There's Two Feet of Snow in Boston...

So, I closed Beer Cart last night, and that was COLD. I did maybe fifteen transactions in the whole last hour that I was on Beer Cart, and I seriously thought my hands were going to drop off, I was so cold. I felt so sorry for Emily who had to close it this evening, as it was even colder tonight! :( On the plus side - no wasps!

Beer Cart yesterday was pretty cool though, all things considered. I managed to get chatting to a few guests as it was so quiet and get my real job done. That is - culturally representing the UK. I ws explaining the Rose and Crown crest using the War of the Roses, and even managed to explain the four countries and how the governmental systems work to another. Very interesting.

Today though, I haven't really been feeling it - I'll be honest. I've had a fairly slow day, with some interesting muck-ups and it didn't help that it was really slow because it was so cold. I don't want to dwell on it though, because it's done now. I've had a very nice evening to balance out my fairly bad day - dinner and laughs at TGIs.

For now, though folks... time for sleeping! :)

Park Hopping

So the last couple of days have been fairly normal for me. Mainly just working with little excitement. However, the evenings have been a little more fun. As of this week I’ve started to get some better shifts. As the new people settle into their role more, then they get all the closing shifts and the rest of us get the day shifts. For example, I worked my first AM Beer Cart shift the other day (still hate it because of the wasps), which meant I was out a lot earlier than most people!

On Thursday I took a trip to Cowboys with some of the others, and the night there was absolutely hilarious. Most of the new arrival group was there, and Vikki came along, so I spent most the evening with them all. Was very exciting to do as I haven’t been anywhere quite like that before. It’s a line dancing bar, so we watched the locals do line dancing in front of us. We also had a little try of doing it ourselves towards the end of the night and we were definitely all appalling in comparison, but at least it was fun. I still don’t understand how the dances are set though!

Yesterday was the first of my two days off and I spent it doing lots of things I haven’t done yet! I went with Dan, Callum, Arran and Dawn to Gospel Breakfast at House of Blues, which was a truly unique experience. I was an all-you-can-eat buffet style breakfast with soft drinks included, whilst a gospel group sang! It was really fun and the food was exceptionally good. I can’t believe how much I ate. After that was over the five of us headed to Old Key West, which is a beautiful resort. I think it’s a little out of the way though, but if you wanted something that is enclosed and encapsulated in it’s own little world, I would think that might be a resort high on your list! Unfortunately, Dawn and Callum had to work later on, so we left them there to get a bus to Epcot, whilst Dan, Arran and I headed to Magic Kingdom.

Once there, Arran and Dan headed to get a haircut at the Barber Shop (after quickly meeting Pluto for a photo), and I watched the parade whilst waiting for them. It’s quite interesting to watch it from that spot – an entirely different perspective than anywhere else, so that was fun. Once they were all neatened up we ended up getting pixie-dusted in Fantasyland, and met the fairies and the princesses before heading to Hollywood Studios. On the way out, we headed down Main Street and I dragged everyone into the bakery for a Sugar Cookie… YUM!

From there, we headed to Hollywood Studios, where we met up with Jane and headed to Sweet Spells. Once there we all got cakes and brownies and apples etc, before making our way to Beauty and the Beast at Theatre of the Stars! I love that show – I’ve seen it every time I’ve been to Hollywood Studios for the day, I think. our aim for the evening was to see Fantasmic! as Jane has not yet seen it and the others of us LOVE it. After we’d seen the Beauty and the Beast though, we headed to Tower of Terror (which I didn’t ride) before going to Fantasmic. Unfortunately it took a little longer than we’d thought, so we missed the start of Fantasmic and decided to wait for the later show. We met some characters whilst waiting though, so Woody and Buzz and Sorceror Mickey are also now in my autograph book after yesterday.

Fantasmic was just as incredible as it was the first time and I had an immense amount of fun watching it!

