I'm officially at my two month mark tomorrow (which also happens to be Lauren's 8th birthday!), and it's crazy that I'm now more than halfway done with my internship. It started off slow (unbelievably so) but now I have that split feeling where part of me feels as if I've lived in Florida forever and part of me thinks I got here two weeks ago. I'm starting to get rid of the "I just got here" feeling, though, and I'm mainly feeling that I've been in Florida all my life. I won't lie, I'll miss Florida when I have to leave it. I love the state, even if the job is tiring.
Last week was my
week of deployment to DTD (Downtown Disney). It was interesting to say the least. The boutique there is SO much different than the Castle, enough that I can honestly say I don't think they should both be called the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I think they should be entirely different boutiques, because they cater to different age groups, different types of people, different personalities, etc. Everything about is different, except the hairstyles they offer (and even then, they do their hairstyles differently, so that's semi-debatable). On the left is the DTD costume, which, I personally think, is much uglier. It also doesn't breathe as well, and the boutique there is SO much hotter than the Castle, so I was sweating all the time in there. It was gross.First off, I got a mixed welcome. Half of the DTD girls welcomed me with smiles and were glad to meet me and have my help. The other half... well, they glared and said "Oh. You're from the CASTLE. Well. We do things differently here." Needless to say, some of the DTD girls harbor resentment towards the Castle girls, which I find rather pointless and baseless. The only reason they dislike Castle girls is because we took their customers. But honestly, who would want to get their hair done in WoD (World of Disney store) when they could get it done in Cinderella's Castle? The DTD location was the first Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at DisneyWorld, and so some of them have this sense of superiority because "they were first." Some of the FGITs in there have been there since opening, so they're very territorial about it, which is understandable, but not enough for some of their hatred towards the Castle. I was told that Castle girls are "stuffy" and "boring" and "high and mighty." I can see how they'd get that opinion of us in all honesty, because we do have a higher bar set than DTD, simply because we're in the MK and people expect us to create magic right and left (example: guests sometimes honestly believe that we can control the weather and get legitimately angry at us when we don't stop the daily thunderstorm). We also work in a CASTLE. That creates an entirely different character for us to play, and there is a lot more acting that goes on in the Castle than DTD.
The atmosphere in the two boutiques is extremely different. First off, the Castle boutique LOOKS like it belongs in a Castle. There's light blue drapes everywhere, crowns, chandeliers, fancy wall sconces, and the mirrors have these beautiful giant frames around them. The chairs are a light blue, the seating is all in reds and golds, and everything just looks classy. The music is quiet, and it's all princess songs/instrumentals from movies. DTD, on the other hand, is all hot pink and white. The chairs look more like salon chairs, with a plastic hot pink back, and the seating is pink as well. The mirrors are this plastic looking gold frame that looks like it belongs in a Barbie playhouse rather than the boutique (no offense), and it's really bright in there. The music is stuff like S Club 7, the Cheetah Girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and Freaky Friday. Tween pop, basically. What kills me is that I know all of those songs in DTD and remember them from when I was the age of the kids I'm doing, and when I ask if they know those songs, they have no idea. Why they're still playing those songs, even though no kids who come in recognize them anymore, is beyond me.
Because of the different atmospheres and locations, there are two different types of guests, I've discovered. The Castle gets, well, classier people. There's really no other way to say it. The people in the Castle are not only paying the $210 for the princess makeover, but they also paid the $80 something it cost to get into the MK. And most of these people have reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table, where, on average, one adult plate costs $40. They tend to also have reservations for the Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's, two other expensive character dining spots. They also tend to stay in the big resorts here. So obviously these people are a bit wealthier, more willing to spend, and want quality in their experience. DTD, on the other hand, has no admission to the area, and so anyone can just walk in and get an appointment. Most of the people there are also only getting the $50 princess makeover, and, sadly, most of them live in trailers. I don't mean to be rude when I say it, it's just true that when I asked a lot of princesses where their castle was, they said in a thick southern twang, "I don't live in a castle, I live in a trailer." It's just a different crowd.
The other difference is the age group. The Castle gets mainly 3-5 year olds, and then 20+. Sometimes a few teenagers, mostly 14+, but not many, unless there are four generations getting their hair done together, which is always fun. DTD gets a lot of 7-10 year olds, and a few tweens. I think I did one three year old in the entire week that I was there, and that was surprising to me, because that's about the only age group I work with at the castle. It threw me off at first, because I didn't have any practice working with that age group as a fairy godmother, not to mention I didn't know any of the scripted stories they tell at DTD. All of my stories usually relate to the castle, so they were irrelevant at DTD. I was able to use a few things, though, such as the question "How old do you think I am?" which always gets some interesting answers. I had one girl tell me I looked 46. When I told her I was 200 and asked if I looked my age, she looked at me seriously and then nodded and said, "Yep, I see it." Her mom was laughing her head off, and I'm just sitting there thinking, "I really hope I NEVER look 200 years old."
