The Melbourne pavilion actually did open on the Festivals advertised opening date, there was just allot that hadn't been completed, and still hasn't... the builders come in each morning and paint or fix or alter or add something, so every day we all try and spot whats new!
its taken everyone almost a week to realise how thing are meant to work, like what the hell were exactly meant to be doing, when breaks are needed and for alterations to be made to the schedule as the hours we are working are crazy!
the first weekend was full on, so many guest and we barely had time to realise if we were doing anything the right way, but i don't think anyone really noticed if we said the wrong thing or spoke about the wrong state in Australia, as long as we were talking to the guest and the pavilion was actually open, that's all that counted. even Leigh and Andrew got into the Melbourne costumes and were out talking to all the guests and serving wine!
The rest of the week was quite dull in comparison...so I'm quite happy that my scheduled days off are a Wednesday and Thursday. Having weekends off would suck as there the best time to work, the 10 hour days go by so quickly!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Festival Opening
Thursday was the official cast opening or soft opening of the food and wine festival
6 Australians were scheduled to work so we all arrived to find out that the Melbourne pavilion was no where near ready, instead of serving wine we sat around against the wine fridges for a good 5 or so hours...
With an hour lunch break, and counting wine walkabout passports to keep us occupied
a manager finally realised that we were all sitting up there with nothing to do so they sent us all down to the welcome center that also wasn't open, so we helped out by stacking pallets, sorting out plastic shelf's and stocking the merchandise!
It was a pretty pointless day, maybe that's why they had taken the shift of me a few hours before i was meant to start but still had to pay me for working as they didn't give me or Zoe ample amount of notice!
6 Australians were scheduled to work so we all arrived to find out that the Melbourne pavilion was no where near ready, instead of serving wine we sat around against the wine fridges for a good 5 or so hours...
With an hour lunch break, and counting wine walkabout passports to keep us occupied
a manager finally realised that we were all sitting up there with nothing to do so they sent us all down to the welcome center that also wasn't open, so we helped out by stacking pallets, sorting out plastic shelf's and stocking the merchandise!
It was a pretty pointless day, maybe that's why they had taken the shift of me a few hours before i was meant to start but still had to pay me for working as they didn't give me or Zoe ample amount of notice!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
4 days of training
So the past 4 days kinder went like this...
Sunday 21st - discovery day
it was my first official working day as i didn't go to traditions the day prior, Felice and i had to be at EPCOT cast services by 10.30am, were we meet some other seasonal cast members arriving to work at the food and wine festival as well as the 8 other Australians that are currently working for Disney, so there's 10 of us in total, all girls!
The Aussies spent the morning doing computer related activities, about serving food even though none of us were going to. Then we meet up with half of the discovery day group, watched a few videos, a presentation or to on the Disney basics, had a short tour of cast services and in the afternoon we had a tour around EPCOT, a very long, hot detailed tour. it was interesting though as we found out alot about the food and wine festival, the kiosks and whats different this year. We also got our first glimpse at the Melbourne pavilion,located in between Germany and the outpost, all we could see was huge construction walls and some steal bars poking out from over the top, nothing to get excited about but hey there was still a few days left before opening...
Monday 22ND - Australia Welcome Day!
all 10 of us Australians meet at the front of the cast services building at 9.30am, "frank" from Disney came and escorted us (the long way) to west side innovations were we went up a staircase and into a cool boardroom that i never new was there, it had couches and computers, really fancy actually, then off on the side it had a more official looking board room with 10 places all set out with books and paper and lollies and sharpies! (we were pretty excited about the sharpies) Here we meet Andrew and Leigh, to Americans who work for tourism Victoria and were the people in charge of pretty much everything though out the festival. i think we were all pretty hesitant to learn about parts of Australia off two American however they were great and they know ALOT, but i suppose it is there jobs!
