CRAZY

Hey everyone!! I know I know I know, it has been quite a while since I have updated last!  Things have just been INSANE!!!!  To this blog will have several components to it for you all out there!  To start, be sure your following our vlogs, this is one of the things that has been taking up my time!  We call our selves the CP team and in the vlogs you live vicariously through the lives of current CPs!  The link for that is http://www.youtube.com/user/CPTEAMWDW?feature=mhum

Alright, so to start things off I moved apartment complexes.  As you all know I was in Vista Way.  My roommate Allison left the program so I got a new roommate in.  She was actually very nice, but as soon as Allison left I knew that I wanted to move in with Paige!  That way we would be able to hang out more and not worry about the crazy curfews that we have.  So now I live in building 5 at Chatham!  You can check out a tour of the apartment on our vlog!  I live right below Michael now so the CP Team is together!!  So now I am sure many of you are wondering how you move apartments!  Well first off one of Paige’s roommates moved out so we knew that there was an empty spot in the apartment!  I went to the front desk of Vista and filled out a request fourm.  I got a call the next day saying it was approved and that I have 3 days to move into the apartment.  I had to pay a $50 charge to change apartments, but it was well worth it!!!  It is really simple to do so!  Now I love my new apartment!

So one of the perks to being a cast member during late September is being able to attend the cast preview of the Boo to You parade!! ITS AMAZING!!!  Also we were able to purchase discounted tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!  The gang and I went on Sept 28^th and enjoyed the various entertainments there!  We got to go trick or treating, listened to a quartet, watched the fireworks, the villains mix and mingle, and then the amazing parade!  Such a fun time!  We are hoping that they open up dates in October for cast discounts so we can go again!  I’m sure we will be going again any ways haha.

The Holidays are right around the corner and signs of them are already starting to show around Disney.  To start the lights are up on the castle.  No they are not lit yet, but it was interesting seeing the crane putting them up there.  We all sat there and decided that it was really really bad show to have the crane up during the middle of they day, but they I guess they gotta do what they gotta do!  Also when Josh and I went to see Fantasmic at Studios we saw that they alright are starting to get decorations up in their window displays!  CRAZY!  I cannot wait for the Holidays around Disney!  It is going to be AMAZING!

So yeah, that is the chaos that has been going on!  Not to mention I have been working 50+ hour weeks!  But right now I am on my way home to Colorado for the weekend!!  I am excited to see friends and family!  So I will leave all of you there!  Hope everyone is doing great that is already down there, and if you are coming for spring time get excited!!!!!  Have a magical day everyone!

Innoventions!

Hey everyone!!! So I ended up getting transfered to Epcot west side attractions at Innoventions!!!  It has been so much fun so far!  So here is how all of this went down; last Monday I got a call from the Disney University people telling me I was to be at Epcot on Tuesday for orientation at 8:00 am.  Then I received another call from the manager at Innoventions that she would have a trainer meet me after orientation to show me around and explain what I would be doing.  So yeah, that was crazy fast!!

So I trained for 3 days last week on The Sum of All Thrills presented by Raytheon.  I forgot how boring some of the computer work and reading is haha!  But I learned about being a greeter, pre-show, design lab, grouper, and robo operator!  I love pretty much all the positions, but robo operator the most!  It's just so much fun being in control of this large piece of awesome technology!  

For those of you that do not know what Sum of All Thrills is.....let me explain.  Sum of all Thrills is where you design and engineer your own thrill ride using math and science to determine the level of intensity that you use.  Ok so yeah I know that sounds scripted but it's the best way to explain what it is!  Pretty much you start off in a pre-show where they explain exactly what it is that your doing, then you go to your design lab where you work on a touch screen computer to build your ride.  You determine what move it does, how high it goes, and how fast.  But you have to be sure that you aren't going to fast or too slow and it shows all the math equations they are using on the screen....and trust me guys, they are all real! So Fantastic!!! Maybe that's just the nerd in me!  Then after that you go up to the platform and give your design card to a cast member.  They swipe their computer with it and it uploads your ride to the robo.  Then you get to ride it!!!!!!

As you can tell I absolutely love this ride!  I am so much happier where I am now and cannot wait to be trained at the other locations throughout Innoventions!  I will tell you about those later ;-)  But for now I am out!!!  Enjoy this video showing what The Sum of All Thrills presented by Raytheon is....

