Disney Fun Fact: Spaceship Earth
2007-10-01 11:32:26
☆ Spaceship Earth
, commonly referred to as “the big golf ball,” weighs in at about 16 million pounds within it’s 165 foot diameter, it encompasses 2.2 million cubic feet of interior & consists of 11,448 aluminum facets!
Read more: Disney
“Ohana means family!”
2007-09-30 19:02:10
These past few days have been so busy because I had three different families that came to visit me in Orlando. They weren’t here for very long but I still was able to spend some time with them. Everything ended u working out because I was able to find some fellow cast members who took some of my shifts so I could be with them, and then I worked one day so they could see me at work. It was soo much fun, we were able to go to the luau at the Polynesian resort, which I haven’t done since I was like five years old. It was amazing, with all the palm trees as the backdrop of the stage, and the Hawaiian dancers, I truly felt like I was in Hawaii. They also where able to come here just in time for the beginning of EPCOT’s international food & wine festival, which features several countries not typically displayed at EPCOT throughout the year, not to mention several artists, and well known food personalities. I was also able to get them into some VIP seating for some shows,
Gearing up an all new production
2007-09-27 07:12:50
I happen to work right by where construction is in progress for our newest attraction scheduled to open next summer. Although for a guest this can s sometimes present a problem since they must work around the construction, as a cast member I pass it everyday from backstage on my way to lunch. And yesterday, I saw huge boxes, several of them being unloaded from trucks labeled “made in Japan.” I can only assume that inside of these big boxes are the new ride cars that will be featured in the attraction. I may not be able to see inside too much, but its exciting to see the progress they’re making and all the fun stuff they are constantly brining into the new attraction site.
Weekend in Boca
2007-09-24 07:20:32
Yesterday I just got back from spending a few days back in Boca. As it turns out someone I work with grew up in Boca Raton, and invited me over for the Jewish holiday. It was nice, I was able to go to Lynn to see some friends, and see how it has changed since last May, and I also got to spend time with my Disney friend from Boca. Going back defiantly reminded me of some of the things that I miss in Boca, and also many of the things I will miss once I return from Disney. But now that I’m back in Orlando, its off to work I go!
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A change of work enviornments
2007-09-19 09:14:09
The past few days have been filled with a whole bunch of new information! In fact, after today, if all goes well I will be fully trained at a completely different attraction. It’s so exciting to be able to be exposed to new environments, and new people. Most college program participants are unable to transfer or train to other areas. Although I am still in The Disney MGM Studios, this is a completely different attraction that will allow me to work two different attractions throughout the workweek. I think my favorite part about this new work environment is that everyone must work together to be successful, although sometimes things may get crazy between talking to guests and talking to cast on the radios, it’s a very fast passed work place that relies on all of us working together as a team, and from what I’ve seen everyone seams to work well together!
Making Magic!
2007-09-15 09:55:06
Often times, there are those guests that remind us why exactly the work is worthwhile. Lately I’ve had quite a few of those. The other day I had a guest explain to me that she is so glad we picked her daughter to be in our show because she is suffering from leukemia and this trip was for her. Just before their trip they had taken her skydiving, and this mom clearly wanted to do everything she could for her girl suffering from this life threatening disease. I made sure before I moved to a new position I gave this family magical moments, and that they got front row seating during the second half of our attraction. She was so happy that she gave me big hug as she left.
Another heart-warming experience is passing by a family selected for ABC’s television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. This is probably one of my favorite TV shows because of the incredible positive impact it makes on select families. I have always enjoyed seeing this show on TV, and noticed that on
Read more: Magic
Exciting happenings…
2007-09-14 09:19:01
So many exciting things have been happening in the past few days! Over the weekend I was one of twelve students from across the state of Florida to receive the 2007 Hospitality Excellence award. Along with the award I had friends from home and from Lynn in town for a few days. Also, I was able to get a backstage look at how Playhouse Disney Live on Stage! Works. I got to see how the stage works, how Disney’s most expensive costume on property operates, and many other production aspects that goes into the show. Yesterday, the happy haunts returned to the haunted mansion as it reopened on lucky number 13. This newly renovated attraction features new scenes, updated techniques, and amazing audio enhancements. This past week has been filled with plenty of exciting adventures, these are only some of the many things that have happened in the last few days, and with exciting events such as Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party ahead, I’m sure there’s plenty more to come!
