Train, Trainer, Trainee, Training!

So I’m sitting in my room listening to Illuminations go off in the background. You can’t see them, but you can definitely hear them. Same with Wishes at 8:00. I just got done skyping my whole family. It was the first family night without me. =(

So I know I said yesterday was my first day of on the job training, but apparently I lied. Today was the first official day. And it was sooo much better than anything I’ve had to do so far. Today we actually got to go on stage and do things that we’ll being doing everyday. Today was street training. But first I have to let you know that I did finally find my daggum locker! And I hate my name tag. It seriously takes me like 10 minutes just put it on!

My trainer was awesome! Her name was Jackie and she started at Disney with her college program back in spring 2007. There was also another girl training with me. The three of us talked in the break room for an hour before we actually did anything. Let me tell you, it’s really weird to sit in the break room and hear horses going down Main Street above your head. Lol. Jackie pulled out a map and showed us where all the different zones are in the West. There’s only like a million. There’s Diamond Horseshoe, Potato, Hula, Sleepy, Big Thunder, Briar, Golden Oak, Pirates, Jungle, and a whole bunch I’m forgetting.  So after we wasted an hour just talking, we went and got our lovely pan and brooms and went up to the sleepy hollow custodial break room. I only met like a hundred people today. Did you know that there are 600 custodial cast members in the Magic Kingdom alone?! Crazy huh?

Today was pumped full of information just like every other day is. There is so much you have to know in custodial. Like I can’t get over it. One thing that is really confusing is the radios. I mean they’re not that confusing, but they’re a pain in the butt. And if you’re pulling trash or pushing the power vac it’s really hard to hear it and then try to answer it. I’m just so worried about messing up or not doing something right.

But anyway…so the first thing we did on stage was polish some water fountains. It’s one of the tasks you have to do if you open the park. Which I probably never will, because as people around here like to say, CP doesn’t stand for College Program, it stands for Closing People. Which is pretty much true. I mean just look at my schedule after I get done with training.

So it seriously took us an hour to polish four water fountains. People at Disney don’t do anything half ass that’s for sure. But those water fountains were the shiniest water fountains I’ve ever seen. And while we were polishing the water fountains, someone came up to us and asked where the Princess and the Bullfrog was. It took everything I had not to bust out laughing. Speaking of, I did get to see Princess Tiana today. She and her Prince are in Liberty Square. Her dress is my favorite of all the princesses. Then we took a 15 minute break because we had been working so hard. Lol.

Then it was time for track talk. Which is like a custodial staff meeting that happens every morning and every evening. So the West Side custodial met in some restaurant that wasn’t open yet and had like a 15 minute talk with one of our leaders for the day. It was actually kind of fun. Our leader went over some housekeeping things and stuff going on in the park that day and then you end the meeting with a little bit of Disney trivia and history. Did you know Dopey was originally cast to be the sorcerers apprentice in Fantasia? So it was kind of interesting. And then after track talk we walked the entire West Side and discussed the different zones. It took us 2 hours! Like I said, there’s like a million zones with like a million and one trash cans in each zone. And in some zones you even have to bus some tables. I think I read today that there are 1100 trash can in the Magic Kingdom. But don’t quote me on that. I just know there’s a freaking lot. Like seriously there’s one every two feet.

Let me tell you! I love working in the park, but it really sucks to have to work and smell all of this flippin’ delicious food and not be able to eat any of it. It’s like the worst ever. I can’t tell you how bad I wanted a funnel cake today. Lol. And I’ve also decided that I have to try a chruro before I leave. They smell amazing!

So we went to each zone and walked it and Jackie showed us pretty much each can in each zone. And some of the cans are in the attractions and getting to them can be extremely tricky. Jackie kept saying that we can cut in line as much as we want, but we can never ride the rides. =/ lol. There are so many cast only entrances and secret passage ways and stairs. If you look hard enough, you see them every where. But guest are so busy worrying about playing that they never see any of it. But I must admit it is really cool to be able to use doors and stairs that no one else can use. We also got to see Splash Mountain with no one on it. It has been closed all month for refurbishment because they added lap bars to the boats and we got to see them test it out today. I caught myself a couple times today saying to myself, “are we allowed to go in here?”, but then I remember that I’m a cast member! Lol.

