Day 5... 6.. 7... where am I?!?

Hello everyone!!

Sorry for neglecting my blog, been incredibly busy.... I dont even know where to begin, everything has sort of been a blur. I will probably drop the day by day blog style and just post stories, thoughts, and experiences I have from here on out.

I left off with me doing Traditions. Since then I have done all my training, finished it all, and now start tomorrow with my first shift as a fully trained Cast Member. No more earning my ears on my name tag!

I will be working in Food Stands in the east side of the Magic Kingdom. I have several locations, in Tomorrowland I will work at Launch Pad, Cool Ship, Auntie Gravities, Space Dogs, and Turkey Cart. In Fantasyland I will work at Storybook Treats, Friars Nook, Cheshire Cafe, and Gastons Tavern. Then finally I will be working in Storybook Circus at the Storybook wagons. Either the Hot Dog Wagon or the Pretzel Wagon.

So that is a LOT of locations. I had 4 full training days, jumping around all these locations. Learning how to make soft serve cones (REALLY HARD), clean ice cream machines, close locations, and work the register.

On Friday the 24th, Disney hosted a 24 hour Monstrous Day of Summer event. Magic Kingdom stayed open from 6 am until 6 am. Because it was a busy day they put trainees on Location Assist. Basically in the middle of our training, we were given actual shifts.. to help out on the busy day. You think they'd put us somewhere we trained in the first 3 days, right?? NO! They placed me in Launch Pad, which I had not been trained in. Needless to say I learned how to make all the specialty hot dogs 2 days earlier then my training day there.. and learned how to cook hot dogs on a hot dog roller.


Something fun with the ice cream locations, is our magical moments we get to do. Every hour we can make a sundae, and take it out to an unsuspecting family! So much fun creating magic for these kids and their parents!!


Aside from all the training, I have now explored all four theme parks, and one of the waterparks.. So enough with the words, on to some photos!!

Blizzard Beach Waterpark

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Hollywood Studios

It's currently Star Wars weekends until June, so lots of cool items on display!!

This is a very cool, sophisticated Animatronic at Toy Story Mania. He interacts with you, removes his ear, and sings and dances. He called out me "Hey young man, yes you in the stripes, have you been on this ride before" I answered yes, he said "Oh you have?! Well I'm sure you'll do better this time"

FOUND THIS SO COOL! REAL OSCARS!

Fantasmic, the show that sparked my love for Disney theme parks.

EPCOT!

Epcot has a World Showcase, taking you through several countries around the world, of course we started with Canada!

Everyone in a phone booth. These are my new Canadian friends Daniel and Lesley. Turns out Lesley is also from Kelowna, and we have the EXACT SAME BIRTHDAY. March 15th, 1991. Crazy... were twins.

Britain

Italy

China

Mexico

Epcots night time show, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. 

Belles Cottage at Magic Kingdom in New Fantasyland

ANIMAL KINGDOM

The Tree of Life is amazing. Look closely at the tree and it's structure. It all made up of carved Animals.

The Safari attraction.

Festival of the Lion King

Expedition Everest, an amazing coaster!

Honestly Animal Kingdom is probably one of the most well themed parks I have seen. Incredible.

I was kind of excited.. NEMO!

Well, stay tuned for more anecdotes from my Disney Adventure. Ask me any questions you may have about the program, or Disney World!! I'll answer what I can.

See ya real soon.

Day Four - Traditions and Cast Privileges

Sorry it's taken me so long to post!! Been a busy guy.


So Thursday was my Traditions class. Traditions is where they teach you all about the Disney Legacy, history, the Disney mantra... etc. It was essentially a large lecture, but Mickey come and made a visit to drop off all our NAMETAGS, and we got out Park ID meaning we could now enter any of the four theme parks, FREE!! Cast privileges  yo!

All of this took place at Disney University, a building dedicated to training new Cast Members. Disney U is essentially behind the Magic Kingdom. During this class we did get to bus to the back of Magic Kingdom and tour it briefly, below and on top. Yes I said below. What?! You didn't know that below the Magic Kingdom there is essentially an entire world of tunnels and passages? When Walt Disney built Disneyland, he had one issues.. Cast Members sometimes had to cross through lands they weren't meant to be in (due to theme issues with costumes) as it is a smaller park, with no other way to get to those lands. When he designed the Magic Kingdom, he designed it so all Cast Members could appear in their proper and designated lands, without being seen by Guests. Thus, the utilidors were born. Tunnels beneath the Kingdom. It's a crazy world down there.. And sorry, no photos allowed.

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So after our class ended, a bunch of us changed out of our nice business attire and booked it to the Magic Kingdom, I mean.. why not?! We had access now, and it was SOOOO close!

We finally got to enter the parks, by ourselves, with our ID, for free! It was so very exciting. My new Canadian Friends and I rode many rides, and saw the fireworks...

But the really exciting part of this visit to the Magic Kingdom was seeing the Electrical Parade by accident! This is the original Main Street Electrical Parade from Disneyland in California, the one many grew up with. I never thought i'd see it in person.. I remember seeing commercials for it as a kid and wanting to see it.. Well Magic Kingdom is currently borrowing this parade, and I get to benefit from it! Was so fun! Especially when the last float broke down in front of us!

The float that broke down.

gorgeous night time shot.

The best part of being in the Park after closing... is less people in photos!

Well that should do it for now! I'll post about my weekend shortly. Friday was spent at Blizzard Beach and Disney Hollywood Studios. Saturday and Sunday were some TRAINING DAYS!

Until next time,