Saturday, May 21.
Custodial Core: 8:00-16:30
This day started to early for my taste, and I had to wear dress clothes again. I made my way to the Disney University to learn everything I could about being part of the custodial crew. We started once again in a classroom (upstairs this time) with about thirty of us sitting at tables of six.
The first part of the day was spent listening to all the safety information: how to carry things, how to push a broom, how to clean correctly, how to keep safe from blood borne pathogens, and how to clean up Code V (I'll let you readers guess what that is).
Basically, at all times we have our pan and broom
Custodial Core: 8:00-16:30
This day started to early for my taste, and I had to wear dress clothes again. I made my way to the Disney University to learn everything I could about being part of the custodial crew. We started once again in a classroom (upstairs this time) with about thirty of us sitting at tables of six.
The first part of the day was spent listening to all the safety information: how to carry things, how to push a broom, how to clean correctly, how to keep safe from blood borne pathogens, and how to clean up Code V (I'll let you readers guess what that is).
Basically, at all times we have our pan and broom
 |
| This is what our pans look like. Fancy, right? |
We have a set of keys so we can access custodial closets and open up specific cupboards with chemicals - muahahahah. Actually, the thing that was repeated the most was to not mix chemicals. ever. ever. ever. That is our basic supply. Anything else: towels, gloves, bags, chemicals are found in supply closets, along with push brooms (to clear water from sidewalks), squeegees (to clear water from tables and benches) and pickers (the long pinchy things to grab papers in bushes, trees, and faraway places).
We were shown how to pick up blood; there is a special BBP box (blood borne pathogens) found in a number of closets with very specific supplies: goggles, gloves, towels, a specific chemical, and a heavy-duty bag to place bloody items and another to place items to be cleaned and retrieved at a later time.
As they discussed all this blood issue they handed us a paper giving us the choice to get a Hepatitis B vaccine (or 3 - one shot every 2 months for 6 months), everyone freaked out and checked the "get vaccine" box. I didn't, I figured I would get it later if it became necessary. (Apparently I had the shot as a baaaaby so I don't actually need it at all, yay!).
This ended the first part of my day.
After spending all that time in class they took us over to the Magic Kingdom's underground tunnels called the Utilidor - utility corridor. It's pretty impressive, it goes all around the park with an incredible number of doors popping up most places up in the Kingdom. From what I hear it's incredibly easy to get lost in them, from the map, I'm pretty sure I would be the first to get off the path =D. On this special occasion they just took us to the Mouseketeeria where I bought delicious rice and terryaki chicken! After half an hour of relaxing they took us back to Disney University for the second half of our day.
The second half was a bit different from the first; instead of going to the classroom we were in that morning they took us to a computer lab to complete "online classes". These included how to be safe and how to be courteous, what a surprise, right?! Some of the lessons were about working with blood, with sharp objects, how to deal with customers, disabled guests (sight, hearing, mobility), etc. The basics, and long, long, long lessons. We had to listen to the audio version so we couldn't skip through pages hehehe. A few questions were asked, pretty straight forward and we had a final assessment. Actually, some people already took some of these classes so they were able to leave early (not fair!) Two of us were stuck there until 2pm (instead of 4:30pm), the last two to leave.
Did I mention we were paid for the first time that day? We were supposed to be there until 4:30pm according to our schedule, but NO, they took two of our work hours away from us!
After such an intense day, I caught the bus back to Vista Way and finished putting some things away.
Sunday, May 22.
DAKlimation: 8:30-14:30
Sunday was another dressed up day, the last one! It was what they call DAKlimation. DAK stands for Disney Animal Kingdom, I'm not sure I had to spell that out for anyone, but one never knows. For this meeting we were expected to make our way to the Animal Kingdom's cast parking lot and walk over to the Cast Services building. To give you an idea, we were given a little map the day before with "not to scale" written on it, that's always encouraging. So a good number of us were on the morning bus to get there which made it a bit easier to find the place; it wasn't just for Custodians this time, just folks working at the Animal Kingdom. Always interesting to see the face they make when you tell them you'll be cleaning up the park, I don't think they realize that's the job I actually wanted.
The day started with a presentation of the Animal Kingdom and it's history. The two people presenting did a great job of getting us excited about all the animals there and how they would be all around us as we worked. Once again they had to cover safety issues and the way were are expected to interact with guests.
We were shown how to pick up blood; there is a special BBP box (blood borne pathogens) found in a number of closets with very specific supplies: goggles, gloves, towels, a specific chemical, and a heavy-duty bag to place bloody items and another to place items to be cleaned and retrieved at a later time.