we spent most of the morning getting to know one another, then about our roles as cultural ambassadors, the basic messages that need to be conveyed, sponsors, participants, events, media etc. etc. this was all followed by an amazing buffet lunch, coffee, cokes and desert! and then an afternoon of details, about the wines, Victoria itself and the 5 main regains we needed to focus on, all that kind of stuff.
at around 3pm we packed up our stuff, took a heap of chocolates for the road and head up to the world showcase to get a backstage look at our pavilion with Leigh and Andrew, we also got free Disney ponchos on the way over as it was raining. when we arrived there was still numerous builders working and a whole heap needed to be done, but all the same it had changed from what we all saw the day before, but it was starting to look really good. we all finished work after that and headed back to cast services to get the bus, all in shock of how good the day was, what we were going to be doing and hoping that we were going to get a buffet lunch the next day!
Tuesday 23rd - F&W specific training
another 9.30 day meeting at cast services, were Frank once again escorted the 10 of us to the east side of future world this time, to another hidden small board room, not as cool as Mondays but good all the same. this time the room was all set up with numerous placings of glassed and pens and paper, there was alto of wine at the front of the room and a whole heap of Disney bags to the side. we soon found out that inside those Disney bags that had our names on it were our new Melbourne uniforms! we all rushed to the bathroom to try them on, and i think the consensus was that we all liked them, after hearing about them the day before, there made up of dark blue shorts with the Melbourne logo on the front of one leg and back of another, a black belt, white fitted polo top with the same logo and a "fendora" had, hard to explain but i shall post a picture at some stage. anyway mine fit and the massive plus was that we DIDNT have to tuck our shirts into a shorts! take that Disney!
the rest of the day was spent tasting wines if you were over 21, or in my case, sniffing wines as we wern't allowed to put them in our mouth and spit it out, we got to get a good nose full of the smell, then pour it into a bucket, it was a very sad afternoon ans i had the smell of red wine stuck up my nose for the rest of the afternoon! we also had another buffet lunch, this time it had food that we were actually going to be selling at the Melbourne pavilion, we got to try the prawns and the barramundi, both really really good. we also had a few guest from the different represented winery's talk to us and just before we left we had a test (that we had been reminded about for the past day and a half, also about the fact that prizes were going to be involved) pretty much the easiest test ever as it just comprised of questions about Melbourne, tourism and others along those lines.
Before clocking out we were taken down to the food and wine welcome center just to look around before heading back to get the bus.
Wednesday 24Th - F&W Global day
This by far was the worst training day. it started at 8am and was a long and drawn out day of listening to presentations from Disney management about the Disney basics, the food and wine festival and everything we needed to know about it all. They even escorted us to lunch, who knows why as I'm pretty sure we were all adults in the room. Then in the afternoon we had to listen/watch a computer presentation on alcohol laws etc. pretty much the American version of Australia's responsible service of alcohol, which should only take about half an hour if you were doing it by yourself, however as we had numerous people in the room who were much older then us, it took over 2 hours because of all the REALLY dumb questions being asked, then we had to do a test on all the information, THEN go over all the answers, they finally let us leave (1.5 hours after when we were meant to clock out)
and that my friends pretty much concludes my 4 days of food and wine training
Sunday 21st - discovery day
it was my first official working day as i didn't go to traditions the day prior, Felice and i had to be at EPCOT cast services by 10.30am, were we meet some other seasonal cast members arriving to work at the food and wine festival as well as the 8 other Australians that are currently working for Disney, so there's 10 of us in total, all girls!
The Aussies spent the morning doing computer related activities, about serving food even though none of us were going to. Then we meet up with half of the discovery day group, watched a few videos, a presentation or to on the Disney basics, had a short tour of cast services and in the afternoon we had a tour around EPCOT, a very long, hot detailed tour. it was interesting though as we found out alot about the food and wine festival, the kiosks and whats different this year. We also got our first glimpse at the Melbourne pavilion,located in between Germany and the outpost, all we could see was huge construction walls and some steal bars poking out from over the top, nothing to get excited about but hey there was still a few days left before opening...
