Yesterday I got Grouper a lot. It's not my favorite, but it does make time go fast. Right now is "Band Kid Season" I've decided. Having once been a band kid I love having them with us. Teenagers are always interesting and it's an ego boost to be told countless times a day that you're loved by teenage boys...
Those tidbits are both important for this story. :)
I was grouping my third or fourth group of band kids. This particular group was very excited about Disney and very talkative. They asked a lot of questions about the roller coaster and my job. I tried to answer in a short amount of time so that I could timely get them on the ride. Right before I seated our young Guests one boy in the line asked me if I would give him my name tag... what? LOL I told him no and he asked again this time offering me all the trading pins on his lanyard for my name tag. I still told him no. I'm pretty positive I'd get in trouble for that. It was the strangest question I've ever been asked.
Do you want to know what the most common question is? "How long is the wait time?" I don't understand that question in the slightest because the only time I've ever been asked it is when I'm standing directly beneath a sign that says: "Standby Line wait time is ____ minutes". It's right there... okay.
:) Night night!!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Little Things
Yesterday I was asked to attend a training class about the Basics. The Basics are the things we do to make Disney Service the best there ever was. I really like the classes. Some Cast Members think it's too much, but I think it's a wonderful thing to be reminded again and again of what's expected of us.
The class yesterday lasted about two hours and we just discussed ways we could more fully use the basics. The four basics are:
- I project a positive image and energy.
- I am courteous and respectful to all Guests, including children.
- I stay in character and play the part.
- I go above and beyond.
Sometimes doing those things is hard. Working becomes exactly that... work. The lady suggested that we notice what the little things are that remind us of why we do our job. Mine is Space Mountain itself. I love it. I love that ride. I was able to go on it last night before I left work and every time I go I'm reminded again why I love it so much. It's beautiful. There is so much to imagine in there. It's like a science fiction book in one experience. That's my reminder.
What are the little things that remind you that you love what you do?
Have a good day everyone!
The class yesterday lasted about two hours and we just discussed ways we could more fully use the basics. The four basics are:
- I project a positive image and energy.
- I am courteous and respectful to all Guests, including children.
- I stay in character and play the part.
- I go above and beyond.
Sometimes doing those things is hard. Working becomes exactly that... work. The lady suggested that we notice what the little things are that remind us of why we do our job. Mine is Space Mountain itself. I love it. I love that ride. I was able to go on it last night before I left work and every time I go I'm reminded again why I love it so much. It's beautiful. There is so much to imagine in there. It's like a science fiction book in one experience. That's my reminder.
What are the little things that remind you that you love what you do?
Have a good day everyone!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Overview
It's been such a long time since I wrote! I don't know what to write about...
I got yelled at on Monday. I felt really silly because I let it get to me. I know I shouldn't have and I won't again. It was the first time I'd really been yelled at since I started at Space Mountain and it'd been a long night. There were 66 thousand Guests in the park. At Christmas time, the very busiest time of year for Disney, we average about 70 thousand. We'd broken down about an hour before and wait times were at about 2 hours and 15 minutes for standby and about 30 for Fastpass. We try to get Fastpass in and out in about 10 minutes. That's how crazy it was. I was on assignment as Mountain 3. That's the position that helps Guests in wheelchairs into and off of the ride. Each time one of those parties comes through it can take us between 5 and 10 minutes for just one of those parties. This is because we wait for that Guest to get completely on the ride, we note the number of the rocket and where in the rocket they're sitting and then we personally wheel the wheelchair downstairs and wait for that Guest to get off the ride. It's usually one of my very favorite positions. We create magic in that position. But Monday night the Mountain was understaffed and there were about 30 parties with wheelchairs. That takes a lot of time. Most of the time when we're that busy Mountain 3 would have an assistant. That night, being understaffed, I had no assistant. I did the best I could as fast as I could but they wait times for that line kept climbing. One woman was angry because she'd been in my line for about 20 minutes. Her daughter had fallen asleep and they no longer wanted to ride and she wanted to see a manager.
So more explaining. We generally have two coordinators. They're like managers but there are lots more of them so that the managers can manage more than one attraction at a time. The coordinators make sure breaks and bump outs(clock outs) happen at the right time. They make sure every one in the attraction is where they're supposed to be. They handle most Guest situations. They take care of situations where ambulances need to be called (aka Alpha Units) They're trained on every position. They have a direct connection with the managers who are on duty. They take care of the smaller manager-type jobs that the managers don't have the time to handle.
