My Last Day

Yesterday was my last day of work at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Such a weird feeling! I would say it turned out to be a pretty great last day. I had the chance to make a little bit of magic one last time. I had some guests approach me (a mom and 2 little girls) one of the little girls (named Emily- believe it or not) had lost her lanyard with all of her Disney pins on it while they were in Magic Kingdom earlier that day. The little girl was crying and so upset that she lost her favorite pins. I called guest relations at Magic Kingdom to see if they had been turned in yet. Believe it or not, things usually turn up at Disney World. I've lost my cell phone before and Alex has even lost his wallet and we both got them back unharmed! Anyway, no one had turned her pins in yet and when I gave them this news the little girl started to cry all over again. I felt so bad! They headed back to their room to figure out the next step but I wanted to try to do something to at least distract her. I went through our collection of pins in the back office and chose a few to give to Emily. I wrote a little note explaining that of course these wouldn't replace her pins but I wanted her to at least have something to trade while she's here. I went to deliver them to the room and ended up running into the family in the hallway. I gave her the pins and she was so happy. The whole family was really grateful. I'm sure she will get her pins back but I hope that moment diffused the situation a little bit.
Also at work the managers recently put a little reward system into place. When doing a check in we're always supposed to read the comments on the reservation in case there's some vital information that another cast member has noted. So they started putting special comments on certain reservations that say "thanks for checking your comments, see your supervisor for a prize!" My very last check in around 11pm last night was a special prize check in. :) Also, I received one last "great service fanatic" card yesterday for following up with my guests. What a way to end!

Also, here's a picture of me in my costume on my last day. Even though it's hideous and terribly uncomfortable I know some of you have been asking to see it... so here it is!

When one door closes..

I'm so sorry we haven't kept up with this blog lately! To be honest, it's mostly been work work work since the family left. We hadn't even been back to the parks until earlier this week! I'll go back and fill in some details eventually.
So here we are, 4 months later and my program is coming to an end. My last day of work at Animal Kingdom Lodge is tomorrow. These past few months have FLOWN by. I have been trying to find a way to keep working for Disney until Alex finishes up with his program in early July, but it has been an unsuccessful search. To say the least, the cast member I dealt with at Disney's "casting" building was not very magical. She told me there was no hope. Luckily, I did just land another job with a vacation property management company where I will be performing a similar role.. just not at Disney. It's definitely a bittersweet end. It has been quite hectic working long, crazy hours and having no sense of a routine but I have some great co-workers and I've had awesome experiences as a cast member. Also, getting in to the parks for free was a huge perk! We're trying to figure out a way to continue this since Alex will still have those perks- which probably means dishing out a lot of money for an annual pass.. we'll see!

Although our time in Florida is not quite up, it certainly feels like an end for me. No matter what my experiences have been-- the good, the bad and the ugly I am still very passionate about Disney magic. This will always be my favorite place to visit and I know Alex and I will be making many more visits in the future!

Visitors!

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated this thing- as you can imagine it's been a busy month! We had so much fun with everyone that came down to visit! It was great spending time with family and showing them around. We spent tons of time in the parks and I think everyone was pretty much exhausted at the end of the trip. I think the pictures will speak for themselves so I'll post the link to my facebook album with all of the photos.

Disney Family Vacation photo album

It was awesome to experience "the first visit" for Gracie, Kenny and my parents. Everything in Disney World is extra magical when you're seeing it for the first time. The girls got to meet some of their favorite characters... including Ariel and Prince Eric- so of course I got to meet them too! Dream come true. :) Leanna rode lots of roller coasters while they were here.. she's quite a dare devil now! I believe one of the best things about the whole experience was actually Kenny's reaction to everything. So, those of you who don't know- Kenny was convinced that Disney was "not fun" and just for little kids. Every time Alex and I would talk about how wonderful this place is after each trip he remained a non-believer. I can't tell you how many times I heard him say "I wouldn't have any fun there." Boy, did he eat his words. He absolutely loved it. After their first day in Magic Kingdom he said over and over again "I love Disney World!" And this is the happiest place on Earth! He's even ready to move here- no joke. He was like a little kid throughout their whole visit. Well, a little kid that was also able to enjoy margaritas and German beer in Epcot. haha

