Guests that make you cry, chefs that don't lie and shoes to go buy!

Well, here we are in May. Time seems to be snowballing now. Everytime I notice the date, it shocks me. I've never known time to go so fast before.

I've had a couple of really amazing shifts recently. The first one was the ultimate tearjerker. I was serving my section as normal and there was a cute little girl on my table called Chloe. She was amazing. She was ultra polite and kept calling me "Miss Tori". As it was near firework time, I went to Emma who was on magic moment and did something I've never done before. I asked for one of my tables to be chosen.

I guess before I go further, I should explain Magical Moment. This happens each night in the Rose and Crown. The podium staff select a child and give them the Mickey wand and that child "starts" the fireworks by pointing the wand at the right time. Due to our familiarity with Illuminations, we can make a pretty convincing show of the child directing them. The podium staff always get to choose and if they pick your table, you're lucky. Asking for your table to be included is frowned upon as it increases your tips and money is not a good reason for doing Magical Moment. I wasn't after extra tips, I just had a seriously cute little girl who I felt deserved to be made a fuss of. Luckily, Emma was understanding, she knows I've never asked for my guests to be chosen before.

Anyway, the end of this story means Chloe started the fireworks. Emma and her trainee, Alex, took the whole family down to lower deck and apparantly the mother and grandmother were in tears watching Chloe excitedly starting the fireworks. At the end of the firework show, Chloe's father came and found me. I was cleaning my section but he stopped me and with tears in his eyes told me he'd had the most magical night of his life. He's been in Iraq for the last year and has been away from his family. Seeing Chloe so happy made his night and he was so grateful for what we'd done for her. He was crying by the end of it and so was I. It was such a small thing for me to have done but it made the night for his family. I hugged him as he thanked me and had to go away into the kitchen for a few minutes until I was under control again .

A few days later during pre-shift (the meeting before the start of the shift), our manager Alisha read out a positive guest letter. It was about me. It said I was "friendly, genuine and quite entertaining. She made the evening even more enjoyable for us". I got a copy of the letter and a special pin (badge). It's always nice to be recognised.

Things at the Rose and Crown and finally beginning to settle after the loss of Rachid and Chef Christian. Our new chef, Nick is a definate improvement. He has been asking the opinion of the staff as to what to include on the menu which is something Chef Christian (AKA The Demi-God) never did. Plus, Chef Nick will cheerfully hear us out if we say something is disgusting and he'll ask how it can be improved. Chef Christian would just yell at you.

Our new manager, Christina is not such an improvement. First of all, we barely see her but when she does come into the UK, she pisses everyone off. There is something called "Disney Look" which is a standard of cleanliness and uniformity that we have to adhere to. No tattoos, no beards (damn, and mine was so long!), girls hair tied back, even acceptable and unacceptable sideburns!!! Christina seems to be obsessed with Disney Look and I am now being told that the shoes I have been using for work for the past ten months are now unacceptable. Well, actually, they're not too sure. All I've been told so far is they "might be unacceptable". That was a week ago and we've heard nothing back yet. I do not want to buy a new pair of work shoes for the sake of two months. Especially when there's nothing wrong with the ones I have!

On my day off this week, I spent some time by the pool here at the Commons. I met a couple of UK guys who turned out to be the newbies. As they don't have their Disney ID's yet, I offered to get them into MK for the evening so I could show them around. It ended up being a really fun night. One of the guys (Dave) was a DV (Disney Virgin). Showing MK to a DV was amazing, it was like seeing it for the first time all over again. Dave seemed to like it too. We stayed to see Wishes as well and it was just a fun night.

The following day, I returned to the pool. I was in the water the whole time but a few hours after getting out, I was in severe pain. Somehow (God only knows how!), I've burnt my knees and my shoulders. It's really painful and I feel sorry for Vikki as all she's heard recently is "Ow! Ow! Ow!" everytime I've turned over in bed or stood up or, you know, breathed! Still, it'll heal soon.

Well, that's all I've got to report for now. I'll update again soon.

Seaworld, manatees and the triple threat to Florida!

Hi everyone,

How you all doing? Here's a quick update for you!

Things here are going really well at the moment. I was seating the other day at the restaurant. That's when you show guests to their table. I got chatting to this absolutely amazing family. They were great! I was chatting to them for about half an hour and they were the nicest guests I've ever had, either here or back on the cruise ships. It was two adults and three kids (Zac, Matt and Katie) and they were just brilliant. I loved talking to them! We were laughing about the dumb guest comments I get and they asked all about England (which people NEVER seem to do) and they were just so friendly. Honestly, if all my guests were like that, I wouldn't need paying to do my job! I went to management and asked if we could do something nice for them so I ended up making them the "Table of the Day" and getting them free smoothies. I won't forget that family for a long time. Just the memory is making me smile.

