I just got home from work about thirty minutes ago and it certainly didn't go the way I had anticipated it would. Today was my first day of training where I had the opportunity to interact with the guests, and I was really looking forward to it. But for whatever reason, things just didn't go my way.
I'll start with last night since it seems like the last eighteen hours have blended together. My two roommates were at Magic Kingdom so around 9:00, my roommate, Chrissy and I decided to meet them there since we were sitting around the apartment. We ran to the A bus, got dropped off at the Polynesian, took the monorail to Magic Kingdom, and had some fun. Then the park closed at 11:00 and things started to go bad.
We went through the utilidoors, took a short bus ride to a bus stop, and waited for the bus back to our apartment. Unfortunately for us, it had gotten really cold and three of us were dressed inadequately for it, so that put us in a slightly bad mood. We waited for the bus for probably 35 minutes and twenty minutes after its scheduled time, the bus showed up. Since we were leaving Magic Kingdom, there were tons of other cast members trying to go home too, so the bus filled up quickly. My roommates and I decided to stand since we hadn't been working and the cast members who had just gotten off work deserved to sit down. I've never minded having to stand before, but last night I quickly regretted choosing not to take a seat.
Our bus driver kept stopping suddenly which made it really hard to hold on to the hand rails, which caused everyone to fall into one anther. The driver swerved around cars, stopped suddenly in the middle an intersection because of a red light, and seemed to completely disregard the fact that people were standing and that he was compromising our safety. I don't even think I'm properly conveying how reckless he was being, At one point, a cast member yelled at him about how there were too many people standing for him to be driving so crazy and that she would report him, so he got angry. He responded with something like, "This bus is over capacity and it's a $1,000 fine for every extra person on the bus," then he gave her his name in a really sarcastic way, acting as though he didn't care if she reported him. I wasn't sure why he said anything about the bus being over capacity; as if it was our fault. It's the bus driver's responsibility to cut off the number of people getting on to the bus when the it has reached capacity. For the rest of the ride, he seemed to do things out of spite, like making sudden stops and fast turns. The cast member who yelled at him ended up reporting him and she was told that management would be contacted, but I doubt anything will happen.
We ended up getting home around 12:30 and I went straight to bed. Since I give myself ample time to get to work, I set my alarm for 5:20 A.M. since I planned on catching the 6:30 bus to get to work at 8:00. The next morning, I should have left fifteen minutes before the bus came, but I kept misplacing everything. I couldn't find my ID, then my wallet, then my locker combination. By the time I found my ID, I gave up on finding anything else because I didn't have time, so I grabbed money and left. On top of that, I almost forgot my keys and I didn't have time to put on sunscreen, which was important because I would be outside all day and the sun is like ten miles away from Florida.
Two days before, I had gotten my costume and shoes but today was the first time I was required to wear them. It turns out my shoes were too small even though they felt okay when I tried them on at Costuming and by the time I made it to the bus stop, my feet were already blistering. I then realized I had missed my bus and the next one didn't come until 6:45. This made me really nervous because it takes about 40 minutes to get to work, taking traffic, driving conditions, and the amount of time the bus spends at bus stops into consideration. On top of that, there was a shift change at Vista, so we had to wait for another bus driver to get there and drive us to Westclock. At this point I was having an internal meltdown because I really didn't want to get a half point on my record this early in the game.
Somehow, we ended up getting to Disney with twenty minutes to spare, but I didn't recognize where the bus had dropped us off. I got off the bus, looked around, and realized I wasn't in front of the utilidoors. I ran back onto the bus where another girl was asking where the utilidoors were, and the bus driver had no idea. So we ran off the bus together and asked a cast member for directions. He told us we had to take another bus to get to Westclock, and when we saw the bus stop he was talking about, the bus was already there. Since we didn't want the bus to leave without us, we decided to run and I somehow managed to accidentally trip her! She fell onto the ground and she ripped her tights and scraped her legs. I felt utterly horrible for it. I kept apologizing as I helped her up and grabbed her bag off the ground. We continued to run for the bus but she was half running, half limping while I struggled to run because my shoes were rubbing up against the back of my feet. We got to the bus in time and I kept apologizing and asking if there was anything I could do to help like get first aid but she insisted it was okay. Even though I know it was an accident, I still felt awful about it. (For future reference, Westclock buses come one after the other. You never really have to wait for a bus, but we didn't know that at the time.)
We made it to Westclock in time and after helping the girl to the best of my ability, I went to find the people I was training with. At this point, I was walking on the backs of my shoes to keep my feet from rubbing up against them. That, combined with the uneasy feeling I had that morning and the guilt I felt for causing that girl to fall made me feel like turning around and going home.
Even though I knew there was no way I could go to Costuming before work, I asked my trainers if there was any way I could get a different pair of shoes so I wouldn't be in pain all day. They told me I had to go to Costuming and that the building wouldn't even open until 10:00 that day. That meant I would be forced to walk all around the park and talk to guests while wearing those shoes. Needless to say, I didn't feel very much like making magic. And to my dismay, we walked around every land, through the backstage areas, and interacted with guests from 8:00 until after 1:00. I literally felt like I couldn't walk anymore because my feet were in so much pain, but I kept pushing myself to have a cheerful disposition with every guest I met. I was more nervous to talk to guests than I thought I would be, but my trainer gave me lots of praise for crouching down at children's eye level, talking to people wearing birthday/anniversary/first visit buttons, and referring to kids as "princess," "space ranger," etc. Even though I loved interacting with guests, I was so relieved when we finally took our lunch break.
Since I started training, I've been doing e-learning for two to three hours everyday and I really hate it because it's boring and I always almost fall asleep. But today, I couldn't have been more grateful when it was time to do it. After about two hours of e-learning, our leaders informed us of the chemicals that we'll be using and did a mock BBP (blood born pathogen) clean up. That was torture because we had to stand but I tried to keep my negativity to myself. After what seemed like forever, 4:45 came and I clocked out, then got on the bus to Costuming. When I told a cast member that the shoes were too small, she told me that if I tried to return shoes again, I would have to pay for them. The added pressure made finding the right shoes all the more stressful. I went up a size and it was hard for me to tell if my feet hurt because of the shoes or if it was because they were already aching, but I traded in my old shoes for new ones anyway and got the bus home.
For the first time since I've gotten here, I'm going to take my own advice and go to sleep early. Everyday I've told myself I would, but I haven't. I think my brain and body really need it.
Despite today's series of events and the negative feelings I have had for the last couple days, I'm really trying to keep a positive attitude. Fortunately, the new shoes seem to fit alright and I don't have to work until 1:15 tomorrow. I also got my schedule for the next two weeks and almost everyday is a late shift. I would much rather have late shifts than early ones since the early shifts are killing me.
Hopefully things will go much better tomorrow.
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