Well, I suppose I should wrap this up, now that I've been done with my program for a few weeks. In my defense, though, I broke my arm and it makes typing difficult, but I've got a shorter cast now that makes it a little easier to type.
My last week in the boutique was stressful, fun, and quick. On my second to last day of work, my bus never showed up and I ended up being a half hour late to work. I'd been given incorrect information and had been told that for CPs, if you didn't work exactly what they'd scheduled you for in your last week, it was grounds for automatic termination. So I showed up a half hour late, drenched because a thunderstorm hit while I was running in, still in my own clothes and in tears, thinking I was going to be terminated on my second to last day of work. Everyone in the stockroom helped dry me off and they called a manager for me to speak to, and we worked it all out--turns out it's a LIE that CPs get termed, it only applies to ICPs, and because the bus company wasn't reporting anything wrong with their buses that day, they couldn't remove it from my record card, but since it was my last day the next day, it didn't really matter.
My last day I was in tears again, but not for the same reason. It had finally hit as I was on the second bus to work that it was my very last day, and my closest coworkers were on the same bus as me and were already crying. Getting in my costume for the last time was hard, too. Everything was a "last" that I hadn't thought of until it was happening, so I wasn't quite prepared for how attached I'd actually become to some of the things we'd always complain about.
That day in the boutique was great. I had wonderful princesses, all of whom were sweethearts with wonderful hair. I was so happy because I got a princess with hair down to her waist that was so thick I couldn't wrap one hand around it, and she wanted it in a Fairytale Princess bun. Those are always my favorites. It takes more time and it's harder, but that was my favorite kind of hair to work with. It was always fun to see how surprised they were by how I could get all of their hair up into a bun that looked like it could only hold a fourth of their hair.
Halfway through the day, some of the FGITs called all of the FGITs who were celebrating their birthday to come up to the front. There were five of us all leaving that day, or "celebrating our 1000th birthday." We stood in the front and then they called all of the mothers in the boutique to come up and put a hand on our shoulder. The five of us held onto a pixie wand and they made us close our eyes as they announced to the boutique that since we were celebrating our 1000th birthday, it meant we were finally done with our training and that we were graduating from Fairy Godmother school. We were officially Fairy Godmothers and now it was time for us to go out into the world and find our very own princess, just as Cinderella's Fairy Godmother did. Then they had the mothers think of a wish to help us find our own princesses, and they pixie dusted us all.
Later that evening after we'd closed, there were only two princesses left in the boutique, and they did another graduation ceremony. This time they had us stand in front and they handed us our diplomas from the Fairy Godmother, which had a little bag of pixie dust attached. We also got Celebration buttons that said we were celebrating "earning our wands." Then we were pixie dusted again, this time MUCH more thoroughly, because by this point no one had a princess, so everyone grabbed a wand. My closest friends decided it'd be a great idea to empty an entire pixie dust wand on my head. It took a good three weeks to get it out of my hair, and I'm still finding it on some of my clothes.
My last princess was a sweetheart. I was so glad I got her. 1. She had beautiful, long, thick hair that was easy to work with, and 2. She was funny and talkative and believed all my stories. She was really polite, too, which was cute. Every time I told her something like, "I live in the castle, right upstairs!" or "I did Princess Ariel's hair today, did you know that?" she would get really excited and turn around in her chair to look at me. It was funny because I had to keep stopping since she turned around so much, which I would normally find annoying, but she wasn't doing it to peek, it was because she wanted me to keep telling her stories. At one point, there was a little pirate sitting in front of us, and he belonged to the princess beside us. I did my usual, "Oh no, a pirate! You be sure not to steal any princess jewels, you hear?" to which the little pirate responded, "I'm going to steal all of them!" Before I could even say anything, my princess said, "Sir, you shouldn't do that. Stealing isn't very nice, and only bad people do it." Then she looked at me and said, "I don't steal because I'm a princess and princesses are nice and already have enough jewels, so they don't need to steal any." I nearly died laughing, and I'm sure the queen will have a really shaky recording of it, because she was laughing really hard as she was filming.
That princess was the only princess who ever made me cry onstage, as well. I've teared up before, but made it backstage quickly enough, but not with this one. It wasn't anything sad, either. I was asking when her birthday was, and it had passed not too long ago, so I congratulated her and then said, "Princess, did you know that today is my birthday?" She got really excited for me and asked how old I was turning, to which I said, "I'm 1000 years old today. Do you know what that means?" I then told her how Fairy Godmothers-in-Training graduated from Fairy Godmother school when they turned 1000. By this point I had finished her hair and was just getting around to opening up her makeup palette, so I knelt down next to her chair and said, "Princess, I want you to remember that you are a very special princess, okay?" And she gave me the biggest smile I'd seen all summer and said, "Am I really special?" So I nodded and said, "Yes, you are my most special princess. And do you know why? Because, princess, you are my very last princess before I have to leave the castle and go out into the world to find a princess of my own." Then she got really excited and turned to her mom and shouted, "Mom! I'm a special princess! Did you hear? I'm her very last one!" And that's about when I started to cry, because then she turned to me again and said, "I never knew I was such a special princess." So I told her to never forget that she was my most special, and made a pinky promise with her that she'd always remember just how special she is. I'm sure she won't remember our pinky promise, nor will she remember that she was my last princess, and as she grows up, she'll learn that I'm not really a Fairy Godmother and that I wasn't graduating and leaving to find my own princess, but that I was really just an employee and it was my last day of work. But I hope that she at least remembers how special she felt at that moment, and remembers that she is a special princess.
At the end, I asked if I could take a picture with her, and she gave me a big hug, which, of course, got me crying again. When that family looks back on their home video, they're going to see me crying on there quite a few times. The queen recorded the entire forty minutes I spent with her princess. I kind of wish I could somehow get a copy of that one. :)
Afterward I had to empty out my locker, which was difficult, and then I had to return all of my costumes for good, which was even more difficult. It was amazing how hard it was to let my headpiece go. We then left and everyone went to Bdubs to celebrate our last night, which was a lot of fun.
The next day was my last day in the parks, which was, I can say without a doubt, the best day of my summer. I went to every park that day, from opening to closing, and didn't allow myself to think of how I was leaving early the next morning. I saw the Festival of the Lion King, which I bawled throughout, and took pictures with Thumper, Miss Bunny, and Pocahontas. I went on the Kilimanjaro Safari, took a picture with our driver, went on Dinosaur and Mt. Everest. Sarah and Kelly Jo, my two closest friends, came with me. After Animal Kingdom, we went to the Magic Kingdom. Sarah had to leave then for her shift, and Kelly Jo and I went on Space Mountain, Stitch's Great Escape, and Splash Mountain. Then we watched the Celebrate A Dream Come True parade, which I had never been able to watch before because I was always working during it. I was wearing my tiara and my Celebrate button, and I was still covered in pixie dust, so characters kept congratulating me. Tiana leaned over the edge of her float to ask what I was celebrating and then applauded me for graduating from Fairy Godmother school, since she actually knew what "earning my wand" meant. Captain Hook kissed the back of my hand and told me to call him, and one of Cinderella's mice bowed and kissed my hand.
