Time in: 5:30 a.m.
Time out: 2:00 p.m.
Yes, you read that right. It says 5:30 a.m. Today was so exhausting. It was my first day of on-site training. This boy Kevin and I got assigned to the Character Room at Magic Kingdom which is where all of the classic Disney characters live like Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pooh, the Genie, etc. You get the group I'm talking about. Well these are the ones that go out on meet and greets and such. We first got a tour of the whole room and how the layout works and where to find certain specific things that we will need. It is one of the biggest and busiest character rooms at Disney which is impressive for how neat and organized it is. There's hardly even any hangers out of place. After our big tour we got to explore on our own for a while. We looked in all the drawers and at all the shoes and hugged a few characters (they're so soft!!). It was fun to basically have free reign in Disney's biggest costume room to look at whatever I wanted to. I'm picking up all kinds of organizational tricks!
After that we had a meeting with one of the on-site managers to introduce ourselves and go over basics. He seems very nice, I like him. Hopefully we'll stay on good terms. Managers always make me a little nervous. Then our trainer Millie (sweetest lady ever!) showed us how to build a few characters. We got to build a White Rabbit and a Donald Duck. It was so cool! I would never have thought of the process they use for the characters but it's very efficient and structurally sound. Each character has a checklist so you know exactly how many pieces they need to be completed and you know where to hang them and how to hang them and all that. It's all very organized. That's the biggest thing I'm noticing here. How organization is essential for the world to go round being part of a gigantic company such as Disney.
Then we helped put away some pieces that had come in from the laundry place. We helped some characters turn their fur right side out and hung them up and put them away. We learned the safe way of turning things right side out since all the characters are so heavy it can be dangerous to do it certain ways as you might pull something and hurt yourself. Safety is incredibly important at Disney. It's more important than anything else. And everybody makes sure you know that when you start. You must be safe in every single thing you do.
Today was a special day of training because one of the costuming ladies was retiring and they were having a big party for her. We helped set everything out for it since our trainer was her good friend. It's not what they usually do on training days, but today was special. What I noticed was neat though was just how much work they put into it and how many people showed up! The place was packed. The lady retiring was beloved and everyone turned out to wish her well. You could feel the sense of family from the group and it was very special to get to see from the outside looking in. I hope one day that many people show up to congratulate me on getting to sit around watching TV all day every day!
Well, that's all the magic for today!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
GUS core/Character core
Today was day two of just costuming training. We learned how to do simple functions on the computer system by E-learning and it was pretty interesting. There's a bunch of different people we'll have to check costumes out to and send costumes to and the computer system is set up to pretty much do all of it for you. We just click a few buttons and scan the items using this incredibly snazzy scanner and it zips through the system for the whole WDW resort. You can send things from one costuming place to the laundry, you can scan costumes out to other cast members, you can send a costume to alterations and so much more. It's very impressive.
The second part of today was focused on how to construct and clean character costumes and a more detailed description of what our jobs will be in our specific location. We got to practice on some older costumes they had and it was extremely interesting and so fun! I will never look at any of Disney's costumes the same way again. I learned a lot about how Disney designs their costumes for practical and creative reasons and what systems are put in place to protect the performers inside the costumes. A lot of the details we learned about I never would have thought of myself but makes so much sense now that I'm aware of it.
Most people, including myself, thought that my coming here and working for Disney would ruin the magic for me and in the beginning, it did a little bit. But after yesterday and today I can honestly say that it made Disney so much more magical than it was before! I had never really sat down and thought about just how many people work for Disney or how everything worked as smoothly and perfectly as it seems to. Have you? If not, think about it: in Orlando alone there are four different parks. Each one of those parks have dozens of dining experiences, rides, and shows each with their own individual theme. You won't see two of the same dining experiences anywhere in Disney, nor rides or shows. And have you ever thought about exacly how many people are needed for each of those dining experiences, rides and shows? Lets narrow down to a show (and keep in mind they won't all work every single day so there must be multiples in each category): you need enough performers to put in the show every day, you need specific costumers assigned to each show so their load is small enough to take extreme care of each costume piece (and Disney does take that extreme care), you need people to operate the lights and sound for the show, people to direct the audience where to be for the show, people for crowd control, people as character attendants in case performers need help, and on and on. And that's just for one show!!! Disney has dozens of shows in each park alone! That's not even looking at how many people played a part in designing each part of that specific show. Not to mention the show performes different times each day and some shows share performance spaces with other shows (especially the parades) so everything must be stored in different places. Nothing can get lost and if it gets damaged it must be fixed or a replacement must make its way back to the show before the next performance. So many things go into this production that the guests never even stop to think about. They just watch the pretty show and then go about their day to another show or ride. That right there is what is so magical about Disney. The guests are so intrigued and mystified by the performance (whether it be a show, ride or parade) that they don't ever stop to think about what goes into making it happen every day for them! Getting to see all these elements separately was amazing enough but when I got to see them all come together so seamlessly for a show made it just so much more magical. I can honestly say I'm more in love with Disney now than I have ever been before. The best part: I get to be a part of it. My trainer kept saying this over and over today and I loved it: people save up for years to get to vacation at WDW. They come here and spend thousands of dollars for a week with Mickey; to see the look on their childrens' faces when they meet Mickey for the first time. This is a job where you never have a bad day if you just think about that family. They are here today spending thousands of dollars to see what you see every day. Think about it like that and the magic will never die.
That's all the magic for today!
Time in: 8:00 a.m.
Time out: 4:00 p.m.