A bit later in the day, I did the magic moment again with a little boy called William. He was six and very excited to be chosen. I gave him the Mickey wand and he was enthusiastically waving it around "directing" the fireworks. He was a little too enthusiastic because he ended up clopping this other guest on the head! She said, "excuse me! That hit me!" and then William's mother answered, "ease up, he's only a little kid and you're ruining his day!" I suggested we move to further along the deck and the mother said loudly, "yes, lets get you away from the frosty faced bitch woman!" I wanted to die! Poor William, it did ruin his moment, he was so subdued afterwards. When the guest had gone, I went to the other table and apologised profusely for them being hit in the head. They were actually really nice about it but I was upset it had happened to either guest. I'd been having such a nice day!

My signature magic trick is being copied. I have a thumb trick where I produce a red light from nowhere, throw it around and get rid of it. It's really effective. However, Nathan turned up to work today with the same thing. I thought it would ruin it (that's MY power!) but instead, Nathan and I have been throwing this ball of light across the restaurant and all the guests love it! We got alot of guest comments and at the end of the day, I was given two guest fanatic cards from two different people for entertaining the guests. They go on your record so its great to recieve those!

I used the I-Ride trolley again today. I caught the trolley from stop 41 which is just the other side of the premium outlets to stop 33 where Seaworld is. Cast members get a discount on the I-Ride, it only costs 25 cents! Excellent! I love the I-Ride, the trolleys are green and have smiling faces on the front. Ahhh, the little things!

I paid for a year pass at Seaworld. You can set up a direct debit from your paycheck so they're taking $20 a month which really helps to spread the cost. I LOVE Seaworld! I got to touch and feed stingrays and dolphins and I saw alligators and manatees. I watched the shows and I just had the most amazing day. I could easily spend the rest of my life in Seaworld, I'm such an animal nut! The ticket I chose also includes Aquatica, Seaworld's new waterpark so I have a year pass for there too!

I'm really excited about tomorrow because.....I'm swimming with manatees! I'm being collected really early in the morning to go by coach to Crystal River to snorkel with manatees. I can't believe it! I'm bouncing in my chair, I'm so excited! I saw some manatees today at Seaworld and I don't remember them being that big. That's a little scary. Still, they call them "gentle giants" so it should be okay. I'll get photos, even if I have to go without food for the next month! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Oh, trying to describe what a manatee is to Saori and Nami (my Japanese housemates) was so funny. I said they were like big cows with tails. Vikki was even worse. She said, "just think of a dolphin that's been sat on by a giant. They're like flat dolphins!"

We got a letter through the letterbox this morning. "Hurricane Preparedness" again! Gustav luckily missed us but Hanna looks like she's barrelling right for us. She's a category one at the moment and right behind her are tropical storms Ike and Josephine. They're calling it the "Triple Threat". No one is certain where Ike and Josephine are gonna hit yet though. I guess they were right about it being an active season. Whew!

Right, well, you're all up to date again for now. I will let you know how tomorrow goes as soon as I can!

When they are good they are very, very good but when they are bad they make you want to kill yourself!

So, I've abandoned you guys for quite a while recently but I've been caught up with work and stuff. It's been pretty busy and I've been doing extra training for Assignor, plus I had my first Lasses. I've also had my worst night since I got here as well as a couple of moments when I've been deliriously happy! What this is doing to my blood pressure is anyones guess.

Assigner training has been rather difficult. My trainer, Nathan has been training me at the same time as another trainee (Gary). It really hasn't been working out so well as you have to take it in turns so instead of three days of solid training, I've had a day and a half while Gary's had the other day and a half. I was meant to finish with assignor training today but I've told management that I don't feel ready to fly solo. I'm training on it again after my day off.

I had my first Lasses yesterday. Lasses is UK Lasses and its all the girls from the UK pavillion. They get together once a week (on Monday nights) and (from what I can tell) get drunk. I had to be initiated so they mixed up something called a "Death Drink". My God, it was potent! It was basically all the alcohol they had in one drink! Plus, they make you down it (the drink is a pint). Next was a drinking game involving a huge bottle of wine. You just had to down it as fast as possible. I was in a team of five and once that game was done, I was hammered! I sensibly decided to go home but had to stop and ask directions about four times. I don't know how I escaped being hungover this morning.

