Once Upon a Time...Is Now!

Oh my, oh my do I have a lot of catching up to do?  Its been a whirlwind of a two weeks!

Once Upon a Time...is Now! was the name of my Magic Kingdom training.  That morning started out bright and early.  The day started at 7:15 a.m.!!! Eeeek!  And to think I was on a bus at 5:45 that morning!  Yikes!  You could say I'm thankful all my mornings don't start this early.  We started the day in the Mouseketeeria and made our way all around the Magic Kingdom.  About four hours later, the big group got broken down into smaller groups with our first trainers.  In the meeting, our trainer gave us our training schedule and took us to costuming!  So I finally got my costume!!!  I like to think I make a pretty cute colonial woman.  After costuming, we finally got lunch (at like 2:00 p.m.) and then we had to complete some more online learning.  Seeing as PC is super small, one thing we didn't have was online classes.  If we did, I never took one.  But, its easy to say I'm NOT a fan of online classes.  

I apologize for the selfies but I couldn't not get a picture of me on my first day of work!

Training:

For training at Columbia Harbour House, there are 5 days.  I started Day 1 of training the day after MK Training.  The first day of training was for Closing Dining Room.  Dining Room responsibilities include bussing tables, sweeping your area, taking out trash, and removing trays from the dining room.  Pretty much, you have to keep it clean!  It was a little boring at first because we were upstairs at like 3:00 p.m...when no one is eating and if they are, they're downstairs!  We bussed upstairs for an hour or two before our dinner break.  One of the perks of training was we got FREE FOOD!!!! Yay free food!  The first night we got to try the fried shrimp, fried fish, chicken nuggets, salmon, couscous, broccoli, french fries, and peach cobbler!  It was sooooo much food.  Also, another perk of working in food is I always get free drinks!  After our break, we spent some time reviewing and then we got to be in the downstairs dining room.  I liked being downstairs much better because there were lots of people to talk to!!!  We got to spend some time greeting before bussing!!!  Of course talking is my favorite part of the job!  Closing wasn't that bad, its like the easiest thing to close in my opinion.  We made it out before fireworks started and Day 1 was completed!!

Day 2 of training was Closing Counter.  I LOVEEEE Counter!  It can get really stressful, but its lots of fun at the same time.  On counter, you can be on drinks or filling food.  Either way, getting to talk to Guests is a must and lots of fun!    For dinner, we got to try the Vegetarian Chili, New England Clam Chowder, Lighthouse Sandwich (hummus, broccoli slaw, and tomato), Anchors Aweigh Sandwich (tuna salad, lettuce, and tomato), macaroni and cheese, Broccoli Peppercorn Salad, and the Harvest Garden Salad. It was all so goooooood. I've seriously been craving Clam Chowder ever since!  We got to greet a lot during our shift as well so I was a very happy camper.  Closing Counter was a lot to do.  It means cleaning everything that's out and lots of dishes.  Its definitely manageable, it just takes much much longer than closing the dining room.

Day 3 of training was Closing Condiment Bars.  Condiment Bars wasn't bad at all.  The main job is to make sure everything is fully stocked.  My first two days of training was just me and Charlene from Shanghai...who doesn't know English.  But on day 3, we were joined by Lena!!!!  Lena rocks, that's all!  She's seriously so much fun and so hilarious!  At lunch, we went to the Mouseketeeria and saw Prince Charming!  It was pretty much just an awesome day.  We got to greet some more!  Lena and I share our love for bell ringer!  When we were closing C-Bars, some of my roommates stopped by for a visit!!  

