Settling In

After a month and a couple weeks, I feel like I've finally settled into my spot here at DisneyWorld. The old CPs are gone and the new ones are mostly in, and now that I'm not the new one (let alone the ONLY new one), I'm feeling a lot more in place where I am. Some of the new CPs are really nice, and we get along great. I'm glad I've made some friends in the boutique that 1. have the same day off as me and 2. like to do stuff together rather than with other people from around the park. It makes the days off a lot more fun, and nights after work as well.

A few highlights from the past couple weeks:

1. Imogen Heap
She performed at the House of Blues last Tuesday, and so Brooke, Sarah (one of my coworkers), and I went after work and saw her. She was absolutely amazing. I was exhausted afterwards, but it was worth it. I had the next day off anyways, so it was all good. :)

2. Typhoon Lagoon
Last Wednesday, two of my coworkers, Lea Anne and Haley, went with Bri and me to Typhoon Lagoon. We went around 11 and stayed till closing, so we got quite a bit of sun (and it actually stayed out for me this time!). I'm proud to say that I now have a recognizable tan line. I've even got an annoyingly clear line around my wrist because I forgot to take my hair tie off before we went out.

3. Cast Preview
Last Thursday was the cast preview of Disney's Electrical Parade (the name has been changed... it was originally Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade. I don't know why they changed it though). We were so excited to see it... until we realized they were going to make us stand for about an hour (after we'd already worked a 12.5 hour shift and were ready to keel over). We got home around 1:30 AM, and fell asleep immediately, we were so tired. I ended up spending a total of 19 hours on my feet that day. Sadly, the parade has been changed... there are missing floats (apparently they got damaged beyond repair when being transported from California), the music isn't as good, and the new floats just aren't as amazing. Also, California apparently has different rules about what can be done in parades than Florida, so a lot of the choreography has been lost over here because they aren't allowed to perform high kicks, flips, etc. Another problem for this parade is the fact that the Magic Kingdom has hills, while Disneyland does not. I've watched the parade in the park during hours, and it's quite amusing/sad to see--the floats get stuck sometimes because of the hills, and they have to roll back and then zoom forward. Of course, this isn't exactly the safest thing, because 1. the drivers have a limited range of vision, 2. the float behind them is sometimes really close, 3. the crowd freaks out and thinks there's a malfunction, 4. it disrupts the flow of the parade. In the end, I think the Electrical Parade is just more suited for Disneyland, but hopefully they'll work out some of the kinks here. After all, the parade has only been run twice for guests, so it still needs some fine tuning. But apparently the cast and guests are liking SpectroMagic, the preview electric parade, much better than this one.

4. Summer Nightastic Fireworks Spectacular
Is that a mouthful or what? I think they went a little overboard with the "nightastic" and "spectacular" combination. One would have been fine. Oh well. The fireworks show has officially changed, starting last night. I saw the first run of the Summer Nightastic show (for this summer, it's an old show, so it's not the first time ever) last night after work, and man. It WAS spectacular. I still like Wishes, the previous fireworks show, better, simply because I liked the show aspect of that one better. Summer Nightastic, however, is just mind-blowing. The fireworks for this show are definitely more impressive than Wishes, even if the storyline is a little lacking. But it's a lot more involved, with fireworks going off all around the guests, rather than just behind the castle. It's bigger, louder, and more exciting--just not as touching as Wishes. Apparently you can get 3D glasses to watch the Nightastic show and it's supposed to be really cool, but I think I'm going to stick with my regular vision. I don't really care about watching something that's already 3D through 3D glasses.

5. Shift exchanges
I finally have two days off again! Not by the scheduling office, they still scheduled me for only one day off, but a girl in the boutique wanted a Tuesday shift, so I gave her mine, and I now have both Tuesday and Wednesady off, like I was originally told I would. Another person in the boutique told me that once all of the new CPs are in and trained, we SHOULD get our two days back, but we'll see. I've also been told the opposite--that we never get two off because merchandise in the MK doesn't get it, and we're technically classified as merchandise (though WHY we are, I have no idea. Apparently not too long ago we used to be included in the entertainment section of Disney, but then they booted us down to merchandise. Which means they can pay us less)

And that's about it for now. Next week I won't be working in the castle--they've deployed me to Downtown Disney for the whole week, and they have me working 50 hours. I like the hours there a lot better though. They open later and close later, which I can handle. I'd much rather leave at 10 and come in at 9 than leave at 8 and come in at 7:30. Because with bus scheduling that translates to leaving in the morning at 6:40 for a 7:30 shift at MK, as compared to leaving at 8:30 for a 9:00 shift at DTD. So we'll see how it goes. I'll be wearing the uglier costume for a week, and I'll have to learn what to do with this whole Hannah Montana style they have that we don't. They also have a lot of different rules at DTD, and the script that I mostly spout out without thinking doesn't really apply to DTD because a lot of it revolves around the castle. Oh well. It's sure to be fun, and I'm looking forward to a change of scenery. That boutique is a lot more open as well, since it's inside the World of Disney store. I may even see my roommate working, since she's in merchandising at WofD.

Till next time!