Afterward we watched Dream Along with Mickey, which is a show on a stage right in front of the castle. I'd never been able to watch the entire thing in one go before, but I always heard it as I came into work. I ran into Bri there, and right after the show we watched the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It parade. This parade is highly underrated, in my opinion. It's a parade that stops in front of the castle and then you get to come into the street and dance with the characters. I think its a wonderful opportunity for little kids. Bri and I danced with Mr. Incredible and a stilt-walker. Then we all headed into the boutique for more pixie dust and face jewels. It was the first time Bri had ever been pixie dusted, so she was super excited. I went around and said my last goodbyes to those who were working and took a few last pictures before heading over to Epcot. We just did a quick walk through of Epcot, and as we were walking, a thunderstorm hit, so I ran around in the rain one last time. It was wonderful. I'd been hoping I would get one last thunderstorm on my last day.
Afterward we headed over to Hollywood Studios, but Kelly Jo had to leave so she could get some rest before her 12 hour shift the next day. We said our goodbyes, and by then Sarah had gotten off work, so she met me in the park and we started off with the Rock n' Glow Dance Party, which is always fun. I danced with Chip and Dale and Pluto, and we had fun singing along with a band called Mulch, Sweat, n' Shears that I've seen many times throughout the summer. Then we met up with another coworker, Maritza, whom I've always loved. She was there with her mother and nephew, and Kai, her nephew had never been there before. He wanted to go on the Tower of Terror for the first time, but Maritza was terrified of the ride, so we took him on with us. He hated it. He didn't say anything the whole time and when we got off, we asked him how it was and he just said, "It's scary!" Maritza laughed her head off and told him to man up, but at least he survived. We were going to watch Fantasmic after that, but they canceled it due to technical problems. I was really upset, but we ended up just going back to the Rock n' Glow Dance Party for the last of it, and we found out it was actually the last one of the summer. At the end we met the band members of Mulch, Sweat, n' Shears, and took pictures with them. By then the park had closed, so we headed out to the buses and we went home. I said my goodbyes, and then spent the rest of the night packing with my roommates. We got up early the next morning and headed straight to the airport.
And now I'm back in Utah. I actually really miss the heat and humidity of Florida, which surprises me, because I usually liked the dryness of Utah. But I definitely didn't miss these brown mountains, and now I find myself missing the green swamps around Disney and the thunderstorms and the cicadas and the humidity. I definitely miss being able to go into the parks whenever I wanted. It was a tiring and stressful job, and I wasn't getting paid nearly enough, but overall, I miss it. It was a wonderful experience, and I may just end up going back next summer. One of my coworkers said to me before I left, "You can hate the job all you want for your entire program, but on the last day when you leave and you realize that it was all worth it, you'll end up coming right back to Disney and you'll never leave." And I think it's true. I was tired and sore and stressed and grumpy a lot of the time. I had to deal with some of the most illogical, insane guests ever. But in the end, I miss working with all those little kids, all the little princesses. I miss seeing the smiles I could get from telling some silly tale that's clearly fake, and even though the grown adults knew it wasn't real, their smiles showed how much they appreciated all the stories we'd tell and all the work we did. Even something small that wasn't technically even part of my job, like asking if a family wanted me to take a picture of them all when the King was trying to get a shot of the others. Those little things earned such wonderful smiles and thanks for just taking a simple picture.
I remember one time I was just walking to one of the cast member exits for my tea, and I saw a little pirate from the Pirate's League. I stopped and screamed, and shouted, "You scared me! You're very scary looking, you know? Just make sure you don't go stealing anything from Cinderella's castle, okay? There are a lot of little princesses around here, so you better behave yourself." The little pirate just laughed and waved his sword around, promising not to steal anything. And then as I waved and told him to have a magical day, a passing lady stopped me and said, "That was the cutest thing I've ever seen." I just shrugged and said, "well, you know, those pirates just like to cause trouble. And those skull pirates, well, they're just plain scary! They always make me jump. You can never be too careful around pirates. But now I must be off--the Fairy Godmother has invited me to tea! Have a wonderful day!" The lady just laughed and told me I was wonderful, then I left for my tea. I don't even know why I remember that one so well, there are plenty of other instances where something bigger happened, but maybe it was because someone involved told me that what I was doing was making an impact. Not in so many words, but I think it was one of the first times I realized that a lot of these guests would probably remember something I said or did for a while, and even if they didn't, they'd at least feel special for that moment.
And on that note, I believe that about wraps it up. Now that I'm back at school, I feel like a fish out of water. It's odd walking around campus. I still feel like I should be walking in the utilidoor and changing into my costume. I'd like to go back next summer, but we'll see where I end up. Even if I don't go back, I'm at least glad I got this summer to have the amazing experiences I did.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
One More Week!
Holy cow, I'm almost done!
Time has flown by this past month, and I'm now leaving next week... crazy. I still feel like there's a million things I haven't done, but... I can't quite think of them. I think I've actually managed to do most of what I wanted to here. My last day of work is exactly a week from today, and I leave next Friday morning.
Yesterday I took the day off and did all of my Disney shopping that I denied myself of this whole summer. I'm glad I didn't let myself buy anything till now, because I've had all summer to see the merchandise and decided on what I really want from here and what I'll regret not taking with me. So I bought only the things that will have some sort of meaning from my time here:
1. A glass tiara from Arribas on Main Street
First off, this thing is gorgeous. Enough that I'll probably want to wear it when I get married. Second, I have seen SO many little princesses' mothers bring these in as a surprise for their baby and ask me to put it on them without letting them see it. And they get turned around and are so surprised because they've got a REAL princess crown. These things are beautiful. They're not completely glass, most of it is metal, but there are little glass jewels all over it, and it's super sparkly and pretty--something every princess likes :) That was my splurge gift to myself, since they cost my first born child, but. It was worth it, I think. Plus, if you wear it around the park, cast members treat you like royalty.
2. A fairy tale princess tiara
Yeah, yeah, I know I bought two tiaras. But this little tiara is the kind we actually put on the princess when she gets a fairy tale princess bun. I figured I should at least take SOMETHING from work, and these tiaras are pretty cute.
3. An ironic mug
I like mugs. A lot. And when I saw this one, I laughed from the irony. Which I think only cast members can really appreciate. It's Tinkerbell looking like a mess because she just woke up, and on the back it says "Mornings Aren't Magical." Youuuuu said it Disney! So why do you make me wake up at 5 again and expect me to make you lots and lots of magic? :) A lot of cast members laugh at that mug cause it's just so... well, exactly what we do. We roll out of bed looking like crap, hop on the bus to work, still looking like crap, and we get ready in the locker rooms underneath the park, and when we come out onstage, suddenly we look the part and we have to smile and create magic and run behind the mirrors to hide our yawns, cause even if we LOOK like we're perfectly capable of creating magic, we sure don't FEEL that way that early in the morning. Especially since the boutique opens before the park. They thought that one out real well. :)
So those were my gifts to myself for the summer. I consider it money well spent, because they all hold some sort of meaning/memory for me.
