Saturday 2 August 2008

We're all in this together...

It's weird because I didn't think I would miss everyone as much as I have during the program. I'm in my Sixth week now so I'm over half way through and I only have 28 days left before I'm flying back to the UK... I can't wait to get home and see everybody again, have my home comforts but I will really miss my job and working for Disney. I don't know if I will really miss Vista Way and the living situation that much (I want my own bedroom back!) but definately the people at work and the Emporium. Even when I'm at uni, I don't go more than about 4 or 5 weeks without seeing someone in my family or taking a trip home to Bristol... and with the added factor that I am 5000 miles away and it's impossible to pop back to Brizzle for a few days it makes the missing home thing worse! Having said that, I am still having a great time here on the whole!!

Mostly over the last week I have just been working a lot and sleeping...been to a few parks as well tho! On Tuesday 29th, we went to the Florida Mall which was great!! Apart from HSBC being lame and deciding to block my card after I tried and failed to use it in an ATM three times.... Luckily I have a credit card! Whoop! So I bought a few things for people in my family but also some new Sketchers which I really needed... were $55 but I got 20% cast member discount! Wooo! So they ended up being like $44... which is cheaper than at home! I also bought a skirt, a top and some jeans... all for $60! Once we got back to Vista, we decided to meet up again later and go to the Magic Kingdom for the evening... so we went at about 8pm and did a couple of rides, nothing particuarly amazing tho! We saw Wishes from Fantasyland which was a really strange experience! To explain: Usually I watch the fireworks from in front of the castle because you get the correct perspective and it looks very pretty. Fantasyland is behind the castle and watching it from there is like watching a tennis match with fireworks going off all around you!! I definately prefer it from the front of the castle!!

Wednesday was my second day off so me and Victoria made an early start and went to Animal Kingdom. Managed to get Everest, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, The dumbo-style dinosaur ride and the Nemo Musical done before leaving at about 1pm! Then we went to Hollywood Studios in the evening but it was a bit of a mistake because it was EMH that night for resort guests so it was reeeeeally busy. We ended up coming back at about 10pm!

Thursday I went back to work and had a good shift from 12 til 1845 which was great because I got to see the afternoon parade!! Had a bit of an incident 30 minutes before the end of my shift though....

Firstly need to tell you that we have four Disney Basics... they are 1) Stay in Character and play the part..2) Respect and involve all guests including children... 3) Project a positive image and energy...4) Go above and beyond.

So... there were a group of kids who all belonged to a camp and they were wearing these yellow t-shirts with their logo on them. Anyway I was chatting with one of the young girls (she was about 11) at the register and she told me that they were only at disney for one day and they would be leaving in a couple of hours :( As I was serving the next guest I realised she had left her cell phone on the counter of my register! So I thought they can't have gone far because they were only there 2 minutes before.. I did a quick trip up and down the Emporium and then up and down the other side of main street... I even went all the way to the tip board (which is as far as I can go in my costume... its part of preserving the staying in character part!) but I couldn't find them. Admitting defeat I went to lost and found at City Hall... after recieving my receipt for handing it in I decided to have one last look in Main St before going back to my register...and lo and behold I see some more kids in the yellow shirts!! Woo! So I went over and explained that someone in their group left a phone in the emporium and the leaders of the group need to go and retrieve it because she probably hasn't realised that she left it anywhere. I went back to the store with a sense of accomplishment and told my co-ordinator who told me to go and tell a manager the story because it was 'going above and beyond' and I also needed to give them the reciept. So I basically told the wrong manager because all he did after I explained the whole thing was "So the girl found her cell phone...?"

I was so annoyed! They go on about these basics and then he didn't even say well done for me. So I moped about for the rest of my shift and when I was waiting to clock out another manager said to me "Are you ok?" so I said "No, I'm annoyed!" and explained the whole thing... well, the upshot is that he said Well Done and gave me a Guest Service Fanatic card for going above and beyond (rather like getting a gold star!). So all ends well.

Victoria met me after work and we went into the magic kingdom (because I finished at 7pm! wooo!) and it was really great... we did loads of rides including splash mountain in our very own log! For some reason nobody else was in the boat with us so we got the photo!! We saw wishes from the proper place and even a bit of Spectromagic (as if seeing it twice a night every night wasn't enough! :P)

Since then I haven't really done a lot except visit the bank and work! Although yesterday we had another interesting story...

I've had to deal with three lost children in the last week. It's a common occurance in the Emporium because it's such a big store and gets so busy.

Story 1: Little boy comes up to me when it was really busy as if he was in the queue for my register and goes "I've lost my parents." So... I took him by the hand and he starts to sniff and cry :( We walk up and down the Emporium and just as I told him we'd go to City Hall and see if his parents were there, a guest relations woman came up to me and practically grabbed him off me. She went "Your parents are on the other side of main street." She didn't even ask him name!!! So I got left there... just like.. what the hell happened?! She whisked him away without a word of thanks to me. Meh.

Story 2: A little girl comes up to me again when it was very busy and asks if she can use my phone. I explained that the till phones aren't connected to an outside line and whether she had lost someone to which she said "Yes, my mom..." So again we went on a walk of the Emporium and didn't find them. When we got back down to Souvenirs she suddenly went "oh this is my dad...." and he spoke to her in perfectly boring, calm Spanish... as if he hadn't even noticed she had gone!! :O

Story 3: (From last night) It's 3am and the store is about to shut for the stupidly late EMH. A woman comes up to me and goes "I'm sorry but I have lost my daughter. I've been looking for 20 minutes and I can't find her." Perfectly calm. Worryingly so actually! So I was like.... ok.... "Have you looked around the store?" to which she said she had been walking up and down. So, I said we'd go and check City Hall. Nothing there. Got told to go to Baby Care, so we walked up to Baby Care... it was locked. Obviously she wasn't there. I said we'd go back into the Emporium and locate a manager to see if they knew anything... well, they had locked all the doors to stop more guests coming in!! So eventually found a door with custodians who could let me in! I asked the nearest co-ordinator who said that yes, there was a lost girl in Zone 80......this little 4 year old was curled up with a minnie mouse plushie on the cushioned bench we use for people trying on the croc shoes... fast asleep!! She had been there the whole time! So all good - mother reunited with child and it was time for my bump out :D

x

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