Happy New Year!

Well, it's now 2009! How weird does that look?

It's been a good few days but I am soooo glad it's all over. Work has been really busy and full on but things should start settling down a little bit now.

I had been dreading doing the PM shift for New Years Eve. For the last month, all the managers have been saying "it'll be really busy, you'll be weeded, it'll be tough" and basically freaking everyone out. Luckily, Matt decided he wanted to work the PM as everyone said the money was really good so I traded. I was an AM instead.

The AM shift was really busy and I felt so glad I'd traded. It turns out I made the right decision too, as I made more on my AM than Matt did doing the PM. After work, Kevin, Vikki, David and I got changed and exited the park. We were told that we had to leave and come in as guests. I thought it would be wayyy too busy but we got back in with no problem. Only trouble was it was 5pm so we had 7 hours to kill. The park was really busy so we didn't bother with any rides. We just mooched around. At 7pm, we went back to the UK pavillion and did a countdown to 7pm (which is midnight back home). Everyone that was at work came out into the street and we all hugged and wished each other Happy New Year. The Americans around us all thought we were nuts!

Later on, we decided to head over to Norway to see Rene. We got halfway round world showcase when we ran into a huge crowd of people. They were stationary and we couldn't move forward. We stood in the huge crowd for about 10 minutes then tried to back out of it. At that point there were people behind us as well. We couldn't move at all. I looked left...people, I looked right, more people...I'm a little claustrophobic in crowds but I closed my eyes and tried to imagine there was no one else there. Kevin tried to lead me out but as soon as he put his hands on my shoulders I shrieked, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" We couldn't move anyway. In the end, I couldn't handle it, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I lunged for the railing and somehow (I don't remember this part) got over it. Then I sat on the grass trying to get enough oxygen. It was awful. I sat there for twenty minutes or so, then security came and helped me backstage. Once I was out of the crowds, I was fine. I still can't believe I got over that railing. Kevin is over six foot and he had difficulty! Guess adrenaline did most of it!

At around 11pm, we were back in the UK pavillion. As a joke, Kevin asked if there was any availability in the restaurant. There was! Colin said if we didn't mind the cold, he'd take us on his section. It had been empty all night because it was cold outside. We were fine to sit in the cold so we had a table right on the waterfront for the New Years Eve fireworks. It was brilliant! I had a Baileys hot chocolate and we all shared lots of different types of food. It was a brilliant way to ring in the new year!

First few days at work

I'm so sorry. I've neglected you guys for a whole three days but time has been flying by in chunks! It's bizarre! In the first week, time went so slowly that it felt like a month must have passed when it was only a week. This week has gone so fast, I'm not convinced I was actually present for it! We've been out here two weeks tomorrow. That's so weird to think about!

Okay, so I started work here in Florida. My first job was as seater in the Rose and Crown. It's fairly easy. A ticket gets printed saying the name of the party, how many adults and children and their pager number. All you need to do is page them, grab the right number of menus (kids and adults) and when then arrive you greet them with "hello, welcome to the Rose and Crown. My name is Tori and I'll be showing you to your table". Then you lead them through. The hardest part is learning the tables. They aren't numbered logically. Inside are the tables beginning with 1, 2 and 3. On the verandah are tables beginning 4 and 5 and by the waters edge are the 6's and 7's. So, if a ticket reads table 306, that's inside, nearest the outside wall and you count along to six. It took a while but I'm pretty comfortable with seating now.

I was the seater for two days and I'm pretty sure I've got it. When you're not seating, you can go out onto the street and chat with guests or play with the kids. Naturally, I make a bee line for any children. I love kids, they are so much fun! I made a new game where you draw a line on the floor and get some kids. You shout "Mickey" and they jump in front of the line. "Minnie" is behind the line. "Donald" is on it and "Peter Pan" is on the line with hands on hips. Then you just call out the names as fast as you like and watch the kids try to keep up. I make sure I play this in the shade but even so, it gets really hot. Good fun though.

Yesterday I was the greeter in the restuarant. That's a little more involved. You have to check people in using the computer. Sometimes they have reservations, other times they're walk ins. Practically ALL of the time they are unhappy about their table. If they are inside they want to be outside, if they're outside they want to be inside. Everyone requests outside from 6.30pm onwards to see the fireworks and obviously, not everyone can have a table outside so the guests get annoyed. By the way, if any guest ever says "we were promised an outside table" it's a load of rubbish as we stress that outside is not guaranteed.

I've had a couple of stupid guest comments. At the end of this year, I intend to write a book on dumb guest comments and questions. Not really, but I could. Over the last three days, I've been asked "What language do they speak in England?" and "How long did it take you to learn your accent?" I've had a guest tell me my accent doesn't sound anything like an English accent (which tickled me as I am English!) and another guest who refuses to believe we have red squirrels in the UK. She said to her son, "she's lying honey, no one has red squirrels". Oooo-kay!

All in all, I'm really enjoying my job. The guests are generally nice and I get on with most of the people I work with. That's quite a bit of backstabbing and bitchiness but I expected that. I am working in a very female environment (most of the guys are gay and almost worse than the girls). Just let it roll off you and you won't have any problem.

Though I've worked alot the past few days, somehow (God knows how), I've managed to make time for play too. Last night after work, I went to Downtown Disney with Rhys, Lauren and Nils. I love Downtown! They have a huge Virgin megastore down there as well as other little shops. I'm quite into magic and there's a shop called "Magic Masters" where I go to get tricks. Rhys in particular is obsessed with my magic tricks and practically ever time I see him I have to have a new one on hand. It's fun.

Once we visited the Magic place, we had dinner at Planet Hollywood. It was bizarre to be eating dinner at 11.30pm but it was really nice food. We get a 20% cast discount too! Everyone passed out on the bus home though!

Right, so that brings everyone up to date. I'm at work at four tomorrow (afternoon) so I'll get a nice lay in. I'm only working until ten as well. Nice! I'll be able to catch up on my laundry. Trouble is, the washing machine is rather frightening. When you turn it on, it kind of "walks" across the floor. It bounces all over the place! Almost like the clothes in it want to get out. It's so noisy, you can't have it on at night. I'll have to film it at some point. It's so funny!

After tomorrow, I have two whole days off and I am SOOOOO going to enjoy them. Yay!