Star Tours II : The Adventures Continue

Grand Opening June 3rd 2011!

Yay! Def late on updating this being open but I was still very excited about it all. There was a planned opening ceremony and people lined outside the park to be some of the first to ride on opening day. I didn't end up starting work until 645pm and wanted to be there for the opening ceremony but glad I didn't because from the video coverage I saw of it, it was terrible.

I feel so happy that I was a part of the opening crew and also part of the old attraction closing crew. It was definitely on my list of things to do before leaving Disney. If I ever do. I feel like what a call a 'lifer' at this point.

I only ended up staying till 2:30am when we closed at midnight but I really figured I would stay longer.

Anyhoo things are still running well but things are starting to slow down. The fast passes still book out before noon every day though.

This is kind of a terrible picture of me but it's the costume and me and in front of the cast previews sign...wooooo

what is wrong with me?!

My nerves are starting to get the best of me. I did shadowing and then yesterday started the core trainer shadowing me. The night before I couldn't sleep. Nightmares of not waking up on time, not knowing what I'm doing and not being able to handle 2 trainees for 3 days. Thank goodness I have till Saturday till we start again so I can get my brain untangled. I felt so depressed yesterday after our opening shift. The biggest thing that I think is scaring me is not having enough time to get everything done and have them figure it out. One of the trainees called in and so I was only dealing with one and still felt like I ran short on time. The hard stuff is out of the way for the most part. 101s are a little confusing but at least we'll be backstage so it won't be as frantic. Also they aren't allowing me to bring home my training binder. so I feel a little unprepared in that way as well. I think I'm going to take it home anyway. I can't continue to feel this way. I'm confident I know what I'm doing. I don't like feeling this way. Thank goodness for Chris. He is really helping me through it. I just don't feel like I'm doing a good job. Chris talked to my trainer, well he actually trained both of us at auto, and he was asking how I was doing and let him know that if Meggan, the core trainer, didn't think I was doing it right or thought I wasn't going to be able to do it she would have pulled me out and up to the managers. So that's a good thing. She told me my nerves were adorable when I first started talking in the morning.

I really need to get my ass in gear, and I will, just need to find that boost of confidence that I lost somewhere. Have you seen it?

Autopia Trainer here I come!

Or at least I'm hoping so....this is a quick outline...


-side note- this is like the 3rd post i've started.... i wish the computer would read my mind! .... well sometimes, that might be kind of creepy if it did!-

They gave us little time to get feedback from our leads but I got 9 PARS. Which is all but like 3 leads at Autopia. And they were all positive. It was really nice to hear all sorts of good things about me... it was such a mood booster. I ended up coming in everyday that week and stalking people schedules and waiting around to get feedback but it was worth it... and that was the easy part. Since I have a 'safety' that I think I went into that on another blog... wasn't exactly my fault but was... basically compromising the safety of the attraction and got written up for it. Dumb. Anyways that stays on your record for a year. And if you're looking to apply for trainer or anything higher up it counts against you. Mine comes off in March. So it's a good thing and a bad thing.... good it's almost gone but technically I'm not exactly able to apply but they make exceptions and I was determined to be that exception. 

So my thought process... get the best PARS ever, impress the new manager and convince her to let me still apply and have her do her own investigation by talking to leads and managers and find out the same thing and allow me to apply!

It worked! So she turned them in for me and then it was the hard part.

The Interview!

Yikes

I don't interview well... or at least I don't think I do. I get so nervous and then start to babble and ramble and yeah, it sucks.

I got some inside information from some people for what day it was going to be and then Chris found out what time.  So I was prepared and happy to be so.

Guess what?

It went really well! Not a lot babble ramble and I got to say everything I wanted to. Would have changed one thing but I believe everything else was strong enough that it wouldn't hurt me any. Even when Philip my trainer asked how it went he had already heard that it went well :)

So I'm really confident that I have a great chance at it and really can't wait to become part of the 'leadership team'. It's cheesy but I do really love my job and look forward to it and moving up and making changes for the better.

