Week 5

Sunday, June 26.

Off.

HARRY POTTER. Not much happened, we once again went later in the evening, this time Laura, Cristina and me. The park hours had changed to closing time at 22:00 instead of 21:00 so it gave us an extra hour. I bought a Butterbeer (in a keepsake mug), a Hufflepuff t-shirt and a Hufflepuff little banner/flag thing. I have to say, I have yet to buy anything Disney but I'm all over this Harry Potter stuff. The money I make at Disney is going to Universal, kind of sad when I think about it.

Cristina and Laura. (photo from Laura)

We went to the Ollivander's show and Cristina was picked to receive her wand, it was pretty amazing. They have you try a few wands to see which one pics you and magical things happen, just like the books/movies.

Ollivander's a creeper. (Photo from Laura)

That was obviously the highlight of my day off =D

Monday, June 27.

Camp Minnie-Mickey.
14:30-21:00

Any College Program participant (or anyone under 50) will tell you that working Camp is the most boring place on Earth, they'd rather work Dinoland. I didn't really believe them after like both Dinoland and Everest. It turns out it's pretty boring. Not that it's a bad place to work, it's magical like the rest of the park, but there is a very limited number of things to do. The main things there are the Meet and Greet with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and the Forest Friends. And the Lion King, let's not forget that. That's probably what keeps Camp alive. Five to six times a day the area is flooded by disoriented guests looking for the show, asking if you need fast passes, etc. Also, there's a smoking area and a funnel cake kiosk. That's it. Seriously. There's no trash to pick up and the trash run at the end of the day is easy.
Actually, when I got to my post I found an older gentleman who was doing his trash run to show me around, before taking me to the break area (that is far, far away) he had me double bag the cans he was working on so I wouldn't have to do it on my run, it was pretty smart and awesome. He then showed me a small custodial closet near the restrooms and where to empty the banana boat (across the street, how safe is that?) and then took me to the "real" custodial closet and the Camp break room. Having that kind of help is great, it's a little scary to work a new area without even knowing where to put your lunchbox.
The guy that did the 16:30 trash run is from Washington State University, it's pretty awesome.
This is also the day I got addicted to Jeopardy, I happened to have my break at 19:00 and that was the start of jeopardy... i now try to have my breaks around that time, hoping to have a good break room that plays jeopardy.

Tuesday, June 28.

Restrooms Asia
12:30-20:30
(Or so it said on my schedule. What happened was this:
12:30-14:00 - Restrooms Asia.
14:00-14:30 - Restrooms Flametree.
14:30-20:30 - Restrooms Africa.)

This was a weird day from start to finish. I came into the office ready to work Caravan and Kali restrooms again, although a bit confused about starting at 12:30 instead of 9:00, and was told that I would just be covering them for Carridad until 14:00. At that point my brain went "durp" and I asked Bernadette why I was only working for an hour and a half. She looked through the schedules again and told me she'd figure it out by then and have me somewhere else. So I went. I took care of the two restrooms for an hour and a half; it was easy enough, they were clean when I got there, Carridad is a pro at this, so I just had to keep them at that level of cleanliness. At 13:50 another coordinator found me and told me that I would be covering Flametree's guest restrooms for half an hour (someone's lunchtime) and so I rushed over there to try and not be delayed. Flametree's restroom is huge, lots and lots of stalls, sinks and wet floors. But for half an hour it was an easy job, at least I was ready for future encounters with that set of restrooms.
After dealing with those restrooms, I made my way back to the main entrance to grab the Africa Restrooms radio from the girl before me. I made my way back up to Africa and had the pleasure of staying there until the end of my shift. There are two restrooms to take care of in Africa, the main one in Harambe and the ones in the back of Tusker House restaurant. The second set is not used much so it's easy to clean. The main ones have more than twenty stalls, it's intense, but once again, it feels good to stay busy. I went back and forth for the next few hours, one restroom than the other, over and over again. Not that difficult. The best thing about restrooms? Air Conditioning.

Wednesday, June 29.

Off - Universal Studios with Ricky, Laura, Cristina, and her family visiting from Puerto Rico.
Cirque du Soleil with Ricky, Laura, and Lynn.

