Food & Wine: A Look in the Red Zone

53 days have come and gone and I'm going to cherish the moments that I had with my Red Zone team at the Food & Wine Festival. I didn't know that 53 days was going to go by so fast and I was going to meet so many great Cast Members. I went back to my home location for the first time and it didn't feel right. I was missing all of my Red Zone family smiles and laughs.

The Food & Wine Festival is broken down for the Cast Members into three different sections; Red Zone, Blue Zone, and Yellow Zone. This is done mostly for keeping track of registers and banks and such. Red Zone Cast Members didn't work in the Yellow Zone and Yellow didn't work in Blue and so forth. The segmentation created a sense of friendly competition between the areas that kept the long days and hours fun. The Red Zone is historically the busiest and most profitable Zone for the Festival, mostly because of the area that it is located which is at the entrance to the World Showcase.

FlanCocho from Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Marketplace, 2014

I worked in almost all of Red Zone's Marketplaces and learned so much in my time being there. My home marketplace that I fell in love with was Puerto Rico because I was there for almost the first two weeks of the festival. I learned about so much about their culture because so many of the guests were from Puerto Rico. On Saturdays there would be authentic live music played every hour and the area would become so filled with people that it was next to impossible to move, except in the direction that the crowd was dancing. The marketplace had it's own section, not typically used during any other time of the year. Disney laid bricks and cement specifically for the Marketplace and it was quickly removed after the Festival ended to continue the perception of continuity that the World Showcase strives for. From the rumors and talk that I heard during the conclusion of the Festival, Puerto Rico has signed an agreement with Disney that they will be a part of the Food & Wine Festival for the next five years.

Terra Marketplace, 2014

As I have started in the "home" location of Puerto Rico, I now want to take a "walk" through the Red Zone, starting from the beginning of the World Showcase. The outlaying Marketplace that no one wanted to work at because it was so boring and there was nothing really to do was Terra. It was the vegetarian and vegan Marketplace for the Festival. The food was good, but most people walked right past because it wasn't "real" meat or food. All the CMs that worked Red Zone prayed that they wouldn't have to work more than 8 hours in Terra on any given day because it was such a slow and drawn out shift. I was lucky in that I only had to work there for one shift, the last day of Food and Wine.

Scotland Menu 2014

Right: Seared scallop with spinach-cheddar
gratin and crispy bacon
Left: Potato Pancake with Smoked Scottish
salmon and herb sour cream

As we head towards the Canada Pavilion for those of you that are familiar with the layout of the World Showcase, or if we veer right for those of you unfamiliar with the layout, we come upon the Marketplace of Scotland. At first smell, this was the best smelling Marketplace, hands down. But then after working in a small enclosed space for long, hot hours, it was the worst. Nothing quite like being able to tell who was working in the Scotland Marketplace in the break room solely on the stench of their costume.

I only worked a couple days at this Marketplace, and normally I was there only for a couple hours to help out with getting breaks out or unwrap and uncork wine bottles for the upcoming busy Friday night or Saturday.

A Pork Slider with Sweet and
Sour Dole Pineapple Chuttney and
Spicy Mayonnaiseand Big Wave
after a long shift in PR

I never was given the chance to work in the Hawaii Marketplace, but many of my friends were able to work there, and they always seemed to have a line that was backed up because they were so busy. By the second or third week of the Festival they had completely bought out a pineapple wine vineyard and they were on to the second choice of pineapple wine. By the end of the Festival the only thing that they had in stock, because they had bought out the suppliers of everything else, was the two different beers on tap. I'd say, overall, the Hawaii Marketplace was a huge success for Red Zone.

Dessert Trio

Desserts and Champagne turned out to be another one of my homes during the run of Food & Wine. It was the only marketplace, out of all of Red Zone that was air conditioned, and during the late months of the Summer in Orlando, I wasn't going to complain at all about the air conditioning. It was the easiest Marketplace to work when it came to being a front of house Cast Member. The only things we offered was a dessert trio, which was all made in the production kitchen and brought to us, preboxed truffles, and then an assortment of higher end champagnes.

