Official Wilderness Explorer

That's me!  I'm done with training, so when I start work on Tuesday I will be an official Wilderness Explorer.  I'm currently enjoying my first (and probably last) three day weekend of the program, which has been lovely so far.

Last days of training recap:

We were finally out in the park interacting with guests this week, which was awesome.  I don't really have many specific stories because everything was kind of a blur, but I really loved talking with kids.

There are two different location types that we staff: badge locations and animals.  At the badge locations, we usually have a conversation with the explorers and complete an activity (with many different activities for each location).  After that, we give them their badge (a sticker for their wilderness explorer handbook).  At animal locations, we get to hang around some of the animal exhibits in the park and tell guests about the animal they're looking at.  So far there is not a single location that I don't like staffing, which is great.  They're all different and some of them definitely push me to learn more myself (little ones know so much more about dinosaurs than I currently know).

Yesterday evening, another Explorer and I had a mother come up to us and tell us that her son had completed the Wilderness Explorer Program two years ago and loved it.  Since then, all he's talked about is wanting to come back to the park to do it again, which they were able to do this week.  That made me so happy :)

Note about work: I think it's pretty clear by now, but I won't really be posting any pictures from work unless people come visit me and take them. I keep my phone on me during the day so I have it if I need it, but it stays away otherwise.

Work hard, play harder:

This morning, I went to Epcot really early...we got there an hour before park open.  Which is something I'd never done before, and not something I'd ever thought I would do.

Why did we do this, you might ask?

Frozen Ever After. The new Frozen themed ride at Epcot in the Norway pavilion.  It's pretty similar to some of the other movie-based rides, like the Little Mermaid one or the Peter Pan one, in that you ride through scenes from the movie.  However, the animatronics are so much more advanced with this ride.  The faces on the characters are somehow digitally projected onto the mannequin, so it really looks like they're singing.  It was so cool.

The line behind us when we finally got to the ride

The Norway area is beautiful

The last scene on the ride

...I like to talk with my hands

Listening intently to Queen Elsa

We ended up staying at Epcot for most of the day.  We rode the new Soarin' ride, which was excellent. It takes you around the world to places like the Great Wall of China and Sydney.

We also met a bunch of characters today, which was a lot of fun.  I'm especially a fan of our group photo with Joy and Sadness.

Baymax! He's exactly as squishy as you think he should be when you poke him

We're normal, I promise

Just kidding...
(we're recreating a photo of Joy and Sadness)

Bonus photo: we visited Liana at work today!
(left to right: Haley, Erin, Liana, me)

Hollywood Studios Tuesday

Two fun stories from today:

During my interview for this internship, I was asked which Disney character I am most like and why.  I had never thought about that, so it kind of threw me.  I decided that I was most like Lilo (from Lilo and Stitch) because she is passionate about what she believes in and understands the importance of ohana.  

Today, I met Lilo. And it was fantastic :)
(I didn't know that she would be at Hollywood Studios, so we were walking toward a ride and she was just there)

Sorority squat with Lilo

Second story:

For a while, I've had a pretty distinct memory of a dark theater with bubbles and water coming down.  An actual memory, not something I've heard a bajillion stories about such that I now feel like I remember the event.  I kind of associated this memory with Disney, but I wasn't sure exactly why.

Today, I went with friends to Hollywood Studios and we saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show there. And it was exactly what I remembered from when I was really little.  I spoke with my mom after and I think we figured out that we'd gone over to Hollywood Studios the second time I came to Disney World when I was younger, specifically to see that show because I loved Ariel.  We both thought that if I was actually going to remember something from when I was little, it makes perfect sense that it would be something Little Mermaid-related.

