DAKlimation

DAKlimations Day! aka our park orientation. Almost everyone in our class were Animal Programs PIs but there were a few other people too. First off our trainers did a Disney look check. We hadn't had them in our other two days of training, but they were pretty strict with this check. I wore a black and white dress that I had bought at Carson's and it had a little bit of a sheer top, so I decided to wear my blazer with it just in case. I am glad I did, not because I think I would have failed, but it was better to be safe than sorry. We spent some time in the classroom. Watched some videos including the VP of the park welcoming us to the team. Talked about how Walt took animals and the environment seriously. I think we talked about the 4 keys more, because who couldn't get enough of those things? lol. They had people read things, so I volunteered and got a DAK 15th anniversary button (AWESOME!!!) 

Probably my favorite thing was we went and took a private safari. It was still relatively early in the morning and the animals were all pretty active. Everyone was saying we were super lucky because almost all of the animals were out and visible.

We then split into two groups and walked over the park (besides Rafiki's) and went over the theming a bit (she said if she sees us in Discovery Island that we better say Viva Gaia since not many people use the themed greeting). One of the most interesting was the story of the new Festival of the Lion King area. Apparently no one knew the story when it re-opened recently, so they called over to the Imagineers who told everyone and we apparently were some of the first ones to know about it. Ends up it was an old Portuguese Fort and it wasn't being used so the people of Harambe came together and made it a place where they celebrate the native animals and use their talents to tell the story of the Lions. Our facilitator also went over Dino Land theming quite a bit too. There are two sections: the Dino Institute and Dino-rama People found some dinosaur bones. Paleontologists moved in and grad students turned the local dinner into a dorm (hence the chairs on the roof. It turned back into a dinner when the Dino Institute built their official area (where Dinosaur is). Then the locals Chester and Hester decided to make some road side attractions to profit including turning the gas station into a gift shop and having fun games. They even built a ride as a spoof of Dinosaur and one of Dumbo. 

After our class was over, everyone went their separate ways. The Conservation Education Presenter team had a 1 hour break at the cast cafeteria, Pride Rock. When we got there we saved a table so we could sit together which was right near cash registers. While everyone else immediately scattered, I got to see the VP of DAK buying food. Wasn't sure if it was him at first, but had just seen him in a video at DAKlimations and looked him up to confirm. So cool to see VP Josh D'Amaro my first day! I ended up buying a slice of pizza even though I had a lunch (it was delicious!!!)

After our break a few of our leaders met us over to costuming to get our costumes (It think it was Core Team Josh and Manager Erin). Nothing fit right and the sizes were limited because of the current group of presenters still being around. Can't wait to get better stuff when the Spring group returns their stuff. Got off early afterwards since our schedule said four. 


Note: was post published on 11/3