Two Posts in One - Covering Five Days!

I'm going to catch up yet! Get ready for a bit of a marathon read, because I'm going to cover five days at once, in two "posts" (but they'll both be part of this one). And there will probably be more later today.

Post #1: The Magic Kingdom

Okay, so I’ve mixed up my days but good. You know how I just wrote about Monday being so great and how I went to Epcot? Well, that actually happened three days earlier, on Saturday. The amusing thing was that I first wrote it as happening on Saturday and then second-guessed myself and changed it. But I was right the first time. I figured this out because I realized that what really happened on Monday, which was a grand trip to the Magic Kingdom, happened before Tuesday, because I was writing about Tuesday and remembered talking about it to someone on that day. I actually went to Walmart and bought bins and things on Thursday after the meetings, according to my reciepts. But anyway, now I’m going to tell you about the real Monday. It’s going to be long, so if you want to skim, I won’t be offended. I know my mom will read the whole thing, though :-)
I found out, while talking to my roommate Marijka, that she had never been to the Magic Kingdom. So since we both had Monday off, we thought we would go together. I went somewhere Monday morning – oh yeah, to get my ID! And I did look for my ID at Taco Bell and the Commons on Saturday (not Sunday) before going to Epcot, which I had thought I did at first, because I thought I did more than just banking that morning, and I was depressed before I went to Epcot, which I thought I had been, because I had had two failed errands, one being not finding my ID! It all makes sense now. So, anyway, I had found my ID, and I went to Vista Way for a little while to check my e-mail. As I was coming back to the apartment at around noon, I was feeling a little tired and not sure if I really felt like trolling around MK (I’m going to abbreviate it from now on, I’m tired of typing it out every time, and it’s going to come up a lot…) all afternoon. But when I came in and had put away my stuff, Marijka asked me with sweet uncertainty whether we were still going. I knew that once I was there I would be glad I was, and how could I say no? So I said,
“Yes, we are!” And we got ready, and took the bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC), which is where those who drive to MK park. We could have taken the bus right to MK, but I didn’t know exactly how to get from where the bus drops you off to the actual entrance, and anyway, it was her first time and I wanted her to have the full experience, complete with monorail.
When we got to the monorail, I went right to the transportation worker and asked,
“Could we sit in the front?” He confirmed that it was just us two (only four at a time can sit in the cockpit), and sent us on up to the front loading section, telling us to talk to the man there. Grinning at Marijka, I went up to him and asked again,
“Can we sit up front?” the cockpit was empty, and he said that yes, we could. For those of you who have not experienced this – if you ask, you can sit in the very front of the monorail, where the captain is. This means you get a full view out the front window, instead of just peering through the small windows on the sides. It’s like flying.
I watched eagerly out the front for the first sight of the castle. We went through the Contemporary resort, and then, finally, as we came around a curve, there it was!
“Look!” I cried to Marijka, pointing.
“Oh!” she exclaimed softly. Friends, the “Oh!” of a first-time sight of Cinderella Castle is absolutely priceless.
When we came into the park, it was just starting to rain. Fortunately neither of us is too traumatized by getting wet, so we weren’t discouraged by this. It was about 3:15 as we were coming in – and there came the parade, down Main Street! We were just in time to see it! We stood next to a building so as not to get completely soaked, and watched it come. I love that parade.
When it was done, and the rain let up, we walked down Main Street, discussing where we wanted to go. She knew instantly that she wanted to go to Fantasyland first, and since that’s my favorite place, it was okay with me. We were standing in front of the castle, deciding the best way to get to Fantasyland, when a man came up to us, holding two fastpasses in his hand and saying something about Splash Mountain. English wasn’t his first language, so I wasn’t sure what he wanted at first, and was trying to explain Fastpasses and direct him to Splash Mountain, but it turned out that he had to leave, had two fastpasses for right then, and wanted to give them to us! (For those of you who don’t know about fastpasses: they are a way to not have to wait so long on a ride. You get a fastpass, and it gives you an hour’s range of time later that day to come back. It gives a limited number out per hour of the day, switching to the next hour when it reaches the quota, so that the fastpass line is a good deal shorter.) Well, we had been going to go to Fantasyland first, but we weren’t going to pass up an almost waitless ride on Splash Mountain, so we headed for Frontierland.