<3

Other highlights of the past few days:

• I very solidly have the best parents ever.  Before this internship, I struggled finding appropriate boots for my costume.  I'm vegan, so they couldn't contain leather, and they had to be brown for work.  Vegan boots aren't that hard to find, nor are brown boots, but putting the two together provided quite a challenge.  My mom found a company that sold vegan boots in London, so I ordered them.  They looked great...and were possibly the most uncomfortable shoes I've worn in a while. Maybe ever.  But they were my only option, so I've spent the last few days trying different fixes to make them bearable and nothing was helping.  I got home from work yesterday and had a package waiting for me: my parents had found and ordered another pair of vegan brown boots that seem like they are going to be 1000x more comfortable and I am so excited :D Thank you thank you thank you Mom and Dad!

• Cast members get a pretty solid discount at Sanaa! at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so I went there today with a group of other explorers and had a delicious lunch. 

Delicious noms at Sanaa!

In terms of training, we've now finished going through and learning about all of the different badge and animal locations that we staff.  We had an assessment yesterday (I thought I'd finished taking tests for a while after graduation, but apparently not...) and our first day of shadow training is tomorrow.  I'm incredibly excited to get out in the park and start interacting with guests and really looking forward to sharing stories of those interactions!

Bonus photo: I'm enjoying working at a place where dotting your i's with Mickeys is considered completely normal 

First days off

Hi again!

We're still in the middle of training. We've moved past all the welcome to the company/Animal Kingdom general training, and are working on Wilderness Explorer specific stuff now. So some work on interpretation (how to tell a story about something and connect it to guests' lives) and a lot of information about the specific animal stations we'll be staffing. This will continue for the next few days, with our scheduled first official day in the park on June 26th (happy birthday Dad!).

I had my first two days off on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. So Tuesday night was spent at Magic Kingdom, and all of Wednesday was at Animal Kingdom.  Highlights from those days:

• We watched Wishes (the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom) from behind the castle, which was a first for me. It was more immersive than I'd ever experienced before, because the fireworks were going off all around us 
• For some reason Animal Kingdom wasn't too crowded when we were there, so we were able to ride Expedition Everest (the major roller coaster ride there) four times. Including once at night, which was incredible
• One of my friends was able to get us amazing seats at Festival of the Lion King (FOLK), which was absolutely phenomenal. It's a Broadway level show that includes all of the songs from the movie and features insane monkey tumblers and a fire dancer and flying bird acrobats. 
• We also got to meet Mickey and Minnie, always a lot of fun :)

Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom...notice my "RAWR" hands

The nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom

Awesome hidden Mickey at Animal Kingdom's Affection Section (petting area)

Front row for FOLK!

Bird/acrobat at Festival of the Lion King.  She is so amazing!

Tumble monkeys!

Adventurer Minnie and Mickey

With everyone

The Tree of Life at night

Thursday I did "big girl" things: grocery shopping, laundry, getting gas, writing thank you notes. My friend Courtney and I also explored and went to Cast Connection, which is a cast member (CM) exclusive store with Disney merchandise available at a crazy discount. I'm talking $100 Vera Bradley bags available for $20-30, character pillow pets for $10-20, and tees for $5-15. And lots else. And, kind of randomly, food. Also for a really good price, so I did some of my grocery shopping there.

Friday was another full day of training, followed by Finding Dory in 3D! We went at Disney Springs and had some time before the show started, so we ventured out and found the vegan bakery here. I had vegan chocolate soft serve ice cream (coconut milk based) and was a very happy Katie :)  The movie was really cute, you should all go see it!

Vegan bakery nom nom nom

Very happy Katie :D

Finding Dory!

Nothing super exciting to note about today, just more training.  Things I am getting used to:

• Not having my weekends actually be Saturday/Sunday
• Just being able to go to the parks whenever...
• Fireworks at night are a regular occurrence, so you can see them just driving around

That's it from me for now!  Hope everyone is enjoying the start of the summer.

Happy early (only by a little bit) Father's Day Dad and Pop Pop! I hope you both have an excellent day and I'll talk to you tomorrow. 

Welcome to Disney!

