Earning My Ears

So yesterday was my first day of actually working on stage, in costume. As the title suggests, I am currently “Earning my ears”! Which basically just means training but in fancy Disney talk! 🙂

The day was fairly relaxed and laid back. When I arrived at the cast entrance I met my trainer for the day, Nestor from Puerto Rico, and the girl who I will be training with this week, Clemence from France. Nestor showed us all the short cuts and backstage areas that we would need to know to get to Sunset Boulevard, however, he gave us a piece of great advice: “If you ever get lost …. just look for the Tower of Terror!” The Tower of Terror is situated right next to our work location and towers above everything else in the park. You can also hear all the screams whilst you are working your shifts!!!! Once backstage at Sunset Ranch we spend a long time being introduced to a lot of different people … most of whom I cannot remember their names! This was then followed by some more e-learning training. This time, however, it was really quite fun as we were able to do a lot of interactive things to help us learn MATRA (the system used for the tills), so we had lots of fun games to help us learn how to use it! 😀

Our first part of actual on stage training began with the job of bussing and trash …. basically cleaning tables and emptying the bins. I never realised how fun this could be!!!! We spent about an hour and a half doing this. During this time however it was really quite quiet in Sunset Ranch, so we had plenty of time just to interact with the guests and help to make their days a bit more magical 😀 The only downside to this job was that we were stood outside in the heat and sun all the time ….. and it was HOT!!!!! We learnt that in Florida, due to the humidity, that the temperature actually feels 10 degrees hotter than it actually is! So yesterday it was 97°F (37°C) but actually felt like 107°F (42°C)!!! So very hot times! However, we do get free drinks whilst we work ….. so all was good 😀

After this we got a nice break in the big air-conditioned break room, where we got to sample some of the food on order. We got to try the Hot Italian Sandwich, Caesar Salad, Coleslaw, and Carrot Cake. Even though we split it between the two of us, the portions were so big that it filled us both up so much!!!! 😀

When we started work again, we got to work in Hollywood Scoops (the ice cream shop right outside Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Fantasmic. Normally this means that the shop is very busy due to the incredibly popular location, however, as it was getting later and cooler it had quietened down ice cream wise. So we were able to watch Nestor on the till and learn how everything works when working register. We then got the very fun job of making the ice creams!!!! 😀 This was brilliant!!! 😀 I have never made proper ice cream before … but it is so fun doing all the scooping and stuff 😀 Also, one of the other cast members there, James, made a very big and cool castle out of cups and cones!!! It looked amazing!!!! 😀 One of the other really fun bits about making the ice creams was the sundaes, the brownie sundaes and the apple pie sundaes 😀 These were not only fun to make …. but they looked AMAZING!!!! 😀 Next time I’m in Hollywood Studios …. I am definitely going to Hollywood Scoops to buy one of these …. they looked and smelt soooooo nice!!!! 😀

As the day was drawing to a close we got fewer and fewer people, so Nestor showed us how to do some special magical moments with the ice creams. These included making a smiley face in a cup of ice cream using 2 cones as ears, a cherry as a nose and whipped cream to make a smiley face, and my personal favourite …. making a cone of ice cream into a Mickey Mouse head 😀

We finally closed at around 10pm when the park shut, and were shown the closing procedures by Nestor. After storing everything away and after taking everything for cleaning we reviewed everything that we had learnt during the day and then clocked out from what truly was a magical first day of work! 😀 😀 😀