I've Earned My Ears!

Since my last post was about training and my experience with that, I am now here to inform you all that I have finally EARNED MY EARS!!!! No more training for me! Today was my first day working by myself and I can't sit here and tell you that it was a breeze, because it was rocky in some parts, but I'm learning. Since International Gateway is another entrance into Epcot, at World Traveler we deal with A LOT of package pick-ups and shipping. We also rent strollers, ECV's, wheelchairs, and lockers. When a guests comes in the store and wants to ship something back home, or send their bags and purchases to their resort, a whole process accommodates that. And it is lengthy and time consuming. I'm not going to get into the details, but I will say that I believe Disney is a wonderful company, but they could make that process MUCH easier. Needless to say, my little shop is constantly busy in some sort of way. The guest interaction is great (minus the snoody, picky, guests that can come by) and the time goes by pretty quickly, which is a good thing!

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Yesterday after I got home from work, Elizabeth and I decided that we all needed a good meal and we wanted to watch the fireworks. What did we come up with? We all went to the Polynesian resort and ate dinner at Kona. It. Was. Fab. I got their Asian stir-fry and it was great! Afterwards we watched "Wishes" on the beach. The view was fabulous as well. The Grand Floridian was to our left, and the Contemporary was to our right, with Magic Kingdom and the Castle straight ahead. As many times as I have visited WDW, I have never watched the fireworks outside of the park, and now I highly recommend it to anyone.

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Wednesday, since I had the day off, Elizabeth, Morgan, and I headed to Epcot to thoroughly enjoy World Showcase. We went through every country, every gift shop, and ate dinner in Japan. There were so many goodies that I wanted to buy in each of the shops, but I refrained. We also met several characters including Princess Aurora, Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto. It was a great day off! (pics are on my Facebook)
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Tomorrow I have work at 4:15, but Elizabeth, Allie, and I are going to Animal Kingdom early in the morning. Having the closing shifts aren't so bad when you can go play in the parks before work!

Training & Random Ramblings

So much has happened since my last post. I have been through 3 days of training, and I start my tier 4 training on Thursday. I have tomorrow (Wednesday) and Friday off! Whoo hoo time to play in the parks!

Tier 1 training started on Sunday from 10am-6:30pm and it consisted mostly of just getting acclimated to my location and the store I will be working in. I got fitted for my costume and got to bring 5 home with me. Yayyy.... They are SO cute (sarcasm). After that my trainer, Brittany, and I headed to do a little bit of online training and then went straight to World Traveler afterwards. I got to interact with the guests so that was awesome. I gave little princesses and princes stickers and greeted guests with Mickey outside. Working in merchandise also requires cast members to pin trade. I have never been a pin trader, but after doing it for 3 days, it is so much fun! Kids love it and its exciting to watch their faces light up when they see a pin on my lanyard that they love or is a part of their collection. I also got a tour of our stockroom, breakroom, and all of my backstage area.

Day 2 of training took me back to Disney University to attend my Merchantainment class. Merchantaining is a "Disney term" that means what you think it does. Merchandise + Entertainment. Disney believes that even the shops should be entertaining. It could be anything from walking around with a goofy hat on and interacting with guests, to grabbing Mickey hands and waving to guests. It can literally be anything. This class was also to teach us about working the registers. This was a more difficult learning experience, but it was fun.

Tier 3 training was today from 8am-4:30pm. I met up with Brittany again and we went straight into World Traveler and started practicing the registers. Disney has a certain way of counting back change, and that was the biggest adjustment for me. I learned A LOT today. It was the most hands-on training I have done yet, and I feel like that is the best way for me to ultimately learn. I was on registers for about 4 hours today, and it was a lot of fun! I got to interact with guests from all over the world. I love asking where they are from! I will share a sweet story from today:
So I am working the register and a teeny tiny older oriental lady comes to my register with 4 postcards and a picture frame. I tell her the total and she hands me a stack of one dollar bills and lays all of her change on the counter. She gestures that she does not know how to count American currency and asks if I can help her out. So here I am flailing myself all over the counter to help this precious lady. She thanks me and did not speak a lick of English the whole time she was there. I am so thankful to work in a place where I get to experience different cultures and nationalities. It is truly like traveling the World every single day.

I also got to casually eat lunch with Princess Aurora today and that was pretty cool... she didn't feel like wearing her dress to lunch, but her hair and make-up were done, of course!  (If you catch my drift....) ;)

Since I am training, I get to wear a flag on my nametag that says "Earning My Ears." It is really helpful when I am learning so that guests know I am not perfect and do make mistakes. Today, this man came up to the counter and wanted to purchase two drinks. I rang him up and before he left he said, "Good luck earning your ears! You're doing a great job." It totally made my day and made me realize that I really shouldn't worry because there are people out there that are so understanding and encouraging. 

My trainer, Brittany, is the nicest person ever. She is so understanding and patient while I am learning all of these new things. She is so funny, too! I am going to miss her tremendously, as I am gaining a new trainer on Thursday. It is so easy to meet people here... everyone is willing to help you in any way and the work environment is like nothing I have ever experienced. I don't even feel like I am working... it's so much fun to go into work everyday... I never know what I am going to experience next.

Traditions & Discovery Day

Welcome back!

