The master will see you now...

I feel that so much has happened since last we spoke... I don't even know where to begin. The best that I can do is to give it to you in chronological order so that I don't leave any of the good, or bad, out of my account. Remember when I said Traditions was the big day? I lied. For those of you who are future attractions cast members, on site orientation is the real day that matters. Unlike your food, merch, and hospitality friends who find out where they work at casting, you find out specifically during on site orientation. I know where I'm working now, but that's a little later in the story. I'll start from the beginning:

DAY 1: Jessica, Joseph, and Laura

On site orientation had me up before the crack of dawn. We had to be at the Magic Kingdom by 7am which means a 6am bus which means a 5am alarm if I want to be showered, shaved, and dressed appropriately. It's always weird being up so early with a large group of college kids who are clearly not used to seeing a five on their clock with an "am" next to it. It's kinda like riding a bus with a bunch of zombies... except with a few really perky morning people thrown in that everyone glares at as they yammer away. Needless to say, it makes for an interesting bus ride.

Upon arrival, we were broken into two groups that set out to tour the park before the guests arrive. This is where I met Joseph and Jessica, the best first day guides that a CP could hope for. Maybe it's because they too work in Adventureland/Liberty Square (Lovingly referred to as adlib by all the cast members who work there), or maybe it's because their ridiculous Disney jokes were impressive to me... either way they were great people to have as tour guides. 

I've never seen the Magic Kingdom without guests in it before. It makes for an interesting sight, especially when looking at Cinderella's Castle which is usually swamped by thousands of little girls dressed up like princesses. The only reason there was any crowd at all was due to the filming of a promotional video of sorts for the "Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It!" show. I snapped a picture of the castle, you can see the group filming in the foreground. 

We walked around, learned some random Disney facts, went on a few rides (Buzz Lightyear and Haunted Mansion) and talked about what makes them special and why guests keep coming back. Here's a sweet trivia question for you that I learned the answer to on my tour: Who was Mickey Mouse animated next to in order to determine his life sized proportions for the statue in front of Cinderella Castle? It is the only time that Walt animated Mickey next to a human being, and it is during a major motion picture. For reference here's the statue:

Anywho, we had a fun morning exploring what it's like to be a guest in the park. Around lunch time is when the adventure really began. We departed to a classroom hidden behind the Carousel of Progress to break up into groups based on our roles. That's when we met Laura. I've known Laura for 3 days and I can already tell that she is basically Disney "mom" for many cast members. She has been working in the Magic Kingdom for 16 years and boy does she know the ins and outs of everything. All of the CPs that had orientation that day were off to costuming at the same time and she was determined to get us there first. Silly me, in order to get our costumes we had to know what ride we were working on. And the winner is.......

The one, the only, Disney's Haunted Mansion! Not as much talking as the Jungle Cruse, but the costumes are sweet and it's fun to act creepy. I'm very happy with this position. The Haunted Mansion is one of those classic rides that everyone that comes to visit goes on. There are fan sites devoted to it, and I've already seen people that have come on and mouthed the words to the entire show audio. I'm pretty impressed but I'm sure in time I'll be able to do that soon too. 

We managed to beat everyone else over to costuming so the six people in my group were able to get our costumes, lockers, and get back to the park before everyone else. Once back in the park we took a much more detailed look at adlib including where the boundaries of where we're allowed to be in costume begin and end and where things that guests might ask us about are located. Adlib is home to the only food service at Magic Kingdom that serves funnel cakes (Sleepy Hollow) and one of only four places in the world that serves Dole Whip. If you've never heard of Dole Whip you need to look it up and try some ASAP, it's wonderful.

I was also lucky enough to be able to meet up with a friend from home who also happened to be in Disney this week. We spent the evening at Hollywood Studios riding a few of my favorites like Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster before enjoying a meal at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. I went home and passed out, there was more training to be done after all...

DAY 2: He Who Must Not Be Named

My second day of training was lead by a man who must be the worst trainer at Walt Disney World. He was boring, unhappy, and on his iPhone most of the time backstage. He seemed genuinely disinterested in anything that we were doing that day. I won't use his name just because I don't want to have any drama with anyone in the short time I'm here, but after my orientation trainers I was severely disappointed. Spending eight hours with this man is enough to suck the fun out of anyone, I don't know how he slipped through the cracks.

Day two was composed mostly of sitting in a computer lab taking web courses that meet state regulations for the kinds of information Disney has to share with all cast members. Besides the basics that any amusement park probably covers like evacuation routes and training on how to best accommodate guests with physical or mental disabilities, I also learned about hazardous materials and how to read warning labels. All this took three and a half hours in a computer lab with no windows. It has to be one of the more painful experiences I've had in recent memory.

After work I was feeling a little down. Most of the magic was crushed by the man who didn't know how to have fun and I needed a pick me up. I went over to Epcot with one of my roommates to check out some of the rides. Epcot is my favorite park and it only took one lap around Spaceship Earth to start making me feel better. We stayed until about 7pm before we went back to Magic Kingdom to ride Space Mountain and pick up my costume for the next day. I snapped a sweet picture of Spaceship Earth on the way out:

DAY 3: The Mansion and it's Servants

This was the first day of real, site specific, training. I learned how to load the ride, operate the introduction, and the ins and outs of greeting guests and answering their questions. Rachel will be my trainer for the duration of the process and she, along with all the other cast members that work in the mansion, seem like really cool people. I can't wait to learn some of the other positions and meet more of them in the coming months.

One interesting note for those of you who are familiar with the goings on of the mansion, loading guests on to the ride is much more difficult that you'd imagine. I suppose it doesn't help when you have 50 Brazilian tour groups all screaming and trying to board at once, but walking in place on the large, slow treadmill that is the boarding area is no simple task. Combine that with people who don't seem to understand what "watch your step means" and you've got a recipe for disaster. When this program is over I will be much more graceful, that I can promise you.

Cheers,

David

Song of the day: Free Energy by Free Energy

PS: I met this guy today in the Jungle Cruise break room. I was awkward and mentioned that I had seen his blog. Here is one of my favorite episodes of "Punishment Week" something I also hope to do so you guys can start brain storming things I can do as punishments whenever you feel like it.