Week 14

Sunday, August 28.

OFF.

Monday, August 29.

OFF.

I believe this was the day Ricky and I went to the post office to send my (last) check to Wazzu. We walked to McDonald's and then to the post office, which, it turns out, is closer than we realized. Since Ricky wasn't working until 17:00 we decided to go to Walmart and grabbed a taxi from the post office. It cost us $15.00 or so. Walmart was a rush, as usual. We tried to make it a half hour trip but the bus ended up breaking down before reaching Walmart so we had to wait half an hour outside. As usual, the bus system fails... how nice would a car be?

Tuesday, August 30.

Restrooms - Everest.
08:30-18:00

This is the beginning of one incredible week spent in restrooms. Read the rest of this blog, you'll know what I'm talking about. I suppose starting up with Everest restrooms made the rest of the week easier, a little bit. The park has slowed down a lot so restrooms are not as bad as they were in July and the first half of August; the Guests come in wave so it's a matter of giving up for half an hour until a lull comes and then cleaning up as much as possible. It was a dry day for the most part so everything stayed clean. While closing up a bit of rain fell (and when I say a bit, it poured) so I had to hurry when dumping my trash at Theater in the Wild. The Theater in the Wild restrooms are completely empty until the shows end and a huge wave of Guests come through, so four times a day.
Overall an easy day until my mad dash for the Main Office at the end of my shift being almost late. So much for leaving my area ten minutes before the end of my day.
The person in charge of the male restrooms in my area was Rhami, the international CP from Turkey. At 15:00 or so Coordinator Don called me asking if I had seen him at all that day; it turns out Rhami never showed up, so for a few hours that day the restrooms in Everest and Theater in the Wild were not cleaned at all. It led me to wonder why that had not been caught earlier in the day, we open those restrooms at 8:30 in the morning.

Wednesday, August 31.

Restrooms - Africa.
08:30-18:30

Following Everest (and the accompanying Theater in the Wild) came Africa. Aida who has restrooms very often agrees with me that those might be the worst. For some reason the counters are constantly flooded, we are not sure how it occurs. But busy restrooms mean that the day goes by fast, fast, fast. Apart from flooding counters the day was rather uneventful, I did some word-searches during my breaks and lunch and watched the Parade as it kept me away from the break room. I forgot that you have to cross the street in Africa in order to get through otherwise you have to wait for the Parade to go through Harambe to cross over. I made sure to start closing my restrooms early enough so I wouldn't have to rush over to the office, I learn from day to day how to be more efficient!
Today was the International CPs' last day working so after work I went to the Magic Kingdom with Ricky to meet up with Marcie and Amandine for Amandine's last Wishes. It's sad to see more people leaving.

This is what we did while waiting for then. Ricky kicked butt.

The Magic Kingdom has set up its Halloween decorations already, pumpkins can be seen everywhere!

Thursday, September 01.

Rafiki's Planet Watch.
08:00-17:30

Working at Rafiki's was a surprise and a little stressful before getting there. A few of the CP guys have been up there, girls usually never go up there. The Planet Watch is a little island floating above the park, the only way for the Guests to get up there is by the Wildlife Express (Laura drives that train). The train only starts up at 9:30 so Michael who works at Rafiki's all the time drove us up there.
Only two custodials work there, once up there we are in charge of streets and restrooms. There is only one Guest restroom, but five of them backstage. Some for all the cast members, some for the veterinary areas. As soon as we got up there he showed me around quickly and then we set to work opening up the outside, wiping down trash cans, tables, and benches, and pushing puddles.
Michael and Jean are usually the two custodials in charge of the area so they have a typed up schedule to help others follow along, incredibly useful. After drying up the outside part we opened the Guest restroom and moved on to check on all the back area ones. It's a maze; a huge, confusing maze. But by the end of the day I had the hang of it. After that we took a break, longer than the ones in the main area of the park because of the lack of work, and then went through the trash cans to pick out recycling from the main cans. Michael told me that the trash at Rafiki's was actually close to 80% recycling. People don't bring food on the train and the only thing available at the Planet Watch is ice cream.
The day went on like that for the most part, cleaning restrooms, picking out recycling, taking long, long breaks. Michael showed me all the animals backstage that are undergoing rehabilitation and told me stories of the animals that used to be there, showed me pictures on the walls of cows, pigs, llamas, goats, etc. Adorable. I met porcupines, Fennec foxes, parakeets, and a goose. They all had names, but honestly, it was all a whirlwind by the end of the day.
The trash run is so quick that Michael is usually in charge of that while Jean closes her restroom, I followed suit and closed my Guest restroom and then swept the indoor part of Rafiki's before pulling the last few bags of the trash run when it started raining.
Rafiki's Planet Watch usually has three Greet and Meet characters: Pocahontas, Rafiki, and Jiminy Cricket (who is the face of our recycling program). For some reason Pocahontas was the only one there for most of the day, Jiminy never appeared, and Rafiki only showed up for the last two hours or so.
Overall a very informative day, great fun. And as Michael has teased me about since then, I stayed with him all day. Apparently the others usually do their own thing. I'd rather hear stories and work with someone than be bored out of my mind and get lost in the back areas of Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Friday, September 02.

