Fastpasses, Character Hunting, and Working

Let me tell you, I enjoy hanging out in the parks as a cast member. It's so relaxed, you do a few rides, eat a snack, and go home. But there's something about rushing around the parks with people who are only here for a few days, trying to fit in everything you can. This past week, one of my sister's roommates from her last program, Mary Beth, came into town for her Spring Break. I ended up hanging out with the two of them for half the day, along with one of MB's friends from school, a friend of her's from work, and one of my sister and her's friends from their last program (who also happens to work at DAKL with me...). It was so much fun, running around Magic Kingdom with fast passes, riding as many rides as we could, and forcing Mary Beth to sit through It's A Small World. It's not something I would want to do everyday, but it's certainly fun from time to time.


I've actually recently started attempting to overcome my fear of roller coasters. I love Space Mountain, but I can't sit in the last seat, and the track to the right (as you're walking in) is still just on this side of too intense for me. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train has started to get to be a little bit boring, but that's probably just because I've now ridden it a ridiculous amount of times considering that it's usually a two hour wait time. Even with my slowly growing range of roller coasters I can stand, I will never be able to stand Splash Mountain, Rockin' Rollercoaster, or Tower of Terror. It's just not going to happen. Who would willingly submit themselves to something with the word terror in it or the drop you can clearly see on Splash?!


The next day I went character hunting with my sister Alex! All of the character's were stuck on the fact that we're sister's. It was cute when Ana and Elsa commented on it, because well, they're sisters too. But then Aurora and Snow and Belle and everyone else commented on it, and I couldn't help wondering if it's that strange? A lot of people think we're twins (we're not) or that she's older (she's not) but very rarely do we get that many comments on it in one day.

For Valentines Day/February, I had the (few) characters I met sign heart shaped doilies I picked up from Dollar Tree to keep with the theme. I have them pined to my board, and later they'll be good for a scrap book. However the other day I was at Target in the dollar section, and they had bunny shaped pieces of card stock! They're colorful and fun, and easy to throw into my bag. So I grabbed a few packs and have happily switched over to my Easter themed autograph cards!









Alex and I started off in Magic Kingdom, with fastpasses to meet Anna, Elsa, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Tinker Bell! We also ended up being able to meet Princess Aurora and Snow White, who were both wonderful. One of my favorite things about waiting in line to meet princesses versus using a fastpass is meeting the families in line around us. It's so much fun to get to talk to people in line, hear the excitement in the kids voices, the looks of awe when you call a little girl in an Elsa costume Elsa, and swear she looks like her twin. I don't get a lot of guest interaction at work, so it's fun to get it when I'm out playing in the parks.






After Magic Kingdom, we headed to Epcot, where we had just enough time to meet Belle, Mulan, and Baymax, with a quick stop into the ice cream shop in France to pick up a strawberry macaroon ice cream sandwich. My feet were killing me by the end of the day, and I was just ready to go home an sleep for the rest of the year.

The nice thing about lifeguarding is it's one of the few jobs where you sit fairly regularly (when you're not on a roving stand) so I don't have a lot of the feet/back problems other CP's have been having. Of course, that's not to say that lifeguarding doesn't have it's own set of problems. I've had to get in the water twice for a kids, and the other day I got three whistle audited by one of my managers. Basically this means one of my coordinators gets in the pool, pretends to have a three whistle problem, and we have to shut the pool down and act like it's real. I was the secondary during the audit, and when the primary blew her whistles, a little girl started crying, that's how serious it is.

As a lifeguard you're never done training. Twice a month you go through a two hour in service where you practice your skills and go over everything you need to know. At any time you could get visually audited, where they put a video camera on you for 5 or 30 minutes to make sure you are doing what you're supposed to be doing. They lay VATs (a silhouette that look like someone is laying on the bottom of the pool) at least 12 times a month, and then there are live audits, where they pretend to be unconscious in the pool, only to pop back up and be fine after you've got them on their back. Sometimes it's Ellis, sometimes it's your coordinators, sometimes it's your managers. But you have to literally always be on your toes, and I'm okay with that. The last time I pulled a little girl out of the stream of the slide after she got stuck in the current (which happens a lot...) the mom yelled at me (which also happens a lot). But another mom came up and thanked me, because she was worried at first that it was her son, and she was grateful I got in the water so fast. As a lifeguard you don't get a lot of guest interaction or recognition, so moments like that mean twice as much.