Right now, Jesse, Hunter and Will are down here. We got to spend time with them earlier this week. Unfortunately since the crowds are so crazy down here this week there is a block out for cast members so we weren't able to go to the parks with them. Alex was able to spend a little time with them in Animal Kingdom this morning. We also got to Skype with Dan in Chile a few days ago while we were all together. It was great to see all of them.
Basically, we had the BEST time with everyone while they were here. The month of March just flew by.. I can't believe it's already April. It's going to be really weird not going to Ma-maw and Pa-paw's house on Easter. We will definitely miss the Easter egg hunt and dinner and seeing all of the family. I hate being away from family, especially on holidays. Luckily, I think this is the only holiday we will be missing. Happy Easter, everyone!

March Madness

I can't believe March is here and we've already been here for 2 months! Things have been busy the past few days with spring break season starting. And this month also means lots of visitors! We couldn't be more excited! Tomorrow my "little" sister, Courtney and another one of my sorority sisters, Lindy are coming to visit for a few days while UNCW is on break. I can't wait to see them- it'll be great to have friends down here. Then a few days after they leave the Phillips family is coming down! And the best part is that the girls don't even know they're coming yet.. Kristen and Quinn are surprising them. Kristen said she's going to video their reactions when they tell them right before they leave. I can't wait to see that- they're going to be ecstatic! My parents and Kenny are coming in the middle of the week that the Phillips are here. Yay! Alex and I are really excited because even though we're here every day we'll be able to experience Disney in a completely different way with them here. We've never been down here with family, but most importantly we'll get to watch them experience it for the first time. I'm especially excited to see how the girls react to everything. Plus with Gracie here, I'll finally have an excuse to meet some princesses without people wondering why I'm in line to meet them. :)

Here's some pictures from the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game I mentioned before... so far we've already defeated Scar and now we're working on Cruella DeVil! :)

And here's another view at work

This is a group picture of all of Alex's coworkers-- the conservation education presenters. You can see Alex peeking over in the back :)

I'm working until 2:30 again tonight. But luckily, I think my schedule is slowly improving. This is my only late shift this week and next week I don't have any! And Alex and I have the same days off. And I was able to get some time off while the family is going to be here so we'll be able to relax and play with them. We're really looking forward to it!

One More Disney Day

So in case you didn't hear, yesterday the Magic Kingdom was open for 24 hours for the "one more Disney Day" Leap day celebration. It opened at 6am yesterday and closed at 6am this morning. Alex and I went last night around 11pm to experience the craziness.. and it was crazy. There were TONS of people there. I think Disney definitely underestimated the number of people that would be in attendance. We didn't even get our "one more Disney day" buttons and they were almost completely out of the tshirts and we got there 7-8 hours before park close! Anyway, we wanted to be part of the special day and even though it was so crowded that we only rode a few rides I'm still glad we can say we were there.

This picture of the castle was around 2am. They had an ongoing pajama dance party in front of the castle. We also started to play this new game in the Magic Kingdom called the sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. We just started playing last night so we're still learning but basically it's our duty to save the Magic Kingdom from Hades and all of the other Disney villains! It's this interactive game where you have spell cards and cast spells against the villains at portals all over the park. We only got to 1 last night because there were so many people but you can play it as long as you like so we'll definitely be playing the next time we go back. 

Here we are on the "people mover." We look excited- but it's definitely no thrill ride. haha It basically takes you on a tour through tomorrowland which is a section of the Magic Kingdom. Basically, it's a good way to sit down and relax- and since everything was so packed this was one of the only rides that didn't have a huge line.

This picture was taken on Main Street USA as we were leaving around 3:45am. There were still lots of people throughout the park. Alex had to get up for work around 6:45 this morning so I'm sure he's been exhausted all day. Unfortunately my work day hasn't even started.. I'm working 6pm-2:30am tonight and not looking forward to it at all. Luckily, I'm off this weekend so I won't have to worry about it after that. We're planning to go back to Magic Kingdom sometime this weekend to continue to protect the kingdom from villains!

Alex's First Post!