Dinoland - Dinosaur.
11:00-17:30

Back to Earth with a non-closing shift. I am definitely not a fan but I don't have a choice. I met Cori, one of the new CPs so it was worth it, she worked Boneyard; Justin had the closing Dinosaur trash run and was sad when he realized I was pulling each and every can no matter how little trash was in it. Rafael had done the same before me to make his day go by faster so there was nothing in the cans. We used pin trading as our excuse for clumping and spent most of the afternoon in the area between Dinosaur and Boneyard. Cori and I did get called out by manager Diane - who wasn't even working - who told us that we should break apart. She kept looking back to make sure we did. We didn't, nothing happened.

Saturday, September 03.

Restrooms - Main Entrance.
08:00-18:30

After a short time away from restrooms I was once again back toilet paper heaven. Main Entrance is my favorite set of restrooms, I'm not sure why. I worked with Thomas again, I can't quite figure him out; he doesn't talk to me, and kind of seems exasperated when I show up in the restroom closets. Not really my problem.
This was to be my last day in restrooms, if only...

Week 13

Sunday, August 21.

Africa - Harambe.
12:30-19:00

As the park starts closing earlier and earlier it requires earlier mornings. I remember a few weeks ago starting at 14:30... good times. Not looking forward to starting at 11:30 (or noon) every day.
I enjoy working in Harambe, it's a very easy trash run and compact area to clean. It has a good ratio of shade and has great people working there. I had to cover Tamu Tamu and Dawa Bar lunches again so I spent most of the day cleaning up tables and Pre-lining the Parade. The day went by incredibly fast, it's always a pleasure.

Monday, August 22.

OFF.

I spent the morning with Ricky, and by morning I mean, until 16:00 or so. I went to Hollywood Studios with him when he left for work. For the second half of the afternoon I met up with Amanda, Marcie, and Aida to ride some rides and see Fantasmic. Amanda's last day working with us is on Wednesday.

Tuesday, August 23.

OFF. Blizzard Beach and Magic Kingdom with Ricky.

I have no photos for this day, I believe this is the day we went to Blizzard Beach in the morning. I have to say, Disney is champion at theming. I don't like water/swimming/wearing a swim suit, but a good water park will just make you forget all that. There is a lazy river that goes all around the park, you sit in your little floating rubber ring thing (I just realized I don't know how to say it in English) and you float all around. There are a few entry/exit points depending where you want to go. I could stay on that thing for hours. We did a few slides and I stayed in the wave pool while Ricky did some more slides. It started raining while we were waiting for the bus so compared to our experience at Typhoon Lagoon, we did not get soaked!
We relaxed a little bit during the afternoon and then made our way to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks display Wishes. We made it in time to see the light show The Memories, The Magic, and You. They shine different lights on the Castle to highlight different areas, they display photos and have great music to go along. A beautiful night overall.

Wednesday, August 24.

Restrooms - Camp/Pizzafari.
08:00-19:30

I was supposed to be restrooms checker, that was how it appeared on my schedule, instead I was placed in the Camp Minnie-Mickey/Pizzafari restrooms. Camp is not the busiest area to work in, the restrooms even less. They are located at the very end of Camp and are mainly used after the Lion King show, so once an hour or so. The restrooms in Pizzafari are not very busy either, located inside the restaurant with the second entrance removed from the main path of Discovery Island, Guests opt for the restrooms in Africa. That would explain the amount of people in those restrooms. The day was not as boring as it could have been thanks to Dan and Paul working streets in Camp Minnie-Mickey. I actually met Paul in Camp my first time there, he's from Washington State University as well and remembers Ricky from the meetings we had before leaving Pullman. Dan is just fun to be around, especially when he's bored.

In more important news for the park Jabali, a baby elephant, was born today. He was 311 pounds at birth and his name means strong as a rock.

Thursday, August 25.

