So a normal shift for me is about 7-10 hours and usually is from about 3-5 pm to anywhere from 11-3 am. The summer was crazy bcs 2x a week we had extra magic hours for resort guests from 12-3 am so I would be there til 4am a few times a week. That was exhausting. My paychecks are pretty decent but most of it seems to go to rent and other stuff. People think that working 10 hours is really terrible but its nice because we rotate every 45 mins or so to different positions (theres about 20 different positions we could be at). And then we get a break every 2-3 hours. So it goes by really fast. The shifts go by even faster when you get to work Wishes. Wishes is currently the night time fireworks show at Magic Kingdom. Back in June I was trained to work wishes, which is basically just being trained on what to do in case debris falls or if a guest runs into a restricted area. So I get to work wishes a few nights a week, which is from 8-1045pm. There are like 8 different positions we could be at. My favorite is the one at the front of the castle where you get to watch the parade, the Magic, Memories and You, and Wishes. The magic, memories and you is a projection show on the castle, which is AMAZING!! Oh another fun thing about working is sometimes if we are over staffed, we are assigned a task, which includes things like, go blow bubbles for 15 mins, go hand out stickers, go move strollers, etc. so that is a sort of extra break/ something fun to do.
Another great part of this is making things called Magical Moments. I think I might have mentioned this before but it is when you decide to do something over the top to make a guest or guests happy. This can be anything from offering extra information that would help make their experience better, to giving them fast passes for space mountain, or walking them onto an attraction in Fantasy Land, and basically anything else you can think of. I have 2 favorite magical moments that are worth mentioning.
The first one was early June, and there was this little boy named christopher and it was his 3rd bday. He was about to go on small world and started screaming. He seemed to think that Small world was snow white (which is really scary for kids), and he refused to ride. So I had gotten into a conversation with his mom and grandmas so I offered to make some magic and walk them onto peter pan. (Thats a big deal, bcs peter pans line is usually 40-70 min wait. ) So we get up to Peter pan, and he starts screamming again!! Ohh no, now he thinks this is snow white. So i put the grandmas on the ride and the mom and Christoper exit the ride. So now hes confused so i got down on his level and explained to him that the scary one was snow white and finally convinced him that small world was fun and pretty etc. So I walked the 2 of them down the cast member entrance at small world. He thought it was the most amazing thing ever bcs he got to go in the special person enterance. So I put them in the front row and ran up to tower to wave goodbye to him. I waited for themm to get off and met him at the end of the ride and he was all smiles. I proceeded to tell him that while he was on the ride, someone called for him and left him a message. So I walked him over to the phone, where he proceeds to hold my hand, and gave him the phone. There was GOOFY on the phone wishing him a happy birthday!!!! I then let his family listen to the message as well and they all thought it was the most amazing thing in the whole world.
The second one was early August and this little girl had ridden small world like 4 times in a row right at the end of the night. So the second last time around, she asked if i could ride with her, and i couldnt because we were still open! So as she was about to go on here last ride the ride had just closed for the night and my job as closer was to do the ride through. So I was going to HAVE to ride the ride in the boat behind the guests anyway, so I figured, why not ride WITH the guests and make the little girl happy. So thats what I did. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and the whole time kept talking to me and holding my hand and calling me her disney friend. It was amazing.
So theres tons more of those moments but I would be here all day trying to tell all of them. So now onto what my summer has entailed.
June:
June was filled with many days just playing in the parkss and having fun with new friends. I met tons of people the first few weeks I was here, so I hung out with them alot. The end of june, my dad, his girlfriend Angie and her kids Erin and Ryan came down and stayed at the Royal Plaza and we did 3 days of disney. We got through almost everything at Magic Kingdom and they were able to come visit me at work that night. We had lots of fun at animal kingdom and hollywood studios the following day and ended the disney part of their vacation at epcot drinking margaritas and watching illuminations. They left the next day to go to visit my grandparents and then headed to daytona.. I was able to join them in daytona for a day and enjoyed laying on the beach, relaxing and ended our visit with a great seafood dinner at a little place on the water. It was a great visit.
