Walt Disney World ICP - Day 23 to 25 - Work can be fun too! - 25th-27th June 2013

Day 23 - Tues, 25th
It was a pretty unexciting day before work today. I basically stayed in and worked on the blog and slept in. Work was from 17:15 to 23:45 which is a nice length as it means I get a half an hour lunch break. It was a pretty standard day at work but I didn’t work in the theatre at all today so didn’t get to/have to watch the movie.

I was tasking pretty much all day so I was giving people breaks, asking if they needed the restroom, sweeping the queues, moving strollers, etc. I still haven’t been given the task of the sword in the stone which is really annoying as I’d love to do it. I did a bit of guest flow today which is what you make of it. You can simply stand there and direct guests if you want or you can do what I did which was get some fastpasses and give them out as magical moments and blow bubbles, whilst still helping guests. I also did a bit of Fastpass distribution which is still my favourite position because of the amount of guest interaction.

After work as we were closing the Fantasyland attractions cast members all went to ride Dumbo after the park closing which was really cool. I got some nice photos of the park empty and on Dumbo which was really cool. In the past few weeks Fantasyland cast have got the chance to ride the teacups and under the sea as well but this was my first cast exclusive ride!

Magic Kingdom with no guests

Day 24 - Wed, 26th

I worked until park closing a today from 16:15 to 23:45. Once again I was tasking most of the day and the other cast members are wondering how I’m lucking out like this. I got my break just before Wishes so I watched the first half from where we get the bus out of Magic Kingdom which is just a few hundred metres from where the fireworks are fired and is in a fallout zone. Then I watched the end of Wishes while tasking which was nice.

At work we’re provided with ice pops to keep us cool and we go through a lot - How many? Let’s just say I had to refill 600...I’ll let you know when we run out.

Today I assisted in clearing the park of guests which involves us standing in a line and making sure guests do not get past us and slowly this line moves towards the center of the park from the outside, as we clear every attraction, restaurant and restroom to make the park clear of guests. This is because we can’t actually ask guests to leave as that isn’t courteous. It’s also the same reason why Main Street USA is open 1 hour after park closing as we slowly encourage guests to leave the park. It’s not uncommon to find a guest in Fantasyland forty or fifty minutes after the park has closed. Small World was closed at the end of the day because one of the dolls’ faces had ripped and we were told today at Track Talk that even though Buzz Lightyear is the most ridden attraction in Magic Kingdom, Philharmagic is the highest rated by visitors in surveys. That was a bit of a proud moment. I definitely encourage you to come and experience it.

Day 25 - Thurs, 27th
After days of tasking today CDS gave me my most hated rotational jobs again and again to make up for the days of fun I had just had. I was carousel operator twice which is extremely stressful. As this information may be sensitive I won’t reveal exact numbers but we have a few minutes to load about 100 people onto the carousel, get them seated, open and close the gates, cut the line, check seatbelts, seating and ages, run the carousel and get guests to exit. We then have to repeat this process again and again, hopefully averaging over 1000 per hour. It’s just non stop and you walk round the carousel a lot of times, then guests have issues etc. A lot of the time you do this all on your own, sometimes CDS asks other people to help by grouping people in line which really helps but this is not always the case.

I was put on strollers at Castle Couture from 8pm until 9pm which was boring until I was given the task of directing people to Main street USA. Essentially you are given a light-up baton (looks a bit like a lightsaber) and point people to go around the castle as it is closed, except for those dining inside it. This is a lot more fun than it sounds. A group of basketball girls asked for a photo with me as I was from the UK and they loved my accent - this appreciation of the British accent isn’t going to get old I don’t think. They then asked me questions and said “just keep talking, we just want to hear you speak”. That was fun.

At 9pm I got my 15 minute break, and after that I was sent to Fastpass merge at Philarmagic and was told there were only 6 trays of 3D glasses left for the remaining shows. I thought I would be out by 10PM and not have to deal with this, instead the next two hours were spent constantly counting and communicating with managers and coordinators about how few glasses we had left. Through some very careful planning (and don’t tell anyone but the managers may have cleaned some of the used glasses) we managed to make it. This only became a problem because Disney insists on not reusing glasses on the same day and having them washed every night instead. This meant that we couldn’t reuse any glasses and had to find any clean spare pairs we had all throughout the attraction. At 11PM, the last show closed and I was given a high five from my coordinator and thanked by the manager - it was good to work with them and get to know them a bit better.

An exciting end to the night and a day off tomorrow.

Next post: Walt Disney World ICP - Day 26 - Coaster Day! - 28th June 2013

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