and the story continues...

The first few days are all a blur really, but basically it was like information overload! After we were all checked in, we had to go to the “Casting” building at a designated time. The buses took us to this neat building that looks all decorative on the outside but like boring cubicles on the inside. There we went to more stations that consisted of a background check (fingerprints and all!), talking about the “Disney Look” (refer to BYU-I dress and grooming standards and you pretty much have it) lots more papers to sign, turning in work eligibility and tax documents and finding out where we work! But even that was pretty vague. I knew before coming that I would be working in “Attractions” which could pretty much be any ride at any park, and all they told me on this day that I would be working at Future World at EPCOT and then gave me my training schedule.

HOUSING MEETING
The day after I checked in, there was a 2 ½ hour housing meeting telling us all the rules and regulations of living in Disney housing. They have four complexes and the rules are all basically common sense things that could have been summed up in like 20 minutes tops, but they showed a bunch of cheesy videos talking about the rules right after they had just said word for word the exact same thing. It was just a lot of repetition but at least we were in an air conditioned room. ☺

TRADITIONS
The next day was Traditions! For this we had to dress up in “business attire”-which is really uncomfortable when you are waiting outside in the heat for a bus. Here we got our Disney IDs which give us access to the parks anytime during our program. Then we were split into a few large groups and put into a big conference room with lots of round tables. This room was neat because there were Disney characters painted all over the walls. 2 Disney people proceeded to cover a lot more information with us about working here and also reviewed the history of Walt Disney himself as well as the past, present, and future plans of the big company. The best part was the surprise visit to the Magic Kingdom where we go to see the real “behind the scenes” and go through the tunnels underneath Cinderella’s castle. I can’t divulge any more Disney secrets about that but, we did see Belle while we were at the Magic Kingdom. When we got back Mickey Mouse came and brought us our official nametags which was sweet! 4 hours later we were able to board the bus and head back to the apartments ready to report back on our first training day (which would happen in a couple days)

DISCOVERY DAY
On discovery day we all got tours of our specific parks and were able to finally find out exactly where we would be working. It was nice to get to know EPCOT better and we even got to go on a little boat tour around the World Showcase. This was the day that I found out that I would be working at TEST TRACK!