Missing Canada?

Well I've been in Florida for two months now, it's hard to believe!

As time wears on, I find myself missing or craving certain things that you can't get here in the sates.
Although America and Canada are quite similar, there are some small detail that are different and can create a bit of a culture shock because you don't really expect it to be different (if that makes any sense at all).

For starters, when you go into Walmart, you walk in and don't know where to start!  The Walmart's down here are ginormous and super confusing!  They don't have roll back so you really have to really look at prices.  Also the customers aren't the same, in Canada everyone usually looks were they are going and is very courteous, in America...not so much.  I'm not saying it to be bias or trying to offend anyone, but it is true and slightly stero-typical...Canadians say sorry way too much (at least it seems to be that way with me....).

Some things I miss that they don't have in Canada:
-Tim Hortons (Seriously dying, I miss getting Timmies coffee and bagels and doughnuts!)
-Smarties
-Ketchup Chips
-Poutine (Never really craved it till I came here...now I want it all the time because I can't have it!)
-Kraft Dinner (They have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, but it's weird not seeing KD)
-Kinder Surprise (I don't really miss it...but was surprised they don't have them)
-Plum Sauce (I go to McDonalds and ask for plum sauce for the chicken nuggets and they look at me like I have 5 eyes and ask what plum sauce is..)

Another thing is that the customer service is horrible.  It's a lot more difficult to get things done quickly when you need customer service.  Although I do have to say that even though working for Disney might sound intimidating to do, since they are very strict about having good show and looking/acting our best in front of guests at all times, I completely understand why.  Disney is probably one of the best places to go for great customer service, there is nothing they wont try to do (within limitation of course) to make sure you have an enjoyable time.  It's not always easy or possible to accommodate every guests need or solve every complaint, but Disney really does put in a lot of effort to make sure that everyone has a magical experience.  After certain experiences I have had with customer service from stores or banks while down here, I have found a lot of respect to why disney is so strict with how cast members act and I find myself trying to do my best to make sure that a guest doesn't have to deal with the stress or frustration I have had to deal with.

Sorry if this isn't a super positive post, I guess I'm just missing Canada a bit and wanted to educate you on somethings I've found out while down here.

On a more positive note, I've got 4 days off and today I am going to Animal Kingdom with my friend Sam!  Maybe one blog post will be strictly pictures of my adventure in Florida thus far!

-Janice


"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world.  But it takes people to make the dream a reality."
-Walt Disney

Le Cellier

Hello Folks!

I'm officially no longer the newbie at the pavilion as well as I am all done my "Prove it" shifts in the restaurant.  In this blog I am going to be talking about the different positions in our restaurant, Le Cellier.

Le Cellier Steakhouse is the Canadian pavilions signature restaurant.  It is the second most popular restaurant in all of Disney World.  It usually books up three to six months in advance!  So if you ever plan on eating there....book early!  And because Le Cellier is in a Disney Park, it is not like any normal high end restaurant, there is no dress code.

Right now I am working Front of House at Le Cellier.  Front of house positions consists of greeter, seater and setter.  These are all non tipped positions.

Greeter:

The greeter stands behind the desk and checks the guests into the restaurant.  As the greeter, you need to make sure you ask a guest how many children and adults are in the party, if children; ask if highchairs or strollers are needed, ask if guest in wheelchairs/ECV's are able to transfer, ask guests if they are on the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) or Tables in Wonderland (TIW) and remind the guest that if on DDP it will be two table credits per person.  You also need to make sure that if guests want to wait outside, they must know that they can not wander past the bridge because we will not be able to find them.  Greeter does involve a bit of computer skills as well as some multi tasking.  While typing finishing with filling out a check in, you need to be able to start greeting the next guest so they are not standing there for too long waiting for you to talk to them.  

