Christmas?

So sorry guys, I kinda forgot I was writing a blog, I've been super duper busy the last few weeks, work, class, registering for my last semester of College as well as trying to have a little bit of a social life just really put the blog on a back burner that I totally forgot about. First of all I got a "promotion" I guess, it's not really like I'm moving up the ladder but I got trained at a new job where I have kind of a bigger responsibility and I get paid more so that's pretty exciting. I still work as a dispatcher but I also have some shifts where I'm working as the Disney's Magical Express representative at the resort. When people's bags come in from the airport I process them and send them out to be delivered to the room. The job has little to no guest contact and I'm basically by myself in a hole all day. It's a lot of paper work kind of stuff. It's weird I don't like the loneliness and not being able to interact with guests but at the same time it's nice to have a tangible progress of the work that I'm doing. I know how much paper work I need to complete for the day and it feels like I'm actually accomplishing something when it's all done. It's a different kind of job satisfaction that I actually don't mind oddly enough. Regardless though I keep learning more and more about the hotel industry and all aspects of it, the experience continues to be invaluable. It's amazing the different situations that come up that you never would even think about as a guest at a hotel. Besides my working experience the classes I'm taking here are teaching me so much. I know it seems like a drag taking classes while I'm here but for one thing they're free and for another they're both really informative, especially my Hospitality class. In that class our whole semester has been dedicated to a group project in which we're given a business of the hospitality industry and we have had to develop basically a business proposal for it. My group got an indoor ski center in Shreveport Louisiana...yup that's right, a ski center in Louisiana! At first I was really mad about it and thought it was gonna be so hard but we've come up with some good days and I think it's given me a great perspective on future problem solving, coming up with innovative ideas, starting a new business and creating a market where there isn't one. I kinda like the project but it's due next Monday and we still have a lot left to do, I have a feeling it's really going to come down to the wire. Oh well what else is new in my educational career? Well now on to the title of this post, yes it is in fact currently the Holiday season in Disney World. November kind of doesn't happen. November 1st was our last Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party and our first Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party is tomorrow. The lights are up on Cinderella's castle (I'm including a picture because it's beautiful) and the Christmas decorations are starting to go up all over the place. Friday night I went to the exclusive cast preview of The Christmas party and it was really cool. I love Christmas more than anything so it really made me happy but I might have a hard time staying in the spirit for two whole months. Maybe not we'll see.  I don't want to spoil the magic if any of you ever decide to attend the Very Merry Christmas party but based off the preview it will definitely be worth the extra ticket price. The months just keep flying by, I can't believe that two months from yesterday my program will be over. As much as I'm loving this experience I'm super excited to come home and see all my friends and family again. But don't worry I'm going to enjoy every minute of the magic and the beautiful weather. It's currently 80 degrees and sunny out so I'm gonna go enjoy that, maybe lay by the pool. So until next time (whenever that might be)

Cinderella's Castle all decked out for Christmas

Monday Again?

These weeks seriously just FLY by I can't believe I've already been down here two months. There isn't a whole lot going on this week except today I did go see Sugar Ray live in concert at Epcot. It was pretty awesome even though they're old(ish) they still put on a great show! I even gave Mark Mcgrath a high five it was pretty amazing. That's all I got so until next time,

