Cruise Day 6

Today was a sea day.

A day for sleeping in. Yup. It's lovely to lay there and feel the gentle hum of the boat drive through the seas.
Well, it would have been if there wasn't an amazing opportinity avaliable that we couldn't pass up.

Ys, the previous night we had been invited to a character breakfast, Those things you have to ook 3months in advance on land and then you stillave to pay for it. Not us. :P
The food was very yummy (finally go my poached eggs! yussss), but then the characters made it fun. Not to mention ou serversone again went above our expectations. They made everyone hats/tiaras/ears/something else from napkins! It was funny looking arund to see all the dif designs. This one guy who was stitch was very impressive looking. :P










Apparantly mine was a princess crown..

Anyway, we had already seen Tangled but it was on again. So we decided to see it once more. Who doesn't like free movie showings, anyway??

After that we were still tired since we missed out sleep in. So we considered it a good time for a nap.

After the rejuvenation we headed off to see Disney Dreams, which was a show. It was very pretty and the stage effects were pretty impressive. :) Here are some pics to give you an idea...






Dinner was great as usual, and tonights towel animal was a crab! :)


Next day: Disney's private island, Castaway Cay :)
xx

To Ducktorate or no...?

Aloha :)

So tomorrow is my day off. Quite looking forward to it. Today I am going to try and go to costuming to get some of the merch costumes. I hope it looks okay on me.

I have this urge to go to Magic Kingdom on my next day off (not tomorrow). I feel as if I haven't been there in a while and that I should go to take advantage of that perk.

I went to the pavillion at Vista today to get some DVDs and I noticed that they were signing up people for classes. I know I have my Mousters, but I did always want to get a Ducktorate too.
I am wondering if I should do a course to get one? The thing is whether I want to spend one of my days off getting up early and attanding class, and then having to do homework/a small exam? I guess it could be good to get me back into the whole uni mode.
I just wonder because when my parents come/I want to go on adventures etc than I may not be able to? Or I may have to miss a class which would affect my final grade?

So, any opinions?
This is the one that I thought looked interesting (after reading some of the Creativity and Innovation book and hearing about the class from others I am not sure I really want to do that any more...).

Experimental Learning
THE DISNEY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING COURSE OBJECTIVES
•
Recognize the importance of adult education and a commitment to life-long learning
•
Build transferable skills and knowledge related to adult learning styles
•
Integrate experiential learning, academic learnings, and work-related experiences to their Experiential Learning assignments
•
Explore the historical foundations of adult learning (Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Fritz Perls, Jean Piaget)
•
Explore the learning theories of John Dewey, Malcolm Knowles, David Kolb, Kurt Lewin, Edward L. Thorndike, Peter Senge, and Thomas Stewart
•
Identify and participate in self-directed learning activities at the Disney Learning Centers
•
Participate in at least one Career Insight activity designed to promote understanding of a variety of career paths and various lines of business
•
Explore the value of diversity on a personal and a professional level
•
Learn the benefit and value of community service on a corporate as well as a personal level
•
Engage in specific Guest experiences to identify the value of and relationship between education and entertainment

--

1. Introduction to Experiential Learning
(3 hours)
•
Define experiential learning
•
Establish course expectations and objectives
•
Introduce experiential learning opportunities
•
Review the Experiential Learning Student Notebook
Familiarize yourself with the assignment descriptions.

2. Experiential Learning Theories I
(3 hours)
•
Explore the historical foundations of learning theory through the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget
•
Explore techniques used to assist adults in learning
•
Relate learning theory models to field experiences
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class

3. Individuality in Learning and Introduction to Learning Styles
(3 hours)
•
Share recent experiential learnings from field experiences
•
Introduce David Kolb and the Experiential Learning Model
•
Explore Kolb’s learning styles
•
Complete the Adapting Learning Styles Assessment
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class

4. More on Learning Styles (3 hours)
•
Share recent experiential learnings from field experiences
•
Administer the Personal Learning Insights Profile
•
Explore the personal approach to learning
•
Apply Personal Learning Insights to a corporate setting
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class

5. Experiential Learning Theories II
(3 hours)
•
Explore the historical foundations of experiential learning theory through the works of Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, and Abraham Maslow and their impact on adult learning theory
•
Explore techniques used to assist adults in learning
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class

6. Learning in an Organization
(3 hours)
•
Explore adult learning theories of Edward Thorndike and Malcolm Knowles
•
Introduce the work of Peter Senge and the concept of a learning organization
•
Explore the impact of learning styles on adapting to a corporate culture
•
Explore the value of Corporate community involvement
•
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class
•
Read the Corporate Volunteerism article & prepare to provide in-class written responses to questions related to the Corporate Volunteerism article

