Opening

It has been a few weeks since I officially started training with the marine mammal team. The first week of training I focused on learning the 8-5 shift, and then shortly after I was transitioned to learning the opening shift, which is 7-4. While I am not a fan of waking up early to get to work, I really love being done early and my shift goes by really quickly whenever I open!

The opener is the first member of the marine mammal team to arrive at The Seas. When I arrive, it is my job to open the office, turn on the computers, get the phone messages, and then check on the animals. After that, I start preparing the AM diets for the dolphins. This basically means I sort and weigh fish (capelin and herring) for each of the 4 dolphins. This is a pretty tedious job since I have about an hour to prepare 12 buckets of fish. Afterwards, I clean the kitchen and then get ready to dive! The opener always dives to clean the manatee pool and uses the vacuum. I really like diving because it makes the morning go by really quickly. Typically a second person dives with me to help move the sand around while I vacuum the bottom, but sometimes, like this morning, I dive alone, which means the dive safety people have to tether a rope to me! After diving, I shower and get changed back into my clothes. Typically, I go watch a dolphin session or give a marine biology talk afterwards and then it is time for lunch! The morning definitely flies by when you are an opener.

After lunch I typically cover the manatee stage, which consists of answering questions, feeding the manatees and giving spiels. There are usually some other cleaning tasks I help with in the afternoon. For example, this afternoon I also prepared the PM diets, cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed some rails, did dolphin observations, and covered manatee some more.

So far I am really enjoying the internship! I am totally exhausted by the end of the day, especially because a lot of the work I do is pretty physical, but I find the job very rewarding. I enjoy talking to guests and working with the trainers to care for the dolphins and manatees! I'll be posting more soon about the manatees and my marine biology spiel, so be sure to check back soon for more posts about my Disney Dream!

Check-Out Dive

Today was my last day of training before I start my next phase of training (it's confusing, I know) with the marine mammal team! To summarize, I have had a week of training that has consisted of company orientations, park orientations, building orientations, animal care operations, and several safety courses related to diving. Today was my last day of this, which consisted of a check out dive, a guest programs overview, and a review of the operating guide. Starting next week I begin my training specifically with the marine mammal team! It's A LOT of training, but I know it will be worth it once I feel comfortable in my role.

The check-out dive was definitely the best part of my day! We got to dive in the main aquarium which holds 5.7 million gallons of water and dozens of species of marine life. The Seas is so large that the entire Epcot ball could fit inside of it and there would still be room to drive a bus around it! We had to demonstrate that we were comfortable in the water and with our gear and could do a few basic skills, and then we got to free swim in the aquarium and check it out! This was really cool because the fish at The Seas are fearless. They will swim right up to you, under you, over you, and basically all around you, which is such a neat experience. I also got to swim alongside sharks, rays, turtles, and watch the dolphins through the divider!

To wrap up the day, we learned about the different guest programs offered at The Seas (Dolphins in Depth, Aqua Tours, and Dive Quest) and how to answer guests' questions about the programs. Finally, we went over the dive operating guide and took a short knowledge test on the material. All in all it was a good last day of (stage 1) training. I'm very much looking forward to my day off tomorrow so I can sleep in and play in the parks! Then, on Monday I begin my time with the marine mammal team! I can't wait to meet everyone and learn more about the animals and people I will be working with. Stay tuned!!

The newest fish at The Seas - meet the interns! 

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!

The Gathering, Traditions, Welcome to Ops, and Epcot Discovery Day

If you're wondering what my life has consisted of the past few days, it's been a lot of business casual clothing, training classes, and park tours! I'm in full swing with my training for the marine mammal internship and it has been a hectic few days!

The first major event I attended was the ASE (Animals, Science, and the Environment) Gathering. This was an opportunity to meet the fellow ASE interns, meet the talent management team and leaders, and get our training schedules! It was fun to meet everyone and it felt like the official "start" to my internship!

A few days later I had Traditions, which is Cast Members' official welcome to the Disney Company! It's a four hour class at Disney University where you learn about the heritage of the Disney Company, the Disney way, and the keys to Disney's success. This was my second time taking Traditions, so I knew what to expect, but it was still a pretty nice day. We also got to go to the Magic Kingdom to "observe" Cast Members working in action! That's definitely my favorite part of the day because we get to go in backstage Magic Kingdom and see the utilidors (the tunnels) and also get to be in the parks and enjoy the atmosphere! We also received our Company IDs and our name-tags. Getting my name-tag was great, especially because the big cheese (Mickey Mouse!) hand delivered them to us! After Traditions I went over to the Epcot Cast Services Center where I met some of The Seas Cast Members who helped me get my costume and gave me and the other interns a tour of The Seas!

The next day was a full day of classes at Disney University. My day started with Welcome to Operations, which was a 4 hour class about being an operations Cast Member. Operations Cast Members include, ASE, custodial, merchandise, transportation, resort, attractions, entertainment, and several other areas. Honestly, Welcome to Operations was not my favorite class. I felt like a lot of the information was stuff I already knew from being Cast Member before and it was just a really long and tedious class. Luckily, after lunch I got to go to a new class, which was Welcome to ASE. This one was much better because the information actually applied directly to my internship. The class was taught by two zookeepers at Animal Kingdom and they kept it interesting by telling funny stories and sharing their Disney journeys with us.

