Friday, November 27, 2009

Circle of Lifeee.

So I had talked to the managers about my slightly messed up schedule. Apparently they mixed my schedule up with ANOTHER natalie who had requested vacation time. She ended up self-terming so I worked the rest of her shifts last week. With that being said, my name wasn't on the schedule all week until Friday and thats when I was supposed to start greeter training which I have already done the week before. I was told by the area manager that I had Friday and Saturday off because those are the days she had off, but for whatever reason, my name was still on the schedule Saturday so managers and other cast members were asking me where I was. All is solved though. I was supposed to talk to the merch manager this week too about switching, but that's going to have to be rescheduled as well. They are apparently saying that merch has too many people and F&B has too many people so it may not happen, but since we're switching, there is a better chance of it happening.

So anyways, where did I leave off? I had an ER last Tuesday, thats when I did some major Christmas shopping at downtown disney. Spent the whole day in World of Disney. I am buying for 4 friends back home. I had a brilliant idea where I am buying them stockings and little stuffers that are themed around their fave disney character. Once that was done, I met up with some fellow Canadians at Magic Kingdom and we did Very Merry Christmas party which was a BLAST! I've got pics from it on facebook, but it was so much fun. They had soap bubbles on Main Street that represented snow, a christmas parade, free hot chocolate and cookies, christmas fireworks @ the castle (which is a different version of wishes, its actually called Holiday Wishes at the party) A couple of dance parties were going on, there was a dj and you'd dance with different Disney characters to different songs like Thriller, Cha Cha Slide, Jump on It and they'd teach you the dance moves. I'm telling you right now, that Chip can mooove. We also went to Laugh Floor, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh rides. We got a group picture with Donald Duck cause he had a lumberjack hat on. Siiick.

The other days I worked as a seater, except for Thursday where I was popcorn pm cash. Not too many problems. Had some people tell me they knew I was Canadian because of my "accent". I have an accent? lol. I have officially become one of the trivia people as well. I am the one who entertains guests while they are waiting with either Canadian trivia or Disney trivia. It's alot of fun, and people don't get as impatient. It works. I took Friday and Saturday off. Friday not too much happened cause I had to wake up bright and early to go to a Florida Gators football game Sat morning at 8 am. That was fun. Hot but fun. Gators won by ALOT. We were at the very top, kinda hard to see what was going on in the game, but the marching band spelled out words. It was cool lol. We didn't get back home until 6 and by then I was exhausted cause the sun really wore me out. Took a nice hot shower that night too.

Sunday and Monday I worked, one at popcorn cart and one as a seater. Monday as a seater was redonculus. Many impatient people cause we were running at least 45 minutes behind schedule. We did trivia but even that wasn't enough, we had one family leave because we didn't give them enough information as to how long the wait was (even though we don't really know 100%).

I asked for Tuesday off to do some more Christmas shopping. Bought more stuff for friends, and stuff for my mom. Still have my dad and sister to buy for. Mailing all these gifts should be interesting. My friend Mel tagged along after I went grocery shopping at Publix. Bought a pile of stuff, 4 full bags of it. wont run out of food for a while now :) She helped me buy stuff considering she's an expert and knows where I can get things. The only thing that sucked was that it was blackout week so the holiday 50% discount did not take place. Still got my regular 20% off though. I love disney christmas shopping! We then went to earl of sandwich which has really good hot sandwiches. I had a limited time only holiday sandwich which consisted of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and gravy all in one sandwich. It was magnificent. Mel had the meatball sandwich with marinara sauce and parmesan cheese.

Wednesday was Tampa day. We met up with everyone at Dan's place (where I got drenched in the rain, had to walk all the way from apartment 23 to apartment 1...ridiculous) and then headed off to Tampa for a Leafs game. We first made a pit stop to Epcot to buy our moose heads which are the funniest thing ever. Then we left for Tampa, and since we got there early we ate at Hooters (lol) and then went bowling after at a really nice bar/bowling alley. I lost both games booo :( Then we finally went to the game, 3RD ROW TICKETS!! We could practically touch the players, it was really neat. Told some people back home to turn the game on and see if they could see me on there with our moose heads. I swear we probably got more pics taken of us then the players did. 4 of us sported the moosehead, pretty much the best moment of my life.