Disney Fun Fact: Laundry
2007-09-11 07:22:34
☆ If you were to wash and dry one load of laundry every day for 44 years, you’d clean as much as Walt Disney
World does in a single day. Cast members launder an average of 240,000 pounds each day. In addition, between 30,000 and 32,000 garments are dry-cleaned daily.
Read more: Laundry
Pirate Takeovers & Princess Makeovers
2007-09-07 06:50:02
Back by popular demand, Pirate
& Princess
Party returned to the Magic Kingdom. On select nights in the past month or so, guests were able to purchase additional tickets to this evening of adventure & romance. On these nights, the park closed early for all guests except for guests attending the party. Welcomed by cast members shouting “Ahoy there land lovers,” and passing through royal red carpets with a misty view guests entered for a night like no other. The park had completely transformed, music that is usually never heard throughout the park is blasted everywhere, lights usually not seen on the castle, and down main street shine brighter, and cast members dress for the occasion by wearing pirate gear, and princess outfits. Other night activities include a special parade, fireworks show, and the opportunity to meet Captain Jack Sparrow. I was able to go one of the nights after work with some friends, and I’m so glad I went, it was so much fun, I can’t wait
Labor Day
2007-09-04 18:47:24
While most of the nation took a day of rest I had my longest day of work yet. After working most of the day at my typical work location I put in n extra five hours work two shows of Fantasmic! It was a crazy day, switching costumes and running around like crazy. One very cool thing I was able to do is that I ran into a handful guests I had talked to earlier in the day. What made it cool is because I asked them questions regarding our earlier encounter, I was able to see the smiles on their faces when it showed that I not only had remembered seeing them, but I remembered what we talked about and was interested enough to ask them how everything had worked out. It was defiantly a long day, but worth it in every way.
“What time is it? it’s our vacation!”
2007-10-14 09:25:56
These past few days have been crazy busy; as always. I had my first day of classes; I worked a shift at Fantasmic! (Along with my typical work shifts). But finally today I’m off for a long awaited vacation! Ok so I actually only booked it about a month ago, but still I’m so excited about this trip! It’s going to be so much fun! I’ll fill you in on all the details when I return in a few days after I let my imagination set sail!
New term, new courses
2007-10-12 10:12:49
Yesterday was the first meeting of my courses for this term. I’m pretty excited about these classes, they seam like they are going to be really good classes. My first class seams as though it will fit in very well with several of the courses offered at Lynn through the Hospitality Management program. We are going to be discussing various topics such as food & beverage, park operations, merchandise, and next week to study rooms & resorts we will be meeting at one of Walt Disney World’s deluxe resorts to fully understand the operation of a successful resort. My other course focuses entirely on leadership in the Walt Disney World resort as we discover various management styles and techniques of successful leaders, and techniques beneficial for our leadership development. Both courses have several exciting offerings that I’m very excited about!
“Get a time, why wait in line?”
2007-10-08 21:17:46
After today, I have a whole new respect for cast members who work at Fast Pass locations. I am one of them, but we haven’t necessarily been busy enough to have to use Fast Pass, except for today. Since today was Columbus Day many schools did not have class today so our expected attendance jumped dramatically due to this holiday. Therefore, one of the attractions I work at chose to distribute fast passes for the day. For those who may not be familiar with Disney’s Fast Passes, they are complimentary tickets available at select attractions providing limited wait time by returning within a specific time frame as stated on the ticket. Just as I thought before today, collecting Fast Passes seams like it would be no problem, just taking tickets and keeping people moving. Much to my surprise, there is actually a lot more involved. One guest even wanted to give me his park ticket as his Fast Pass. It may not me the most complicated job I’ve done so far, but it was defiant
“My, oh my what a wonderful day!”