And now, I have some amusing stories. I know I haven't posted much about my princesses lately, just what I've been doing outside of work, and several people have told me they like my princess stories most. But sadly, when I say I had no good stories for the past two months, I really mean I had NO good stories for the past two months. For some reason I was just getting the most spoiled little princesses I have ever seen. You know the kind. The ones where you just want to shake the parents, because when the princess starts screaming "I WANT A WAND LIKE THAT GIRL!" they say "Okay honey, we'll get you a wand and a dress and shoes and a crown, just stop crying!" Yeah. Those kind.
However, two days ago I had some eventful princesses. For the first time in a while, and I wanted to cry when I got this particular princess. Her name is Cady, and she was four years old. I swear, this girl looked six. When she told me four, I paused, thinking I'd heard her wrong, and then I said, "Princess Cady, are you sure you aren't 200 like me? Because you look much older than four." Of course, she got a kick out of that (they always do), and the practically scripted conversation ensues: Are you REEEEAAAALLLLYYYY 200 years old? Well yes, princess, of course I am. Would I make that up? Don't you think I look 200? NOOOOO!!!! Well, good! That means the pixie dust is working! Pixie dust keeps us looking young. It's magical you know, because it's from Tinkerbell. Blah blah blah, I could go on and on, because all of this is what I repeat a million times a day.
What was remarkable about this girl, however, was not that she didn't look her age, it was what happened while she was in my chair. I'm combing her hair and parting it, getting ready to do the four twists in the front that are trademark for the Pop Princess hairstyle, and I'm talking to her as I'm doing this, asking her questions about her life and telling her stories about the castle, me, other fairy godmothers in training, etc. And then as I've almost got a part perfectly straight, she suddenly does this huge stretch and I mess up the part, and I'm thinking. Okay... are you going to be difficult and move around on me? And then I start to notice her responses are getting slower and slower and quieter and quieter... and then her queen comes over and is like, Sweetie, I know you're tired, but you need to stay awake, okay? So then I'm laughing inside because I realize that she's falling asleep from me playing with her hair. So I get another fairy godmother, Christie, to come do her nails and makeup and to entertain her so that she'll stay awake. We start asking her if her princess school teaches her how to kiss frogs, and she says, "NO! Ew!!!! That's grooooosss! I don't kiss FROGS, I kiss BOYS!" We died, we were laughing so hard. And her king says, "Yep, that's right. She only kisses boys." Aurora was her favorite princess, so we asked our customary question when Aurora is the favorite: Well, if you don't kiss frogs, do you plan to just fall asleep and wait for a prince to kiss you awake? At this point, she's so tired that she just yawns, stretches again, and says "Yes...." Christie asks her to close her eyes so she can put the eyeshadow on her, and we both say the other scripted line: Close your eyes lightly, just like you're taking a nap--BUT DON'T ACTUALLY FALL ASLEEP!
Well, with how tired she was, it was just asking for disaster by telling her to close her eyes, because as soon as she did, she was out like a light. Her head lolled to the side and I had to catch it or else she would have fallen over sideways, and her king and queen are laughing their heads off. The king came over and held her head, telling her to wake up, but man. I have never seen a kid sleep like that. He was shaking her whole body to try to wake her up, but she was out. So he ended up holding her head for the rest of the time as I quickly tried to finish her hair, and everyone in the boutique is laughing and watching the "Sleeping Beauty in chair 1." At one point, one of the cash wrap girls came over with bracelets for her to choose from (you get a bracelet with the pop princess hairstyle), and she opened her eyes for a second and said, "blue...." and fell back asleep. There wasn't even a blue bracelet there, they were all pink and purple. :)
It was hilarious. I was laughing the entire time, and when I had finished, her king picked her up and just shook her, shouting, "Open your eyes, you're all done! You have to see what you look like! Wake up, baby!" Everyone was laughing hysterically, it was so comical. She eventually woke up after about the tenth time her king had said she was done, and then she got super excited to see herself, so we put her back in the chair, quickly positioned her and got the royal photographer, and turned her around. She screamed and bounced up and down in her chair, clapping her hands because she was so surprised. Everyone was saying, "Look what happened while you had your nice nap! Was it a lovely nap, princess? It's tough to be a princess, huh? Such hard work." She was dancing all around the boutique after that, full of energy, which of course just made me laugh even more because she had been SO dead just minutes before. But I guess seeing the "fireworks" in her hair gave her a lot of energy, and she was bouncing all over the place. She gave me a huge hug goodbye, and when I say huge, I mean, she wasn't letting go so I eventually had to kind of pull her off of me because I needed to free up the chair for the next princess because we were running an hour behind and I needed to wash my hands to start helping another princess.
Pretty much the best princess I've had all summer. I had been thinking that I've gotten a lot of unremarkable princesses and that I tend to miss a lot of the excitement in the boutique. It seems that most of the time I'm either at tea or I have the day off when something exciting happens in there. But I finally got my sleeping princess. I still haven't had a princess threaten me or hit me or tell her queen that I'm trying to choke her and rip out her hair (which happened to my friend Melissa--the princess punched her in the stomach and shouted that her fairy godmother was trying to kill her. It was... interesting, to say the least. Pretty traumatic for Melissa).
Another exciting thing that happened was this freak thunderstorm. Now, I understand very well that thunderstorms are pretty much a daily occurrence here. When I say this was a freak thunderstorm, I mean, this was an unusually heavy and long and loud and late thunderstorm. It started around 4 and lasted until 9. The lightning was going off every few seconds, and the thunder was so loud you could feel it and it almost hurt because it was so strong. It made me jump quite a few times, because it was just THAT loud. Everyone was jumping.
Now, what was particularly memorable about this thunderstorm was the fact that it was centered right over Fantasyland. We were still open, and I was on podium 1 that day, checking people in. But of course, with this thunderstorm going on, no one was showing up for their appointments, so I had absolutely nothing to do. So I stood in the doorway with a few other FGITs, and we watched the lightning. We saw it physically strike the ground in between the castle and the carousel twice. It was crazy. The castle started to flood (not inside, but in the tunnel through it. So the boutique was still dry and fine, but where everyone was standing to hide from the rain, they were standing in about three inches of water), and some of the girls inside were getting scared from the really loud thunder, so we had to start making up stories about King Triton being angry about something, and the loud noises were because of him. And when the princesses would get ready to leave the boutique and would see the lake of water they were going to have to walk through, we would just shake our heads and say, "That Ariel... sometimes she likes to bring the ocean to us. We have to keep telling her that not everyone has fins."
