It's moments like these I remember why I love working for Disney!

A guest came to make an exchange this evening, it was just before the fireworks were about to start at 9pm and it was extra magic hours. So the store was open until 11pm, I had been in since 1pm. The mum and daughter were exchanging a top they had brought a few weeks ago for a different size, but the mum couldn't find the receipt. She said "oh we will come back another time with it, we only live two hours away" I told them I could make the exchange without the receipt if they were ok with waiting shortly for a manager to come and approve it. Which was fine with them. So we got talking, they were really funny, I was talking to her daughter about One Direction and they asked me how I got the job etc. I served other guests while they waited patiently, but continued our conversation, including other guests into out conversation as I carried out their transactions. When Tom, my manager finally came to help out with the exchange, the mum immediately started to tell him what a great cast member I had been.  She told him she is in the hospitality business, she did a disney internship years ago and knows what disney cast members are expected to be like, but i was a truly magical fairy tinkerbell like cast member full of pixie dust and exceeded their expectations. She said i had been so lovely and helpful not just to them but to all the guest she had seen me engage with that night. She mentioned she would hire me in a second if she could so I could stay in America because I had told her in our conversation how much I would love to stay. She is an annual pass holder for the last three years and believes it is money well spent, she loves the parks, rides, merchandise, but they don't make the trip worth while, it's cast members like me that keep her coming back time and time again. She called me amazing and that i was the true essence of Disney. The fact that I was still smiling and making them laugh at 9pm was amazing she thought, if there was a survey person outside they would happily tell them how great I had just been that evening for them. As they left the daughter gave me a hug and then the mum did also. It meant so much, that without even trying or thinking how can i be extra magical? i was just myself talking away to them, I had made an impact and given them great customer service when all I thought I was doing was having a chat with these two guests. I hope I see them again and get their names, and I photo. Wish I had asked my manager to take one now. He did then say "if that doesn't make it into the recap tonight u don't know what will" very proud cast member this evening. I am working in the right place!

Twinings Tea Tours & becoming a Disney Trainer

Hello Disney joy fans!! It's been a while! I am, as always sat on the C bus on the way to work. It is my Monday (Sunday but its my first day back to work after my weekend so it's Monday in my head) and I had a lovely two days off sunbathing an doing around epcot's flower and garden festival and Hollywood studios for a couple of animation classes and fantasmic!! Standard weekend in Orlando!

Time is moving on very quickly, I only have 3.5 months left of my program. Where has the time gone?? The last month has new busy as I have been training for the flower and gardens Twinings Tea Tours. During the festival, 10 UK merchandise cast members give a tour around the tea gardens at work and I was lucky enough to be chosen after putting my name forward to do it. We got training and a script to learn for a month and now once or twice a week I give up to 20 guests a personal tour around the pretty gardens behind the Tea Caddy store in the UK pavilion. I was very nervous on my audition and first tour but last Thursday I did two in one afternoon and think I have got the hang if it now. Guests are very kind telling me they enjoyed it and I was very funny and informative, one guest told my manager "she's just so adorable and previous, I just want to have a cup if tea with her and let her talk" so that's always nice to hear. 

I also put my name forward to become a trainer at work too and had an interview and training and an assessment and now I am a trainer too! So when we get a new cast member in, I get to train them in the merchandise role and tell them all about Disney joy! Hope I don't scare them...I'm sure everyone is like me when they first turn up, right??

I had Bekkie and George visit me a few weeks ago from home which was magical, felt like I'd seen them the day before even though its been 8 months since we last saw each other. They defiantly found the Disney joy...and drank their way around the world in epcot, I'd expect nothing less from those two! I also have my little sister and mum coming out to visit me in about three weeks, very exciting, I can't wait, for them to bring me cadburys Easter eggs!! Haha, and to see them of course. Dad isn't coming out, he's staying at home with the dog, but Alice is very excited to see Disney again as she hasn't been back since she finished her college program nearly two years ago and of course the new fantasy land wasn't there back then so it will be great to show them around.

A few very close friends have left recently, they have come to the end of their program and completed their 12 month contract respectfully, it gets harder and harder to say goodbye everything someone goes home because I am closer to them as I have known them longer. I have started a leaving book, even though these people leave before me, I asked them to write in my book so I have a good collection of nice words to read when I go home in the summer and cry my eyes out because I am not in Disney anymore. But it will be great to see all my friends and family back home again, I do get flashes of homesickness more than often now. I miss my house and being home. But I know that and everyone will be waiting for me when I get home for a big reunion! 

This week we also have eggciting news for the UK pavilion in Epcot, we have an Easter egg hunt, relay race for kids and mr and mrs Easter bunny are coming for a visit everyday for a week! It's part if this years limited magic experiences. Every week and new and limited time only event happens within Disney world. Last week it was and Easter egg hunt around the world showcase which was big fun, this week it's our visitors and entertainment Easter joy in the UK, as well as an Easter parade in magic kingdom. So we are all taking spare clothes to work to change into at lunchtime and go have our photo taken with the Easter bunnies! My mum has sent me an Easter package from home, I hope it arrives soon, I need cadburys chocolate, my stash is running low at home!! I have no idea when Easter is because I have no sense of time in this Disney bubble, I still think it's last summer when I first got here. The weather is so gorgeous at the moment (apart from the little tornado warning we got yesterday afternoon but we were all ok) 70mph winds and rain come and go, but the blue sky and sunshine joy last and is very frequent in my beloved Orlando!