Hello everyone! This is Alex- Emily has been asking me to post on the blog, so here it goes:

I love my job! It is a ton of fun, and the days are just flying by. I guess I'll start by talking about what I do. I'm working at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and my job title is Conservation Education Presenter. I am out in the theme park every day interacting with guests, talking to them about animals and nature and giving them conservation messages. In a normal day I talk to around 1000 people- though sometimes more. Yesterday I had talked to over 300 people before 10am!

There are basically two different things that I do- one is to stand in front of some of the different animals around the park and engage the guests there. We basically first get the guests attention, because they are often running off to the next ride or whatever and completely miss the animal right under their noses. Then, we give some cool facts about the animals, and answer any questions they have. Last, we are supposed to give them a conservation message- something that they can go home and do to help protect animals and the environment.

The other thing that my role does is to run the Kid's Discovery Club locations around the park. These are basically six different games we have around the park that are all animal themed- listening to animal sounds, tracking an animal in the "wild", even matching up dinosaur fossils. They are really fun, sometimes chaotic and always interesting since all different age groups will come to play. At the end of the activity we are supposed to give another conservation message. The fun and challenging part is figuring out how to give a message that a three year old can understand one minute, then turning around and making the same game and message relevant to a thirteen or thirty year old the next.

I also really like the people I work with. Everyone is really fun and easy to work with, and most of my coworkers are recent graduates just like me. The picture above is me (in my awesome costume) and this guy Bruce that also works at Animal Kingdom, as a performer in the Festival of the Lion King show.

If I have any complaints right now, it is that by the end of the day I am completely exhausted- it takes a lot of energy to be loud and energetic for kids and crowds in the Florida heat for 8 hours a day. Also, Emily's schedule has not matched up with mine very well so far, so we haven't seen nearly as much of each other as we would like. Luckily, when we do have time together, we can do stuff like go to Magic Kingdom!

Work, work, work

This has been a tough week. It's been crazy busy at the lodge since so many people came in for the marathon and races and all star weekend. I was scheduled 7 days in a row. However, yesterday when I woke up I wasn't feeling 100% and felt even worse as the night went on. By the time I got home at 10pm I was pretty drained. This morning I woke up for work but I had a sore throat, stuffy head and achy body-- so today is my first sick day. Disney has a "point" system so we're allowed so many call ins etc, but this was my first one so I'm still in good shape. I've been sleeping most of the day and I'm feeling a little better so hopefully it will pass quickly.
My hours are still all over the place- I'm working until 2:30am a few times this week again but I spoke to someone about it so hopefully that won't be the case for much longer. Earlier this week there was a day when our system was scheduled to go down so the check in process of course was really easy and fun. (HA) There were lots of issues and irritated guests but luckily the system came back up about half way through my shift. Despite that being frustrating, I had an interesting magical moment. I was out in the lobby being a greeter (AKA keeping guests away from the counter and encourage them to go to the parks or pool instead of trying to check in while the system is down.) A little girl was playing and twisting around one of the big posts in the lobby and I saw her look my way. She walked up to me and said "what's your name?" And I smiled and told her my name and she held her hand out for me to shake it and said "Hi, I'm Shanelle." She couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old so I was really surprised that she was so outgoing and even shook my hand! She talked to me for a while about how they had been waiting for her room and her mom was checking on it again because they really wanted to go to the room. So I responded with "Hopefully it will be ready for you real soon.. maybe you could go swimming for a while if it's not ready since it's nice and hot outside." And she replied "Well, yeah but we figured we can go swimming anywhere... we can only see the animals here." What a grow up response! After that I basically just said well, yeah you're right. haha Then she proceeded to tell me how she takes ballet class and demonstrated a few moves for me. Her mom left the counter very disgruntled and I tried to speak to her but she hurried off. Shanelle waved goodbye and they disappeared down the hall.
The next day I went to help the runner deliver a package to a room. On our way back down to the lobby Shanelle and her mom got off the elevator. I waved but she didn't really see me at first. After we got on the elevator right before the doors closed I heard her gasp and she ran in front of the doors and yelled "Emily! Hi!" It was like she ran into her best friend. The runner (Julia) asked me if I knew her and I told her about the previous day.
It's moments like these that remind me how much I will always love Disney and everything the company is based on. I may be struggling now with the hours and being mistreated by some fellow cast members (which shouldn't be happening) but I will never lose my passion for Disney and providing magical experiences for guests.

