FINALLY COMPLETE! 10/3/2010- But Why is the Rum Gone? Disneyween 2007

[__disneygirl]

I just got back from Disney a few days ago and I was really happy when I saw this in my e-mail! It's never too late to update. I'm sorry to hear about your financial troubles But still, it must be great to have Mickey as a boss, right? Can't wait to hear more about it... especially how casting went that day Also, are you thinking of staying there indefinitely? Just wondering as someone who has considered moving down for the winter. Thanks!!

 

[Care]

Hi Crystal! I'm glad to see you are posting updates for your TR, but sad to hear that you've been having connection issues. I hope it gets resolved soon. How are things going? I am hoping (cross my fingers, say a little prayer) to spend my b-day at Disney World. I need a big dose of magic and happiness.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

November 2, 2007

This is the LAST FULL day of the trip! Three and a half years later, I am nearly coming to the end!!! Celebrate!! (What will YOU celebrate?)

I woke up at the lovely Port Orleans Riverside resort. Have you never been there and don't trust me on how lovely it is? Here, I will show you!

Sometimes in the Fall when it is cooler out, I grab coffee from Starbucks and then come here to sit around and read or write.

I tend to fall into a pattern on my trips where after the first couple of days, I spend most of my mornings at Animal Kingdom, and most of my nights at Epcot. So, given that it was morning, it was time for DAK! On the way into the park, I spotted these beauties:

Those boots on the right are on a pre-teen! I haven't seen such beauty since the very early 80s! (And oh, the blisters chick on the left must have had soon!)


I think we all know by now that I have no idea what I did at the park, so here are some pictures instead!

Felicia Von Focker Crocker finds a kindred spirit. (Sadly, these are some of the last ever photos of poor Felicia. I dropped her off at the AKL front desk for the next person in the croc swap, but they never got her! Poor little croc!)

I like that it almost looks like the turtle is wearing the flower. I am easily amused.

Even the fire hydrants here are decorative and cool!

Yep, the sign is hanging from his tongue.

I decided to take the train out to Conservation Station to see what was going on in the vet office that day.

I love all of the luggage sitting around the station.

I've always liked the little backstage peek you get from the train.

Today the were examining a bat:

Not quite as awesome as the tiger exam with Joe Rhode last trip, but still pretty cool! I can't tell if the girl on the right is super concerned, or just about to fall asleep.

Ads posted at the train station in Harambe

After a while spent exploring Animal Kingdom, I decided that I was in the mood to visit my old friend the Polynesian Resort, for one very important reason:

This was back when they had just gotten their dole whip machine, and the very idea of being able to get a dole whip outside of Adventureland was soooo cool!

Pineappley goodness in hand, I went to sit out on my favorite beach, and let the past week sink in.

As I sat on the beach, I thought about what a great week it had been, after such an incredibly tough year. I thought about how I am always so much happier here than anywhere else. I thought about how much this place felt like home.

And then I walked up to the front of the resort, and caught a taxi over to Casting.

 

[lurkyloo]

Oooh! I like the cliffhanger! (Or maybe I'm just posting right in the middle of a bigger post, in which case, SORRY! )

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Oooh! I like the cliffhanger! (Or maybe I'm just posting right in the middle of a bigger post, in which case, SORRY! )

Nah, I thought I'd throw a little suspense in there for good measure

 

[Hedy]

Oh boy; I'm wicked excited to hear about casting.

 

[Wonders10]

Thrilled for an update...but please don't leave us hanging too long! Obviously we sort of know how things worked out but not the details!

Where are you working at these days?

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Oh boy; I'm wicked excited to hear about casting.

Just so you know, I am picturing "wicked excited" said with a really thick Boston accent Thanks for still being here!

Thrilled for an update...but please don't leave us hanging too long! Obviously we sort of know how things worked out but not the details!

Where are you working at these days?

I have most of the next part ready to go, I'll try to post it tonight!! I got a little long-winded. (Says the girl with an 80 page trip report...)

I'm actually on a break from working for WDW right now but I'll be back there in the fall!

 

[Velsignet]

Ohmahgawd, Disboards! I remembered my login!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Ohmahgawd, Disboards! I remembered my login!

Epic WIN for Katie!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

When we left off, I was at the Polynesian and decided ya know what? I'm just going to go for it, so I walked out to the taxis and asked one to take me to casting. (Hint- DO NOT DO THIS! It was a $20 taxi ride from the Polynesian to casting! You can take a bus to Downtown Disney marketplace, and casting is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET!)