All you need is a little pixie dust

This week I've had some mixed emotions. I've been depressed, I've been frazzled, I've been awed and I've been overcome. Wow remember when I said this wasn't going to be a blog about feelings? I promise I'll try and stick to just the events that brought about these emotions. For the first time since in my life I saw "Wishes Night time Spectacular" as well as the new Multimedia show that goes along with it. I won't reveal what happens in the show because I don't want to ruin the magic but it was incredible. We usually never stayed for the show at Magic Kingdom when I came as a guest because it is so crazy busy when everyone is leaving it just wasn't for us. I regret that now, this has to be one of the most magical things that Disney does. Their shows are absolutely incredible and as a long time guest and fan of Disney I wish I would have gone to more of them. That's definitely an aspect of the entire Walt Disney World Resort that my family and I have overlooked throughout the years. After that amazing experience and revelation at Magic Kingdom I had easily the busiest week of work since I've been down here. Saratoga Springs and Old Key West are both expansive properties with multiple buildings and SSR the bellman escort people to their rooms in their golf carts. It's been raining here the last 3 days. And I don't mean it rained in each of the last 3 days I mean it didn't stop raining until late last night. EVERYONE wanted rides. At one point on Saturday we had 40 rooms worth of bags waiting to be delivered and 20 different people waiting to be driven to their rooms and 4 Bellman. It was crazy to say the least. Since the Food and Wine festival is in full swing now over at Epcot the resorts are filling back up and you can definitely tell it's becoming busy season again. They have even started putting up Christmas decoration (I know it's only October 10th but have you seen how many Christmas decorations they have at Walt Disney World? It's crazy) and you can definitely see the effects of the holiday season being right around the corner in the occupancy rates. On that night I heard one of the most depressing things ever. A guest told me that their trip has been horrible and they're never coming back to Disney World. This was no fault of Disney's they had problems with their flights and it was raining the whole time they were here. Once again I'm seeing situations where no matter what you it won't be possible to give a guest the best experience possible. With an operation as large as Disney World even though we have the best training and cast members in the world it's just not going to be possible to give everyone a perfect trip. Accepting that isn't something that is coming easy to me. I will always strive to give every guest that walks through our doors the best experience possible but if something out of my control happens I might have to learn to live with it. Well that's all I have for today, my parents booked dining reservations for their trip here in Thanksgiving, I'm getting excited to see everyone only 5 weeks and 6 days. Until next time

So this last week of work has once again been super exciting and magical! One thing that I really like about this job is you find different people from all over the place that you're always dealing with. The wide diversity is constantly keeping things interesting. This week I met Joey Fatone from N'Sync, I didn't realize it at the time but I guess I was talking to him for a while. Just one example of the wide variety of people that I meet and interact with at my job. Most of the people aren't famous but definitely interesting and memorable. The people also remember you which makes my job a little special. This week there were a couple families that I remember that helped my week go by a little nicer. The one family was constantly walking back and forth past the bell stand and I happened to be working at OKW 4 days in a row. Every time they would walk past they stopped and told me a little bit about what they did that day and specifically remembered me. It was really special to be remembered like that and it was cool that they wanted to share a little part of their vacation with me. Another family had a couple interactions with me and one day I forgot my name tag (I know embarrassing) and when they came up to ask me a question they remembered what my name really was. It's special to know that you are making that kind of impact on the guests that you interact with. I really hope that I can keep having these interactions and have that kind of impact on a guests experience at The Walt Disney World Resort. Other exciting news, I've had a couple of meetings with some of my leaders asking them about the Management Internship and getting a job with Disney after I graduated. The people I've talked with have said some very encouraging things about my chances and giving me a lot more information about the process of getting that job after college. Every single day I get more and more excited about my possible future with this company. Until next time

Whoa!

Ok whoa I can't believe how fast this week flew by. I'm sorry but I just don't have the time or energy to write a long post about what has been going on this week. I guess I'll save you since last week was so long. This week was a lot of the same as last week I still love my job and everyday I love it more and more. Next week will be more exciting I promise. Until then,