Valentine's Day

Sorry for the delay in posting.. I've been struggling a little bit. My hours have really been horrible and all over the place. It's making it really hard for me to get decent sleep or be on a normal sleep schedule, but most importantly it's making it difficult for Alex and I to see each other regularly unless we somehow get lucky and have the same days off. So for right now, I'm going to avoid updating on the work front.

Luckily, Alex and I both had Monday and Tuesday off- which included Valentine's Day! On Monday we spent lots of time at Magic Kingdom. The crowds were still pretty low last week so we got to ride lots of rides and the lines were pretty much non existent. We also recently started pin trading. If you're not familiar with it, it's a pretty big trend around all of the parks. Basically there's tons of pins out there from all of the Disney movies, theme parks, rides, etc. and guests can buy and trade pins all over Disney property. Most cast members wear a lanyard of pins around their necks and you can go up and trade any of your pins with them. It's become really addicting already! :)

On Tuesday we went to Animal Kingdom for lunch and walked around there for a while (by the way it was about 80 degrees here!) then we headed to Hollywood Studios. That night we had dinner at our favorite restaurant in the Polynesian resort- it's called Kona Cafe. We ate at this same restaurant right after Alex proposed, on our honeymoon and for both of our birthdays. The food was wonderful!

Here we are on the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride :)

this is at the end of Snow White's Scary Adventures (this is a really old ride that is actually going to be closed very soon)

Last night we went to Magic Kingdom again because the park was open until 1am. The crowds are much bigger now, and it's going to stay that way through the week because there's cheerleading competitions going on down here and also the Disney Princess half marathon that tons of people love to run. Alex and I are going to have a busy week at work, that's for sure.

I've also been missing the family a LOT lately. I sent the Phillips family a package earlier this week with a birthday present for Gracie and Kristen and of course some Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats for Leanna and Gracie. :) The other day I had a voice mail from Kristen and I listened to it on my dinner break at work. As soon as I heard Gracie and Leanna's voices thanking me for their gifts I awkwardly burst into tears right there in the break room. I miss those little girls and everyone so much! It also made it tough because last night was the first family get together since we've been gone celebrating lots of birthdays at my house. I hate missing family gatherings- it's only happened a handful of times my whole life so this was especially tough. I even thought about driving through the night so we could be there. I attempted to face chat on the iphone with Kenny while everyone was there but I wasn't at home and didn't have a wifi signal so it didn't work. :( I wish so badly that everyone was down here with us right now! I'm still determined to make it happen.. having the whole family come on vacation to Disney World would be the most amazing experience.

Earning my ears

Today was my last day of on the job training. I have officially "earned my ears!" It was really overwhelming at first but I think I'm definitely starting to get the hang of things. Check ins are going smoothly, and I'm learning a lot about the resort. Hopefully I'll have a solid routine down soon. I'm still a little worried about getting lost in the tunnels under the resort.. it's hard to tell where you are when you're under the building! Tomorrow is my first day on my own with no trainer by my side.. and it starts bright and early at 5:45am! Woo! But actually, I would prefer this shift over other ones now that I've been working it for a while. Sure, I hate getting out of bed at 4:30am but it feels good to be done with the day at 2pm! Next week I'm working until 2:30am all week and I am not happy about that at all. I won't be able to see Alex at all since he will be getting home from work the same time I have to be heading in to work. And believe it or not, I'm actually on a fairly normal sleep schedule now and I really don't want to keep flip flopping. I certainly won't be able to keep those shifts up, so hopefully I can get that worked out ASAP.
I tried to take some pictures of the animals at work today. It is SO cool to look out the window and see these amazing animals roaming around. I don't think that will ever get old. I've also seen the sunrise over the savannas through the enormous windows in the lobby the past few days and that is definitely a sight to see. I really love the lodge. When I have a stack of extra money laying around I'll have to stay there some time. :)

zebras!

giraffes!