Monday 22ND - Australia Welcome Day!
all 10 of us Australians meet at the front of the cast services building at 9.30am, "frank" from Disney came and escorted us (the long way) to west side innovations were we went up a staircase and into a cool boardroom that i never new was there, it had couches and computers, really fancy actually, then off on the side it had a more official looking board room with 10 places all set out with books and paper and lollies and sharpies! (we were pretty excited about the sharpies) Here we meet Andrew and Leigh, to Americans who work for tourism Victoria and were the people in charge of pretty much everything though out the festival. i think we were all pretty hesitant to learn about parts of Australia off two American however they were great and they know ALOT, but i suppose it is there jobs!
we spent most of the morning getting to know one another, then about our roles as cultural ambassadors, the basic messages that need to be conveyed, sponsors, participants, events, media etc. etc. this was all followed by an amazing buffet lunch, coffee, cokes and desert! and then an afternoon of details, about the wines, Victoria itself and the 5 main regains we needed to focus on, all that kind of stuff.
at around 3pm we packed up our stuff, took a heap of chocolates for the road and head up to the world showcase to get a backstage look at our pavilion with Leigh and Andrew, we also got free Disney ponchos on the way over as it was raining. when we arrived there was still numerous builders working and a whole heap needed to be done, but all the same it had changed from what we all saw the day before, but it was starting to look really good. we all finished work after that and headed back to cast services to get the bus, all in shock of how good the day was, what we were going to be doing and hoping that we were going to get a buffet lunch the next day!
Tuesday 23rd - F&W specific training
another 9.30 day meeting at cast services, were Frank once again escorted the 10 of us to the east side of future world this time, to another hidden small board room, not as cool as Mondays but good all the same. this time the room was all set up with numerous placings of glassed and pens and paper, there was alto of wine at the front of the room and a whole heap of Disney bags to the side. we soon found out that inside those Disney bags that had our names on it were our new Melbourne uniforms! we all rushed to the bathroom to try them on, and i think the consensus was that we all liked them, after hearing about them the day before, there made up of dark blue shorts with the Melbourne logo on the front of one leg and back of another, a black belt, white fitted polo top with the same logo and a "fendora" had, hard to explain but i shall post a picture at some stage. anyway mine fit and the massive plus was that we DIDNT have to tuck our shirts into a shorts! take that Disney!
the rest of the day was spent tasting wines if you were over 21, or in my case, sniffing wines as we wern't allowed to put them in our mouth and spit it out, we got to get a good nose full of the smell, then pour it into a bucket, it was a very sad afternoon ans i had the smell of red wine stuck up my nose for the rest of the afternoon! we also had another buffet lunch, this time it had food that we were actually going to be selling at the Melbourne pavilion, we got to try the prawns and the barramundi, both really really good. we also had a few guest from the different represented winery's talk to us and just before we left we had a test (that we had been reminded about for the past day and a half, also about the fact that prizes were going to be involved) pretty much the easiest test ever as it just comprised of questions about Melbourne, tourism and others along those lines.
Before clocking out we were taken down to the food and wine welcome center just to look around before heading back to get the bus.
Wednesday 24Th - F&W Global day
This by far was the worst training day. it started at 8am and was a long and drawn out day of listening to presentations from Disney management about the Disney basics, the food and wine festival and everything we needed to know about it all. They even escorted us to lunch, who knows why as I'm pretty sure we were all adults in the room. Then in the afternoon we had to listen/watch a computer presentation on alcohol laws etc. pretty much the American version of Australia's responsible service of alcohol, which should only take about half an hour if you were doing it by yourself, however as we had numerous people in the room who were much older then us, it took over 2 hours because of all the REALLY dumb questions being asked, then we had to do a test on all the information, THEN go over all the answers, they finally let us leave (1.5 hours after when we were meant to clock out)
and that my friends pretty much concludes my 4 days of food and wine training
Monday, September 22, 2008
I got my Castle fix
So last night after i was bumming on the Internet, i decided not to go to wallmart and opt for going to the magic kingdom to see WISHES :) with Felice as she hadn't seen them before (not like you need an excuse!) but also because they were having some 60Th anniversary of pyrotechnics at the Contemporary resort before wishes...