7. Corporate Applications of Diversity
(3 hours)
•
Discuss the value of experiential learning to diversity
•
Identify the importance of diversity as it applies to life-long learning
•
Explore corporate applications of diversity
•
Discover the business case for diversity
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class

8. Learning in an Organization II
(3 hours)
•
Define intellectual capital and its importance in a corporate culture
•
Apply experiential learning to field experiences
•
Prepare for final exam
Continue experiential learning activities outside of class

9. Conclusion and Final Exam
(3 hours)
•
Assess course learnings through a Final Exam
•
Identify the value of a commitment to life-long learning
•
Summarize and discuss learning activities from the term
Prepare for Final Exam

---

By the way I managed to sort out the NZ uni thing. I should be all set for when I go back. Now I just have to figure out everything else.... Like where in the world will I live..? Job? :/


Work has been kind of interesting lately since we have a new item on the menu that I have been involved in developing.
I am scared about the change over to merch next week. :(


A guy from work was trying to give away his morning shift yesterday. They are pretty rare so I decided to tak it. My pay check will be good, but I really don't like how I'm doing 2 doubles 2 days straight. It's kind of crazy. Oh well....maybe it's my lat chance to get some descent paychecks since my pay goes down when I am in merch. :(

Okay, off to work now!

xx

Cruise Day 5

This morning we arrived in Cozumel, Mexico! :)

This to me was the most excitng sounding port! I loved how when we got off the boat the culture surrounded you. There was spanish everywhere. There were all these interesting sights to take in. I was most fascinated! Even the arctitecture intrigued me.






I loved all the little stalls selling things. Spanish/Mexican crafts fascinate me. Much like how I love native American Indian artwork.
The only thing was thatI really didn't like how pushy the people were. It was obvious they really wanted your buisness but they made me feel uncomfortable.

We were on a tour of the island, but I was worried when walking to the bus because it wasn't clean or safe looking at all. It was almost scary!

The tour guide was nice and he helped me feel more at ease. Looking out the window whilst driving I was glad to be in the safety of the bus. Things looked quite run down. But there was a different character there that was interesting to me.


Eventually we got to the sacred San Gervasio ruins. They aren't as well known as the Chichen Itza ruins on the Yucatán Peninsula, but I found out that they are still pretty interesting. Apparantly these ruins used to me like the Meca of the Spanish world. The fertility god was there and it was like atrip everyone was meant to make in their lifetime.



I got annoyed by the tourists who didn't respect the site. Its hard to preserve something when people don't read signs and climb all over things they shouldn't. That's disrespectful and this one set of parents didn't even bother to tel their kid off for doing that!

Good thing we had guide that spoke great English because everything was in Spanish....







This isn't a well, but they think it held water or something...


I liked the red handprints on one of the temple type places. :) It's aslso amazing how long these sites have managed to exist.


The island had a lot more vegetation that I would have thought. There were huge wide open spaces of just trees.

I saw an aligator in the wild! Oh my goodness!


We got to stop at a beach. It was so pretty! I loved the rock formations and the way the waves crash upon the beach. :) There were stalls on the beach selling crafts. There were hammocks and chairs to lie on.







The sand was pretty coarse but it was still wonderful to be on a nice beach.

Then we went to our next stop which had some shops to look at, an old church and some pretty random sights. For example, a horse, some preformers and then a guy carrying an Iguana!
There was also a cool statue...



Then we returned to the dock area. I love all the random stuff in these ports.


They even had performers for us back at the ship. Yay. :)



I loved this bar. Look at the awesome stuff there:





I didn't feel like drinking alc even though I could have. So we ended up in Starbucks. I tried this triple choc cake thing. It was definately interesting. Not like any cake I had ever had before. It was very dense for one thing. Oh and we had a field day and spent up! haha.


Joking, it's in pesos.. :P

When we got back to the ship we wnt pin trading! I got to talk to all the top people like the captain! He had been to NZ!! :O


Then we had an awesome dinner where the menus had moving pictures. <3


As usual the food was amazing. :)






They put on an amazing show for us. The walls lit up and there was music and a screen that changed constantly. After, Mickey came and visited! It was very nice of him ;)




Then the show 'Villans Tonight' was pretty good. I loved the shows. :)

Later, we enjoyed an Adult Caberet. The guy did tricks. His most impressive was this...


...and then there was the towel animal for the day.. :)


That's a wrap for day 5!
xx

I have to get up at WHAT time?!?!?

Hey ya'll

It's 1.36am but I just want to update.

Today I had a 13.5hour shift. It was long but I had a surprising amount of energy.

I swear I am constantly being challenged here. One thing after the other. You all know because I ramble on about it!