We left for Universal before noon, it felt very nice to know we'd have time to walk around and see more than the world of Harry Potter. Cristina went with her family a little earlier so they could all get their tickets, Laura, Ricky and I met up with them there. Ricky was debating between buying a one-day ticket and a season pass, he opted for a season pass in the end, we're here for six months, what are the odds of him not going back?
Cristina's family is pretty awesome, crazy like her, but very nice. We started with Harry Potter since Cristina loves it and her sister's boyfriend do as well. It started to rain a little as we were making our way over there so the line for the rides were actually getting smaller. We started with the Dragon Challenge, a rollercoaster where the guests get split up in two teams and each goes into a different set of seats. They then proceed to go on a normal rollercoaster ride and almost crash into each other before continuing on their way, pretty sweet! We then went to buy Butterbeer so Ricky could taste it (he had me buy one to share and then drank it all). After that we continued our tour to the Castle Ride that I had already done with Laura and Cristina and I enjoyed it once again. It really is a wonderful ride.
We then left Hogsmeade and made our way to Jurassic Park to ride one of the water rides. To go through faster we decided to ride as single riders, considering there were eight of us it was more practical. I ended up being placed in the front row where I got soaked like no other. After getting out of there I figured it was time for a restroom stop, get ourselves in order and five minutes later we came out of the restroom to find that it was pouring out. And not a thin rain; it was a full out storm. But we were already soaked so we didn't really care, we went for it and ran to a restaurant a little ways away. Cristina and family refused to go in because of the ice cold air conditioning. Laura, Ricky and I were starving so we went in and had a delicious lunch. I got the Turkey Leg, 'cause they're always delicious and I won't have them anymore when I go home in January. By the end of our meal Cristina found us again and we all decided to leave.
Driving back home we decided to change really fast and then make a quick run to Wal-Mart for a few necessary food items.
We came back to the apartment, changed into more appropriate clothing to go back out - so out of super comfy pants to jeans. Lynn then drove Laura, Ricky and me to Downtown Disney where we went to La Nouba, the Cirque du Soleil show because for the month of June we got half-off tickets. I have no pictures I'm sorry to say; it was raining outside and we were to enthralled to take any inside. We did not have the best seats in the house so we probably missed a few things, but it was wonderful. A bit different from watching on TV but I almost wonder if you don't see more when watching on TV, there's just too much going on all at once, I only have ONE pair of eyes!!!
After the show Laura and Lynn went to an Irish Pub, Ricky and I walked around Downtown Disney for a little while and then decided to try and catch the bus back. We made it to the bus stop right on time but it was packed. Needless to say, we didn't make it on. So we decided to walk home (as we drove over we realized it wasn't that far - how delusional). It turns out it's not that close, but the positive thing is that after walking to Crossroads, a little center with shops and restaurants, we went to MacDonalds. We tried the Mango Pineapple Smoothie thingamajiggy and it was delicious, I was surprised since I'm usually the first to refuse mango. At that point we decided we didn't really want to walk all the way to the apartments, we'd only made it halfway in a little under an hour. So we went to the bus stop in front of a grocery store and waited there for a long time, one of the buses apparently wasn't running. By the time it got there my feet were dead, I was tired and in a bad mood (sorry Ricky), but we made it home! Did I mention that the bus system sucks?

Because of the poor weather I'm sorry to say there were no photos for that day. Sorry for the block of text!

Thursday, June 30.

Main Entrance - Bus Side.
13:00-15:45
Training - The Basics.
15:45-18:00
Main Entrance - Bus Side.
18:00-21:30

The training they call training should really be called "Review" or "Brainwashing Part 2". When it's in the middle of the day it sucks. When it's pouring outside it sucks even more. I rode the bus both ways this time though.
So. My day started well, not too early, not too late. I got to the office where I was told to just go and sweep Bus Side until my training ("clock out at 15:45, training starts at 16:00). Easy enough, I went and did that. I don't recall who was doing Bus Side with me that day, this is probably why I should keep up on my blog. I received the radio at 13:00, I gave it to Benela at 15:00, when he looked at me like I had a third head. I had to explain to him that I had training and would get the radio back from him or from the office at 18:00. Turns out training took us all the way up to 18:02 so by the time I got back to the office Benela had given the radio to someone else so it was up to me to find it. He told me that he had given it to the "Asian guy", who was actually Haitian, but Benela's own Haitian accent didn't work out to well with my lack of understanding. The rest of the day was pretty simple, you know, just a trash run under the rain, the usual.
The training itself was interesting-ish; there were about twenty of us (not just custodials) and one lady to talk to us. We were to go over the Disney Basics (you'll recall what they are by going back to my Traditions days). She went over each of them, gave examples, had us apply them, work in groups, present, discuss, look at images, give our opinion, etc etc etc. And then we were done. That's all we did, it's what Disney calls "constant training" or something along those lines.

Friday, July 01.

Africa - Pangani.
14:30-21:00

Straightforward day, I got to work, I worked, and I did my closing trash run. Easy, easy, easy.

Saturday, July 02.

Main Entrance - Bus Side.
13:00-20:30

I was hoping to get to work Medical Side again, but NOPE, apparently I'm doing a great job for them to keep me on Bus Side all the time.
I worked with Greg that day, before I got there he actually asked Ladonna if he could take one of my two trash runs so instead of having a 14:00 and 16:30 trash run I only had my 14:00. I also had the radio for a minimal amount of time, it was pretty great. We had to split the 14:00 run in two because of a Track Talk we had at 14:30. We started our run again after half an hour of Managers talking at us. Greg was putting in two bags while I did my run so he wouldn't have anything to do later on. Halfway through we realized the radio I had wasn't working when Benela came up and asked if we'd taken care of the Code V in one of the buses. Greg was nice enough to go with him so I triple bagged the cans I emptied while he was gone. By the time we were done with that trash run we took our lunch and off we went again. This time I just swept while he pulled the cans, we raced with Rafael from Puerto Rico who was doing Medical Side (we won by a minute or so, he still had to double bag everything). I forgot to grab one of the cans on my run so Greg emptied it and I was in the process of putting a clean bag in when the manager in charge of the CPs showed up and called us (me) out for not wearing gloves while touching the trash bags and trash cans. I added the "me" in there because seeing her coming I told Greg to put his on, I didn't actually realize that when putting a clean bag in an empty can I needed to wear gloves. As Bethany said "it's gross". How gross is a clean trash bag? I guess some people just never take out their trash.
Also the day the Gatorade disappeared very early. In a few of the custodial closets we have Gatorade to keep our electrolytes replenished. Apparently, they only leave it for the warmest part of the day, until 17:00 or so. Greg and I made it to Discovery Island before we realized it was gone.

Week 4

Sunday, June 19.