Medical accommodation

Hey everyone!  Hope everyone is doing great, and I am super excited about all the new people getting ready to come out here!! I cannot believe that it is almost August!  CRAZY!  Where did the summer go?  Oh yeah it all went to Disney!!! haha.  As you can tell I am still loving it down here!  My last post was all about my er trip and what to do when you get sick and yada yada yada, but now I have run into something else along the keeping healthy at Disney topic; Medical Accommodation!  What is this you may ask?  It is where you can request a medical restriction on your working.  Here is exactly what Disney has to say about it :

Please review the following when a College and International Programs Cast Member reports a medical restriction. A) The Cast Member reports a permanent medical condition that prevents him or her from performing the role: When a candidate arrives in the work location with a previously unreported medical restriction, the candidate and his/her physician must complete the Request for Medical Accommodation in Employment Form and submit it to Health Services. The form is available on The Hub in the Health Services module. B)The Cast Member suffers an occupational injury that cannot be accommodated in his/her current location or role: If the medical restrictions are due to an occupational injury, the work location must partner with the local Modified Duty Office for a temporary assignment. C) During his or her Program, the Cast Member reports medical restrictions which result in the Cast Member being unable to work: If the restriction is temporary and not the result of an occupational injury, resulting in an absence of greater than five (5) consecutive working days, the work areas can indicate the first five days as call-ins and then grant the Cast Member a maximum of five ADOs based on business need. If the Cast Member misses more than ten (10) consecutive workdays (based on a five-day, 40-hour workweek) not to exceed 14 consecutive days, he/she must be terminated and given a "restricted" rehire status. If the restriction is permanent and not the result of an occupational injury, the candidate and his/her physician must complete the Request for Medical Accommodation in Employment Form and submit it to Health Services. The form is available on The Hub in the Health Services module. *Participant must continue to be scheduled in his or her current location while his or her request for medical accommodation is being evaluated. For additional information, please see the Recasting Guidelines document on The Leadership module of the College, International and CareerStart Programs module on The Hub.

Whew that's a lot of words!!!  Anyways due to my allergies I have fallen under this category and have had to put in a request to be moved from outdoors, and foods.  Pretty much what I had to do is I went to health services and got a packet of paperwork to fill out.  My portion of it asked questions like what is the illness or injury, mine is allergies, when did it start, what does it limit etc.  Then it asks what accommodations they can make for it, and I said to not work out doors or with food because coughing, sneezing, not breathing in front of customers is just not good customer service.  So I asked to be moved to attractions where I would not have to deal with any of that.  So then I had to fax the other half of the packet to my doctor to fill out.

So  now all of the paper work is in, and the committee reviewed it and it got approved!!!!!  So I got a phone call today from the lady over seeing the whole thing and I am suppose to call her if I have any troubles with any of it, and now I am just waiting on the college program to give me a call so I can find out where I am moving to!  So yeah that is the excitement here!!!  I should be doing another post here soon on some of the stuff to do around here on your days off, that is when your not going to the parks and having the time of your life!  Anyways I think this is enough for today, I will update you on where I am moving to!!!  Have a magical day everyone!!!

Getting sick while on the College Program

Well it happened I got extremely ill.  Well more of what happened was an asthma attack that landed me in the ER.  I did not know I had it, but evidently I do haha.  Anyways what happened in on Friday when I was getting ready to head to work I started having a real hard time breathing and I thought it was actually an allergy attack cause that happens to me, only thing different is that I was not coughing uncontrollably, it was more my lungs.  So I rushed home to my inhaler and took a couple of puffs but that did not help at all. So I took a benadryl and it knocked me out for a while.  I managed to be able to call into work and say that I could not come in.

Well all night long I had troubles breathing and was not doing well at all, it was getting scary.  So that morning I called in again and went into the ER.  Turns out it was an astma attack, and it was close to turning into pneumonia...go thing I went in!!  So I have an inhaler for allergy attacks and for asthma attacks now - yup 2 diff ones.  And now I am also on a mad to take down the swelling in my lungs.  The doc also wanted me to take today off from work as well.  Yes 3 days...Scary thing to have to do!

But I did learn that you can call 3 days in a row sick and only receive one point for those days.  Sometimes you can do longer if you have a doc note.  I have one just in case that I need to take to health services so they have it.