After that we just headed home, where I found out one of the new arrivals had got into her apartment and so we met up with a few people in Arran & Callum’s so she could meet some of the pavilion. Much laughing, fun and crisps later, we ended the evening. What an awesome day that was!

Now I’m off to run some chores and meet up with Steph to do her first Walmart run. x

So, training is as training does…

The last couple of days have both been eventful and not so, depending on your perspective. I am at last beginning to feel like I am not on my own really, which is possibly the nicest feeling that I have had since I started out here!

The last few days have seen some new experiences for me. I’ve noticed that I’m being asked more and more questions, which is a good sign that I’m picking up more information than I had realised. It has also highlighted to me more than ever that I would love to become a trainer. I think that training people here would be an awesome thing to do – who wouldn’t want to say they were a service trainer for the number one hospitality and entertainment company in the world?

At work today I didn’t actually close greeter, which was quite a revelation. I have closed chippy a couple of times recently, which has been particularly nice. Although I think I’ve learnt my lesson and will check the condiment carts myself before I call a manager, regardless of what is said.

On Sunday I visited House of Blues for the first time, which was really good fun. The music was up and down in parts, but the company was awesome and I had a lovely time dancing and drinking. The outside porch bar wasn’t too crowded, and the drinks were quite cheap for out here (alcohol is expensive in the US) so all in all it was a very good night. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I learnt quite a lot about my pavilion friends too! (Hi!)

I can also safely say that we have successfully found an awesome Chinese takeaway out here. The food is lush and the portions are fairly big! All the meals come with plain boiled rice as well, which is great, but I don’t really like the plain rice and think that egg fried would be much better. Not sure quite how, but we always seem to forget the Prawn Crackers as well.

I’ve managed to Skype home quite a bit over the last couple of days, which has been nice. I spoke to Mum, Dad and Ryan for a reasonably long time the other day and glad to hear they’re all doing well. Obviously I talk to Dan almost every day, but it’s nice to keep in touch and have longer catch ups from time to time. Also, I managed to talk to Auntie Jackie and Michael the other day, so hello to all of you who may be reading. It’s nice to talk to you all and keep you up to date with the day to day antics on here.

The weather is getting better and better at the moment, which is good. Although in fairness the rain did hit for a few minutes earlier this evening – still, hardly cold! Looking forward to the end of this month when Dan is out as I think that it could be a very nice temperature!

Still, I need to go and grab my washing out of the dryer and then grab some sleep, as I intend to sign up for a behind the scenes Haunted Mansion tour bright and early.

Night all xxxx

Happy New Year Rose & Crown

Happy New Year! I had a wonderful new year at work this time around. I got paid to spend my new year watching fireworks and having fun with my friends out here in Floridian-land. I won’t say too much about the fireworks set up in case you haven’t seen it and might like to at some point in the future. Rest assured you won’t be disappointed!

New year hit the UK at 7pm out here, which meant that I was definitely working. I was Seating for the first part of my shift, which was great, because Holly stopped seating people ready for the 7pm celebrations in the Rose and Crown. The weird part was knowing that friends and family across the globe were celebrating the new year then, and I was still 5 hours away from mine. That is definitely the weirdest thing about the whole time difference scenario. Still, Emily did a shout-out just before 7, so were able to get the guests in the restaurant involved in the countdown to UK new year. That was awesome, because they were clearly thrilled to be involved in an early celebration. There was much hugging that ensued! Was lovely to be in the UK pavilion at that point though, because you knew that the people you were with were all in similar situations, feeling similar things. Was more magical that way, definitely.

By the time midnight hit, I had had my break and I was closing Greeter (which I seem to be doing every day) so i had to man podium at all times. The blessing was that most people that had finished, or were still working were congregated in the podium/beer cart area, so we had a lot of podium staff and servers in the area for midnight. It was awesome – an experience I’ll never forget. Thank you to all the people there that had a massive impact on that.