July:
July seemed to fly by. we celebrated the 4th by having a cookout at Mike's friends house and then we watched fireworks at magic kingdom. That was CRAZYYY! Mid-July brought my best friend Kayla down to visit. She was staying in clearwater with her family, and I got to go spend some time out there with her and spend a whole day on the boat out on the gulf. It was a perfect day and it was so great to be able to catch up with her. It was a short visit but we ended the great day with dinner at frenchies on the water, where I tried mussles, grouper, and other seafood.!! GO ME! Bretts mom was here for a few days mid-july as well. We had a few nice lunches and spent some quality time together, but it was hard bcs we were working crazy hours that week. July also consisted of many late night meals at Ihop with the fantasyland family after our 3 or 4 am closings. And July ended just as quickly as it baegan just to start our EXCITING month of August!
August:
This month started off on the right foot, and I knew it would lead to a great month. On the 2nd, me and 4 of my closest friends, Jordan (my bf down here), Zoe, Stephanie, and Caitlin, from fantasy land had breakfast at Cinderellas Royal Table, in the castle. It was sort of a celebration of friendship and the last big hurrah before 2 of the girls had to go back home. We had a great meal where we were visited by cinderella, belle, ariel, aurora, and snow white and ate pastries, fresh fruit, stuffed french toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, etc. It was fabulous. We then went on to spend the day being treated as princesses, pixie dust and all. We laughed, we cried, we ate, we danced, and we had a memorable day. The highlight of the day was dancing with Chip in the Move it Shake it Celebrate it parade. SO MUCH FUN. Brett's family arrived the morning of the 5th. This included brett's parents, sister and brother and law and their three kids, Alex, Jacob and Gianna. That night, our 2 friends from home, Zak and Cameron arrived. The week was spent swimming in the pool, staying at animal kingdom lodge and saratoga springs, eating lots of food at places like wilderness lodge, trails end and chef mickey, playing in the parks, and much more. The kids didnt know they were coming down here so when their parents told them at the airport, they were so surprised. Tuesday night, my mom, brother and sister arrived. They ended up surprising me in the cast parking lot at work when I was leaving. They stayed with us that night and then we started off at DHS early wed morning. We checked into our hotel, ate lunch then went to epcot the rest of the night. We had a great dinner at garden grille where my sister (whos 18 btw) met mickey for the first time!) Thursday we did some running around and shopping and then had dinner at Chef Mickey with all of bretts family and our friends too. There were 15 of us!! it was so much funn!! We then all watched wishes from the roof of contemporary then headed back to swim. Friday, we all did magic kingdom together and I worked for a few hours that night. I worked wishes so I got to watch it with my family from the front of the castle!! I ended up getting an Early Release (ER) that night so I got to have some fun playing in the parks with everyone. It was a sad end to a fun week, as I had to say bye to Margie, Don, bretts parents, and "my" niece and nephews. I forgot how hard goodbyes were. :( Saturday morning mom, adam alayna and I headed to clearwater where we spent time with our cousins and aunt and uncles. We had dinner, swam and had a disney movie marathon! Haha. Sunday we went to the beach and then had to head back to orlando so i could work. Monday brett, my fammily and I went to my grandparents house for more swimming and dinner with them and my aunt and uncle. Thenn once again the goodbyes hit me hard. We had a great week full of fun and exciting memories that we will never forget. I was off tuesday which was a nice recovery day then was right back to work again on wed. Wed held yet another goodbye. I trained with a girl from Scotland, named Zoe and her program was only 3 months so wed was her last day. Her, jordan and caitllin and I had gotten so close this summer and it was a devastating goodbye watching her leave. We ended the night at Ihop and then said our goodbyes :( I had a surprise visit by some old friends, the Yerses this week which was awesome and now I am on day on day 5 of a 12 day straight work week. I am attempting to make up for lost hours this month due to visitors.
Needless to say, life down here is anything but boring. Brett and I are doing great, the different work schedules take a toll on us, but we manage to make it work. He was actually just promoted to trainer, so i am very proud of him for that. So basically, thats been my summer and I cant wait to see what september has in store for us!! Until next time!
PS> ill try to add some pics later!! :)
