When planning any trip its always good to do a certain amount of planning and research before hand. Over the next 6 months I’ll try to include more of the tips that I’ve been highlighting already. Here are a few relating to travel/flight plans:
1) Don’t feel like you have to rush into booking your flights just because everyone else is. I didn’t book my flights to Orlando until mid-April last year.
2) Take advantage of any sales on flights but don’t let them dictate your plans. The other day I saw return flights for £450 but you had to fly via Toronto and Washington Dulles. Be aware that you will be busy from the moment you land in Orlando so don’t get over tired from travelling.
3)Consider flying an American airline. BA and Virgin have the advantage of flying direct to Orlando but if you want to travel afterwards a US airline is good for connecting flights. For example:
19th June - Heathrow-Washington-Orlando
2nd September - Orlando- Newark (New York)
9th September - Newark - Heathrow
...was slightly cheaper than doing...
19th June - Heathrow-Washington-Orlando
2nd September - Orlando - Washington - Heathrow
So you could have a trip to another city without any additional travel costs.
4) Don’t feel you have to arrive before your arrival date. Disney are highly organised when it comes to people arriving and it’s difficult to describe just how smooth the arrival process was. It makes no difference whether you arrive at 11am or 11pm. Unless you plan on having a quick holiday pre-arrival I recommend just arriving on the day.
5) Don’t worry if you’re not on the same flight as everyone else. I flew solo and ended up meeting loads of people on the Mears shuttle to Vista Way.
6) Start making a list of things you really want to do while you’re at WDW. For example are there any particular restaurants you want to visit? Time flies quickly in Disney!
Well that’s all the tips for now. More blogs on the way...
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Monday, 27 December 2010
What happened next?
Hello again! (I told you I’d be better at updating this didn’t I!)
I’m begin to realise that that first week at Disney is now proving to be a bit of a blur. Looking back it’s almost like it was one long day so I’m going to look more at the key events rather than what happened on a specific day because quite frankly I can’t actually remember.
Traditions
By the time you arrive at Disney, Traditions is quite possibly the single most anticipated event of week 1. If you want to I’m sure you can search for exactly what happens in Traditions class. I’m not going to go into great detail. Now in this case it’s not because I don’t remember what happened. No, this is because I think it’s better if that you don’t know about certain elements of the class until you get there. It’s all part of the magic. But here’s what I will say...
Traditions is where you receive your Disney ID and nametag. If you have a specific name you go by that you want on your nametag I recommend contacting them in advance although they did ask on the day as well. For me this is important because I don’t go by my official name and while they are similar I will, subconsciously not even recognise Suzanne as being my name if someone is talking to me (unless it is in an official situation). I do know people who had their official name on their tag and it took weeks for it to be changed. Your Disney ID gets you various discounts, allows you to go backstage and, most importantly, gets you into the parks for free, arguably the single greatest perk of working at WDW.
Traditions is also the first time during your stay in Florida that you will be required to wear professional attire.
*TIP* Make sure your shoes are as comfortable as possible and that your clothes are not too heavy. You will go outside during the class.
That’s all I’m going to say about Traditions other than I highly recommend you actively participate in the class. There are parts of it that are a LOT of fun.
Park Orientation
Obviously not everyone is based in a park so this may not apply to you but if you are in one of the 4 Theme Parks you get to have a Park Orientation. Again this is professional attire so the same clothing recommendations apply as before.
Each park orientation has a different name and most people will only ever take one of them so in my case I had Discovery Day a.k.a. Get to know Epcot.
As I mentioned before I spent some time writing an essay on the design of Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.( I’d go into details but I could guarantee that most people would fall asleep.) So the all-knowing arrogant side of me thought I wouldn’t learn anything new. I was wrong.
The day was essentially split into three parts:
- Lecture
- Tour
- Meeting an area supervisor/ getting your costume and locker.
*Fun Fact* Epcot is the one park where most guests go backstage without even realising. How? Because the outside section of Test Track is located backstage. If you look at this map you can see that everything to the right of Avenue of the Stars is part of the backstage area (roughly speaking).
View Larger Map
At Epcot the CP bus drops you backstage so you have to walk through it to get to the front turnstiles.
Now here’s why working at Towers was so great. We were located on the Future World side of World Showcase lagoon right next to the lake, right in the centre of the park. So here’s what would happen when you’d arrive.
- The bus dropped you off right outside Cast Services. This is where costuming and the lockers were located.
- From there it was a 2 minute walk to the First Aid entrance (located next to the cafeteria)
- Then it was another 2 minute walk into Disney Trader’s where you clocked in/out.