The second part of today was focused on how to construct and clean character costumes and a more detailed description of what our jobs will be in our specific location. We got to practice on some older costumes they had and it was extremely interesting and so fun! I will never look at any of Disney's costumes the same way again. I learned a lot about how Disney designs their costumes for practical and creative reasons and what systems are put in place to protect the performers inside the costumes. A lot of the details we learned about I never would have thought of myself but makes so much sense now that I'm aware of it.
Most people, including myself, thought that my coming here and working for Disney would ruin the magic for me and in the beginning, it did a little bit. But after yesterday and today I can honestly say that it made Disney so much more magical than it was before! I had never really sat down and thought about just how many people work for Disney or how everything worked as smoothly and perfectly as it seems to. Have you? If not, think about it: in Orlando alone there are four different parks. Each one of those parks have dozens of dining experiences, rides, and shows each with their own individual theme. You won't see two of the same dining experiences anywhere in Disney, nor rides or shows. And have you ever thought about exacly how many people are needed for each of those dining experiences, rides and shows? Lets narrow down to a show (and keep in mind they won't all work every single day so there must be multiples in each category): you need enough performers to put in the show every day, you need specific costumers assigned to each show so their load is small enough to take extreme care of each costume piece (and Disney does take that extreme care), you need people to operate the lights and sound for the show, people to direct the audience where to be for the show, people for crowd control, people as character attendants in case performers need help, and on and on. And that's just for one show!!! Disney has dozens of shows in each park alone! That's not even looking at how many people played a part in designing each part of that specific show. Not to mention the show performes different times each day and some shows share performance spaces with other shows (especially the parades) so everything must be stored in different places. Nothing can get lost and if it gets damaged it must be fixed or a replacement must make its way back to the show before the next performance. So many things go into this production that the guests never even stop to think about. They just watch the pretty show and then go about their day to another show or ride. That right there is what is so magical about Disney. The guests are so intrigued and mystified by the performance (whether it be a show, ride or parade) that they don't ever stop to think about what goes into making it happen every day for them! Getting to see all these elements separately was amazing enough but when I got to see them all come together so seamlessly for a show made it just so much more magical. I can honestly say I'm more in love with Disney now than I have ever been before. The best part: I get to be a part of it. My trainer kept saying this over and over today and I loved it: people save up for years to get to vacation at WDW. They come here and spend thousands of dollars for a week with Mickey; to see the look on their childrens' faces when they meet Mickey for the first time. This is a job where you never have a bad day if you just think about that family. They are here today spending thousands of dollars to see what you see every day. Think about it like that and the magic will never die.
That's all the magic for today!
Time in: 8:00 a.m.
Time out: 4:00 p.m.
Styling Our World
Our internet went down randomly last night so I couldn't tell you guys about my class! So I'll post twice today to get y'all up to speed.
Yesterday was a training class called "Styling Our World." It was the first day of training for just costuming employees and it was really interesting. The beginning of the class class was an overview of costuming terms that we'll need to know and we had to do an E-learning about health stuff for OSHA. Then came the best thing ever: a tour of every single costuming building on Disney property!! It was amazing to see. Each park has an operational costume location and an entertainment costume location and we toured all of them. It really opened my eyes to just how many people Disney costuming has to be prepared for. Every single ride attendant, character performer, dancer, seamstress, custodian: everyone has to have a costume that comes from this department. It's a LOT of costumes and the entire system is so organized and neat. It makes my OCD very happy. They explained the advanced technological system of checking costumes out for each person that is so streamlined its amazing. Every costume is tracked by the computers so nothing gets lost. WDW Comapanies have over 4 million costumes worldwide. That is so baffling.
We saw all the characters costumes and I fell in love. I was a kid in a candy store and I am so excited I get to work there. I know that there's so many more secrets that I'm going to get to learn and so many practices that I can take with me into all my other theatre experiences. I can't wait to keep going to work and just absorbing everything these people know because it is a LOT. All of my instructors have been so knowledgable about costuming as well as a lot of other aspects of the Disney company. I've found that I look up to them so much for all the experiences they've had and the knowledge they've acquired from working here so long. It's really something I look forward to being a part of!
That was all the magic from yesterday!
Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 3:15 p.m.
Sunday-
Time in: 8:30 a.m.
Time out: 5:00 p.m.
Friday-
Time in: 12:45 p.m.
Time out: 5:45 p.m.
Yesterday was a training class called "Styling Our World." It was the first day of training for just costuming employees and it was really interesting. The beginning of the class class was an overview of costuming terms that we'll need to know and we had to do an E-learning about health stuff for OSHA. Then came the best thing ever: a tour of every single costuming building on Disney property!! It was amazing to see. Each park has an operational costume location and an entertainment costume location and we toured all of them. It really opened my eyes to just how many people Disney costuming has to be prepared for. Every single ride attendant, character performer, dancer, seamstress, custodian: everyone has to have a costume that comes from this department. It's a LOT of costumes and the entire system is so organized and neat. It makes my OCD very happy. They explained the advanced technological system of checking costumes out for each person that is so streamlined its amazing. Every costume is tracked by the computers so nothing gets lost. WDW Comapanies have over 4 million costumes worldwide. That is so baffling.
We saw all the characters costumes and I fell in love. I was a kid in a candy store and I am so excited I get to work there. I know that there's so many more secrets that I'm going to get to learn and so many practices that I can take with me into all my other theatre experiences. I can't wait to keep going to work and just absorbing everything these people know because it is a LOT. All of my instructors have been so knowledgable about costuming as well as a lot of other aspects of the Disney company. I've found that I look up to them so much for all the experiences they've had and the knowledge they've acquired from working here so long. It's really something I look forward to being a part of!
That was all the magic from yesterday!
Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 3:15 p.m.