I am pretty sure that nowadays, you have to apply online before they will even see you at casting, but back in my day, you could just wander in all willy-nilly off the street, which is exactly what I did. I am not totally sure how it works now, but back in the day, there was a line to check in if you had an appointment, and one if you didn't, which is the one I hopped in. I waited probably about 10-15 min in line before I got to the front, where I talked to someone that I think I just had to give basic info to, and was given an application to fill out. While you are sitting around, they have videos about various lines of business playing on the TVs in the lobby. After you turn in your paperwork, you are taken to watch a video about the company in general, which I seem to remember feeling totally dorky for crying at. Then I waited around about half an hour, and was eventually called in for an interview.

Did I mention that I came over here pretty much straight from Animal Kingdom? You know how you look after a morning at Animal Kingdom? This is not the level of awesomeness that one should probably have going into a job interview, so I seem to recall throwing into the conversation that I had come over straight from the theme park, to explain my WDW t-shirt and flip-flops approach to interview attire, although everyone else there was pertty casual, too, so I didn't feel that out of place.

I really wish I remembered more details about the interview process for you guys, but it wasn't all that different from your basic job interview. After I talked to the first person about possible jobs (front desk, photopass, not sure what else I mentioned), they set me up to see another person for a front desk interview, so it was back to the lobby to hang around for about 15 more minutes.

I met with interviewer #2, and they explained to me about some different roles that fall under "Front Desk", like actual front desk cashier, concierge, and runner dispatch, and asked about my interest level in each. They asked me some questions that I can only guess were to gague my potential concierge awesomeness. Let me just tell you guys that if you are here on the boards, reading trip reports, you could probably ace this. One I remember was "If I wanted to go somewhere for a nice steak dinner tonight, where would you send me?" Basically I think they just wanted to know what level of Disney knowledge they were working with. They gave me the option to list specific resorts I wanted to work at, or just be open to the first available. I had actually thought a lot in the past about which resorts would be the most fun to work at, but I ended up leaving it open to interview for any that became available, with a preference for certain ones. Let me tell you now, in retrospect, that I am SO GLAD I did this!

We have to skip around in the timeline here for this to make sense. I told them when I interviewed that I didn't live here yet, but was planning to move in December. After my front desk interview, they told me to call about 2 weeks before I was ready to officially move, and they would let me know what was open. I did, and as luck would have it, there were NO front desk spots open at the time! I asked the person on the phone where they could stick me until something opened up, and I was given a choice of quick service foods, or attractions.

If I remember right, QS starting pay is about 25 cents more per hour than attractions, but attractions just sounded more fun, so I went with that, and found out I would be working in Tomorrowland!

So here's the thing. I started typing here about the whole starting to work in Tomorrowland process, the good and bad, and it got LONG, REALLY FAST. So I decided that instead of sticking my whole starting at Disney story here, I am going to add to what I started and just post a blog entry about it. Somehow I'm also more comfortable posting THAT much detail about my life on my blog vs here, where you may not even care. That way, if you want to know all the details, you can just click over there, but if you want to keep it quick, you can just stay here on the report. Hope that works for you! (I'll let ya know when the blog post is up, with a link!)

I only ended up working in Tomorrowland for about 2 months until a concierge position opened up, btw. YAY for indoor, air conditioned jobs!!

 

[Care]

Thanks for sharing your trip report and story about how you ended up working for WDW. I think that we all dream about working for Disney, but not many of us will ever get to realize that dream. Congrats, my friend!

 

[Disneygrl36]

So glad you are finishing this up & interested to read your blog post. I have always wanted to work for Disney/live in Orlando so I can enjoy it whenever I want to, but seem to be held back #1 by the fact that I am a nurse & there aren't alot of nursing jobs for Disney & #2 I worry that it might make my special/happy place less special if I could go whenever I want.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

So glad you are finishing this up & interested to read your blog post. I have always wanted to work for Disney/live in Orlando so I can enjoy it whenever I want to, but seem to be held back #1 by the fact that I am a nurse & there aren't alot of nursing jobs for Disney & #2 I worry that it might make my special/happy place less special if I could go whenever I want.

We have our own doctor's office- you can probably google "Center for Living Well". Although they aren't actually Disney employees, I'm not sure if they get free passes and such. There's also Health Services which is for cast members, and the first aid in teh parks. I'm sick so much I know all the health-related places at WDW

The whole happy place thing is something that I think most of us worry about. I would recommend not working in the parks- I didn't like when I associated MK with work instead of fun But I think you love and appreciate the place in a different way when you pretty much live, eat, sleep, breathe it. Not more or less, just different.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Here is the link to the blog post continuing the casting saga I plan to continue the series on and off for a while, because there is quite a bit that I have never written about in depth!

http://blog.lovemanythings.net/2010/06/workin-for-mouse-part-2.html

Note- Although the post I am linking to here is totally family-friendly, the blog itself is my personal blog about my life, so some other posts may not be up to Dis standards of G-rated!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Yes, I'm bumping myself up. I'm soooo lame!

