Training week

There is many steps to the training and different positions have different training classes. 

We all went to a welcome to operations class on Sunday where we learned some rules about working at Disney World and how things operate. Then I had a welcome to Merchandise class that followed that. Both were just welcoming classes and giving you an outline of how things work. 

Sunday night was just a chill night. Went to longhorn again for dinner and were going to hit up a park but instead just relaxed. (to be honest I cant remember what I did) 

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Monday was my first day with my trainer Mandy and I also got my Costume! (I promise pictures are to come I just don't like the picture I have of my costume right now!) Mandy took me on a tour of the Pavilion, we got to go and watch the 360 movie about Canada narrated by Martin Short! She explained a lot of things and introduced me to a lot of people. 

Monday night Forest met me at Epcot and we only had enough time to go on test track as by the time we found each other the line was 70 minutes long and the park closes at 9. So since Magic Kingdom is open later we met up with a few other friends and went on a grand adventure. That was my first Wishes and Yes of course my emotions got to me and I teared up. It is so magical. The holiday wishes celebration we did at the Disney Store is inspired by the Walt Disney World show so I had a good reminder of my Disney Store family who I love and miss. 

Later I watched one of my favorite parades! 

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Tuesday was what they call EPCOT Discovery Day. 

They take you through Epcot and teach you about various things so that you are familiar with the park that you will be working in. Unfortunately the ride inside the Big Ball called Spaceship Earth was down so we weren't able to go on it as well as the fountain show was not working. They did do a magical thing for us but i cant talk about it as i made a vow not to ruin the surprise for other people. If you ask me directly I will tell you all about it. We took a boat around to the different pavilions as we didn't have time to walk the 2 miles. 

Tuesday evening we celebrated Scarlett's 21st Birthday and went back to Epcot for Illuminations. A firework show on the Lagoon. 

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Wednesday I had another class at the Disney University called Merchantainment. It was the class that taught us how to use their form of POS (Point of Sale). The cash registers here are a bit different but once you work in retail once I feel like it is rather easy to adapt to any kind of retail vendor. 

That evening I went to Downtown Disney. 

It is much bigger then I remember or expected. Scarlett and I adventured through a few stores before meeting up with the rest of the crew to go and watch Inside Out. 

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Thursday was my first on the job training. I learnt a lot and got to do some good hands on training. I now know what i still have left to learn though as there was lots of questions I couldn't answer quite yet so going to focus on learning what we sell and some things about the various products. I also want to learn more about the actual pavilion so I can tell people more about Canada.  

Thursday night I was going to go back to Downtown Disney to go bowling but everyone was busy already or at work so decided it was a good chance to catch up on my TV shows and go to bed early. 

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Now it is Friday my first day off and I have tidied up my apartment, did two loads of laundry, got caught up on the Big Brother drama and updated my blog. 

Waiting for Forest to get off work and then I am off to get some groceries so I can eat for the next week.

That is all my adventures for now. Stay tuned for more updates. Hopefully more frequent so I don't forget what I did. 

TRADITIONS and Magic Kingdom

Oh My Goodness... Not even sure where to start.... This was the first Disney focused day and the day i was most looking forward to.

It did not start out to ideal....

Waiting for the bus!

But we did make it eventually, and that's when the magic began.

walking down the hall you saw a few friends.

Sitting waiting for everything to start our names would pop up.

Basically traditions was just a day of learning about working for Disney but it was so much fun and so magical. They made the boring stuff exciting. I was VERY emotional and cried a few times of pure happiness knowing that I am now a part of the Magic that Disney World brings to every guests face. They showed a few videos and read letters that were heart string pullers. This is definitely where I want to be! Part of the BEST company in the World.

Here are a few pictures that will show you the excitement of my day!

UK, Canada and Germany

 Got my very first pair of ears for the year!!!!  

 The Boss came with special presents!

My Name Tag!

My New Best Friend!

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I cried the whole bus ride home from Traditions... a mixture of happy tears and sad tears. Its a very long story but I was not having a very good day. As soon as that name tag was placed in my hand I felt the tears coming. It is official. I am here. I felt a piece of my heart break because all I wanted was to be able to show my mom and hug her. There was lots going on in my life already by this point and to be honest ll I wanted was to be with my mom. (Can you say Homesick already) Mom and I skyped for a bit to make me feel better but she knew that i was broken and I know it was hard on her too not being able to be with me and fix it.

Because I had already met some amazing people they were not going to let anything dampen my spirit so I said good bye to mom and we were off to Magic Kingdom!!! 

We got celebrating buttons to saying that we finished Traditions. We had many Cast Members through out the park comment as every cast member no matter your position has to go through traditions. 

Our first stop was to meet a very special Pixie! 

Scarlett and I then added to our ear collection. 

Such an amazing show. The first attraction of the night.

 Only waited 25 minutes to meet these beautiful ladies!

 We enjoyed wishes from the back of the castle and oh my goodness you are surrounded by fireworks back there. Unfortunately we missed part so it was not officially my first wishes!

The people mover. One of the BEST rides we went on. Scarlett high-fived someone in a different car. It was the highlight of her night! 

The HIGHLIGHT of my night was......

Meeting the one and only! She was such a gem! 

She even signed my backpack, it felt like i was 7 years old again! I was so happy!

It was such a magical day and night. Despite the homesickness and all the other emotions I was feeling I am so happy to have already made such amazing friends. They truly have made these first days something to remember. I cant wait to see what this year has in store for me. Yes i miss home but before I know it I will be back in Calgary again so I am going to enjoy every day possible! 