Sunday-
Time in: 8:30 a.m.
Time out: 5:00 p.m.
Friday-
Time in: 12:45 p.m.
Time out: 5:45 p.m.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Welcome to Entertainment
We got to clock in for the first time today. We have to swipe our Disney IDs on this old-school looking pad on the walls. It was exciting because it felt very official to clock in for Walt Disney World. This was my first day of training and it was a "Welcome to Entertainment" class since costuming is under the Entertainment blanket here. It was the first time since I've gotten here that I met other kids doing the costuming role. There was about two that were really nice and I could be friends with; the rest talked far too much and asked way too many questions and were very hard to relate to. Oh, and they were the theatre majors. It became blindingly evident to me that Upstate has a fantastic group of theatre majors with amazingly normal personalities that I appreciate so much more after today. So much more.
The very first girl I met already knew where she was working: in Animal Kingdom at the Festival of the Lion King show. I saw it yesterday and fell head over heels for the show, so I am incredibly jealous of her! I'm also jealous that she knows her assignment already, because I can't figure mine out. There's supposed to be a way to view it online, but my computer is not making it easy to find out. Anyway, in the class we went over a bunch of safety in the workplace presentations and they talked a lot about how entertainment is different from the other sections of the company because people really look to the entertainment and scrutinize it. Everybody wants their show to be as good as Disney's.
Then we went to lunch and I got my first backstage Disney cafeteria experience. You know those cafeterias they show in movies of high schools that have four different lines all with different, good looking food, on top of a bunch of different snack foods strewn about and drink stations galore? You know, the ones that don't exist in real life? Well, that's what this cafeteria was. On top of that, you're eating next to all the people that make the magic happen from costumers to food service workers to performers already in their stage makeup. It's pretty magical, even though no guests ever get to see it. It was magical for me.
Then came another tour of backstage Magic Kingdom. This time we actually went through all sorts of amazing rooms like a rehearsal room (where real characters were actually rehearsing!!!) and the costume room where they hang all Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy's dry cleaning (again, incredible!) and we saw into the cosmetology center as well where they style all the wigs and makeup. All pretty cool. Then we went out into the actual park and got to watch a show they do right in front of Cinderella's castle as part of our training! Then we talked about some parts of the show that take the magic away, so I won't share them with you. But, I'm not gonna lie, my inner theatre nerd loved it.
After the show we returned to our original building for the rest of training. We watched a video that was full of letters people had written to Walt Disney World all about how their vacation there changed their life or their child's life because of the magic brought to them in one way or another. It was a seriously touching video. Then we did two hours of E-learning about safety and stuff that just sucked all the excitement right out of me. The only interesting part was noticing how intricate WDW's scheduling system has to be in order to keep the tens of thousands of employees all in order. It's pretty incredible (even though it isn't working for me at the moment).
Once done with that, I was dismissed. Here's where the real nightmare began. I had to go next door to the main costuming building to pick up my costuming costume. Sounds redundant, right? It's not. At WDW we don't have "uniforms." We have "costumes" that we wear to work every day. Even the costumers. The shirts for our costumes aren't bad: just a color block windbreaker-type shirt. The nightmare was the pants. So the process is that you go in and pick up the pieces you need for your costume every day and sign them out. Then you can drop them back off when their dirty and pick up new ones if you want, or you can wash the ones you first pick up yourself. The building is really huge and lined from wall to wall with all the operational employees' costumes for people that work at Magic Kingdom. This huge building is only for one park's employee costumes! So I go in and pick out my shirt then start picking out black pants to match. Well, after trying three pairs on I was told that I was trying the wrong pants. I had to get the ones that had cargo pockets on the sides. So I go pick out different sizes of those to try on. All of the pants are HUGE. I don't know who they're made for, but these pants would look good on NO ONE. I feel really terrible for ever thinking a Disney employee looked bad in their costume, because they probably just didn't fit in it right. I scouered the place for an hour trying to find pieces that fit me. By the end, I just grabbed two pairs of pants that kind of fit and three pairs of shorts (which are capris on me) and tried to get out of there. Then I made the mistake of asking the man that worked there about getting a new name tag. Mine says that I attend the University of South Carolina and I'm trying to get Upstate added to it. Well he barely understood what I was trying to tell him, had to ask his manager, and once she said yes, he spelled it wrong! I leaned over the whole counter to be sure he did it right, and corrected his mistake. I have to pay for this new name tag so I wanted to be sure it was correct. Needless to say the whole experience was not a good one. And this was my first experience with the costume department directly! I'm incredibly nervous now. I'm praying that tomorrow will be 100x better and I can be happy to be here again. Today was very hard.
That's all the magic for today!
The very first girl I met already knew where she was working: in Animal Kingdom at the Festival of the Lion King show. I saw it yesterday and fell head over heels for the show, so I am incredibly jealous of her! I'm also jealous that she knows her assignment already, because I can't figure mine out. There's supposed to be a way to view it online, but my computer is not making it easy to find out. Anyway, in the class we went over a bunch of safety in the workplace presentations and they talked a lot about how entertainment is different from the other sections of the company because people really look to the entertainment and scrutinize it. Everybody wants their show to be as good as Disney's.
Then we went to lunch and I got my first backstage Disney cafeteria experience. You know those cafeterias they show in movies of high schools that have four different lines all with different, good looking food, on top of a bunch of different snack foods strewn about and drink stations galore? You know, the ones that don't exist in real life? Well, that's what this cafeteria was. On top of that, you're eating next to all the people that make the magic happen from costumers to food service workers to performers already in their stage makeup. It's pretty magical, even though no guests ever get to see it. It was magical for me.