Main Entrance - Medical Side.
13:00-20:30 (Late Release at 20:45)

I didn't have a closing trash run, it felt so strange. The day went by very smoothly. The main entrance area before the turnstiles is incredibly hot - you could probably fry an egg on the ground - but it's easy. I ran into the Manager in charge of the College Programs at which point she told me we were long overdue for a one-on-one. I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering if that was a positive or negative thing. Turns out it was just a check-up to make sure I was on track and to figure out what the company expects of me and what I expect of my managers. Would this have been useful in the first week of work? Probably. I ended up getting out of work late boohoo. But it was nice to set up goals and to get the chance to talk a bit more with one of my manager.

Monday, June 20.

Off - Costuming.

This is the last time I go to costuming in a while. I have found the perfect size of shirts (old model of small shirts) and five pairs of pants that fit just right around my waist. So the question is "have I lost a little weight?" I sure hope so.

Hogwarts of course.

I also had the pleasure to experience Universal Studios for the very first time in the company of Laura. I bought a Preferred Season Pass for the two parks... you know, only $200+. Totally worth it considering we only were there for two hours. We traveled to the land of Harry Potter. I wish I were a witch, I could live in Hogsmeade and be happy for ever and ever. Laura took me on the Castle Ride, amazing, You get thrown into the movie, you really are flying next to Ron and Harry, and you really have to get away from Dementors and Infieri. I had the delight of tasting Butterbeer and have sadly become addicted, good thing it's non-alcoholic, right? I bought Every Flavor Beans and a Chocolate Frog. I also bought myself a wand. OMG NERD!!! It's the longest one they have, it has a snake and a skull, and it's my birthday wand. I love it. I'm such a nerd... but Laura is worse so it's alright.

Getting off the Hogwart's Express (I wish).

Hogsmeade.

The talking portraits. They actually move.

And of course the hourglasses.

I should let you know that going to the land of Harry Potter was a huge pro-Florida in my moments of doubt last semester.

Tuesday, June 21.

Off - Florida Mall with Ricky <--- Happy birthday!!!

Making Ricky decide what he wants for his birthday is the hardest thing in the world. Even after bugging him for weeks he still hadn't come up with anything. We were thinking of going to Universal Studios but transportation is a pain (oh Laura, where are you with your car when we need you?). In the end we decided to go explore the Florida Mall. There is a bus to take us there every Tuesday during the month of June (the day changes every month).
The mall is large, larger by far than the Kennewick mall. There are a good number of clothing stores, shoe stores, and then the little knickknack stores with all the little glass ornaments. I actually got Ricky to walk the whole way. It's not as big as some malls I know, like Spokane or Portland with the two stories and escalators but it's a good size mall with all our shopping needs. And an awesome candy store. I bought candy. The end. Haha. No, that was just the beginning of Ricky's birthday. After my crazy shopping spree (brought along by Ricky's help), we dropped back to Vista Way.
We got a room at the All Star Music Resort since Alexia wanted to stay there and it looks pretty awesome from the outside. After a quick stop back at the apartments we caught the bus to the All Star Resorts where we left our pjs and jumped into another bus to Epcot.
We caught the 21:00 IllumiNations. It's a firework/laser show over the big lake at the center of the park. The fireworks are gorgeous, the laser play through the smoke left behind and after a little bit a big globe lights up in the middle of the lake and images run along the surface. A gorgeous 13 minute show. We went around the world, stopping this time in Japan at Tokyo Dining where we had dinner, I believe Ricky had the Chicken Katsu, I had avocado rolls and California rolls. It was absolutely delicious. By the time we were done eating the park was closing down and so we made our way back to the bus and to the resort.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICKY!

Wednesday, June 22.

Main Entrance - Bus Side.
14:00-21:30

This was to be my second time in Bus Side, and oh boy was I excited. When I got to the office Ladonna asked me to show another CP (Tasso) around the Medical Side of Main Entrance so that actually took up a small part of my afternoon, that was nice. The afternoon was pretty uneventful, I chatted with a few custodials, and when it started raining I bravely put on my poncho and went to play in the rain. The Oasis is downhill so the water FLOWS down towards the entrance's turnstile, it's quite a sight. When it came time for my trash run I started quite a bit early because of the time it normally takes and was surprised to find that the cans were actually incredibly empty because of the Guests leaving in a pack at the first drops of rain earlier in the afternoon. I would have left too if I could have, the rain was intense. Good thing I like rain, right?

Thursday, June 23.

Africa - Harambe.
14:30-21:00

Back to Harambe, I used to think Caravan in Asia was the easiest place to work, Harambe is now my favorite (easiness-wise). I believe this was the day I was Parade Pre-Liner with Jack, that was fun. It kills an hour of our day and we get to have fun with the guests. The Parade starts at 15:45, at 15:30 we have to be at Africa's Safari Gate with our little garbage can on wheels and we go down the Parade route begging Guests for trash to make sure they don't throw it in front of the Parade coming behind us. It's pretty fun, little kids want to trade pins and everyone is just excited. When we're done we have to wait for the Parade to come back through to Africa and wave at the Guests that were chosen to sit on the floats. Jack started dancing along with the Lion King's animals so I went along with it and we copied their choreography, fun times. After that he went back to... Asia I think, and I went back to cleaning Harambe. The rain was falling by then, once again, so the poncho was back out. My last trash run, like the night before was easy peasy. I love it.

Friday, June 24.

