So…I’ve only been in California for a week, but so much has already happened!

I drove from Arizona to California last Friday.  I went straight to Universal Studios Hollywood, where I got to ride the new Transformers: The Ride 3D a total of 19 times!  Although I’m trying to keep my blog focused only on Disney, I will say that Universal’s newest attraction is AMAZING!  I’d highly recommend going to see it this summer, but only after you’ve been to Cars Land at Disney California Adventure!  ;D

Over the weekend I stayed at my dad’s place and then went to Six Flags Magic Mountain on Monday and Knott’s Berry Farm on Tuesday.  And then finally on Wednesday, it was time for check-in!  I showed up at Carnegie Plaza around 8AM and was able to being the check-in process.  Honestly it felt like I had never left.  I’ve been suffering from Post Disney Depression since last August (yes, it’s real- Google it!), so getting to come back was something I was really looking forward to!

The past couple of days have been a bit busy.  Thursday was orientation.  I went through and filled out the remainder of the new hire paperwork and got my picture taken for my ID card.  They still had the photo from my last ID still on file, but they went ahead and took a new picture.  Oddly enough, I was wearing the exact same Disneyland Resort polo shirt that I had worn the first time I participated in the program!

Today was Traditions, which is not only the first day of training, but also the first paid day.  Of course, as Disney College Program alumni, this day was already familiar to myself as well as to the other participants.  But it wasn’t too bad- our instructors were able to keep it entertaining!

After Traditions, we did what most new hires do- we went into the parks!  Didn’t do a whole lot tonight…saw the fireworks, went on Star Tours and Pirates of the Caribbean, and just walked around.  But obviously I’ll have the whole summer to enjoy the Resort, even if it is going to go by so fast!

So that’s basically it for now…gotta get some sleep so I’ll have energy to hit the parks before my training tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks for reading, and check back soon for more posts!

-Tyler

I got a call this afternoon from the Disney College Program…I have been accepted to the summer alumni program at the Disneyland Resort!  At this time, I don’t know what my role is, but I will be back in Anaheim on May 16th and staying through August 17th.  Needless to say, I’m excited for the opportunity and for everything that this summer will offer- not only the chance to experience the program again, but also to reconnect with friends, as well as check out the new offerings in Disney California Adventure (Buena Vista Street and Cars Land) and the refurbished Matterhorn Bobsleds!

I will begin writing new blog entries in May.  To everyone already following me, thank you!  I look forward to sharing the new adventures with you all.

Have a Magical Day!

-Tyler

One of my mangers from custodial guest services retired recently.  He spent 47 years working at Disney!  I’m honored to have had him as one of my managers.  If any of you have ever noticed and appreciated how clean the parks are, then you can thank this guy!  Enjoy retirement, Ray!

Just over a month ago, my time in the Disney College Program ended.  It definitely seems like it’s been longer than that, and I miss being there.  Here is a video that I didn’t post during the program- it’s an inside look at Custodial Guest Services at the Disneyland Resort.  I am not in this video, but a few of my friends from Custodial are.  So this post goes out to all my fellow Cast Members from DCA/DTD Custodial, as well as my friends from the program.  I miss you all!  Enjoy the video (click the title to watch it on YouTube)!

So…it’s over…I have taken my last steps on-stage as a Disneyland Resort Cast Member.  Tonight was my last shift.  I swept through the Golden State area of Disney California Adventure today.  Just another day in Custodial- I wasn’t ready for it to end though.

This sucks, but at least I’m still with the Company as a Campus Rep, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.  Honestly it hasn’t been as tough of a night as I thought it would be…I thought at this point I’d be a depressed and emotional mess.  Fortunately I’m not- yet.

But this year has been absolutely amazing for me.  I’ve had the opportunity to see and do so many things not only within the Disneyland Resort, but also throughout Southern California.  Even though I’ve been visiting Disneyland and SoCal as a tourist for many years (my first trip to Disneyland was when I was 4), I got to see these places from a new perspective.  I got to tour the Disneyland Dream Suite, Walt Disney’s apartment, backstage areas of attractions and locations, and some places in Los Angeles and Hollywood that I had never seen or been to before, like the Farmer’s Market.

There’s so much I want to say right now, but I just can’t find the words to say what’s going through my mind.  Mainly I just want to thank everyone at the Disneyland Resort and at the Disney College Program, especially my friends in DCA/DTD Daytime Custodial, for helping to make this such a great program for me.  It’s been an honor to have worked with such an awesome group of Cast Members, and I will gladly do it again if I ever get the opportunity.

