On Tuesday June 30th, I was working a PM shift and got put on the "Kiddie Rotation", which means I was mostly working at Ketchakiddie Creek, the kids section. I love that rotation because you don't have to scan all the time and can interact with kids. But, on that day, there were two little girls who were too tall to do the slides. Instead of arguing with us, crying or throwing a tantrum like most kids (or their parents) do, they decided to become "lifeguards in training" (their words not mine) and spent at least one and a half hours helping other children get on their tubes and gently pushing them down the slide and helping them get out at the bottom. They even asked us what the rules were for that slide so they could help us enforce them. They were awesome!
Christina, an other lifeguard who had been at the kiddie raft while they were helping us, and I thought that they should be rewarded for their good work and, since she was out early that day, she clocked out, went to Guest Services (while she wasn't working), asked for Honorary Citizen pins and coupons for free ice cream and came back to the kiddie area to give it to them. They were so happy and it totally made our day! It was so cute! And girls, if you are reading this, thank you so much for your help! You did a great job! It's days like this that I love working for Disney!
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On Tuesday June 23rd, I had to go back to work for 8 days in a row, BUT we started something amazing this week at Typhoon Lagoon: the split shifts! It is very simple, instead of working the whole day, you work either the morning shift or the afternoon shift. 6 hours everyday! Isn't it amazing?! I now feel a lot better because the cough medication as been helping a lot and the split shifts allow me to enjoy at least half my day and get some rest when I need it.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I simply slept in and got some rest before going to work in the afternoon, but on Thursday, I was working the AM shift so, after work, I went to Epcot with Erin, a girl from Ontario I work with. There was a HUGE thunderstorm, but we did Soarin' (remember that fastpass that Sean gave me? I didn't have to wait in line this time!), Living with the Land and Circle of Life. After that, we met Pooh and Tigger in United Kingdom, went to the Rose & Crown Pub for dinner and we got to see Illuminations form the restaurant's terrace and had the best possible view! And a duck tried to eat Erin's food, it was funny! On Friday, I was working PM so I went to Typhoon to play with Erin and Vanessa in the morning, worked 6 hours, and then spent almost the whole night talking with Florence and Laurie. We hadn't spent any time just the 3 of us since the program started and it was great to see them and get updated on each other's life. We live right next door, but with our busy schedules we don't get to see each other as much as we would like. Since we went to bed at 4 in the morning, I slept in on Saturday before going to work. On Sunday, I went to Typhoon to play again, but with Anipier this time. She had In-Service Training in the morning and we were both working at 2:30! Plus, her family was coming so she had to be there anyway. We had so much fun and I hadn't seen her in forever (ok 4 days, but we usually spent everyday together so it felt like forever!) so it was good to see her. At night, I went to Vista Way because Simon's sister and her boyfriend are here so they had a BBQ. Florence and Rosalie were there too and it was so much fun. We talked, went to the pool and laughed. We ended up leaving Vista at about 2 AM and going to bed way too late, but it was so worth it! On Monday, instead of sleeping in, Florence and I made a reservation to spend one night at the Polynesian Village Resort on July 7th! I am so excited! I also passed my inspection (Thanks Disney Housing for the Rice Crispies :D). I worked my PM shift and then went to bed early because I was exhausted from the night before. And here I am, Tuesday morning, updating my blog before going to work for my last day in a row! It's been an awesome 8 days and I hope the rest of the summer is just as amazing! The split shifts are wonderful because I can finally take advantage of the fact that I live in Florida, right next to Disney World and actually enjoy my summer! On Monday the 22nd, Stéphanie and I were both resting at home, but doing nothing is very boring and we didn't want to waste a day here! So since we needed to rest, but still wanted to do something, we decided to go to the movies to see Inside Out. It is the new Disney Pixar movie that just got out and I couldn't wait to see it.
It is just as good as it looks in the trailers! I laughed, I cried (I am not ashamed to say it!) and I would love to see it again. It is a brilliant movie and I even learned a few things. I definitely recommend it to everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a very long time, but it's been hard lately! I have been sick for a week and it is not getting any better. :( Those 12 hour shifts are killing me. I have been working more than 10 hours a day all week even though I'm sick and Saturday the 20th I had to get an ROS (release of shift) so I could go home because I just couldn't do it anymore! I feel like crap! I was able to give my Monday the 22nd shift away so I can rest and get better and I called in sick this morning (Sunday the 21st) to go to the doctor.
