I'm sorry I disappeared again. I have been trying to keep my mouth sealed and not spill the beans until it was official.
If you follow Danielle on Instagram, you might have seen a post she put on her stories saying her last day at Backlot was February 22nd.
It's her official last day in Studios because she starts at Epcot on February 23rd. She is moving to Festivals! She is so excited and we're excited for her. If you have followed along with our trip reports, you know she has been wanting to move positions for a while and it finally worked out. The official notification in the Disney system went out this week.
Not too long after we last visited with her the call to leaders to put their name in the hat if they wanted to move went out. She put her name in, with her proprietor's knowledge and support. Within a few days she had an email from one of the proprietors of Festivals asking her to interview the very next day. Festivals is so big that it has 2 proprietors. The interview ended up being virtual due to one of them working from home that day. She felt it went really well. They wanted to interview her due to her background with Festivals. When she went back to Disney to finish her College Program, she worked at Festivals front of the house and stocking. When she called me to tell me about the email for the interview she was in tears, happy tears. She loved working Festivals. Her core friends are all friends she made while working Festivals. She also still knows people working Festivals. I was lucky enough to meet her favorite Leader when I visited her April 2022. Festivals is more than just food too. There is so much that goes into each Festival. She was told when she interviewed that there wasn't a position available yet but one would be coming up and they would be interviewing more people. Her interview was on a Friday. She had her normal Tuesday & Wednesday off, but when she went into work on the Thursday her proprietor told her Festival was taking her. We could not say anything for weeks while the official Disney wheels turned.
I'm so happy for her! I'm happy for me too, I love Epcot Festivals. She starts training on Sunday and will be doing training for 2 weeks. She will be working the opening of Flower and Garden but still training.
So, of course my next thought is when can I visit her for a festival. I already had a trip with Robin, my friend I took my spring trip last year and fall trip the year before with. We are now finalizing some of those plans. We want some Disney time, but we will be doing Universal since we have tickets for the opening of Epic.
We don't know what her schedule is going to look like yet and won't know until she is finished with training. She was told that working Festivals has a different vacation limitation than working other leader positions. She can't take a vacation right before the start of a Festival or within the first 2 weeks. We're going to have to rethink our holiday trips since we're also limited by the CMs being blocked out of parks at holidays too. We're kind of playing around with doing a Christmas trip around the middle of December. That should fall after the limit of 2 weeks at the beginning of a festival and before the Christmas block out.
If anyone is going to Flower and Garden keep your eyes out for Danielle. She won't be stuck in the kitchen like she was at Backlot.
Definitely will!!