Then came another tour of backstage Magic Kingdom. This time we actually went through all sorts of amazing rooms like a rehearsal room (where real characters were actually rehearsing!!!) and the costume room where they hang all Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy's dry cleaning (again, incredible!) and we saw into the cosmetology center as well where they style all the wigs and makeup. All pretty cool. Then we went out into the actual park and got to watch a show they do right in front of Cinderella's castle as part of our training! Then we talked about some parts of the show that take the magic away, so I won't share them with you. But, I'm not gonna lie, my inner theatre nerd loved it.
After the show we returned to our original building for the rest of training. We watched a video that was full of letters people had written to Walt Disney World all about how their vacation there changed their life or their child's life because of the magic brought to them in one way or another. It was a seriously touching video. Then we did two hours of E-learning about safety and stuff that just sucked all the excitement right out of me. The only interesting part was noticing how intricate WDW's scheduling system has to be in order to keep the tens of thousands of employees all in order. It's pretty incredible (even though it isn't working for me at the moment).
Once done with that, I was dismissed. Here's where the real nightmare began. I had to go next door to the main costuming building to pick up my costuming costume. Sounds redundant, right? It's not. At WDW we don't have "uniforms." We have "costumes" that we wear to work every day. Even the costumers. The shirts for our costumes aren't bad: just a color block windbreaker-type shirt. The nightmare was the pants. So the process is that you go in and pick up the pieces you need for your costume every day and sign them out. Then you can drop them back off when their dirty and pick up new ones if you want, or you can wash the ones you first pick up yourself. The building is really huge and lined from wall to wall with all the operational employees' costumes for people that work at Magic Kingdom. This huge building is only for one park's employee costumes! So I go in and pick out my shirt then start picking out black pants to match. Well, after trying three pairs on I was told that I was trying the wrong pants. I had to get the ones that had cargo pockets on the sides. So I go pick out different sizes of those to try on. All of the pants are HUGE. I don't know who they're made for, but these pants would look good on NO ONE. I feel really terrible for ever thinking a Disney employee looked bad in their costume, because they probably just didn't fit in it right. I scouered the place for an hour trying to find pieces that fit me. By the end, I just grabbed two pairs of pants that kind of fit and three pairs of shorts (which are capris on me) and tried to get out of there. Then I made the mistake of asking the man that worked there about getting a new name tag. Mine says that I attend the University of South Carolina and I'm trying to get Upstate added to it. Well he barely understood what I was trying to tell him, had to ask his manager, and once she said yes, he spelled it wrong! I leaned over the whole counter to be sure he did it right, and corrected his mistake. I have to pay for this new name tag so I wanted to be sure it was correct. Needless to say the whole experience was not a good one. And this was my first experience with the costume department directly! I'm incredibly nervous now. I'm praying that tomorrow will be 100x better and I can be happy to be here again. Today was very hard.
That's all the magic for today!
Friday, January 25, 2013
Traditions Class!
I wish I could have taken a picture of my face today through my whole Traditions class. It would have been a mix of shocked, in awe, and just plain baffled. The things they told us were completely awesome. It was an entire four and a half hours of explaining the heritage that we as new cast members are stepping into. All about how many people save up all year long just to come to Disney World for a few days and WE are the reason why it can happen. WE are the people that help create memories that will last a lifetime for these people. WE are the people who will impact little kids' lives forever. No pressure, right? On the flip side, how amazingly cool?! Every day I go to work for the next four months, I'm creating someone's most treasured vacation memories. ME. Little old Zoe from Greenville, South Carolina am impacting thousands of people in just four months. Joining this gigantically influential company (over 67,000 cast members worldwide) made me a part of a huge initiative to bring magic to millions of people. Big shoes to step in to, but I am totally ready.
The WDW Company uses theatre words such as onstage, backstage, cast, costume. All words that I'm used to in a theatrical sense, but to hear them in terms of a company was interesting. They explained how all of WDW is a show put on for the guests and every single day is a new performance with a new audience and we, the employees, are the cast members that bring the show to life every day. It's a really interesting way of looking at the experience, however completely accurate. The show is all for the guests and it's all about keeping the magic alive. Every single cast member is a part of creating the magic people feel when they walk through a Disney park. It's incredible to know that I get to be a part of this.
The class I was in today was called Traditions. They defined traditions as the handing down of customs and beliefs from generation to generation. That means that these traditions go on and on and never stop. They didn't stop when Walt Disney died. His traditions lived on past him with the cast members that he trained and laid out his vision for. Now those cast members are imparting that knowledge on the next generation: us. Me. I get to carry out Walt Disney's vision for his company. Again, how cool, right?!
While we were in our class, we did a group activity where we all had to write as many animated characters that we could think of. Our tables were our groups. I'll give you one guess who my table picked as the leader: me. Of course. My team crushed it and we won! We had 41 characters. A big part of that was all the characters I could write from doing Aladdin, Jr. and Beauty and the Beast, Jr. with my middle schoolers at home, so shout out to them! Miss y'all! Anyways, we creamed everybody and got little "critters" (little plastic Disney characters) to take home. I got Minnie and Donald, so I'm starting a little collection. One of the leaders kept calling all the girls "Princess" and it was the cutest thing. I think he was just trying to be flirtatious, but it worked Disney-wise.