both were amazing
both were amazing
(wishes won hands down though)
***
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Second Day
So today was the second "Official day" of housing and orientation stuff
Felice went to an 8 hour traditions class this morning (Well i assume she did as shes not here!)
and i slept in a little, got up watched a DVD and got ready...
i was just about to leave (at like 1ish, as i had to go to property control promptly before 4.45pm!) when i decided i was really tired and having a Nana nap for an hour wouldn't kill me, so i set an alarm and fell asleep, Only to wake up at like 3.45! a whole 5 minutes after the last possible bus i could have caught to access control at Disney university left!
i totally panicked as i have training starting tomorrow and i needed my work id, but i had no idea what to do. so i looked at the timetable, realised that the A bus didn't leave vista until 4.08 leaving me like 15 minutes to get there somehow to still make it to access control. So i ran out the front of Chatham where just my luck a taxi was, i told him what time i had to be at vista and he got me there!
i jumped on the bus, headed down to Disney university (secretly hoping to get a glimpse at the castle for the first time since Ive been back, didn't happen as the bus was soooooo full) and made it there with only 10 minutes to spare! i was soooo lucky that i already new where i had to go. The man at access control was great, he gave me my id after reminding me that my last years one should have been handed in or i would have got a $35 fee for it! I'm assuming he didn't charge me as he started talking about Australia, and told me to have a nice day!
i caught the next bus back to Chatham were I'm sitting now waiting for the H bus to come so i can go buy a phone from Wallmart (3 visits in 3 days, I'm a wallmart addict!)
P.S. photos to come soon...
Felice went to an 8 hour traditions class this morning (Well i assume she did as shes not here!)
and i slept in a little, got up watched a DVD and got ready...
i was just about to leave (at like 1ish, as i had to go to property control promptly before 4.45pm!) when i decided i was really tired and having a Nana nap for an hour wouldn't kill me, so i set an alarm and fell asleep, Only to wake up at like 3.45! a whole 5 minutes after the last possible bus i could have caught to access control at Disney university left!
i totally panicked as i have training starting tomorrow and i needed my work id, but i had no idea what to do. so i looked at the timetable, realised that the A bus didn't leave vista until 4.08 leaving me like 15 minutes to get there somehow to still make it to access control. So i ran out the front of Chatham where just my luck a taxi was, i told him what time i had to be at vista and he got me there!
i jumped on the bus, headed down to Disney university (secretly hoping to get a glimpse at the castle for the first time since Ive been back, didn't happen as the bus was soooooo full) and made it there with only 10 minutes to spare! i was soooo lucky that i already new where i had to go. The man at access control was great, he gave me my id after reminding me that my last years one should have been handed in or i would have got a $35 fee for it! I'm assuming he didn't charge me as he started talking about Australia, and told me to have a nice day!
i caught the next bus back to Chatham were I'm sitting now waiting for the H bus to come so i can go buy a phone from Wallmart (3 visits in 3 days, I'm a wallmart addict!)
P.S. photos to come soon...
***
Friday, September 19, 2008
First Days
well today isn't really my first day
yesterday was
but in terms of Disney related activities and housing orientation
today is my first day..
