Traditions & DCP Week #2!

Friday, January 17 was a very important date - that was the day I went through Traditions, otherwise known as my hiring day with the Walt Disney Company! I took the bus over at 7:30 am that morning to the Disney University building. My group was called a little before 9 am to be checked in for the day, and the pictures below show the fun Disney decorated hallways and the room our session was held in.

The morning was basically a presentation telling all about Disney values and the importance of the 4 keys - safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. There was a red gift box in the middle of the table and they had us all open it at the same time, where we found we each got a cute Mickey ear hat! After awhile, we were broken up into 2 groups and taken by bus to go see the Disney values in action at Magic Kingdom. Jimmy was our group leader who took us on a tour through the Magic Kingdom utilidor, or underground tunnel. This is a whole underground world that the Magic Kingdom uses for its cast members to get around without walking around inside the park with the guests, and even has a cafeteria and tubes that get rid of all the trash waste. This is the only park that has a utilidor, but it's a pretty cool way of keeping it as magical as possible for the guests. Pictures are strictly forbidden so that's why I can't put any here! Then we saw Storybook Circus and got to find examples of how the 4 keys were being demonstrated by cast members in that area of the park before returning to Disney University to wrap up the day. 

We then had a special visitor - Mickey Mouse himself, our new boss, showed up to present us with our nametags! This was such a special moment as we were presented with our Disney World nametags, our blue cast member IDs and welcomed into the Disney family. 

After Traditions, I took the bus back to Chatham and got changed into comfortable clothes to head to Magic Kingdom. We now had free access to the Disney parks with our blue IDs, so of course everyone wanted to take advantage of that right away! I drove over with my roommate Courtney and my friend Erin, and we met some other friends of ours, Emily and Keltner once we got there. We were able to ride the People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and Haunted Mansion. The highlight of the night though was watching Happily Ever After together in front of the castle. We got such a perfect viewing spot and it was a truly magical night experiencing the park for the first time as a cast member! 

On Saturday, Courtney and I decided to head over to Epcot mid-morning. The Festival of the Arts had just started the day before, so we wanted to see that and just visit Epcot since we hadn't been to it yet. Our first stop was eating lunch at Electric Umbrella, which I hadn't ever been to before. Then we wandered around and looked at shops and started walking through the countries of the World Showcase. The only attraction we did was the new Beauty and the Beast sing-a-long show which was cute! The lines for the rides were so long with it being a Saturday - the park was crazy busy!

We had heard that Paige O'Hara, the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast, might be near France signing artwork. Lucky for us, we found out that she would be there that afternoon, so we each bought a small print so we could get in the virtual queue to meet her! We were texted at about 5:30 to return to the line and then waited about 30 minutes before getting to go up and talk to her. It was absolutely a dream come true to meet such a Disney legend! She was always someone that I had hoped to meet. I told her how much Belle inspired me and how I relate to Belle's personality and love for reading so much, and that's why I chose the art print of her in the library. Come to find out, this was actually Paige's artwork and not just Beauty and the Beast artwork she was signing like I thought. She told us how she had been painting since age 3, and back at the beginning of her career how she sold her paintings on the street to get money to pay rent for her apartment. It was interesting to hear how she was so artistically talented, both with voice acting and with painting! 

As if that wasn't enough celebrity excitement for the night, on the way out after meeting Paige, I spotted someone I knew looked familiar. It was Emily Nelson (Emily Enchanted on YouTube)! She is one of the most popular DCP vloggers and I had watched all of her videos from her program a couple of years ago, and they were super helpful preparing for my program. We went up to her and introduced ourselves, saying we had just started our DCP and we talked for a bit. She was so sweet, and her boyfriend Tom was nice enough to take a picture of us together! It was so fun getting to meet her.

Sunday I had a pretty low-key day. That morning I went to the Catholic basilica with my friend Keltner and went out to lunch at Panera Bread with her afterwards. Other than that, I just used the day to rest up and get laundry and some stuff done. 

Monday morning was my first day of training, Welcome to Operations. This was from 12:30-4:30, and was just a basic orientation to working at Disney and learning the different expectations for the cast members. They mostly talked more about the 4 keys and how important they are to the company to uphold. 

After the class finally got over, I went back to Chatham and got ready to go to Disney's Beach Club resort. Hannah, Audrey, Shelby, Courtney, and I had a reservation that night at Beaches and Cream, a cute little soda shop at the Beach Club. Our main purpose of going there was to attempt the Kitchen Sink - it's 8 scoops of different ice cream flavors, every topping they have, and an entire can of whipped cream!  It's something that a lot of DCP participants do after they start their programs, so we thought it would be fun. They did a big presentation when it was brought out to our table; a bunch of lights start flashing and they announce to the whole restaurant that you're taking on the challenge. We had such a great time, and of course we were all stuffed when we left even though we couldn't even finish it all! Oh, and a bonus of the night was that we got to see an adorable proposal happen just a few tables away, so that made our night even "sweeter."

