Tips for ICP's

Happy New Year!! It's hard to believe its January again which can only mean one thing for uni students...exams!! This is my excuse for not blogging recently!!

I'd thought that I would do a blog post on some tips for future ICP's :)

One of the debates many people will have is to bring bedding or buy bedding at Walmart. Personally I brought bedding with me and all I needed to buy the first night was a pillow and some food. I think it is a wise idea to bring bedding since you are so tired on the first night and it means you don't have to carry it back on the bus which is busy enough! It is much easier buying a cheap duvet, sheet and covers in Primark and you can always leave it in America if you are stuck for space coming home.

Also don't plan to buy a whole load of food the first night, you will get some free time to either go back to Walmart or if you live in Vista I highly recommend going to Walgreens across the street. Walgreens doesn't have much food wise compared to Walmart but boy is it more convenient!! They even stocked some Robinsons juice! So if you can find stuff you like there it will make your life easier :)

Another tip is to either bring two suitcases out with you or buy a second suitcase when you're in America. You will buy lots of souvenirs and clothes!! I splashed out and bought myself a Disney suitcase and all my souvenirs took up one suitcase alone!!

Make sure you utilise every day and any spare time you have! In fairness some days you need to relax but don't do it all the time. I kind of wish that I worked in the late afternoon because I would have had time to go to the parks in the morning but since I started at 12 and finished at 9 most days it was hard to do that. But I did get up about 8 so I could get ready and Skype home which was important to me :)

You meet a lot of people in the first few days, some you will not see again due to conflicting work schedules. Even the girl I shared a room with, there were some weeks we never spoke because I worked  afternoon/evening shifts and she worked late nights. So make sure you keep talking to new people especially in work, lets be honest they're the people you are going to be spending the most time with!

Which leads me on to my next tip, make friends with American CP's, seasonal and part timers, especially those with cars!! Not only are they very cool people, they can save you from the buses ;) I worked with a girl with a people carrier so  there were nights a whole load of us would go have food after work! The Americans know where all the good places to eat are, for example there's a gas station called Wawa probably about 5mins down the road from vista and its like Subway over in the UK, but I would have never been there if it wasn't for people with cars. Also near the end of he program there were several nights where we all were working till 9pm ish but we still made it to the parks for fireworks all thanks to the Americans :)

I also highly recommend staying at a Disney hotel for the last night or two! My program ended on the Friday but Aer Lingus only flew to Dublin on a Tuesday or a Saturday so I moved out of Vista on the Thursday to the Pop Century Hotel. It worked out really well since I could then just rely on Disney transport the last two days an get the free Magical Express to the airport. 

Lastly when you return home from the most amazing summer you will suffer from PDD - Post Disney Depression!!! Unfortunately the only cure for it is more Disney so be prepared to watch countless Disney movies, dream about holidays to Disney, price such holidays etc etc lol One thing I loved doing when I returned home was sorting through my photos and footage and putting together my photo album and DVDs of my time there :)

Hope this helps and I'm hoping to be back with updates soon!!

Have a Magical Day!!!

Kitchen Training

So after learning the basics of food and beverage and learning about Blizzard Beach, it was time to start learning about the job!! 

The good thing about OTJ training is that you do it in pairs so you aren't on your own :) I was paired with a French girl called Marie and we became really good friends over the summer. There were also two other ICP's and two CP's being trained the same week so we got to know them as well. The first day me and Marie were trained in the kitchen. After trying to work out where to go we found out that out trainer wasn't on that day!! So one of the Spring CP's ended up training us, we started out in pizza where we learnt how to prepare pizzas, veggie burgers and the holiday sandwich which were all done in an oven.

We then went onto window which is where all the orders are filled and you have to learn very quickly that you have to shout to make sure people heard you from across the kitchen!! No room for quiet people in the kitchen! Although there were funny times when people didn't understand when you said tomatoes!!! Thankfully we were put on window 1 which was the quietest window and wasn't open for long during lunch time in June. We then had to close the window and clean it, this ended up being the only time ever that I closed counter bit it was still useful to know. 

