Celebrate You!

Wow, time has passed very quickly since my last blog post! Well, Friday's shift was kinda rubbish because the park was really quiet and I was really tired (partly from using up all my energy having a great day on Thursday and partly because I didn't sleep well) so I was glad to get home. I closed again on Saturday and it was an average shift... Sunday was an 11 hour shift which was rather exhausting but good fun. I was back on form (in terms of energy) and managed to somehow avoid being on unload for several days in a row - not through working the system but just by having my breaks at the most convenient moments and being in different rotations! There are three rotation - Yoda (yuk!), Obi-Wan (alright) and Vader (my favourite) and then there is the 'Wookie' which is when everyone moves a position forward not just one rotation of people. If that makes sense.

Monday was supposed to only be a six hour shift until deployment called me at 8.45am and asked if I could come in as soon as possible. As I hadn't actually been scheduled even 40 hours this week I said yes and ended up starting work at 10am through until 7pm. It was a good day though, apart from the humidity which has been particularly bad this week... wearing that costume is like being in a walking sauna. You can literally feel your body sweating out all its liquid, gross I know. But because the trousers have elasticated ankles, they hold all the hot air inside them, they're not very breathable!! And then the top goes quite far up to your neck as well so yes, not the coolest of costumes, but I am glad to be on Star Tours and not another, more rubbish attraction, so I can't really complain. Had a couple of amusing guests over the last few days as well; always related to the Jedi Academy.

I can't remember if I explained what the Jedi Academy was but in a nutshell, we sign up 15 kids for each show (the sign ups are 20 minutes before the show, apart from the final two shows of the day which we sign up at 2.30pm usually) and then they get to participate on the stage, learn to use a lightsabre and then fight Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers. We have 8 shows a day and if it rains then they are called off and usually get a meet and greet with the characters instead. So... on Monday, one of the shows got called off at the very very last minute because there was a sudden rain storm which was very heavy and wet... so I led the kids inside and they got their meet and greet with the characters, everyone was happy. Except one mother... who then continued to tell me how 'rediculous' it was that it was cancelled because of rain (unfortunately the rain had only lasted 5 minutes and by the time we came back outside it was sunny again!). She was very demanding and quite irate so it was lucky a co-ordinator turned up at that precise moment and we sorted her out with some guest recovery - i.e. we got her VIP seating at Indiana Jones and let her kids be in the next Jedi show. The thing is though; it's not uncommon for parents to act like this when the Jedi show is called off - mainly because they have stood in a line for 1-2 hours waiting to sign up for the show and then if it gets rained off, it feels like time wasted. But on the other hand, we can't do a show in the rain because of the SafeD factor - if the stage is wet then it's dangerous for the performers and the kids. And, despite popular opinion within guests; we're not weather forecasters! We don't know how long the rain is going to last or whether it will stop one minute later! In that incidence, the rain could have continued for 20 minutes and then that would have had a knock-on effect for the rest of the days shows which is why it was cancelled.

In a way, I enjoy dealing with the annoyed guests. It's kind of like a challenge to me and makes the day a bit more interesting! I have met several guests or groups of guests who have lightened my day for various reasons - I had a family who were on their first day of their first Disney vacation which was quite exciting. So I told them where to go and what to get Fastpasses for and I felt like I really helped them in their day! I had another family, quite late in the evening when it was quiet, who were actually English but the father clearly had an illness like Parkinsons or something. He was in a motorised wheelchair which was a challenge but not impossible to get into the simulator and transfer him to a seat. It was really nice to feel like we'd made it easy for the family to enjoy the ride plus I organised it so that no other guests went in their simulator - one, because it was less pressure for them to feel like they had to hurry up with the transfer etc. and two - because I felt like they deserved to have their own private flight! I really admire the people who bring genuinely disabled or ill people to Disney to enjoy the parks because it must be a challenge for them even with the flexibility and accommodations of Disney for disabled guests.

The people who rent wheelchairs and ECVs just because they are fat/lazy/want to queue jump on the other hand... well... I'll save my opinion of them for another post!

Besides work, I am on my second of my two days off this week. Yesterday the most important thing I did was I got my Uni results! This involved waking up at 7am to go online and see I had got a 2.1!!! Very happy about this!! Ended up going to the Premium Outlets where I bought some Sketchers and a jacket (not for here, keeping it to take home) and then bumming around the apartment for the daytime before going to Epcot in the evening, seeing Illuminations and eating Orange Chicken (standard) then dashing over to Magic Kingdom, getting soaked by a random thunderstorm and then watching the Nightastic fireworks before staying in the park til midnight. We did a couple of rides but the park was really quiet as lots of people had left when it rained and after the fireworks.

Today the plan is to do my laundry (fun!) and then go to the Studios this afternoon to do Coaster, Tower and Toy Story!! :D Then going to go to TGI Fridays this evening and I'm intending to have my first alcoholic drink for nearly a month to celebrate my results! Yay!