Seater:

Being a seater, you need to be very quick at memorizing and have good people skills (you need good people skills with a positions...but a little more with seater).  You need to be able to have conversations with the guests while bringing them to their table.  Things I like to ask is where they are traveling from, if they are having a good time and if they have been to Le Cellier before.  If there are younger kids I like to ask what other parks they have been too, what rides are their favourite and what characters they have met.  You need to be quick at memorizing because you need to learn the table numbers and what sections they are in.  Each section represents a canadian provence or territory, so you need to be able to know a fun fact for each provence and territory.  Another thing a seaters job is, is Disney trivia (or canadian trivia).  When the wait is starting to get long and there are a lot of guests in the front area, we do disney trivia.  It entertains the guests and it helps time go by faster...it's also a lot of fun!  And the guests that answer questions right get mickey stickers!  It's great when you have a crowd with lots of kids.

Setter:

This is probably the most exhausting job on podium.  Setter is the one who sets each table, and the shift is about 9 hours.  You are basically running around the restaurant setting tables non stop for 9 hours.  The good thing about this shift is that you do get an hour break, so you do get a chance to re-energize.  As setter you also have to refill the pretzel bread.  As setter, you don't really have much interaction with guests unless they ask you where the bathrooms are.  This can be nice when you have a cold/lost your voice and can not talk over the noise of the dining room.  

There you have it, the three non tipped positions at Le Cellier!  The next step up are tipped positions which is Food Runner and eventually Server, but I'll let you know more about them when I know more about them.  I have also started studying for my service test!  It's hard to start since you need to know what to study for, but once you start studying it gets a little bit easier.  Who knew that even when you are not in school anymore, you'd still have to study and write tests...

Time to make some tea and relax!

-Janice

"Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. 

He was a means to an end."

-Walt Disney 

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.

Well, since the last time I wrote I have started working!  I started my training outside on the popcorn cart and then this past week I was in the restaurant training.  In this blog I think Im going to talk about the jobs at pop corn cart and my next blog will be about working in Le Cellier, if I don't it's going to be a super long novel which is what the last one was like.  

A quick little talk about the training at Disney.  You have one day of training per position.  Once you are done your training shifts, you have what they like to call your "Prove it" shifts.  Which isn't as scary as it sounds, it's just a day where you work without a trainer helping you and explaining things to you.  I haven't had any major issues yet with my prove it shifts I did for popcorn so I don't really know what happens if your "prove it" shifts don't go well.  I guess they just get you to do another training day to get you more comfortable with the position.  

AM Popcorn Cash:

For AM popcorn cash, you have to open the cart in the morning (you have about an hour to do so, and should not take longer then that hour because guests are waiting to buy stuff by 12pm).  AM popcorn cash talks to customers and takes their orders, handles the money.  You get one 45 minute break during this shift usually around 3pm and at the end of your shift you close the till and are escorted back to the restaurant to count the till.  The one downfall with AM Popcorn is that you are working by yourself for the majority of the time, but you do have Merchandise close by if anything happens.  

PM Popcorn Cash:

This is so far my favourite position.  You arrive and head up to the cart, open and count your till, then basically do what you do for am popcorn (except you don't have to open the cart).  You also have whoever is on popcorn stocker to help you out if it gets busy.  Dinner break is usually an hour or two after we start, so around 4pm.  Lucky thing about PM popcorn cash is that you don't have to close down the cart.  PM popcorn cash helps the popcorn stocker by cleaning up somethings while waiting for the escort and bringing things down to the dishwasher to be cleaned then you bring them back up on your way out. 

Popcorn Stocker:

This is a somewhat tedious job and is more physically demanding the the other two popcorn duties.  

Through out the day and night, the popcorn cart will get low on supplies and it is the popcorn stockers job to stock them up.  You need to change kegs, move kegs, empty spill buckets, stock up on pop, frozen drinks, popcorn, popcorn containers and cups.  There is a lot of moving back and forth for this.  Although your job doesn't really start until 9pm when you start to close the cart.  You need to count all products, clean the cart, un tap the kegs, lock everything up and bring all dry products and the two slushy drinks back down to the restaraunt.  It doesn't sound difficult, and once you get a good routine that works for you, it's really not.  It's only because you are the only closing and are working at night that makes it seem long.  But it can be kind of fun because thats when all the disney wildlife comes out!  There are about three or four bunnies that live around the Canadian pavilion, they are very cute and like to graze around the popcorn cart.  