We hardly had to wait in line at all! We just walked through the corridors until we got to where the fastpass and the standby lines meet, and the cast member came and let us through. We ended up sitting right in the front! As the log car came around the curve where you go past where the others splash down, a car came down the mountain into the water, creating a terrific splash – we got SOAKED! And we had just started to dry out! Marijka shrieked and I laughed and laughed. We got way wetter then than we did on the actual splash down. Oh, and Papa, I remembered to hold my hat in my lap… so that my favorite hat would not get eaten by Splash Mountain.
“So, where do you want to go now?” I asked Marijka as we came out of the ride.
“Fantasyland!” she said instantly. So we found our way over there – and went on every single ride. It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, Dumbo, Cinderella’s Carousel, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh… we even went on Snow White’s Scary Adventures, which I’d never been on before. It was rather creepy – I wouldn’t recommend it for small children. And also Mickey’s Philharmagic, which I hadn’t done before. It was odd – although I was enjoying everything, I wasn’t feeling much of a sense of magic. “Dear me, I’m getting old and cynical,” I thought. Having something tangible often helps the way I think of things, so I was thinking of buying some small item that I liked as a symbol of the fact that the magic would continue no matter how old I was. It was just then that we did Mickey’s Philharmagic. It was wonderful! It’s set up like it’s going to be an orchestra concert (it’s a 3-D movie really), with Goofy stage managing (no one in their right mind would let Goofy stage manage anything!). Then something goes wrong backstage, and Mickey, the conductor, has to dash off to fix it, giving strict instructions to Donald not to touch his sorcerer’s hat, which he leaves on the stand. Of course, Donald does, and the result is an adventure through several classic Disney songs. The Peter Pan song “You Can Fly” in 3-D is amazing – I felt like I was really flying with them! In the end it dissolves into chaos, until Mickey appears, the hat comes down on his head, and he conducts furiously to sort everything out in a beautiful finale. I loved the whole thing so much that I ended up buying a stuffed Mickey in a conductors outfit with the sorcerer’s hat. And I don’t know if it was just that it was something I hadn’t ever done before, or that I loved it so much, but that show brought back the feeling of magic for me.
It rained again later in the afternoon, but we just walked through it, laughing all the time.
“My friends would not believe I am doing this!” Marijka said, laughing. “Walking in the rain and getting all soaking wet! At home I am the girly-girl!” I laughed, saying that I never would have guessed. By the time we had done every ride in Fantasyland, it was eight o’clock and we were starving. We wanted to go to a sit-down restaurant, because we would get a discount there and also we were tired and a delicious leisurely meal sounded nice. Unfortunately, I had forgotten/ didn’t realize two things. Firstly, you need a reservation for a sit down restaurant in the Magic Kingdom because everything fills up so fast. Since there were only two of us, they might have been able to fit us in somewhere if it weren’t for the second problem – almost every restaurant in the MK closes at eight! So there we were, soaking wet, very hungry, trailing from restaurant to restaurant and no place to eat! Finally, we found Cosmic Ray’s, a place in Tomorrowland that stays open until the park closes. We split a meal of ribs and mashed potatoes, and it was delicious. When we finished eating, Marijka wanted to go and see Mickey’s house. When we got there, the lady working there said that if we wanted to we could go meet Mickey – there was no line! I couldn’t believe it! So we got to walk right in and see him! And for the first time, I bought an overpriced picture – because the only camera we had was on Marijka’s phone and it didn’t take very good pictures, and I wanted a picture of us with Mickey, soaking wet and grinning. When we came out of the picture buying place, the fireworks were just starting. We ran through Toontown and Fantasyland, oohing and ahing as they burst over our heads, until we got to Main Street where we could see them well.
We ended the night with the classic shopping through the Emporium on Main Street, and a monorail ride back – in the front again. It was a perfect, classic, Magic Kingdom day.


