Monday, February 8, 2010

Park Orientation, Merchantainment, Training, etc.

SO, basically I suck. It is incredibly hard to sit here and type out everything that's been happening; I can't even REMEMBER half of it, so unfortunately most of it isn't going to be very detailed.. especially because I don't want to reveal too much and get terminated or something (seriously, I am so paranoid about getting terminated for something so trivial to me.)

PARK ORIENTATION
Park orientation was really fun for me, since I work at Magic Kingdom. Not saying the other parks aren't awesome, but everyone knows MK is definitely the most "Disney." We had to wear business attire, but the entire orientation was only like four hours so it was fine. We started on Main Street (where I'll be working at the main entrance), and worked our way over to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride; after that we went over to Liberty Square and were told of a legend/myth about the area and why they built the Haunted Mansion to commemorate it (the story turned out to be completely false, but it was to encourage us to make up stories to keep the Disney magic alive) so we also got to ride the Haunted Mansion. Which is awesome. I got paid to ride rides. At Disney World. Yeah, it's that amazing to me.

TRAINING DAY ONE
Not much to say here except that we basically walked back and forth 'on stage,' 'off stage,' and 'backstage' (you will get used to this terminology very quickly) to get better acquainted with our area. We got registered for the Hub and finished a lot of online safety/disability service courses. We got our costumes this day simply because for us, our training was before our park orientation (and I could be wrong, but I think most people get their costumes on orientation day.. don't quote me on that, though.)

MERCHANTAINMENT
This class was incredibly boring/weird. The first hour is just finishing up online safety courses, etc, and after that we got an hour and a half break, so two other girls and I went to Magic Kingdom, watched Philharmagic, ate a quick lunch, and went back for the actual Merchantainment course. Here you learn about money, counting the "Disney Way," about various situations that may occur while working at the POS/register/cash wrap (items not being found in the system, how to change the price of something to a "special price"/sale price, how to ring up a fellow cast member (as long as they're not your friend!) etc.. I wore heels this day because I thought most of it would be elab stuff but I actually had to stand for a significant amount of time while we practices with POSs and role played various situations between customers and cast members. It was weird. But at the end you get a sweet Merchantainment pin that you can only get by finished the course, so that's pretty sweet.

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Other than all of that stuff, I've been having an amazing time. All of my roommates are really awesome, I'm really lucky. Yesterday Amy and Elizabeth and I went to Animal Kingdom and walked around, rode Expedition Everest (our first time! I sat next to this 9-ish year-old boy who was so not phased in the least by the ride so I felt like a wimp because I (may have) screamed a few times during the ride.) It was mostly awesome for me because the last time I went was in 2000 or 2001, and so it wasn't build when I went last, but since then I've watched Travel Channel episode concerning the making of Everest and it just makes you appreciate it so much more, it's so cool to finally see it in person and actually experience it. Also while in DAK I ran in and visited Katie at Chester & Hester's :)

After DAK closed we went over to Epcot's world showcase, had nachos and churros, got our name written in Arabic for free by our new friend Mehdi (my name is كرستين.. woot!) in Morocco, and made friends with Abou and Marion in France (Marion noticed our Arabic names while we were buying stuff and asked us where we got them so she could get one later, so instead we just surprised her and went back to Mehdi and get her name in Arabic too. Hopefully it made her night a little better :) ) We also made friends with Jonathan (sp possibly, hah) who is also from France. Apparently every Sunday they all get together at the House of Blues so we're gonna crash those parties haha.

In about 20 minutes I'm going to head out to Magic Kingdom with Katie, even though I need to laundry.

It's seriously ridiculous how it's like, "Hm.. laundry, or Disney World?" All you fall CPs are going to LOVE it.

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The roomies and I at the House of Blues our first night! Left to right is Ren, Me, Kate, Nicole, Elizabeth, Lene, Brittany, and Amy.

Kate, Lene, Myself, and Brittany getting ready to go to Traditions. The clothing people wore varied from very very professional (ie, business suit) to somewhat casual (nice slacks and a more sophisticated looking blouse).

Elizabeth, Amy and I at DAK yesterday. Thanks photopass! :)

Me and the boss! :)

1 comment:

  1. That sounds so fun! I'm doing merchandise for fall advantage, so maybe I'll see you down there? :) I can't wait!

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