2007-10-04 08:35:29
Ever have one of those days where everything just seams to go your way? That was definitely yesterday for me. To start with, everything went smoothly at work. We were pretty well staffed, so we had a little bit more down time than usual and Because of the sufficient amount of cast members, I was also able to one of my managers going away party. This was nice, not only because she’s one of my favorite managers, but because I got to see a whole bunch of friendly faces from my other work location, not to mention that I was getting paid to be there! It was so much fun, I got into an icing fight with one of the coordinators over there, it was craziness, but so much fun! After work a group of about a dozen college programmers, and international college programmers went over to EPCOT to see the beach boys in concert, than we headed over to the comedy warehouse over at Pleasure Island. All in all it was an amazing day, “It’s the truth, it’s actual Ev’rything is
Back to reality…
2007-10-18 14:31:05
WOW! This morning I just recently returned from a four-night stay aboard one of the Disney Cruise Line ships, The Disney Wonder. It was so amazing; I have traveled on Disney Cruise line before but it has defiantly been a good while since my last voyage. Everything was as spectacular as I had remembered; in fact many new improvements have been made since my last journey on board. I have plenty of fun and exciting stories to fill you in on within the next few days, but I have to go for now as I’m off to one of my classes!
Read more: reality
Disney Fun Fact: Disney Cruise Line
2007-10-17 08:30:20
☆ The Disney
Cruise
line is the first in the industry to create a rotating dining experience. Guests rotate through three differently themed restaurants throughout their voyage. Both Disney Cruise Line Ships The Magic & The wonder can accommodate guests in 875 various staterooms, and with the recent announcement of adding two more ships by the year 2012 both of these newest additions will be 50% larger than the current ships.
Bon Voyage!
2007-10-22 16:09:59
So my Disney Cruise experience was absolutely amazing! Little did I know about a month ago that I would be traveling through international waters and to Disney’s private island, but I’m so glad it all worked out. Some friends weren’t able to make it on to our cruise, but they intend to travel on later dates. It was still very enjoyable. It was so nice to be able to get away for a few days and do whatever I wanted to, weather it be relax or go see a movie or to a scheduled event or other such activities. At dinner we sat with another two parties, one couple also works at Disney as a part of the International Program here, while the other was a mom and her daughter traveling from Canada.
Something else that was pretty neat was that I got a chance to get a behind the scenes look at two of the main galleys on board. Not only that but we got a tour from the Chef de cuisine of the ship. It was interesting; he had so much he wanted to tell us such as the fact that dining
Read more: Voyage
, Bon Voyage
Never a boring moment at Disney!
2007-10-25 09:02:02
I know I’ve said this before, but these past few days have been absolutely crazy! The other night a whole bunch of people, mainly from work, went to Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party. By a whole bunch I mean we had about 24 people at one point all wondering around the Magic Kingdom at one point. I’m honestly surprised how well we all were able to get things done, we were able to stay together for the most part, and keep everyone happy, and for a group of that size, it’s a very hard thing to do!
So that was fun, but yesterday was such a heavy day. To start with I was running off of five hours of sleep, in fact most of us were. In the afternoon, I was involved in a PR shoot for the college program, it was rather overwhelming, because I was so nervous, especially with a camera pointing at me and about ten people standing behind it just looking at me watching everything I say and do. It was very nerve racking, but I’m curious to see what the final product will look like
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, Disney
Disney Fun Fact: Haunted Mansion
2007-10-31 12:13:10
☆ The Haunted
Mansion
is the only Disney
attraction featured in different lands throughout Disney parks around the world. Also, while in the portrait chamber, the floor at Disneyland’s attraction in California actually lowers, while the ceiling in the attraction at Walt Disney World here in Florida must rise due to the inability to go below ground level in Florida.
