the tree was no longer there!  "What?  No tree?"  I exclaimed.  The guy beside me snickered.  "Yeah, that's a new feature."  No no.  It was supposed to be there.  Just it was broken and only showing me Dinoland Ops.  And I needed Future World.

Then I finally got the location to pop up (had to memorize the name and just type it in) and I clicked to open it.  "This is taking forever!"  I said.  "That's a new feature too!" He told me.

I finally got the location to open and clicked the CMs name who I had to change.  Loading.... loading...

and then CDS crashed and logged me out.  "New feature!"  The guy beside me said happily after I yelled "NOOOOO!" at my computer.  "Now it randomly logs you out throughout the day!"

Then, apparently (I didn't work yesterday, but heard from one of my friends), they undid the update. Needless to say, work has been exceptionally stressful these past few days.  It's reeeeeeallly hard to do my job when the systems aren't working right.  Not only hard, but stressful.  Because the people who aren't using the systems and are asking for help aren't necessarily patient and don't necessarily understand what's happening on our end and how it's not my fault!

On a happier note I still love my job.  Most of the stress has just gotten to the point that I just laugh.  That's all that's left for me to do.  I can laugh, or get angry.  I choose loopy laughter.  Really, there's nothing much to get angry about.  Fortunately, I work in a place where my bosses are wonderful.  The other day I was telling a manager about my fears of getting bad feedback for a certain situation.  She laughed at me and told me what someone else told her.  "Babies are not dying if you don't do your job correctly."  It's just not a big deal.

Thank.  Freaking.  Goodness.

I've learned a lot since working in an office environment "backstage."  I've certainly learned that offices are breeding grounds for gossip.  But also, from what I've heard, this Disney office is apparently one of the best offices to work in compared to a lot of "outside" offices.  Sometimes our bosses even give us free pancakes!  Well... that was just the one time.  But I still like it!

I really love my job.  I'll be sad to leave in a few months.  But I'm so happy for this experience and wouldn't change it for a second.  And, I can't wait to come back already!