It got easier to talk to the 7-10 group, though, and it was a lot less tiring, that's for sure. For one, they sit still. Two, I can ask them about school, sports, hobbies, etc, and I can talk to them more as a friend than as a fairy godmother spewing lies to little kids (which is how I tend to feel at the Castle). My voice also got a nice break, because I didn't have to talk in a higher pitched voice all day--I could use my own without them thinking I sounded rude, which was nice. In the Castle, if you don't raise your voice about an octave, you sound grumpy and the little kids are afraid of you. It's just how it works. I ended up losing my voice for a week because of the constant strain on it to talk in a higher pitch.
My first day at DTD I was scheduled for the night podium shift, which is something the Castle doesn't have, so I wasn't trained for it. It was probably my favorite shift so far. It was 4-10 PM, and so I got all morning to do stuff, take my time, and then head to work. The boutique closes at 8, so everyone leaves then. Whoever has night podium is the only one left in the boutique, and you just stand up front at the podium (which is in the princess room of WoD), and make reservations. However, we don't make reservations at the Castle, so they just handed me a pixie dust wand and told me to tell people to use the Pink Phone (there's a giant pink phone at the registers in the WoD which connects you to the Reservation Office). So I stood there for two hours with this giant crowd of kids around me (and adults), and I gave them all pixie dust. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of acting on my part. My voice was dead by 10, because I'd been talking in a higher pitch with no break, but it was a lot of fun to pretend to be this sweet little fairy godmother granting wishes.
There was one little boy whose sister had gotten pixie dust, and I asked if the prince would like some as well, and he's like, "Welllll... does it REALLY make your wishes come true?" And of course, me being the realist that I am, thought, of course not silly boy, it's just tiny shards of glass I'm going to put in your hair, but I said, "Well, with some hard work and a lot of wishing, your dreams can come true." So he looks at me for a minute and then shrugs and is like, "Alright, give me the dust." It was pretty cute. I also had a gay guy about my age come up to me in tears and say, "This is a really big moment for me, because this is my last day on the college program and so I just want a little magic." So I gave him the pixie dust, said my shpeal (Bibbidi bobbidi boo, may all your princely (or princess or queenly or kingly) wishes and dreams come true, bibbidi bobbidi boo), and he's sobbing by the end of it and gives me this huge hug and says, "This is magic right here, this is magic!" I was dying on the inside, I wanted to laugh so hard. I also had a whole family get pixie dusted, and for one of them, I said my shpeal and he says, "Did my wish come true? Can I have your number?" So everyone's laughing and I say, "Sir, I think I'm a little too old for you, I'm 200." Mind you, this guy is in his 40s. So everyone thinks that's hilarious, starts laughing again, and all wave goodbye to me. It was particularly cute how many princesses I had come up to me and just look up at me with these huge eyes and ask, "Will it really make my dreams come true?" That was the best night of work so far.
In other news, I am officially licensed by the State of Florida as a Hair Braider. Whoo! Don't get too excited now. I laugh about it, but then I look at the certificate they gave me and remember that I'm legitimately licensed in a state to practice a section of hair styling, which is kind of cool. I can put that on my resume now. What's even funnier is that in my two day class, I didn't do a single braid. We didn't even TALK about braids until the last 40 minutes of the second day. We talked about HIV/AIDS, diseases, hair care, products, skin care, lice, etc. Mostly things you should know as a hairdresser. Which was really interesting and helpful, I just find it amusing that from all of that, we were licensed as Hair Braiders... But I now have an official certificate I could technically frame and post on a wall somewhere to show my credentials, but I won't, because I find it kind of useless, since I really didn't learn much about hair braiding and I don't want people to ask me to do something crazy with their hair. I did learn how to do a few cool braids, I won't lie, and they're much simpler than I thought they were. I can do a fishtail braid, a wedding braid, and a cool type of braid that kind of looks like a french braid, but only uses a few strands from each side and has most of the hair loose underneath the braid. It's really cool looking, but hard to explain.
The other big thing I got to do there was the window. DTD has this one chair that is completely separated from the rest of the boutique, and it's right in front of the window to the princess room. It's on display there, and they use it for magical moments, so that everyone can watch this princess get her hair done and she can wave at them and feel royal. They asked me to do one during the week I was there, and I actually really liked it. It was during a huge thunderstorm, so I got a nice breeze every time someone opened the door to the store, and I could actually hear the princess, which I was having a hard time with inside the boutique because the music was so loud. I thought it was a lot of fun being in the window.
Another thing they do that the Castle doesn't is the Princess Parade. I really wish the Castle did it, but I understand that we're a lot busier and Fantasyland is a lot more crowded than DTD. Every day they have princesses sign up for this princess parade, and they basically just hold onto a rope with bells all over it and walk down Downtown Disney waving at people while music plays. It stops at a carousel, and then everyone gets to ride it. Including the FGITs involved. Once they told me about the parade, I did it every day. You get PAID to hold a flag, wave at people, and then ride a carousel. Can it get any better? Well, I suppose it could be cooler outside. That was one drawback. But it was still a lot of fun.
And that's about it for now. I'm back at the Castle tomorrow, and will be indefinitely. It was odd going back to the Castle after DTD, because I had to get re-used to everything there. Even the stands we use with all of our supplies are completely different, so I had to learn the stands all over again. But I'm back in full swing at the Castle, so it's all good. :)