My Birthday Week

Sorry this didn't come out yesterday it was a very busy day for me. But let me tell you be happy that I am posting now instead of early yesterday because yesterday was one of my most action packed days of work yet. That will come towards the end though, let's start with the beginning of the week. Work Tuesday was pretty uneventful although I do continue to get better and better at making balloon animals. I can't wait until my family comes down to visit so I can make Haylie a balloon elephant. On my birthday I was talking to her on the phone and after the CUTEST rendition of happy birthday I've ever heard I asked what her favorite animal is and she told me "An elephant, but a girl elephant not a boy elephant". So I'm practicing making an elephant with a pink balloon for her. I've been lucky and blessed to already meet some good friends down here that I was able to celebrate my birthday with. At work on my birthday they had an employee appreciation day and we got free BBQ from a place called Babaloos BBQ. Steve I know you're going to be jealous when you read that. Then on Friday we went out to lunch and had a delicious, All-American, all you can eat BBQ skillet meal at Wilderness lodge, followed by a round of golf at another of Disney's beautiful golf courses, Magnolia. Every October the PGA comes to Disney world for an event and the best golfers in the world play on the course that I played on Friday. Since it's a month away they're preparing for the tournament and getting the course up to tournament conditions. This means two things: one, the course is absolutely beautiful and pristine, it also means that it's extremely hard! So needless to say I did not play very well, it was actually probably my worst round of golf in my life. It was still fun though and it was only $30 dollars so that's fine with me. Not to mention the free bucket of balls I got to hit on the driving range from the nice lady at the pro shop. The coolest part of the round though was the fact that they were already starting to build the grandstands and other structures involved with the PGA event. Overall it was a very good birthday celebration. Thanks again to everyone that wished me a happy birthday and helped make it a wonderful event ushering in my 22nd year of life. Saturday night however was the night that I was looking forward to more than any of the others. I love Ireland and everything about Irish culture, I do have Irish heritage but I wish I had more, and Saturday night was halfway to St. Patty's Day. At the Irish Pub in Downtown Disney called Raglan Road there was a halfway to St. Patty's Day part and I was so excited for it! It didn't really live up to the hype though. The place was packed for a U2 tribute band and I am not a huge U2 fan. There wasn't anything really special going on besides that and their usual live band that I love wasn't playing. The Irish step dancers weren't around either. I've come to the conclusion that Raglan Road is more fun on an average Tuesday night. Anyway on to the important stuff, work stories. Every year the Disney Vacation Club puts on a member's cruise where they buy out on of Disney's cruise ships and everyone on the cruise is a Vacation Club member. That cruise is going on right now and it departed on Sunday. Since Old Key West was the original Vacation Club resort a majority of the members stay with us the night before the cruise. Since we take care of all the luggage transportation and people transportation to Port Canaveral Sunday morning was crazy busy. The bellman were constantly busy, the phones were ringing off the hook with questions about luggage pickup and a lot of the guests were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Despite all this the process went extremely smoothly and from what I know there wasn't a single problem that morning. Just another testament to how well Disney conducts their operations! One of the funniest lines of the day came when a guest who was leaving on the cruise came up to my young cute leader Kristin and told her "I have an empty suitcase you can curl up inside and I'll take you with me". One of the weirdest things I've ever heard, but like a true Disney leader she took it in stride and we all had a good laugh about it later. Despite this being one of the busiest days I've experienced so far at Disney it was also one of the most fun days at work I've had so far. Now for the day you've all been waiting for, Monday. Most people hate Mondays but this was technically my Friday so I woke up looking forward to the day. I had my first class of the semester in the morning and it seems like it will probably be a very good class and I'll learn a lot of valuable skills. Then I came home took a short nap and left for what I thought would be another uneventful night of closing at OKW. I was wrong. As you should know my dream is to work for Disney for the rest of my life. Since I'm working directly under a lot of people whose roles are the exact roles I wish to have in the coming years I decided to reach out to them in hopes of gaining some advice and instruction on how to get where they are. I sent an email to all of my leaders asking to meet with them and find out how they got to where they are in their careers and what I could do to get to the same place. I anticipated at least a couple days before anyone got back to me maybe even a week. Within the hour the highest ranking of my leaders, Sharon, emailed the whole group back with two statements that made my day. First of all she told one of my other leaders to have me immediately trained on the Front Desk. This is the position that I really wanted when I applied for the program and would get me a much more extensive view of the every day operations in the hotel so I was very excited about this. Then she said something better, "Family, I highly encourage you to take a few minutes to and speak with Mickey to share your stories and give advice. Lynn, please set up some time on my calendar to meet with him as well." This got me extremely excited because not only was she going to meet with me but as a result all of my other leaders would meet with me. Since then at least two of them have reached out to me in response to this email and I really feel like I'm starting to take steps in the right direction for my career. After receiving this email my day got really interesting. One of our guests' luggage was lost by the airline when they were in transit to arrive on September 17th. I won't bore you with the details but basically the luggage was found and no one knows by who or where it is now. So yesterday from about 5:30 until half past midnight I was reaching out to every outlet I possibly could to try and find the bags for this guest. I clocked out at midnight when my shift was supposed to end and stayed an extra half hour because I was expecting a call  back from the airline. I even texted one of my friends who works at one of the other resorts where we thought the bags might have gone to find out if she knew anything about it. In the end the bags could not be found and I had to leave it up to the next person to try and figure it out. It was easily one of the most frustrating work experiences I had ever been a part of. It was the first time in my career in the Hospitality industry that I had exhausted every possible resource I had and still couldn't accomplish what the guest needed. It was one of the most disheartening things I've ever gone through. Disney is known for going above and beyond for their guests and making magic happen and I couldn't do it yesterday. The guest wasn't angry with us, that wasn't what was motivating me to find the bags. I just wanted to find them for so that she would have the best possible experience. When after all that effort I still couldn't find them I learned what I think will be a valuable lesson to me in the future. Sometimes things will happen that are just out of your control. That's in your career, with your friends and family, and just in life. Being successful and happy in all of these areas isn't always going to depend on all of the right things happening, but instead how you react to the things that do happen, especially the bad things. Yet another week has passed and yet again I'm amazed at all I'm learning and being blessed with through this opportunity. Until next time,