Alex is loving his job as an education presenter. I knew he'd be a natural. He has told me lots of stories about the families and kids he's been able to interact with. He works at the Kid's Discovery Club stations around the Animal Kingdom park where he promotes conservation messages to the guests. There are several games at the different stations that he's been telling me about including one where the kids learn how to track animal signs- fake poop included. He said of course the boys get a kick out of seeing the fake poop but when the little girls realize what it is they get really shy and embarrassed. haha! He also told me that he had a family ask him to pose for a picture with their kids and that warmed his little heart. :) When I have a day off I'll have to head to Animal Kingdom and see what his normal days are like.


This is our apartment complex. We absolutely love it so far! And the name is just a bonus :) (it's called Bella in case you were wondering, and no, I didn't plan that.)

And here's some of that gorgeous Florida sunshine :)

Well, it's nap time for me! :) 

Working for the mouse

So much has happened in the past few weeks! We are officially working and living in the happiest place on Earth. :) I am working front desk at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Alex is a Conservation Education Presenter at Animal Kingdom!

On the 6th Alex and I (with LOTS of help from Alex's mom, Pat and brother, Dan) set out on the journey to sunny Florida. It was a long trip and we had a tight schedule to stick to since our new apartment's office closed at 6pm. We were really cutting it close and we called the office several times to update them and we were told they could not wait after 6. We were really frantic and drove as fast as the 5:00 Orlando traffic would allow. We pulled into the apartment gates at 6:03. The office was completely dark and no one was answering the phone. Our hearts sank and even worse, we had no idea what to do or where to go with our 16' moving truck and all of our belongings. About 2 minutes later a car drove up and one of the ladies from the office stepped out and said she saw us coming and turned around to come get everything settled. Must have been Disney magic! We got all of the paper work taken care of and then headed to Flippers Pizza for a delicious dinner since we had to skip lunch to make it to the office in time. Day 1 was a success!

We spent a few days unpacking and settling in before we started working. On my first day I had to go to Disney's Casting building to get everything settled. Even their HR building was magical. There were statues and murals of characters everywhere. Although ultimately it was a boring process, the Disney flare still made it interesting. 

My first real day as a cast member was for an introduction class called Traditions. They issued our Cast Member IDs and taught us some of the basics as well as some history on the company and Walt himself. We also took a tour of the Magic Kingdom-- but this was unlike any tour of the park I'd ever seen. We went through the "utilidoors" or the underground tunnels that run through the Magic Kingdom. We walked into the tunnels under fantasy land and passed several characters on the way. I even saw Sleeping Beauty waiting for the elevator to the Castle stage about to perform in one of the afternoon shows! We popped out of a door that put us right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom. We walked down Main Street and had a chance to interact with some guests. We ducked into a different door in Tomorrowland and we were back in the utilidoors. It was crazy! 

When we got back from our tour we still had some learning to do but it was interrupted by a knock on the door. Who was at the door?, you may wonder... none other than Mickey Mouse himself! He had a beautifully wrapped box which we soon found out held all of our company name tags. Even though I'm technically on the "other side" of the magic now, I was still SO giddy when I saw Mickey walk through the door.

I had a couple days off before I started training so Alex and I took advantage of our free admission to the parks! We went to Magic Kingdom the first night we both had our IDs. (I got mine a day before.) The picture below is from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. My first official day of training was at Disney University. Yep, Disney University. I had four 8 hour days of front desk training at DU. I met some really cool people during training from all over the country and the world! I plan on spending lots of time with them while I'm here. During training we got to practice in a real "front desk lab" which was in fact set up exactly like a resort front desk. We practiced with the computer system and all of the guest service techniques we had been learning. 

A few days later I had my orientation at Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was actually the first time I had ever been to the lodge. It was amazing. The whole resort is beautiful and so detailed. And of course it was awesome to see the giraffes and zebras right outside of the lobby. The next day I started my on the job training which I will finish up at the end of this week. It was really overwhelming at first and I was really nervous, but I'm definitely getting the hang of it now. I've been scheduled for several days at 5:45am... as most of you know that's more like a bed time for me than a wake up call. It was tough getting out of bed but it actually feels good to be done with work at 2 in the afternoon. I've been told my schedule won't be consistent so I guess I shouldn't get used to it-- but we'll see. I have 2 more days of training with a trainer by my side then I'm on my own!

Here's Alex in his costume :)

We got an awesome view of the lions on the safari at Animal Kingdom! We've never seen them this active.