Right now I am dealing with the challenge of not only changing roles (more on that soon) but also trying to re-enrol in uni. I thought it would be easy but it appears that my 'returning student' status has become a non-existant student status :S. Yes, my account expired already! So I have nooo idea where all my data is or if I can even log into my old account ever again, but I better be able to! I want all my records!!!! Somewhere in cyberspace it exists. ....and I am going to bug someone until I get it!
Gah. I had to re-enrol and everything! Soooo annoying. Not to mention they were threatening a late enrolment fee even though I have been trying to enrol for ages now! Argh.


Back onto work.
Ok so my training for my new position starts soon. The first few days are morning shifts. Which is ok except that the 3rd starts at 6.15am!!! No G buses even go that early! The earliest one GETS THERE at 6.45am! What in the world!? I have to try and get private transport/get them to remember to shuttle me there.
This means I will have to wake up at some outrageous time in the morning! Eww! This better not be normal. -.-

Right. Off to bed.
Will post more soon.

xx

Frustrations about non-change

Hey everyone

I will write up the cruise posts as soon as I can, but I shall update you on what's been happening first.

I've been sleeping a lot because my body needs it to help get over this virus it has. It's weird to wake up at 1pm, but hey, if it makes me feel much better than I'm fine with that. :P

I went to the doctor. Oh my goodness. No wonder people avoid going there. If you don't have insurance its crazy expensive! It cost me about US$130 to get checked out and prescribed! Really?! Wow.

I have a double shift tomorrow. ....and this week coming up is the last week of me being in Food and Bev! :(
Before, I was quite looking forward to it because I like change. I knew about the pay drop, but I thought if it mant I could experience something new than I was all for that. Especially if I got to work in a park.

But nooooo. I got put in the complete opposite position. How about the same resort, same location and even the same building? I can literally see the merch shop from where I work now. Really? Are you serious? I have to stay in the same place? Are you KIDDING me?!?!?!

I was naturally really upset (by the way I found out only because I saw someone else looking at their position from their record card - no one bothered to tell me???? I swear its so I didn't have time to complain and try to get it changed), so I tried talking to all the people I possibly could. I even talked to the guy who does the switches. He said he would call me back in 30mins to see if he could do anything. Unfortunately the result was negative. Out of the ENTIRE Disney World (somehow I find this hard to believe) there were no open spaces!!!
I'm not sure how thoroughly he looked but I was so sad. I am so sick of the G bus, I don't want to be bored - and I can tell in that shop you will be, I hate having to hear the stupid macarena etc a day longer! I want CHANGE. WHHHHY am I sentanced to this?! I work so hard, I don't deserve this! :'( Waaaaaaaaaah.

I was in such a mood that I was even considering self terminating and going back home. I just feel like I would be wasted there. Not to mention I just reeeeeally wanted a change. I requested a change. They didn't even listen to me. :(

They say that I can be put in the busy mornings and do behind the scenes stuff plus they can try to deploy me, but how long would that take? Would it even happen?
..and would it mean that the time off that I have approved would be thrown off again? Uhgggggh. I hate this sysytemmmm!!! It makes me cry.

There are certain positives and negatives about working for a big corporation. This would be a negative. They don't really care about you. They don't treat you as an individual. They don't assess your abilities to see where you would be best placed (I am telling you now that the merch place at my resort in NO way reflects my personality). All you are is a small piece of their giant puzzle.

What annoys me too is that all my managers say that I'll be bored there and they could if they had the power to, try to move me. How come the people around me who know me can't have any say in the matter?

For days I was pondering whether it was worth staying. Now, I know that I'd miss out on things - but I thought, do I want to hate coming to work every day? Do I want to be a zombie?
Then I would think, but I hate quitting things.
Plus I am unsure as to what I would come back to. Who knows if I could get a job right away in NZ.
Who knows if it would ruin my chances of getting onto Disney Cruise Line in the Future if I wanted to pursue that??

So I'm staying. For the moment. I'm going to try it out. I'm going to ask if I can be put on a fast track out of the location, and I'm going to show them my potential and why it is that I DESERVE to move.
That's the plan for now.

Gah. I have to buy yet another pair of shoes. This is crazy. 3 pairs of work shoes in a year? Really?

Okay. Enough venting.
Reply with your comments/suggestions etc. I want to know your opinions!!!

xx

Should be interesting having to try and remember to take these pills 3 times a day... XD A challenge haha.

Sickness :(

Hey guys

I'm sick and kind of sad at the moment (though some good things have occured - like getting rid of both evil flatmates!). I have been meaning to post - I have a draft of Cruise Day 5. I just don't have the energy to do so at the moment. I am trying to recover and that involves a lot of sleep. I don't know what's wrong iwht me but to go the doctor it's so expensive (over $79!) so I'm avoiding that option unless I get worse (medical insurance doesn't really help with minor things die to the $50 caim fee...).

Talk soon
take care

xx