Just another week in Disney World

So writing a blog is hard...... I have a hard time coming up with things to write about so once again sorry if this post sucks and is boring. It kinda seems like more happened at home this week then here. The son of my oldest friend in the world, George Knebel, was born today. Wanna take a minute out to congratulate him and his beautiful wife Amiee on their first child, Judah Gavin Knebel I hope you guys enjoy parenthood. My teammates ran their first race this week, don't worry guys I'm following the results and I expect big things out of you this year. My dad joined a country club. (Don't worry we're still not rich, it was a free trial membership for the rest of the year.) My parents got a new bed for my room (after I slept on an air mattress all summer!) I guess life here is starting to become routine because that seems like a lot more than I did this week. At work I'm starting to feel more and more like I've been there forever, I've never had a job where I work 40 hours a week and you get to know what you're doing really really fast! I thought I knew a lot about Disney before but daily I learn something  new. My week consisted of mostly work but on my days off I went to the parks (Epcot and Hollywood Studios) and went golfing at one of Disney's amazing courses (for $30 bucks with a cart might I add). It's funny how doing all that and living in Florida seems like not a lot going on. By the way for those of you that are golfers I had my first ever chip in for birdie while I was golfing this past week, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. Well anyway I'll get to the point of this post, I've come to realize that everything in Disney World is different when you're here as a cast member. I don't want to ruin the magic for all of you so I'll just leave it at that. But the magic you don't experience as a guest is multiplied even more as a cast member. As I'm walking through the parks and I see a little kid experiencing the magic for the first time it gives me such a sense of pride knowing that I work for a company that can cause so much happiness for so many people around the world. Seeing the magic in effect is even better when you're the one causing the magic for someone. As part of my job I've learned to make balloon animals (and I must say I'm kind of good at it) but the look on a child's face when you give them something so simple as a balloon sword and some Mickey Mouse stickers is priceless. This might not mean anything to most of you but we greet people with the phrase "Welcome home" and from personal experience I know that's one of the best things to hear at Disney World. The examples of bringing magic to people are endless and it never gets old. So like I said everything is  different in Disney World as a cast member but for me the magic is even greater because you get to see firsthand on a daily basis the magic coming to life in other people's lives. So far that is by far the best part of this experience. That's all I have tonight so until next time,