As many of you know, I don't have a car while I'm down here. I walk or take the CP bus everywhere I need to go. Unfortunately, the clinic isn't on the list of places where the buses go and there is no way I'm walking there when I can barely breathe. But, the Centra Care Clinic offers to pick you up at your apartment you just have to call them. Yeah, but they don't answer when you call. I tried calling about 15 times!! While I was calling the clinic over and over again, Stéphanie, a girl from Montréal, wrote on the Facebook group that she had to go see a doctor and asked where she had to go and how. I explained the situation to her and she offered to split the taxi fare between the two of us. So we got to the clinic and within an hour we were both done. I should be fine, the doctor says it's laryngitis and bronchitis and prescribed some medication for the cough and I just need some rest and to drink a lot of water. It's usually not a big deal, but the heat and the long hours at work just made it way worse. We got a ride back home from the clinic and headed to Walgreens to get our prescriptions, but, of course, the pharmacy counter at Walgreens is closed on Sundays and there is only one in the city that is open 24 hours! Great! So we had to take the taxi again to go to Walgreens and get our medication. This was an expensive day! Hopefully I get better soon! On Wednesday June 10th, Florence and I had the day off and we didn't know which park to got to. So why not do all four of them in one day?! 4 parks in 1 day is a challenge that CPs (College Program participants) have been doing for years. The goal is to do 2 attractions in each park and finish the day at Magic Kingdom to see Wishes. The trick is to start at Animal Kingdom because this park closes early, then take the bus to Hollywood Studios. From Hollywood Studios, take the boat or walk to Epcot and take the monorail from Epcot to Magic Kingdom. That way you save a lot of time AND try every type of transportation available! How cool is that!? So that was our plan for the day... We started our day at 9:30 at Animal Kingdom. We did Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. Of course, our day couldn't go perfectly and my phone fell from my purse in Dinosaur! :O I found out about 30 seconds later while we were walking to the exit. So as we walked back to Dinosaur, Florence used the Find my Phone app to locate it. With our picture from the attraction, the Cast Members could pin point exactly which vehicle we had used, but unfortunately, my phone wasn't there. They told us that it had probably fallen on the track and they wouldn't be able to look for it until the park closes at 8 PM. Since there was nothing we could do, we went to Guest Relations to file a report and went on with our day. When we got to Hollywood Studios, we had lunch at ABC Commissary and, while we were eating, Florence tracked my phone again and it wasn't in Dinosaur anymore!!! Someone had taken my phone!!! We put it on Lost Mode so they couldn't use it and the only thing that would appear on the screen would be Florence's phone number so they could call us. There was still nothing I could do about it, but hope that they would give it to a Cast Member or bring it back to Guest Relations. So we rode The Great Movie Ride and Rock n' Roller Coaster and left for Epcot, but there was a thunder storm as we were starting to leave so we couldn't walk or take the boat and ended up taking the bus again :( It had stopped raining when we got to Epcot. We rode Mission Space and Soarin'. Now, if you have been to Epcot in the summer, you know that the line for Soarin' is incredibly long. Well, we had to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes! It took forEVER! And I didn't even have my phone to keep me busy!! But, when we finally got to the end of the line, Florence and I were asking ourselves which row went the highest. Well, one of the Cast Members, Sean, saw that and asked us if we had a question. Turns out, the first row goes the highest and he asked us if we wanted to wait and be on that row! Euh... YES!!! So he put us on the front row, in the middle, and, when we were seated, he came to see us and gave us Fastpasses so we could do it again anytime in June without waiting in line for 2 hours!! To thank him we went to Guest Relations and wrote him a letter that will hopefully go on his record card. Thank you so much Sean!! That was so nice of you! Next up, Magic Kingdom! We took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and, during the ride, Florence tracked my phone one more time. Turns out, it was at Animal Kingdom's Guest Relations!!! Since they hadn't called us, we went to Magic Kingdom's Guest Relations and asked them to call to confirm that they had it and they DID!!! I couldn't go get it because Animal Kingdom was about to close, but I could go and get it at the TTC (Tickets and Transportation Center) the next day. Of course, by the time we got out it had started pouring again. We decided to go eat at Cosmic Rays because it was the closest quick service restaurant from where we were. While we were walking, Florence spotted a guy she knows who works at Buzz Lightyear. He took pity on us and gave us a No Strings Attached coupon so we could get ponchos. But instead of giving us a coupon for two ponchos, he gave us a coupon for 25$ worth of merchandise! So we got two ponchos (9$ each) and a bag of Goofy's Gummy Worms and they are delicious! Instead of going to Cosmic Rays we went to Pinocchio's Village Haus because we now had ponchos and could walk a little more to a restaurant where we actually wanted to go (Cosmic Rays is always so busy and I don't think it's that good). Did I mention that I had put my debit card in my phone case so I wouldn't forget it at home when I left for work? Well I did! And where is my phone right now? Who knows!? Florence had been paying for me all day so when we got to Pinocchio's, she paid for herself and joked that she was paying for me because it was my birthday. But when she tried to pay, the Cast Member told us she didn't have to! Wait, what!? When we got to the counter, they were speaking French so we started talking to them and they ended up giving us a chocolate cake and a bottle of water each! Wait, whaaaat!? At Magic Kingdom, we did Philarmagic and the Carousel and we ended the day watching Celebrate the Magic and Wishes. It wasn't a perfect day, but it was perfect to me because so many things happened and I had so much fun! Thanks to the many Cast Members who helped make this day magical for us! I don't remember all of your names, but thank you so much!! And a very special thank you to the wonderful person who brought my phone back to Guest Relations! You are my hero! My schedule has been pretty crazy lately. I expected it because it was the same thing last summer, but I still wanted to show you guys what it looked like :) Sorry for the bad quality! I just took a picture of my computer screen.