So within 5 minutes of the bus arriving you were at your location, ready to go and at break times it was a quick walk to the cafeteria so you never had to worry about making lunch etc. Fantastic!
Location/Area Training
Again, I won’t go into too much detail but for Merchandise training takes a total of 5-6 days. For Towers this was:
- Basics training
- Merchantainment class
- Floor training
- Baby Care
- Glow
Each part takes 1 day unless you are International. This is because you apparently require an extra day to familiarise yourself with the language, customs and currency of the USA. For me the extra day was slightly frustrating because I used to live in California and my native language is English but there you go, I had to do it anyway. There was one further area of training - stocking, although I managed to avoid this altogether, something I’m quite grateful for. Training was a lot of fun because it was the one time that you were guaranteed to be working with someone else. I recommend asking lots of questions because believe me it’s not so easy to do when the park is busy and you’re on your own.
Social Security
At the end of your second week in WDW you are taken en-masse to have your social security appointment. For everyone from the UK this is the equivalent of receiving your National Insurance number and is basically a tax thing. If you’ve already got an SSN then you don’t have to do it - lucky you!
And so ends my description of the more formal events that welcome you to your new life at WDW. Now I can start talking about the fun stuff :P
I’m begin to realise that that first week at Disney is now proving to be a bit of a blur. Looking back it’s almost like it was one long day so I’m going to look more at the key events rather than what happened on a specific day because quite frankly I can’t actually remember.
Traditions
By the time you arrive at Disney, Traditions is quite possibly the single most anticipated event of week 1. If you want to I’m sure you can search for exactly what happens in Traditions class. I’m not going to go into great detail. Now in this case it’s not because I don’t remember what happened. No, this is because I think it’s better if that you don’t know about certain elements of the class until you get there. It’s all part of the magic. But here’s what I will say...
Traditions is where you receive your Disney ID and nametag. If you have a specific name you go by that you want on your nametag I recommend contacting them in advance although they did ask on the day as well. For me this is important because I don’t go by my official name and while they are similar I will, subconsciously not even recognise Suzanne as being my name if someone is talking to me (unless it is in an official situation). I do know people who had their official name on their tag and it took weeks for it to be changed. Your Disney ID gets you various discounts, allows you to go backstage and, most importantly, gets you into the parks for free, arguably the single greatest perk of working at WDW.
Traditions is also the first time during your stay in Florida that you will be required to wear professional attire.
*TIP* Make sure your shoes are as comfortable as possible and that your clothes are not too heavy. You will go outside during the class.
That’s all I’m going to say about Traditions other than I highly recommend you actively participate in the class. There are parts of it that are a LOT of fun.
Park Orientation
Obviously not everyone is based in a park so this may not apply to you but if you are in one of the 4 Theme Parks you get to have a Park Orientation. Again this is professional attire so the same clothing recommendations apply as before.
Each park orientation has a different name and most people will only ever take one of them so in my case I had Discovery Day a.k.a. Get to know Epcot.
As I mentioned before I spent some time writing an essay on the design of Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.( I’d go into details but I could guarantee that most people would fall asleep.) So the all-knowing arrogant side of me thought I wouldn’t learn anything new. I was wrong.
The day was essentially split into three parts:
- Lecture
- Tour
- Meeting an area supervisor/ getting your costume and locker.
*Fun Fact* Epcot is the one park where most guests go backstage without even realising. How? Because the outside section of Test Track is located backstage. If you look at this map you can see that everything to the right of Avenue of the Stars is part of the backstage area (roughly speaking).
View Larger Map
At Epcot the CP bus drops you backstage so you have to walk through it to get to the front turnstiles.
Now here’s why working at Towers was so great. We were located on the Future World side of World Showcase lagoon right next to the lake, right in the centre of the park. So here’s what would happen when you’d arrive.
- The bus dropped you off right outside Cast Services. This is where costuming and the lockers were located.
- From there it was a 2 minute walk to the First Aid entrance (located next to the cafeteria)
- Then it was another 2 minute walk into Disney Trader’s where you clocked in/out.
So within 5 minutes of the bus arriving you were at your location, ready to go and at break times it was a quick walk to the cafeteria so you never had to worry about making lunch etc. Fantastic!
Location/Area Training
Again, I won’t go into too much detail but for Merchandise training takes a total of 5-6 days. For Towers this was:
- Basics training
- Merchantainment class
- Floor training
- Baby Care
- Glow
Each part takes 1 day unless you are International. This is because you apparently require an extra day to familiarise yourself with the language, customs and currency of the USA. For me the extra day was slightly frustrating because I used to live in California and my native language is English but there you go, I had to do it anyway. There was one further area of training - stocking, although I managed to avoid this altogether, something I’m quite grateful for. Training was a lot of fun because it was the one time that you were guaranteed to be working with someone else. I recommend asking lots of questions because believe me it’s not so easy to do when the park is busy and you’re on your own.
