Sometimes Work Feels Like Play

It still amazes me how quickly time goes by here at Disney. I'm pretty sure today is Saturday, but the days just go by so fast that I'm never 100% positive. My days have been filled with mostly working. I haven't been to the parks since...the other day. I don't remember what day it was (Monday?), but I did go to Hollywood Studios at some point, which was such a long day, but definitely fun!

Laura, Leah, and I were planning on going to see the Fantasmic show that night, but it ended up being canceled about 5 minutes after it started because one of the projectors wasn't working! I felt bad for those people that might have been leaving the next day and didn't get to see the show. It's so worth seeing! But even though we didn't get to see the show that night (which was fine with me really because it was so humid, my clothes were soggy) we did meet another college program participant who offered to make us dinner because he felt bad that it was canceled. Hey, free food. Why not?

I haven't had a chance to head to a park since Monday. Working takes up so much time. But most the time it doesn't feel like work. I do a dance almost every hour, I make Nemo look like he's swimming, and today I probably spent a good hour to hour and a half of my 8 1/2 hour shift talking to kids and listening to them get super excited about seeing Lightning McQueen, Dory, and Scar outside. I feel like I'm just getting paid to be a fool in Mickey ears, and I'm not sad about it. Although when you work until 12:30 am, it doesn't feel so fun anymore.

The just posted the listings of Professional Internships, so I'm starting to think about that as an option for after I'm finished with my program. A Guest Services Internship actually sounds super appealing to me, so we'll have to see if I can get it! I never really thought about staying in Florida when I first got here, but I'm not writing it off anymore. 

I have to say though, this impending hurricane may change my mind.

I love my job.

Last night I had an 8 1/2 hour shift that was going to last until 1 in the morning. No matter how much someone likes their job, that's never going to be a shift that anyone looks forward to. But the thing I love about working at Disney is that there is going to be something that happens every day to turn your day around.

Guests come to Walt Disney World for a variety of reasons. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Family reunions. Celebrating a toddler going poopy on the potty (it happened). You name it, they celebrate it. And there are buttons they can wear to let everyone around them know what they're here for. Last night, there was a little girl and her family looking to do some pin trading with me and my co-worker. I had some extra Ariel pins in my pocket that I was told to give to a child that I felt really deserved it or could use an extra smile. As I was leaning over I noticed bandages on the girls arm and a celebration button on her shirt that said "cancer free". The second I saw that I turned to her mom and shared just a look of complete relief and joy. I turned to the girl and asked if she liked Ariel. As she sheepishly nodded, I pulled the pins from my pocket and gave her a beautiful pin, and asked her younger brother if he would like Sebastian. The smiles on their faces (well, mostly hers. The brother was a little shy) made my whole night 5 million times better. I almost started crying as I thought about how young this girl, probably between 8-10, was already a survivor and already had been through so much, and I had the privilege to meet her and add just one extra smile to the last day of her trip.

I love this job so much.

One Week In!

I figured that this would be the best way to answer everyone's questions about what I'm doing and how things are going, so I'm going to try my hardest to keep up with it as I go! You'll probably be lucky to get one post a week from here, but here is one giant week long recap post!

So I got to Florida...um...last Tuesday? The days seem to run together here. So let's go with that. Wednesday the 8th I checked into my apartment and began settling in to my new 4 bedroom, 8 person home.

5 of my 7 roommates

Mary, Dominique, Leah, Laura, and Vitria (Ostyn and Keya are the other 2)

The whole day was just full of chaos, running around, and standing in long lines. After moving in, we were shipped off to casting where we found out our work locations! I am a merchandise cast member in the Ink and Paint Shop (gift shop) at Disney's Art of Animation Resort, which will be fully opened as of September 15th!

The resort is absolutely beautiful and one of a kind. It puts you inside the movies (four of them to be exact: Cars, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King) like you've never seen before. It focuses on the process of animating a movie from start to finish, and I absolutely adore everything about it.

I have been so busy since I got here that it feels like I've been in Florida much longer than a week. We had Traditions class a couple days after we got here (complete with a tour of the utilidoor at Magic Kingdom! I was wearing heels. Bad idea.), then we've been in training classes at Disney University, Cast Services, and our work locations. I love pretty much everything about it (minus the online learning), especially getting to go to the parks for free on my days off!

Even my costume is growing on me!

I definitely love it here. My co-workers seem great so far, I love all of my roommates, and I get fabulous perks like getting to test out the Little Mermaid section of our resort before it opens in September! I am so excited for that. The pool at our resort is amazing. And so is the food court. Now I'll actually be able to test them out. I can't wait to not be in training mode anymore and get out there and interact with my guests, too. I love being able to play with children and see the same guests come in day after day.

I love my job. I'm so blessed to be able to do this, and I thank God every day that He gave me this opportunity.

Can't wait to see what next week holds!