Resident Summer

So in April I was lucky enough to volunteer in a Cross-Utilization capacity to be a Disney Media Representative for the National Media Awaken Summer Event (you can read a little here:  Awaken Summer).

Well, the media outlook that I worked with (105.1 WOMX Orlando's Mix) apparently didn't get completely sick of me during our Disney's Animal Kingdom at Night Preview and Disney's Animal Kingdom Broadcast the follow day. I apparently was tolerable enough for them to ask for me to work with them again for out Florida only media event for Resident Summer! I was so honored to be asked to hang out with them again (oh wait, I guess it was considered work).

This time both their morning and afternoon shows came out and it was so much fun to meet them all. They were all great people and I was happy to be able to help introduce them all to the new Town Center at Disney Springs (let's just say that I am addicted to D-Luxe Burger now...)  and all of the great new offerings this summer, including the new Soarin' Around the World video and Frozen attractions at EPCOT, Star Wars fireworks at Hollywood Studios, Jungle Book show with the new Animal Kingdom at Night, along with the new stage show at the Magic Kingdom. Some of these thing are already open, but there are a ton of things opening today, June 17th!

If I didn't have enough fun working the event,
they even gave me this yummy treat!

If you search #ResidentSummer on your favorite social media device you can probably find a lot of the things that the media posted from the event! 

I hope that I can work some of these events again in the future. I love my job in Revenue Management, but the opportunities like this to get out in the parks and interact with our guests, media ones or otherwise, really helps keep the magic alive!

Media partners CJ and Carly with Mix 105.1, Marketing Manager
Jane, and myself after another successful broadcast!

Awaken Summer

So I'm not sure if you've heard but my little neck of the woods here in Central Florida has a couple of cool things heading our way pretty soon...

Disney World has a ton of things that are coming this summer, some that we knew about, but even more were announced the last few days as Disney welcomed media from around the country and world to show off what new things guests can expect soon as the parks Awaken Summer. (I know, I know....I can be cheesy after being punny with our guests the last few days). 

I just have to say that there are so many cool things that are coming that I am just like a kid in a candy store! It has also been neat as now that I have been with the company for a little bit that I have gotten to see things I worked on as an intern come to fruition. Like all the new stuff at Disney's Animal Kingdom! I was able to play a super small part in it while I was an intern at Merchandise Planning and we were able to see the artwork and predict how many of each product we would order. And while that seems like ages ago, some of the artwork is out now and it is exciting to hear the buzz around all the great new things coming to the park that I was lucky enough to call home during my time as a Wilderness Explorer. (and you can pretty much guarantee who will likely be buying a ton of that merch!!!)

The last few days I was lucky enough to play a teeny tiny role in helping host some of the media while they were checking out some of the exciting new offerings. If you want to see some of the cool stuff that they were able to see (including a sneak peak of Rivers of Light!) you can search #awakensummer (or if you want to specifically see the people I worked with you could maybe look up WOMX on their website or various social media platforms ;) The talent may or may not be vying for first place in line for Olaf)

Anyways, while this summer is bound to be hot (I did mention this was Central Florida, right?) you can be sure to find me at the parks quite a bit with all the new stuff going on.

Reminiscing about the DAK Wilderness

I've been missing my park home lately, so I visited DAK not once, but twice last weekend to see my old home. I love my new job, but since Animal Kingdom is where I began my Disney journey I will always have a BIG soft spot towards it. I hadn't been the Animal Kingdom in a while and hadn't visited any of my old locations since the Spring. So I decided to use the afternoon on Saturday to earn a few badges before meeting an old presenter friend in the evening. Despite being at the park for a few hours on Saturday and a little on Sunday, I actually didn't do many of the parks attractions. That's because I always run into people I knew working there or get into good conversations with new cast. I loved being able to spend time watching the animals, meeting a few trails CPs, catching up with a DVC friend, and talking with the current Conservation Education Presenter Group. It made me miss my time there some and I wish I was able to pick up a shift once in a while to relive my days as a Wilderness Explorer Troop Leader.

I remember when I was first learning about the Presenter internship I came across this video and I came across it again last week so in the spirit of reminiscing, I figured I would share it with you. With the start of the Wilderness Explorer program, the costume and role for the Presenters has changed, but overall responsibilities she talks about have remained the same. Enjoy!

Disney Professional Internship Presenter Video

PDD (Post Disney Depression) and some Post-Disney Reflections

My time at Disney was- dare I say it-magical. I met so many friends. Had my first real relationship. Gained a lot of good experience, professional and otherwise. I got to freakin' live at the most magical place on earth for an entire year. It was amazing to not live with feet of snow and spend an hour or two at a park whenever I wanted. College wasn't always amazing for me, and Disney wasn't without some bumps here or there, but I truly was able to find myself and I was the happiest I had been in a long time.