Yesterday went to Animal Kingdom with my friend Rob and some people from Brazil. Went on Everest finally, but we went in the single rider line so I was forced to go on it for my first time by myself haha. I was not happy, but it wasn't bad at all. We just didn't feel like waiting an hour to go on together so we agreed we would split up. We got on that much faster. We also saw Festival of the Lion King (which is the best show in Disney, really well done!) saw the parade and rode Dinosaur. Which kinda freaked me out cause I hadn't been on it in a while, alot of the ride is dark and dinosaurs just come out of nowhere lol. Then we went on Kali River Rapids which I was not happy about, you really really have to watch where you sit on that ride because you can either get drenched or barely get wet. Keep in mind, it was not warm out at all. So lucky me sat on the side where you get drenched. Yup. There's a fountain that shoots up out of the water and I thought it was just a gimmick to get you scared, nope, went right through it and of course I got wet. All in all it was a good day.

Now today I have a 6 to 12:30 shift, should be crazy but hopefully it goes by fast. I am popcorn stocker. Yayy me. First popcorn stocking shift by myself.

Anyways thats about all

Nat

Friday, November 13, 2009

A whole new WOOORLDD...

Hey everyone!
So alot has happened. Good news is though I feel 100% better after finally going to the clinic and picking up some medicine. Was not cheap, but I needed to go. Last Saturday I trained as a pm seater which was hectic, you should never start training as a PM seater cause dinner is so much busier than lunch. I vaguely remembered the tables, and the facts that went along with the provinces. As a seater, you have to first check the paper that comes out and make sure you meet the guests needs (highchair, place to put ECV/wheelchair, make sure allergies and celebration are stamped so the server knows, circle if they are on the Disney Dining Plan, look at how many kids and adults are in the party and get a menu for each etc.) so once that is all done, you grab a drink menu, then you look at the description the greeter at the front put down. We don't like to cattle call, so we try to find the person based on the description given as best we can. We then take them to their seat, once everyone is seated you hand out the menus and then spiel the fact that our restaurant is set up like the provinces and territories of Canada, then you say which province they are sitting in, a fact about it, and who their server is. I think my main thing is remembering which province is where, I've memorized the West Side pretty much but not so much the East Side. Once you sit them down, you take away any unnecessary settings and place them at the side station closest to you, for dinner you also take away the wine glasses from the kids. It's pretty straightforward once you know what you're doing. As a PM Seater we also have to wipe down the benches, counter, and help out the stocker and/or the servers when needed. It does get busy, so the more help they get, the better.

Sunday I was an AM seater which I found was a lot easier in regards to learning where all the sections/tables are. My trainer was really good, she gave me sort of a test, she drew a blank floor plan and had me fill in the different numbered tables. Provinces don't matter so much if you screw them up or say the wrong one, if that happens, which it did once with me, just keep talking. To be honest, half the time the guests don't really listen to what you're saying, they just want to eat. I sat one family in the wrong table, thankfully the assignor caught me though and I sat them at the one next to it. It takes practice, I am slowly getting it.

Monday and Tuesday I had off, which I enjoyed very much as I didn't stay home. My friend from Scotland, Rebecca, had those days off as well, so we spent them at the parks. Monday was park hopping day. We went to MK (Magic Kingdom) during the day, went on Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (which was really cute), Snow White's Scary Adventures, Pirates of the Caribbean (me and Bex had fun in this gift shop haha) oh yeah and we also did a hidden mickey scavenger hunt for a bit. Some of them are actually really well hidden. We ate at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe for lunch. We also got a picture with Buzz Lightyear (to infinity and beyond!) Then finally we headed to Hollywood Studios, but since that park closes at 7, we only had a couple hours there. We went on Tower of Terror first, which is an awesome ride, then we did Rock N Rollercoaster, which is definitely my fave ride in all of Disney. I have not been on Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom yet though. We also tried to get on Toy Story Mania but that was a 60 min wait. We also missed getting a picture with Mike Wazowski. Next time we plan on doing that.