Today I worked from 4pm, so I was able to have a lie-in this morning, and tomorrow I am off also, so more sleep time is possible. Work is getting easier and more fun, surprisingly, with each passing day. I quite enjoy working, which is refreshing and helpful as I need to make as much money as possible for when Dan is here in less than a month!

Not much else to report, troops… I’m to bed… Terri xxx

It's the Most Magical Time of the Year...

So... yesterday was very interesting. It started nice and early, which is always a good way to start the day, and I headed off to Hollywood Studios with Vikki and Riyad after a little faffing. I was rather pleased with the small amount of faffing that we did do, as it does usually take us just as long to leave as it we spend at our destination, so all in all a good start to the day.

We decided to eat at Backlot Express to fulfil another of Vikki's restaurant quota, but the food was good and tasty, and we saw some excellent Disney service displayed, so I can't fault the place! Kim was lovely as I removed my purse from my bag and spilled change on the floor - we've all done it. Still, she ran over to help me pick the bits of change up, which was very kind and then chatted to us for a while, whilst we were deciding what to have. She also let us know that we could alter the menu if we wanted to, to accommodate our eating preference, which is great because Backlot is actually a Quick Service location! :) Next, me and Riyad got stuck in the queue behind a guest with considerable allergy concerns, which was long and boring for us, but obviously very important. The manager, Michael, came over to help the family with their meal choices, and was excellent, so was well worth watching and waiting for them to order. Still, Vikki had already grabbed her meal and found a table by the time we'd ordered, so we ended up sat chatting for ages! That was a lovely relaxing meal, and the atmosphere there was fantastic!

After that we took a boat to Epcot for work. Vikki started half an hour before me, and it was so busy in the park yesterday that it took ages to walk from one part to another! She cut it a little fine for work because of sheer guest volume, but she made it! :)

To start with at work, I was Chippie filling, which is one of my favourite jobs at the pavillion. It was nice and steady for a while, and there were three fillers, so it was breezy. Vikki ended up breaking someone out, and we were filling together for about an hour, which was nice. However, it was the busiest hour of the day so there wasn't too much downtime to write 'Did you know' facts on the trays. Bad times!

After my break, I got sent to seat. I had a lovely evening seating, really. I got chatting to a few tables, didn't forget any cutlery(!), and had some great guest interaction with a little boy who'd been to Animal Kingdom during the day. Lovely. I got to do Magic Moment, and the little girl really loved it! It was amazing - we even saw Tinkerbell! Then, last thing before we closed, me and Daniel sat this lovely family, and they really did make my day. They were so kind, and one of the guests was in a wheelchair, so we got chatting about his colouring skills and his big sister was so kind and said I'd made their day. That was so cute. I almost cried.

After that, it was less good. I almost died trying to get on the bus home, as people just wouldn't stop pushing. I was sure someone was going to get trampled. Then, to top it all off, I left my phone at work, so I had to go back and get that.

However, so far today I've managed to Skype my family and I got to see my Nanny as well, so it's all good. I'm now off to do my washing, because I really need some clothes.... :)

Christmas at Disney

Safe to say I made it through my Disney Christmas. I had a minor work nightmare on the day itself, but nothing that couldn't be solved and all done now so that's enough about that!

Vikki has moved in now, which is great! It was just in time for Christmas, which was really lovely, as we got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day morning together without considering the logistics of the thing. It has, however, hit my sleep patterns badly. Now Vikki doesn't have to be of property by 1am, we don't have an abrupt ending to our gatherings. Thus, we are now chatting and eating way into the night and I just don't get as much sleep. It's all good though.