Last week I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with my parents, and that was SPECTACULAR! I was blown away. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to go again tomorrow with some of my coworkers. It was just so neat! Moaning Myrtle is hanging out in the bathroom, the paintings move and talk to each other in the castle, the butterbeer from the Hog's Head Inn refills itself... it's just amazing. Definitely worth a trip there, that's for sure.
And I believe that's about all for now. I've started packing so that I'll have more time to play in the parks when it comes to my last few days, and I'm getting in all my last minute park time. I plan on making a trip to the Pirate's League one day to get my face painted. I figure that since I give them so much publicity and they're such a close relative of us, I should pay them a visit. Also, that's where I ideally wanted to work anyways, and I know several of the pirates there because they crosstrain to the boutique. So. Hopefully I can make it over there sometime to be a new recruit of the Pirate's League. :)
Time has flown by this past month, and I'm now leaving next week... crazy. I still feel like there's a million things I haven't done, but... I can't quite think of them. I think I've actually managed to do most of what I wanted to here. My last day of work is exactly a week from today, and I leave next Friday morning.
Yesterday I took the day off and did all of my Disney shopping that I denied myself of this whole summer. I'm glad I didn't let myself buy anything till now, because I've had all summer to see the merchandise and decided on what I really want from here and what I'll regret not taking with me. So I bought only the things that will have some sort of meaning from my time here:
1. A glass tiara from Arribas on Main Street
First off, this thing is gorgeous. Enough that I'll probably want to wear it when I get married. Second, I have seen SO many little princesses' mothers bring these in as a surprise for their baby and ask me to put it on them without letting them see it. And they get turned around and are so surprised because they've got a REAL princess crown. These things are beautiful. They're not completely glass, most of it is metal, but there are little glass jewels all over it, and it's super sparkly and pretty--something every princess likes :) That was my splurge gift to myself, since they cost my first born child, but. It was worth it, I think. Plus, if you wear it around the park, cast members treat you like royalty.
2. A fairy tale princess tiara
Yeah, yeah, I know I bought two tiaras. But this little tiara is the kind we actually put on the princess when she gets a fairy tale princess bun. I figured I should at least take SOMETHING from work, and these tiaras are pretty cute.
3. An ironic mug
I like mugs. A lot. And when I saw this one, I laughed from the irony. Which I think only cast members can really appreciate. It's Tinkerbell looking like a mess because she just woke up, and on the back it says "Mornings Aren't Magical." Youuuuu said it Disney! So why do you make me wake up at 5 again and expect me to make you lots and lots of magic? :) A lot of cast members laugh at that mug cause it's just so... well, exactly what we do. We roll out of bed looking like crap, hop on the bus to work, still looking like crap, and we get ready in the locker rooms underneath the park, and when we come out onstage, suddenly we look the part and we have to smile and create magic and run behind the mirrors to hide our yawns, cause even if we LOOK like we're perfectly capable of creating magic, we sure don't FEEL that way that early in the morning. Especially since the boutique opens before the park. They thought that one out real well. :)
So those were my gifts to myself for the summer. I consider it money well spent, because they all hold some sort of meaning/memory for me.
And now, I have some amusing stories. I know I haven't posted much about my princesses lately, just what I've been doing outside of work, and several people have told me they like my princess stories most. But sadly, when I say I had no good stories for the past two months, I really mean I had NO good stories for the past two months. For some reason I was just getting the most spoiled little princesses I have ever seen. You know the kind. The ones where you just want to shake the parents, because when the princess starts screaming "I WANT A WAND LIKE THAT GIRL!" they say "Okay honey, we'll get you a wand and a dress and shoes and a crown, just stop crying!" Yeah. Those kind.
However, two days ago I had some eventful princesses. For the first time in a while, and I wanted to cry when I got this particular princess. Her name is Cady, and she was four years old. I swear, this girl looked six. When she told me four, I paused, thinking I'd heard her wrong, and then I said, "Princess Cady, are you sure you aren't 200 like me? Because you look much older than four." Of course, she got a kick out of that (they always do), and the practically scripted conversation ensues: Are you REEEEAAAALLLLYYYY 200 years old? Well yes, princess, of course I am. Would I make that up? Don't you think I look 200? NOOOOO!!!! Well, good! That means the pixie dust is working! Pixie dust keeps us looking young. It's magical you know, because it's from Tinkerbell. Blah blah blah, I could go on and on, because all of this is what I repeat a million times a day.
What was remarkable about this girl, however, was not that she didn't look her age, it was what happened while she was in my chair. I'm combing her hair and parting it, getting ready to do the four twists in the front that are trademark for the Pop Princess hairstyle, and I'm talking to her as I'm doing this, asking her questions about her life and telling her stories about the castle, me, other fairy godmothers in training, etc. And then as I've almost got a part perfectly straight, she suddenly does this huge stretch and I mess up the part, and I'm thinking. Okay... are you going to be difficult and move around on me? And then I start to notice her responses are getting slower and slower and quieter and quieter... and then her queen comes over and is like, Sweetie, I know you're tired, but you need to stay awake, okay? So then I'm laughing inside because I realize that she's falling asleep from me playing with her hair. So I get another fairy godmother, Christie, to come do her nails and makeup and to entertain her so that she'll stay awake. We start asking her if her princess school teaches her how to kiss frogs, and she says, "NO! Ew!!!! That's grooooosss! I don't kiss FROGS, I kiss BOYS!" We died, we were laughing so hard. And her king says, "Yep, that's right. She only kisses boys." Aurora was her favorite princess, so we asked our customary question when Aurora is the favorite: Well, if you don't kiss frogs, do you plan to just fall asleep and wait for a prince to kiss you awake? At this point, she's so tired that she just yawns, stretches again, and says "Yes...." Christie asks her to close her eyes so she can put the eyeshadow on her, and we both say the other scripted line: Close your eyes lightly, just like you're taking a nap--BUT DON'T ACTUALLY FALL ASLEEP!
Well, with how tired she was, it was just asking for disaster by telling her to close her eyes, because as soon as she did, she was out like a light. Her head lolled to the side and I had to catch it or else she would have fallen over sideways, and her king and queen are laughing their heads off. The king came over and held her head, telling her to wake up, but man. I have never seen a kid sleep like that. He was shaking her whole body to try to wake her up, but she was out. So he ended up holding her head for the rest of the time as I quickly tried to finish her hair, and everyone in the boutique is laughing and watching the "Sleeping Beauty in chair 1." At one point, one of the cash wrap girls came over with bracelets for her to choose from (you get a bracelet with the pop princess hairstyle), and she opened her eyes for a second and said, "blue...." and fell back asleep. There wasn't even a blue bracelet there, they were all pink and purple. :)
It was hilarious. I was laughing the entire time, and when I had finished, her king picked her up and just shook her, shouting, "Open your eyes, you're all done! You have to see what you look like! Wake up, baby!" Everyone was laughing hysterically, it was so comical. She eventually woke up after about the tenth time her king had said she was done, and then she got super excited to see herself, so we put her back in the chair, quickly positioned her and got the royal photographer, and turned her around. She screamed and bounced up and down in her chair, clapping her hands because she was so surprised. Everyone was saying, "Look what happened while you had your nice nap! Was it a lovely nap, princess? It's tough to be a princess, huh? Such hard work." She was dancing all around the boutique after that, full of energy, which of course just made me laugh even more because she had been SO dead just minutes before. But I guess seeing the "fireworks" in her hair gave her a lot of energy, and she was bouncing all over the place. She gave me a huge hug goodbye, and when I say huge, I mean, she wasn't letting go so I eventually had to kind of pull her off of me because I needed to free up the chair for the next princess because we were running an hour behind and I needed to wash my hands to start helping another princess.