Disney culture…
2007-10-30 10:39:17
As part of the college program, since we are all spread out in various lines of work throughout the property there is no doubt that when visiting the parks as guests we are sure to run into other college program participants. A few weeks ago during my family visit, I stopped by the resort they were staying at to leave some welcome gifts in their room. Typically, most hotels wont allow people in guest rooms prior to their arrival for various reasons. Luckily for us, I ha run into a very nice college programmer who pulled some strings and asked her manager if she would be able to accompany us to the room to set things up for my family. She was so nice I told her to defiantly come visit me at work on her day off and I would help her out in return of her help. So the other day I saw her in the queue and went over to offer to put her in the show. After she was in the show I called over to one of our stunt shows and was able to get her VIP seating for one of their performances. I
Read more: Disney
, culture
Trick AND Treat
2007-10-28 16:28:44
More fun stuff has been going on lately, the other night I went to Halloween horror nights with some friends. It was ok, I mean it was neat to go to a park I don’t typically go to, but I most defiantly found myself saying “I miss Disney” quite a bit. There are soo many differences I was able to notice because of the top quality service we produce. Not only that but the typical demographic between their customers, and our guest is a completely different type of person. I still had a pretty good time; I just noticed quite a big difference in service between two completely different properties.
Another thing that was pretty cool was going over to see The Village People in concert as a part of the “Eat to the Beat” concert series for EPCOT’s International Food & Wine festival. It was fun not only being able to go with a group of various people from work, but also to see that these guys are still playing after all these years, and no doubt still wearing their well kno
Read more: Trick
Super Soap weekend just days away!
2007-11-05 09:36:25
This upcoming weekend is The Disney MGM Studios Super
Soap Weekend. That means that the entire park will be filled with hundreds of Soap Opera fans that, from what I have heard, can be pretty intense. Although this event is only a two daylong event, the entire park is affected by it. One of the attractions I work at is extremely impacted by the weekend because we will be closed for the duration of the event to allow for various soap celebrities to have autograph signings. I have been scheduled to work both days of the event, and from what I have heard from several cast members who have worked it in the past I’m sure to have some great stories by the end of the weekend, until than, the studios continues to prepare for all of the unordinary events that will occur this weekend!
Who has time to sleep in class?
2007-11-02 08:20:20
Both class
es I had yesterday where so interesting and yet so different. In my first class we got a behind the scenes tour of The Tower of Terror, we got a chance to get a special tour from one of five remaining cast members who opened the attraction a little over thirteen years ago. We were able to see various aspects of the attraction many will never be able to see, even some cast members. It was so interesting to be able to get a glimpse of how the attraction operates on a daily basis, and some of the planning and processes required to open the attraction, and to keep it running smoothly since its open.
During my second class, we played a game facilitated by the Disney Institute that demonstrated our leadership ability by managing various aspects to accomplish one common goal. At first it seamed like a rather complicated game but once our team got the hang of it, things started making more sense. I can defiantly see how the game relates to a real life work scenario because of
Spectacle of Dancing lights return!
2007-11-06 20:43:45
Another exciting happening that will soon shine brighter than the stars of Super Soap weekend is the beginning of The Disney MGM Studios Spectacle
of Dancing
Lights. Millions of lights align across the streets of America to create a brilliant holiday experience like no other. Every night, our guests will have the opportunity to see all lights bright up with the company of Disney provided snow, and warm cups of hot chocolate available too. It’s a great time of year that I look forward to being a part of!
Super Soap Stars Premiere at The Disney MGM Studios!
