Earning My Ears

To "earn my ears" and complete my training at Finding Nemo, The Musical I had three days of training and one day of assessment. I talked about day one of training in my previous post, so here I'll briefly explain how days two, three, and four went.

When you train, you essentially go to all of the positions in the theater and learn how to do each one. You have a trainer accompany you, and they give you advice, tell you the general things to know about each position, and jump in if you have any questions or need help during the show. My trainer, Wendy, was really laid back and cool. I think she realized pretty early on that I had a good handle on what my job was supposed to be, so my training wasn't super intense.

There are many positions inside and outside the theater. The main ones you must learn are photocell, greeter, wheelchair assist, fastpass, upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left, stroller parking, exit greeter, and house center. These positions assign you a place in the theater, and your job is to load the theater prior to the show, run crowd control during the show, and then clear the theater as quickly as possible after the show.

On Days 1 and 2, I covered most of the positions except for house center. I learned how to work the headset system that we all use to communicate with one another during and prior to the show. I also did some e-learning, which is a series of computer modules designed by Disney to make sure that new employees know the basic safety and courtesy guidelines. E-learning was extremely boring, as was reading the operating guide. The operating guide is a book that contains all of the proper procedures for the operation of the show. Those two tasks were definitely my least favorite parts about training.

Also, as an aside, on Day 2, we had a VIP come to the show! A famous actor and his family attended one of our shows, which was really cool. Obviously, no one made a big deal about it and we treated him the same as any other guest, but it was still a really neat experience and something I can now cross off my bucket list!

Day 3 was primarily focused on finishing up anything we had left to do, and learning house center. House center loads the entire show and is basically the "captain" for the show. They tell everyone where to seat people, keep track of wheelchair spaces, and control the opening and closing of all doors and curtains. It was definitely overwhelming, but after a while, I got the hang of it, and now I'm actually looking forward to running house center by myself next week.

I also learned Parade Audience Control (PAC) during training. As a CP, my job will consist of a lot of PAC shifts, which essentially is just controlling the crowd during the 3:45 parade at Animal Kingdom. There are certain ropes you have to pull, and you have to watch the crowd during the parade to make sure everyone is being safe and not putting themselves or the performers in danger. I think PAC is a nice break from Nemo, but everyone tells me that I will feel differently when I have to do the parade in the July heat and humidity!

Today was my assessment day. Assessment for Nemo consists of a performance and knowledge assessment. I was assessed by Awilda, because your trainer cannot assess you. I ran house center, photocell, fastpass, upper right, and did a shift at parade. Everyone told me I did an awesome job, and my coordinators and managers even took notice, so I'm really happy that I am off to such a good start at my role! I even managed to get every question right on my knowledge assessment (: Honestly, assessment day isn't something to stress about. If your trainer does their job, you should be able to breeze through the assessment. AND, at the end of your assessment, you officially "earn your ears!"

So, as of today, I am a fully trained cast member at Finding Nemo, The Musical and have officially earned my ears with the Walt Disney Company! I have off tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday, so I'm looking forward to relaxing, running errands, and hopefully hitting the parks!