★disney college program shenanigans★
"hey gabbie it's been ELEVEN MONTHS since you updated your site!! where have you been?!"
well, for two of those months, i was working at five below (not recommended) and working on my capstone. but then i went to disney again. for nine months. because i was employed there!!!
peep my name tag.
it was an amazing once in a lifetime experience. i worked with people from all around the country/world, met guests from all around the country/world, and tried and learned lots of new things! this is a long post because i did all this stuff in 3/4 of a year, so buckle in!
what were you doing at disney?
my place of employment
i worked at animal kingdom, in the first area you see when you go into ak, called discovery island. i was a food and beverage cast member and spent most of my days working at a barbecue restaurant. i thought i would just be front of house helping guests, but i worked in the kitchen and dining areas too! i had never worked food service before so it was a little daunting, especially when we got busy. but i managed to pull through! their food was delicious too. every time i went to ak as a guest and wanted some lunch i ALWAYS went there to eat. i like pretty much everything on their menu. they are my favorite quick service restaurant in disney world and i am not biased in any way
i was also able to pick up shifts at other locations. i tried so hard to get a shift at mickey's not so scary halloween party, but no dice. however mickey did let me work at his very merry christmas party!
i am so holly and jolly
i also worked at the food booths at fantasmic a couple of times! i loved the atmosphere there, fantasmic has always been my favorite show at wdw. picking up shifts there gave me a whole new appreciation for all the work that goes into the show!
me with the boss
in addition, i worked at port orleans french quarter and the contemporary! the resorts are much less hectic than the parks, and everything felt so calm and serene. i only started picking up at resorts near the end of my program and i wish i had done it more. that's not to make it sound like i didn't like working at my barbecue restaurant bc i did enjoy it
(btw if you ever head to french quarter, you Need to try the mickey beignets they are my favorite mickey shaped treat.)
fun times on discovery island
discovery island was great! there was lots for me to see even when i was working. kevin (the bird from up) would often walk around discovery island. one time, she stopped by while i was on greeter duties and we chatted. she's so cute!
an abridged but real convo i had with kevin
nick and judy from zootopia also walked around often, and near the end of my program i saw russell from up walking around! i wish dug walked around too.... i love golden retrievers so much and i missed my two goldens from back home when i was in florida orz
my favorite characters were a group of holiday puppets called the merry menagerie! every day, on my way to/from work, or when i visited the parks on my days off, i would always say hi to them. i especially loved the seal. it is just so cute and i gave it so many headpats within the span of 30 days...
little soft baby seal my beloved
they were only around during december though... so when January came around i felt sad walking through the critter-less main area. i did buy a ton of their merchandise so i have lots to remember them by! i was so known for my enjoyment of these little guys that my sister (also on the dcp) called me the ceo of the merry menagerie so if that doesn't tell you of my love for them idk what does
i purchased their ornament set! at full price!!!
another thing that i love about discovery island is our entertainment. after dinoland closed, we got a resident guitarist who would often walk around our dining areas to sing songs to guests (improv music, disney songs, etc.). we also had viva gaia, a street band who played across the street from us. they played every hour so i often used their music to tell the time lol. if my coworkers or i were working at the service window or outside we often jammed out to them. both the guitarist and viva gaia always brightened my work day!
me with the band
"what animals did you see at animal kingdom" you would be surprised at how many little critters we had in my restaurant's dining area. we had the usual small geckos and lizards (so cute), but we also had lots of others. every once in a while i would see a rabbit eating vegetation and hopping around and i would explode from cuteness. there were also lots of ducks and when spring came, there were lots of little ducklings! my coworkers and i tried our best to keep our eyes on them when they wandered into the dining area.
one of my favorite animals at my restaurant was this gigantic crow. you could tell it apart from the others because it was much bigger than the other crows that were around, like it was huge. it swooped in and almost took out my hat once, and it allegedly tried to steal my coworker's fries, but that's ok i still love it. one time a guest and i were talking to it and it cawed back at us. i miss my fat chud child...
i don't think this photo does it justice it was REALLY big
however. i didn't like all of the animals.