2007-11-11 18:00:13
This weekend was absolutely CRAZY, yet I loved every single moment! This year I got the opportunity to be apart of The Disney
MGM Studios
12th annual Super
Soap Weekend. Prior to working the event I had heard several scary stories as to how passionate these fans can truly be, I mean its not every day that you have guests waiting since eight o’clock the night before to get in to the park, in fact most of them waiting since about three or four in the morning. My morning started off bright and early; in fact when I first got there, the sun wasn’t even up yet since my shift started at six am. Unlike any other morning, these past two days all cast members were asked to park backstage due to high volume of guest expectancies, this is unusual since typically for this park backstage parking has restricted access. So I was able to park in the rehearsal lot for the stunt drivers of Lights, Motor Action! And than after walking along the streets of America I noticed the holiday lights
Read more: Premiere
Skills that benifit others
2007-11-16 09:05:27
The other day I had an encounter with a guest that really made me feel good because I felt I was truly able to help them. Some of the best moments with guests are the ones that are unexpected, the ones that come to you. And that’s just how this one began. I was just doing my job, as I normally would and at that moment, I my job was to help out the person on the microphone with our guest volunteers. Just before I was about to escort our volunteers to their stage, I had a guest in the audience begin signing to me. He was interested in seeing if there was any closed captioning device, or any other form of giving them something they could understand our show with, by this time, I was all the way out in the middle of the stage, but I was still able to let them know that we didn’t have closed captioning, but that we do have a guest assistance packet which has a written script of what we deliver. It made me feel so good to be able to help these guests while in the middle of th
Read more: Skills
Discovering a whole new world
2007-11-16 09:00:58
Class was absolutely amazing! This week we took our learning outside the classroom as and used the world (Walt Disney World), as our classroom. As we traveled to the Magic Kingdom we were able to take a look at some of the back stage and on stage areas in a much closer look. I have been to the Magic Kingdom probably hundreds of times before, however due to this class there are a few things I will now look at in a completely new point of view. Even though the course mentioned all lands in the Kingdom, our class primarily focused on Liberty square. The incredible attention to detail that Disney thrives on is absolutely amazing. It was such an amazing class, its always a great opportunity to leave the classroom and be able to learn firsthand inside an interactive learning environment!
Out in the wild…
2007-11-25 07:45:06
Last night I was able to go do something that I don’t typically get a chance to do, or at least I haven’t done much yet. I went with a friend over to the Fort Wilderness Campground where we ate smores over a nice warm fire, and watched some of the feature film they were showing for the night. We got there a little late, but if we would have gotten there earlier than we would have made it for Chip n’ Dale along with some campfire entertainment. Still, it was so much fun, it made me feel like we had gone somewhere far away from civilization. I cant wait to go back when it gets colder, and be able to sit next to the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa and some good friends!
Turkey day with the mouse
2007-11-23 08:50:12
Happy Thanksgiving! This year was a rather different thanksgiving for than most of the previous thanksgiving. This is the first year I have been unable to go home for thanksgiving, in fact I worked Thanksgiving Day. I didn’t think it would be that bad, but on my way to work it really hit me that this is the one time of year when all my friends have gone back home, and I was not there with family and friends. Although I did feel kinda sad to think I wouldn’t be spending this thanksgiving at home, it still turned out to be a pretty good day. At work each area was given turkey, ham and drinks, while it was up to us to bring the rest. So it was nice to be there during breaks sharing good food with our fellow cast members. Not to mention that as a college program participant we had our own thanksgiving dinner the previous night, there were so many of us that I think my friends and I must have waited about 30 or 40 minutes.
Probably the thing that made working on thanksg
Read more: Turkey
Something different…
2007-11-22 13:07:42
This morning started out unlike many other mornings. In fact, yesterday my manager mentioned to me that I was in need of getting another background check done. I had done one within days of my arrival to the program but now another one had to be done. It may sound like I had to have done this for bad reasons, but quite the contrary, this background check was being done because of the shoot I did only weeks ago. As you may remember, I mentioned a while ago that I had about a dozen people come in one day at work and film me on the job along with an interview. Apparently that footage will be used for future college program promotional material and as such I needed to have a background check done again for security purposes. I was most defiantly ok with this, I got paid to go to the Casting center. I had never really been inside that building it is quite a fun building to go in, just walking in and looking around felt like an adventure, which is what the décor and architectu
Read more: different
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