Traditions on no sleep!

Yesterday was our training day. The Disney term for it is "Traditions". We had to get the bus over to Disney University where we were all shown into a room. We watched alot of presentations but the morning was broken up by various activities and team building exercises. We had to sit at a table with only two people from the same country on it so Vikki and I shared with Nils (from Germany - lovely guy!), Debby (from right here in Florida) and Martha (from Sweden). We had two minutes to introduce ourselves and then the trainers randomly chose people to go around and tell everyone who was at their table without looking. I did it and earned a "critter" for everyone at the table. A critter is a little Disney figurine, I got Snow White). Later on, the table had to nominate a Team Leader by doing the "Disney Point" (pointing with two fingers). I voted for Debby but everyone else voted for me. My task was to be the writer on the next team builder we had. We had three minutes to list as many Disney characters as we could. My hand was cramping by the end of it but we won with 48 characters! We got another Disney critter (Pooh). At lunch time we got a surprise. Our trainers took us over to the Magic Kingdom where we got to go down the Utilidors. They are a series of tunnels that run under the Magic Kingdom. It's a whole city down there! There's even a cafeteria (mousketeria!) We had lunch there and it was so strange to see everyone in costume. I saw a friend of Peter Pan without his full costume which was strange. I got really excited!

The afternoon was less fun. It was presentation after presentation after presentation. There was one that basically just showed Disney CM's saying "Safe D begins with me!" If I hear that expression one more time, I'm going to go crazy!!! However, at the end they showed a presentation about how dreams come true at Disney and I am so looking forward to going out and making "Magical Moments" happen for our guests. I really hope I'll get to do lots of them! It's going to be amazing!!!!!

We were given our Disney passes (and name tags!) today so we can now visit the themeparks for free. Traditions ended aat 5.00pm and at 5.01pm, we were ready for the Magic Kingdom! We have a couple of people in the group who have never been to Disney before! Rhys and Tino are Disney Virgins (DV's). We thought we'd start in the Magic Kingdom so they could see the fireworks. We went over there and took them round tomorrowland. We went on the Indy cars and the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. That was amazing. The monsters interact with you and they did a role play of the movie with Rhys playing Randall! His face when it appeared on the screen was classic! Vikki was very quick on the camera and caught Rhys' reaction to his first look at the castle. He looks so bowled over and excited!

We went back to the castle at 10pm and caught Wishes (the firework display). Seeing the fireworks explode behind the castle was amazing! I felt so happy to be standing there, knowing I was a Disney Cast Member and I'll be seeing those fireworks for the next year...well, it was Lauren's fault. She started crying first, then Vikki, then Nic and I...well, I got something in my eye and turned away for a bit. It was just so incredible! We left the Magic Kingdom pretty late and we didn't get back until gone 1am. We were all up for 5am! I think I got about three hours sleep, maximum. Still, it was worth it.

This morning we started food and beverage training. It was yet more presentations but we also registered for "The Hub". That's kind of like an internal internet system that lets you access all sorts of information such as your pay stub and training history, as well as park information. We also did all our online training. Now I'm free for the rest of the day. I'm kind of tired so I don't really fancy the themeparks. I think I'll head out to Wal-Mart to pick up a few bits and pieces and then maybe have a swim and get an early night.