Training - Safety in Motion.
11:45-13:00
Africa - Harambe.
13:00-20:00

They made me get up before 10:00!!! I had training, you know, four weeks in. I had to go over to the Custodial Main Office to clock in and then rush over to the Cast Services for the training class: Safety in Motion. Should we be learning this during our training? Of course. Learning that there are ways to carry boxes and to lean over and pick up things on the ground without getting hurt should not be taught a month in. I've been emptying trash cans for five weeks, how bad have I hurt my back, arms, and legs since then? Actually all those things were hurt before coming here =D My back and knees are doing much better now then ever before. The class actually started at noon, the gentleman making his presentation told us about five basic things/movements that will keep us from getting hurt.

High Five Techniques:
Position Elbows Close: Elbows six inches closer to your side can cut the force in half.
Point Your Toe and Go: Reduce twisting strain on your back and knees.
Use Mid-range Motions: Protect tendons and nerves in your wrists and hands.
Same Side Hand and Foot: Better balance and less strain on your shoulder and back when reaching, pulling or pushing.
Bid Load Big Toe Little Load Little Toe: 'Cause it's easier.

For more info on any of these just comment, I have a little packet with all the information right here.

It was pretty interesting and took a whole half hour so I had time to grab cereals and milk at Pride Rock and ride my bicycle back to the Custodial Office. Nummy breakfast. After that I was shipped back over to Harambe, where, like the day before, it started raining. Poncho time again and a 16:30 trash run, right after the Parade. It feels nice to take your time while on your trash run, make it last, clean the cans, make your day go by faster. It felt a little strange to go home so early though, I missed the 20:02 bus obviously, it's impossible to make it from the office to the bus stop in four minutes unless you run, but that's not allowed onstage...

Saturday, June 25.

Everest - Restrooms.
09:00-20:30

RAIN again, see the trend there? I like restrooms, it's easy work in my opinion. When you work Everest Restrooms you go back and forth between the well-used Everest Restrooms and the ones across the bridge in Dinoland of Theater in the Wild. The second set is a little out of the way so not many people take the time to use them, it's incredibly nice to clean. I refilled the seat covers, a minimal amount of toilet paper and at one point in the day the soap. Everest is a different story, not hard to clean but when the rain started coming down in streams people gathered under the little porch in front and some ladies stayed inside the restrooms for half an hour or so. I have to admit, so did I. Mainly for the reason that I was cleaning and then I was stuck inside by the crowd outside. Ramos the gentleman cleaning the male restrooms was stuck in Theater in the Wild because he forgot his poncho in the Everest custodial closet, when I asked if he wanted me to go and get it he said no, he didn't want to go back to Everest anyway, hehehe. So overall, an easy day. By the end of the day the upper half of the park had greatly emptied and drying up the restrooms was easy enough. I forgot the dirty towels in Theater in the Wild so Ramos offered to empty the trash for me over in Asia while I went to get them. When I got back to Dinoland I realized I would have to go to the Asia breakroom anyway for my lunchbox so he did that extra work for nothing.
In other news Ramos ranted for about twenty minutes about the two guys who were in charge of sweeping the Everest streets and the fact that they were mostly in other parts of the park instead of Everest, and how they were not doing their job.

Week 3

Sunday, June 12.

Dinoland - Boneyard.
14:30-21:00

Boneyard is a nice place to work but a bit dull. It encompasses the games within Dinoland and goes up to the bridge to Discovery Island. With the Primeval Whirl undergoing refurbishment people tend to go to more interesting places, like Dinosaur. Another issue with Boneyard? Trilobite is there, and they sell Turkey Legs. They smell delicious. The good thing about Boneyard? You're close enough to the Main Entrance break room that you can snack and have your lunch there, much better than the Dinoland break room, way off in the distance.

Monday, June 13.

Off - Costuming.

Costuming, like usual, I lost an hour, but I brought a book with me which made the bus ride that much better =)

Tuesday, June 14.

Off - Animal Kingdom with Ricky.

07/28: I'm not sure why I haven't written anything for this yet. I might have been waiting for my photos to be resized. We visited Animal Kingdom, a little weird to go in as a Guest instead of Cast, but being able to go wherever I want was very nice.

It's an elephant!

I took Ricky all over the park, showing him the different areas I work in. As we walked into Africa we ran into Laura who was on Parade duty (see the pick on June 15). We walked Pangani and rode the Safari ride. All the animals are so beautiful, I love working here.

 

 

 

The beautiful animals found in Africa

After our two weeks on the Safari (that feels like twenty minutes) we went to the Wildlife Express Train that took us over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. The biggest air conditioned building in Animal Kingdom.

Rafiki pointed the way.

And then I got to hug him.

Ricky made a new friend at the petting zoo where they have a donkey, a llama, a pig, a cow, and a whole lot of little goats.

Aren't they cute?

This llama had issues, trying to look at the sky or something.

The cutest, most stubborn goats out there.

Waiting for the train back to Harambe.

We continued our tour of the park, walking through Asia where we rode Kali River Rapids (getting drenched in the process) and Everest. The weather was not at its best so the park had started to empty a bit. We made our way to Dinoland where we rode Dinosaur, I didn't realize that the ride was in the dark the whole time with creepy dinosaurs popping out of nowhere, I loved it.

Priceless faces.

We also managed to grab a Turkey Leg and frozen lemonade at Trilobite and devoured them. Those Turkey Legs are right out of one of my dreams, I'm glad I don't go to the parks every day or I would have to buy one each time.

These Turkey Legs are going to be the end of me.

