...and may all your Christmases be white

In an insanely short amount of time, the Christmas day has come and gone. The holidays are still going strong (through January 2nd) at the resort, though!

The holiday season officially started at Disneyland on November 12th. Decorations went up all around the resort, the annual "Christmas Fantasy Parade" returned, as did the "Believe...in Holiday Magic" fireworks show. Main Street became home to the gigantic Christmas tree and tree lighting each night, and Santa, Mrs. Claus and the reindeer moved in to the Big Thunder BBQ Ranch. Each night snow fell on the castle and Main Street 3 different times as part of the "wintertime enchantment" mini play in 3 acts - Wish, Dream, and Believe.

One of the most interesting things to me was guests' reactions to the snow fall. It's quite obviously not the snow I see back in Wyoming, but it had people in tears every night without fail. It made me realize snow can be truly beautiful and fascinating to someone who doesn't have to drive in it 6 months out of the year and deal with their travel plans always changing because of it.

I managed to take a few photos of the decorations around the park as well as steal some from my room mate:

the centerpiece in Town Square!

close up of the tree's decorations

the Toon Town Christmas tree

Sleeping Beauty's castle during the day

the Main Street tree at night

New Orleans Square got in the spirit too

Critter Country's decor

 

 

 

"its a small world" has a light show every 15 minutes

 

 

the castle after the snow fall

 

 

Over in Tomorrowland, however, Christmas was scarce. We didn't get any decorations, shows. or events. There is no Christmas in the future, my friends.

this small child battling Darth Vader is close as you'll get to Christmas around here.

Disneyland also puts on a holiday party for cast members and their families. The private parties are held two days in December, and each cast member gets tickets for one of the days. They go enjoy the party and a park full of cast members only on that night, and then the other night they work so the other half of the cast members can enjoy the party. 

It was a really fun experience to have the park open just for cast members and not regular guests. Wait times for attractions were low, there were quite a few rare characters out for pictures, and managers were out doing front of the line roles, taking tickets, and passing out candy canes. The next night,  I worked the party.This was almost as fun as attending; cast members are allowed to eat "on stage", other cast members can bring you churros or cotton candy or hot chocolate, and you can go have fun during your breaks. I managed to get a ride on Big Thunder Mountain in during my 15 minute break, while dressed in my Star Command uniform. 

One of the highlights of working that night was coming back from lunch to discover Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar Animation Studios wearing a Star Command costume and working as Greeter outside Astro Blasters. He was definitely and interesting guy!

Merry Christmas! this may or may not be an illegal use of the Jolly Trolley.

We need every space jockey we can get!

Life on the Disney College Program is more busy than I ever could have imagined. It's proved pretty difficult to keep up with school while not only working full time but never working a set schedule, and finding time to fit in all the fun things I want to do.

Star Command has been exciting as ever! Sometimes, the people really can be a bit crazy or even difficult, but there's always a sweet guest right behind them to make up for it. Just as soon as it seems things get monotonous, there's a new recruit at Star Command to make me smile. Sometimes the looks of joy and kids faces are so incredible that you can't help but smile back.

Just yesterday, I saw a little boy with his grandpa getting ready to ride. Grandpa had a hold of the little boy's hood as they were walking on, but the boy had his arms fully outstretched in front of him and his legs were running in place double time because he was so eager to get on the space cruiser. His smile pretty much took up his entire face.

And then there are the adults and kids alike who love playing along with the magic. When the ride recently opened again after its rehab, we experienced quite a few down times as Buzz worked out some of the kinks of his new system and schedule - he is a very busy man! During one down time, I spent my time outside at the Greeter position letting people know we would be back open later. When guests would ask why we were down, I would tell them the truth: that Buzz had been called away on a top secret but urgent mission and was trying his best to get back as soon as possible. It's amazing how much the simple truth can make people smile and take a ride's down time so much better :)

I  really and truly do love this job - there is something new every day and new guests every day. One of the best feelings in the world is being able to make someone's day better just by doing my job. I like being able to take time each day to make a magical moment for someone - whether it be handing out fast passes to a family who seems to really love Buzz or a newly engaged couple, or letting a group waiting to ride in on the secrets of getting a high score. I'm not sure there is a job in this world that's better than this!

I also recently went down to Hollywood for a few hours and got to check out some landmarks around there:

 

 

 

Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater

Hey, that name looks familiar! 

 

 

 

Yay, Hermione!! (I also went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 the next night and LOVED it!)

One of the dragons outside Grauman's

The El Capitan, with advertising for Tangled

The Roosevelt hotel

I'm hoping to post some pictures of Christmas at Disneyland soon - it's a really beautiful time at the park right now!

First half of Leadership Speakers' Series!

Part of my program here at Disneyland involves taking at least one class through Disney University. A handful of courses were offered to us, varying from actual collegiate courses with homework to a speakers' series. I chose to take the latter, the Leadership Speakers' Series. Each week, a leader from a different area of the resort comes into class to talk about what they do, how they got there, and take questions from the class.

It's been a fascinating experience altogether.We've heard from everyone from the manager of Resort Enhancement to Jon Storbeck, VP of Disneyland Park.We've heard some information I can't truly repeat in this blog as well,since it has to do with financial information about the resort.