Well another week has passed and it's Monday again. I can't believe I've only been here 3 weeks it feels more like 3 months. Orlando is feeling more and more like home and there is no doubt in my mind that I would love to live here the rest of my life. Not a lot happened this week just working pretty much every day. I know I've said this before but I'll say it again I absolutely love my job, it's not to stressful and I have a lot of guest contact which is fun I get to actively make someone's stay at the Walt Disney World Resort better. Since there isn't a lot to share this week I'll tell you guys a story from my most interesting day of work this week. So if a guest is staying on Disney property and is changing resorts we'll move their bags for them so they don't have to deal with it. On Saturday we had a guest change from All Star Music over to Old Key West where I was working. The guest called the bell stand asking about their bags and we didn't have them. We called over to All Star and they told they had done their transfers and remembered having the guests bags but didn't know what resort they dropped them off at because they had done transfers to 4 other resorts that day. We then called all 4 of the other resorts to see if they had the guests bags and finally we found them at Caribbean Beach which isn't too far from Old Key West. My manager sent me over there to pick up the bags and deliver them to the guest in their room. When I got to Caribbean Beach the bags weren't there and no one had any idea what happened to them. I'm panicking and scouring the luggage room for like 10 minutes when finally I call my manager to tell her the bags aren't here. She tells me that right after I left All Star brought the bags to Old Key West. Apparently without telling us they went and picked up the bags from Caribbean Beach. It was definitely an interesting day to say the least. Well that's all I have for you so until next time

First Week of Work

So I think this is going to be a weekly thing and I think it's going to be every Monday, I was going to write this yesterday but I wanted to wait until after my shift yesterday. Mainly because yesterday was my first shift on my own but I'll get to that later. Wow this week has been crazy, I feel like I've already been here for a month it's already become like home to me. I forgot that it was only a week ago that I really started working. I've gotten a lot of work experience this week at both Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. The motto for the two resorts is "Two resorts one family" so I'll be switching back and forth between the two of them along with a lot of the rest of the staff. I learned this week how to do more stuff at the dispatch office mostly but I also trained as a greeter at Saratoga Springs which has the GAUDIEST costume you're ever seen. I also spent one day working with the Disney's Magical Express service. If you fly to Disney World ever and have not used Disney's Magical Express please do! It's a great and very reliable service that transports you and your bags to and from Disney World and the airport. It's also a really cool operation from my side of things just seeing how the whole process works it's pretty amazing! One of the best parts of the week was a day last week that should have started as a terrible day but ended up being one of my best days here. I forgot to set my alarm but luckily my roommate forgot to turn his off so I barely woke up in time. I didn't have time to have breakfast but I guess one day a week someone brings the cast at Saratoga Springs Krispy Kreme donuts so I had Krispy Kremes for breakfast. Since I rushed out the door I didn't have time to make myself lunch either and this was the best part of my day. Right before I went to lunch a woman who was on her way to the airport walked up to me and gave me two large bags and said "We're going to the airport we can't take all this with us it's too heavy and we can't take it on the airplane." I said sure and took it from her and it turned out it was two huge bags of food from Earl of Sandwich. This is the greatest sandwich shop I've ever been to and some of my favorite food at Disney World and it made my day! That was a great day but I think the day that I liked the most was yesterday because it was my first day working on my own, I have officially "Earned my Ears". I closed the dispatch at Old Key West yesterday and everything went pretty well my first time on my own. As the week has gone by I realize that I really love this job, you have a lot of interaction with guests and it seems like you just make people's day left and right! I haven't really encountered any problems yet or had a bad day but so far it's easily my favorite job and even though it's early I can so far say that it is meeting and even exceeding all of my expectations. Soon I'll be starting my classes (which I'm not looking forward to) and in about a month I'll hopefully be cross training to start learning about the front desk (which I am looking forward to) and soon enough I get to shadow some managers and learn about what they do on a daily basis (which I'm REALLY excited about). I've met a lot of really cool people and really enjoy my roommates we get along well. I met a group of girls who my roommates and I have been hanging out with and we mesh really well, it's nice to have a big group of friends to be able to hang out all the time. I'm still looking for a Church to go to, there's a Church nearby that I want to try out but I don't have any transportation so I'm still looking for someone to go to Church with. Besides that I'm loving this whole experience and I think every week is just going to get better and better. That's pretty much all I have over the past week so I'll leave you with a fun fact. Did you know the All-Star resort at Disney World has over 5,700 rooms and is the 3rd largest hotel in the world? Pretty amazing isn't it. Until next time