After that we decided to go over to Downtown Disney. The truth is that there is no direct bus from the parks to Downtown, you either have to transfer or walk a "short" distance. I wanted to see just how short that distance was since I'd been telling guests to go to Saratoga Springs and then walk it. First off, the Saratoga Springs Resort is insanely beautiful and huge. There are at least three bus stops in there (maybe more, we got off on the third). Then it is walking distance if you like to walk. I'm not sure Guests with children would enjoy it. You basically go around the lake between the Resort and Downtown. There is a beautiful view of Downtown Disney from Saratoga though.

It's probably even more beautiful at night, not dusk.

Wednesday, June 15.

Africa - Harambe.
14:30-21:00

I had a minute of not quite remembering if I worked Pangani or Harambe, but I only worked in Pangani once. Harambe is easy, a bit in the sun, but overall quite nice. I was once again on Parade sweeping duty but before that I got to watch the parade with roommate Laura who was also on Parade duty. She gets to set up the poles and ropes before the parade and take them off afterwards and direct people to the Safaris in the middle.

Wildlife Express Conductor Laura Monday.

Thursday, June 16.

Asia - Everest.
14:30-21:00

Everest is a place we are told horror stories about. Apparently it's hard. You have to cross the track. They stop the attraction for you when you go through. Either I did it wrong or people are easily scared off. I had... Richard? I think, show me around very fast and by the time I did my trash run I forgot where to find the blue garbage can I could use to empty the trash in the queue line so I just carried my bag. Mom would probably say that if I don't have a head I have arms...

Friday, June 17.

Main Entrance - Bus Side.
13:00-21:30

Ah Bus Side, how I love you. The Main Entrance side that is not Medical Side, obviously, it doesn't look much worse either, but wow, once you start counting the trash cans, you have to wince. 35. Plus four or five recycling. Once again I followed the person before me and double bagged so I could calculate the time it would take. This time I went with Dan, who by the end of the run (about two hours) was cursing all the coordinators and managers and declaring that he would take two lunches in a row. My closing trash went rather well, I just had to pull the trash, not put bags back, so it cuts your run time in half or so. Another issue is the fact that half the run is in the park, the other is near the bus stops, outside the park. You have to either go through the "zoom gate" - security - or through the turnstiles' handicapped door. Either way is fine, it's just a bit of a hassle.

Saturday, June 18.

Dinoland - Dinosaur.
14:30-21:00 (Early Release at 20:30)

Dinosaur I should have done the week before, but then got switched to wonderful restrooms. Dinosaur is quite nice, a little bit of shade, a little bit of super sunny patches. A nice little area where we can hide from coordinators. There's this little trail that no one goes on, it's pretty sweet.
My French-Canadian friend Jack (Jean-Sebastien) was working Boneyard so we met up a few times and had fun with the guests. He draws Mickey Mouse and other Disney faces on the ground with water. It's a pretty neat skill, he gets "Fanatic" badges for those. Fan badges are good, it means a manager notices you going "Above and Beyond" (which was one of our Basics, if you will recall). Overall a fun day. I had two trash runs again so I double bagged to make my day easier, it ended up raining a little bit so it was even smarter. Our closing runs ended up taking us half an hour so we requested an early release. OMG I'm giving up my moneys. Totally worth it to catch the 20:46 bus instead of waiting around and then running for the 21:09 one.

Week 2

Sunday, June 05.

Off - Costuming.

Another wonderful day spent partly getting my costumes. The fact that I have to try on every single pair of pants to make sure they're 14x32 and not 16s hiding in the form of 14s just takes up the half hour I wait for the bus.
That takes up my afternoon, I wake up at noon and off I go. Back by 16:00 it kills my day. It would be a whole lot faster if I had a car... just sayin'.

Monday, June 06.

Off - Hollywood Studios.

I had nothing to do so I decided to go bug Ricky while he's at work. He's either outside on Hollywood Boulevard or Sunset Street or inside taking care of photos for guests. I hopped on the bus to the Studios and made my way to the main entrance. It's faaaaaaaar, way too far, after walking as a Custodial, I should let my feet and legs rest on my days off.

Do you see the hidden Mickey? Hehehe, just kidding.

I walked around for a bit, up Hollywood Boulevard, through the shops, down Sunset Street, drooling as I went. I passed a Turkey Leg vendor, the theater where Beauty and the Beast plays, and reached the Tower of Terror. I walked back to Hollywood Boulevard and went the whole way around the park wondering if Ricky was on break as I hadn't spotted him yet. I saw the Pixar Studios:

The land of Toy Story and gorgeous animations.

Just for Dad, Lightyear AND a rocket.

There is so much. So, so, so much to see. The thing is that going around each park is fast, but to get every detail in is nearly impossible. Also I was looking for Ricky so I kind of skipped over a lot of things I'm sure.

The HAT! Magical... and a stage.

The back of the building looks Moroccan so it fits in when seen from Epcot.

I went into the main store on Hollywood Boulevard and bought Dad the Mickey Ears he demanded of me when I told him I wanted to work for the Disney. I forgot to take a photo of them though. (As of June 22 we will NOT have a photo of them until I'm back home, unless Alexia/Nick can get one for me, Dad doesn't pics to end up online - understandable in Facebooktimez).

As I was paying another customer asked where the store was to buy the Photopass pictures, the answer was "next door", and I thought "sweet, Ricky might be there". And he was:

Helping the most indecisive customers.

I creeped on him for about ten minutes before he realized I was standing there. At that point I realized that Beauty and the Beast was about to start so I power walked over to the theater and grabbed a seat before people stole all the good one.

Not the best photo, but I was in a hurry.

