Training Classes

I've been continuing my training at The Seas with many more classroom learning experiences. The first thing that had to happen in order for me to continue with the training was to pass a dive physical. I went to Health Services last week to get a bunch of tests, and then back a few days later to see a doctor and have the results interpreted. Thankfully, all my tests came back normal and I passed my physical, which means that I am officially cleared to dive on the job!

Besides my appointments, I have had a lot of classroom training. I have to go through all of this training before I can even begin working and learning my role within the marine mammal staff. I have to admit, the classroom work is starting to become tedious. I totally understand why I need all of it, but I am just really anxious to get to meet the marine mammal staff and get to know more about my specific duties! It's been a long wait, but luckily, I get to officially start at the beginning of next week, which is very good news.

I've had classes on dive safety, behavioral husbandry, interpretation, and CPR and first aid. In dive safety class we took a tour of all of the places we could potentially be diving and identified all of the safety features at each spot. We also reviewed important paperwork involved with diving and talked about how to practice safe diving. In behavioral husbandry we learned about training and enrichment and how Disney is combining the two to give their animals the highest quality of care. The interpretation class was all about how to talk to guests about animals. We got to give practice spiels to one another and talk about sensitive topics and how to address them in an appropriate manner. Finally, I had CPR and first aid class this morning. I was anticipating a pretty dull day, but it actually was a lot better than I originally thought! My instructors were great, they made us laugh and made the tedious tasks so much better. So, after today, I am now officially certified through DAN (Diver's Alert Network) to administer first aid or CPR in the case of a diving accident!

Tomorrow is my check-out dive and I finish up the rest of my general training. Then, it will be time to move on to specifically training with the marine mammal department! I could not be more excited to officially get started and get to know everyone on the team that I'll be working with for the next few months. Stay tuned for many more posts coming soon, and as always, keep on dreaming!