Friday morning I had my Traditions class. Traditions is a 4-5 hour long class (or orientation) that explains in depth about working as a cast member and the Walt Disney Company itself. It is also the official first day of work! $$$ yay! You learn the company's heritage, values, and other aspects that are very important in making the company what it is. It's a very confidential class, so I can't reveal everything, but I will say that a tour of underground Magic Kingdom was involved. It was UNBELIEVABLE! After we got back to our classrooms, the bossman himself, Mickey Mouse, delivered our nametags! It was so exciting and I could just eat him up. The sad part is that they misspelled Mississippi on my nametag and I have to get it fixed :(

Today, was considered my first day of training. I attended Discovery Day at Epcot. This was like an Epcot orientation, ha! We watched even more videos and it was actually super interesting. We learned that Walt's vision for Epcot was dramatically different than what it is today. Walt's original vision for Epcot stood for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It was supposed to be an utopian type of environment that contained educational and futuristic technologies. This "perfect city" was leading up to the next step, Walt Disney World. I think working in Epcot is truly a privilege, because I get to work in the park that Walt wanted to create even before Magic Kingdom, and all of the other aspects that make up Walt Disney World. Even though the Epcot today is nothing near Walt's Epcot, it is still a special place. After learning all of that, we took a tour around the whole park. We learned many interesting facts throughout the tour. My feet were killing me though, I seriously have 5 blisters! After heading back into the conference room, we went over a little bit more info, and then met with our leaders. They handed out our new training schedules and told us about our costumes. I get to pick up my costume(s) tomorrow.......and they are...... funny.

On another note, since yesterday was our first day of having park access, my roommates and I decided to go to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon/night. We didn't have much time, but we rode Tower of Terror twice, The Great Movie Ride, and watched Fantasmic! I can't wait to spend my free time going to each of the parks whenever. One of my goals while on the college program is to eat at each of the countries in World Showcase. Gosh, they sound and look so appetizing!

 Well, I'm heading out to go buy my stylish white tennies for work! :o

All moved in!

I realize that my last post was in March when I got accepted into the Disney College Program, but I am now here to update you guys on everything going on in Orlando!

Let's back up to Monday, August 12. Monday was check-in day. All of my roommates and I got in line at about 8:00 am and didn't get finished with the process until noon. It was a very long and tiring day. We turned in our paperwork, took pictures for our ID's, got our housing assignment, and received the exciting news of where we will be working! We are living in Patterson Court, which is where we wanted to live! It is the newer apartments so that's definitely a plus in my book!!! The apartment is great, they provide all the kitchen utensils, furniture, pretty much everything. However, they don't allow you to hang a thing on the walls. So, all we have is our own personal cork board. Splendid.
For the semester, I will be working in Epcot! My location is a store called World Traveler that is located in between France and the UK in World Showcase! I am really excited about it because it is not one of the busier stores in Epcot and so hopefully I will not be stressed. I personally love Epcot, and I absolutely love the countries as well. I feel like this is the perfect location for me :)
After the check-in process, we started to move into our apartment and make all the necessary Target and Wal-Mart runs!

The following day, Tuesday, I had Casting. My roommate, Morgan, and I took the bus at 9 am to head over. This is where we did even more paperwork, and learned a little bit more about what we will be doing for the next week or so. I received my first training schedule... so I start training on Saturday in Epcot. That day is called "Discovery Day," in which we will be touring Epcot and learning more about the park and our job. I'm excited about that! During Casting, they also perform background checks and fingerprinting. My poor pinky finger had to be scanned a good 30 times before it finally worked. My life. After that, we just signed more paperwork and finally got to go home.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I had my housing meeting at 12 pm. It took place in The Commons, which is the apartments known for the International CP's. It lasted about 2 hours, and we were taught rules and regulations of living on Disney housing and everything in between. It was probably the most boring thing I have done so far.

Today, I have the day off. I have not a thing to do so I am hopefully going to rest and get some errands done. I need to take advantage of this time off because after today, I hit the ground running. Tonight we also have a "welcome party" and a few friends from Toy Story will be joining the party as well! ;)

Tomorrow is my official first day of work. I have my Traditions class at 8 am (I have to catch the bus at 6:45) and I am excited about it! All I know is that we learn more in depth about Walt Disney World, take a underground tour of Magic Kingdom, and we receive our name tags. The course is about 4-5 hours long, so it will be interesting. After finishing Traditions, we also get our main gate pass, which lets us cast members into the park!!!!! I have yet to be able to go into the parks since my arrival, and I am so excited to finally be able to go whenever I want. Ahhhhh

I am already having a great time, and I am so thankful for this opportunity to be able to make magic and work in the happiest place on Earth! Life is certainly different here. People don't have the "southern charm" that I am used to in Mississippi, but I have to remind myself daily that I will be back home before I know it and to take advantage of all of this.

It is also so weird to be surrounded by people from different countries. I sat by a guy on the bus yesterday from Germany, and it was neat to talk to him.

And people stare at me in wonder about my accent. And my double name.

That's all for now! Catch up again soon!

-Meri Scott 

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Fun facts from my housing meeting haha....
 - The August 12th arrival date was the largest arrival group in the Disney College Program history
 - In 1981, the program had 248 members, and now it has 14,000 annually!
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