I learned a lot about champagnes by working here. Who would have thought that Disney was going to teach me how to explain sweet and dry and how they would pair with different tastes. One thing that I miss is being able to go to work everyday and just pop bottles of Dom Perignon.

Greece Marketplace

Now, we have to cross to the other side of the Promenade to get to the Greece Marketplace. Famous for the Grilled Greek Cheese. This was another Marketplace that you could tell who was working there based on how they smelled at the end of their shift. I spent a lot of hours outside this marketplace running the register and trying to explain to people how to pronounce "gyro" and which one of the white wines would pair the best with their food choices. And then explaining to guests that it wasn't "grilled cheese" but instead, it was grilled cheese and that there was no bread that was served with it. My favorite Marketplace to close at the end of the night was this one because it sat right on the lagoon with a back window that provided a great view of IllumiNations without a disrupted view with guests getting in the way.

Grilled Greek Cheese with Pistachios
and Honey

Side note: During the Festival, Disney had run out of the Greek Cheese that was used for the portion and had ordered more from Greece. This was during the height of the Ebola scare. U.S. Customs wouldn't allow the cheese into the country, so we aren't really sure what happened to 300lbs of this cheese, but it never made it to the Festival.

Canada was by far the most popular Marketplace in all of the Food & Wine Festival. This is where on Saturday's the management team would "stack" all of the A-Team to get the most efficient production. There were 7 registers compared to the 3 or 4 that every other Marketplace is given to use. On the busiest day of the Festival this year (the Saturday before Halloween), in which I was placed on the register at Canada, the Marketplace brought it $65,000 during the day.

The ever popular Le Cellier Filet Mignon

I don't know exactly why Canada is the "favorite" for guests to come to, but there always seemed to be a never ending line until 9pm when the line was cut off.

Lobster and Seafood
Fischerman's Pie

This leaves us with the last Marketplace of the Red Zone, Ireland. I spent a ton of time at this Marketplace too. It was my favorite place to run the register because I got to stand right on the edge of the lagoon and over look the entirety of the park, On a Saturday, I could look across to Mexico and see a sea of people that looked like they weren't moving at all because there were too many people concentrated in such a small space. I became an expert nitrogen keg tapper here, because the Guinness kegs have to be handled and tapped differently than other beers that aren't nitrogen pours. My favorite thing served out of Ireland was the Lobster Seafood Fischerman's Pie pipped with mashed potatoes. They were a pain the butt to cook and keep enough coming out of the ovens in the 25 square foot kitchen with 6 people working but we always had a crowd of people willing to wait the 10 minutes for the hot pies.

Warm Chocolate Pudding
with Kerrygold Irish Cream
Liquer Custard and Bundratty
Potcheen Chilled Irish
Coffee

That wraps up the Red Zone and Marketplaces that I had to learn the menu and pronounce the foods. I was overwhelmed at the beginning of the Festival because I didn't think it would be possible for me to know all of the Marketplaces and be able to work in them comfortably at any point when a shift needed to be covered. Looking back on it, I would give almost anything to be able to do this again.This experience is something that I never believed I would have. I got to work with dozens of new Cast Members that I wouldn't have been given the chance to meet if I hadn't applied. I got to work outside in the Florida sun for 53 days. I got an awesome tan line and got to work long hours, sometimes not getting home until 3am. I got to be frustrated with drunk people and learn the boundaries of my patience. I got to stamp thousands of passports and spend countless nights getting paid to watch my favorite fireworks show and then wave and sing to guests as they left us for the night. And then come back in the next morning and open up for another day. Many won't understand why I loved my time with Food & Wine or what drove me to go into every long shift that I had and then work longer into the night than I was expected. Many won't understand what is attractive about sweating gallons of sweat in the Florida sun while other's are on vacation and you're job is to make it the most magical vacation they could ask for. I haven't been able to find the words that accurately describe it. All I can say in the end of this post is that I loved every moment that I was given at the Food & Wine Festival.

This is my family. I found it all by myself

Explaining the Disney Language

One of the things that I quickly had to be learn while working and living for Walt Disney World was the specific language that was exchanged between CMs (Cast Members). In this post I want to show you some of the different things that the first time I heard it I probably looked like an idiot with my head cocked to a side and not knowing what was being said, but by the end of the week, I too, was speaking the Disney Speak.