Post #2: Training

On Tuesday, I had to get up ridiculously early in the morning to take a class called “Once Upon a Time is Now.” Looking at my schedule, it seemed to me that this was the training class for everyone working in Magic Kingdom, and I was right.
We met in the Disney University building, and, just like the Traditions class, we started out in the cafeteria. Odd place for a class, but I suppose that it’s because it can hold lots of people and it’s right by the entrance to the building. We didn’t stay there long, however. Soon our instructor, Bob (I met him when I first found out my assignment, he’s a great guy, very friendly and enthusiastic) was telling us that we would be boarding our pumpkin carriages that would take us to the Magic Kingdom – but if we hadn’t had enough coffee yet this morning they would look like Disney buses. I couldn’t help grinning at this.
That morning was wonderful. We spent it all touring around the Magic Kingdom, and Bob and another instructor – James, I think? – told us about lots of things about it. For instance, did you know that Main Street slopes upward toward the castle? This slows you down at the beginning of the day, when you’re entering with lots of energy, so that you get a nice walk along Main Street building up the castle instead of just dashing in. Then, at the end of the day when you’re exhausted and leaving, you get to walk downhill to the exit.
While we were standing near the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, James was telling us about how the park is always being updated – that it’s never considered a finished work, and that Walt Disney would walk around the park, asking people in Fantasyland whether they thought they were doing it right and telling the stories correctly. As an example, he explained how the Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was taken out, because although many people made a fuss about it, very few actually knew anything about the story behind it, and only about 13% of the people who came to the park went on the ride.
“Can anyone tell me what fairytale Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was based on?” he asked.
“The Wind in the Willows,” I said promptly. He turned to me in slight surprise.
“Okay. Now name five characters from it.”
“Rat, Mole, Toad, the weasels…” I searched my brain for another – I knew I knew more.
“Badger?” suggested Bob.
“Badger! Of course! I knew there was another!” I said.
“Well,” said James, sounding impressed, “Very few people on this tour can do that. I’d give you a critter if I had another one.” (During the training classes we get ‘critters,’ small figurines of Mickey and Friends characters, when we help with something or answer a question correctly.) However, later he did get one from somewhere, one of Mickey as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and gave it to me. It’s sitting on my nightstand right now, along with the Minnie one I got in Traditions.
I was in a rather chattery mood that morning, because I was happy, and as we walked I kept telling the instructor about things from my experiences at Disney that pertained to whatever we had been talking about. I think that I might have been driving them crazy… but at least I was enthusiastic.
Then came the afternoon. And the next day. Both of which only the fact that I was in the Magic Kingdom made endurable. They were both custodial specific, and involved trailing around the Magic Kingdom and the backstage areas being shown all the cramped janitors closets. The first afternoon was the worst, both because of the contrast between the magical morning, and because of the instructor. She talked down to everyone, especially those in our group who didn’t speak English very well. She kept teasingly saying that they weren’t listening well because they couldn’t answer her questions, but she had a thick New Jersey accent and it was no wonder they couldn’t understand her. The next day was a bit better because the instructor was actually competent and talked to us like adults – but they still both felt completely janitorial and very unmagical. And it was so dull, because we were just going over the same things again and again…
Thursday was a day off. I can’t remember what I did at all, other than calling my sister Rebecca because she’d had surgery that day. Oh yeah, I just remember what I did in the evening! But I’ll make that a new post, because I want to finish off about training so I don’t leave you on the depressing note.
On Friday and Saturday, things were much better. I got to have my real trainer, Erica. She’s not much older than me, and much more cheerful than the other two. And for those days we were doing actual practical training, where we polished the brass drinking fountains and washed the telephones and swept and dried off the counters in the bathroom and such. It’s slightly odd, but actually cleaning the restrooms and sweeping and things was much more gladdening than talking about doing it. For the day and a half with the two dull instructors, I felt as though I was going to hate being custodial. I looked at the other pretty costumes in the costume building – the dresses and things that those who work in some of the restaurants and stores wear – and I was so jealous. I knew it was silly – You’re working at Disney World, for crying out loud! my self yelled at me. You can go to the parks free any time! You actually get to walk around the park instead of being stuck in a building all day. Get over it! But I still felt depressed. So I was glad when I got the practical training and felt so much better. It also helps when the girl at a cart selling bouncing balls says to me, “I’m jealous of you guys. You at least get to walk around.” And I’m enjoying it more and more because I’m getting more used to the walking so I’m not so exhausted. Guest interaction is definitely the highlight – I always leave a conversation smiling. I love being able to talk to people about where they’re from – and kids love to tell me about their souvenirs and what they’ve done that day.

More to come...