That being said,  the first two weeks home I was really depressed. I was missing the warmth (it's been a cold summer in Michigan. When I first got home there were very few days above 80, but it has been a bit warmer the last week or so.) I was missing my cubicle at Maingate. I missed logging into SIMBA and seeing the weekly reports being updated. I missed modifying my Starbucks/DLR 60th forecasts. I missed my apartment at Falcon Square. I missed my friends. I missed (most) of the roommates I had had during my year in Florida (all 8 of them). I missed DAK. I missed the rides. I missed the resorts. I missed hearing the Sandhill Cranes calls. I missed running around Independence. I missed so many things. 

I had applied for a few positions and hadn't gotten most of the positions. When I found out that I hadn't gotten the one I was most hopeful for (and would have kept me at Maingate Merchandise) I cried. I cried a lot. I honestly felt like my dreams had been crushed. During the weeks since the bad news, I've actually had a few more interviews, including what would be a dream job for me. I found out I didn't get one position, but there is still one I am waiting to hear back on. I think I will still be really disappointed if I don't get the position, but I am beginning to be okay with staying in Michigan. If I don't get this position I might cry, but I have come to adopt the mentality that a few of my old Presenter friends who left Disney have said: Disney isn't going anywhere anytime soon. So if I don't get the position, right now I am going to hold of on applying to more Disney positions and look for some jobs around Metro Detroit. Then once I pay off loans (and maybe get sick of being at home) I can always go back with the added experience. 

I think all ex-Disney CMs should have that mentality: Disney isn't going anywhere. It's going to be there for the foreseeable future, whether or not it is just for a visit or if it is there to stay. 

That being said, fingers crossed for some good news in the next week or two. :)

"Last" Training Day

Today was our last training day. Like I said before, we were told to come to work in guest clothes. we started off the morning by taking our assessment. There was short answers, T/F, and a practical. It was not as bad as I think most of the presenters thought it would be. I got almost all of them right, and the rest I was at least 75% right with my answers. We were given 2 hours to finish, but 6 of us finished within an hour. So one of our managers took us over to Cast Services Center in the employee cafeteria to check us off on all of our computer training. 

Then we were sent off to go and get as many Wilderness Explorer badges as we could! We had previously gotten the 10 that the Troop Leaders (us Education Presenters) give out through our training. Our group headed in the direction of Everest and got a few Africa Badges and most of our Asia badges (and HAD to ride Expedition Everest to complete to Yeti and Everest Badges.) Then we headed to DinoLand to get the 2 we needed there and rode Dinosaur. Afterwards, we headed back and got the rest in Africa and Asia (mostly Trials related ones). At this point we had collected all but the ones up at the Conservation Station and we didn't have time to go up to Rafiki's planet watch. Therefore, we have 26 out of our 31 badges! Now one of these days I will have to go and get my last 5 badges to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer!!! Then we broke for lunch at Pizzafari and even got a Conservation button for donating to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund!

Then all of the presenters met one of our Core Team leaders at It's Tough to be a Bug and we watched it as a group. Unfortunately, Hopper didn't work, but it was a ton of fun to see everyone's reactions. I don't think that I have heard so much screaming at it before. Then we walked around a bit and saw the kangaroos and giant shark catfish before going over to watch Flights of Wonder. It was an amazing show and I can't wait to go back to see it again! Anastasia even got picked to be a volunteer. At this point we went back to the classroom to go over our assessments and learn the last few things before getting done a little early.

A group of us (Amber, Allie, Diana, and I) wanted to find the Company D by Animal Kingdom (and failed to do so before it closed for the day) but we were able to get the appropriate rain gear from costuming and I grabbed another pair of shorts to see if they would fit. Then we headed back to the park and met up with Megan and Amber's friend Nick (who is pretty awesome!) and rode Dinosaur twice. After Megan left to go home we also rode Everest (we rode in the first few rows which is a completely different experience!) and Safari (we saw a ton more animals then I expected for how hot it was. We even saw some hippos fighting and a rhino was just a couple of feet from our vehicle).

I am sooooo tired. I got home and watched Pretty Little Liars with Dana (and Amber, but she doesn't know what is going on completely...), ate a delicious bowl of cereal with peaches, took a shower, and am pretty much falling asleep typing. Today was a ton of fun, but being out in the sun was exhausting. Tomorrow is our first shadow day and first full day out in the park in our costume. I am going to sleep well tomorrow. Luckily I have a later start on Thursday since I am supposed to meet up with my cousin and Aunt at Magic Kingdom tomorrow night. Well, time for an early trip to bed!

Hello, My Name is Sandy and I am from Vernon, CT

First off, I promise I will go and post about the last week and a half, but I figured I would at least try to post consistently now to not get tooooo far behind. So I'll start off from yesterday (the day off that I pretty much did nothing but watch Ghostbusters 1 and 2 on TV, uploaded photos to my laptop/Facebook, and didn't get out of my PJs until around 6pm).