(pictured: me yelling at the banes of my existence)
those birds in those trees are ibises. we had tons of them in our seating area. those birds are evil and knew what they were doing. guests often fed them even though you are not supposed to, and then they would get a craving for barbecue and start stealing. when a guest got up and left their food for a minute they would steal their food. i once saw one grab a huge chunk of mac and cheese and hop on a child's head and then fly off. one time a guest yelled at me because an ibis stole her food TWICE. i also had to clean up after them often. they are menaces. though i love all of the other animals here, i have never hated a bird species until i worked at animal kingdom
cool things i got to see
i got to go to cast previews- cast member exclusive previews for rides that were about to open. i saw the zootopia show (so cute!!), rode the refurbished buzz lightyear ride at magic kingdom, rode the new soarin ride, and went on the muppets rock'n rollercoaster.
the latter was my favorite out of all of them and it became my favorite ride at disney world! unfortunately this was like one month before my internship ended lol. i was too afraid to ride it at the beginning of my dcp and by the time i got into roller coasters (i developed an unhealthy addiction to cosmic rewind) i had to wait until construction was done on the new version to ride it. i'm glad they completed construction and i got to ride it before the end of my internship in any case!
i miss rock'n roller coaster ouuuuuuuuu
my favorite park was epcot, i visited that park most often out of all the others. i got to see pretty much all of the festivals!! food and wine was my first one and my favorite. but i enjoyed the festival of the arts, festival of the holidays, and flower and garden a lot too! i loved walking around world showcase and trying all the festival foods.
i drew this at the arts festival!!
i celebrated a lot of holidays at disney world, too. i went resort-hopping in costume during halloween, epcotting around thanksgiving, epcotting again on christmas eve, and i got to see a special fireworks show instead of watching the ball drop on new years eve!
me on halloween
the magic kingdom fireworks from the view of the polynesian resort
one of my absolute favorite things was getting to see dinosaur one last time before it closed down. it was my favorite ride at animal kingdom and i rode it lots during my visits to disney when i was a kid so it is very nostalgic to me. on its last day i rode it 7 times (sometimes by myself and sometimes with my coworkers). but not only did i get to ride it... i got to meet a special person too!
cool people i got to meet
if you've been on dinosaur, you might know the paleontologist who sends you on your mission during the preshow, dr. seeker. his actor, wallace langham, visited dinosaur on its last day dressed up as dr. seeker and i got to meet him! he was very kind and he gave me an autograph and took a video and picture with me! near the final rides of the day, he gave us a speech about how he appreciated how loved the ride was and to keep it up. all in all i was super starstruck.
his autograph said thanks for everything TTvTT !
i saw the muppets and their puppeteers at a dcp event where they (both the muppets and their puppeteers) answered questions. up to that point i had only really known them for muppetvision 3d and muppets christmas carol (and the game show award memes with miss piggy and geoff keighley), but for the rest of my internship i had a newfound appreciation for the muppets. puppetry so cool....!!!
at another event for dcp, i saw paige o'hara, the voice actress for belle, where she also did a q&a. the next day, she had a booth at the epcot arts festival where she sold paintings she made for beauty and the beast. i visited her and gave her a drawing of belle and lumiere, and she gave me two bookmarks with her paintings on it (art trade lol!). she was so sweet and when i told her i wanted to go into animation she gave me words of encouragement.
me and my drawing with paige o'hara
her bookmarks
my sister and i visited bret iwan (mickey mouse's voice actor) when he was holding a meet and greet at disney springs. he was great and when we left, he said "see ya real soon!" in mickey's voice. seeing a voice actor irl is really neat and he's really talented
my sister and i with him
turns out he's an artist too. i love his illustrations! i can't imagine getting to draw art for the character you voice, it's gotta be so fun
bret iwan's art
i did not actually meet this person but i did see her- during the epcot arts festival my mom and i saw a show about disney's music on broadway and at the end, the actress who plays ariel on broadway announced there was a special guest. it was jodi benson, the voice actress of ariel. i actually screamed i fear i was embarrassing
despite the fact that i met lots of people, there are some that i still wish i got to see. the day after i rode rock'n roller coaster, the muppets held a special event there where they had a show and concert. bean bunny was there. bean bunny is my favorite muppet. i am seething that i missed bean bunny by 24 hours.
conclusion
i had an amazing time. i found that i could do things that i never thought i could do before my program. not in the "trying roller coasters" kinda sense i was talking about earlier, but getting comfortable with customer service and working in a really, really fast-paced environment. i met so many great people on my program- i had over a hundred coworkers during my internship who all came and went and i befriended a lot of them. they are a huge part of what made my dcp great too! i wasn't even sure if i wanted to do the college program at first because i wasn't sure it was important or if i'd be able to do it. i'm so glad i did because it really did change me (not just in a disney adult way)!
don't be afraid to put yourself out there and try something new!!
i know this was really long, but thank you for reading until the end :)
click here to go to the top of the page.