I'm sorry I stopped writing last summer. After a while, I just got so busy that I forgot about it! It is now February and the adventure of 2015 has just started. The interviews were two weeks ago and everyone just found out if they were selected or not. I'm happy to say that I will be going back to Disney on May 12th! I will be a lifeguard again! After seeing the number of questions that everyone has on the Program, I figured I would make a bunch of articles to answer all of those questions. Since I'm Canadian those articles will be about the process for Canadians and it might be different if you are from another country. This blog will still be bilingual, but it won't be as much about my experience as it was before, at least until I get back to Florida. For more information about the program, just go on the Disney International College Program page of this blog. Feel free to ask any question you might have.
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Sorry for the lack of updates, but a lot of things have happened since my last post: I finished my training at Typhoon Lagoon, my sister visited, I have worked like crazy and lost my roommate!
The training at Typhoon was long especially because we got extended the first two days for a total of four hours, but I got lucky and got an early release on the last day so I could see my sister! She arrived on my last day of training. On the week that she was here, I saw my sister two days, that's how busy we are all the time. I still got to visit Hollywood Studios and Epcot with her. Then, I started working. I worked four days, had one day off and then worked four days again. It doesn't sound that bad, but the days at Typhoon are a minimum of 11 hours. At least we have breaks! While I was working all those crazy hours, my roommate, Allison, broke her wrist. The first doctor that she saw told her she had restrictions for ten days, but, with her job, Disney couldn't accomodate her so she was off work until she saw the second doctor. The second doctor confirmed that her wrist was broken and put a cast on it (it's red and it looks really cool). Unfortunately, he also put her off work for four weeks which, because of our visa, meant that she couldn't stay in the US. For her last days at Disney, we went to Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. We saw the Star Wars fireworks (they are amazing) and I finally saw Festival of Fantasy (the last two times that we tried it was raining so they canceled it), we also met Anna and Elsa! She left on Monday (June 16), but she is coming back this week with her parents! As you can see, life as been full of ups and downs recently! I am starting to miss home, my family and my friends, even work! It has been a month now and I am very happy with my program so far. Even with all the difficulties and the long hours, we are having a lot of fun, but I am happy it's only two months! These lifeguard classes are weird! I love that they insist a lot on scanning and that they want us to care about our guests. They told us to scan like we know our non-swimming parents are coming, but we don't know when. The only problem is that everything they show us is different than what I have learned. The pocket masks are different, we do Artificial Respiration, when doing CPR we have to give breaths from behind the head of the victim and not from the side, to get an unconscious victim out of the pool we use the back board, but we don't care about spinal injuries... This class is giving me a headache! Not only is everything different, but I keep translating everything in my head to try to understand and I keep getting mixed up when I count! At least their philosophy is Make it Work so they don't care how we rescue the victim as long as it works.
The first two days, we saw how to do AR and CPR, how to rescue conscious and unconscious people and how to treat a spinal injury (only if the person is conscious, if the person is unconscious we don't treat the spinal injury). The last day, we saw all the first aid stuff in an hour and then started the exam. I had perfect in both CPR and the written exam so they gave me a key chain and for the team exam, we made a couple of mistakes, but we fixed them all so we passed. I am so glad the lifeguard training is over and I can finally start on the job training. I start training at Typhoon Lagoon on Saturday (May 24) and I have my first real shift next Saturday (May 31). Today is my first day off since I've been here! I wanted to go to the water parks, but it seems really complicated since our Maingates, which allow us to go to the parks for free, are not activated yet. We can go to the parks, but for the water parks, it's a little more complicated. Instead, I went to Hollywood studios for Star Wars Weekend with Florence. We went to Beauty and the Beast, had lunch at Pizza Planet, went to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Lights, Motors, Action! Later, I went to Walmart with Allison and relaxed because I start lifeguard training tomorrow.
On May 17, we had to be at Disney U for training at 7:30 so we got up at 5 to take the bus at 6 and get there on time. I had Welcome to Operations from 7:30 to 11:30 and then Welcome to Recreation from 12 to 16. Welcome to Operations was long, but kind of nice. I know all of the stuff they taught us is going to be useful on the job. They talked about the four keys again, what is good show and bad show, what we are allowed to publish on the internet about our job and they showed us how to lift heavy boxes and make repetitive movements without hurting ourselves. Welcome to Recreations was just a really long class because we were already really tired. Our teacher was really nice and the first two hours weren't that bad. She told us what Recreation is and what are the different roles. But then we had to do two online "classes", one about how to protect children from sexual abuse and another one about bloodborn pathogens. The second one took me an hour and it was so long and repetitive that I just wanted someone to shoot me! :O I'm glad they take the time to talk about it though because it prouves that they care about our safety. But then I got on the bus to go back home and I was able to relax and clear my head and when I got back to Patterson I was ready to go to EPCOT.