Move In Day and Housing Meetings

On July 21st I got my housing assignment. I am living in a complex called Chatham Square in a 1 room 2 person apartment. Meaning that I share a room with one other girl and it is just the two of us. I do have the change to move in September when I turn 21 but I haven't decided yet. My room mate is really nice. I did not like her at first but it just took time to figure out each others life styles. Her name is Rebbecca, she is from Norway and is 18 years old. She will be working in the Norway pavilion in food and beverage. 

After I dropped off my bags, dad and I went and met a girl I had been communicating with on Facebook. Her name is Kimberley and she is from the UK. She is very nice and became one of my good friends. After that dad and I said good bye :( I started to unpack my things and get settled in.

My half of the room

My half of the closet (I guess I could have brought more clothes)

I then tried to meet up with Kimberley again but she had already left for the night which then left me to be all alone. I had no WiFi or service and i was having a really rough time. Everyone i already knew was at work as they started prior to me. I headed to the clubhouse where there is free WiFi, service and computers we are allowed to use. I got a hold of dad over Facebook and was trying to see if he would come get me ad take me for dinner. That's when I got a message from a guy named Forest. He is also from Canada, Winnipeg to be exact. He will be working in food and beverage and was also just moving in so he was also confused and lonely. We decided that we would meet and try to decide what to do for dinner as we were both very hungry. This was my first adventure, left to walk the streets as it was too late to bus anywhere good without having a long wait. We found a place called Longhorn Steak house. It was delicious and lucky for me i choose a good friend as he use to work for Olive Garden so got use both discounts on our meals as this was one of very few places who don't recognise Disney employees. That was basically the adventures of my move in day. I had a very good first nights sleep and I find my bed very comfy!

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The next day was our welcome to housing session. I got caught in my first Florida rain storm on my walk so was soaked by the time I got there. This is where I got to meet more people who were arriving the same days that I did. There is actually a lot more people then I excepted. I then meet a huge group of people who came from the UK. They are all such nice people and I knew that it was not going to be hard to feel at home. 

In the housing meeting they just talked about the rules (which there is a lot of) and A LOT about Safety. I feel they really try to scare you so that you don't do anything stupid that will get you terminated. I feel like I am going to be alright. 

Wednesday evening Dad came back and picked myself and 3 other Canadians (who are already on the program) and took us to Walmart. I got some food and essentials for my apartment. Dad set up my WiFi and figured out my cellphone. He then said his final goodbyes.

We had a immigration session the following day then later had to go fill out some paper work. I went swimming in between the two sessions. Learnt a lot about things that are similar and different between the UK and Canada. It rained which brought our swimming adventures to an end quickly. 

That brings all of the housing sessions to an end. 

Thursday evening is what they call THROW IN. Which is basically a welcome to the pavilion you will be working in. You get a chance to meet people you will be working with. It was late at night and was actually so much fun. 

3 out of 5 new Canadians! My friends Forest and Stephanie. 

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Friday was a day off so the UK clan and three Canadians went to the Florida Mall for the day! I had already been there but it was still really cool. It is a very big mall but I knew i cant shop until after I start to get paid. So i window shopped and enjoyed being out with friends. 

 Here are a few pictures I took at the mall.

I guess I only have pictures of the M&M store but they do have lots of stores. Like Hot Topic, Disney Store, and basically everything our malls have. 

That evening the group went to CiCi's Pizza for dinner. I love that place and we get a discount what could be better! 

SOOOO LATE!!!!

I have been so busy that the time has gotten away from me. I am going to do a few posts so that everything is kind of separated into the different days!!! If you have been waiting for a post thank you for being so patient. I go to write a post and then realize its 2 am so go to sleep. So in the next few posts you will see highlights of my last week plus a few days.

I'm On My Way

My dad and I flew into Orlando yesterday after a long day of travelling. We got to the Calgary airport at 4:00am  to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth at 6:00am. Check in was a bit cray with being sent to the counter and no one helping us. Then customs went very smoothly but did take a bit of time as i knew it would.  I was very stressed when our plane boarding time was 5 minutes away when we just got through US customs and we were in line for security which started at the end of the hallway right where you drop off your checked luggage (if you have ever been to the Calgary airport i hope you know where I'm talking, it was a VERY long line) After security we ran to our gate which isn't actually to far from security thankfully. Dad and I boarded the plane with about 5 other people but the people who were boarding with us i watched get rushed through security... but dad and I stood in line. Because we were short on time i did not get to eat :( We then spent 6 hours in the Dallas-Fort worth Airport finding something to eat at TGI Fridays and  sleeping on the 'comfy' airport floor. Both flights were very good and rather smooth. I sat in between a couple on the first flight and beside a very nice lady and her daughter on the second flight. The daughter was so cute and the mom was from Louisiana so had a nice accent, they live 10 minutes from Disney World. I watched movies and slept on both planes, not a bad travel day, it just flew by lol

It finally hit me at the airport that i would be gone for a while. Had to say good bye to my mom, my brother and my boyfriend :( It was rather hard, as i knew it was going to be but i made it through shed a lot of tears and i walked away and watched them walk away. I miss them all so much already but i know i will see them again. The lady on the first flight actually turned to me and asked if i didn't like flying as i just sat there with tears streaming down my cheeks. I explained to her no it is just hard to say good bye. She talked to me for a bit and reassured me that the year will fly by with the new experience i am going to have it will all be worth it.

Below are a few pictures I took today.

Where i ate lunch in the Dallas- Fort Worth airport, Such yummy food and I didn't feel bad eating here on a Saturday as they reassured me "in here, its always Friday". 

I had a Jack Daniel's Chicken Sandwich! 

Walking through the Orlando airport I saw this. I remember it from last time I went to Orlando to!