Another advantage of OTJ training is that you get free food! We got to try some of the different things on offer for lunch before going through some theory and talking about things that we may not have covered while working. 

After that we headed to fryers which is pretty simple just hard work carrying all them fries!! By this time it was 4pmso the  kitchen was really quiet and we were able to talk to the people already on fryers. It was good to start to get to know some of the part timers, seasonal and other CP's (all the full time cast members get home early since they always open). 

The last job for that training day was broiler aka where the burgers are made!! It was fine but hard to judge how many burgers to put in! The hardest and dirtiest part of the day came when we had to close the broiler which meant taking most of the trays etc out and cleaning them! Trust me they were full of grease and it is probably the messiest job that you can do in QSFB. Again I was lucky enough that I never had to close broiler apart from training. 

That was the first day of four OTJ training days!! I'll talk about the next day in another post :)

Have a Magical Day!!!

Training - 14th and 15th June

After the high of being in Magic Kingdom for the first time that summer, it was back to reality when I had to get up at 6am the next morning to get ready for my first day at training!!

14th June - I was heading to Disney University again in my formal attire for the Food and Beverage core class. This class had people from quick service, full service and catering in it and there were a whole range of people there from ICP's and CP's to Full time Cast Members. We learnt all about the different areas of food that there are in Walt Disney World and about health and safety concerning food. It was quite boring but they tried to make it interesting and it was nice to talk to other people who were doing the same role as me. We then headed into a computer room where we had registered for the HUB and did some e-learning. After we finished this, we were told to head over to Costuming which is across the road from Disney University to get our work shoes. This is one benefit of QSFB, they provide you with non-slip shoes which saves you money in the first week. My shoes were like white trainers which turned out to be super comfy!
The rest of the day was spent going to Walmart for more shopping and doing some laundry, exciting times!! As much as it would have been nice to head to the parks again, I was absolutely exhausted and I needed just to do some essentials and catch up on sleep because I had a third early start the next morning!!

15th June - Forecast Blizzard
Today was yet another early start since I had to be at Blizzard Beach for 8am! I got on the K bus and it was clear who was going to the orientation of Blizzard since we were all in formal attire!! I started talking to some girls on the bus and they turned out to be a couple of the friends I would be hanging out with all summer :)
The orientation consisted of a walking tour and learning all about the park including using the Four Keys!
We had lunch before heading back to finish up our orientation by getting our training schedules. My training started the next day! So a group of us headed back to Vista and got the G bus to Caribbean Beach Hotel since that was were our costuming was located. This ended up being a pain since the G bus only ran every half hour which meant for a long return journey. We got our costumes and waited for the next bus, we it did turn up it was full so we all had to stand holding 5 sets of costumes!! Thankfully  most people got off at Pop Century or Art of Animation which meant we could sit down!! But we hit rush hour traffic and it was a very slow journey back to Vista. It was this journey that made up my mind about washing my own costumes!! It was easier just to wash my own costumes than having to do a 2 hour trip just to change costumes.

I'll talk more about my On the Job Training in the next post!!

Have a Magical Day!!!

13th June - First Night in Magic Kingdom

After Traditions I went home, had lunch and Skyped my family before having a nap! I had been up since before 6am!!

Me and my roommate decided to head out to MK since it was out first night as Cast Members. We got the bus to the Contemporary resort and got the monorail, although I had forgotten that if you do that it goes to the TTC and the other hotels before MK!!

We got to MK and we got through the turnstiles (Yay!!), went under the train station and took our first look at the beauty that is Cinderella Castle <3 I never  got sick of seeing it :)

We headed through the castle to Fantasyland since I was dying to see New Fantasyland!! We grabbed a Fastpass for the new Little Mermaid ride - Under the Sea before going to Pinnichios for dinner. I had a lovely pepperoni flatbread, at that point I still couldn't believe that here I was sitting in MK and this was my life for the next 10 weeks!