Christmas day was weird - very different, but an experience that just clarified for me that I do love Christmas and I think I will appreciate being at home for Christmas more now. However, having said that, I did have a lovely Christmas here. The morning was spent eating croissants and unwrapping lovely presents from Vikki and Riyad and Dan. :) Mum, Dad and Ryan have given me some money for Christmas which I am very much looking forward to finding something to spend it on. Work was fun on Christmas day, as almost everyone was in and there were almost all of us tasking and seating, so we spent a lot of the playing hopskotch and giving out stickers in the sun. Good times! After I finished work, we all headed to Stuart's for Christmas dinner, cooked by Stuart and Dan. It was truly very very yummy and I really enjoyed the nice atmosphere with friends as well. It was Boxing Day by the time we were done, and me and Vikki had to head back to Patterson at 1 to be off Commons property in time. We headed straight to bed for another day at work on Boxing Day.

I wasn't feeling too great yesterday, so I was very thankful it was cold and work was fairly dead. Although I missed out on the overtime pay, I was grateful for my ER yesterday as I was feeling very unwell and going home early has definitely helped my health. :)

As for today, I've been posting a bit in the facebook CRP group. I am a bit concerned that people are given this impression that there's a huge split in the Merchandise/F&B camps. I just feel it's really unfair that people are given this impression before they get here. There are some people who only socialise within their groups, but for the most part we are all a group of friends. Fingers crossed that point has come across.

Still, I'd best go get ready for work as I start in a couple of hrs or so.
xxx

Catching up

Ok, so it's been nearly a month since I last posted and quite a bit has happened. I will try to keep this relatively brief, but cover most of the details.

The weather here has been a little bit shocking - we've definitely hit 0 here once or twice so far this month, which is pratically unheard of for Florida. Hardly what I've moved here for, to be honest. I hardly feel that I can complain though, as the UK is experiencing some pretty intense weather systems itself, with snow that has covered the entire country and looks set to cause the first white Christmas in such a long time. I'm told there's a severe absense of the song with the name aforementioned.

Thank goodness I have started in the pavillion though. I've been working there for about 3 weeks or so now - it feels longer - and it's easy work. The people I've met on the whole have been wonderful and I'm happy to say things are looking much much brighter than they did during my first couple of weeks. I work in Food & Beverage which means I work in the Rose and Crown pub and the Yorkshire County fish hut. The work is easy and fun, for the most part. I have discovered that seating is my least favourite task and greeting or chippie filler are easily tieing for first position. However, I have to say a good deal of condiment refilling occurs when chippie filling and I swear guests are throwing away more tartar sauce than they are actually eating, but c'est la vie.

My costume (uniform) is fairly basic, and modelled on tudor wear or another similar period (I personally think they've mixed and matched quite a bit throughout history), but I quite like it. I have a swishy skirt and I LOVE swishy skirts! Winner.

Vikki's moving in with me as of tomorrow and Tuesday, which means that I will have a lovely roommate again. It'll be fun to have her here for good girly gossips and dinner parties. Lots of lovely people live here in Patterson and slowly the whole UK is moving this way, so it's great for socialising. With Christmas coming up it'll be good to have her here, so that security won't be kicking us out when we're having festive-type celebrations.

Speaking of festive celebrations, I took a trip to Walmart today in search of many items, of which one was crackers. I haven't seen any crackers in America. Are these something that only exists in the UK? How depressing. However, our little Christmas tree is beyond gorgeous - very unique and stylish in it's own little haphazardly decorated way. I love it! Dan's parcel of my Christmas pressies also arrived this morning, so I'm feeling super good today. I've been waiting almost three weeks for them to arrive. I'm hoping beyond hope that Dan's get to him on time, as the post has been so slow with the snow in the UK that I'm not overly inspired that they will get there on time. They have left Miami, and providing the plane that they were on wasn't diverted too much off course the other day, they are in the UK and hopefully winging their way to Dan this very minute.

I'm working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve/Day this year, so there will be a fair amount of money in the kitty these next couple of weeks. Great news as I'm needing to save up for the end of January when Dan's here.

As for now, it's half 2 in the morning and I've just remembered the cleaning team can be in any time after 9am, so I'd best get myself some sleep.

Night all xxx