In the middle of the class, we went to Magic Kingdom and walked around. The point was to look for examples of the four keys to Disney's success, but it was totally just for fun! Two of the kids in our group had never been to Disney before, and to see their faces was just precious. One of them I had become friends with at my table and he and I walked together through the parks. He took pictures of everything and just had a huge smile on his face (however, I did both of those things too, so maybe it's just a Disney World thing). We also got to walk all through backstage Disney which was INCREDIBLE! You would never believe what is hiding right behind the facade! Practical things like extra water bottles, cast cafeterias and costume rooms (which I almost started crying when I saw. They are breathtaking. I wanted to run in and hide in them!) My new friend never been to the parks before but his job here is a character performer! I was thinking that might ruin the magic for him, but it didn't seem to. It was really cool to get to see someone's first time. It just made me all the more excited to get to work making magic for the guests!
We watched a lot of videos during the class and it amazed me how the background music set you right in the Disney mindset. A lot of the music was easily recognizable as Disney. It was really interesting to me how as soon as it started, I knew I was in a Disney mindset: full of magic and dreams and the hope that anything could happen. I took major note of it being that I'm really interested in sound design. That's one of the coolest things about being here in Orlando. Everything feels so magical and I'm always thinking that ANYTHING could happen during these next four months. My whole life could change. Something about this place just screams "Magical." I'm sure credit is due to Walt Disney for the empire that he built, not only in a business, but also in the reputation he has with every single person who has ever heard of anything Disney.
They ended the presentation with a video of all things Disney: Disney parks, Disney channel, the characters, ABC, Marvel, ESPN and a lot more. It was a huge montage of things that I recognized as Disney, along with ones that I had no clue Disney owned (like ESPN?!). Then told us we had just joined one of the biggest and most higly regarded families in entertainment. Talk about butterflies in the stomach! After that we got our official name tags! I never want to take mine off. All they talked about today made one thing incredibly real to me: I, Zoe Sneed, work for Walt Disney World the most magical place on Earth. Again, I wish you could see my face right now! I am so excited for this adventure!
Well, that's all the magic for today!
The WDW Company uses theatre words such as onstage, backstage, cast, costume. All words that I'm used to in a theatrical sense, but to hear them in terms of a company was interesting. They explained how all of WDW is a show put on for the guests and every single day is a new performance with a new audience and we, the employees, are the cast members that bring the show to life every day. It's a really interesting way of looking at the experience, however completely accurate. The show is all for the guests and it's all about keeping the magic alive. Every single cast member is a part of creating the magic people feel when they walk through a Disney park. It's incredible to know that I get to be a part of this.
The class I was in today was called Traditions. They defined traditions as the handing down of customs and beliefs from generation to generation. That means that these traditions go on and on and never stop. They didn't stop when Walt Disney died. His traditions lived on past him with the cast members that he trained and laid out his vision for. Now those cast members are imparting that knowledge on the next generation: us. Me. I get to carry out Walt Disney's vision for his company. Again, how cool, right?!
While we were in our class, we did a group activity where we all had to write as many animated characters that we could think of. Our tables were our groups. I'll give you one guess who my table picked as the leader: me. Of course. My team crushed it and we won! We had 41 characters. A big part of that was all the characters I could write from doing Aladdin, Jr. and Beauty and the Beast, Jr. with my middle schoolers at home, so shout out to them! Miss y'all! Anyways, we creamed everybody and got little "critters" (little plastic Disney characters) to take home. I got Minnie and Donald, so I'm starting a little collection. One of the leaders kept calling all the girls "Princess" and it was the cutest thing. I think he was just trying to be flirtatious, but it worked Disney-wise.
In the middle of the class, we went to Magic Kingdom and walked around. The point was to look for examples of the four keys to Disney's success, but it was totally just for fun! Two of the kids in our group had never been to Disney before, and to see their faces was just precious. One of them I had become friends with at my table and he and I walked together through the parks. He took pictures of everything and just had a huge smile on his face (however, I did both of those things too, so maybe it's just a Disney World thing). We also got to walk all through backstage Disney which was INCREDIBLE! You would never believe what is hiding right behind the facade! Practical things like extra water bottles, cast cafeterias and costume rooms (which I almost started crying when I saw. They are breathtaking. I wanted to run in and hide in them!) My new friend never been to the parks before but his job here is a character performer! I was thinking that might ruin the magic for him, but it didn't seem to. It was really cool to get to see someone's first time. It just made me all the more excited to get to work making magic for the guests!
We watched a lot of videos during the class and it amazed me how the background music set you right in the Disney mindset. A lot of the music was easily recognizable as Disney. It was really interesting to me how as soon as it started, I knew I was in a Disney mindset: full of magic and dreams and the hope that anything could happen. I took major note of it being that I'm really interested in sound design. That's one of the coolest things about being here in Orlando. Everything feels so magical and I'm always thinking that ANYTHING could happen during these next four months. My whole life could change. Something about this place just screams "Magical." I'm sure credit is due to Walt Disney for the empire that he built, not only in a business, but also in the reputation he has with every single person who has ever heard of anything Disney.
They ended the presentation with a video of all things Disney: Disney parks, Disney channel, the characters, ABC, Marvel, ESPN and a lot more. It was a huge montage of things that I recognized as Disney, along with ones that I had no clue Disney owned (like ESPN?!). Then told us we had just joined one of the biggest and most higly regarded families in entertainment. Talk about butterflies in the stomach! After that we got our official name tags! I never want to take mine off. All they talked about today made one thing incredibly real to me: I, Zoe Sneed, work for Walt Disney World the most magical place on Earth. Again, I wish you could see my face right now! I am so excited for this adventure!
Well, that's all the magic for today!