Now time to talk about the popcorn cart itself!  It is where I learn't how to pour draft beer!  At the popcorn cart we sell draft canadian beer (Moosehead, Moosehead Light and Labatt Blue), popcorn, pop, one alcoholic slushy (Torontopolitain, which is similar to a cosmopolitain) and a North Bay smoothie (which is like a frozen sheerly temple).  For popcorn cart we wear the red and black plaid shirt, tan culottes and a lumberjack hat. (*Pictures will be posted when as soon as I get a picture of me in both my outfits*) Popcorn cart is a lot of fun because you are outside for your shift and you get to communicate a lot more with the guests.  

Since today was my day off I did my chores and plan on going to Epcot to eat at Germany (when guests are unable to get a table at Le Cellier, we recommend them to eat at either Germany, Morocco or China.  So what better way to recommend a place then by trying it yourself!  

Thats about it for now!

-Janice

Also, I thought I would add some pictures I took when I went to see "Wishes" at the Magic Kingdom.  It is seriously the best thing to watch to cure homesickness or just to brighten your mood.  It's is truly breath taking.

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."

-Walt Disney 

Hakuna Matata

That has been the motto to remember this past week.

Let me start off with my apologizes to those who have been wondering where I have been lately.
I have been trying to write a blog every day for the past week!  Everyday has just been so busy, but I finally have two days off and I am sitting down and writing one! (And once again...it's a novel! Enjoy!)

Tuesday, March 19th:  
This was our move in day!  I wont lie, it was an emotionally exhausting day.  I had to say goodbye to our family friends who we stayed with for a week.  My parents and I headed to sign in at disney housing.  I was super nervous when I got there but was kindly welcomed by the Disney family (I mean that literally, everyone was so kind and welcoming.  The lady who brought me to my apartment greeted me with a big hug).  Right as I was about to leave the office at the Vista Way complex (Disney housing has 4 different apartment complexes.  Vista Way, The Commons, Chatham Square and Patterson Court) when I had ran into Emily (a fellow Canadian I had been talking to over facebook who was at the same interview and happened to be the other only Canadian with the same start date as myself) and found out we were roommates!  We headed over to Chatham Square (the apartment complex where we are living) and unpacked.  My parents took us to Walmart and we got groceries, my phone and other things.  I have to say Walmart's in the states are huge!  It's lucky my parents drove us, our cart was over flowing!  We came back and unloaded the groceries, then came the dreaded part.  I had to say goodbye to my parents.  It was difficult, but since I have already lived on my own before it didn't as bad.  Since our other roommates (I have three other roommates all together) hadn't arrived yet, Emily and I had spaghetti and watched Alice in Wonderland.  It was also and early night for us, we wen't to bed at 10pm (which was when Elli, my other roommate from England, arrived).

Wednesday, March 20th:
The first day of orientation.  The first thing we did was get our I.D cards for accessing the complexes and busses.  Emily and I came home for a bit and had met our other roommate, Ronja from Norway.  Later we had a meeting about the complex community.  So we learnt about events and different things disney and the apartments have to offer.  Not too much happened on this day.

Thursday, March 21st:
Today we had more orientation.  This was a little more intense then Wednesday, it was all about the rules and paperwork which all started at 8am.  It was exhausting.  Later a bunch of us went to Downtown Disney, it was a lot of fun!  They had a dance circle and we all joined in and danced for about 2 hours!  We headed home around 10pm and that's when I started to feel a little iffy.  But my night wasn't over.  Emily and I headed over to Patterson for our "Throw In" party (Its where all the Canadians welcome the new ones).  Since there was only two of us who were new, it felt a little awkward because all the attention was on just us (which I'm not really use to so I felt super awkward) but everyone was so fully of energy and  extremely welcoming.