Pretty much the best princess I've had all summer. I had been thinking that I've gotten a lot of unremarkable princesses and that I tend to miss a lot of the excitement in the boutique. It seems that most of the time I'm either at tea or I have the day off when something exciting happens in there. But I finally got my sleeping princess. I still haven't had a princess threaten me or hit me or tell her queen that I'm trying to choke her and rip out her hair (which happened to my friend Melissa--the princess punched her in the stomach and shouted that her fairy godmother was trying to kill her. It was... interesting, to say the least. Pretty traumatic for Melissa).
Another exciting thing that happened was this freak thunderstorm. Now, I understand very well that thunderstorms are pretty much a daily occurrence here. When I say this was a freak thunderstorm, I mean, this was an unusually heavy and long and loud and late thunderstorm. It started around 4 and lasted until 9. The lightning was going off every few seconds, and the thunder was so loud you could feel it and it almost hurt because it was so strong. It made me jump quite a few times, because it was just THAT loud. Everyone was jumping.
Now, what was particularly memorable about this thunderstorm was the fact that it was centered right over Fantasyland. We were still open, and I was on podium 1 that day, checking people in. But of course, with this thunderstorm going on, no one was showing up for their appointments, so I had absolutely nothing to do. So I stood in the doorway with a few other FGITs, and we watched the lightning. We saw it physically strike the ground in between the castle and the carousel twice. It was crazy. The castle started to flood (not inside, but in the tunnel through it. So the boutique was still dry and fine, but where everyone was standing to hide from the rain, they were standing in about three inches of water), and some of the girls inside were getting scared from the really loud thunder, so we had to start making up stories about King Triton being angry about something, and the loud noises were because of him. And when the princesses would get ready to leave the boutique and would see the lake of water they were going to have to walk through, we would just shake our heads and say, "That Ariel... sometimes she likes to bring the ocean to us. We have to keep telling her that not everyone has fins."
Last week I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with my parents, and that was SPECTACULAR! I was blown away. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to go again tomorrow with some of my coworkers. It was just so neat! Moaning Myrtle is hanging out in the bathroom, the paintings move and talk to each other in the castle, the butterbeer from the Hog's Head Inn refills itself... it's just amazing. Definitely worth a trip there, that's for sure.
And I believe that's about all for now. I've started packing so that I'll have more time to play in the parks when it comes to my last few days, and I'm getting in all my last minute park time. I plan on making a trip to the Pirate's League one day to get my face painted. I figure that since I give them so much publicity and they're such a close relative of us, I should pay them a visit. Also, that's where I ideally wanted to work anyways, and I know several of the pirates there because they crosstrain to the boutique. So. Hopefully I can make it over there sometime to be a new recruit of the Pirate's League. :)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Reaching the End
Well, I've had several people tell me I need to update again, because apparently I'm not writing often enough. I feel like I don't really have too much to say about happenings around here recently though. I've had a dry spell when it comes to particularly good princesses, so I don't really have many stories to tell... Well, that's not true, I have several nightmarish stories involving the princesses, but I want to keep the stories on here on the positive end. :)
I worked my second week at DTD and then came back to the Castle this week. And checked my schedule to find... tada! I've been deployed yet again! So next Sunday I'm back at DTD for another week. It's odd to me that I keep getting deployed there--and also extremely fortunate. I love working there, and I feel like I have more fun with the princesses, because I have more chances to actually play with them. I spent the majority of last week sitting in the Princess Room of WoD playing Princess Bingo, Name That Castle, and Tic Tac Toe with carriage and crown pieces. It was a lot of fun being able to do that, not to mention amazing that I was actually allowed to SIT onstage. I would just bring the games with me, sit on the floor somewhere in the store, and then ask random kids passing by if they'd like to play with me. So I'd have this big group of kids all sitting around me, and we'd play the different games, and, of course, everyone is a winner, so they all got Mickey stickers. I don't know what it is about stickers, but everybody loves them, so they were always thrilled. Even though it was pretty obvious that they were going to get a sticker anyways, they always seemed to be really proud of themselves for winning it.
Something that surprised me: You would think that the 4th of July would be a really busy day, right? Well, for the parks it was. For the boutique? Not at all. I didn't actually work on the 4th, I ended up calling in sick and felt really bad for ditching out when they were probably swamped with guests. Not so. I was scheduled at DTD for that day, and they only had 40 reservations. 40! That's unheard of! They ended up taking 50 walk ins that day, and that's STILL not that many princesses. 90 for an entire day? Bad news. It means the boutique doesn't make budget. That entire week was really slow, so the DTD boutique didn't make budget once that week. The Castle, on the other hand, apparently had an hour wait time, which... means they were really struggling. The worst wait time we normally have is a half hour. Once I found out that DTD only had 40 reservations, I didn't feel nearly as bad for calling in.
In other news, I have a month of work left from yesterday. A month from today is when I'll be leaving Florida, and it's crazy to think about. Four weeks! There's still so much I haven't done in Florida yet. I still need to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I need to see more of the parks, I need to eat more delicious food at Epcot (I've only managed to hit Japan and China... go figure. Every time I'm in there I go straight for those two when I'm hungry), I need to go to the beach, etc.
There was a pretty cool story from yesterday at the boutique. It seems the interesting things always happen when I'm at tea. I'm always sitting underground eating when a FGIT comes in and tells me about all the excitement happening upstairs. Yesterday's fun was a lightning storm. Pretty common, happens every day. But this particular lightning storm struck a little closer than usual... and by 'a little closer' I mean, 'It struck outside of Mrs. Pott's gift shop in Fantasyland near the Tea Cups.' I guess it was crazy--it was super loud, everyone panicked, and all of the princesses in the boutique got scared from the loud clap of thunder that came with it, and they all started crying. So the boutique was full of crying princesses, scared because of this insane thunder happening outside, and the people outside are afraid for their lives because the lightning hit right in Fantasyland, so they're all trying to hide in the Castle (which just causes chaos and little kids get trampled, because it's a small space). All in all, it was a bit frantic upstairs. Meanwhile, I'm sitting underground, no clue that its even raining outside (it was sunny when I went downstairs five minutes before), eating my sun-dried tomato pesto pasta (which was delicious, in case you were wondering), with no idea what's happening upstairs. A few minutes later Hayley, a FGIT from BYU-I, comes into the Mouseketeria and tells me all about it. I always miss the good stuff.