At EPCOT, we saw the Flower and Garden festival and Illuminations. We went to Spaceship Earth and Test Track This morning, we woke up at 5:15 to be at Chatham for 6:45 and take the bus to Disney University. At 8, we had Traditions. Traditions is probably the nicest class anyone could take and Disney University is probably the nicest school with the coolest teachers. We started class with a safety video about how to get out in case of an emergency. Then, they showed us a video about children learning they are coming to Disney and I started crying. They told us that the reason people come to Disney World is for the parks and the reason they come back is the Cast Members! After, they taught us about the four keys to make Disney magical, which are: Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency. They told us how to apply these keys everyday to make magic for our guests like the Disney Point, to get at the children's level when talking to them, etc. Then they read us letters that they received from guests and I started crying again. I don't know why, but it was just so cute! Then, they took us to Magic Kingdom to observe how the Cast Members use the four keys when they are working. We went to the tunnels under Magic Kingdom and they are HUGE! So many things are happening in there it is amazing! Class ended at about 1p.m. and we got back to the apartment to change and eat and then we went to Magic Kingdom! We had to take the bus to Magic Kingdom, but it was our first time so we didn't really know how to get there. The times guide only said there was a stop at Disney U, Westclock and Magic Kingdom so we took that bus and got to Disney U and we were wondering when we had to get off so we asked the driver and she told us we were supposed to get off at the Contemporary and take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. So we got off the bus at Disney U to get on an other bus that took us to the Transportation and Tickets Center where we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. This is all really confusing, but next time we will know what to do! At Magic Kingdom, we saw Dream along with Mickey, went to Enchanted Tales with Belle, Journey of the Little Mermaid, the Haunted Mansion, it's a Small World and saw the Electrical Parade, Celebrate the Magic and Wishes. We got home really late, but it was so worth it!
The days just keep getting busier and busier! Last night, after I finished writing in my blog, the smoke detector started beeping. It was 11 at night and we had to go to security to get new batteries. On the way, we met Leigha and Lauren who came with us. Unfortunately, security doesn't change batteries so they told us to wait until morning for the front desk to open. It stopped beeping after a while, but we still need to get it fixed. In the morning we had an immigration presentation at 8:30 and a recruitment meeting session at 9:30 . We filled up paperwork and by 10:30 we were done. We also had an appointment at 1 p.m. to find out about our training and the location we will be working at. They didn't give it to me right away because I had the lifeguard test to do in the evening, but Allison will be working in Main Street Operations. She is very happy about it and I am happy for her. It is probably the nicest job she could have gotten at Magic Kingdom. After the appointment, we went to Wal-mart again and then got back to the apartment. At 6:30 p.m., I went to my Lifeguard test. I passed! We have to re-do it for the Ellis trainers on the first day of training though. The test isn't very complicated. The deep water lifeguards have to swim 200m (8 laps), get a 10 lbs brick at the bottom of the deep end (feet first), thread water for two minutes with your hands out of the water and do a vision test (they make us read one line from one of those boards with letters on them). The shallow water lifeguards also have to do the vision test, but the don't need to thread water for two minutes. They only need to swim 50 m (2 laps) and get a 10 lbs brick in the shallow end (5 ft). We relaxed for the rest of the night and went to bed early because tomorrow is Traditions!
Hello everyone! The last two days have been really busy, but so amazing! Some other girls from Quebec and I had an early flight on May 13 from Quebec to Philadelphia. Then, in Philadelphia, we had to go through customs. Allison and I were nervous because our other flight was two hours later and we had to go through security after the customs. It took about an hour and we got to our flight on time. Then we took the plane from Philadelphia to Orlando which was fine. When we got to Orlando, one of Allison's suitcases was missing and we had to wait for 45 minutes, but it turned out to be a nice thing because we had time to go for lunch and we took the bus with the other girls who got there on a later flight. We got to Vista Way by 3 p.m. We did the check-in which was a lot of fun! Everyone is really nice and happy all the time! :) After check-in, they took us to our apartment in Paterson Court. Allison and I got the apartment we wanted with the roommates we requested. We haven't had a lot of time to talk to them yet though because we are so busy! Then we unpacked a little, went to Walmart to get the essentials and went to Downtown Disney for dinner. We went to bed early because we were so tired.
This morning we both woke up at 6 even though we had to be up by 8. We had a drug test at 10 which was really stressful. It was my first time peeing in a cup, yay! Everything went fine and we should have the results by Friday. We also had a housing meeting at 1. They explained us all of the rules for the housing with funny show and tells and it ended up being a lot of fun! Afterwards we went to Walmart again to buy groceries and went back to Downtown to eat. We ate at Portobello and it was so good! We got back to the apartment by 9 because we still are so tired! The days here go by really fast and I can't wait until Traditions on Friday when we get our name tags and passes to the parks. I still haven't done my swim test yet and nobody knows when it is going to be. I should have time to write a little more in the next few days. 15 days to go before I leave! This is taking longer then I thought. I am getting really excited and I can't wait any longer. I still have an exam left and a text to write, but school will be over on Tuesday. My suitcase is almost done, the only things I haven't packed yet are my clothes because I still need them. Everything else is packed and ready to go!
The good news is I get to work at the pool for the next two weekends so I will have something to do when school is over. We also have some activities planned with the other girls who are coming with me to Disney. In about a week, we should get the email about DORMS asking us if we want to choose our roommates and housing complex. I have chosen my roommates already and I hope we won't get separated when we get there. I only know one of the girls I should be rooming with: Allison. The four other girls live too far away and I only met them through Facebook. They seem really nice though! As you all know from my description, my name is Marie-Ève Boivin and I live in Québec, Canada. My first language is French, but I also speak English (obviously) and a little bit of Spanish and German. I am currently in my first year at Université Laval studying translation. I also work part time as a swimming instructor.
I am a pretty normal 19 year old girl, except this summer I will be working as a lifeguard in Walt Disney World! I still have a month before I leave and I can't wait. It might seem crazy, but I have started packing already. I will be leaving Québec on May 13th and flying to Orlando with a couple of other girls. For now, I still have two weeks of school to go through and four exams. I hope this month goes by quickly! |
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
February 2015
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