Social Security
At the end of your second week in WDW you are taken en-masse to have your social security appointment. For everyone from the UK this is the equivalent of receiving your National Insurance number and is basically a tax thing. If you’ve already got an SSN then you don’t have to do it - lucky you!
And so ends my description of the more formal events that welcome you to your new life at WDW. Now I can start talking about the fun stuff :P
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Suzie Fail
Hello Everyone! Long time no speak. Obviously this is all my fault. I just had a look back and released I haven’t posted any updates since day 2 (excluding the minimal vlogging). Epic Suzie fail!
In an effort to not bore everyone to death I’ll try to upload some summaries (hopefully timed vaguely with the vlogs) of what happened during my summer working at Disney World.
Last time it I summarized Day 2 of the experience. By which point I had basically got off a plane, moved in and signed my life over to WDW. So here’s what happened next...
Day 3
As far as I can remember this was pretty much more meetings. Now what these meetings were about I genuinely can’t remember (obviously meaning they were very important). They were with the infamous Jill who everyone knows from their face-to-face interviews which I suspect means that they consisted of more paperwork and employment contracts - fun stuff. That though was in the afternoon, the ‘exciting’ stuff had happened in the morning. That Thursday morning we received the single most exciting piece of information you receive as a Cast Member - your work location.
Now if you had asked me anytime up until about the 5th June where I would like to work (within Merchandise) I would have said:
- Hollywood Studios
- Magic Kingdom
- Animal Kingdom
- Contemporary Resort
- Polynesian Resort
- Water Parks
There are 2 major absences on that list:
1) Downtown Disney. (If you have ever seen World of Disney during peak periods you would understand why. It would have actually been my worst nightmare)
2) Epcot. (It was my least favourite park to visit and my favourite to learn about. I have actually written essays on it. it’s also the park I remember being dragged around most as a kid because it’s the park Adults tend to find most interesting but the lack of attractions within the countries did not gel with my short attention span)
So... off I went to be told my location with a sense of nervousness rather than excitement. I cannot emphasise enough just how much I didn’t want one of those 2 locations. So up I walk to a very excited Cast member who somewhat over enthusiastically declared that I would be working in “Epcot - Towers and Glow”. I suspect my face said it all because she then repeated the glow part as though it was some kind of redeeming feature of the location.
Now i have been visiting Disney World prey much every year for my entire life and i had no idea where “Towers and Glow” was. The glow part seemed pretty self explanatory - I’d be selling the glow toys that emerge during the nighttime parades, shows and fireworks but Towers? Where on earth was that? So I did what every self respecting student does I went on Facebook and Google and searched for it.
At this point I had already realised one significant upside to my location - the costume. “WHAT?” I hear you cry. “Everyone HATES their costume!” Yes, it’s true. The costumes at WDW can be quite spectacular. At the interviews it’s the one thing they willingly admit. But I noticed several key good points about my costume.
1) Shoes. Whether you’re visiting or working at WDW you spend a lot of time on your feet and walk several miles a day. The array of potential footwear that you could be wearing ranges from traditional black work shoes to hiking boots. On the piece of paper I was handed it read “White tennis shoes”. For me this was really the best option available because it meant that I could wear a really comfy pair of shoes that would actually get some use in the outside world.
*TIP* Go to the outlet mall for shoes rather than Walmart. They’re a little more expensive but your feet will appreciate the extra comfort and quality. There are also a LOT more options available.
2) Clothing. A short sleeve shirt and white shorts/trousers. No increase in temperature as a result of the costume. For pics of the lovely costume visit the Towers and Glow facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43357945066
If you don’t want to look at those pictures here’s a brief description: Red flag shirt, white shorts, white socks, white trainers/tennis shoes. The flag shirt is really worth a look and before anyone mocks let me tell you I had a LOT of guests come up to me and ask where they can buy it so :P
Needless to say if you asked me where the best place to work in Merchandise at Disney World is I would say, without a doubt, Epcot: Towers and Glow.
To be continued.....
In an effort to not bore everyone to death I’ll try to upload some summaries (hopefully timed vaguely with the vlogs) of what happened during my summer working at Disney World.
Last time it I summarized Day 2 of the experience. By which point I had basically got off a plane, moved in and signed my life over to WDW. So here’s what happened next...