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Today was pretty relaxing. All we had on the schedule was a housing meeting at 3:00 p.m. which gave us ample time to sleep in, thankfully, because after yesterday I was exhausted. All the girls in my apartment rode together to the housing meeting since it was at a different apartment complex. We've all really bonded and become a unit. I am so happy about it. It gives us all a little niche of people who care about each other here in Florida since every single one of us is from a different part of the country--Illinois, Virginia, Texas, Mississippi and, of course, South Carolina. It's really cool just to talk to them and see things they've never heard of before (like Chick-Fil-A!) and things I've never heard of before (like some place called Darn Cheap). On the flip side, my bedroom roommate is from Chicago and listens to the same kind of music (including country), has cowboy boots and goes line dancing like me! It's really cool. We get along like two peas in a pod, I can't believe we've only known each other for two days. I'm really blessed that it worked out so well.
The housing meeting was interesting. They scanned our housing ID's as we went in and all the lights were off and there were strobe lights going and Disney music blaring (High School Musical, of all things). We all filed in and sat down and were given monthly newsletters. It had reminders about security and websites and such. The best thing in it though was a calendar of events that are specifically for CP's (College Program kids). That will be nice to have, for sure. When the presentation started, it was interesting. They tried really hard to be cool and excited about the presentation and make it easy for us to relate to, but it all came off kind of trying-too-hard. But they were Disney peppy and stuff, which is expected. They explained a whole bunch of housing details like where the laundry is, how to borrow a vacuum, and how to check in guests. They finally explained how to recieve mail which was nice because it's this really complicated system that makes no sense to me. They also did this whole explanation on what is and isn't a weapon such as plastic knives and guns (which ARE weapons and we're not allowed to have) and pepper spray (which we ARE allowed to have for protection).
Near the middle of the presentation a different lady went up to the front and had everyone in the first row stand up. It was about 25 people out of the whole 130. She had this really serious look on her face and she said, "These are the people that will get sent home. Last year we sent 400 people home. If you break any of these rules they're telling you about, you will be sent home. You will have until 11 a.m. the next morning to evacuate your room." It was so scary. It would be the worst thing ever to get sent home from the most magical place on Earth because I did something stupid. And the worst part is that Disney has a no re-hire policy and Disney owns companies like Marvel, Pixar and ESPN so I'd never be able to work for any of those companies either. Needless to say, I will not be doing anything questionable the next four months. After that, the meeting finished up pretty quick and we all dispersed. It was really informative, but was definitely one of those things that was required and a bit boring.
Tonight I had my first experience in checking someone in to my apartment complex. It was a seriously complicated system. All of the CP apartment complexes have security hut things out front and there's guards stationed there 24 hours. It makes me feel really safe knowing that strange Orlando tourists can't wander in my apartment, not to mention questionable individuals. However, every single time you enter the complex you have to show your ID even when you're just a passenger in the car. So this security definitely comes with hassles, but Disney is doing their best to keep us safe which is greatly appreciated. To sign someone in, you have to park your car to the side, get out and go up to the security hut, fill out this piece of paper with a bunch of questions, and they make copies of your guests' drivers licenses. It's a lot of work for this security. But the whole point is to keep us safe so complaining about it is a bit ridiculous.
That's all the magic for today!
The housing meeting was interesting. They scanned our housing ID's as we went in and all the lights were off and there were strobe lights going and Disney music blaring (High School Musical, of all things). We all filed in and sat down and were given monthly newsletters. It had reminders about security and websites and such. The best thing in it though was a calendar of events that are specifically for CP's (College Program kids). That will be nice to have, for sure. When the presentation started, it was interesting. They tried really hard to be cool and excited about the presentation and make it easy for us to relate to, but it all came off kind of trying-too-hard. But they were Disney peppy and stuff, which is expected. They explained a whole bunch of housing details like where the laundry is, how to borrow a vacuum, and how to check in guests. They finally explained how to recieve mail which was nice because it's this really complicated system that makes no sense to me. They also did this whole explanation on what is and isn't a weapon such as plastic knives and guns (which ARE weapons and we're not allowed to have) and pepper spray (which we ARE allowed to have for protection).
Near the middle of the presentation a different lady went up to the front and had everyone in the first row stand up. It was about 25 people out of the whole 130. She had this really serious look on her face and she said, "These are the people that will get sent home. Last year we sent 400 people home. If you break any of these rules they're telling you about, you will be sent home. You will have until 11 a.m. the next morning to evacuate your room." It was so scary. It would be the worst thing ever to get sent home from the most magical place on Earth because I did something stupid. And the worst part is that Disney has a no re-hire policy and Disney owns companies like Marvel, Pixar and ESPN so I'd never be able to work for any of those companies either. Needless to say, I will not be doing anything questionable the next four months. After that, the meeting finished up pretty quick and we all dispersed. It was really informative, but was definitely one of those things that was required and a bit boring.
Tonight I had my first experience in checking someone in to my apartment complex. It was a seriously complicated system. All of the CP apartment complexes have security hut things out front and there's guards stationed there 24 hours. It makes me feel really safe knowing that strange Orlando tourists can't wander in my apartment, not to mention questionable individuals. However, every single time you enter the complex you have to show your ID even when you're just a passenger in the car. So this security definitely comes with hassles, but Disney is doing their best to keep us safe which is greatly appreciated. To sign someone in, you have to park your car to the side, get out and go up to the security hut, fill out this piece of paper with a bunch of questions, and they make copies of your guests' drivers licenses. It's a lot of work for this security. But the whole point is to keep us safe so complaining about it is a bit ridiculous.
That's all the magic for today!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Check In Day!
Can somebody pinch me?! Because I swear today wasn't real...