 

[__disneygirl]

You're not lame I am enjoying this so much! I'm a singer, dancer, and actress living outside of NYC trying to make something happen and I can't tell you how many times I have just been so beyond frustrated and thought, "That's it. I'm moving to Florida and doing entertainment at Disney World!" But I think, like someone else said, it's too precious a thing in my life to consider it a job. I don't really want to see backstage. But I am loooving your story and I can't wait to read the rest. Also, I checked out some of your other blog posts which I really like!

 

[Joyciemc]

Crystal,
I've read your trip reports but I don't think I ever posted on any. I was so psyched to see that you were finishing this up, and way impressed that you remembered as much as you did so long after the trip!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

After I got out of casting, I called/texted a couple of people to say hi, I just got a job at Disney. And then I went back to my resort to hang out for a while. Casting takes up a pretty big chunk of the day, so if you plan to do it on your trip, don't make any other big plans that day! I pretty much just sat around the resort until it was time for one more Adv Club night with Katie!

Once we reached Downtown Disney, Katie decided that if there was going to be Kungalooshing, she should probably eat something first.

If you haven't read any of my old trip reports, you should know that Katie eats Chicken McNuggets in Every. Single. One.

From McDonalds, we started our walk over towards PI, stopping in Raglan Road, where we tried on the Best Hat Ever. Why didn't I buy this??

It was INCREDIBLY windy out, and by the time we made it to PI, we were not feeling so pretty. We needed some refurbishment, if you will.

CLUB! At Last!!

Shame falls away quickly after a drink or two.

For the Balderdash Cup, Katie and I scored a prime table RIGHT up front, towards the right side. (This comes into play soon!)

If you never went to the Club, or just don't remember, the Balderdash Cup show is about three of the Club's permamant members competing for a giant trophy (the Balderdash Cup), by telling their tales of adventure. Oh, just YouTube it, there are zillions of versions out there. At one point, handsome Club aviator Hathaway Browne brags about finding the Lost City of Atlantis, where he met Amelia Earhart and Will Rogers. When asked to produce proof, he pulls out a cocktail napkin from the "Atlantis Bar and Grill", autographed by Will and Amelia, and hands it to Otis.

Now, I have to break into the story here to mention something. I was wearing a shirt tonight that I got a while back and altered to fit my body better. If you haven't noticed, the top um.. part... of my body is quite a bit larger than the bottom. My cup runneth over, if you catch my drift. While this is awesome in a lot of ways, it makes finding cute shirts that fit VERY HARD. By the time it fits my chest, the rest is huge. If it fits the rest of me normally, the girls are so squished in there that if a button popped, it would probably put out an eye.

Wow, I just spent several sentences talking about my chest to thousands of strangers on a family-friendly board. HI! Nice to meet you guys.

Anyway! I had done some alterations to this shirt, but I guess it still needed some work (this poor thing has been through more stitching than Frankenstein in the years since, because I keep losing weight, and having to take it in more!). Something about the placement of where we were sitting just below the stage, and the way the shirt was fitting that night was apparently giving the actors a VERY nice view.

So when Hathaway handed Otis the napkin, Otis hopped down off the stage, came over to our table, unfolded the napkin, and covered me up.

Hathaway did NOT approve of this, told me "NEVER do that!", and I think pulled it off. Emil Bleehall, who was still up on stage where he was supposed to be, waited for the action to die down, and then told me "I'm sure you are a very useful member of society." Ghee, Thanks, Emil!

You know, I had pretty much forgotten about all of this until I just sat down to write about the night and the photos brought back the memory! And funny enough, I just realized that I have worn that SAME shirt outside of the Club with that same "Hathaway" at least a few times. Oops.

Later on, in the Main Salon, I decided that since it was the last night of my trip, and I had no shame left, we needed a picture with Hathaway:

Katie finds it amusing to point out that she is, like, off in another time zone in this one.


Finally, around 2am, the festivities were over, and Katie and I made our way across the parking lot to her car. On the way, we saw this:

The Baptist Church group was out-partying us??? EPIC FAIL!

Back at PO-R, we were VERY amused by the giant Thanksgiving display my neighbors had set up outside their room. There was a turkey....

Oddly, NEITHER of us noticed until we got home and looked at the pics that the turkey was being boiled alive! We just saw turkey!

They had also set up a table of food with a big poster:

The bigger version of this pic shows off my shirt issues a little too well, so we will stick with the tiny one!

And so endeth the last FULL day of my last trip as a guest! Awww, that makes it kind of sad! I mean, I guess I will be a guest again someday, but still.

Up next: Departure Day, and the Trip Report will FINALLY BE OVER!!!

 

[Velsignet]

I don't even like chicken mcnuggets.
I wish I could quit them.