Day 3
As far as I can remember this was pretty much more meetings. Now what these meetings were about I genuinely can’t remember (obviously meaning they were very important). They were with the infamous Jill who everyone knows from their face-to-face interviews which I suspect means that they consisted of more paperwork and employment contracts - fun stuff. That though was in the afternoon, the ‘exciting’ stuff had happened in the morning. That Thursday morning we received the single most exciting piece of information you receive as a Cast Member - your work location.
Now if you had asked me anytime up until about the 5th June where I would like to work (within Merchandise) I would have said:
- Hollywood Studios
- Magic Kingdom
- Animal Kingdom
- Contemporary Resort
- Polynesian Resort
- Water Parks
There are 2 major absences on that list:
1) Downtown Disney. (If you have ever seen World of Disney during peak periods you would understand why. It would have actually been my worst nightmare)
2) Epcot. (It was my least favourite park to visit and my favourite to learn about. I have actually written essays on it. it’s also the park I remember being dragged around most as a kid because it’s the park Adults tend to find most interesting but the lack of attractions within the countries did not gel with my short attention span)
So... off I went to be told my location with a sense of nervousness rather than excitement. I cannot emphasise enough just how much I didn’t want one of those 2 locations. So up I walk to a very excited Cast member who somewhat over enthusiastically declared that I would be working in “Epcot - Towers and Glow”. I suspect my face said it all because she then repeated the glow part as though it was some kind of redeeming feature of the location.
Now i have been visiting Disney World prey much every year for my entire life and i had no idea where “Towers and Glow” was. The glow part seemed pretty self explanatory - I’d be selling the glow toys that emerge during the nighttime parades, shows and fireworks but Towers? Where on earth was that? So I did what every self respecting student does I went on Facebook and Google and searched for it.
At this point I had already realised one significant upside to my location - the costume. “WHAT?” I hear you cry. “Everyone HATES their costume!” Yes, it’s true. The costumes at WDW can be quite spectacular. At the interviews it’s the one thing they willingly admit. But I noticed several key good points about my costume.
1) Shoes. Whether you’re visiting or working at WDW you spend a lot of time on your feet and walk several miles a day. The array of potential footwear that you could be wearing ranges from traditional black work shoes to hiking boots. On the piece of paper I was handed it read “White tennis shoes”. For me this was really the best option available because it meant that I could wear a really comfy pair of shoes that would actually get some use in the outside world.
*TIP* Go to the outlet mall for shoes rather than Walmart. They’re a little more expensive but your feet will appreciate the extra comfort and quality. There are also a LOT more options available.
2) Clothing. A short sleeve shirt and white shorts/trousers. No increase in temperature as a result of the costume. For pics of the lovely costume visit the Towers and Glow facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43357945066
If you don’t want to look at those pictures here’s a brief description: Red flag shirt, white shorts, white socks, white trainers/tennis shoes. The flag shirt is really worth a look and before anyone mocks let me tell you I had a LOT of guests come up to me and ask where they can buy it so :P
Needless to say if you asked me where the best place to work in Merchandise at Disney World is I would say, without a doubt, Epcot: Towers and Glow.
To be continued.....
Sunday, 7 November 2010
SDA: Episode 14 - The Long Overdue Episode
Hello everyone! It's been 5 months since my last vlog but I've finally been able to create a new one. I filmed lots of stuff from my summer at Disney so there will be lots more vlogs to look forward to.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Day 2
Isn’t long distance travel fun? It comes with perks like waking up at 5am unintentionally.
Today basically consisted of a series of meetings dedicated to everything housing. The morning was spent filling out housing paperwork (signing your life away, finding out how much rent is, etc) and getting your housing ID. Cue awkward photo sessions...
At some point we got a voucher for Chik-fil-a so headed their for a really early lunch at about 11am. Then it was time for the oh so fun housing sessions and more paperwork. 3 1/2 hours later we finished. I’d give a summary of what was actually said but to be honest it was all fairly mundane and boring so believe me when i say its probably better that you don’t know what they tell you in advance.
We then all headed to Downtown Disney to have an explore. This was a lot of fun for me because none of the people i was with had ever been to WDW before. Their faces when we went in the World of Disney store were priceless. Then had the first proper meal of the trip at T-Rex and got back home around 11pm. Oh...it rained a bit as well.
All in all another great day.
Tomorrow I get to find out where I’ll actually be working so that’s something to look forward to (I hope!)
Signing off...
Today basically consisted of a series of meetings dedicated to everything housing. The morning was spent filling out housing paperwork (signing your life away, finding out how much rent is, etc) and getting your housing ID. Cue awkward photo sessions...