I guess the best place to start is the beginning, so here goes: I got up this morning and got ready in a sort of trance. I kept re-playing this scenario in my head that I was gonna show up at check-in and they were just gonna laugh at me and say "Psych, we were just kidding!" Not a calming way to start the day. But up to this point the Disney experience seemed so far off and not reality that I couldn't believe today was actually the day it would begin! So I checked out of my hotel and put the address in my GPS and, thankfully, didn't get lost on my way to check-in. When I arrived though, I thought I was in the wrong place. It was an apartment complex which didn't make sense to me. But I saw a whole bunch of cars pulling in and decided I'd better check it out. The mean security guard told me to pull foward and follow the purple signs (he was not particularly excited or magical). The signs were purple and said "Disney Internships and Programs" and had pixie dust on them, which was very magical. I knew I was in the right place and I started to get really excited, although the anxiety was still there. I found myself a parking spot and walked up to the building. It was covered in Disney posters and signs with the characters on it and one sign said "Your journey begins here!" and it was so exciting! I got to the front of the line and the lady called me up and my stomach was in knots: this was it. She was about to tell me that it was a joke. I told her my name and braced myself: she told me to grab a program book and continue into the line.
Say what?! This wasn't a joke? It was suddenly real to me: I work for Walt Disney World. And I was thrilled about it!!! So, I went through to stand in line and tried to make some friends. The first girl I tried to talk to though, I guess she didn't like gingers becuase she did not want to be my friend. I got nervous again. I really wanted to make some friends and have good roommates. Then we moved forward in a group of ten to a table where this young girl who was an intern explained our housing contract to us. She had us all say our names, where we were from, what our job would be and where we were working at. Lots of the girls were attractions or quick-service food and I was really excited about my costuming role. Then we moved forward in line and waited. We got to this table and they checked our ID's to see if we were old enough to live in an alcohol apartment. Then we got back into line and waited. We waited for a long while. It gave us all a lot of time to talk to each other though. I made friends with the girls around me and we all talked about what our jobs were and what we thought we would be doing. They all had a pretty good idea of thier jobs except me, because I still do not have an official job "description" for my job. It just says "costume department." When we finally got to the front of the line we went to individual desks and talked to someone about where we wanted to live. I went up there with a girl from line right next to me because we wanted to be roommates. I was extremely excited that I had found someone I wanted to be friends with and live with. It was a huge relief. From that part of the line, we started moving faster. We went straight to get keys to our apartment, sign another paper about housing, fill out car registration, and get pictures and ID's made. After all that was done, we waited in line again for a while. At the front of the line we talked to a lady for about ten minutes about what to wear on Friday to Traditions class (where they teach us all about Disney's traditions--obviously--and the general history of the parks) and then an education lady spoke to us for about five minutes and then we were dismissed. It was generally a lot of excitedly hurrying up and waiting. But it was a pretty well oiled machine, which was impressive.
My apartment is in the same complex that check-in was in so I didn't have to go far to find it. There is six girls in here total and, thankfully, all of them are really cool! I was the second to arrive so every time a new girl arrived I had to scout them out and decide if we were going to be friends or not. I've decided all of us are, except maybe one of them. I was glad none of them are super Disney nerds becuase it's too hard to make friends with those kids. I learned that in line. The best people I have met so far are just very real and genuine, not super peppy or fakely magical. Which makes me glad that Disney knew what they were doing, and hired a bunch of real people.
We all unpacked for a couple hours, grabbed some lunch, then were off to the casting office. All the people had specific times to catch the bus for casting that they gave us in our packet at the beginning of the day. The ride to the casting office was really fun because we had this self-proclaimed "tour guide/game show host/new friend" who was talking to us the whole time. Now, she WAS really peppy but it wasn't the annoying barbie peppy. She was really genuine but was just really hyper and made incredible jokes. Me and her were definitely friends. She explained to us what anything "background Disney" is, which basically means anything/anywhere that guests are not allowed to go is considered background Disney. We are not allowed to take any pictures of background Disney and especially not allowed to put it online on Instagram or Twitter or anything. I thought that was a good relatable way to explain it to us so that Disney keeps its facade and guests don't know all the secrets. It's all about keeping the magic alive.
I rode the bus with another girl I had met in line from earlier that day and we have become friends. When we arrived at casting, we lined up and they sent us through a series of stops to have things done like background checks, fingerprints, and I-9's. To be sure they hadn't hired any crazies. Once again I was really impressed with the organization of the process: everyone knew your next stop and what you needed to have out and where for you to stand. It was seriously organized. It reminded me of an obstacle course. We were all basically traveling along one winding path with about a dozen stops along the way. When I finally reached the end, I was exhausted. The bus took me back to my apartment and I collapsed. It was exhausting being so excited all day to wait in a line and fill out forms. However, as soon as I got tired of being in line, I remembered what it was for and got excited all over again. I mean, I'm working for Walt Disney World!! It's pretty exciting stuff.
Tomorrow I have one meeting in the afternoon and then I'm off until Friday for Traditions class. On Sunday I have my first day of training. It's an Entertainment Class and goes from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. I'm so excited to finally learn what I'm doing!! However, that is going to be one long day.
That about sums today up! I know this was a long post, but I want to be sure I don't forget anything!! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I want to have proof of all the magical things that happen to me! (Even though some of them might not be so glamorous once I start work.) Not everyone will get this experience, and I want to be sure I take advantage of every aspect and make the most of it. Everyone has been telling us to network while we're here and make tons of memories and that is exactly what I plan to do. I want to leave here knowing that I did every single thing that I could and wanted to do. This could benefit me so much in the future with the contacts it will give me and what I will learn, not only in my field of work, but life lessons as well. I really want this to be a life changing experience because I know that it has the potential to be!