As they discussed all this blood issue they handed us a paper giving us the choice to get a Hepatitis B vaccine (or 3 - one shot every 2 months for 6 months), everyone freaked out and checked the "get vaccine" box. I didn't, I figured I would get it later if it became necessary. (Apparently I had the shot as a baaaaby so I don't actually need it at all, yay!).
This ended the first part of my day.
After spending all that time in class they took us over to the Magic Kingdom's underground tunnels called the Utilidor - utility corridor. It's pretty impressive, it goes all around the park with an incredible number of doors popping up most places up in the Kingdom. From what I hear it's incredibly easy to get lost in them, from the map, I'm pretty sure I would be the first to get off the path =D. On this special occasion they just took us to the Mouseketeeria where I bought delicious rice and terryaki chicken! After half an hour of relaxing they took us back to Disney University for the second half of our day.
The second half was a bit different from the first; instead of going to the classroom we were in that morning they took us to a computer lab to complete "online classes". These included how to be safe and how to be courteous, what a surprise, right?! Some of the lessons were about working with blood, with sharp objects, how to deal with customers, disabled guests (sight, hearing, mobility), etc. The basics, and long, long, long lessons. We had to listen to the audio version so we couldn't skip through pages hehehe. A few questions were asked, pretty straight forward and we had a final assessment. Actually, some people already took some of these classes so they were able to leave early (not fair!) Two of us were stuck there until 2pm (instead of 4:30pm), the last two to leave.
Did I mention we were paid for the first time that day? We were supposed to be there until 4:30pm according to our schedule, but NO, they took two of our work hours away from us!
After such an intense day, I caught the bus back to Vista Way and finished putting some things away.
Sunday, May 22.
DAKlimation: 8:30-14:30
Sunday was another dressed up day, the last one! It was what they call DAKlimation. DAK stands for Disney Animal Kingdom, I'm not sure I had to spell that out for anyone, but one never knows. For this meeting we were expected to make our way to the Animal Kingdom's cast parking lot and walk over to the Cast Services building. To give you an idea, we were given a little map the day before with "not to scale" written on it, that's always encouraging. So a good number of us were on the morning bus to get there which made it a bit easier to find the place; it wasn't just for Custodians this time, just folks working at the Animal Kingdom. Always interesting to see the face they make when you tell them you'll be cleaning up the park, I don't think they realize that's the job I actually wanted.
The day started with a presentation of the Animal Kingdom and it's history. The two people presenting did a great job of getting us excited about all the animals there and how they would be all around us as we worked. Once again they had to cover safety issues and the way were are expected to interact with guests.
Animal Kingdom Map (PDF)
 |
| My home away from home. |
After two hours of presentation they took us out of the Cast Services Building and took us around backstage to the back of the Lion King show (found in Camp Mickey-Minnie) and made us enter the park in two groups. FIRST TIME IN ANIMAL KINGDOM. It was amazing, trees trees trees trees trees everywhere! As soon as we stepped in the park I spotted Thumper from Bambi posing with a little girl, birds were calling through the park and squirrels were running around.
They proceeded to take us around the park in record time showing us the main attractions and not much more, stating that we would have time to explore on our time off (which I now realize was a lie, there is no such thing as exploration time!). They dragged us at lightning speed through Camp Mickey-Minnie into Discovery Island, through Africa, into Asia and down into Dinoland before running back into Camp Mickey-Minnie and back to the classroom =D
Another little bit of information w as given to us about our jobs and what was expected - I'm sure the repetition was necessary for a number of people, but aarg, woke up way too early to go through that.
We walked over to the cast cafeteria called Pride Rock to grab a quick lunch (Chicken Wellington for me, can't go wrong with chicken, mushrooms, and puff pastry). Our next step was to make it somehow to the DAK Costuming building, we were offered a bus to drive over from Pride Rock but having met a few people, we decided to drive over there with the directions we were given on the back of our schedule (once again, not to scale). Needless to say, we got lost, the driver - an English girl - freaked out, not liking to be late, but in the end we made it 15 minutes late. The costuming building is HUGE, rows and rows of costumes, all of them for Animal Kingdom roles, I can only imagine the size of the Magic Kingdom costuming.
With another girl we ran over to the Custodial aisle (the Baloo row =D) and grabbed a few shirts and pants. We were told to grab a size larger than we usually wear, which is kind of depressing, but we have to deal with it hehehe. We also have to tuck in our shirts and the pants come up to our waists which makes it even worse, but hey, we all look ridiculous, no one looks better than everyone else.