I had to let my ears bleed as the lady behind me was explaining to her kids that "Expelliarmus" was the spell used to blast people away. Break down the word lady, "expel" + "arm". Blast away - really?

Anyway, back on subject. This show was amazing - a very shortened version of the animated movie, but it had all the songs, a good number of dances and the best looking costumes. I absolutely have to go again, it was perfect.
By the time the show was done I went back around to see if Ricky was still in his little store, but I ran into him in the street, performing his Photopass role.

Aren't our costumes just wonderful?

As he has to stay into role I asked him where I could purchase frozen lemonade, the best thing in the world on a warm day, and went to purchase a cup of it (10% cast discount, woot!). I then sat on the edge of a fountain and creeped some more on Ricky while he was helping customers. He has to arrange them, tell them to stand in an equal manner on the white line on the ground and smile for a few shots, do something goofy for a few more, and for couples he gets a kiss in there. Pretty fun to watch, not sure how fun it is to direct people to your every whim while dealing with cranky teens and crying children. Do they realize they are at Disney World? Apparently not.

I went back up to Ricky in between guest pictures to ask how long the walk back to the bus was at which point I realized I would miss the next one so I went back around the park for another half hour and then caught the bus back home where I rested a bit while waiting for Ricky to come back. We grabbed some Chick-Fil-A and off to dream land we went. The only reason I remember eating Chick-Fil-A is explained by tomorrow (and not in a gross way, I promise).

Tuesday, June 07.

Call-In - Sick. Dehydration?

I was supposed to work at 13:00 I think. When I woke up in the middle of the night I felt a little queasy, I usually do when I wake up super hungry so I didn't think much of it. By the time I woke up at 9-ish it was worse, I wasn't sure what was going on so I figured I would eat some Frosted Flakes to see if it was a hunger-issue. Turns out it wasn't, within five minutes I was dealing with a Code V in the restroom. I felt much better after that and took my shower and got dressed for work. I sat watching The Brave Little Toaster with a roommate and her friend before leaving. By 11:00 the queasiness started again and I realized going to work was probably not such a good idea. During his break Ricky called me and told me to call in to work, there was no point going if I was going to be sick again. I got to try out the "DAK Custodial Call-In Line" and go with "Option 1" to tell them I was calling-in sick. I hate doing that, just like I hated missing class for any reason - which was extremely rare and used to include Labor Day's Friday (thanks Mom and Dad).

I brought my pillow and blanket to the living room couch and spent the first part of the afternoon watching the Chopper show: too lazy to change the channel and too tired to care what it was about. At some point my brain registered that maybe I was dehydrated. I ran that idea by Ricky, who said it was very likely and then I started drinking glass after glass of water and felt a little better. I watched TV for a while, snuggled in my blanket and dozed off for another good bit of time and woke up at 16:00 when people started going back and forth getting ready for work. I started feeling a tiny bit hungry so I got up to get some salad and as soon as I touched it I ran for the restrooms and got rid of my cereal and felt a whole lot better. I ate my salad (or lettuce I guess) and spent the rest of the day on the couch watching TV until Ricky got home and took me out to walk a little bit.

Wednesday, June 08.

Main Entrance - Medical Side.
15:00-21:30

The Main Entrance part of Animal Kingdom is split in half exactly, according to the flag pole in front of the turnstiles. Medical side is the easy side, there are a reasonable amount of cans, it just stretches foreeever, from the Charter Bus stop to the top of the Oasis. Lots and lots of walking that day, especially nice because the Oasis is uphill a little bit, I could feel my thighs by the end of the night.
I didn't realize that finishing later than 21:00 would be extremely creepy. The Oasis is very dark and full of trees with the birds making so many weird sounds and noises that walking around in complete darkness except for a few very unbright lights is incredibly uncomfortable for me. I dislike the dark with a passion, even more so when I have to walk around on my own. Good thing the park is beautiful or I would have been back at the main office a half hour early.

Thursday, June 09.

Main Entrance - Restrooms.
09:00-21:00

This was the first of my two 12 hour shifts. Killers, both of them. Restrooms are actually quite nice to work in: easy, back and forth, 15 to 20 minutes in each restroom. I like it, you can count down the hours faster, "oh I can get 4 restrooms in this hour". The closets are next to each restroom so no need to run around. The fun part was having to cross the turnstiles each time, one of the restrooms is right outside, the other right inside.
Overall everything went well until the very last quarter-hour when a toilet started overflowing and I had to call maintenance. Fun times.

Friday, June 10.

Africa - Harambe.
09:00-21:00

First day in Africa!!! I had Raymond show me the break area and closet. Turns out that Africa sucks, our break area is the breakroom of the Tusker Restaurant, our closet is in the middle of Harambe and the two places to dump our banana boats after our trash runs are on opposite sides but not in a practical way. It was a great day, I was on parade duty (sweeping after the parade), I had two trash runs but they went well. I followed the lady before me and triple bagged everything, it was pretty awesome, killed an hour of my day. Brian another CP was in Pangani (the other half of Africa) and we talked for a while.
I believe this was the day we got called out for being in the office early (15 minutes instead of 10). We were told that they could not afford to give us an extra break so we must stay in our designated sections until 10 minutes to the end of our shifts.

Saturday, June 11.

Africa - Pangani.
14:30-21:00

After Harambe I had to do Pangani, of course. Brian was doing the trash run before me so I followed him around at 16:30 and double bagged everything. We had fun watching the video in the Safaris' queue line and watching the baby gorilla play around.

Entrance to the trail.