And it’s official! I’m an official cast member, because today for the first time I used the Disney point when directing a guest! Lol. For those of you who don’t know what the Disney point is, it is a point using two fingers, not one. In some places that’s really offensive. So we use two fingers to point. Or the whole had, but two fingers is way cooler. And I can’t wait to start pin trading while working! My trainer got stopped at least 10 times today by kids asking to see her pins. She ended up having a completely different set of pins at the end of the day than what she started with. I LOVE THE GUEST INTERACTION! It’s the best thing about custodial that I’ve seen so far. We got stopped so many times today. People asking anything from where’s the nearest bathroom to where’s Pirates of the Caribbean to where can I find a certain type of food to where can I find Pluto. And I love people with accents. Even though I have no clue what they’re saying, it’s fun to talk to them. I also used my pan and broom for the first time today. It’s a lot harder than it looks. Especially since we try to sweep and keep walking at the same time. It’s definitely going to take some time to get it down right. And I officially hate popcorn. You don’t realize how much of it people eat until that’s all you’re sweeping up.

I’ve decided that I really like the Adventure Land zones better than the others. Adventure land just seems like more fun. And there are more kids. I have feeling I will be starting a collection of things I find while working. Just little things like weird business cards people drop. We found a little paper booklet today that said “Jesus love you” in some foreign language. It was kind of neat.

So after we went over every flippin’ zone it was finally time for lunch and Jackie ate with us which was cool. Disney trainers are so nice. Lunch was awesome…we got to sit down! When you’re in custodial, you are on your feel ALL day! It really sucks going from a job where I sat down 95% of the time to a job where I stand 100% of the time.

After lunch we went to a zone and did a full trash run. We went to the Diamond Horseshoe zone. I think it has like 17 cans or something. So in order to do a run you have to go get a dolly and push it around to each can and check each can and dump the trash and then after you’ve done all the cans you have to go back to the AVAC tube and dump all the trash in there. There’s like a hundred more steps between all those, but it would take me forever to write it all out, but that’s the gist of it. And then if you’re in a zone that the parade runs through, you have to do parade clean up which consist of running that really big vacuum thingy I was talking about yesterday. Well it’s called a power vac and yes, I did get to run it today and I’m sure it was really funny to see me behind it. It’s super loud and all the guest stare at you when you’re going down the street with it. I had someone seriously take a picture of me while pushing it today. =/ lol.

Then we were finally done for the day. And tomorrow we get to learn all about how to clean the restrooms. Yippy freaking Skippy. No, custodial really isn’t that bad. I don’t think. I get to see the parades every day and when I work late I’ll se the fireworks every night. And I get to talk to people and roam by myself.

I was talking to Jackie today and she said when you check into the computer you get either a zone or an assignment. When you get a zone you do trash runs and keep your area looking nice. When you get an assignment, it can be anything from just panning and brooming, to picking trash out of flower beds, to getting autographs. Yes, getting autographs is actually an assignment you can get. That means you go around and ask little girls dressed like princesses for their autographs! We also do pre parade, which means you go out and give stickers to kids and blow bubbles before the parade. Once you get past the trash and restroom part of the job it’s pretty awesome. Just being in the park every day is amazing. You really do believe in magic when you work here.

I was walking in the tunnels today and every now and then there will be a tour group down there and I over heard one tour guide today tell the group that when in the tunnels cast members don’t have to smile. I just thought it was funny to hear that. Because it’s so true. And most of the time we’re not smiling when backstage just because our cheeks hurt from smiling so much on stage! Lol. And we’re butt tired and don’t really care to smile at each other. We’re all in the same boat.

Maria and I went to the Patterson welcome party tonight. There were sooo many people. We didn’t stay long because we were so darn tired. I’m actually looking forward to the days where I work later. That way I get to sleep in and then go to work.

But I still absolutely love it here. J