Sunday Night (HS)

Last night we went to Hollywood Studios, but not as many people showed up as we wanted, but a good group of people came, including some of the Seas interns, which was fun since we don't get to see them that often anymore. Some of us went on a quick ride of Tower of Terror as we waited for Allie to show up and the wait was really short. We were going to head over to do single rider Rockin' RollerCoaster, but Allie said she was entering the park so we went to wait for her and a group of the Seas interns that said they only wanted to ride Tower once so had skipped the first time. This allowed us some time to shop around the store. Amber went and got the picture from the day before (Saturday) when a bunch of us had been on the ride and I got 2 ToT pressed quarters! When everyone met up we went on ToT and we were on a car with a bunch of first timers and there was so much screaming on that ride. Then we went and rode Rockin' and pretty much walked on in the regular standby line so we all got to ride together. A bunch of people left at this point, but Amber wanted to ride Star Tours to see how it was with a different scenario and Allie had never been on it (we barely made it on the last ride of the night. this was my 3rd time riding and it was a bit of a mix of the other 2 times I went on it). Then we headed home to get a good nights sleep (but apparently Allie got in an accident on her way home. eek!)

Monday

So today on the way to work I realized I forgot my name tag. Therefore, I got one of the extra presenter ones. One of my leaders, Josh, asked if I wanted to be from California or Connecticut and I didn't have too much of a preference, so he handed me Sandy from Vernon, CT. So all day we were joking around about me being Sandy. I confused Matt (the current Core Team intern) and Critter decided he was going to call me Sandy for the next 6 months. 

We started off with some info on the animal positions that we staff and then we headed out for a scavenger hunt to familiarize ourselves with the park (eg. nearest bathroom, smoking locations, break rooms, badge locations, animals, etc.). My group was one of the only ones to get done, pretty much since Tara had worked custodial at DAK before on a CP so she knew her way around. Afterward, we met at our trailer and split into our 3 tour groups again to tour our animal locations. We lost our leader Bethany today to another group, but got Matt. It was nice to get a different person's point of view and he even did a couple sample presentations. We got super sweaty and then broke for lunch.

After lunch we went back to the classroom and went over different emergency situations, met with a primate keeper (who was awesome!), did some practice conversations, and played a jeopardy review game for our assessment. Talking with the Primate Keeper made me think of how cool it would be to work with the SSP (Species Survival Plan) and make breeding recommendations based on a data and whatnot!

After work Allie, Amber, and I headed home. We chilled most of the night. Lexi, Dana and I watched some TV together and I made reservations for my family to visit next month (which ended up being a big mess). Tomorrow we have our assessment in the morning and were told to dress in "guest clothes" to go and do some stuff out in the park. Some of us have been guessing what we are doing (riding rides, earning non-Troop Leader badges, etc), but I am excited for tomorrow!

Post-DAKlimations Adventures

I decided to make a separate post for rest of the day after our DAKlimations class since the other post was getting a bit long.

We had already planned to go to the park, and since we got off early we got changed and headed to DAK as a guest (I changed in the car, because while everyone else was changing Amber had locked my stuff in her car. oops!). It was our first visit as guests to the park that we would be calling home for the next few months! We decided to get our wilderness explorer books from headquarters to check out our future job! We even went and got 2 badges at the Asia WE booth. We missed part of the lesson and were a little disappointed that we didn't do the whole activity.

Then we headed over to Everest. I was so excited! My family didn't get to go on it the last time we had come since it had been hit by lightning and closed down. We waited about 25 min as group to go on. It was so much fun! We went right again in single rider and was about 5 min. It was hot so we stopped by a blue ice cream truck thing. I didn't really want ice cream, but I did get my first glass of free ice water.

First ever ride on Everest!!!
Amber and I in back row
Then Allie and Lauren, 
Then Anastasia and someone random person

Single Rider for my second adventure

Next we headed over to dinosaur and afterwards Anastasia left to go let out her dog. Everyone thought it was pretty scary, but I don't really get it. The scariest part for me is right at the end and the picture part never is, but whatever. It's fun to see peoples' reactions.

First time on Dinosaur as a PI.
Amber, me, and Allie in back row. 
Anastasia and Lauren in next row.

Next we went on Primeval whirl and we were all screaming as we went around the turns. The forecast said it was going to rain and looked dark out. So we headed over to It's Tough to be a Bug since we figured if it started raining everyone would rush there. Waited for next show and had fun. I think lauren left at this point since she was really hot since she still had dress pants on because she didn't bring clothes to change into.

After the rain we decided to hit up the triceratops ride since it was one of only ones we hadn't gotten to and had a bit of time before the Nemo show. We went to the 6pm Finding Nemo Musical show and had a blast. Was first time Amber and Allie had seen it so their reactions were great to see. It was just as great as I remembered it. Then we headed back to Everest for one last ride. We literally walked right up to ride!

One last Everest ride of the day

We decided to go on Kali since we were leaving and it was one of the last rides we hadn't gone on. Allie got us a locker and we waited only like 10 min. We didn't get AS wet as we thought we would and headed out for the night. We came home and ate dinner and watched Pretty Little Liars with the roommates. Then I took a shower since I was gross from being in the heat at Animal Kingdom all day. I called mom to give her an update and wrote all of this stuff down, before heading off to bed!!!


Note: was published on 11/3

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