A bit before my break I met Greg, another custodial, and asked the innocent question of "who takes care of the trash cans in the Wildlife Express's queue line" to which he answered that it was me. I probably had a blank look on my face because he showed me how to get the banana boat and which way to start the run. Turns out Gerhard who told Brian how to do his run the day before started it from the wrong gate and didn't even get all the cans. So in the end my run went very well, the trash was pretty much empty and once everyone has left Africa we can actually take the banana boat into the queue lines and make our jobs easier.

Week 1

Sunday, May 29.

Dinoland - Theater in the Wild.
11:30-21:00

First day all on my own from start to finish. Scary, scary, scary. Actually it was; I went into the office knowing I would be in Dinoland and telling myself I had no idea in the world where the break room for that section was. Random thought, but important enough when you don't want to wander around aimlessly and missing breaks or lunches.
Once I clocked in, the coordinator in the office asked me if I knew where I was going. I laughed inside and told her I knew where Dinoland was, I had no recollection of where the break room was. Trina was assigned the task of showing me both the break room and the custodial closet. Turns out I had been to this break area, you have to cross the Main Entrance area, the Main Entrance break room and back area, go through Dinoland and then you get to the Dinoland break area. Trina showed me the break room and closet, which is actually a whole shed. She then left for her own area and left me stranded in a shed surrounded by towels, chemicals and trash bags. I stood in front of the paper listing my breaks, lunch, and trash runs and felt a little dazed when I realized I was placed in "Theater in the Wild" on my own and had three (3) trash runs in a row, from beginning to end. They offer little maps of all the cans in the shed. Let me tell you, those maps are useless. After standing there for 10 minutes feeling completely lost a man arrived and asked me how I was doing. I answered that all was well but I honestly did not know what Theater in the Wild encompassed and I was not quite sure how to start my trash runs. He was nice enough to show me where to get my banana boat (on the opposite side of the break area), my supplies (in the shed), and where to wash my boat when I'm done. He then took me around my area, the area surrounding the theater where Nemo the Musical takes place. It turns out it's a pretty easy run, the cans are easy to find, except for two of them which are inside the theater, in which we are not allowed unless right after the show when people are getting out. I was then left alone once again to sweep my area until my first trash run. It's a pretty shady area so it's nice, benches and tables with people to talk to and a stroller area with lots of trash falling out of the strollers.
After my first trash run I felt just a little better, it wasn't that hard after all. I had a small mental breakdown of "omg I am not going to get through this day, there's not way someone can do 3 runs in a row". (Turns out it's common to only have one person working that area, I'm still not sure why...). After my second run I felt much more confident and almost looked forward to the closing run, which is usually a lot emptier because of a certain lack of guests in Dinoland. The day ended on a happier note; I finished my closing trash early, washed the boat, got my pan and broom back in my locker and made it back to the bus and home.

Monday, May 30.

Asia - Caravan.
10:00-21:00

Not much to report for this second day. Only one trash run, the closing one. This is the area I worked with Joseph on my first day of training so I remembered where the cans were, where my cart was and where to empty the recycling, etc etc etc. The day went by pretty smoothly, I took my breaks. Realized the vending machines can be used with debit card --- oooo yeah.
The trouble with finishing at 21:00? The bus for Cast Members leaves the bus stop at 21:09. It takes at least five minutes to walk to the bus stop. We are allowed to clock out 2 minutes before the end of our shift, but after walking all day, rushing for the bus is not very pleasant. The next bus leaves at 21:40-ish. Wouldn't a car be nice? Why yes, yes it would!

Tuesday, May 31.

Off - Costuming

Going to DAK Costuming is an adventure in itself. The bus is the same as the one going to work, which means you spend over an hour in the bus going to and from there and you have to time your costume-picking just right so you can catch the next bus that comes by, usually 30 to 40 minutes. The problem is that each pair of pants should be tried on, some are definitely not 14 by 32, or I lose that much weight in 30 seconds hehehe. Considering the time I usually get up, going to Costuming is about all I get to do on my first day off.

Wednesday, June 01.

Off - Downtown Disney with Ricky.

We woke up early - just kidding, we didn't - and decided to go check out Downtown Disney. A little open "shopping mall" with lots of wonderful stores and nothing to pay for if you choose not to buy anything. Free free free to walk around and admire the lake, run around stores like little kids, and stuff our faces with delicious Ghirardelli milkshakes.

That's on the floor. And it's upside down because I'm LAZY.

But that's not how our day started. We thought it would be pretty cool for us to go by Hollywood Studios and then catch the bus over to Downtown Disney. Needless to say, that is not how it worked out. There are no buses straight from Studios to Downtown (I learned later there are no direct buses from DAK to Downtown either).

Ricky and I when we realized there were no direct buses to Downtown Buses.

We did make it to Hollywood Studios, where we were told that the quickest bus to Downtown Disney was the one that stopped by POP Century Resort. Yeah, kind of random, but I have to admit, the exterior of the place looks pretty amazing.

First sign when you reach the Resort.

I like the 60s one the best.

Once there we managed to catch the bus to Downtown Disney (finally hehehe) and that's where the fun began. So many stores, Disney, LEGO, jewelries, restaurants, Harley Davidson... it's amazing.

Ricky realizing there's more to Downtown than we realized.

Huge Disney store.

I ran around like a kid in a candy store once again. The first time we went through Downtown Disney we didn't cover all of it. We just saw a teeny-tiny part, the main store, the LEGO store and a few others. But this time we walked from one end to the next to see everything. And then we had to walk all the way back to catch the bus back to Vista.
I would like to mention now that I did not buy anything. Ricky keeps repeating that we can buy everything super discounted at any Company D store and that we are here for seven months. So I did not spend a dime outside of food items.