I also happened to be underground when Ebony had a princess with a tick in her hair, when we had three Pumba princesses in a row, when somebody passed out in the stock room, when a princess peed in her chair, when there was blood on a chair and they had to call custodial to come clean it up (it wasn't anything serious, I don't know exactly what happened, just that there was blood on the chair), when a princess threw up in her chair... the list goes on. And I was always downstairs, eating in the Mouseketeria. They probably plan my teas so that I'll miss all the excitement. :)
We got a letter from management at our housing complex this morning, talking about all of the checkout procedures for when we leave. It starts off with something to the effect of: You're leaving soon! Here's what you need to do: turn in your keys, clean your apartment, etc. I saw it and I thought: ....I still have a month till I leave. What are they telling me this for NOW? Can't wait to get rid of me, eh? This place kicks people out so quick--you have to be out of the apartment by 11 AM the day after your last day of work. So most likely I'll be scheduled to work till 8 PM on Thursday, and they want me out by 11 on Friday. Good thing for them that my flight is at 9 or something, so I'll be long gone by 11, but still. Nice to know they give us a little time to pack up and leave.
Other than that, not much is happening. Going back to DTD again next week, and that'll be exciting. I had been hoping I'd be deployed again another time before I leave, and I was. So thank you, random computer selection! Apparently they just put in the number of how many people they want to deploy, and the computer picks people at random to fill the spot. I guess the system must love my perner number, since I'm the only one to go this often. I'm not complaining though. I'm liking this favoritism. When I showed up last week, several of the DTD FGITs shouted, "Caitlin! You're back! I love you!" Good to know I made a good impression on them--I was a little surprised, actually, cause I had felt that I really didn't get to know any of them well the first week. But... they can like me if they want to. That's always a good thing, right? :) We'll see what their reaction is next week--especially since Melissa is going back with me, and they were asking about her last week.
TTFN--ta ta for now!
I worked my second week at DTD and then came back to the Castle this week. And checked my schedule to find... tada! I've been deployed yet again! So next Sunday I'm back at DTD for another week. It's odd to me that I keep getting deployed there--and also extremely fortunate. I love working there, and I feel like I have more fun with the princesses, because I have more chances to actually play with them. I spent the majority of last week sitting in the Princess Room of WoD playing Princess Bingo, Name That Castle, and Tic Tac Toe with carriage and crown pieces. It was a lot of fun being able to do that, not to mention amazing that I was actually allowed to SIT onstage. I would just bring the games with me, sit on the floor somewhere in the store, and then ask random kids passing by if they'd like to play with me. So I'd have this big group of kids all sitting around me, and we'd play the different games, and, of course, everyone is a winner, so they all got Mickey stickers. I don't know what it is about stickers, but everybody loves them, so they were always thrilled. Even though it was pretty obvious that they were going to get a sticker anyways, they always seemed to be really proud of themselves for winning it.
Something that surprised me: You would think that the 4th of July would be a really busy day, right? Well, for the parks it was. For the boutique? Not at all. I didn't actually work on the 4th, I ended up calling in sick and felt really bad for ditching out when they were probably swamped with guests. Not so. I was scheduled at DTD for that day, and they only had 40 reservations. 40! That's unheard of! They ended up taking 50 walk ins that day, and that's STILL not that many princesses. 90 for an entire day? Bad news. It means the boutique doesn't make budget. That entire week was really slow, so the DTD boutique didn't make budget once that week. The Castle, on the other hand, apparently had an hour wait time, which... means they were really struggling. The worst wait time we normally have is a half hour. Once I found out that DTD only had 40 reservations, I didn't feel nearly as bad for calling in.
In other news, I have a month of work left from yesterday. A month from today is when I'll be leaving Florida, and it's crazy to think about. Four weeks! There's still so much I haven't done in Florida yet. I still need to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I need to see more of the parks, I need to eat more delicious food at Epcot (I've only managed to hit Japan and China... go figure. Every time I'm in there I go straight for those two when I'm hungry), I need to go to the beach, etc.
There was a pretty cool story from yesterday at the boutique. It seems the interesting things always happen when I'm at tea. I'm always sitting underground eating when a FGIT comes in and tells me about all the excitement happening upstairs. Yesterday's fun was a lightning storm. Pretty common, happens every day. But this particular lightning storm struck a little closer than usual... and by 'a little closer' I mean, 'It struck outside of Mrs. Pott's gift shop in Fantasyland near the Tea Cups.' I guess it was crazy--it was super loud, everyone panicked, and all of the princesses in the boutique got scared from the loud clap of thunder that came with it, and they all started crying. So the boutique was full of crying princesses, scared because of this insane thunder happening outside, and the people outside are afraid for their lives because the lightning hit right in Fantasyland, so they're all trying to hide in the Castle (which just causes chaos and little kids get trampled, because it's a small space). All in all, it was a bit frantic upstairs. Meanwhile, I'm sitting underground, no clue that its even raining outside (it was sunny when I went downstairs five minutes before), eating my sun-dried tomato pesto pasta (which was delicious, in case you were wondering), with no idea what's happening upstairs. A few minutes later Hayley, a FGIT from BYU-I, comes into the Mouseketeria and tells me all about it. I always miss the good stuff.
I also happened to be underground when Ebony had a princess with a tick in her hair, when we had three Pumba princesses in a row, when somebody passed out in the stock room, when a princess peed in her chair, when there was blood on a chair and they had to call custodial to come clean it up (it wasn't anything serious, I don't know exactly what happened, just that there was blood on the chair), when a princess threw up in her chair... the list goes on. And I was always downstairs, eating in the Mouseketeria. They probably plan my teas so that I'll miss all the excitement. :)
We got a letter from management at our housing complex this morning, talking about all of the checkout procedures for when we leave. It starts off with something to the effect of: You're leaving soon! Here's what you need to do: turn in your keys, clean your apartment, etc. I saw it and I thought: ....I still have a month till I leave. What are they telling me this for NOW? Can't wait to get rid of me, eh? This place kicks people out so quick--you have to be out of the apartment by 11 AM the day after your last day of work. So most likely I'll be scheduled to work till 8 PM on Thursday, and they want me out by 11 on Friday. Good thing for them that my flight is at 9 or something, so I'll be long gone by 11, but still. Nice to know they give us a little time to pack up and leave.
Other than that, not much is happening. Going back to DTD again next week, and that'll be exciting. I had been hoping I'd be deployed again another time before I leave, and I was. So thank you, random computer selection! Apparently they just put in the number of how many people they want to deploy, and the computer picks people at random to fill the spot. I guess the system must love my perner number, since I'm the only one to go this often. I'm not complaining though. I'm liking this favoritism. When I showed up last week, several of the DTD FGITs shouted, "Caitlin! You're back! I love you!" Good to know I made a good impression on them--I was a little surprised, actually, cause I had felt that I really didn't get to know any of them well the first week. But... they can like me if they want to. That's always a good thing, right? :) We'll see what their reaction is next week--especially since Melissa is going back with me, and they were asking about her last week.