I guess the best place to start is the beginning, so here goes: I got up this morning and got ready in a sort of trance. I kept re-playing this scenario in my head that I was gonna show up at check-in and they were just gonna laugh at me and say "Psych, we were just kidding!" Not a calming way to start the day. But up to this point the Disney experience seemed so far off and not reality that I couldn't believe today was actually the day it would begin! So I checked out of my hotel and put the address in my GPS and, thankfully, didn't get lost on my way to check-in. When I arrived though, I thought I was in the wrong place. It was an apartment complex which didn't make sense to me. But I saw a whole bunch of cars pulling in and decided I'd better check it out. The mean security guard told me to pull foward and follow the purple signs (he was not particularly excited or magical). The signs were purple and said "Disney Internships and Programs" and had pixie dust on them, which was very magical. I knew I was in the right place and I started to get really excited, although the anxiety was still there. I found myself a parking spot and walked up to the building. It was covered in Disney posters and signs with the characters on it and one sign said "Your journey begins here!" and it was so exciting! I got to the front of the line and the lady called me up and my stomach was in knots: this was it. She was about to tell me that it was a joke. I told her my name and braced myself: she told me to grab a program book and continue into the line.
Say what?! This wasn't a joke? It was suddenly real to me: I work for Walt Disney World. And I was thrilled about it!!! So, I went through to stand in line and tried to make some friends. The first girl I tried to talk to though, I guess she didn't like gingers becuase she did not want to be my friend. I got nervous again. I really wanted to make some friends and have good roommates. Then we moved forward in a group of ten to a table where this young girl who was an intern explained our housing contract to us. She had us all say our names, where we were from, what our job would be and where we were working at. Lots of the girls were attractions or quick-service food and I was really excited about my costuming role. Then we moved forward in line and waited. We got to this table and they checked our ID's to see if we were old enough to live in an alcohol apartment. Then we got back into line and waited. We waited for a long while. It gave us all a lot of time to talk to each other though. I made friends with the girls around me and we all talked about what our jobs were and what we thought we would be doing. They all had a pretty good idea of thier jobs except me, because I still do not have an official job "description" for my job. It just says "costume department." When we finally got to the front of the line we went to individual desks and talked to someone about where we wanted to live. I went up there with a girl from line right next to me because we wanted to be roommates. I was extremely excited that I had found someone I wanted to be friends with and live with. It was a huge relief. From that part of the line, we started moving faster. We went straight to get keys to our apartment, sign another paper about housing, fill out car registration, and get pictures and ID's made. After all that was done, we waited in line again for a while. At the front of the line we talked to a lady for about ten minutes about what to wear on Friday to Traditions class (where they teach us all about Disney's traditions--obviously--and the general history of the parks) and then an education lady spoke to us for about five minutes and then we were dismissed. It was generally a lot of excitedly hurrying up and waiting. But it was a pretty well oiled machine, which was impressive.
My apartment is in the same complex that check-in was in so I didn't have to go far to find it. There is six girls in here total and, thankfully, all of them are really cool! I was the second to arrive so every time a new girl arrived I had to scout them out and decide if we were going to be friends or not. I've decided all of us are, except maybe one of them. I was glad none of them are super Disney nerds becuase it's too hard to make friends with those kids. I learned that in line. The best people I have met so far are just very real and genuine, not super peppy or fakely magical. Which makes me glad that Disney knew what they were doing, and hired a bunch of real people.
We all unpacked for a couple hours, grabbed some lunch, then were off to the casting office. All the people had specific times to catch the bus for casting that they gave us in our packet at the beginning of the day. The ride to the casting office was really fun because we had this self-proclaimed "tour guide/game show host/new friend" who was talking to us the whole time. Now, she WAS really peppy but it wasn't the annoying barbie peppy. She was really genuine but was just really hyper and made incredible jokes. Me and her were definitely friends. She explained to us what anything "background Disney" is, which basically means anything/anywhere that guests are not allowed to go is considered background Disney. We are not allowed to take any pictures of background Disney and especially not allowed to put it online on Instagram or Twitter or anything. I thought that was a good relatable way to explain it to us so that Disney keeps its facade and guests don't know all the secrets. It's all about keeping the magic alive.
I rode the bus with another girl I had met in line from earlier that day and we have become friends. When we arrived at casting, we lined up and they sent us through a series of stops to have things done like background checks, fingerprints, and I-9's. To be sure they hadn't hired any crazies. Once again I was really impressed with the organization of the process: everyone knew your next stop and what you needed to have out and where for you to stand. It was seriously organized. It reminded me of an obstacle course. We were all basically traveling along one winding path with about a dozen stops along the way. When I finally reached the end, I was exhausted. The bus took me back to my apartment and I collapsed. It was exhausting being so excited all day to wait in a line and fill out forms. However, as soon as I got tired of being in line, I remembered what it was for and got excited all over again. I mean, I'm working for Walt Disney World!! It's pretty exciting stuff.
Tomorrow I have one meeting in the afternoon and then I'm off until Friday for Traditions class. On Sunday I have my first day of training. It's an Entertainment Class and goes from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. I'm so excited to finally learn what I'm doing!! However, that is going to be one long day.
That about sums today up! I know this was a long post, but I want to be sure I don't forget anything!! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I want to have proof of all the magical things that happen to me! (Even though some of them might not be so glamorous once I start work.) Not everyone will get this experience, and I want to be sure I take advantage of every aspect and make the most of it. Everyone has been telling us to network while we're here and make tons of memories and that is exactly what I plan to do. I want to leave here knowing that I did every single thing that I could and wanted to do. This could benefit me so much in the future with the contacts it will give me and what I will learn, not only in my field of work, but life lessons as well. I really want this to be a life changing experience because I know that it has the potential to be!
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