How it works is, every week at midnight, during the night between Saturday and Sunday, we get the schedule for the next week. So we know two weeks in advance when we are going to work. As you can see, we are working a lot of very long hours. Everyday, we get a 30 minute unpaid break and, depending on how many hours we work, we can get a 30 and/or a 15 minute paid break. Since I have been here, I never had less than two 30 minute breaks since I have never worked less than 9 hours. On Saturday June 6th, exactly 10 hours after we had finished work, Anipier and I went to Animal Kingdom to do the Wild Africa Trek. We were joined by Marie-Ève Bédard (another Marie-Ève, I don't talk about myself in the third person haha) who wanted to do the trek too. I recommend it to everyone who likes animals and speaks enough English to understand! Especially if you get a 50% discount like we did! It is 3 hours of walking in the forest and going on a safari. All your pictures are included in the price, as well as a Will Africa Trek water bottle and a pretty big snack! We were so lucky because it was stormy that day so it wasn't as hot as it normally is here and a lot of animals were out and very active so we saw a lot of animals that you don't see often on the regular Kilimanjaro Safari. I learned a lot of new things about the conservation of animals in reserves or in Africa and it was very interesting! (I'm not telling you what I learned because I'm not going to spoil the tour for you. You have to do it!) Once the trek was over, we went on Kali River Rapids, ate chocolate waffles and went back home. Fun fact: On the way back home, I was so tired that I fell asleep in the bus and, when the bus turned, I almost fell on the floor! Hahahahahaha I looked ridiculous and it was hilarious! The title sounds like so much fun, but it's not exactly what you think! "Let's Go Play" is in fact the name of an event held at Typhoon Lagoon once a year for which I was working. It was fun though! It is a gay pride event and I have no idea how people heard about it and got tickets or how much it cost, but there were a lot of people there. I was working from 7:30 PM to 2:30 AM. The whole week before the event, everyone kept telling us that they didn't want to work the event, that it would just be guys kissing and being way too intimate in public. Even though I did see a couple of things I wish I could unsee, they were all very nice to us and it was way better than I thought it would be. A lot of them thanked me for working late and they kept asking me how I was doing and if I was having fun. Yes they were extravagant and yes they were wearing very tiny speedos, but they were also super nice and respectful for the most part. I wouldn't mind working that event again and I actually DID have fun!
MAGICAL MOMENT Just before the event, there was a gigantic thunderstorm and when the event started it was still raining a little, but the sun was setting at the same time so the whole sky was bright pink and there was a complete double rainbow over the park for about 45 minutes! Get it? A double rainbow for a gay pride event!! I'm sure it was planned! Disney magic at it's finest haha On June 3rd, Florence and I decided to head to Typhoon Lagoon for our workout. I have been working out once or twice a week with either Anipier, Florence or both (even though our jobs and grocery shopping should totally count as workouts!). We got there for the opening at 10 AM and walked the entire lazy river against the current. It usually takes about 20 minutes to go all the way around in a tube and it took us 20 minutes to walk against the current! It was so hard that my legs were shacking when we got out. Since we were already there, we decided to do some rides and eat lunch at Typhoon Tilly's, one of the park's many restaurants. We rode Gangplank Falls, Keelhaul Falls and Mayday Falls and had a blast in the wave pool. We even had the chance to snap photos of Anipier and Karen working! Since it was still pretty early and we hadn't been yet this summer, we headed to Blizzard Beach. We arrived at about 3 PM and we had time to ride Teamboat Springs, Downhill Double Dipper, Toboggan Racers, Snow Stormers and Runoff Rapids. And we even had time to enjoy the lazy river for a little while. During our afternoon there, we had the chance to see Rosalie, Vanessa and Simon working so we took some pictures of them too. We need proof that we they have been working because, for some reason, everyone who isn't on the program doesn't believe us when we say we work a lot! The waterparks are going to be blocked out for Cast Members starting June 5th which means, everyone who does not work at a waterpark will need to buy tickets. Lucky for me, I do work at a waterpark so I get to go for free all summer! :D It was a great day and if you ever have the chance to visit one of the two waterparks, try the donuts, the huge ones and the mini donuts. They are both oh-so-delicious! You don't wanna miss it! Sorry for not updating in forever, but like I said in the last post, I have been working a lot. I survived my six days in a row of 9:45 AM to 7 PM! Hooray! Oh and don't forget on that last day I had in-service training so instead of starting work at 9:45, I started at 7:30! I'm exhausted and my feet still hurt so bad. I bought blister band-aids and tape because the band-aids won't stay in place and they fall off as soon as I step in the water or the sand (I work at a beach themed water park where there is sand everywhere). Not much has happened. I wake up, go to work, work very long shifts, go home, sleep and do it again! Life at Disney is hard, but even if the good days don't necessarily out-number the bad ones, they are still completely worth it and I wouldn't trade my life here for anything in the world!
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AuthorHello everyone! My name is Marie-Ève. I am from Québec, Canada and this blog is about my summer as a cast member in Walt Disney World. Since most of my family and friends speak French, everything on this blog will be written both in English and French. Archives
December 2015
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