After three days of training, I was awkwardly scheduled to work without a trainer.  So, Saturday I went into work having no idea where I'd be assigned!!! I was so nervous!  I got Dining Room Greeter 6 which meant I was upstairs helping with tables, floors, and trays!  For three solid hours, I was bussing tables, returning trays to the dishwasher, and sweeping up any trash I saw.  This was during the peak lunch hour so it got pretty crazy!  I got bumped out for my lunch and sat for the whole hour.  I don't know about you, but standing up for 8 hours straight is hard work.  I come home every night with my feet just hurting so badly.  I'm hoping this will become the new normal and one day my feet and back won't hurt...we'll see if that ever happens.  After my break, I got assigned to BELL RINGER for 4 hours!!!! I forgot to mention one of the hilarious things about my job...EVERYONE wants to take pictures with me.  I find it totally hilarious that I will forever be a part of these people's memories from Disney World, but they love the Colonial garb!!!  Every day at work, I have at least two different families take my picture!  So...back to Bell Ringer.  I LOVEEEEEE Bell Ringer!  It means I get to obnoxiously ring a bell (fun), talk to people (lots of fun), and give directions throughout the park!  It also means I get to talk to lots of little kids.  Definitely one of the best parts of working at Disney World is that I get to talk to soooo many precious children!  I totally refer to all little girls as princesses and most little boys I refer to as princes or Prince Charming!  The girls love it more than the boys do, but that's no surprise.  So for my four hours ringing the bell, I learned many many children are enchanted with bell so I let them ring it and it rocks!  My first day alone was a success and I left a happy happy girl!

Sunday was my first day off since starting to really work!  I didn't go to church my first Sunday here because I wasn't feeling well, but nothing was going to stop me from going to church on that day!  I was so excited to try out a new church even though it was a totally new experience.  I've never visited a church by myself.  I grew up in the same church I've always gone to and I never visited any other churches before going to college.  In college, we would go to church as a group and I never really ventured out to try churches out on my own.  I know one thing I really lacked in college was a church home.  I was lucky enough to find St. James and they were my youth that I loved so much, but I really needed a church I could call my own.  Now that I'm in Florida, I know that I want that church!  Its going to be a little difficult since I might not ever even get Sunday mornings off, but I'm going to try to establish myself into this new church, St. Luke's UMC!  So I put on my new Lilly dress and headed to St. Luke's!  I was a little nervous, but I asked a man for directions to the contemporary service and found my way!  I found a seat by myself, again awkward, and got ready for church!  Also, the funny part was I was super early!  If you know me, you know being early isn't really something I'm good at...but I was so excited and I didn't want to be late!  At St. Luke's, they still do the record books (I don't know what they're really called) where they pretty much take attendance of who is at each service.  I filled it out and checked off visitor and new resident.  The other family sitting on my row were visiting as well.  After the sermon, we had communion and the mom from the family I sat next to talked to me about visiting since they were as well!  It was such a good little conversation, a great affirmation that I was in the right place.  She expressed how she knew how awkward it could be to visit a church by yourself because she used to go to a different church than the rest of her family but she was glad I was in church!  Needless to say, it was a great morning.  Afterwards I even found a Tropical Smoothie!  Eeeeek, I was so happy!!!  Its not even that far from where I live!

So glad I got to pull out some Lilly and feel like a normal person on my day off!

Heaven in a cup!

The rest of my day of was very successful!  I was soooo productive, it was a little unbelievable!  After lunch at Tropical Smoothie, I went grocery shopping, came back to my apartment and got everything settled in.  I started laundry while I was back at my apartment...since I hadn't done any laundry during my time in Florida.  Next, I headed to costuming to exchange costumes for the week and then I headed over to Epcot to visit my good friend Minnie!

Being friends with Mickey and Minnie is too much fun!

Then, I headed over to Magic Kingdom with my roommate Mindy and saw Minnie in a different dress!  Also, fun fact, this pink dress is worth over $35,000.  There are lots of crystals and apparently its a very heavy dress, or so Minnie told me!

Minnie loved my shirt both times she saw me that night!

 Monday was Day 4 of training and meant Opening Counter.  Again, I love Counter so I was very excited to be spending more time on Counter.  We got to do some greeting as well and Lena was back with me and Charlene!  It was a fun day and much different than closing.  The perks of closing is you don't have to go into work until noonish or later, but you get out after 10:00 p.m.  The perks of opening is you're out at 5:00ish so there's still daylight outside!  The downside was having to be at work at 8:30 a.m.  Even though I loved opening, I doubt I'll ever get opening shifts.  I'll more than likely be closing most nights.  When I got off work, I had an email that I had a special surprise waiting for me!!! 

When my mom was here dropping me off, she wrote me a note and a couple weeks later I got it!!! It was perfect timing and so precious!

