And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: Traditions!

Today was the big day! All the CPs that moved in on Wednesday were spit into two groups for morning and afternoon Traditions class. I had mine in the afternoon which was nice because my roommate that had his in the morning had to get up at 5:30am, not something I'm looking forward to. Traditions in the class that every student on the program has to take before they become an official cast member. It's just another long day on the college program.

The class itself was hardly riveting. We went over general company policy in regards to harassment, workplace safety, and intellectual property/insider information. The most interesting part of the day for me was when we got into the details of how the "show" element has been woven in to every aspect of the Disney property. From the themed music and clothing right down to the weather vanes sculpted to fit in with the area, unity is the key for creating Disney magic inside the park. We heard stories of how our facilitators, when they were on the program, made magical moments happen for guests. The power to make someones day, or even their vacation for that matter, is really crazy when you think about it. Once I'm in my location that's something that I could potentially do. I can't wait.

Halfway into the class we broke off into two groups and we got to check out the backstage area of the Magic Kingdom. Some of you may have heard rumors that there are tunnels underneath the Magic Kingdom and I can not only confirm that this is true, I got to walk through them today! In fact, the entire day was spent in the backstage area. Disney likes to keep this area hidden behind trees so that the general public can't see it and employees aren't allowed to take pictures. With the threat of termination over my head I decided to with hold the camera despite my urges to document the scene. If your really desperate to see what it looks like check out the History Channel documentary on Disney World. The segment they do on the Magic Kingdom shows what the tunnels look like. The entire backstage area looks a lot like the industrial segment of any metropolitan area. Shipping bays, storage facilities, and even the laundry facility are all hidden in the back.

Mickey also made a surprise visit during our class! He popped in to say hi and drop off our name tags. It's funny because the ID card that gets us into the parks was handed to us at the beginning of the session with no fanfare but the name tags that have no intrinsic value are handed out like diplomas. I very much bought into this idea though, the name tag felt like a badge of honor when I picked it up.

The take home message of the day for all the cast members is a simple one: you make the magic. The cast is what sets Disney World apart from all the other theme parks of the world. This is a responsibility that has been given to every student that has passed through the program and every employee Disney World has seen. It's our job to uphold this tradition.

Tomorrow is my on site training in Magic Kingdom. I think by this time tomorrow I'll know what specific attraction I'll be spending the majority of my time on. The only problem is that my training starts at 7am which means I need to be on the bus at 6am which means I need to be up at 5:15am... on the bright side I'm done at three and I can finally go into the park for fun!

Cheers,

David

Song of the day: Tradition as performed by any cast of Fiddler on the Roof