Tuesday was my running errands day, we went mini golfing at Blizzard Beach which was probably the best mini golf course I have ever played. We played two rounds, because there is a winter course and then a summer course. Each course was 6.34 instead of 12 something each because of our cast member discount. We are supposed to be getting coupons in the mail soon, and one includes a free round of golf :) Then we headed down to Epcot, I had to drop off a costume to get it washed. Bex had also never been on Mission Space, so we got to ride that one twice. As well as Test Track. Good times. We talked about one day going to Epcot just to do the Kim Possible missions. We also talked about buying an annual pass to Universal which has alot more rollercoasters. We wanted to do Sum of all Thrills (which was where you build your own rollercoaster and then ride it, which I've done twice and is really cool) but we figured it would close before we got to it.

Tuesday night I had to go to Florida Mall again to get my laptop fixed AGAIN. This time it was a permanent fix, the guy actually took it back and replaced a RAM stick, where as the first time I went all he did was erase everything on my computer and reset the hard drive. That lasted a night haha. My cab driver David drove me, and he brought his wife along. They are extremely nice. His wife just happened to work at MK and she said next time I am waiting in line for Splash Mountain or Big Thunder mountain, she said to just ask for her and she will let me on the ride right away. I love having connections haha. The thing I like about the malls over here is that they give you free samples in the food court or really anywhere, where as back home they don't. That's how I discovered how amazing orange chicken is at the Chinese restaurant...mmmm.

Wednesday I had my first greeter shift, which is personally my favourite. It's our job to check guests in, and make sure that all needs are met (sometimes by communicating with the assignor by radio). We are also the ones that get yelled at though if someone at the podium inside checked someone in wrong. That actually happened the other day. There was a party of 12 that had apparently checked in, and there table was ready and they were nowhere to be found. Someone inside had checked them in, but we got the blame for checking them in without adding a description. For descriptions, we have to say what they're wearing, hair color, hat, logo...whatever we can do to make the seater's job easier. We are also the ones that have to ask if they need a highchair. The only time we call the assignor is for walk ins at lunch (that's really the only time we MAY take walk ins.) or if a party of 6 turns into a party of 4 or vice versa. All in all it went well.

Yesterday I had my first restaurant stocking shift, its this particular area that makes me want to switch to merch (I talked to my manager about it last night). It's the most fast paced of them all besides being a server or cook/chef. We have to stock the bread (pretzels, multigrain, and sourdough) and fill up the rack for the servers/food runners. We have to do cutlery runs, bus tables, set tables, stock napkins etc. We have to do all this in a certain amount of time, especially around dinner time is when it gets crazy. I'm not a very fast paced person, lol, so this is definitely not something I excel in. It's my least favourite. Some people love it cause it makes the time go by alot quicker, but not for me, I was so stressed out last night cause I had no idea what to do next lol.

Today I am PM seater, start at 2:30. My schedule is somewhat messed up though, especially next weeks. It has to be changed.

I think that covered everything =)

Oh yeah and every park is pretty much decorated for Christmas already now, I love it, its so pretty. Reminds me of back home :)

Nat

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Update..

Heyyy
sorry about the lack of updating. Truthfully, I have been terribly sick with laryngitis and have been coughing loads. Don't ask me where I got it from, but I can tell you I feel like I have to live in a bubble. My roommates are getting quite annoyed and no one wants to get sick lol. Anyways, so I managed to open and close popcorn by myself without TOOO much trouble, had a bit of help, everyone is so nice and you can ask questions without feeling awkward. Opening is a lot less hectic than closing. Closing you've always got those people lined up for beer. You also have to count everything yourself at the end of the night, and clear that everything is equal with the GT. Last weekend before I got terribly ill, I went to S.O.B (Sun on the beach) for Halloween which was awesome. I was a brick house haha. Sunday I went to House of Blues which was also a good time. Lots of breakdancing going on, and you've also got the dancers on the stage with the dj. Definitely a different kind of clubbing atmosphere. Didn't start feeling sick until Monday. I managed to call in sick Thursday, I had a stocker shift, and there was no way I was going in. I could not talk. I went to the clinic. Luckily I have a trusting cab driver now who I call when I need a ride somewhere that the bus doesn't go to or takes hours to get to. I went to the Florida Mall to get my computer fixed, I love the food court there cause everyone is giving you free samples. They have a Forever 21 there too which is exciting to me. That's about all for right now as I haven't done much due to me being ill.

Nat