Tuesday was Day 5 of training and the long-awaited Assessment Day!!!  Tuesday was Opening Dining Room and lots of fun!  It wasn't difficult, just lots of little things to remember.  But I wouldn't mind opening DR every day.  The whole day was spent reviewing with a little time on Counter and a little more time on Greeter!  Most of the day, however, was filled with reviewing for our assessment so we could know everything!  The assessment was a written portion then a walkthrough with a Leader.  It wasn't bad at all and it was so exciting to remove my "Earning my Ears" sticker from my nametag!  I'll tell you what, I've worked hard to earn a lot of things in my life, but earning my ears was a very difficult task!  There was plenty of sweat and hard work put into those ears but it was totally worth it!!  Another perk of leaving on Tuesday was knowing I had Wednesday off!

Having off days few and far between makes me appreciate my time off.  Magically on Tuesday night, Magic Kingdom was transformed into Halloween!!!  I've never seen the parks at the holidays, so I was super excited!  On my day off, I slept in a little late, exchanged costumes, and went to Magic Kingdom with Lena!

I was feeling like I was in Halloweentown around sunset!

We rode lots of rides and met lots of awesome people!  I finally got to meet Rapunzel!!! I still need to find Merida, soon!!

I rock at Buzz Lightyear's!!!

During the pre-show for Wishes, Ariel!!!!!

Ahhh, so beautiful!!!

After our exciting night of rides and characters and even dinner at Cosmic Rays, we got to watch Wishes, only the best fireworks show everrrrr.  And, I was totally tearing up the whole time.  If there ever comes a day when I'm not on the verge of tears watching Wishes, something is wrong with me!  The fact that my wishes are coming true at Disney World just makes it all better!

My life rocks!

Maybe its a new tradition of mine, or maybe I just always give in to sweets but my last stop at Magic Kingdom is the Main Street Confectionary.  Every time I've gone, I've gotten a fruit skewer covered in chocolate!!!  Lena got a ginormous cookie!  Its my goal to try everything there.  They even have amazing looking caramel apples!

Thursday was my first day working since earning my ears!  I spent the morning on Queue Line (putting people in register lines) and then after my break, I was Bell Ringer all night!!!  Friday, I treated myself to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and still made it to work early!  On the bus to the Magic Kingdom, Walking on Sunshine was playing!  It was the start to a seriously awesome day!  I was on counter all day!  (All 3 hours I worked)  We were slower than expected and I got to leave early which meant spending the whole afternoon and night at Hollywood Studios with Paige!  First, we visited our good friend Sorcerer Mickey!  He was being so funny, but we got a good picture before heading on to the next characters!

We ran across the park to find Sulley and Mike!  They were so adorable.  Mike is so small and Sulley is just huge!

Next, we found Woody and Buzz!  They decided to slow dance with Paige and I...it was a little awkward but they really liked us!  Please notice Woody's embrace on my head hahaha, there was no getting away!

Once we convinced Woody and Buzz we had had enough dancing, we got a picture!

We hustled back over to the Animation Studio to find Ralph and Vanellope!  They were so adorable too!

We crossed the park again and ran into an army man!  Funny story about Army Men!  My dad legitimately bought me a pack of army men for my 6th birthday (right after Toy Story came out) and told me they'd come alive in my room.  Well, its 16.5 years later and I finally found one that came to life!!!

We rode some rides and found some dinner before heading to Fantasmic!  It was very exciting because Paige had never seen this show before!  My favorite part is the finale when Steamboat Willie comes out with all the characters!!! 

The fact that I get to do all this fun stuff on my days off just rocks!  I worked Saturday on Counter.  Sunday I did Bussing and Queue Line.  Monday I worked Counter all day!  I haven't had a bad day yet and I'm loving my job!  Emptying trash gets kind of nasty but getting to interact with Guests is just awesome!  

Last night when I got off work, I headed back to Hollywood Studios with Paige and Jenny!  We went to a dance party with Tigger, Eeyore, Captain Hook, Jafar, Queen of Hearts, Chip and Dale, Minnie, Pinocchio, Gipetto, Pluto, Rafiki, Meeko and I'm sure some other characters too!!  We even ate at Pizza Planet, my absolute fave!  After we rode Rockin' Rollercoaster, we got some ice cream!  It was a wonderful day all in all!  

Today I was off and went grocery shopping, got new costumes, and got caught up on emails and stuff!  I even applied for some internships for next semester so stay tuned as to what's next in this Disney adventure!!!  I'm so thankful for this experience and I can only hope that I'm shining God's light here at Disney World.  Thanks for following me on this leap of faith!