In an attempt to stop spending money and eating excessively I have opted for a ‘quiet’ night in, although I have succeeded on the no spending front I find myself eating anything an everything in my cupboard, as I write this I am munching on a oatmeal and raisin cookie, in addition I have the entire box within arms reach and I can pretty much guarantee I will embrace the American eating habits and finish the box tonight. But its ok oats are healthy and raisin is a fruit so its a healthy snack by US standards. Admittedly this is quite a bizarre way to start a post supposed to be about my life in Florida, however its actually quite appropriate because I firstly want to bring to everyone’s attention the food out here sucks (see, Ive fully grasped the American lingo already) everything is trans fat this and added cheese that, vegetables are near impossible to find and according to a very sweet yet incredibly misguided lady in walmart, fries are considered one of my five a day because a potato – according to Americans is considered a vegetable.

Im probably been over harsh on the notoriously bad US eating ethics, and this is not intended to be offensive or in any way representative of the American people, in fact the opposite, as I have met some fantastic people from all over the US, their warmth and friendliness towards me has been incredible,  but when one is used to a particular eating habit  and thrown in to a calorie / carb / fried food fest its difficult to adapt. Ok rant over I think I’ve made my opinions clear on the food out here, so I shall continue with what people actually want to hear about DISNEY!

Recently I have been feeling disappointed with this years program, of course I love been here, and I love the company but I don’t feel I am suitable for the role of mousekeeping, the work is hard, physical and by its very nature carries an element of isolation, I don’t object to the physicality of the work I actually enjoy the challenge – its the lack of contact with people that was eating away at my positivity, whilst bordering on arrogant I feel I can say my skill set lies within the boundaries of customer service and being taken out of the guest arena is somewhat demotivating. However I am very fortunate to work for a exceptionally supportive manager who I believe does have my best interests at heart, so after a week or so of moaning and a dubiously high amount self doubt  I am beginging to see my potential within housekeeping and I now believe I can make just as much impact aesthetically as I can with face to face contact. Although I still feel I am yet to reach the peak of my pessimism, day by day I can feel the positivity starting to resurface and therefore don’t mind getting up at 6am as much as I did before.

Having worked in a guest facing environment for the majority of my (arguably short) working life I still crave the interaction with people, so thanks to the extra hours hotline(EHH as its collectively referred to in Disney*) I have been working at the Magic Kingdom as a parade audience controller. I pick up shifts when available and it means a long day because I work at pop in the day then MK at night, but I do not consider PAC to be work, this to me is fun I essentially get paid to watch the fireworks and nightly parade, the people interaction is great and I pick up overtime pay which is always a nice boost to the wage packet. I was fortunate to be working on 4^th July this year (yes fortunate I do love PAC) and the independence day celebrations were incredible although clearly not American I couldn’t help but feel in total awe at the huge fireworks display choreographed to star spangled banner, although I don’t  pretend to know where the strong sense of American pride stems from, judging by the fireworks display at MK my guess would be .... Disney. So yeah in short I love PAC.

At this time I am a little behind on my blogging, I do have loads to write about but feel any one post can only be so long so am having to constrain myself to ensure you don’t get bored, I hope what I am writing so far is interesting and provides an insight in to what Im getting up to here in Florida. So thanks for continually reading you attention is appreciated. See ya real soon   

*- Disney Thrive on acronyms if it can be abbreviated, it is. I could laboriously detail examples but the relevancy is questionable and I doubt most of you will even be interested.    

wooop first post on us soil

Wow I actually love my life, it currently consists of beaches, cocktails, beer, amazing food, perfect weather, fireworks and of course Disney.  As my previous posts were fairly mundane and didn’t really instil much excitement I thought I would postpone my blogging until events demanded a post be created.  Therefore as I sit in my Chatham Square apartment I happen to be writing  my first post on US soil and this time I have an abundance of exciting Disney related news to report on. The only difficulty is where to start, the flight would be sensible but I think we all know the intricacies of a long haul flight and apart from a entertaining attempt by me and laura to name as many Disney characters as possible (we managed about 70) there is nothing extra ordinary to bring to your attention. Nor with our arrival in Orlando the journey was pretty average, and despite been considerably delayed in Miami due to the notorious Floridian storms we arrived in Orlando with out any issues, although through a fortunate error immigration at Miami had to extend my visa by a further 6 months – very useful if I actually had the funds or purpose  to stay in the US however at the time of writing i have neither, but nice to have the option.

After collecting bags we made our way to Vista Way to check in to our home for the next few months, I always love been greeted by very happy, very enthusiastic members of the housing operations department and despite been horrifically tired you also make a valiant attempt to be just as happy and enthusiastic. After an initial introduction you are issued with your key – a critical moment which much anticipation had surrounded, however the god of housing operations smiled on me and although Patterson was unavailable I was lucky to be allocated Chatham. So far so good the rooms are great actually bigger then Patterson which is nice and I have some pretty cool roommates, and quite bizarrely a strange sense of de ja vue (yes spelling isnt my forte - nor is french, but you get the idea)   as I am again sharing with 2 Turkish, guys, 2 French guys and 2 British guys, in addition this year we also have 2 Dutch guys which is great and we are all getting on pretty well. 

As anticipated the first 2 days of Disney were spent in the commons club room going through the laborious, monotonous paperwork and housing regulations  although its for our benefit it is undoubtably the most boring 2 days of the program.  Plus side, we did get our specific role assignments and this is always a fun moment to compare locations, its clear to see who is elated with their location and who is majorly disappointed with where they will be working for the summer. Im afraid I was bordering more on the disillusioned side as it was confirmed i will be working at pop century, although in complete contrast to my previous experience I will now be working in a value resort, not exactly what I wanted but open mind and all that so the show must go on.

My first couple of days on location were actually alot different to what I was expecting, I envisioned a Travelodge style hotel with dull decor, miserable staff and dilapidated building, but of course this is Disney and with that comes the notorious level of guest service, instead i was greeted with a flamboyant, colourful, immaculately maintained pleasant resort that carried a not so subtle element of entertainment . For those of you that don’t  know pop century is a themed hotel that features different decades from the 50’s  to the 90’s  and exhibits over size iconic items appropriate to the decade, so the 90s building has a huge (and I mean huge) cell phone on either side, its difficult to depict in writing so see the photo below to fully exemplify the eccentricity of this resort.

At this point I feel I should talk about traditions although slightly out of sequence it is a defiantly worth a mention. For most traditions is a little dull, I however love the traditions class it really emphasises the value of the Disney company and what it means to people across the world, and to be a part of that is incredibly exciting. Traditions really does instill a sense of pride and also a momentary period of self reflections as you consider your own ability to make magic. (yes I know cheesy, but when you think over 3000 people applied for this position and less then 500 were selected really does make you want to do the best you can do for the guests.

Well I think that’s enough for this blog, I have another one already in the pipe line so see ya real soon