I did call my managers to let them know what was going on.  They were very thankful for this!!  My best advice is just let your managers know what all is going on and get on their good side.  It was good for me to tell them so they did not think that I was just calling out to be a slacker, but I had no choice.  Paul was the one I talked to and I told him exactly what happened.  He was very understanding!!  This also covers me for if I have troubles while at work tomorrow they will be more willing to work with me to help me out in any way they can.

So yeah, that is my advice to everyone out there!! Keep in contact with your managers about things!!!!

Hope everyone is having a magical weekend!

Auditions!

Hey everyone!!!!!  So today I took a dive and wen't and auditioned for the part of Vidia - one of Tinker Bell's faries.  The audition was right after I got off of work so I hurried over there as fast as I could.  It was an interesting sight because I went running through the parking lot unbuttoning my shirt as I ran (don't worry I had a shirt on underneath!) jumped in my car threw off my pants (had shorts on underneath as well) and changed my shoes real quick!  Drove like crazy over to Animal Kingdom wardrobe where the auditions were.

When I got there we went in and got measured for height (I am 62.5")  Then I signed in and got a number. I found two of my friends there who were also trying out.  We sat around a while until they took in one group of people.  I wasn't in the first group, so we sat and kept talking.  Then they took our group in.

When we got into the room they lined us up in rows of 10.  There were 50 of us in all in our group.  We then were told to talk with each other and keep smiling and they wondered around looking at each person.  It was a very quick process.

I didn't make it, they only took like 2 of the 50 of us so yeah.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the right skin tone for her but oh well!! I"m planning on going to another audition!!  Should be fun!! But anyways I thought I would share that with you all!!  Hope everyone is doing well!!

Hey hey hey!

Hey everyone!  Hope you all are doing well out there!!  Sorry I have not really written much but I have just been supper busy!  Work is going great!  There are some frustrating days, not going to lie, but all in all I love everything about my job!  I am currently working on working my way towards being a trainer for people coming in August!!  I sure hope I get the position!  Anyways, I do not have much to say, just wanted to stop by and say hi!

Epic Day!

Finally for a few days off haha!!  Today was day 2 of my days off and it's back to work tomorrow night to work the 5k obstacle course....yay...I'd much rather be competing in it, but oh well I guess.  So why was today such an epic day?? Well I'll tell you of my journey.

I started off in sunny orlando Florida with my friend Paige.  We then went to the Dino institute where we were to go back in time to see the cretaceous period.  But then this guy wanted us to go back to the late cretaceous period to find an iguanadon, only prob was that it was about 90 sec until the meteor that killed almost all life was to hit.  So we went back in time in search of the iguanadon when we made a larger dinosaur angry and he chased us around.  We finally got home right before the meteor impact, and guess who we brought back with us?  Yes the iguanadon!!!!

So after this exciting and scary adventure Paige and I saw Mt. Everst off in the distance, so we decided that we would go climb to the top!!!  After walking through the streets of Asia, and looking at all the prayer cloths and seeing how many prayers had answered we had finally made it to the base of Everest where we got our gear on and started our climb...well ok so we took a train.  But as we were going along our train tracks were broken!!!!  So we went backwards down the mountain and loop de dooed around we were stopped yet again by the sacred yetti where he was tearing up more of our track!!! So we finally made it back down to base alive.

Exhausted after this journey we stopped at a local mart for a refreshing drink.  Then we continued walking and somehow ended up in Africa where everyone was saying Jambo to us and the drums were beating and the people were dancing.  We soon came across a safari ride!! So we went on our 2 week long safari ride and saw several animal until we learned that there were poachers in the reserve!! So we raced over to help the poor baby elephant and saved the day!!!!!

After we got back we wondered through the streets of Africa when we crossed over a bridge and suddenly felt very small as we entered through a hole in the great tree of life.  There we met several bugs until one showed up who was not happy to see us and was out for revenge!!! We got stung, and attacked by spiders until a lizard saved the day!!  After this we were exhausted and decided that we had done enough for one day and decided to go home!!!

Ok so can we tell I'm bored haha!! After this wonderful day at Animal Kingdom I met up with my aunt and uncle who I hadn't seen in ever and they're 2 boys and ate at the T-rex cafe in Downtown Disney which is a great place!! I highly suggest it!!  Anyways I"m out, hope you enjoyed my story haha :-p  have a magical day!