LEGO Store!!!

LEGO Dragon/Lochness thingamajiggy.

Planet Hollywood.

Cirque du Soleil tent.

It really is magical. So much to see and experience. Seven months are not enough!!!

Thursday, June 02.

Discovery Island - Flametree.
10:30-19:00

Not much to report. This was my first day in Discovery Island, the greater part of it is in the sun but it's still a beautiful place to spend the day. I was shown around the trash route by another gentleman who took me around, showed me the break room, and took me to see Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger. Oh yeah.
Halfway through my day I was told there was a "Safety Fair" going on at the Custodial Main Office and that I should go, you know, as an extra break. I went. I did their little tests: how to lift a box, where to put packs of ice on someone who had a heat stroke, what to put in your trash cart, and how to lift a trash bag out of a can properly. I then proceeded to turn in my little card with my hole punches in with my name and within two hours I was called back to the Main Office to receive my raffle prize: an Animal Kingdom umbrella. It's so pretty!
That was the highlight of my day, and pretty much all that happened.

Friday, June 03.

Asia - Anandapur.
10:00-19:00

Nothing to report. My trash run went fine, I remembered where all the trash cans were and Benela pulled some of them for me because he was bored. That's how our team works, if you have time, you double bag for the person after you. If you're tired of sweeping you help out the person doing their trash run. Or you listen to the screaming monkeys, no joke, at 10:30 they start screaming. Painful cries to make sure their territories are safe. Painful cries for our ears.

Saturday, June 04.

Asia - Restrooms.
08:30-19:00

Not much to say, they stick us in restroom the whole day. When taking care of Asia, you gravitate between the restroom in Caravan and the one in Kali/Anandapur. It's kind of nice, kind of crazy. Those are the restrooms I worked in during my training so I remembered where the closets were and I realized that it doesn't even take five minutes to go from one restroom to the next. Disaster came along at the end of my shift, when I realized that I was taking too long or hadn't started early enough. I rushed. Rushed. Rushed. Rushed. And ended up being early at the office to clock out. But the restrooms were clean, so I guess I did my job?

Fun days (Tues//Thurs//Fri)

Tuesday, May 24.

To be honest, it was all a blur - at least it is by now. What I DO remember from Tuesday is sleeping in, 'cause I know it felt gooood. My computer and photos tell me I also went to Epcot with at least Cristina - someone else was there, I believe it was Erin, she was excited 'cause she gets to work there!

Epcot!

We wandered around, rode Test Track, where we are dummies in car crash tests. Pretty sweet ride. We gave up on Soarin', the line for that ride is insane. We did go on the Nemo ride though, we sit in seashells and go through the story under water, it's awesome =D

Nemo!

At 20:45 we made our way to the lake in the middle of Epcot to watch the IllumiNations: fireworks and laser show with wonderful music and a globe that spun in the middle of the lake.

Not the main show, but still some water.

After that we waited in a back area for a bus back to the main bus area of Epcot. We waited half an hour. Then we were told that transit bus wasn't running anymore so we walked back to the main entrance and caught the bus there. As could be expected that ride took forever, but that's how the bus system works around here. I suppose we should be glad there are buses to take us to the parks... sigh.

Thursday, May 26.

On Thursday Jessica and I decided to hit Epcot again, try and track down Erin and you know, embarrass her or something. But first Jessica had one of her friend give us a ride to the Verizon store a little ways away so she could get a new phone charger. He then drove us to Epcot where we rode the Test Track again, because it's just that great of a ride!
Ricky met up with us, exhausted from his own training - spending all day in the sun doesn't work too well for him, he didn't have his hat back then. Jessica went to Germany with her guyfriend and I dragged Ricky to France. I bought lunch in a French patisserie and I almost passed out while eating my cheese/ham croissant and rustique and my strawberry tart. OMG they were so good!

Paris!

We made our way through the countries, but before leaving France we saw:

Belle and the Beast

So exciting! This is what Disney is about =D
And this is Ricky and me

We could be anywhere. But we're at DISNEY WORLD.

After that Jessica wanted to go over to the Magic Kingdom so we got on the monorail and road over there. When we got there Ricky was in a bad mood because of the heat/exhaustion so we left Jessica with a few friends she met up with and made our way back to the bus station and road over to what is called Property Control. Also known as awesome discounts for Disney employees. 75% on a number of things because they're not "show ready", they can't be placed on shelves because the plastic on this Barbie doll's box is a little scruntch up. Oh yeah, I'm going to spend money there. I didn't actually buy anything that time because we were riding the bus, I didn't want to carry stuff around. Yay for being lazy and saving money that way hehehe.
After that wonderful experience we debated going over to the Animal Kingdom Costuming to grab Ricky's hat but then realized that closed at 5pm and we would probably not make it back and decided to give up on that and go home to relax, out of the sun, out of the heat.

Friday, May 27.

Ricky was back at work on Friday. Lynn took me to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, where she worked on her last College Program, and we grabbed lunch there. The Lodge is awesome, very African-y with lots and lots and lots of birds and animals. For lunch we ate delicious flatbread pizzas and then walked around to look at the animals.

Giraffe.

Mr. Lizardude.

Pelican.

And then we drove home, Lynn went shopping with her friends, I tried to catch up on my blog, failed and watched TV until Ricky got back at which point we hung out and got dinner at Chick-Fil-A.