We headed to Under the Sea (which was brilliant! A new classic ride I'd say) and then went on Dumbo, but our lever wasn't working :( although at the end we went up high anyway!

We went on the tea cups (Top tip-it's brilliant for cooling down if you spin fast lol) before going over to Tomorowland where we bumped into Stitchs Dance party!! They were playing cheesy tunes and the characters came down to dance with everyone!!

It was getting close to half nine so we headed out to th Hub (the area in front of Coderella Castle) to see Celebrate the Magic. Now I had seen it on YouTube but in real life....WOW! It's the mix of amazing music, graphics and the atmosphere that just makes it even better in person :)

Then it was time for Wishes!!!!! Honestly just thinking about it gives me goosebumps, it is the most perfect fireworks display ever!! At the end my roommate said "And we get to do this for the next 3 months" and I just though how lucky I was to get the amazing privilege to work for the company and be able to enjoy the parks :)

We then headed back to Vista since I had another early start for training again!!

I'll talk more about the training in the next post.

Have a Magical Day!! 

13th June - Traditions!!

The most exciting part of the first week is Traditions!! This is the day that you are officially welcomed into the Cast Member family!! Some people describe it as being brain washed but it made me even more excited to be working for such an amazing and incredible company!! If you don't want to know about Traditions then  I would skip this post! lol

One down side to Traditions is the early morning!! I was in the morning class which meant meeting at Vista at 6am!! We all got on the bus and this was the morning that I had my first glimpse of the beautiful Cinderella Castle, it looked even more amazing in the morning dawn :) We proceeded to go behind Magic Kingdom where we past many buildings including where the monorails live and where the Christmas decorations are kept!

We then arrived at Disney University!!! Honestly if I could go here to study physics, I would be there! Haha The building is full of pictures from different Disney movies, quotes from Walt Disney and more! 

We were then sorted into our different Traditions classes by the colour of paper we had and before we even got into the room we were all given our Disney ID's i.e. our access to the parks! and the spelling of our names and hometowns were doubled checked. 

The class started off with a presentation about working with integrity then our two class instructors introduced themselves, a man and a woman. I wish I could remember the mans name because he was brilliant! The woman's name was Cookie (yes I know!) and she was very good as well. 

We learnt about the history of the company and about the four Keys: Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency. And we learnt that famous saying: SafeD begins with me :) Just as we were learning about the four keys, we were told that we were going to go on a field trip to see the four Keys in action....we were going to the Magic Kingdom!!!!!! Before we did that though each table had to elect a group leader and since I happened to be sitting at a table with 5 other French girls they elected me to be it! Thankfully I got a little Pluto figure to keep :)

So we headed out to Magic Kingdom in our business attire and earpieces lol and got to see the utilidors! It was so surreal knowing you were a part of this amazing destination. We then headed out to Main Street and our instructor seen a couple who had bride and grim ears on so he told us that when we surrounded them that we would all say "Happy Wedding" or something along them lines and they did not expect it at all!! It was amazing the feeling I had of making that memory for them :) We even wished people a Happy Birthday going passed them. 

After we passed the wedding couple we turned out onto the central bit of Main Street and seen the Castle for the first time!! If that wasn't enough, Dream Along with Mickey was going on as we walked right down the middle of Main Street USA !! I had the biggest smile on my face, I couldn't believe it I was in the most magical place on earth and I was going to be living, working and playing in this place for the rest of the summer!!

We unfortunately had to back to the classroom and we discussed the four Keys further before we had a very special visitor......the main man himself.......Mickey Mouse!! He was here to tell us that our name tags would be ready soon!! At the end of the class we got to go up and get our name tags out of a lovely wooden box like the one below. 

After that we got to proudly wear out name tags back to Vista on the bus :)

I really enjoyed Traditions and after feeling homesick the previous day, it reminded me that I am part of the most amazing company and I have the Best. Job. Ever!!!

I'll talk about the first night in Magic Kingdom in the next post!!

Have a Magical Day!!!