Friday, March 22nd:
I was so happy that today was our day off!  I ended up getting sick and having a fever, so today I literally spent the day in bed.  I did nothing but watch Friends, sleep and make a couple phone/skype calls.

Saturday, March 23rd:
An early morning start!  All the new cast members headed down to Disney University for Traditions.  We learnt about the overall rules, safety and information about Walt Disney World.  We also got to head down to the Magic Kingdom for a quick tour and observation.  I ended up getting a horrible migraine when we came back that lasted for a good 2 or 3 hours, so I didn't really have as good of a time at Traditions as others might have.  But we got are name tags and Disney I.D's and became official cast members!

My Name Tag! 

Sunday, March 24th and Monday, March 25th:

Both Sunday and Monday we're spent doing online safety and restaurant courses.  And on Monday we also met our manager, Carrie.  She went over the regulations of the restaurant and explained what kind of things we will be doing and why Le Cellier is so popular (It's the second most popular fine dining restaurant in all of Walt Disney World.  The wait time to get in is about 6 months!).  She then answered any questions with us and gave us a booklet about the different positions, the menu and different wines to help us learn more about what we need to learn.  

Tuesday, March 26th:

It was discovery day today.  That means we got a tour of Epcot and a tour through our pavilion.  We also got our costumes today!  For the Canadians we have two costumes (we are the only pavilion to have two costume.  One for outdoors and one for in the restaurant).  As well as we got our badges to show that we are in training or as Disney likes to say "Earning our Ears". 

My costume is for outside at the popcorn vendor 

and Emily is wearing the Le Cellier costume.

I'm finally "Earning My Ears"!

Wednesday, March 27th and Thursday, March 28th:

Both days I had off and I start training on Friday.  Wednesday I went to Hollywood Studios with some friends.  Let me give you a tip....Disney during the American spring break is extremely crazy busy!  We were there from 2pm till about 6:30pm and we were only able to go on 3 rides!  It was so busy that even the fast-passes weren't available anymore!  Still a pretty good day.  And today (Thursday) I went and had a fast lunch with my friend Mat and did a quick walk around Epcot (almost met Snow White) before he had to go to work.  Then I came home and got caught up on my laundry (it was pretty bad haha) and wrote this blog!  Tonight might be an early night because I want to be well rested for the big day tomorrow!  

I think I will leave it at that...I hope it gave you a little insight to what I have been doing so far. I've also have been trying to write down things that I wish people had mentioned to me before I came down to prepare me better...so I will at some point write a blog about all of that.  I will also hopefully doing a room tour once I become a little more settled in.

Till next time,

-Janice

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

-Walt Disney

Hello from the Sunshine State

That's right!  I made it to sunny Florida! 

After seven and a half hours of driving yesterday we made crossed the border of Georgia into Florida.  We still had to drive another four hours to where we are staying and ended up driving a total of eleven hours.  Let me just say, driving a total of twenty-two hours in two days is exausting! I wasn't even driving and I was tired!

Last night my parents, our family friends (who are kindly letting us stay the week with them!) and I just relaxed by the pool. Nothing too interesting to talk about. Today was a little more active. I went to a bank down here and set up an american bank account (this was slightly stressful because I didn't have an american address, phone number or social security number yet), later we all went out to an Orange Grove that was ownd by Florida's Natural (popular orange juice brand) and learned about the history of the company and how they make the orange juice (we even got some free samples! Yumyum!).

It was a pretty big factory!

After a visit to the orange groves, we headed over to a little reastaraunt called Woody's. We all ordered the baby back ribs, which were AMAZING (almost as good as Logan's...mmm). I also took a picture of my drink because the drink sizes down here are HUMUNGUS! I've been going to Florida for eleven years and I still can't get over how large their drink sizes are!