Yesterday however i landed at like 6am, retrieved my luggage( that didnt go missing YAY), found the Mears desk, found the pay phone to call Mears as there desk was closed due to it being so early in the morning (FYI the sun doesn't even get up a 6am!) and finally i was picked up from the parking area by a Mears van at like 7.30 - 8 ish...
the bus took me to Chatham Square (i found out i was living there like a day prior to my arrival as Disney sent me an email telling me that i should go directly there instead of vista way) where i picked up my information pack that had my apartment key inside and the nice security guard pointed me in the direction of building 17, apartment 108 (i think, i still cant remember the exact number)
so i lugged all my bags down there, knocked, no answer so i some how managed to use the key and let myself in... i walked into quite a small lounge room and kitchen with only one connecting door, assuming it was the bedroom and that no one else was in the apartment, i went in to find out my room mate was fast asleep and me barging in scared the crap out of her! we spoke for a few minutes and realised she was the other Australian ICP who arrived the night before...i had been speaking to her on facebook before i arrived, her names Felice, shes 21 and from Sydney (well a few hours away, but same difference!)
we only spoke briefly as i could clearly tell she was still half asleep, also i realised at this time that it was only a 2 person apartment, sightly relived that there was only two of us, kinda makes things easier, but at the same time i would have loved to been with a few other people from maybe anywhere but Australia! anyway i left her to sleep, used the Internet for a little while and fell asleep myself on the couch, thinking i would be there for maybe an hour or so, this was at like 9 am and i didn't wake up until like 2pm!!!!!!!!!!
i didn't even wake myself up, i got such a scare (probably in return of what i did to Felice a few hours earlier!) by Disney housing people coming to do a room inspection! i was like "ah we have only been here a matter of hours, there wont be much to inspect besides suitcases". They realised there maybe wasn't any need to check out the state of the apartment, instead they starting to talk to us and spray for bugs.. after they left we both got ready and headed to Wallmart as we had no orientation that day
about 3 hours late, 3 pillows, 1 duvet, a bundle of random stuff, food and some cheese in a can! we caught a taxi back to Chatham to unpack it all, talk about a mission to get it from the front security gate all the way to our apartment, a nice American boy helped us, despite one of the many bags breaking!
we finally got everything back, all in one piece. unpacked it all to find we forgot stuff! but hey that was bound to happen as we were both extremely jet lagged! the rest of the night wasn't all that exciting, we ate, then went to bed... thanks jet lag thanks!
the next day (being the 19Th) we had orientation for housing etc. due to jet lag i was up and awake at like 6.30am, but i ate breakfast, bummed on the Internet, got ready and headed over to the commons where it was being held...
we both arrived to find that we were the only 2 not from china! needless to say it wasn't very hard to spot the Aussie! as that's what one of the Disney housing people did, they walked over and were like "amber, Felice!" so it was clearly obvious we were the odd ones out. Anyway they singled us out because we were going to do all our paperwork by our self with a man named Robert by the commons pool, it was sooooo nice and relaxing, and we got it all done in like half an hour opposed to spread over 2 days like it normally is. Then Robert informed us that all we had left to do was listen to a short speech about the housing rules, then go to Vista later that day and get our housing Id's and that was is, the following day Felice had to go to Traditions, and all i had to do was go to access control and pick up my id...
so we did everything we had to (hate my housing ID!!) then headed back to Wallmart to buy cork boards and a few other bits and pieces and some DVDs, which we watched that night whilst eating dinner then headed to bed and that's about it!
yesterday was
but in terms of Disney related activities and housing orientation
today is my first day..
Yesterday however i landed at like 6am, retrieved my luggage( that didnt go missing YAY), found the Mears desk, found the pay phone to call Mears as there desk was closed due to it being so early in the morning (FYI the sun doesn't even get up a 6am!) and finally i was picked up from the parking area by a Mears van at like 7.30 - 8 ish...