I also want to thank all of my family and friends who have supported me and my ambitions.  I appreciate everything you all have done for me.  Another round of thank you’s goes out to everyone who has followed my blog.  This really has been the Time of My Life, and I’m glad all of you joined me for the ride.  Feel free to keep following this blog if you’d like, as I will still answer any questions you submit as well as post occasional things reflecting back on this experience (photos, random entries, etc).

Thanks again to everyone, and Have a Magical Day!

-Tyler

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who knows where the picture above was taken!

So today was an interesting day.  To start with, I had the day off, so that’s always nice.  I got up early so I could get to Disneyland at opening.  It’s been spring break, so I was expecting it to be crowded.  Surprisingly it wasn’t too bad…I was able to hit most of the major attractions in both parks today without much effort.  Oh, and I GOT A TOP SCORE ON BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!  1,452,300!

Also, I tried the fried green tomato sandwich at the Hungry Bear Restaurant today.  It was pretty good!  It also came with sweet potato fries- exactly what they sound like, they’re fries made out of sweet potatoes.  Different, but also good.

But enough about that…the real highlight today was the Academic Field Experience for the Disney College Program- we got to tour the Disneyland Dream Suite!  I was going to post pictures here, but we were informed during our tour that any pictures we took couldn’t be posted online (and trust me, Disney has a way to track things like that!).  So no pictures, but I’ll still try to make it interesting…bear with me!

A little bit of background about the Disneyland Dream Suite for those of you who don’t know a lot about it…

• Walt Disney had an apartment over the Firehouse on Main Street (and it’s still there today!  I will most likely get to tour it before my program ends), but it was only about 500 square feet.  He wanted a larger apartment that he could use to entertain dignitaries, corporate partners, as well as his own family.
• He planned to build a new apartment in his latest project, New Orleans Square, but unfortunately he passed away before it could be completed.  It was built above the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
• The apartment had mostly been finished when Walt passed away; for many years, it was used as office space.
• FUN FACT: Tokyo Disneyland was planned out inside of what is now the Dream Suite!
• The space was later transformed into The Disney Gallery, which was a combination exhibit/store where guests could view and purchase artwork from Disney features as well as attractions.
• The Disney Gallery opened in 1987, but closed in 2007 to make way for the Disneyland Dream Suite; The Disney Gallery eventually reopened on Main Street, inside the Bank of Main Street (formerly the Annual Passport Processing Center).
• The purpose of the Dream Suite was to fulfill Walt’s dream of having a larger apartment in the park and was designed similarly to the original plans.
• The Disneyland Dream Suite was featured as part of Disney’s Year of A Million Dreams giveaway from 2007-2008.  Everyday, one family was chosen at random to stay the night inside of the suite.
• Today, the Suite is still used for overnight guests.  A stay in the Dream Suite cannot be bought.  It is considered a priceless experience, and therefore the only way to stay there is to receive an invitation (usually through contests).

So there’s your history lesson for today.  On with the tour…

The suite is themed to the different lands of Disneyland Park.  The living room has a Fantasyland theme, the children’s room is themed to Frontierland, the master bedroom is themed to Adventureland, and in this room, there was a bathroom themed to Fantasyland as well as a woman’s dressing room themed to Main Street.

Here’s where I would’ve shown you the living room, but since I can’t, here’s a picture of the new Star Tours marquee instead:

And here I would’ve liked to have shown you the awesome bathtub that has a stained glass window of Aurora and a light show with a hidden Mickey, but instead I’ll just show you the Hollywood Pictures Backlot entrance, which is now missing its sign:

Here’s a panoramic shot I took from the balcony of the Dream Suite Paradise Pier:

There was also a neat feature in some of the rooms, called a Good Night Kiss.  It’s a button you press in some of the rooms, and something “magical” happens!  In the Adventureland bedroom, for example, projections from Peter Pan showed up on the walls.  In the living room, a clock chimed and various objects in the room came to life.  And in the Frontierland bedroom, a train circled around the room, activating objects in the room as it passed by!  It was amazing…I could go on with more details, but I think I’ve made this post long enough…

So that pretty much wraps it up!  Hopefully I was able to keep you entertained despite the fact that I couldn’t post pictures from the tour.  But as always, thanks for visiting, and see ya real soon!

So yeah, that pretty much describes me right now…things are really starting to pick up here in Anaheim!  Spring break season is here, and summer won’t be too far behind!