Hi everyone,

Before I get to this post: I'm down in Florida, living right by Orlando and I'm totally fine.  I do not understand how it's 2016 and something happens like what happened at Pulse Saturday night is possible.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims.

I'm not sure I've told everyone, but I've moved down to Florida to complete a professional internship for Walt Disney World.  I am going to be a Conservation Education Presenter at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  I will be a Wilderness Explorer at the park; here is more information on the program.  I am incredibly excited to get started!

Quick recap of the week to catch you up:
Monday, June 6th to Tuesday, June 7th

• Alex and I drove down to Florida together.  We made it down to Manning, SC on the first day after ~11-12 hours of driving (very long day).  Then the rest of the way to Orlando on Tuesday.  We found some really delicious places to eat on the way, all with awesome vegan options :)

Peaches in Georgia were a necessity

Lunch on the beach at Neptune Beach, FL

Adventure is out there!
Credit to Alex

Wednesday, June 8th

• I had housing and casting check-in (basically everything I needed to move into my apartment, and showing Disney that I am who I say I am with my passport)
• Alex helped me move in to my new apartment.  She was the best mover-inner helper I could have asked for.  
• My new roommates are Erin (from NJ, sharing a room with her), Haley (from Alabama) and Liana (from Puerto Rico).  They're all really nice and I'm excited to live with them :)
• Drove Alex back to the airport and was finally officially "alone" down here (which is a new feeling for me, having gone to school so close to home)

Disney's Casting Building

Alex captured the first time I opened the apartment door

Unpacking

Thursday, June 9th

• Time working on move-in stuff.
• The Gathering, which was a meeting of all the ASE (Animal, Science and the Environment) PIs (professional interns).  We had a trivia contest, and I got to meet the other education presenters (there are 27ish new interns in the position).  I also got to meet my leaders with whom I've been communicating online and will be working with. 
• First grocery shopping! (felt like a big deal to me)

Friday, June 10th

• Day off. 
• Spent a lot more time getting my room how I like it

Saturday, June 11th

• Traditions!  This is a class that all Disney employees take before starting to work.  We learned about what it means to work for Disney, some about the history of the company, about the Four Keys (Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency).  We also took a field trip to Magic Kingdom and got to walk through the utilidors (the "underground" tunnels under the park, which aren't actually underground apparently...the rest of the park is just above them).  WHICH WAS SO COOL. We walked into the tunnel somewhere by the castle and then just popped up elsewhere in the park.  We were supposed to be looking for examples of the Four Keys during our walk around, but I was kind of just in awe and not really able to focus on anything...
• I got my Disney ID and name tag during it too
• After lunch, we did some computer stuff and got our costumes...also SO COOL. 
• Haley and I went to Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic! (the night spectacular there).  It was incredible to go and just show my ID and be able to get into the park...Like what?

First time in the park as a cast member! 

I'm official :)

Got these for answering questions during Traditions

My costume!

Sunday, June 12th

• Super long day with three classes:
• Welcome to Operations (what it means to work in a theme park), Welcome to ASE ( overview of my department) and The Four Keys Basics (how to implement the four keys I mentioned before)

Monday, June 13th

• Orientation to the park (Disney's Animal Kingdom, or DAK), which involved some classroom stuff and then a tour around the park
• First session of on the job training, which also involved some classroom stuff and then we were released into the park to earn some badges! One of my roles will be acting as a troop leader and handing out "badges" (stickers) to the young wilderness explorers visiting DAK.  They receive badges for completing different activities and/or learning something new. 

Whew.  That was a lot.  Future posts won't be as long, but I wanted to catch up.

If you're going to be coming down to Orlando/Disney at any time between now and January, please let me know!  Message me on Facebook or email me or comment on this post or something...I'd love to see you. 

Oh, also: most people know this, but I graduated too! Graduation was on May 31, and the whole reunions/graduation weekend was a lot of fun :)