Tuesday was a very early morning! I had DAKlimation, which was the orientation specifically for those working at Animal Kingdom. I got on the bus at 6 am to go over to the Cast Services building at Animal Kingdom. We had a small classroom portion, but most of the day was spent exploring the park and getting familiar with the place all of us would be working in. Unfortunately, this day was when the cold weather here in Florida really kicked in, so it was a very cold day to be outside. My body adjusted way too fast at first and got spoiled with the Florida heat when I moved in! We did get to go on a Kilimanjaro Safari ride and see a bunch of animals, so that was really fun. Then at the end of the tour, we went back and got lunch and then went to costuming to pick up our costumes we'll be wearing for work. Sizing was interesting to say the least, so it took awhile to get all of my outfit pieces and accessories together before I left. In DAKlimation, though, I learned so much about the park that I didn't know before, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn more as I begin work. Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK) is the one I'm most unfamiliar with out of the Disney parks, so it'll be a fun adventure figuring out all about my new park home so I can help guests navigate it too!

 

Wednesday I got to wear my costume for my first day of on the job training in Tier 1! Even though DAKlimation had given a tour of the whole park, I hadn't been able to really explore the Africa section I will be working in. Our trainers showed us around the three different connected shops we could be working in - Mombasa Marketplace, Zuri's Sweets Shop, and Ziwani Traders, in addition to the three outdoor carts: the Africa Hub Pin Cart, Festival of the Lion King Cart, and Kilimanjaro Safaris Cart. I was able to meet a couple of my work leaders and coordinators, and some of the other cast members. Everyone was super nice, welcoming, and offered to always be a helping hand and answer questions if needed. It was a huge relief to know that it looks like I'll have a great work family! 

     

That night was the welcome event for the 1/21 DCP arrivals, and since it was held at Chatham, I went back to my apartment and changed before meeting up with some friends to go to it. It was Frozen themed and then weather being in the 40s definitely fit perfectly! We waited a little over an hour to meet Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff, but it was so worth it. Then we got free food and danced for awhile before leaving to go warm up from the cold! 

Thursday I had the day off, so I just slept in and since Hannah had the day off too, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom. We ate lunch at Pecos Bill's restaurant, where Audrey works. Then we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Peter Pan's Flight, and watched the Country Bears Jamboree to escape the rain once it started raining in the afternoon. The Festival of Fantasy parade was delayed a bit, but we were able to watch it near the castle which was amazing! 

                

                     

             

                  

 

Before it started, it was completely clear in front of the castle, so we got some really cute rainy day pictures! The parade was adorable as always, and the Mad Hatter even came up to us and started talking which was fun. Then we went to watch the stage show, but since it was still sprinkling, the characters just quickly came out and the whole show wasn't performed, but I got a great picture of all of them on stage! 

To wrap up the day, we shopped for awhile on Main Street and got a snack from the Confectionary and drink from Starbucks. I never knew how much fun a rainy day in the parks could be, but it ended up being such a memorable day! 

         

          

On Friday, I drove to Disney University for my last day of class there. It was called Merchandise Core, and was a small class of only people working in merchandise locations. We learned more about this role and how to handle different scenarios in the workplace. They even had registers for training set up that we were able to practice on. 

After leaving there, I went to Cast Connection, which is a store only for Disney cast members that has discounted merchandise from the parks. I was surprised at the amount of items they had! I got quite a few good deals, including a 2020 magnet for .25 cents, a couple of shirts, and a pair of Minnie ears for only $8. I will definitely be checking it out often to see what new items they get in!

Saturday I went to work for my Tier 3 training. The day consisted of rotating around to all of the 6 different locations that I could be working in. How a typical day will go is that when I clock into work, I will be assigned where to go to start, and then after a certain period of time, someone else comes and takes over that spot while I switch to another location. So it is very nice that I get a variety of places to work each time I'm there! This day specifically was the trainers showing us how all the 6 locations operated and letting us learn what merchandise was sold at each. There was a lot of info to take in about how everything worked! We were trained on the registers and actually got to work as cashiers, and then also had time to be engagers, where we just walked around and interacted with guests. I loved being able to meet lots of people, and it was especially fun getting to wear a pin lanyard and having guests come up to me to pin trade!

After work, my friend Emily had asked if I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom for the night, so we drove there and got to go on a couple of the rides that had short wait times. We also got to say hi to our friend Sabrina working in Tomorrowland! It was a super crowded night, so we watched the fireworks from the side bridge, but a different view was interesting to see! I got my first Mickey pretzel of the trip, and of course that was delicious. Then we got on the ferry boat back to parking and drove home. That ended my week, and I was thankful to have the next couple of days off after another busy week!

Thanks so much for reading about my second week! I plan to make this weekly, and have my next blog up soon after the third week ends. Hope you all enjoy learning about my Disney adventures. Talk to you again real soon!