Wednesday, April 4, 2012

oops

Hello, friends! It's been a month since my last update, which is TERRIBLE. Seriously, I have no excuse. But it's been an amazing month! I have a lot to write, so I'm going to break it up into several posts. First will be all about me! (surprise...)
 My birthday was on the 9th, and my friends Kelsey and Jasmine went with me to Tusker House for my birthday Brunch. We met Donald, Mickey, Daisy and Goofy, and ate some seriously good food. I made the reservation for 10:45am, so that we would go in at breakfast, and be there through the lunch changeover, which happened at like 11:30. And yes, I planned it that way
 on purpose. What really did us in was when they brought out the dessert buffet at 11:45... so much food.



I was finally trained to work Tusker House. I'm not sure if I mentioned that in my previous posts, but basically I was trained on how to take the Donald Picture that you see here, how to assemble the packages that we offer to the guests, and how to run them out to the tables. It's really different from what I do normally in the parks, and I actually really enjoy it. Many of the people who work there have bid for that location, and so may only work in Tusker House (as opposed to out in the parks). I don't know if I could do it everyday, but I have been picking up shifts and trading with people here and there. You have to not take anything personally and be really open to people, but it's a lot of fun to watch the kids dance with the characters and talk with families about their trip.
I really am falling in love with DAK. I'll be honest in that I was really apprehensive about being assigned here (as I've mentioned) but it is definitely growing on me. The cp's that I'm with are pretty awesome, as are the regular cast members. I love working at Boat Landing, which is where you can find Winnie the Pooh and friends. Pooh is just unbelievable and loves kids, and I feel like I take the best pictures when working with him. SPEAKING OF! My photo that I took with Pocahontas back in February, that won photo of the week? It won photo of the month for DAK!!! I was so shocked! And then a couple weeks ago, I took the CUTEST picture of this little girl just laughing and laughing at meeting Goofy. Her hair was all curly and she has just this look on her face as she's squealing at him. And THAT photo was selected as a photo of the week. It feels really good, but I know a lot of it is about timing, and really luck. There's been so many times I've thought, "Oh man! That would have been an awesome shot if I had grabbed it!!" I think that soooo many times a day, it can get you down if you let it, but you have to focus on what you can do and just never put the camera down (which isn't possible, lol). There's usually five or six photo's of the week so it's nice to see what other people are doing and get ideas from there.
Today I picked up at Parade Audience Control shift in the Magic Kingdom. I worked 1900-2245 and got to pick up the COOLEST costume!! I normally can't see these shifts to pick up on the HUB, but since it's spring break and there are a lot of guests in the parks, they needed extra help. I had always wanted to work one, as my roommate last year Tracy loved them, so I jumped at the chance. It was a little hard to find the base, but luckily there were a lot of people in the costume so I just followed them. I was assigned to stand in front of Mickey's Town Square Theater from 1900-21:30. I had a giant container for bubbles to play with forever until we had to start clearing the streets and getting ready for the Electrical Light Parade. Then it was my job to make sure people stayed on the curb and anyone who was recording, that they didn't have a spot light to blind the performers. I then moved allll the way down to the popcorn cart on by the castle and helped direct traffic during Wishes!. I didn't see one minute of Wishes! even thought i was RIGHT there, as I was constantly trying to keep people moving. I tried to make it funny because people were tired and since it was so crowded, they couldn't move very fast (sometimes barely at all.) So I'd yell out, "You're doing great, friends! Just channel your inner Dori and just keep swimming! You're in the EAC!!" Several people actually thought this was funny and helped break up the tension of trying to get out of the park, so I feel I did my duty. I really loved every minute of it and will definitely pick up more (whenever I can.)


It is the height of Spring Break right now, and we have one more week to go of it. I know that DAK has been really crowded and we were expecting to hit capacity today, but I'm not sure if we did as it was my day off. Cast members are blocked out of visiting WaterParks for free right now, but we do still get our discount (half off). I'm was assigned 41 hours this week, and am at just over 45 with the PAC shift tonight. My roommate is Merch in DAK with me and she was assigned 57 hours, but is at about 60 now due to forced extensions. That is going to be something you have to deal with. (It's also REALLY warm right now for March/April). It's been 90 the past few days, so you're going to have to ask yourself how you're going to keep the magic going. I know I've said this before, but several people are having a hard time of it now that we're busy and its hot. Make sure you take a job that you're willing to work. If you don't love food service and you don't love the heat, dont' put down qsfb! lol, sure you could end up in an air conditioned location in a park, but you could also be selling pretzels in the sun, or in a resort (not even in a park!) If this sounds fine to you, then go for it! Just make sure you're going to love it! Cause that's whats going to get you up in the morning.

That's all for now (that was a lot). More coming (unlike those fabled Africa Trek photos... which are still coming!!!)

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