DAKlimation

Today I had my DAKlimation training to become acclimated to Disney's Animal Kingdom (ahhhh I see what you did there). DAKlimation began at 8:00am so I planned to take the 7:05 bus from Chatham to get there at 7:35. However, when I got to Chatham at 6:50am, the next bus wasn't coming until 7:37...a bit of a problem for me. So I ended up driving after all and with the help of my bus app map and a couple of u-turns later, I eventually made it to the cast parking lot and found my way to the Cast Service Building.

Like Traditions, I had to dress in business casual today, and after learning my lesson yesterday with wearing a skirt in the unusually cold weather here, I switched to pants and a blazer. Let me tell you...THIS DID NOT HELP! It was so cold first thing in the morning and didn't warm up until...uhhhh right now at 3:30pm, and it's STILL pretty chilly! Of course, the first thing we did in the wonderful chill was take a park tour to become well acquainted with Disney's Animal Kingdom's five lands. Each land has a different story, a different conservation message, and a different greeting, and it was really neat learning all of those, it definitely made more excited to work at DAK! The first thing we did on our tour was ride Kilimanjaro Safaris before the park opened, which, of course, was AWESOME. And as a prize for getting up so early and being up so early, we actually got to see more of the animals because they're more active in the early morning!

After the park tour, our leaders talked to us about "Disney's Four Keys" at DAK (view last post, if you're really interested in that) for about forty five more minutes, gave us the rest of our training schedules, and then we were broken for lunch at Pride Rock Cafeteria, the cast member cafeteria for DAK cast members. Apparently all cast member cafeterias have a Subway in them, and homegirl got a six inch meal for like four bucks....uh, what?!

My training schedule is as follows:

Saturday - Merchandise Tier 1
Sunday - Merchantainment
Monday - Merchandise Tier 3
Tuesday - OFF DAY
Wednesday - OFF DAY
Thursday - Merchandise Tier 4
Friday - Merchandise Tier 5

After lunch, came the best (and I say this in a half sarcastic way) part of our day...costuming. I drove to DAK Wardrobe and there had to try on a bunch of different sizes before finally getting the right ones in both tops and pants. When I found the right sizes, I eventually went home with five tops, five bottoms, one winter jacket, one rain jacket, a pair of gloves, and a fanny pack to keep my rain stuff in.

I made a lot of promises that I would show my costume today, but I didn't take any pictures while I was there trying them on because it was just so hectic. However, I do have to wear my costume tomorrow to training, so you will definitely be seeing it tomorrow when I take my picture in the morning (which is now weirdly becoming some sort of ritual?).

DAKlimation was just fine, there wasn't a ton of information just thrown at you, which was nice, it really is just what they say, just to get acclimated with the park. I got to meet some nice people in my group and even met a really sweet girl who is also doing Asia Merchandise and also lives in Patterson, so it looks like I found my carpool buddy!! I have absolutely no idea what to expect tomorrow, but I can't wait to fill you in on what happens. I'm still trying to decide if I should go to the parks tonight, I am definitely pretty tired, and I still need to go get work shoes, which I will be going to Walmart for...woo!

Also, I think you can be expecting a vlog on Tuesday!