Friday is the final interviews and then next Thursday is the lead meeting and they are going to discuss everything and should be posting soon after that I hope!

Fire

There was a crazy fire that basically circled around our shop. We were really lucky to not have the shop set on fire. The Mallard Creek people saved us once again, but they do that because if we catch on fire it makes it closer to them catching on fire and with all their materials, it would be burning for weeks. Nicole and I went to Noodles and Co. for lunch and we were just finishing up and bullshitting and the power went off. Strange, I had never been in a restaurant or store when that has happened and it was the middle of the day and it was sunny outside. We watched for a bit how the employees ran around not knowing what to do and attempting to fill orders. Then Judy was calling me, when I answered she sounded really frantic, asking where we were and what we were doing. She wasn’t speaking very clearly but said there was a fire and she thinks it’s at the office. So we told her we were on our way and when we leave and walk outside the building and we both start to run and freak out because there are huge plumes of black smoke coming directly from where Performance is. I was driving like a bat outta hell to get back over there. We didn’t know what we were going to do when we got there, we talked about what our plan was to get out when we got there and if everyone is out and if everyone was ok. There were already helicopters flying around but they didn’t seem to be the fire ones yet. There were cops driving over 65 quickly heading back to where we work. Once we got to the first intersection that’s where the first block was and we couldn’t get any farther. Mat left his cell phone at home so we had no way of getting a hold of him to see if he was ok and what was going on. We drove into the parking lot where more employees seemed to be congregating. We talked to some employees from Teichert and my dad called and Julie called and we waved Charles in. Nicole talked to Shea who said they were evacuating the subdivision he was working in that is behind where the shop is. When talking to him she could hear the helicopters over him telling them to evacuate. Everything was hearsay because no one was able to talk to anyone that was back there. Judy was down on the other end of Cincinnati but couldn’t see much more than we could. My dad called frantically to see if everything was ok as well, he was out of town looking at a job. We see multiple cars leaving and we see Ben and flag him down, he says Mat was still back there making sure everyone gets out and locking everything up. Judy calls us and is heading over because she’s getting booted out. He said it’s basically right next to the shop and the cops forced them to leave. Not too much later Mat comes rolling up with my dad and Judy’s ski boat that was parked out in the back. We all sort of ended up coming together at the corner of Cincinnati and Sunset just watching. Murmurs started rolling and saying 4180, we all looked around, Nicole and I said that’s us… they had heard it was engulfed. We all started to get more anxious. I had feelings of just wanting to get back there to see if we could help and wanting to see what was going on, I felt blind. But the smoke was turning white, so we were breathing a little easier. The police officer got off his radio and called over to us and said that they were able to take down their blockade and we could drive down and see how far we could get, but they might only let business owners all the way back. Another thing that was terrible was that Nicole’s car was parked out front. We carpool for lunch and switch off days. Nicole had gone into one of the businesses to go to the bathroom and I had to call her to tell her to hurry up and come back so we could see how far we could get in. Everyone else left except us and Judy. We ended up getting all the way back in and walked around to check everything out. The wind was so crazy that if it was deciding to go our way that everything would have been gone. We had just a part of the fence that was ruined but the fire decided to turn away.



Some trees that lined up on the side of the building got burnt and it was right up against my dad’s tool shop. The Chevelle was parked out front and it looked like Mat drove up really quick. Some of the guys came back to check out the damage. Man, it was crazy though. As much as Judy hates this place I know she was sad and scared if it were to burn down. She looked like she had been crying. We helped Judy open up all the doors and what not to get an air flow in but then had to go home because there was no way we’d be able to work with all the smoke smell.

A dream come true....??

Yesterday I had all sorts of issues I felt naked because I left my cellular at home and went to Shann & Mike's so Shann could touch up my hair so I was just really uneasy not having my phone. Once I got home I had a couple of messages but nothing too important. I got online to check my email and to post up some pictures.....Guess who got an email to set up an interview with Disneyland?!

Ya, that's me :)


OMG

Could this really be happening?