Africa - Pangani (switched to Restrooms).
12:30-19:00. Extended to 19:30.

I was excited to be in Africa, I have to say it's one of my favorite locations. Mainly because of the people working there, between Laura at the train station and the Internationals it's always fun to be around. I was placed in Pangani which is a great place to work thanks to the shade and for a lot of Custodial cast members because of all the hiding spots. I walked the trail a few times and then went to do Parade Pre-lining. As usual, it takes up a good chunk of the day so it's always nice to be part of that. As I continued to walk around Pangani waiting for my 17:30 trash run I ran into Scott, a strange sight - managers are not often seen off the main park paths. We chatted a little bit and then I finished my round.
A little bit after Pre-lining I was told that I would be taking over the Africa Restrooms at 17:00 and would be extended to 19:30. I still don't understand why these restrooms, so far off in the park, have to be opened a half hour later than the rest, but then, Guests are not always the smartest and will wonder why no one else is around. Covering these restrooms allowed me to skip out on my closing trash run in Pangani, I have to admit that was pretty nice.

Friday, August 26.

Africa - Pangani.
12:30-19:00

Saturday, August 27.

Restrooms - Main Entrance.
08:30-19:30

I was scheduled to work Africa from 12:30 to 19:00 again but Barb (manager) came into my Africa Restrooms on Thursday asking if I minded working a restroom shift. I like the air conditioning and the overtime so I readily agreed. I was actually able to pick between Main Entrance and Everest, I have a soft spot for Main Entrance so I picked that one - I later learned that Aida got the Everest ones... oops.
Since Aida and I came in at the same time she was nice enough to give me a ride to work. She called me at 7:28 (two minutes before my alarm) asking if I could be ready at 7:40, she had to go to costuming. I actually made it and we ended up being fifteen minute early to work.

It was a whirlwind of a day. It was Bethany's (CP manager) last day with us so at Track Talk at 12:45 we brought her a cake to show our appreciation. She allowed Aida and me to take our break fifteen minutes late so we made our way to Pride Rock for lunch and stayed there 45 minutes instead of half an hour. Dan who had just come in at 12:30 and should have been in Pangani by 13:00 or so came along with us and sat there. Huan showed up for his lunch a little later so we all had a good time.

The tail of Irene also sent a large amount of wind and rain our way (contrary to what Ricky believed on Friday night). On my second break I tried to make my way back to the break room right when the skies open. I grabbed a random poncho left behind in the bathroom closet and ran to grab my own rain gear in the break room. As I got there a lady came out running asking if I had any extra towels, a flood was forming in the break room. At that time Scott (intern manager) showed up and we spend fifteen minute mopping and toweling the floor dry - good times. Scott is an important manager in our little College Program Universe. Since Bethany is leaving/left he is now in charge of us. Because of that fact most of the CPs are wary of him and are not all that friendly towards him. As he says, he makes it a point to chat with all of us and to go all over the park, as opposed to other managers who just stay on the main paths and don't venture in to the Jungle Trek or Pangani. That only registers as negative for the CPs who see him as invading their hiding spaces. I chat with him when he shows up, he's 23 and is having trouble "fitting in" with the older custodials. I figure it can't hurt to make friends with managers, now can it?

Week 12

Sunday, August 14.

Asia - Caravan.
11:00-18:30

It gets harder and harder to write interesting things when it all becomes the same, over and over again. I've written a few times about Caravan, the trash run, the rain, the Parade, how much I love this area. I was once again the closing sweeper which meant I had the 16:30 trash run, my break keeping me from watching the Parade. The nice thing about finishing with no closing trash is the lack of rushing, the bad thing is that once you're done with your trash there is very little to do. Caravan is still one of the best shaded area in the park.

Monday, August 15.

Dinoland - Dinosaur.
13:30-20:00

A lot like Caravan, Dinosaur is the area in Dinoland with the most shade. The Crutaceous Trail is the perfect shaded area to hide in, the managers and coordinators don't go through there very often. Dinosaur had a few problems with their Fast Passes so the line for them (which should be shorter than the stand-by) was incredibly long. Guests are never very happy when they wait after being told they could skip lines. Managers have been making their rounds, especially in the areas near the front of the park. Ian walked through Dinoland a few times and called me as I started my last run to tell me one of my cans was close to overflowing. Dinosaur (the ride) has four cans inside which I try not to forget. Getting them after the park closes is a lot easier than getting to them in the middle of the day.

Tuesday, August 16.

