Week 10

Typhoon Lagoon, our other Disney water park closed down this week for its winter rehab. With this Disney had to merge the two water park staffs and because I am on the College Program I was one of the many cast members who were "deployed" or moved to another job in the resort. This is all done based on senority and also based on what type of worker you are-College Program, Part-Time, Full-Time, or seasonal. One Typhoon Lagoon reopens then Blizzard Beach will go for its winter rehab. The workers will return to their normal work locations in about five months.

I was moved to Epcot doing the same job as park greeter. However, because I was new to the location I once again had to go through the entire training process even though I had been doing the same job for about two months. Instead of two days of training there were four days at Epcot which I thought was a bit much. Now, for a brand new cast member totally new to being a park greeter then I think a four day training process is wonderful for them instead of the two I got at Blizzard Beach. However, for a cast member who has already been performing the same job, just at a different work location, it was a bit much.

The only thing new I had to learn was working the cast member turnstile which prints out the tickets. Each cast member is giving a number of tickets that they can use to bring friends into the park. They have to go to these certain turnstiles that will print off their tickets. Once I had mastered that I pretty much knew everything else when it came to working the turnstiles. The other thing I had to learn was just the overall operation of Epcot and how some things are done differently than at Blizzard Beach such as when to bring out the covers, where to get my assignment, and what to do with demagnetized tickets.

On my fourth day of training I was to receive my assessment but the cast member who was to perform this task called in sick. There was no other person working that day who could have assessed me so they put me on exit gate for eight hours. Exit gate is standing there telling our guests good bye and opening the gate for wheelchairs and strollers. Not the most exciting job. The next day was to be my first day of regular working. However, again, there was no one there to assess me so I again worked exit gate for another six hours. The following day I was finally assessed and was able to work the turnstiles.

This was the first time that I really looked at Disney and thought they had failed from a managing stand point. I understand that people are going to call in sick. It happens. However, the managers had zero back up plan. They had no idea what to do except put me on a position that doesn't require any training. Why didn't they call in someone who could quickly perform the assessment? I think they didn't do that because that would mean they would have to pay someone who wasn't suppose to be working that day. I just found it a bit ridiculous that for two days I was basically forgotten about and thrown on exit gate. It is really the first time I felt like Disney didn't care about me while at the work place.

There are two parts to an assessment. You performing your job and taking the written test. The test  I took at Epcot was the same exact test that I took at Blizzard Beach and it is a global test for park greeters. I just found it a bit of an overkill that I had to take the same test twice even though I had been performing this job for two months straight just because I was at a new work location.