At some point we got a voucher for Chik-fil-a so headed their for a really early lunch at about 11am. Then it was time for the oh so fun housing sessions and more paperwork. 3 1/2 hours later we finished. I’d give a summary of what was actually said but to be honest it was all fairly mundane and boring so believe me when i say its probably better that you don’t know what they tell you in advance.
We then all headed to Downtown Disney to have an explore. This was a lot of fun for me because none of the people i was with had ever been to WDW before. Their faces when we went in the World of Disney store were priceless. Then had the first proper meal of the trip at T-Rex and got back home around 11pm. Oh...it rained a bit as well.
All in all another great day.
Tomorrow I get to find out where I’ll actually be working so that’s something to look forward to (I hope!)
Signing off...
Move-in Day!
So yesterday I moved into my apartment in Vista Way. Was absolutely exhausted. So many things seemed to happen yesterday that I’ll quickly try to run through them all...
First of all I didn’t get ANY sleep Monday night due to a combination of excitement and editing. The trip to Washington Dulles was all fairly straight forward. My layover was about an hour and a half which is usually plenty of time. Especially given that i was the first person off the plane. I joined the immigration queue and there was a massive long line of people who got off a plane from Tokyo and only 1 immigration officer was processing them. For the next hour I was constantly looking at my watch. I left Customs and Immigration with about 10 mins before my flight was due to take-off. Cue some manic sprinting though the airport because the gate was on the other side of the terminal. I got to the gate and they had literally just closed it about a minute earlier. I went straight to the customer service desk who (go United) were really helpful and booked me straight on the next flight no questions asked. Unfortunately, that meant a 2 hour + wait :( I sat on the plane and they said they were gonna have to sit on the runway for 45 mins because of storms :( Eventually landed at about 6pm. I headed straight for the Mears shuttle and while I was sat there waiting someone recognised me (Jayne) so I got chatting to a whole load of Brits who are all doing the same thing at Disney as me.
Disney were on hand with a warm welcome when we arrived and gave us some free food and things. The food selections were slightly odd and included crackers, porridge, noodles and Cup-a-Soup. The showed us to our apartments and it turned out that one of the girls I met at the airport was also my roommate. Her name’s Janelle and she’s from Glasgow. There was then a late night run to Walmart. I didn’t get back to my room until about 1am so I was really shattered. Jet lag has resulted in me waking up at 5am this morning. hopefully that will sort itself out soon. The upside is that I did need to get up this morning for housing meetings and stuff.
The itinerary for the next few days is pretty much all meetings/training. Can’t wait to get my Disney ID so I can head into the parks. I’ve set up wireless internet for my flatmates (which they’ll discover once they wake up lol!).
I did film some of the stuff that happened yesterday and will hopefully do some more today :D
The sun is out now though. Let Day 2 commence!
First of all I didn’t get ANY sleep Monday night due to a combination of excitement and editing. The trip to Washington Dulles was all fairly straight forward. My layover was about an hour and a half which is usually plenty of time. Especially given that i was the first person off the plane. I joined the immigration queue and there was a massive long line of people who got off a plane from Tokyo and only 1 immigration officer was processing them. For the next hour I was constantly looking at my watch. I left Customs and Immigration with about 10 mins before my flight was due to take-off. Cue some manic sprinting though the airport because the gate was on the other side of the terminal. I got to the gate and they had literally just closed it about a minute earlier. I went straight to the customer service desk who (go United) were really helpful and booked me straight on the next flight no questions asked. Unfortunately, that meant a 2 hour + wait :( I sat on the plane and they said they were gonna have to sit on the runway for 45 mins because of storms :( Eventually landed at about 6pm. I headed straight for the Mears shuttle and while I was sat there waiting someone recognised me (Jayne) so I got chatting to a whole load of Brits who are all doing the same thing at Disney as me.
Disney were on hand with a warm welcome when we arrived and gave us some free food and things. The food selections were slightly odd and included crackers, porridge, noodles and Cup-a-Soup. The showed us to our apartments and it turned out that one of the girls I met at the airport was also my roommate. Her name’s Janelle and she’s from Glasgow. There was then a late night run to Walmart. I didn’t get back to my room until about 1am so I was really shattered. Jet lag has resulted in me waking up at 5am this morning. hopefully that will sort itself out soon. The upside is that I did need to get up this morning for housing meetings and stuff.
The itinerary for the next few days is pretty much all meetings/training. Can’t wait to get my Disney ID so I can head into the parks. I’ve set up wireless internet for my flatmates (which they’ll discover once they wake up lol!).
I did film some of the stuff that happened yesterday and will hopefully do some more today :D
The sun is out now though. Let Day 2 commence!
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