Behind the Scenes Tour of Test Track

So Sometimes you can sign up to take Behind the scenes tours of attractions. This time it was set up as a group outing for my work location. We went to Test track to see all the behind the scenes stuff. They showed us each of the positions they worked and we got to go into the tower where all the controls are. In the Tower they have a video camera on each part of the ride. Then they took us out on the track to the part where you go through the tunnel and the Truck blares its horn. It was fun to watch people's reactions as they went by.

While we were there the ride went down, and they had to evacuate people off of it. They explained how the ride works too. The entire ride is electrical, so if something doesn't circuit right or if a piece of the track somehow gets electronically disconnect the ride will stop. The stop is not a gradual one either. If there is a power failure it will be an immediate stop, whether you are going 5 mph or are outside going 60!

They also took us up to the GM employee lounge. Once upon a time this was used for GM Employees, they could come up to the lounge with their families and get some free soda and enjoy the view. But because of budget reasons it is only used as convention/conference space.


This is the view of Spaceship Earth from inside the lounge. Think of the building for Test Track, you know the big shiny glass part on top? Thats where the lounge is.



This is a view of the ride from inside the lounge. Believe it or not you are looking at 90% of the ride here.



And this was inside the elevator to go up to the lounge. Take a look at the buttons.

Only 4 left out of the Orignal 8

So I am in an 4 bedroom/8 person apartment, and we now only have 6 people and only 4 of us are the orignal roommates.

Earlier in the program 2 of our roommates decided to move out of the apartment because of personal differences with the rest of us. I wish we could have worked things out, but we just didn't get the chance. So we got 2 new roommates. Their names are Caitlin and Anne Bailey. They were a Vista but wanted to move over here to Chatham. So there were 8 of us for a while until last week =(

My one roommate, Lene, got terminated from the program because of attendance. She had missed too many days of work, when you are terminated they take your company ID and escort you off the property, they didn't even let her go to her locker, another employee had to retrieve her stuff for her. She had until 11 am the next day to be out of the apartment. Lucky for her, she is only from Tampa so its not like she had to make travel arrangements and stuff like that. I felt kind of sad. She was like a best friend and I wish she would have been able to stay


The other roomie, Brittany, was going home to Michigan to visit her family, while she was there she found out she had mono. She got a medical release from the program and will not be returning. Housing came over with some boxes so we could box up her stuff and they will store it until her parents come to get it and her car.

New Classes

So since my program is until Aug I had the chance to take some more classes. I signed up for Creativity and Innovation. It is all about how to really be more creative. Everyone has some creativity you just have to figure out how to access it.

The class is really fun. We have to have an "idea journal" which is like a notebook that you can put whatever you want in. Quotes, pictures, drawings, new ideas whatever you want really. There is usually an assignment due but it is simple. I really like the teacher, she is really funny and there are lots of fun things we do in class. One day she gave us a bunch of pieces from different games and we spent an hour trying to figure out a new game we could play with them.

Last week we went to the Florida Mall to look around at displays and then ask the employees if they got to make them themselves. Most of the stores told us No that they get instructions on how to do it, but we went to this one really cool soap store called "Lush" and they can pretty much do what they want.

Disney Exploration Series Class

So I have been taking an Exploration Series class on Guest service. Each week a different line of business comes and presents information to the class. One week people from Guest Relations came. Another week we had some people from Merchandise. The two most interesting ones were Food and Beverage and Room Operations.

When Food and Beverage came we talked about how they decide what options and products they offer, and how they decide what to charge for each item. We broke up into teams and were given a bunch of ingredients on a tray. We had to make something and figure out what it would cost for that item then charge 25% based on the cost. Then we presented our product. One groups ended up costing $25!


Yesterday we did Room Operations and we had class at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We got to take a tour of one of the deluxe villas! It was huge. There are 75 people in the class and we all fit in there with plenty of room to spare.

This is the living room/dining area


This is the kitchen


This is the pool table


This is one of the bedrooms


This is the master bedroom


This is the master bathroom


And the TV in the master bathroom


Here is the view from the balcony (Which there are 3 of)

Pop Buckets!

So at Pop Century we sometimes give Pop Buckets to guests who need a little extra "Magic". Sometimes it is for a special occasion like once we made one for a couple who were getting married the next day. Sometimes guests come to check in and they have just had really bad luck, they lost their luggage, the car broke down, etc and their vacation just isn't getting off on the right foot.