the bus took me to Chatham Square (i found out i was living there like a day prior to my arrival as Disney sent me an email telling me that i should go directly there instead of vista way) where i picked up my information pack that had my apartment key inside and the nice security guard pointed me in the direction of building 17, apartment 108 (i think, i still cant remember the exact number)
so i lugged all my bags down there, knocked, no answer so i some how managed to use the key and let myself in... i walked into quite a small lounge room and kitchen with only one connecting door, assuming it was the bedroom and that no one else was in the apartment, i went in to find out my room mate was fast asleep and me barging in scared the crap out of her! we spoke for a few minutes and realised she was the other Australian ICP who arrived the night before...i had been speaking to her on facebook before i arrived, her names Felice, shes 21 and from Sydney (well a few hours away, but same difference!)
we only spoke briefly as i could clearly tell she was still half asleep, also i realised at this time that it was only a 2 person apartment, sightly relived that there was only two of us, kinda makes things easier, but at the same time i would have loved to been with a few other people from maybe anywhere but Australia! anyway i left her to sleep, used the Internet for a little while and fell asleep myself on the couch, thinking i would be there for maybe an hour or so, this was at like 9 am and i didn't wake up until like 2pm!!!!!!!!!!
i didn't even wake myself up, i got such a scare (probably in return of what i did to Felice a few hours earlier!) by Disney housing people coming to do a room inspection! i was like "ah we have only been here a matter of hours, there wont be much to inspect besides suitcases". They realised there maybe wasn't any need to check out the state of the apartment, instead they starting to talk to us and spray for bugs.. after they left we both got ready and headed to Wallmart as we had no orientation that day
about 3 hours late, 3 pillows, 1 duvet, a bundle of random stuff, food and some cheese in a can! we caught a taxi back to Chatham to unpack it all, talk about a mission to get it from the front security gate all the way to our apartment, a nice American boy helped us, despite one of the many bags breaking!
we finally got everything back, all in one piece. unpacked it all to find we forgot stuff! but hey that was bound to happen as we were both extremely jet lagged! the rest of the night wasn't all that exciting, we ate, then went to bed... thanks jet lag thanks!
the next day (being the 19Th) we had orientation for housing etc. due to jet lag i was up and awake at like 6.30am, but i ate breakfast, bummed on the Internet, got ready and headed over to the commons where it was being held...
we both arrived to find that we were the only 2 not from china! needless to say it wasn't very hard to spot the Aussie! as that's what one of the Disney housing people did, they walked over and were like "amber, Felice!" so it was clearly obvious we were the odd ones out. Anyway they singled us out because we were going to do all our paperwork by our self with a man named Robert by the commons pool, it was sooooo nice and relaxing, and we got it all done in like half an hour opposed to spread over 2 days like it normally is. Then Robert informed us that all we had left to do was listen to a short speech about the housing rules, then go to Vista later that day and get our housing Id's and that was is, the following day Felice had to go to Traditions, and all i had to do was go to access control and pick up my id...
so we did everything we had to (hate my housing ID!!) then headed back to Wallmart to buy cork boards and a few other bits and pieces and some DVDs, which we watched that night whilst eating dinner then headed to bed and that's about it!
***
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Almost in Orlando...
so i only have like an hour left before my flight to Orlando takes off...
we can start boarding in like half an hour, finally, those 8 hours kinda dragged on
and i never really liked LAX much, and today hasn't made that feeling any better, like don't get me wrong its exciting to be here but to spend this long here and then also have a full on security search of my bags and drug test and stuff (i think the chose me cause i was pretty much the only person going into the terminal so early and/or because I'm Australian!)
however it doesn't matter about all that now, in half an hour i will be on the plane and in matter of hours i will be in Orlando
we can start boarding in like half an hour, finally, those 8 hours kinda dragged on
and i never really liked LAX much, and today hasn't made that feeling any better, like don't get me wrong its exciting to be here but to spend this long here and then also have a full on security search of my bags and drug test and stuff (i think the chose me cause i was pretty much the only person going into the terminal so early and/or because I'm Australian!)
however it doesn't matter about all that now, in half an hour i will be on the plane and in matter of hours i will be in Orlando
***
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