CM-Cast Members (any employee of Disney)
CP-College Program

• the category I fell under

ICP- International College Program

• all of my friends from across the pond that work for Disney typically for 3 months and then spend their last month in the States traveling)

Backstage-any area that is not to be seen by a guest
Onstage-any area that a CM could be seen by a guest
Disney Point (This one is HUGE)- to point with your index and middle finger together, or your entire hand.

• On your first couple shifts, you're really worried about not using the "Disney Point" and that a manager will catch your mistake, but within the 3rd shift it isn't something you think about and it comes naturally. And then you continue to use the Disney Point for the rest of your life... 

Code-V- vomit in the area (formally called a 'protein spill')
DTD- Downtown Disney
WDW-Walt Disney World
DHS-Disney's Hollywood Studios
EC-Epcot
MK-Magic Kingdom
DAK-Disney's Animal Kingdom
WOD (pronounced "wahd")-World of Disney
DDP-Disney Dining Plan
DVC-Disney Vacation Club

• CMs run when they hear a guest say "but, I'm a DVC member". It's a Disney timeshare program to an extent and MOST people that are a part of it believe they are entitled to anything and everything they want. Not how that works, people. 

ECV-Electronic Convenience Vehicle

• I've had my foot run over more times that I wish to remember by either grandparents that for that exact reason don't operate a vehicle, or people who were too fat/lazy to walk through the park. 

EMH-Extra Magic Hours (AKA, Extra Tragic Hours)

• On certain days of the week a park will open an hour early or stay open up to 4 hours late for guests that are staying on Disney property for them to enjoy the park when it's less crowded... lol, it's never less crowded. 

TTC-Transportation and Ticket Center
101-Ride or attraction is closed, typically because of weather issues.

• The reason "101" is used is because at the time that Disneyland opened in California the number of the highway that ran just north of the park was 101. The CMs were joking that since the ride was closed, it was time for the guests to "hit the highway"

102-Ride is back up and running
Running of the Bulls-Rope Drop in the morning (most commonly used for Magic Kingdom)
PAC Shift-Parade Audience Control (Crowd Control)
Mouse Height- a CM that is between the height of 4'8"-5'2"

• Disney goes into depth about who can play certain characters and one of the first requirements is height. 

ER-Early Release

• When the park didn't get as busy as expected for the day or the managers had overstaffed for the day, you could get the covenanted ER and go home early without it counting against you. 

ROS-Release of Shift

• When you had to have the day off for whatever reason, most of the time it was because you were sick, you could "release your shift" under managers approval and go home with no points against your record, but you would lose all pay for the day, even if you had already worked 4 hours of your shift that day.

ADO-Approved Day Off

• The few times when the Mouse allowed you to take a day off on your own time

Treasure Guest- a term CMs use for guests that are assholes

MagicFiles- A computer file that is started for a guest when they are a pain in the ass and where the CM can write in detail the problem they caused. 

• Other CMs can then pull up that MagicFile if that guest gives them a problem. Disney will track you if you give a CM a problem. If a guest makes up an extensive story about how they deserve a free weeks stay at their resort because their towels weren't folded in the shape of a monkey... That's something that will be tracked. 

Catching Up...

What?! I have a night off that I don’t have to do anything or see anyone?! I don’t get many days like this, where I don’t work super early, or work super late and when I actually have time to write about what is happening. Lot of things are happening. My program is quickly coming to an end, and as much as I didn’t think I would say this, I am ready for it to be over. I miss home. A lot of my current co-workers that are College Program students are extending their program to stay living down here and working for Orlando through the end of May. And well, all I really want to do is move back to Wisconsin and continue on pursuing what I know I can accomplish.

A lot of the people that I started working with when I first moved down here, have left. They’ve “self-termed” to move back home and either get a “real job” or finish up school. Out of the 15 or so of us that started at Seasons back in May, I believe 4 of us are going to actually stay and finish our program. The hardest friend that I had self-term happened last week, with my friend Lawrence. It’s going to be hard and different not having him around for the remainder of my program, but I know he’s back in New York pursuing is goals of working with a marketing firm and doing what he loves in a place that he can call home.