My First Week

Well all the craziness of the first week is settling down so I thought I'd spend some time and tell you all what's been going on. My mom and I got on the plane on Tuesday with no troubles and got to Orlando in perfect time completely uneventful trip down. We went out to eat at one of our favorite Disney restaurants, Earl of Sandwich. After a little napping and relaxing by me and working by my mom back in the room we decided to go out and experience some of the Disney nightlife since this was my first time being in Disney World as a 21 year old. We went to downtown Disney and spent most of the night at one of our other favorite Disney spots, Raglan Road, it's an Irish pub and that night they had live music and Irish dancers which was pretty cool. It was a very enjoyable last night with my mother. Wednesday morning at 7 AM all the excitement really started, we headed over to Vista Way, my new place of residence, and started the check in process. The lines for check in were so long it was like I was waiting for one of the rides. When I finally got through all the hours of waiting in lines and riding buses and waiting in more lines and getting poured on I had my new living location apt #1803 Vista Way and my work location which was the most exciting part! I'm working at Old Key West Resort and Saratoga Springs Resort as a dispatcher. It was really exciting for me to get these two resorts in particular because Old Key West is our family's favorite resort and for the majority of our vacations that's where we stayed. It's customary to welcome people to the resort by saying "Welcome home" and for me it really was like I was coming home. The next day we had our "Traditions" class, it's a class that all Disney employees take just to orient themselves with the traditions and customs and history of the Walt Disney World Company. During the class we took a brief tour of part of the Magic Kingdom and let me tell you, it's very weird to enter as a cast member through some back entrances. In order to get to where we were going we got to walk through the Utilidoor or the secret tunnels under Magic Kingdom. Now if you don't know when Disney World was being built the land was to swampy to dig and build in so they built a "basement" level and Magic Kingdom is actually on the second floor. My one goal for this semester was to go in the secret tunnels under Magic Kingdom so this was super exciting for me! However the highlight of my day was definitely getting my official Disney name tag. I was officially a Disney employee. That night we went to Epcot just for a couple hours because we could. It was a very cool but also surreal feeling to just walk in for free for a couple hours just for fun. We got something to eat and watched illuminations and then left, no stress, no long lines just a very enjoyable Epcot experience. I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. The day after Traditions I had a general Old Key West and Saratoga Springs training session with some other people that were working at those resorts. Some of them were here on the College Program (CPs) but some of them were just new employees. We got our costumes (Disney talk for uniform) and found out our schedule for the week (lots of early mornings). It was mostly just an informative day on the two resorts, it was kind of a long and tiring day but it was still Disney so I enjoyed it. Yesterday was my first official day of on the job training as a dispatcher at Old Key West. I'm gonna take some time now to explain exactly what I do as a dispatcher. At the bell services desk people are arriving from the airport with their luggage, checking in checking out, going to the parks and needing to store their luggage, having packages delivered to their rooms etc. We have a very expansive property and only a few bellman so while they're off running jobs I stand at the desk and organize and send out new orders for them. I basically just run the "office" operation of the bell services and I'm also there as an information resource for the guests. As my mom likes to say, I stand there and tell everyone else what to do. I think I'm going to like it a lot. Old Key West is a pretty relaxed place and it's fun to work there. I didn't do a lot of work yesterday but the little work that I did do I really enjoyed. I hope to be able to cross train a little bit and pick up shifts as a front desk worker to just really further my knowledge and experience in the Hotel and Resort Industry. I just have a feeling that this experience is going to far exceed all of my expectations and CAN'T WAIT to see what the Lord has in store for me here at Disney this semester. Hopefully soon I'll have up some pics of my costumes and maybe a video of what my apartment looks like. Until then

Time to pack up

Well this is my first post. I just want you guys to know I'm not big on blogging, i'm doing this because there are so many people that have told me to keep them updated on how Disney is going and I didn't want to leave anyone out or forget someone so a blog became the easiest option for me. My posts will be almost entirely "What I did today" and they might not be that often. But regardless I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences as much as I enjoy living them. In two days I will be boarding my flight to Orlando, my mom and I are staying overnight and Wednesday I'll be checking into my residence and getting my job placement. So in a few days I'll have a lot more to talk about then I do now.