One Week Down!

I've known about the Disney College Program since my first semester of college and therefore have spent many hours watching vlogs and reading blogs written by people who have participated in the program. And regardless of what role the author had or even which park the author worked in, there was almost one common denominator: tons of posts ramping up to the beginning of the program with excitement and pictures and information on the check-in program... and then absolutely NO information about what happened during the duration of the program until the very end when there maybe was a really short "Ok well I'm home now and here's a quick 2 paragraph summary of my college program experience".

I committed and swore to myself that I would not become that blogger. I would be consistent. Not for anyone else's sake, but because I wanted to be able to remember everything that happened and have it all recorded for myself.

I had this whole mental plan of how I would bring my journal on the bus everyday and I'd write about what happened during that day with lots of detail and nothing would be forgotten. I was going to not only succeed in completing the DCP, but I was going to excel at recording it all.

Well I'm one week in and I have a whole new level of empathy for those bloggers who I so harshly judged.

Just a quick timeline of the last few days:

• Wednesday: check-in, move in, and casting
• Thursday: housing meeting, resort hopping
• Friday: no meetings (woot woot!) and more resort hopping
• Saturday: Traditions (orientation to working for Disney) where I received my name card and my employee ID; used that employee ID to immediately head over to the Magic Kingdom and played in the parks for 9 hours
• Sunday: slept and hung out at home--super chill day
• Monday: property orientation to Pop Century--all new employees regardless of assignment had classes to just introduce you to the resort, the themes, some traditions, policies, etc
• Tuesday: first day of on-the-job training, VERYYYY basic introduction to where merchandise is shelved and spent most of the day just kind of hovering and observing...longest day of my life; dinner with the parentals
• Wednesday: Merchentaining class (made-up word: merchandise + entertaining) where we learned the basics of the cash register system that Disney uses; went to Hollywood Studios with a group to ride Star Tours, Rock n Roller Coaster, and see Fantasmic
• Thursday (today): early morning shift starting at 5:30 am where I worked the register for the first time, 'Up'-themed housing event where I met Russell and Carl :)

I really like where I'm working. Over the weekend I got a little hesitant about Pop Century just because it wasn't what I had imagined I'd be doing during my college program and I wasn't sure if I'd like working in basically a glorified Disney store like you'd find at the mall. I've had to learn about a lot of the different programs that are new: the Magic Bands are pretty awesome and I had a glorious 2 hour class yesterday on the details of the Disney Dining Plan.

But I love it. The hours are much nicer and it's more of a close-knit feel. The parks would be fun simply because you're always busy, there's always something to do, and you have that chance of spotting the electrical parade or watching the fireworks every night. I haven't worked a night shift, but I'm told that's when the place gets really busy. It's the off-season right now so the latest park that's open is Epcot and it closes at 9 pm. Because the parks close so early, guests come back to the hotel and that's when they shop. It gets busy but it doesn't get "line all the way out to the door for several hours" busy. And I will never ever be sick of the parks this way. There's no 'tainted' memories associated with work that I would bring into a park with me.

There's a lot of interesting lingo that goes with working at Pop Century. Because we're themed from the 1950's through the 1990's, we get to speak in decade-appropriate vernacular. "Have a groovy day" is still not a natural phrase for me to say and in some ways I hope that never just starts freely flowing forth from my lips. When directing guests, they advise us to say things like "ok just go out those doors, make a right turn, and then time travel down to the 1950's". It's cheesy dorky goodness, but it's fun.

I've learned some interesting Disney trivia over the past few weeks:

• 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was originally meant to be a walk-through wax museum and it was mostly completed when Walt told the Imagineers to scrap it and start from scratch. He wanted to incorporate the water-ride technology from "It's a Small World" with the animatronic technology from "The Tikki Room"
• Disney parks used to be partnered with the U.S. Treasury to start circulating silver $1 coins around the parks to be used as regular tender. They had to stop doing that because guests started trying to redeem them---thinking that they were just 'Disney money' and not actual U.S. currency because they thought that the faces on the coins were characters from the 'Haunted Mansion' ride when in face they were the faces of U.S. Presidents. Round of applause for Americans knowing their history.

I'm really happy with what I'm doing. Last night (Wednesday) I was a little bummed out because I had spent 3 straight hours completing learning modules at a computer as part of my training and I knew that I had to be at a bus stop at 4:30 in the morning which is just altogether a depressing concept. I wasn't too happy about it but my wonderful roommate invited me along to go see Fantasmic and I'm really glad that I went. Getting into a park for free for even just a few hours after work is absolutely worth the crazy schedules that require you to maneuver the bus system. When we went, 'Star Tours' was completely empty so we walked directly on and were seated in the first row. 'Fantasmic' was incredible. I had seen it at Disneyland a few times before but it was so great to see it in a big open amphitheater in a space designed specifically for that show rather than just cramming it on Tom Sawyer island and trying to watch it as you wait in line for 'Haunted Mansion'.

The one thing that they kept stressing over and over again is that the core of any job at Disney is to create happiness. It's a powerful idea to wrap your mind around but being paid solely to make someone else's day better...it's not a bad way to live. The buses are rough (I have to be at my bus stop at like 3:45 am to catch a bus that leaves at 4:02 am so I can clock into work at 5:30 am. It literally takes less than 15 minutes to get to Pop Century from my apartment but these are the joys of taking a bus). The hours are long. My feet really hurt. But it's worth it.

I'm in bed at 6:30. Not just on my bed: I am in my bed and under the covers. I've kept myself propped upright so that I don't fall asleep but I'll be surprised if I make it through one episode of Supernatural (thank goodness for Netflix woot woot!) before I fall asleep. There is some kind of twilight zone phenomenon on the DCP buses: you could get on a bus at the peak of an energy-drink induced spaz attack, and have all life and energy zapped out of you before you go five blocks. It's insane. 

It's been a little over a week but I'm so excited. I'm loving it. Some days are going to be hard, I know that. But there's a great pay-off. A lot of families swing through the store between breakfast and catching a bus to one of the parks. The excitement in tangible. Those kids are bursting at the seams and if you give them a chance they will tell you all about their favorite movie, princess, ride, all of the characters they want to meet and everything embarrassing thing their parent has ever done. I'm here making people happy and when you see people smile like that it's utterly contagious.

Disney magic is real and true people. Life is good and I am so grateful to be doing this.

The only thing that might make make this more magical is a nice big Dr. Pepper :)