TTFN--ta ta for now!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
DTD Again?!
Well, I've been deployed again! After my week at DTD, I spent another two weeks at the Castle and then tada! They deployed me to DTD again! So I've been down there this week, and it's been lots of fun. I really enjoy working at the DTD location, and some of the girls there are really sweet. When I came in my first day of the week, one of the girls, Tonna, saw me and shouted, "Caitlin's back! Hooray! I love Caitlin!" Needless to say, I was a little surprised by the reaction, because I hadn't felt that I'd really gotten that close to anyone there, though I did enjoy their company. But it was great to see that apparently I'd made a good impression on them and they were all happy to have me back. I'm definitely going to try to pick up/trade more shifts at DTD, because the atmosphere there is just so much more upbeat and fun than at the Castle. I work quickly, the day passes by faster, and there's less acting that goes on. The Castle is so much more reserved and quiet and all about the sweet fairy godmothers rather than fun fairy godmothers.
They also let me do a lot more since this is my second time there. Apparently in the mornings they have two people stand at the front doors to pixie dust people and walk princesses back to the boutique, since the rest of WoD opens a half hour after us. They also let me go stand in other parts of the store and pixie dust guests during slow parts of the day. They happened to assign me to the Great Hall North location, which is apparently the best spot to be, because you get to stand in the doorway and watch the guest performances on the huge stage in front of WoD. So I got to watch some dance company perform twice that day. I did the Princess Parade again, which is always good fun, and there were some girls who didn't make it in time to be in the parade, so we did a magical moment and all of the fairy godmothers from the parade stood with these girls and did a photo shoot with our banners and everything in front of the carousel. Apparently that day a lot of guests talked to our managers and told us that we were amazing and did a wonderful job, so then we in turn got praised by our managers, and that's always good. It's nice when the managers tell us they're proud of us and that we're making magic on our own, instead of having them tell us that we're behind in budget, we need to find something to do, or we need to treat all guests equal (which is usually the talk we get).
I also got to do a lot of stocking, which is unusual for me because they usually ask me to be on the floor (in the Castle and DTD), but since we were slow and they liked me, they told me I could stock for a while, so I got to be backstage for a while, SITTING (which is heaven), and not having to smile at everyone. I swear I have a permanent smile etched on my face. It's definitely not a bad thing though--I know that in the past I often looked really unhappy just because I naturally look like I'm scowling if I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing. But I've been trying really hard since coming here to smile all the time, even if it's just a little smile, and it's gotten to be habit now. My cheeks hurt all the time from it, but I've also had several people tell me that I must be the happiest person on earth because I'm always smiling. Some of the DTD girls call me Smiles because of it, and I'm not complaining. I'm glad I was able to change my old habit, even if my cheeks are always sore :)
I've had a few funny stories with some guests this past week at DTD, so I'll just share a few. I was standing outside pixie dusting princesses, and so I asked this one girl and the father stops and asks, "How much does it cost?" And so I reply, "All you have to do is make a wish, and that's it." So he gets all excited and starts scrambling for his phone explaining that he has another daughter who would LOVE pixie dust and he needs to call his wife to bring her over. So I pixie dust the one girl, and the guy is talking to his wife on the phone talking about how its "the cutest thing ever" and then hangs up, looks at me, and says very seriously, "I'll be right back. Don't. Move." So he goes running off with his daughter (literally), and about ten minutes later I see him sprinting towards me (mind you, it's about 95 degrees with 100% humidity at this point), and is gasping for air as he stops in front of me. I don't know why he ran, seeing as his wife and two daughters were way behind him, and I was going to pixie dust the daughter, so.... running only served to make him sweatier, but he shouted, "We're back!" and made his other daughter run up to me. Afterward, both girls gave me hugs and he thanked me over and over again for making their day. Oh what a plastic wand with a pink star full of glitter can do.
That same day as I was standing outside pixie dusting, two men were passing by me to enter the store, and one stopped and looked at me and said, "I really hope you don't turn into a frog." I was a little confused at first, thinking, well... princes are the ones who are the frogs, are they not? But then I remembered that it wasn't so anymore, not since the Princess and the Frog came out, so I said, "I'll try my hardest not to," and he said, "Good. Cause you're far too pretty to be a frog. Good day." I have had guests say some of the oddest things to me when I'm working at DTD. The last time I was there, I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for the CP bus, and a guy sat next to me and said, "Are you Cinderella?" I replied, "No, I'm not, but I live in her castle and I'm training to be a fairy godmother like hers." So he pulls out his phone, calls his 10 year old son, and says, "Son, get this--I'm sitting next to the Fairy Godmother. No, I'm serious, I'm sitting next to her at the bus stop!" Apparently his son wasn't having it, so he asked if I could talk to his son. So he hands me his phone and I ask the kid what his name is, how old he is, and that yes, I am a fairy godmother in training. Then the father asked if he could take a picture of me to prove it to his son, because apparently when I gave the phone back, the son was convinced that I was just some random girl his dad had stopped on the street and asked to pretend to be a fairy godmother. The next day I got off work at the same time, and the guy was passing by, saw me, and pointed and shouted at his son, "See! I TOLD you she was real! That's her!" So I waved, told them I hoped they had a magical evening, and they left. I swear, I should get paid for the time I sit at that bus stop, because I'm still on stage and I still have to be in character, give directions, take pictures, sign autographs, etc. I'm still working until I actually get on the bus, and even then, sometimes we have to smile and look nice while we're still in the parking lot on the bus because people can see us through the windows.
In other news, I have a month and one week until my program ends! I'm enjoying my time here, but my body is starting to really protest and I'll be glad for the break when it comes. Standing nonstop, twisting, bending, kneeling, running, dodging, etc wears on you fast when you do it that long that frequently. It'll also be nice to sleep in a comfortable bed again. I won't miss the rock I sleep on right now at all. :)
That's about it for now. I have another three days at DTD before I go back to the Castle. I'm hoping to get deployed to DTD again, and if not, I want to try to trade some shifts. I know that some girls at DTD like working in the Castle, so maybe they'll switch with me. :)
They also let me do a lot more since this is my second time there. Apparently in the mornings they have two people stand at the front doors to pixie dust people and walk princesses back to the boutique, since the rest of WoD opens a half hour after us. They also let me go stand in other parts of the store and pixie dust guests during slow parts of the day. They happened to assign me to the Great Hall North location, which is apparently the best spot to be, because you get to stand in the doorway and watch the guest performances on the huge stage in front of WoD. So I got to watch some dance company perform twice that day. I did the Princess Parade again, which is always good fun, and there were some girls who didn't make it in time to be in the parade, so we did a magical moment and all of the fairy godmothers from the parade stood with these girls and did a photo shoot with our banners and everything in front of the carousel. Apparently that day a lot of guests talked to our managers and told us that we were amazing and did a wonderful job, so then we in turn got praised by our managers, and that's always good. It's nice when the managers tell us they're proud of us and that we're making magic on our own, instead of having them tell us that we're behind in budget, we need to find something to do, or we need to treat all guests equal (which is usually the talk we get).