My costume is white, I had a choice between pants and shorts, I obviously chose pants, my legs don't need to see the sun, that's a silly concept. Our shirts are button-up and white with a blue squarey-looking patch on the top-left corner. Black belt, black shoes, and a choice between a white straw-looking hat or a white cap. I chose the hat because they were out of caps and because it provides a lot more shade, and to be honest, it's the coolest part of my costume. I've yet to take a picture of it, I will one of these mornings.
Oh! And a poncho, we get transparent ponchos for the rainy days, they were out of normal sizes so I'm stuck with an 5X-large one for a little while, at least until I can get it exchanged. They also gave us a blue belt bag to put it in.
With five sets of costumes in arm we checked them out and caught the bus back home where we compared costumes, at least those of us who had them. I must say Laura's train conductor and engineer costumes are pretty awesome compared to mine.
Having tried to go to Wal-Mart the night before but failing miserably - the buses stop running at 6pm for Wal-Mart every other day - Ricky and I decided to try again on Sunday night where the bus runs until 1 in the morning.
We bought a few necessary items for Ricky apartment-wise and work shoes for the both of us. Mine are surprisingly comfortable, with a good amount of padding both on the sole and on the sides. After another little while we caught the bus back to Vista Way where we called it a night and crashed, ready to start our training the next day.
Did anyone notice my lack of dinner talk? The first week we basically stuffed our face with delicious Chick-Fil-A. Their nuggets are so delicious and... real?
They proceeded to take us around the park in record time showing us the main attractions and not much more, stating that we would have time to explore on our time off (which I now realize was a lie, there is no such thing as exploration time!). They dragged us at lightning speed through Camp Mickey-Minnie into Discovery Island, through Africa, into Asia and down into Dinoland before running back into Camp Mickey-Minnie and back to the classroom =D
Another little bit of information w as given to us about our jobs and what was expected - I'm sure the repetition was necessary for a number of people, but aarg, woke up way too early to go through that.
We walked over to the cast cafeteria called Pride Rock to grab a quick lunch (Chicken Wellington for me, can't go wrong with chicken, mushrooms, and puff pastry). Our next step was to make it somehow to the DAK Costuming building, we were offered a bus to drive over from Pride Rock but having met a few people, we decided to drive over there with the directions we were given on the back of our schedule (once again, not to scale). Needless to say, we got lost, the driver - an English girl - freaked out, not liking to be late, but in the end we made it 15 minutes late. The costuming building is HUGE, rows and rows of costumes, all of them for Animal Kingdom roles, I can only imagine the size of the Magic Kingdom costuming.
With another girl we ran over to the Custodial aisle (the Baloo row =D) and grabbed a few shirts and pants. We were told to grab a size larger than we usually wear, which is kind of depressing, but we have to deal with it hehehe. We also have to tuck in our shirts and the pants come up to our waists which makes it even worse, but hey, we all look ridiculous, no one looks better than everyone else.
My costume is white, I had a choice between pants and shorts, I obviously chose pants, my legs don't need to see the sun, that's a silly concept. Our shirts are button-up and white with a blue squarey-looking patch on the top-left corner. Black belt, black shoes, and a choice between a white straw-looking hat or a white cap. I chose the hat because they were out of caps and because it provides a lot more shade, and to be honest, it's the coolest part of my costume. I've yet to take a picture of it, I will one of these mornings.
Oh! And a poncho, we get transparent ponchos for the rainy days, they were out of normal sizes so I'm stuck with an 5X-large one for a little while, at least until I can get it exchanged. They also gave us a blue belt bag to put it in.
With five sets of costumes in arm we checked them out and caught the bus back home where we compared costumes, at least those of us who had them. I must say Laura's train conductor and engineer costumes are pretty awesome compared to mine.
Having tried to go to Wal-Mart the night before but failing miserably - the buses stop running at 6pm for Wal-Mart every other day - Ricky and I decided to try again on Sunday night where the bus runs until 1 in the morning.
We bought a few necessary items for Ricky apartment-wise and work shoes for the both of us. Mine are surprisingly comfortable, with a good amount of padding both on the sole and on the sides. After another little while we caught the bus back to Vista Way where we called it a night and crashed, ready to start our training the next day.
Did anyone notice my lack of dinner talk? The first week we basically stuffed our face with delicious Chick-Fil-A. Their nuggets are so delicious and... real?
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