The First Few Days

In my opinion I think the first few days before Traditions is some of the toughest but enjoyable times :) You're dealing with jet lag, home sickness, living with new people, filling in forms, attending meetings and getting some of your first glimpses of WDW!

On the 11th we only had a housing meeting at 12pm. I had intended to sleep in a bit but jet lag woke me bright and early at 6am!! So both me and my roommate ended up unpacking before heading over to Walgreens across the road from Vista for more shopping. 

We met at Vista at 12 to get the bus over to the Commons where the housing meeting was taking place. I'm pretty sure this was the day where we had to do some immigration stuff before the meeting. Then some of us went to the outlet malls across from the commons for a nosey round the Disney store and a Starbucks. It was on the way back that someone said about the wind getting stronger and how that was the signal for heavy rain coming, 10 minutes later when we were thankfully under shelter we had our first Florida thunderstorm! 

The housing meeting was fine, they tried to make it exciting by playing Disney music and having a party atmosphere at the start but after that they went through all the rules of Disney housing including how we weren't allowed lightsabers as they can be classed as weapons!

Later that night a big group of UK ones went to Downtown Disney, it was so exciting to finally pass under the purple gates of WDW for the first time! We spent  most of the time walking around DTD trying to decide on somewhere to eat before eventually going to Earl of Sandwich. We spent the rest of our time looking around the different shops and we even got speaking to one of the Cast Members who was really nice and was so excited for us to start our program!

Wednesday the 12th June we had another meeting over in the Commons but this time it was to do with immigration and other serious stuff. We were in a room of 200 and they had to guide us through filling a form to apply for our social security number! And they had an officer from the department of homeland telling us what not to do or else we would be deported!!

We went back to Vista and each of us had an appointment in the welcome centre there to fill in even more paperwork and to find out where we were working!!! I found out I would be working at Blizzard Beach in Lottawatta Lodge (say it slowly you'll get it!!). To be totally honest I was a bit disappointed when I got a water park but it turned out to be the best place ever and I wouldn't change my location for the world. 

After that I went back to the apartment and probably Skyped home, it was after that the homesickness really hit me but my roommate was great, gave me a hug and we went out to Downtown Disney.

We ended bumping into a group of UK girls heading there as well and we all went to dinner at Paridiso 37. We had a lovely meal and I really enjoyed the night :) After the meal we all headed back to our apartments since a lot of us had an early morning for Traditions tomorrow!!!

Have a Magical Day!!

10th June - Hello Orlando!

The day I had been waiting for had finally arrived!! I woke up before my alarm and got myself organised before checking out of the Yotel. 

I then met up with my roommate at check in before heading through security. We then had breakfast before heading to meet up with the rest of the ICP's on our flight :)

Our flight was long but uneventful, it consisted of watching movies really! We arrived in Orlando on time and then the fun began!! We had an hour and a half wait for immigration since there were several international flights coming in at the same time. But thankfully they didn't take us into a separate room we were allowed straight through :)

We then got our baggage before heading on the fake monorail to the main terminal. Since there was so many of us we got a mears taxi to Vista Way which worked out at $10 each. Before we even got into the taxi the heavens opened up and it started to rain! What a welcome to Orlando lol

Once we got to Vista Way we were greeted by Disney reps and two of the Yummy Jobs team which was really nice to see! We had to do a bit of paper work and watch a video before heading to our apartments. My apartment was in Vista Way in building 17 beside the basketball courts which was a great location! It was close to the buses and the main building. 

After quickly meeting a couple of our roommates we headed to Walmart although on our way we seen two girls looking lost, we asked them if we could help and it turned out it was our other two roommates who had just arrived from France!

Walmart is massive!! I think it took us longer just to work out in our heads where everything is! I just got some essentials since I was tired already. 

After returning from Walmart me and my roommate decided to go to Wendy's which is just outside Vista Way since we hadn't ate since the plane! By this point I was so tired I hardly ate anything!! I think we eventually got to bed about 11/12 so it was a very long day!!

I'll talk about the first few days before Traditions in the next post!!

Have a Magical Day!!