That's the tip of the iceberg if we're talking about the amount of information thrown at me today. But... Today was literally one of the most awesome days of my life!!!
I am absolutely beyond tired right now but I have to write it all down before I forget everything as I have a feeling tomorrow will be similar! I don't have Internet yet because I have yet to buy an Internet card so I will publish this ASAP but for reference... Today was Sunday 21st July 2013 and it all started at 4am this morning. Well actually, I got woken up several times - once by people shouting outside our room and once at 3am when the room phone rang!? I have a feeling this might have something to do with the massive group of Brazilian tour group staying in the rooms next to ours. Anyway, got up just past 4am... Had mostly packed the night before so that was good. Got ready and checked out of the hotel. At 5.15am the bus arrived to take us to the port. We picked up some re-hires from the Sheraton by the airport on the way.
45 minutes or so later we got our first glimpse of the Disney Dream!! I can only compare my feeling to that of when I first saw Main Street USA at WDW after seeing it on TV so many times. It's a really beautiful ship. Next to it was a Royal Caribbean ship and it just looked shabby in comparison! We had our passports checked on the bus and then we had to get our luggage off and line it up for the drug dogs to sniff. Then we went through security just like in the airport and we boarded the ship! We got onboard at about 7.15-7.30ish.
We got taken to the training room where we're going to spend a LOT of time this week. There was no dilly dallying... A few snacks for breakfast and then boom - straight into training! And it continued for the next 12 hours! We covered everything from cultural differences to personal safety equipment. We had a big portion of the day covering emergency safety... So if there is a fire, flood, abandon ship, man overboard etc and what to do. One of the most in charge people did that talk and he was a bit scary... You wouldn't second guess him ever! He showed a good video with some suitably terrifying real life phone clips of emergencies on cruise ships and things like that to drill it into us.
Another highlight of today was hearing that they don't use the word "termed" so much here for when you get fired but more the phrase "chicken or beefed". Sound strange? Well... Some are the normal options for plane food aren't they? ;-)
We had lunch in the crew mess and I had a nice salad. I was expecting nothing after the horror stories I heard but it was actually fine. We shall hold out opinion on that tho!
So then the really fun parts of today... Having our group picture taken with Captain Mickey Mouse on the staircase in the atrium! Watching the sail away party and hearing when you wish upon a star come from the horn! Getting my costume fitted! Meeting my managers and coworkers in Merchandise and discovering my line manager used to work at Disney Store Cardiff and actually trained me 2.5 years ago in a scabby Mall Cribbs training room to do Mission Magic! IT'S A SMALL WORLD.
Oh, and getting to go and watch one of the three fantastic shows in the Walt Disney Theatre - the Golden Mickeys!!! Basically, today has been amazing and if tomorrow is anything like today then bring it on!
So interesting! Have you had your swimming test yet? That's pne of the things that scares me from applying to the DCL.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting! Have you had your swimming test yet? That's pne of the things that scares me from applying to the DCL.
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