Monday night we had two great coordinators. With the mountain so busy there were lots of issues to handle. While the Guest at Load was yelling at me and wanting to see a manager, one coordinator had taken over a Cast Member position within the Mountain so they could have a break and the other was helping an Alpha Unit into the back of the Mountain to help with an emergency. I called the one dealing with the Alpha and then realized he was busy. After a complicated switch I ended up with both Coordinators saving me from several angry Guests along with the one particular angry woman.
Thankfully I was moved soon after the Coordinators got there and thought I'd get a break from angry Guests. I went to Merge Point instead. Merge Point is also one of my favorite positions surprisingly because at first I really didn't like it. Merge Point is where we merge Fastpass Guests and Standby Guests together. There were lots more angry people.
Needless to say, by the time I got my break a half hour after I was switched to Merge I was struggling to stay together. I hate making people wait. I'd love nothing more than to let everyone walk right onto the ride, but there's just no way. The evening did get a little better after that. By the end I was able to smile and wave and wish Guests a good night. I was able to create magic and still make people happy.
Tuesday was my longest shift yet. 13.5 hours. It was fun. Cameron Diaz and Arod (or whatever his name is) came through. That was interesting. I didn't see her. I was on the opposite side of the Mountain, but it's still cool to know that names like that come through.
I had a great day off today. Work tomorrow and then Elder Bednar is coming on Friday and I officially get to go! :D I'm so happy about that.
Goodnight readers. :) Enjoy the "Magic Moments" in your life!
I got yelled at on Monday. I felt really silly because I let it get to me. I know I shouldn't have and I won't again. It was the first time I'd really been yelled at since I started at Space Mountain and it'd been a long night. There were 66 thousand Guests in the park. At Christmas time, the very busiest time of year for Disney, we average about 70 thousand. We'd broken down about an hour before and wait times were at about 2 hours and 15 minutes for standby and about 30 for Fastpass. We try to get Fastpass in and out in about 10 minutes. That's how crazy it was. I was on assignment as Mountain 3. That's the position that helps Guests in wheelchairs into and off of the ride. Each time one of those parties comes through it can take us between 5 and 10 minutes for just one of those parties. This is because we wait for that Guest to get completely on the ride, we note the number of the rocket and where in the rocket they're sitting and then we personally wheel the wheelchair downstairs and wait for that Guest to get off the ride. It's usually one of my very favorite positions. We create magic in that position. But Monday night the Mountain was understaffed and there were about 30 parties with wheelchairs. That takes a lot of time. Most of the time when we're that busy Mountain 3 would have an assistant. That night, being understaffed, I had no assistant. I did the best I could as fast as I could but they wait times for that line kept climbing. One woman was angry because she'd been in my line for about 20 minutes. Her daughter had fallen asleep and they no longer wanted to ride and she wanted to see a manager.
So more explaining. We generally have two coordinators. They're like managers but there are lots more of them so that the managers can manage more than one attraction at a time. The coordinators make sure breaks and bump outs(clock outs) happen at the right time. They make sure every one in the attraction is where they're supposed to be. They handle most Guest situations. They take care of situations where ambulances need to be called (aka Alpha Units) They're trained on every position. They have a direct connection with the managers who are on duty. They take care of the smaller manager-type jobs that the managers don't have the time to handle.
Monday night we had two great coordinators. With the mountain so busy there were lots of issues to handle. While the Guest at Load was yelling at me and wanting to see a manager, one coordinator had taken over a Cast Member position within the Mountain so they could have a break and the other was helping an Alpha Unit into the back of the Mountain to help with an emergency. I called the one dealing with the Alpha and then realized he was busy. After a complicated switch I ended up with both Coordinators saving me from several angry Guests along with the one particular angry woman.
Thankfully I was moved soon after the Coordinators got there and thought I'd get a break from angry Guests. I went to Merge Point instead. Merge Point is also one of my favorite positions surprisingly because at first I really didn't like it. Merge Point is where we merge Fastpass Guests and Standby Guests together. There were lots more angry people.