So when you want to do a Pop Bucket for a guest you just need to ask a manager if you can get one. So yesterday I was checking in a guest who were part of magical gathering. She wanted to check in all 3 rooms even though the other 2 parties weren't there. She was sort of mad when I explained that I could not check in the other rooms, even though she had paid for them.

As we went through the check in process she asked about services for guests with disabilites. She explained that her mother, who was traveling with them is terminal with cancer. It was her last wish to come to Disney with her family. They had to rent an RV to bring her to WDW because she couldn't fly. I gave them some guide maps for guests with disabilites and explained how guest relations at the parks would be able to assist further. After they left I went in the back and asked if I could make Pop Buckets for the 3 rooms.

Here they are!


They have a bunch of different things you can put in them, whatever you want but it usually depends if the family has girls or boys. We have hot wheels, pez dispensers, ring pops, crayons, key chains, playing cards. I also added buttons to each that say "Honorary Citizen of Walt Disney World"

I also sent a character card, that was personally signed by Mickey and Minnie, to the grandmother, that said "Have a magical stay" The runner delivered them to the rooms, so the when the guests returned to the room, they had a surprise waiting for them.

It's really exciting when you get to do something like this, even though the guests will never know it was me who did this for them, it feels good to know I made their vacation a little more magical.

Runner Training

So I was trained on Runner a few days ago. For Front desk runner you basically get to do a few different things.

The 6 am runner is responsible for delivering some of the Disney's Magical Express envelopes and the Express Check Out envelopes. Then you get a list of rooms to check to make sure they are clean and vacant. Afterwards you spend most of the day sorting and delivering character cards for guests. Every so often the back office will need you to go up to a room because the guest got locked out, or their key won't work.

The 9am runner is responsible for packages. Each piece of guest mail that comes in needs to be logged and comments need to be left on the guest's reservation or a voicemail message needs to be left on their room phone. This takes all day. It doesn't sound like it would be to difficult, but there is a lot of work involved in keeping the package log updated. Then there are floral deliveries, from the WDW Florist. They are usually pretty nice baskets, but are way overpriced. Those have to be logged and then someone has to deliver them to the room. The 9am runner doesn't get to go outside very much.

The 12:30 runner delivers the rest of the character cards/floral deliveries, and checks more rooms to make sure they are clean. Sometimes guests get to their rooms and decide they want a room change, but they have sat on the bed and used the towels and soap, so that room is now dirty.

The 4pm Runner does more things like key assists, or key deliveries, makes character cards, and stuffs the DME envelopes for the next day. If it is busy you do a lot of running around because you are the only one there from 9pm to 12:30am

You get to ride around on a Segway (once you are trained) or drive a Pargo (Which is a golf cart) I like taking the Pargo, but you kind of have to go out of the way because you can only drive it on certain paths. Sometimes you have to run from one end of property to another. Like when I was training we had to take the van over to Magic Kingdom to pick up something for a guest. That was sort of cool. We also went to some office buildings at Hollywood Studios to pick up the hotel's fastpasses for the month.


Here is my costume.



It is a short sleeved shirt, and either pants or shorts. I went for the shorts because I am always hot. The best part is that you get to wear sneakers! They have to be black, but it is so nice to wear them after wearing dress shoes everyday.


On a side note, yesterday was Easter and I made Easter Baskets for my roomies!

Inspections!

So last week was our housing inspection. We've already had one and passed and none of my roommates didn't seem to care as much this time around. The other problem was it was spring break time and everyone was working 60+ hours. Now we needed to vacuum like everywhere, but you need to rent the vacuum from the front desk. This is the stupidest thing ever! The front desk is only open from 9-5. Almost everyone works during this time. Plus you need to pay $1 to rent it. So it's sunday night and I get back from work at 2:30pm and decide to rent the vacuum. I was the only one home so I vacuumed everywhere. Cleaned up the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, I emptied the garbages but ended up putting all the bags next to the front door because it was pouring. So the apt. was clean but it was getting close to 5 so I had to return the vacuum since they kept my housing ID. It was pouring still! I waited for as long as I could before deciding to put the vacuum in my car and drive to the front desk.

So Monday I come home from work and the inspection form is on the table. Everything is checked as passed, and on the very bottom is a note written "Please Vacuum Carpets". I was so mad, its like they were giving us anything wrong so we couldn't get the white glove award! Plus there is all this paint and stains on the carpet from when before we moved in. =( I guess we will never win the white glove award. But they did leave us some cookies for passing the inspection.