I also got to do a lot of stocking, which is unusual for me because they usually ask me to be on the floor (in the Castle and DTD), but since we were slow and they liked me, they told me I could stock for a while, so I got to be backstage for a while, SITTING (which is heaven), and not having to smile at everyone. I swear I have a permanent smile etched on my face. It's definitely not a bad thing though--I know that in the past I often looked really unhappy just because I naturally look like I'm scowling if I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing. But I've been trying really hard since coming here to smile all the time, even if it's just a little smile, and it's gotten to be habit now. My cheeks hurt all the time from it, but I've also had several people tell me that I must be the happiest person on earth because I'm always smiling. Some of the DTD girls call me Smiles because of it, and I'm not complaining. I'm glad I was able to change my old habit, even if my cheeks are always sore :)
I've had a few funny stories with some guests this past week at DTD, so I'll just share a few. I was standing outside pixie dusting princesses, and so I asked this one girl and the father stops and asks, "How much does it cost?" And so I reply, "All you have to do is make a wish, and that's it." So he gets all excited and starts scrambling for his phone explaining that he has another daughter who would LOVE pixie dust and he needs to call his wife to bring her over. So I pixie dust the one girl, and the guy is talking to his wife on the phone talking about how its "the cutest thing ever" and then hangs up, looks at me, and says very seriously, "I'll be right back. Don't. Move." So he goes running off with his daughter (literally), and about ten minutes later I see him sprinting towards me (mind you, it's about 95 degrees with 100% humidity at this point), and is gasping for air as he stops in front of me. I don't know why he ran, seeing as his wife and two daughters were way behind him, and I was going to pixie dust the daughter, so.... running only served to make him sweatier, but he shouted, "We're back!" and made his other daughter run up to me. Afterward, both girls gave me hugs and he thanked me over and over again for making their day. Oh what a plastic wand with a pink star full of glitter can do.
That same day as I was standing outside pixie dusting, two men were passing by me to enter the store, and one stopped and looked at me and said, "I really hope you don't turn into a frog." I was a little confused at first, thinking, well... princes are the ones who are the frogs, are they not? But then I remembered that it wasn't so anymore, not since the Princess and the Frog came out, so I said, "I'll try my hardest not to," and he said, "Good. Cause you're far too pretty to be a frog. Good day." I have had guests say some of the oddest things to me when I'm working at DTD. The last time I was there, I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for the CP bus, and a guy sat next to me and said, "Are you Cinderella?" I replied, "No, I'm not, but I live in her castle and I'm training to be a fairy godmother like hers." So he pulls out his phone, calls his 10 year old son, and says, "Son, get this--I'm sitting next to the Fairy Godmother. No, I'm serious, I'm sitting next to her at the bus stop!" Apparently his son wasn't having it, so he asked if I could talk to his son. So he hands me his phone and I ask the kid what his name is, how old he is, and that yes, I am a fairy godmother in training. Then the father asked if he could take a picture of me to prove it to his son, because apparently when I gave the phone back, the son was convinced that I was just some random girl his dad had stopped on the street and asked to pretend to be a fairy godmother. The next day I got off work at the same time, and the guy was passing by, saw me, and pointed and shouted at his son, "See! I TOLD you she was real! That's her!" So I waved, told them I hoped they had a magical evening, and they left. I swear, I should get paid for the time I sit at that bus stop, because I'm still on stage and I still have to be in character, give directions, take pictures, sign autographs, etc. I'm still working until I actually get on the bus, and even then, sometimes we have to smile and look nice while we're still in the parking lot on the bus because people can see us through the windows.
In other news, I have a month and one week until my program ends! I'm enjoying my time here, but my body is starting to really protest and I'll be glad for the break when it comes. Standing nonstop, twisting, bending, kneeling, running, dodging, etc wears on you fast when you do it that long that frequently. It'll also be nice to sleep in a comfortable bed again. I won't miss the rock I sleep on right now at all. :)
That's about it for now. I have another three days at DTD before I go back to the Castle. I'm hoping to get deployed to DTD again, and if not, I want to try to trade some shifts. I know that some girls at DTD like working in the Castle, so maybe they'll switch with me. :)
Friday, June 25, 2010
DTD and Licensing
After much harassment and guilt trips, I have decided to update again. :)
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Pictures!
That's right, I'm finally posting pictures! Here are some that were taken of me (and the ONLY ones that were taken) of me in costume in the boutique.
The girl sitting next to me is Lea Anne and the one on the right is Haley. Haley goes to BYU-I and Lea Anne lives in Florida and one of the part-timers.
All of the girls who were there for the closing shift this particular day. The one in the middle (Pietrina) wanted a picture for her last day in the boutique.
A close up of me sitting in Cinderella's Royal Chair. I actually normally wear my hair down and put on a lot more makeup, so I tend to look a lot different than this, but oh well. :)
This is the only one of me actually working, and really, this isn't a very accurate depiction of what I do because this was the very last princess left in the boutique after we had closed, and we were doing a special thing because it was the last day for one of our FGITs. We had the FGIT who was leaving, the little princess, and her parents all close their eyes and the rest of us ran around with wands and pixie dusted everyone. I mean, I DO pixie dust princesses, but it's usually with them in the chair. And it's a princess I've just spent a half hour with. I didn't know this princess at all.
And that's all for now! Hopefully I can get a picture of me in the DTD costume, but I think that might be wishing for a little too much. The photopass people at the MK actually like me, so it was no problem. But we'll see if the photopass guys at DTD are nice. :)
The girl sitting next to me is Lea Anne and the one on the right is Haley. Haley goes to BYU-I and Lea Anne lives in Florida and one of the part-timers.
All of the girls who were there for the closing shift this particular day. The one in the middle (Pietrina) wanted a picture for her last day in the boutique.
A close up of me sitting in Cinderella's Royal Chair. I actually normally wear my hair down and put on a lot more makeup, so I tend to look a lot different than this, but oh well. :)
This is the only one of me actually working, and really, this isn't a very accurate depiction of what I do because this was the very last princess left in the boutique after we had closed, and we were doing a special thing because it was the last day for one of our FGITs. We had the FGIT who was leaving, the little princess, and her parents all close their eyes and the rest of us ran around with wands and pixie dusted everyone. I mean, I DO pixie dust princesses, but it's usually with them in the chair. And it's a princess I've just spent a half hour with. I didn't know this princess at all.And that's all for now! Hopefully I can get a picture of me in the DTD costume, but I think that might be wishing for a little too much. The photopass people at the MK actually like me, so it was no problem. But we'll see if the photopass guys at DTD are nice. :)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
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!
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!
