Scheduling rules are not fun. At all. ....and neither are crazy EHH shifts!

Kia Ora!

My paycheck this week was $57. XD hahaha.
Man got to love when you work 18 hours and end up with that. I guess it is better than a negative number, but still. ergh.
I am therefore trying to pik up shifts to make up for it and help give me some spending money for the cruise....which bythe way is in exactly TWO weeks! Exciting stuff. I really should do something exciting every few months to look forward to!!! I do have a Cinderella's Table booking in April with a friend of mine (dual birthday celebration!) which should be awesome. I better be able to get that evening off!!!

Speaking of getting time off.
The scheduling team make it impossible to like the system, once again!
I need some time off next year when my parents come at different times. I requested it on the Hub, and both got approved. It seemed wonderful and too good to be true.

I couldn't help but wonder if the approved time owuld be taken away from me when I changed role to Merch. That would be a nightmare if it were to happen and I didn't know prior and then would be stuck trying to give away all this time off when it came up on my schedule!
I e-mailed the scheduling people and sure enogh they said that I would have to reapply for that time ff when I got transferred because the time off wa attached to the location.
GAH.
So that means I hve to wait until late JAN to request this time off. Which makes it unlikely that it will be approved again. Maybe if I tell them my situation and then beg...?

...but yup. Too good to be true. Sigh.

They did approve a shift give away where I picked up my friends shift this week, though. Woop. The like to give me hours but not take them away. I see how it is. Bah humbug. -.-


Anyway. What has happened the last few days?
Wellllll. Pretty much only wed and thurs are worth delvig into. That's becuase work lately hasn't been overly exciting. There haven't been many guests and the shifts have gone pretty slow. ESPECIALLY the one where I got put in dining room. Ergh. Gross.

Alas. Wednesday. That was the day our cast merh discount went up. Yus!
Therefore it was apprpriate since I hadthe lucky fortune of having that day off - to go... SHOPPING!!!!!!

I did have someone to go and meet at Animal Kingdom though so I figure that would be a good spot to begin!
I bought some dresses and a thnksgiving pin for my memory lanyard (I am thinking I may need to get another!!)

I was nice to see my friend for the short time I did, and I enjoyed my retail therapy. :)
After, I went to Downtown Disney (I had to get a guest bus to a resort and then get another bus, since Downtown Disney buses only gofrm resots.. :/ ) and looked around there. I was expecting to buy a lot in the World of Disney...but smehow I resisted. I mean there were some really pretty rings that I liked but I dot wear rings often anyway because I freak they will come off and I will lose them! So I figured I wouldn't splash out quite that much. It is still kind of tempting though... haha. We'll see how strong I am, shall we?

After that a friend txted me and asked if I was going to go to the Osborne lights at Hollywood Studios. Of course I said yes! I want to experience as much as I can. :)
Only thing is that I had to gt another bus to a resort before I could get to Hollywood Stuios.

Eventually, I got there. The lights were awesome. They lit up an entire allyway of the park. They also appeared to dance to the music. There was "snow" that came down (fun at first but when the foam started to get too much it was kind of iritating) ...and I tried Apple Cider (the warm, non-alc version). It was bizarre but I quite liked it!

After that, I met up with yet another friend (I love friends <3) and we went to steak and shake. Mmmhm. Got to love those shakes.


Onto the most interesting thing!
Weirdly enoguh I was given Thanksgiving off. Not that I needed it off, so I kind of felt bad that people who wanted it off had to work and I got it off when i didn't need it...

Regardless, I decided to be super brave (and insane at the same time - please remind me never to do this again) and pick up a shift on Thanksgiving.
Not only was it a very busy time of year to pick up a shift at a PARK...but it was a crazy thing to do since I had never worked in the Magic Kingdom ( of all places - the busiest!!) before.

The description said that I hd to have cash handling skills. Well, I figured that since I could pick up the registers at Epcot pretty quick and I definately had cash and POS skills, I would be ok. Right?

First thing I needed to do was get the costume (I did this a few days before which was a smart thing to do - take note if you are going to do something this crazy!). It was an Adventureland costume so was like PJs and really comfortable. Not terrible at all(minus the scary colour combination, but I guess you have to expect that...).

I actually found the costume place easy enough, but then I had to go on this huge adventure to find the work location, get a log on and find the CDS where I would log on for my shift. I also had to try and figure out how day lockers worked.
Took a long time and was kind of stressful. ....but I felt accomplished once I had figured out everything. :)

Then it was "the day". I was so nervous but also kind of excited to work at THE Magic Kingdom. The place little kids dream of and one of the happiest places in the world. Where magic actually exist. :P

I found everyting OK and had spare time to chill in the break room.
I signed in and that's when I got my first fright.
It told me to go clean a machine in Aloha Isle. For 2 minutes.
I waslike. Uh. Not only do I not know how to do that, but 2 minutes? Really? Then I would have to come back to the CDS and get my next task (and that's another thing, I had to use CDS differently than how I used it at Epcot so yet another new experience!). The girl I was with told me not to bother. So I waited 2 mins to get my next task. It told me to go to Sunshine Terrace.

First thought: Where is Sunshine Terrace?
Uhm. No idea?!
I had to ask. ...and eventually I found it. Then I was stuck straight on register. With no training on anything. Needless to say I was quite hopeless. It took me about an hour to figure everything out. I did still make some mistakes though which I cringed about. :/ However, I tried my very best. The guests were mostly nice to me about the fact that I was new to it, which I was thankful for. (yay thankgiving thankfulness!)

The thing that blew my mind was the difference in standards and also the way in which cashiers also got food etc. It was different to how many places worked, including the 3 locations I have worked. It also made it so I had to know a lot more things! ...can I just say my first coke float was an utter volcanic disaster. lol.

Eventually it was my 15min break.
Guess what? I didn't know where to go on break!! I was like...uuugh. How do I get somewhere backstage?!?!
Eventually I asked a merch person who helped...and I was happy to recieve a taste of thanksgiving! Yay!
Good thing too since there would be no way I could get my food and eat it in 15mins. How do the MK people do it? Do they even eat??
I guess you find some routine eventually...

After that I was just about to return when I suddenly had this thought. Was I meant to go back to the CDS for it to tell me my next move?
When I asked, apparantly I did. Too bad that t now told me to go somewhere new! I was like noooooo...I only just got the hang of this other place and now you are telling me I have to learn another completely different one?! sigh.

So I stepped through the doors and bravely walked there. This place I actually got the hang of faster and had fun learning how to make the awesomeness that is Dole Whip. Must. Come. Back. On. Day. Off. For. Some. :)

My shift was finally over and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I had survived! Non-stop lines and completely new everything! Go me! I was happy but also so exhausted.

I decided to celebrate though. ...but going to a movie! (I have 3 on ly lis at the moment).
I saw Tangled with my friend and it was awesome! I loved the humour. I laughed OUT LOUD. I recommend it. :)


One thing I need to remember to do before our discounts are over, is get some personalised t-shirts (at Downtown Disney).

OK.
Off to work.
Got to love midnight shifts (4 in a row starting today... joy.)

Might try to do the Christmases around the World at Epcot tomrrow before work. :)

Have a good day!
If you are a NZ friend don't forget to send me your addie so I can send you some love!
xx

-->by the way EHH = extra hours hotline