Finally, today was Discovery Day at Epcot. No matter what your location is at the Walt Disney World Resort, you will always have a location orientation day where you learn about the property. At Epcot, this is called Discovery Day. This was my third park orientation (I've done DAKlimation and On with the Show), and it was definitely the best one yet! I felt like I learned so much more about Epcot and had a blast doing it. For instance, did you know that the dancing fountain behind Spaceship Earth has water from every country represented in the World Showcase in it? Each world leader brought water from their respective countries to the dedication of Epcot and placed it in the fountain symbolically tying all of the countries of the world together. During Discovery Day we also got to ride Spaceship Earth (for research, of course!) and we took a boat tour of the World Showcase. We also learned about culture and how Epcot is unique in that it brings people from all different cultures together with one common goal - to create happiness for guests! There were even a few surprises during the park tour that I do not want to ruin for others, but let's just say that it was a great morning and I really felt welcomed into the Epcot Community!

After Discovery Day ended, I had On the Job Training at The Seas for the first time. I tried on my dive gear, learned Animal Care do's and dont's, discussed professional organizations tied to The Seas, covered Dive Safety and a bunch of other important information! I also got my training schedule for next week, when I will actually begin my marine mammal duties. Today was definitely my favorite day of training, simply because I learned the most!

I'm looking forward to finishing up the rest of my classroom training so that I can begin learning my actual duties as a marine mammal intern! Keep checking back for more updates on the rest of my training and the start of work with the marine mammal team!!

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!

DAKlimation and Training Day 1

For the past two days, I've been training at my job site. I had DAKlimation yesterday, which was basically just an orientation to working at Animal Kingdom. We took a tour of the park for about 2 hours, had a classroom session for about 1 1/2 hours, and then had our lunch break. The park tour was cool because I got to learn a lot of new fun facts! The class session was also somewhat interesting; we learned about the new Fastpass plus system, about how the animals are cared for, and all about spreading the park's message, which is conservation. This is the perfect location for me because I am a Conservation Biology major, so I'm thrilled to be working in Animal Kingdom! After the classroom portion, we received our training schedules for the remainder of the week, which for me meant finding out my work location!!! I'll be working at (drumroll please)...... FINDING NEMO, THE MUSICAL!! I'm super excited about that because I love the show, and think that learning behind the scenes ins and outs will be really interesting.

After lunch, my whole group headed over to costuming, where we got our costumes for our roles. Honestly, I was super excited for costuming, and it ended up being completely stressful and overwhelming. None of the sizes fit like they should, and the building is so huge that it's hard to find everything you need. I was really glad to get out of there with 5 brown plaid shirts, 5 sage green pants, 1 brown belt, and some other super cute (note the sarcasm) accessories. In actuality, my costume is actually pretty tame compared to some of the others. It's just a general costume that goes with the natural/animal/conservation theme of the park. And, the best part about my costume is that I get to wear hiking boots! I don't know why, but I was so happy to go out and buy boots instead of boring black shoes to go with my costume!

Today, I had my first day of on the job training. I was so nervous that I ended up getting there an hour early and sitting in my car waiting! I met my trainer, Wendy, in the main entrance break room, we clocked in, and my day began! I worked from 10:00 to 18:30 (yes, Disney uses military time - aka 6:30) with a 30 minute lunch break and two 15 minute breaks. To be completely honest, I was really shocked with how training went. I was expecting everything to be happy and magical and "Disney", and when it wasn't, it took some adjustment on my part! I ended up really enjoying my day though, once I adjusted to the fact that I was now on the Cast Member side of Disney, not the guest side. I met a lot of people that I will be working with, watched the show, read a chapter of the operations manual, did some online tutorials, and then went into some on the job training at different locations around the theater. It was a bit stressful, because I had to wear a headset so I could communicate with everyone else, which made it hard to focus on the guests while I was hearing a bunch of talking in my one ear. It's definitely something I will have to adjust to!

Overall, these past two days of training have gone really well. The one thing I will say is that both days went completely differently than I had expected. My advice to any incoming CP's or people thinking about applying is to keep an open mind and know that not everything will go completely as planned. The Cast Member side of things is completely different than the Guest side! 

Keep looking for an update on the rest of my training this week. Also, come visit me at The Theater in the Wild for Finding Nemo, The Musical! I would love to see you there (:

Traditions

Today, I had my first official day of training, which is a class called "Traditions" at Disney University. It's a class that introduces new Cast Members to the Disney Company and lets you know about the Disney legacy that you are following when you join the Disney team. It's a lot of going over rules and regulations, but there are some fun parts. You watch videos from guests so you can see how much of an impact of you can have on a guest's vacation on any one day at work. I don't want to divulge too much information, but it's definitely an experience that I'm sure all cast members will always remember!

At Traditions, I received my ears and nametag, which was so exciting!

My first pair of ears!

My nametag! I'm completely official!!

After today, I can start my training at my job site (Animal Kingdom) on Sunday! I'm so excited to start training and learn all about my role, Animal Kingdom, and the Disney Company. I'll leave you with a quote from Walt that was displayed at Disney University today...