Car rental with Ricky!!! This was great, we decided to rent a car for a 24 hour period and do all the things we have wanted to do for a while. We didn't get to everything but we did a lot. We walked over to the Hampton hotel near our apartments and got a Honda at 13:00 or so and drove over to Golden Corral, the best buffet I have ever seen, quality and quantity wise, it almost made me forget about Roy's Buffet. We then made our way around, getting lost and all that jazz. We made it to Target, except it was SUPER Target, it has a whole food section and we went crazy when we saw all the deals they had on pasta and granola bars, needless to say we got two carts.

Wednesday, August 17.

Since we had the car until 13:00 we drove over to Costuming at the Animal Kingdom and then to Property Control at the Magic Kingdom where I managed to buy a huuuuge bag of pasta. I think it's a ten pound bag, I figure pasta doesn't go bad and we eat a lot of it.

Thursday, August 18.

Dinoland - Dinosaur?
12:30-19:00

In a really strange way I could not quite recall which area I had. I haven't worked Boneyard in quite a while and Theater in the Wild doesn't start at 12:30 so that leaves Dinosaur.
We had the Kali River Kooldown after work, a "cast appreciation event" from 18:00 until 20:00 so a few of us went over (in the pouring rain) to Asia to get our free ice cream and our manager Ian ended up giving us a ride from Asia to the parking lot so we wouldn't get more soaked than we already were.

Friday, August 19.

Asia - Caravan.
12:30-19:00

Repetitive week at all? Caravan once again, this time closing trash. It becomes easy once you get used to the run, even more so when the park is not as full as usual. The crowds have died down, people are still shocked that the park closes at 18:00 but then they run off to the other parks and Animal Kingdom empties pretty fast, at least Asia and Africa.

Saturday, August 20.

Dinoland - Theater in the Wild.
11:30-19:00

Dinoland again!!! This time Theater in the Wild with its amazing three trash runs. I only ended up doing two of them since the last time I had Theater I didn't pull anything from my first run. So I ignored the 12:30 trash run and went to Track Talk instead and listened to the managers tell us once again to empty the recycle bags even if there are bees. "Do not swat at them" was repeated a few times and all the CPs agreed after the meeting that if there were bees the recycling would go in to the compactor with the rest of the trash. One bee - I'll empty the bag, over fifty - I will not approach the recycling.

Roomates

What to expect, what NOT to expect.

Cristina Hernandez
She's 23 and from Puerto Rico. She shares a room with Laura since Erin moved in with Jessica. She worked main desk at the Caribbean Beach Resort, she has now been trained as a runner for the resort. She delivers meals and packages, and opens locked doors for guests.

Erin Taisey
From Michigan, she is 22 and shares a room with Jessica. She works in Epcot's Sunshine Season restaurant.

Jessica Kasl
Turned 22 on August 11. She comes from Arizona and likes the dry heat more than the humid one, who doesn't? She works at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom. She now shares a room with Erin.

Laura Monday
From Tennessee, awesome accent included. She shares a room with Cristina after moving out of Jessica's room. She is 100% into Harry Potter. I believe she is 21 or 22, Facebook is keeping it secret and I'm not trusting my own brain. She works as a conductor in the Wildlife Express that acts as transportation between Africa and Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Lynn Frederick
From Michigan she is 22 since June and shares my room. She works attractions in Magic Kingdom's Thunder Mountain.

Obviously the one who isn't Laura.

Group shots

Going to Traditions (back in May). Lynn didn't have the same schedule.

Woken up in a rush for our inspection. Laura was already at work.

The only day we were all in the apartment for a minute (literally).

308!!!

Week 11

Sunday, August 7.

Asia - Caravan.
11:30-20:00

I was a Call-In Factor on Sunday. So if anyone had called-in sick I would taken their spot. It turns out no one called-in sick. Well they did earlier but the other Call-In Factors had already stepped in to fill the gaps. So Bernadette gave me the choice between Caravan and Anandapur. Both are up in Asia so I was happy either way but being lazy I picked Caravan. I love Caravan, it's the first place I knew like the back of my hand, it was my training grounds. So I had the 16:00 trash run, before starting that I had a break and when I reached the break room Dan, Marcie, and Amandine were already there so I chatted with them until another three CPs showed up and then a Manager. She got mad at us for all being on break/lunch and no one being outside in the area. Until we showed her the area's schedule where we were all legally on break. Then she started joking with us so we let it go. Marcie joked that I should double bag my run so she would just have to pull at closing, which I actually did to draw my run out, I took over an hour instead of 45 minutes so it was great. It was a good thing since it started raining a little before the last trash run and Marcie was able to power through her run and not get completely drenched (like Amandine in Everest). I managed to wear my rain gear that day so I wasn't completely soaked. I also got a ride from Amanda (the beginning of my addiction to getting rides) we could barely see the road, it was ridiculous. And then within the hour it stopped.
We had a barbeque planned at Vista that night for Custodials so we were all sad when it started raining but we didn't give up and by 21:00 a dozen of us met up at the grill behind the Vista swimming pool. Aida and I had to drive over to Walgreens to buy more charcoal for the fire. The bbq was delicious and we all had a great time. Once again it was mostly a goodbye hang out.