Let me fill you in on the past few weeks…

RESTROOM TRAINING- Being in custodial, this is another part of our role in the resort.  Despite what you might think when you hear “restrooms”, it actually isn’t bad at all.  The only thing I don’t really like about it is the timing- we have about 4-5 restrooms to maintain during a restroom shift, and each has to be checked every hour.  Easier said than done…it’s doable, but I personally would rather be sweeping or emptying trash cans.  Plus there’s no time for guest interaction (pin trading, answering questions, etc) when you’re on restrooms, and this is a big deal to me because the guest interaction is the whole reason why I wanted an on-stage role as opposed to a backstage role.  But at least I get paid more when I’m on restrooms…

SPACE MOUNTAIN!- Back at the end of February, one special thing the CPs got to do was to ride Space Mountain after park hours…with the LIGHTS ON!  It was pretty amazing to see the track layout (I’m a coaster geek, deal with it), and it’s one of the things that make this program so awesome!  I did take a video of the whole thing (with permission!), but I am not posting it online due to the fact that videos are very easy to steal and repost.  I will, however, post a couple of screencaps from the video- just because if these get reposted somewhere, they still won’t be as good as the actual video!  But if you do desperately want to see video footage, check out this one on YouTube (mine was taken from the 3rd row- wasn’t able to get 1st; but my video looks similar to this one): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXPFgtfW_yM

And here are the screencaps from my own video (SPOILER ALERT!  If you don’t want the magic to be “ruined” for you, then please skip to the line divider that says “Read More”):

*END SPOILERS*

MARDI GROSS- So I got sick the day before Mardi Gras- I worked about half of my shift before deciding to go home because I wasn’t feeling well.  I went to bed immediately when I got home (about 3 PM), and slept well into the next morning.  Except when I got up, I wasn’t feeling better, but worse.  So long story short, I ended up in the hospital on Mardi Gras due to dehydration.  I was put on an IV, but felt a lot better afterward and was released shortly after.  Fortunately my roommates helped me out, but I much would have rather spent the day in a more appropriate spot- like New Orleans Square, enjoying gumbo, beignets, The Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean!

CLASSES- They’re still going on…in Corporate Analysis, we have studied the different segments of The Walt Disney Company (Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products, Interactive Media, and Media Networks).  We’ve been doing group presentations on specific items in these segments- I was in the Parks and Resorts group, and my presentation was on the Magic Kingdom’s expansion of Fantasyland.  Pretty interesting stuff- some of it was actually new to me!  And then in Professional Development Study, we’ve recently had presentations from people in hospitality, horticulture, industrial engineering, finance, and event planning.  It’s actually pretty neat to hear from different people from around the resort and hearing about what they do.  I think most guests wouldn’t even be able to imagine how much work goes into keeping the parks in pristine condition and operating smoothly day in and day out!

SPRING BREAK MANIA- Spring break has started, and both parks have been VERY busy!  My work weeks are now longer (about 40 hours), and so are everyone else’s weeks.  It’s a bit tiring, but at the same time I’m so thankful to be here instead of in school right now.  Still getting to enjoy the parks, but now I have to strategically get my Fastpasses instead of being able to go around the parks and hitting every attraction with little to no waits like in January and February.  My family came to the parks for a couple of days over Arizona’s spring break, and I think they were shocked by how crowded it was!  Of course, this year is a little bit different due to the way California schools are doing spring break now.  But if you’re headed to the parks anytime soon, be prepared to deal with crowds and long lines!  You have been warned!

Before I go, I want to give a big thank you to all my readers- you are the reason why I write these blog posts.  Without your support, there would be no point in me updating this blog, even though my updates aren’t very frequent (which, trust me, I’m trying to work on improving).

Have an amazing day/night, and always remember to dream in wonderful craziness color!

Till next time,

-Tyler

Sorry it’s been so long since my last my post…I’ve been pretty busy.  But I’ll try to give you the highlights:

• February 8th was Disney California Adventure’s 10th anniversary.  There was a celebration for the Cast Members of the Resort held inside the park.  They gave everyone free cupcakes and buttons to commemorate the anniversary!  Plus they had free Photopasses that Cast Members could use to get pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Lightning McQueen, Mater, and one of the Army Men from Toy Story.  They also had a banner that Cast Members could sign, which is going inside a time capsule along with other artifacts from Disney California Adventure’s first ten years (such as a park map from opening day, special event pins, etc).  Fortunately I had the day off so I could enjoy it all!
• My shifts lately have been mostly how I’ve described them in previous posts…although I did have a couple of neat experiences recently.  Last Saturday I was working an opening shift in the Golden State area (from the Main Entrance area, though Condor Flats, and up to Grizzly Peak).  It was really weird being there before opening- no guests were there, and none of the area music was playing.  My lead encouraged me to listen to my iPod while I was working for the first hour so I wouldn’t get bored with the silence…normally this would be considered “bad show,” but in this case it was considered okay since no guests were in sight.  Tonight I worked a closing shift in the same area, and it was again odd to be there after all the guests had left and most of the music had been turned off (some of it was still running since the Disneyland Monorail was still operating).  It was definitely a neat experience, and I’m sure I’ll have many more experiences like this over the next several months!
• Classes have started…I am taking Corporate Analysis, which analyzes the different segments of the Walt Disney Company and how they all work together and promote synergy.  So far it appears that it will be a very interesting class.  We picked out individual projects from a list of topics.  I picked out the expansion of the Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland.  The other class I’m taking is Professional Development Study, where different guest speakers from different roles in the Resort come and talk to us about what they do.  The first week was just an introduction, but I am looking forward to hearing from the speakers and their experiences with the Disneyland Resort.
• This past weekend (Presidents’ Day weekend), it rained on Friday and Saturday.  On Saturday, my shift ended at 4:30, so I went back to the apartment, put on some warmer clothes, and headed to Disneyland.  It rained so hard that the crowds disappeared!  I basically had the place to myself for 5 hours.  I got to do a total of 18 rides on 12 different attractions- I did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad six times!  It was an amazing night!  One of the biggest non-work highlights for me since I got here.
• And that’s pretty much it!  I have cross-training later this week (restrooms…doesn’t sound great, but it will mean a fatter paycheck for me…), and tomorrow is my day off, so I’m going with Zach and Jose (two of my roommates) to Knott’s Berry Farm!

Thanks as always to my readers- I apologize again for such a long gap between posts.  I will try to do them when I can.  But in the meantime, have a great and magical day!

-Tyler

Another week has flown by!  I really have been meaning to update the blog more often, but every night when I get back to the apartment, I’m usually just so hungry and/or tired that my online stuff just isn’t my top priority.  But anyway, I’ll try to fill you in on the highlights…

On Thursday I worked in Downtown Disney for the first time.  Downtown Disney (or DTD) is divided into three areas- East, Center, and West.  East runs from the security checkpoint that goes into the Esplanade (where the park entrances are) up to the Anne Geddes store in DTD.  Center runs from Anne Geddes up to Tortilla Jo’s, and West runs from Tortilla Jo’s to the ESPN Zone.  I was assigned to East…pretty easy for the most part!  It only got busy once the parks closed (as would be expected), and then it was dead for the rest of my shift.  I was only supposed to work a 6 hour shift that day, but I was extended an extra two hours- I got off at 11:30, long after all the guests had left!  It was interesting to see DTD this way, as I had never been there late enough to see what it looked like closed and without guests!

The next day I worked in Paradise Pier at DCA.  I got to do utility, meaning that I got to help sweep the backstage areas.  I also got to help the Lead clean up a Code V in the California Screamin’ maintenance bay.  So not too terribly exciting.  But then the nighttime Lead put me on a special assignment- a lady dropped her camera into Paradise Bay near the California Screamin’ launch.  It took a team of 5 of us to try to get it out- two were using nets, two of us were using flashlights to see if we could see the camera through the water, and one to keep the lady back (she was going CRAZY!)…so I got paid for an hour of just standing next to the water holding a flashlight!  My shift ended while they were still trying to get the camera out, so I don’t know if they got it or not.  If they didn’t, then nighttime custodial most likely did.

Saturday was my first day working in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.  I won’t bore you with the details, but working that location also meant that I got to work elecTRONica again.  I have to say that so far I think it’s my favorite location/time to work.  No big highlights here- just a lady passing out in a bathroom.  She got too drunk at elecTRONica…like I said, nothing major…  xD

Sunday I did trash for World of Color.  The only thing I wasn’t liking about it at first was that I had to see/listen to the show Disney Channel Rocks.  I’m not a big fan of the stuff that’s on the Disney Channel now, so you could imagine how I felt having to work while listening to music from those shows/movies.  But fortunately it started raining hard, and so the remaining performances of Disney Channel Sucks Rocks were canceled for the day.  I was spared!  So that made my day.  :D

Today I got assigned trash again for World of Color…it was a SLOW day…’nuff said haha

Well, that’s about it…right now there are a bunch of CPs in our room- we were all talking in the hallway (quietly, not disturbing anyone), until an a**hole security  guard threatened to write us up for violating quiet hours if we didn’t vacate the VERY busy hallway (and by “VERY busy hallway” I mean not at all).  None of us understood it- the other security guards don’t seem to care when we all talk in the hallway, but this guy felt the need to be an a**hole about it.  So now we’re inside Room 406 watching Step Brothers.

Thanks as always to those of you who read my posts- it’s cool that you all are supporting me and that you want to know what I’m doing.  And thanks too for putting up with my annoyingly long entries.

Till next time!

-Tyler