I live!!!

Hello all you lovely people!

I bet you're wondering what I've been up to the last four months. Well, after quite a long hiatus, I'm returning to my Disney blog! Just to let you know, it was never my intention to abandon this blog. It was just a matter of life taking over. Life here at Disney is very busy. You really have to make priorities, and this blog was just not on my top list of priorities in the last while. It's actually taken me quite a while to fully grasp my bearings. When you're not working (which is most of the time), you're out making other experiences. And there is just so much to do! I never realized how big Disney really is or the endless supply of things to do and see before living here.

I think the first and most important update I should mention is my department switch. When I was hired by Disney, I was hired to be in Food & Beverage. I have since made the switch to Attractions. About two months into my program, my managers approached me and informed me that both the Merchandise and Attractions departments in the Canadian Pavilion were understaffed, particularly Attractions. Apparently, they were so understaffed that they reached out to Food & Beverage and asked to recruit from their pool. Food & Beverage is always adequately staffed, so they could easily spare one or two cast members. My managers let me know as much, and since I hadn't taken any service training yet, asked if I would be interested in switching to Attractions. To be honest, this was welcome news. Although I would have been content to stay in Food & Beverage, I found the environment to be too fast-paced and stressful for my liking. After all, I came to Disney to have a good time. With this in mind, I told my managers that I was interested in switching departments. A few weeks later, the switch took place and I've been there ever since.

So what exactly is the attraction? Well, in the Canadian Pavilion, the attraction is a circle vision movie called "O Canada!" Circle vision means the screens cover the whole theatre. The movie is a fourteen minute-long tour of Canada, narrated by Canadian actor Martin Short and featuring a song by 2006 Canadian Idol winner, Eva Avila. That's pretty much what we say when guests ask about our attraction. There are three positions that we occupy - Greeter (greeting the guests at the entrance), Theatre (actually running the movie) and Kidcot (this is where guests can choose either a Duffy the bear or a Perry the platypus and get an official stamp from every pavilion. It's sort of a passport for World Showcase). It's been about two months now since I've been working in the attraction, and I'm happy with my decision. I love my co-workers and I'm enjoying the much more relaxed environment. It also allows for more guest interaction which was lacking in my Food & Beverage days.

In the last week, I celebrated my four-month anniversary of living at Disney with my arrival group. It's hard to believe it's been that long! My arrival group and I have made very good friends. We started this journey together and have remained close months on. We've made a point to celebrate our anniversary every month. This program has allowed me to meet some of the best people I've ever met in my life; from Canada and from all parts of the world (or at least the ones featured in World Showcase!) I know the friendships I make here will carry over long after I finish the program.

There is so much more I could update on, I hardly know where to start and where to end. I think this will do for now. At the very least, it's putting me in the practice of blogging again. Now that I'm feeling settled, I think it will be easier for me to update more regularly. For this blog post, I must give credit to my friend, Alex Cassels, for reminding me that people did follow my blog when I posted it originally and that I should continue updating it.

Until next time! :)