A couple of days ago, I had a "magic moment" with a guest. We do a regular "Magic Moment" in the Rose and Crown where we choose a child to "start" the fireworks. We give them a magic wand which they wave at the right moment and Illuminations begins! We then have them "direct" the fireworks by pointing the wand at the right moment. The kids honestly believe they are directing the show! I chose a little girl called Lucy and took her down to the waterfront. She loved it! Her face was so lovely to see and I think I saw tears in the eyes of the adults around her. At the end of the evening, Lucy hugged me and I went home feeling like I was covered in pixie dust! It was an incredible feeling!

Yesterday was Colin's birthday and he was at work. I was seating a couple of times in between assigner training and when I seated a couple of women in his section, I let them know it was his birthday. Later, as I was walking past, the family called out to me. They wanted to do something for Colin. I went to Marcel, our manager but he was no help so I went to William, the chef. He arranged a "best wishes"slice of cake which I snuck out to the guests. Then I got together a few servers, plus Colin and we went out to the table where we sang Happy Birthday to Colin and presented the cake. He was so happy he was near tears! I nicknamed the two women "the Lovely Family" for the rest of the night.

Today seemed to be in direct contrast to the last few days though. It has been a terrible day!!!! Absolutely awful!!! The restaurant has been really busy with huge parties of people. I haven't been able to take walk ins all day. A guest came up to the podium where I was greeting and demanded to know why he wasn't being seated instantly as he "made his reservations months ago". He came back throughout the night to complain. He wanted to sit inside, then he wanted to sit outside, then the restaurant was too crowded...the list went on and on. At one point, he came up and screamed, "this is fucking ridiculous, it's a fucking joke. It's nuts." He had a proper go at me and to make it even worse, he added halfway through "I'm sorry, I know this isn't your fault but...." and continued to swear at me. All I could do was stand there apologising and to be honest I don't know what I was apologising for. If you know it's not my fault, why the hell are you yelling at me!?!? I had a completely blank face and I just kept on apologising.

Later on, another guest had a go because they had a reservation but hadn't checked in to say they'd arrived. They'd been waiting for ages, apparantly.

Marcel sent me to Chippie in the evening to restock the condiment cart. I started it but got called back to podium. Then Marcel rang to demand why I hadn't finished in Chippie! By this point, I'd had enough. I went out the back of chippie and just cried my eyes out. Nothing I did seem to be right today. Not once did anyone even notice the million things I did RIGHT, no, it was all about what was wrong. I seriously questionned what the hell I'm doing out here. To my horror, Ashley came out of chippie and caught me crying. Damn! I like to keep up a "tough guy" expression to other people, I fall apart when I'm on my own and no longer have to hold that mask in place. I quickly dried my eyes and got back to work.

After work, we had a "meeting". Read that as "bollicking". They called the podium team into the office and basically told us we're crap and we had complaints and its all our fault. I was ready to grab a steak knife and slit my wrists. I was so quiet in that meeting. At the end they asked for suggestions and I felt the depression lift to be replaced by a spark of anger. I told them I was fed up with no one noticing the 100 good things we do everyday. I said I was fed up with it always being negative, with no one even saying thank you. I think I got my point across.

At the end of the meeting, a server told me a guest wanted to see me in the bar. I sighed heavily, prepared myself for a complaint and went down. To my delight, it was little Lucy, back again for another photo and a hug. Smiling, laughing and talking with her helped alot but once she'd gone, I quietly got my bag, closed my locker and left.

It's our one month anniversary today for my arrival group and I'd planned a party. The "bollicking" went on for an hour so I was late home and everyone was ready to leave. I came through the door, grabbed a pillow and screamed into it. Let me tell you, it does nothing to muffle the sound. I came out of the bedroom with my "mask" on, like nothing was wrong and while everyone had heard the scream, I was so convincing, they thought it had been someone outside. I'd made a video for my group and we all watched it together. We were laughing out loud at some of it and it really helped my mood. I guess everyone has off days. It's just so strange to think little Lucy and the Lovely Family have anything in common with "Swearing Arsehole" and "Mindreader Man". They are all guests but I know which ones I prefer!

I've got tomorrow off so I plan to forget about work for a while. It was a "Jonah Day" in the words of Anne of Green Gables but as she said, "tomorrow is another day with no mistakes in it".