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.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
#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.
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.
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