I’ve come to determine that only the strong survive working for Disney. Especially the College Program. There is nothing that is saying that I have to stay here and finish my program. I could, in theory, walk over to the main office building and say I wanted to go home and I would have 24 hours to be off property. It takes a certain type of person to stick through the program. Disney works the CPs the hardest because they are the cheapest labor, and they aren’t part of the union. It’s typical to have 12 hour shifts multiple times a week, doing physical labor, and interacting with guests the entire time. And we have to maintain the Disney smile the whole time that we are “on stage” in front of the guest. I set out to be part of this program, and I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but I never imagined it to be this hard either. I’m going to take the last few months to soak in all that I can and grow as much as possible, because I know this is an opportunity that many people dream of having.

One of the hardest things that I have had to deal with is seeing all of my co-workers and roommates being able to see their families and fly home to see friends, and I haven’t been able to afford to do that. I’m overjoyed with the opportunity to be able to fly home for an extended weekend to spend time with my family. I know that I won’t want to come back once I’m there, but I need to be able to have that time with them. And it’s helpful knowing that they are going to be visiting me a few short weeks after I come back. And then approximately a month later, I can call Wisconsin my home again. I excited to be able to drive in Wisconsin again. And be able to see the landmarks and buildings that I grew up with. And go to familiar places. And smell comforting smells. And I’m overjoyed that I get to see my puppies again. I miss them more than most could understand. I envision a scene much like those that are shown of a soldier coming home, which might be a little exaggerated, but that’s what I see happening with Pal and I. I can’t wait to be able to see my little sister again. And to be able to see Nana all grown up from when I left her and she was barely taller than my shin.

As excited as I am to be able to return to Wisconsin for a few days, I’m still excited to be able to spend time with my family here, in Orlando, when they come and visit. I want to be able to show them all of the things that I’ve learned and how I go about a “typical” day as a Cast Member. And I don’t have to sleep in this awful apartment when they’re here!

Food & Wine

I'm headed into what I believe to be the 4th week of the International Food & Wine Festival and believe it or not, time seems to be flying by really fast. I love working at the festival, instead of working at Sunshine Seasons. I get to be outdoors for my entire shift (rain or shine) and I get to actually be able to see the sun and interact with guests more than I was able to at my home location. The festival has been all that it was promised to be for me.

The festival is broken into three different segments that only Cast Members are aware of, Red, Blue, and Yellow Zones. I work in the Red Zone. This zone includes the Marketplaces of Ireland, Canada, Greece, Puerto Rico, Desserts & Champange, Hawaii, Scottland, and Terra. During any giving day or time, I could be moved to any of these locations and expected to know all of the menu, how to prepare the dishes, including allergies, and overall, run the marketplace smoothly.

More to come... Just needed to get something out on "paper"

How I've Grown as a Person

Disney has taught me multiple things:

Making friends who are from all over the world will make you realize that no matter how different your cultures and backgrounds are, we really are all equal and very much alike on the inside.

You will find out that you are much more brave and fearless than you thought you were. You'll look back at the old you and notice how many things you've done here on your own and how proud youa re of those things. The old you who used to be someone so sheltered and afraid of many things is now someone who is strong, has big dreams, goals, and knows more of what she want from her life. But no matter how strong you think you are, there will be a couple day where you miss the scenery of home

You will have to dig deep inside to find that last ounce of patience to be able to help foreign people count their money, or give them directions solely by hand signals.

You will realize that no matter how annoying your job is, it really is the people around you that make it worthwhile. If you don't like your co-workers, but like the job, you won't like it much for long. If you don't like your job, but like you co-workers, time will pass much faster and it will be a lot more fun

You will find out how un-American and how unfair interns are treated. College interns at Disney don't get paid time and a half for working holidays. And we WILL work EVERY holiday during our program. We work like full-time employees, but we are not eligible for health benefits. We are the very bottom of the food chain. College interns are below full-time, part-time, and seasonal works. We are paid less than any of those, typically doing more work than they do.

