On Thursday the 28th, Anipier and I had our 3rd day of training at Typhoon Lagoon, which means we had our test to make sure we are ready to be lifeguards. The test is practically the same thing as day 2 of training, but instead of your trainer bringing you to the next stand and telling you where are the closest backboard and trauma bag, you have to bring your trainer to the next stand and tell him where they are. It's kind of like training the trainer haha! We were done by 3 PM and Anipier and I both passed with flying colors! After that they put us on stand. It was fun. I had missed lifeguarding at Disney. The guests are so nice and understanding of the rules and they respect us. One guest even came up to me to tell me I was doing a great job! On my first day back! How awesome is this!? I got extended for half an hour which doesn't seem so bad, but I have blisters on every inch of my feet and this was my first day out of six days in a row! It's gonna hurt like (bad word deleted) when I finally get a day off!
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Our second day of training was super chill and fun. We spent the whole day walking around the park with our trainer Andrew and stoping at every lifeguard stand to practice scanning. We learned where all the backboards and trauma bags are and what to do in case of an emergency. All things I already know, but it's nice to have a little refresh. Plus, I get to be Anipier's almost official interpret. She is pretty good in English and she understands most of what is said during the training, but she likes to ask me in French to make sure she understood everything. Our trainers get really confused when she asks me questions in French, but I just think it's funny! Anyway, thanks Andrew for the fun day of training! We have a day off tomorrow so we can finally sleep in and relax a little, I can't wait!
Forecast Typhoon was our first training at our location. It lasted only 4 hours and we got to learn about the story, the setting, the attractions, the restaurants, the different activities, the hidden Mickeys, etc. It was a lot of fun, but, since I have already worked at Typhoon Lagoon, I felt like I was cheating when they asked us questions. We also talked about the four keys again (Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency). It was simply a fun little introduction of the park and we got to tour the whole park. Apparently I'm aloud to call guests "Dude"! Not sure if I'm brave enough to try, but it's supposed to be part of the story! The Story of Typhoon LagoonEvery Disney park has it's own story. Here is the story of Typhoon Lagoon that you can also find on the signs at the entrance of the park and in certain books and videos about the park. I didn't write this!
"A furious storm once roared cross the sea Catching ships in its path, helpless to flee Instead of a certain and watery doom The wind swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon." For as long as anyone could remember, the quaint thatch-roofed village had nestled along the shores of the sparkling lagoon, in the shadows of a great volcanic mountain. Then came the 20th century with its cruise ships, and tourists and the Placid Palms Resort... a special little place for lucky vacationers each year. The great storm, however, changed everything... a furious, unrelenting typhoon catching a small fleet of ships by surprise, and tossing them about like toy boats for one terrifying hour. But in the storm’s wake was left a remarkable scene. A surfboard had penetrated completely through a huge tree. A small boat had blown through the roof of one building. A great buoy had crashed through the roof of still another. The Placid Palms Resort was now the Leaning Palms, almost ready to topple over at any moment. A small harbor had been cut off from the sea, trapping an overturned boat and thousands of colorful fish, uh... plus a few sharks along the way. Nothing, however, topped the sight of the shrimp boat, 'Miss Tilly', impaled precariously on the peak of the great volcanic mountain. To this day, the mountain tries vainly to dislodge its unwelcome burden with an enormous geyser of water every half hour. Well, what nature has done is a little redecorating. The inhabitants were left with the most extraordinary assortment of waterfalls, rapids, pools, surf and all around wetness the world has ever seen. The once sleepy resort had been turned into Typhoon Lagoon. MAGICAL MOMENT The mascot of the park, Lagoona Gator, is out surfing on the coast of Australia (according to the last news we have of him). Every day, to take his place, the Cast Members choose one guest (usually a small child) to be the "Big Kahuna" of the day. The Big Kahuna is responsible to make sure that everything is working the way it is supposed to. For that, he gets a guided tour of the park before it opens, his name on the board at the entrance of the park, a medal, a special reserved area on the beach right in front of the wave pool and, most of all, he gets to choose which kind of waves we will have on that day and to turn them on. It is such a special moment for that child, his family and for us as cast members! :) I passed my lifeguard class!!! The class took three days: two days where we learned CPR, FBAO (Foreign Body Airway Obstruction), first aid, rescue breathing and different water rescues and on the last day we had a CPR test, team rescue test and written test. It was still just as weird as last year and I can't believe how different the priorities and laws are in the United States. I can't get over the fact that I can't administer the Epipen over here. I'm just supposed to let the person die in front of me?! Plus, we don't do rescue breathing in Canada. We consider that if the person is not breathing they don't have a heart beat or won't have one in the very near future so we go strait to CPR. It makes more sense to me, especially since rescue breathing is so complicated, but it might be only because I'm not used to it. It was fun to get a review of everything, but three days was a little bit too long for me. After a while I just wanted to learn something new which was not on the program unfortunately. Anyway, it's done now and I can finally go back to Typhoon Lagoon! The good part is that I now have a very nice tan!
On Sunday the 17th, I had my Welcome to Operations and Welcome to Recreation classes. They weren't super interesting the first time and they certainly weren't better the second time! The video and exercices on how to lift and carry boxes is just awful. Try to squat in a dress and see how you like it! Our trainers were really nice and they did all they could to make it interactive and interesting and it probably wouldn't have been that bad if we weren't so tired. The classes started at 7:30 AM and ended at 4 PM with only an half hour break for lunch. It was rough to stay awake the whole time so we took the night to relax, go to Walmart for groceries and watch my favorite Disney Channel and ABC Family shows on the computer because, as cast members, we have access to the apps and websites to watch all the shows for free! Now, I'm ready to start the real training!
Traditions is so much fun! It's our first training and the goal is to explain the history and values of the Walt Disney Company so it's very interesting. They show us videos of people coming to Disney and enjoying their trip and of course I start crying every time. We went to the tunnels under the Magic Kingdom and to the Magic Kingdom and it was Édith and Anipier's first time so it was fun to see their reaction. Mickey made a "surprise" visit to give us our name tags and we got a free pair of Mickey Mouse ears! :D We also got our Cast Member IDs so we can now get into the parks and get discounts on merchandise and restaurants. We had to get up really early, but it was so worth it! On May 14th, at 6:30, after a few meetings, shopping at Publix and hanging out with my friends, Simon, Vanessa, Anipier and I had a swim test to do to make sure we are good enough to be lifeguards. On my DOC, it is written that I am supposed to be a shallow water guard, but they tested me as a deep water guard so instead of 2 laps and getting a 10 lbs brick at the bottom of the shallow end(5 ft), I had to swim 8 laps, tread water for 2 minutes with my hands out of the water and get a 10 lbs brick at the bottom of the deep end (8 ft). It was really easy and fun since, even if I went to the pool, I hadn't had a chance to really swim since I got here. We also had a vision test which I passed without my glasses!! That means I don't have to wear them all the time when I'm working. After that we wanted to swim a little more so Simon, Vanessa and I went to the pool at Patterson Court for a while! Another busy day!
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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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