It was seriously huge!!!  

About the length of my face!

I'm also trying to get back into a workout schedule, so after dinner I went for a ten minute jog.  After tonight, my new goal is to beable to run ten minutes without needing to slow down and breath.  I feel so out of shape!  But it did feel good to get out and run.

Before I forget, you all must be wondering about the weather.  Well, today was about 65-70degrees F, windy and rainy (however, I would take this before the freazing cold and snow!).  Tomorrow is suppose to be hot and sunny. 

I guess that's going to be all for now.

Until my next entry,
-Janice

P.S:  To all those Canadians who started their first day in Epcot today, I hope it went well (and I hope it wasn't too hecktic with it being March Break!)



"Laughter is timeless.
Imagination has no age.
And Dreams are forever."
-Walt Disney

On the Road

It has been a very long day, but I'm officially just a day away from Florida!
The past month I have been doing so much; packing, getting paperwork and seeing friends and family one more time.  It's amazing how fast the time went.  Now here I am half way to Florida and starting a new chapter in my life.

My morning today started at 5am where I woke up, quickly got ready (well as quickly as I could while still half asleep and extremely uncoordinated ) and said goodbye to my babies (Leonard and Sheldon, my beautiful rats).  My parents and I left our place around 6am.  We got to the Detroit border around 10/10:30am and we had to stop so I could get my visa papers stamped.  I don't know why, but I always feel so intimidated when crossing the border (especially when you have to go into the building and answer a bunch of questions).  I guess it's because the officers there carry themselves with power and intensity.  But my papers are stamped and I am officially a legal alien! (I prefer "Temporary American".  But, I have to say, it is fun to tell people you're an alien.)

Not too much happened after we crossed the border, we drove for about 6 more hours and drove through Ohio and made it to the end of Kentucky.  We are now about two hours from the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.  It is currently 70°F (well it's cooled down a bit since it's evening now but it was!), finally my kind of weather!  Tomorrow we have to go through the rest of Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.  Georgia, like Ohio, is going to feel like it's never ending.  But this time tomorrow, I will be in beautiful, sunny Florida!

Once I get there, I will be doing nothing but relaxing!!  After two years, of working non stop (either in school or work) I FINALLY get a relaxing vacation and think about nothing!

That's about it for now, just a little info about my travels so far.

TTFN, tata for now!
-Janice



"Think of all the joy you'll find
When you leave the world behind
And bid your cares good-bye"
-Peter Pan

It's the Final Countdown!

That's right!  The countdown is on!  I leave for Florida in 9 days!

Let me just tell you, I feel like a chicken running around with it's head chopped off.  Although I'm slightly nervous about moving down there for a year and trying to enjoy the last couple of day of being in Canada, I can NOT wait till all the prep work and packing is OVER and I am relaxing in the hot sun!

In the past two weeks I have been trying to:
.  Gather all the documents I need for my arrival at Disney
.  Renew my health insurance (so I don't loose it since I'm out of the country for over 219 days)
.  Get travel insurance (which my mom was able to help me out with a while ago, so no problems with that one)
.  Go to doctors/dentist appointments (so I don't have to go to any when I'm in Florida....unless something happens..lets hope not)
.  See as many friends as possible
.  Pack
.  Get rid of things I don't need anymore
.  Renew my drivers licence (but apparently you cant renew your licence until its exactly 6 months or less till the expiry date....and I'm a week over 6 months...which really sucks)
.  Switch to a new bank that has branches in the states so I can access my money in the sates

Also once I get to Florida I have to:
.  Open a U.S bank account (so I can do easy transfers when I'm down there)
.  Get a new phone plan (and possibly new phone)

Once I have frequent access to the internet again I will start posting entries at least two times a week.
And unless I drop by the library before I leave, this might possibly be my last entry before I leave Canada.  It's getting real!

Until next time,
Janice



"In dreams you will loose your heartaches.  Whatever you wish for you keep."
-Cinderella, Cinderella