Needless to say, by the time I got my break a half hour after I was switched to Merge I was struggling to stay together. I hate making people wait. I'd love nothing more than to let everyone walk right onto the ride, but there's just no way. The evening did get a little better after that. By the end I was able to smile and wave and wish Guests a good night. I was able to create magic and still make people happy.
Tuesday was my longest shift yet. 13.5 hours. It was fun. Cameron Diaz and Arod (or whatever his name is) came through. That was interesting. I didn't see her. I was on the opposite side of the Mountain, but it's still cool to know that names like that come through.
I had a great day off today. Work tomorrow and then Elder Bednar is coming on Friday and I officially get to go! :D I'm so happy about that.
Goodnight readers. :) Enjoy the "Magic Moments" in your life!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Space Mountain Guidebook
History
http://www.wdwhistory.com/index.php?title=Space_Mountain
It was built in 1975 and ... that article pretty much covers it. :)
Numbers
The ride has thirty rockets inside. Fifteen for each track. The rockets are numbered 1 - 31. Disney was afraid that no one would ever want to ride in rocket thirteen so they skipped the number. Each rocket has six seats and is split in have by a joint making turning easier. The rocket would look something like this. - - - / - - - the slash being about a foot of space. Each rocket seats exactly six Guests at a time. One Guest to each seat.
Guests are required to be at least 44 inches tall to ride Space Mountain. This is a little taller than the other two Mountains in the Magic Kingdom because it's the only ride to require Guests to seat single passengers. It's heart breaking to tell little ones that they can't ride, but we do it because it's a hazard for them to ride.
Loading and Unloading
Most of the time we have about a minute to get six Guests into line and onto the rockets. Occasionally if there are fewer Guests we have 30-45 seconds. Surprising, I know. The reason there is less time when we have fewer Guests is because there is only one person doing the job and the rockets are going out every thirty seconds.
Guests line up side by side with their parties, the gates open, they step into the rocket, lower themselves all the way to a seated position, and then pull the lap bars all the way down. The lap bars do not move on their own. The rocket is advanced by a Cast Member and another Cast Member asks the Guests to pull up on the lap bar. This is to make sure that the lap bars are locked. It's not to scare Guests.
The hardest part of the ride is unloading. Hardest part. For some reason the rockets are not built to be easy to get out of. I can't tell you how to get out of them because it's an individual thing. I've figured out but if you're a first time rider it's super complicated.
That's all I can think of tonight. :) I hope you'll all visit Space Mountain someday!
http://www.wdwhistory.com/index.php?title=Space_Mountain
It was built in 1975 and ... that article pretty much covers it. :)
Numbers
The ride has thirty rockets inside. Fifteen for each track. The rockets are numbered 1 - 31. Disney was afraid that no one would ever want to ride in rocket thirteen so they skipped the number. Each rocket has six seats and is split in have by a joint making turning easier. The rocket would look something like this. - - - / - - - the slash being about a foot of space. Each rocket seats exactly six Guests at a time. One Guest to each seat.
Guests are required to be at least 44 inches tall to ride Space Mountain. This is a little taller than the other two Mountains in the Magic Kingdom because it's the only ride to require Guests to seat single passengers. It's heart breaking to tell little ones that they can't ride, but we do it because it's a hazard for them to ride.
Loading and Unloading
Most of the time we have about a minute to get six Guests into line and onto the rockets. Occasionally if there are fewer Guests we have 30-45 seconds. Surprising, I know. The reason there is less time when we have fewer Guests is because there is only one person doing the job and the rockets are going out every thirty seconds.
Guests line up side by side with their parties, the gates open, they step into the rocket, lower themselves all the way to a seated position, and then pull the lap bars all the way down. The lap bars do not move on their own. The rocket is advanced by a Cast Member and another Cast Member asks the Guests to pull up on the lap bar. This is to make sure that the lap bars are locked. It's not to scare Guests.
The hardest part of the ride is unloading. Hardest part. For some reason the rockets are not built to be easy to get out of. I can't tell you how to get out of them because it's an individual thing. I've figured out but if you're a first time rider it's super complicated.
That's all I can think of tonight. :) I hope you'll all visit Space Mountain someday!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
"We Are in the Guest Experience Business"
"We aren't really in the attraction business, the hotel business, or the cruise ship business; we are in the guest experience business. The heart of everything we do is creating amazing, memorable experiences for Guests to share with their family and friends."