Monday, August 8.

Asia - Caravan.
13:30-20:00

I was supposed to have my Monday off but I picked up Sarah's shift. She was desperate to give it away so she could go and have fun with her friend. So it was more hours for me, yay!
I had Caravan again, I worked with Tasso and Paul. Trina was seen only during her trash run at 16:00. I was about to tell a manager that she hadn't been out all day but the managers were gone by the time we got back to the Main Office that night.

Tuesday, August 9.

Off - Downtown Disney with Ricky. Disney Quest and RAIN.

Wednesday, August 10.

Restrooms Checker.
08:00-17:30

I was a checker a month ago. This time I had the other half of the park to check, so Restaurantosaurus, Hester and Chester's, Theater in the Wild, Everest, Flametree, and Kali. Don was checking the male restrooms on that side so it was another fun day. As usual it rained, Don tried to steal my poncho so I hit him with my broom. The usual. It was his last day, like a lot of the other CPs, namely Nick, Brittany, Van, and Brian.
A few of them worked until midnight. The park holds "conventions", large groups can rent the park on Wednesday nights, so a few of the Custodials worked last Wednesday, and others worked this week, and next week. I kind of wish I could work conventions, I'm waiting to get scheduled for them, I hope I will. You get free popcorn and cookies.
When I got home I took a nap for a few hours and then took a shower. When Ricky got back we hung out for a little bit and at 1:00 am Brittany picked me up from Vista to go to Ihop. I had the crepe with fruits. Delicious. We went there to say by to Nick and Brittany, Brian was supposedly too tired to go, so I didn't actually get to say goodbye.

Photo from Brittany's phone.

On the left you can see: Me, Amanda, Amandine.
And on the right: Dan, Nick, Brittany, and Marcie.
Aida showed up later.

Thursday, August 11.

Africa - Pangani.
12:30-19:00

We were all pretty amazed when we saw our schedule that we weren't closing any days that week until we realized that the park starts closing at 18:00. So I had the joy of closing Pangani. The main problem we had to adjust to was the disappearance of the 16:00 trash run which used to make our closing trash pretty empty. When we all got back to the Main Office we were all horrified to realize that we will have to empty our boats two or three times each run. Ha, yeah, that sucks.
That morning we were also sad to realize that we were the only five CPs there that day and they had us spread all over the park. It's a horrible realization when you can't chat with friends.

Friday, August 12.

Main Entrance - Bus Side.
12:00-19:30

Yay, Bus Side! The fifty-fifty chance I have of getting that side versus Medical Side seems to lean heavily towards the buses.
Dan was happy to see he had Medical Side, apparently he never had that side before, I'm kind of glad he did since he had two runs in a row. My closing trash run ended (and pretty much started) under the rain. I managed to reach the bus stops (therefore cover) and realize that I did not have my rain gear before the skies open and buckets emptied on the park. So I did my run under the rain, it wasn't the first time and it won't be the last, and to be honest I love it so I managed to keep my Disney Smile on until I reached my apartment.

Saturday, August 13.

Dinoland - Theater in the Wild.
11:30-19:00

My hip acted up this morning, I could barely go down the stairs and almost didn't make it into the bus. I forced myself to walk to the Main Office, and apparently warming it up was all it needed. It wasn't feeling 100% wonderful but I can walk normally. I think that walking uphill all day in Main Entrance is destroying my legs, just saying.
Theater in the Wild I had not worked in since my training days so I was pretty excited to be there. When in that area of Dinoland you're on your own and have the three trash runs for the day. I triple bagged on the first path and had only one bag to dump at the end of that run. The second run I had to dump twice, the third only once. The runs are at 12:30, 15:30, and 17:30, it's interesting to see when people go through the most. The Nemo Musical is the reason people are in that area, when going into the theater to pick up the trash you have to figure out the exact time to go in. You have to wait for people to have stopped walking out but go in before they start loading the next show. I also found a few cans I forgot to get on the times I had done that trash before. Oops?