But, some of the interesting things I've heard that I can say are:

• The most expensive attraction in Disneyland Resort to upkeep is "California Screamin'", a roller coaster in California Adventure
• Disneyland cost $17 million to build in 1955, or, in today's dollars, $84 million
• In comparison, "Tower of Terror" cost $100 million to build
• Resort Enhancement is a really fun department. They are not only in charge of decorations around the park, but props inside attractions (such as the apple in the Old Hag's hand on the "Snow White's Scary Adventures" ride, which guest frequently steal)
• The resort Horticulture Department does all their work from midnight to park opening. Much of the transformations of planters and such have to happen over night. The manager we spoke to was a really great lady - she got her start just because she was an avid gardener and applied for a job for the heck of it. She thought she was really under qualified, and still got the position. She said everything from the Mickey floral planter out front to the smallest of bushes on the Rivers of America are cared for and have specific requirements
• Industrial Engineering is a actually a really fun sounding profession. The two women who came in to talk to us even had us work through problems with them so we could understand exactly what they do - which is make sure attractions and their lines are moving efficiently, and that there are the proper amount of restaurants, bathrooms and other amenities.
• How much money it takes to do even the seemingly tiniest things, like a display in a window on Main Street, is astronomical.

I've got a few more classes left, including this week's speakers from the Special Events department. I'm particularly excited about this one, and will hopefully be able to get contact information from them and speak to them more outside of class. This is the department I really want to get into with Disney, so wish me luck! :)

Moving in, Orientation, Traditions!

I have officially been in Anaheim for around 2 weeks now, and things have been ultra busy! I've been trying to get adjusted and organized, and I think I may finally be hitting that point :) So here's what I've been up to over the last few weeks!

MOVE IN 

Carnegie Plaza!

August 18th was the big day! My mom and I had driven down the night before and were staying at a hotel right across from Disneyland. We had dinner at a restaurant in Downtown Disney that night, and were able to get a view of the fireworks from our table, so it was a great kickoff!

The next morning we headed over bright and early to the apartment complex! I met my first room mate, Jillian in the check-in line. We got our first of many Mickey name tags, and headed up to the complex's courtyard for check-in.

We got a new folder with the castle and clouds to replace our "purple folders", our apartment keys, our parking assignments, our bus passes, and filled out a bit more paperwork. I got to see a green sheet attached to my employment file, and saw "Tomorrowland" written there. I was slightly bummed, since it wasn't Adventureland, but it wasn't ToonTown! :)

Our next few hours were spent meeting our other room mates, Kathy (who unfortunately had to leave the program early due to a conflict with school), Ellen, and Lauren; and dragging box after box up to my fifth floor apartment.

We also had a little housing meeting, and were given a more detailed schedule for the week. After that, it was time for my Mom and I to go play in Disneyland for awhile, then off to bed, as I had Orientation the next morning.

My new home!

ORIENTATION

Orientation took place at Team Disney Anaheim, which I was super excited to get to see the inside of. We took our pictures for our ID cards, then headed in. The Lion King was playing inside the auditorium while we waited to start. We talked about the classes that were being offered to us, and I chose to take "The Leadership Speaker Series" which will feature different VPs as the speaker each week. It seems like it's going to be a fantastic networking opportunity and starts on September 24th.

We also talked about scheduling, and.  requested our preferred days off and hours. I put Monday and Thursday as my preferred days off (which, surprise! I haven't gotten so far). I also put down that I'd be willing to work a 6th day when available (which next week I work 7 days in a row, so I may be changing that) but didn't put down overtime. I figured I could add that when I needed it.

We were also given a pamphlet with info on our Traditions session and training, and I noticed "TL Attractions" written there as well, so it was pretty set as my new home. We finished up by playing Disney Trivia for prizes. I won a cute Disney College Program laundry bag by giving Goofy's original name (Dippy Dawg).

Then it was another night of Disneyland! Mom and I had dinner and a show tickets for World of Color, the new show at California Adventure. We ate the Golden Vine Winery, which was really good, especially the dessert. We had a special section for the show, and it was wonderful! Its shows like that that you can really see and feel Walt's ideas and creativity even today. I know I will be back again and again to see it.

TRADITIONS

Traditions was on Friday. Traditions is sort of Disney's official orientation for new cast members. We had to fully meet the "Disney Look", which meant dressing up in my new "business casual" clothes. We went over a ton of information at Traditions - Disney history, the "four keys", the SERVICE model, and a tour around some of the backstage areas and parts of Disneyland itself.  We got to see some hidden Mickeys and hidden details throughout the park, and also some interesting business secrets (for instance, I now know why every time I'm on Main Street I'm literally dying for a corn dog and ice cream, and desperately want to go inside every store).

After the tour and lunch, we went back in the auditorium and got to see some of the expansion projects currently going on in Disneyland and Disney World. Some of them are pretty amazing, and I hope we will get to see some of the stuff going on in Disneyland first hand soon!

We also met briefly with our on boarding specialists for our various areas. The attractions on boarding specialist was super nice, and filled us in on more of what to expect at training. (black polish-able shoes and socks!)

My favorite part of the day, for sure, was when we finally got our nametags and ID cards. A very special guest made an appearance to present them to us, and I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling!

YAY!

The housing office put on a fun little welcome party for us that night, and we ended up taking a ton of photo booth pictures!

I had the next day off, so I went to Huntington Beach with some friends. On Sunday, my room mates and I went to California Adventure after some cake to see World of Color and ride Tower of Terror for my room mate Ellen's birthday.

And then...it was time to see what attraction I would be working - training!!!