Tonight I was going to write about how utterly empty Magic Kingdom was today. I was going to write about realizing that the lap bars on Space Mountain are in a really awkward spot and that the way we check them is kinda awkward. I was going to talk about different puzzle pieces to the intricacies that are Space Mountain.
But then as I was leaving tonight I read this on the fridge in our break room. I'm sure it seems like all my blog entries are exactly the same: "wow... I was reminded what work really is" kind of entries. Maybe it seems hard to imagine that in such a short period of time I can forget what it means to work for a company like Disney.
I know that there a lot of you reading this blog who love, or perhaps loved what you're doing. Why do you love it? Why are you doing? Why did you start doing it? No matter how much you love it at first it ends up becoming a job after a bit, doesn't it? The newness, the magic, of it all fades into something normal for you and you start to forget why you started doing it at all.
This is a slight tangent but it connects... or at least... I'm going to connect my two thoughts.
A few years ago when I started dating and then started breaking off those relationships I realized that a lot of times my moods would fluctuate according to that of whatever boy I happened to be attached to at the time. I hated that. How could life ever work that way? Why was I giving anyone else permission to be in complete control of my happiness? That seemed dumb. I thought about that every time I went into a relationship. As time went by I made a lot of little realizations. My final decision on the matter (and it's held true while being engaged and in my relationship with Chris) was that before you ever get close to getting married you should be completely satisfied with who you are and then the person you marry doesn't necessarily control your moods; you do. You always do.
Now... the connection. I had this same disturbing kind of realization a few years ago about work. Why would anyone go to work by choice if the only rewards were monetary? How much do you have to love what you do to want to keep going no matter how many bad days you have? And then, like in a relationship, how do you stay in love with what you do? I've thought and thought and thought about those questions. I've changed my major in hopes of finding something I could love for years and years without giving up. Since I've been out here, though, I've learned something that seems like as big a realization as who controls whose happiness in relationships. Loving your job isn't about how much you love what you do. It's about how much you believe in why you're doing it and being so committed to that even if it's just an idea to keep pursuing. Loving your same ol' same ol' job is completely possible if every once in awhile you go back and refresh the dream.
So this is what I realized today. Have a good night everyone!
Tonight I was going to write about how utterly empty Magic Kingdom was today. I was going to write about realizing that the lap bars on Space Mountain are in a really awkward spot and that the way we check them is kinda awkward. I was going to talk about different puzzle pieces to the intricacies that are Space Mountain.
But then as I was leaving tonight I read this on the fridge in our break room. I'm sure it seems like all my blog entries are exactly the same: "wow... I was reminded what work really is" kind of entries. Maybe it seems hard to imagine that in such a short period of time I can forget what it means to work for a company like Disney.
I know that there a lot of you reading this blog who love, or perhaps loved what you're doing. Why do you love it? Why are you doing? Why did you start doing it? No matter how much you love it at first it ends up becoming a job after a bit, doesn't it? The newness, the magic, of it all fades into something normal for you and you start to forget why you started doing it at all.
This is a slight tangent but it connects... or at least... I'm going to connect my two thoughts.
A few years ago when I started dating and then started breaking off those relationships I realized that a lot of times my moods would fluctuate according to that of whatever boy I happened to be attached to at the time. I hated that. How could life ever work that way? Why was I giving anyone else permission to be in complete control of my happiness? That seemed dumb. I thought about that every time I went into a relationship. As time went by I made a lot of little realizations. My final decision on the matter (and it's held true while being engaged and in my relationship with Chris) was that before you ever get close to getting married you should be completely satisfied with who you are and then the person you marry doesn't necessarily control your moods; you do. You always do.
Now... the connection. I had this same disturbing kind of realization a few years ago about work. Why would anyone go to work by choice if the only rewards were monetary? How much do you have to love what you do to want to keep going no matter how many bad days you have? And then, like in a relationship, how do you stay in love with what you do? I've thought and thought and thought about those questions. I've changed my major in hopes of finding something I could love for years and years without giving up. Since I've been out here, though, I've learned something that seems like as big a realization as who controls whose happiness in relationships. Loving your job isn't about how much you love what you do. It's about how much you believe in why you're doing it and being so committed to that even if it's just an idea to keep pursuing. Loving your same ol' same ol' job is completely possible if every once in awhile you go back and refresh the dream.
So this is what I realized today. Have a good night everyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)