You will notice how on stage at Disney World all the workers seem so happy and cheery because they're working at the Happiest Place on Earth, but in the utilidors everyone is so crabby, rude, and everyone looks like a zombie because of the hours they are workings. But we all return day after day to create the magic for that one little kid whose smile you get to see light up their face.

Finding and building a support network when your 1,000 miles from home is key

Cast members protect the magic and hold it close to our hearts. Character integrity is something we all pride ourselves on. A daily question that I get is, "How many Mickey's are there?" There is one. One Mickey. One Donald. One Goofy. Cast members can not be Mickey Mouse, they can only be "friends" with Mickey. Parents constantly are trying to get cast members to break and say that there is more than one. We never will. We preserve the magic that kids cherish and want to experience.

Storytelling is an art.

The difference is in the detail.

#4parks1day

It happened and we rocked the four parks in one day. It was a spur of the moment decision the night before because most of the CPs that I came in with and went through training with all have Wednesday's off, we decided that it would be a good day to try to see if we could get to all four parks.

The group that ended up going consisted of Sarah, Faasha, and Krista, all of which I work with at Seasons. We all met on the Transtar bus that took us over to Studios at 9am to be there when the park opened. We weren't sure how busy the parks were going to be, and we didn't want to spend all day waiting in lines. Once we got over to Studios we headed for Tower of Terror and basically walked right onto the ride with no wait. And then we walked onto Rockin' Rollercoaster with no wait.... twice. I have never seen a park that quiet. Since we had time because we didn't stand in any lines we also went over to Star Tours, Toy Story Mania, and The Great Movie Ride before we headed out of the park.

We were off to Animal Kingdom and we were all really hungry. We ate at Pizzafari for lunch and to sit down for a bit. We rode Dinosaur, and it had minimum wait time. Expedition Everest was a 5 minute wait.... The ride that is typically close to a 2 hour wait... We rode that twice. We were all done with that park so we headed too our home park, Epcot. We rode all of the major rides there (Soarin', Test Track, Mission Space) and went to see a couple people that were working at Seasons. Like the other two parks, it was extremely slow and there was little to no wait for all of the rides.

We ended our adventures at Magic Kingdom and spent the most time there. Once again, the park was almost empty, maybe 15,000 people total in the park. We rode all three mountains and a couple of the other rides but mostly people watched and enjoyed each others company and the end of a good day. On our way out of the park, we stopped at the end of Main Street, by the train station, to watch Wishes. It's still one of my favorite firework shows that Disney does, even if I've seen it more times than I can count

It was a long day with a lot of sun and heat. I got a little bit of color and lots of walking in. Definitely glad that I was able to check that off my DCP bucket-list and got to do it with some of my friends from work.

Food & Wine!

In however many times I have been privileged to visit Disney World, I have never been able to be there when the International Food and Wine Festival is going on at EPCOT. When I found out that I was going to be working down at Disney during the Festival, I was beyond excited that I would be able to attend it finally and see what all the hype is about.

A couple weeks after working here I was told that anyone that wanted to could apply to transfer to Food and Wine and the management would look into who would be the best fit for the environment. Of course I applied the night that I found out I could. It was a long month or so without hearing anything about if I was accepted or declined to work it, so I didn't get my hopes up too much, since I am still new to working here. Yesterday, while I was working in the lobby of Seasons, Michele (one of my multiple managers) came up to me and said that when she looked at her most recent list of Cast Members going to Food and Wine. I was beyond excited when I heard that, but didn't want to get too excited because it still wasn't official. Once I got home, the first thing I did was get online and check my training schedule on Disney's intranet and sure enough, I was signed up for Food and Wine training!

Ok... I should probably take time to explain what the International Food and Wine Festival is... This year is the longest running festival, 53 days, of amazing dishes and combinations. This year Disney is bringing in "The Cake Boss", Buddy, which is admittedly, probably what I am most excited for. There are over 300 national and international wines available for tasting, more than 80 international foods in appetizer-sized portions, and 250 chefs providing all of the deliciousness.

I'm still unsure of what I will exactly be doing while working the festival, but I'm so excited to start this next chapter at Disney.

More to come! And lots of pictures of all the foods and drinks I get to try!