My First Shift in Magic Kingdom!

     So as a Photopass Cast Member, I have the really neat opportunity to work in every park. Once we're fully trained we're able to pick up shifts everywhere, which is pretty awesome! Last Thursday, I had my first shift in Magic Kingdom and I loved it! I was in Adventureland and Frontierland, mainly with characters. I started my day taking pictures at the exit of Haunted Mansion, which is a pretty fun spot to shoot in. I loved seeing what people did for a scared pose! Some were absolutely fantastic, which definitely made up for those who do nothing or just started walking away.

     After that, I got to hang out with Aladdin and Jasmine for a few hours. It was so much fun! I loved watching them talk to and interact with the guests, especially the little kids. They're always so excited to meet them, it's wonderful! The two of them are also really cute together, and Aladdin is a hoot! He's a huge jokester, and makes silly faces at the camera all the time. So, yup, they were pretty great!

     I also got to hang out with Peter Pan at the very end of my day, and that was probably the most fun! Wendy is currently back in London, so unlike with Aladdin and Jasmine who have each other for banter, Peter mostly bounces ideas off of the photographer and his attendant. Hanging out with him was such a perfect end to a great day!

     My first time picking up a shift in another park was a definite success, and I'm so excited for my next one! Which will actually be today, as I traded for a shift in, again, Magic Kingdom. This time I don't know where I'll be, as this is one of those shifts where I will be wherever in the park they need me. I'm so excited! MK is really exciting purely because it has so much variety, and it's fun being able to see and/or hear the different shows and things going on throughout the day. I love it!

    Thank you so much for reading, and have a magical day!

-Christie

Finally, A Fully Fledged Photopass Photographer!

     Hi everyone! I am so sorry for not posting for so long, but the good news is I'm back now! The first thing I wanted to tell you all about is how WONDERFUL it feels to finally be fully trained! On the 3rd, I had Night and Camera Center training. Both of these occur on the same 8 hour day, with the first half focusing on how to assist Guests in the Camera Center. It's a very exciting place, as not only do we help Guests choose which photos they'd like to print, we also have an array of borders, overlays, and signatures that can be added to (almost) every photo (signatures are only for meet and greet pictures, and must match the character). Besides all of the options available, it can also be challenging to work with Guests who speak a different language. Most of the time it's a fairly relaxed area (that includes air conditioning!!!0), but busy times and language barriers definitely keep me o my toes. I know the skills I adopt to work in those situations will be extremely helpful as a doctor, although the knowledge of how to turn on an iPhone flash in any language probably won't be as useful. Mandarin? Portuguese? Extremely rapid Spanish? No problem!

     The next half of that day is dedicated to learning how to take Night shots. I really enjoy these, mostly because Epcot is just such a beautiful park at night! Spaceship Earth is illuminated with purple and yellow lights, and it always looks amazing! The only thing I don't really enjoy about working in Epcot is that, unlike in Magic Kingdom, we never really get the chance to see any shows (I'm mostly referring to parades and fireworks) while at work. I know that can also be frustrating, because I'm sure there is a limit to the number of times you can watch Wishes and still enjoy it, but I really do wish I had that opportunity too! We do get to see the fountain shows while we're shooting behind Spaceship Earth, but I would love to be able to tell people to wait just one more second, so that way I can capture the fireworks I know are coming behind them.

     A little over a week later, I had Character training! It was so awesome! We started with a presentation about how to photograph Character interactions, and then pretty soon we were actually out in Epcot to practice! We started with Pluto, which was really fun and he is super cute to work with, and then we went to Mexico to take pictures with Donald. Both of them have very entertaining personalities, although while Pluto's leans towards adorkable, Donald is straight up sassy. Which is justified I suppose, since he is #1! Finally, we spent a little bit of time with Mulan and had a great time there. The added challenge with Mulan and other princesses is capturing shots while both the character and the guest have good facial expressions, which can be difficult! The silly faces are definitely fun, although possibly not what people would want to put on the mantle.

     And that was that! As I walked back to my car, I pulled off my Earning My Ears ribbon and now I'm a full, official PhotoPass Cast Member. Yippee!!!

     Thank you so much for reading, and have a magical day!

-Christie

The Making of a Galactic Hero

     So the other day, my friend and I went to the Magic Kingdom after I got off work, and we had a marvelous time! It started out as a beautiful day, but by the time I got off of work it had turned pretty dreary. It was rainy/drizzly, and pretty cold. Not great weather to wander Magic Kingdom in, but it made for some fantastic lines! We went on Space Mountain, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Pirates, Tea Cups, and a few others, all with either very little or no wait. We rode Peter Pan as a walk-on, it was awesome! Seven Dwarves, by the way, isn't nearly as fun when there's a cold rain. As quite a bit of it is outside, that basically means you're getting pelted in the face for almost the whole thing. We also went to Princess Fairytale Hall, where we met Elsa, Anna, Cinderella, and my personal favorite, RAPUNZEL!!!

Meeting Rapunzel, my current favorite character!

Wishes, I just love the colors on the castle here!

These bright white ones are my favorite fireworks!

And all our Wishes will come true :)

    Besides those rides, we also took at least 5 rides on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin! The goal, of course, was to reach Galactic Hero status. And on our second to last ride, I did it!!! I am officially a Galactic Hero!!! And as of this point, I'm a Galactic Hero three times over. My roommate and one of my neighbors and I all went to Magic Kingdom the other night, and I reached 999,999 two more times :) So, I now feel like an accomplished human being and I think that's the second thing I'm crossing off my bucket list! The first, of course, was watching Wishes and Illuminations in the same night.

Officially a Galactic Hero! I'm probably a little more proud than I should be, but it was pretty fantastic!

     Thank you so much for reading, and have a magical day!

-Christie

The Details of PhotoPass!

     I know it's been a while since my last post, and for that I do apologize. I've been a little busy! Usually when I get home from work I have a million other things on my mind, and usually my roommate and I will watch a movie, or we'll go hang out at the parks, or do something else fun. Today was my 5th day of working alone, and I am absolutely loving it! I adore how much guest interaction I have, and the relative independence. I also really enjoy that we are obviously there for the guests, as we are expected to take as many pictures as we can, with the hope that our guests will buy them, but if people want me to only use their camera or phone, that's totally fine too. I'm also fairly certain that tour guide should become an official part of the role description, because since we're out in the field directly interacting with guests, we spend a lot of time directing people to wherever it is they want to go. So yeah, PhotoPass pretty much rocks!

     For future DCPer's or anyone who is curious, I also wanted to talk a little bit about the training process for PhotoPass. Since it is a lot of information to absorb, our training takes about a month. First, we learn how to use the cameras in general, and more specifically how to shoot Icons. Icons are basically things that in some way represent the park or an area of it, or as I like to call them, "things guests commonly stand in front of for pictures." In EPCOT, our main Icon is, of course, Spaceship Earth. However, we also shoot at other locations around the park too, such as in front of Nemo's Garden and on the International Gateway bridge with the Eiffel Tower in the background. After a week or two of shooting Icons, we then receive Night and View training. With this, we can work in the Camera Centers of the various parks, as well as, you guessed it, take night shots! I'm actually really excited for this one, I haven't been a fan of waking up early and I am certainly over having to wear so much sunblock! A week or two after Night and View training, we move on to Character training, which I think I'm the most excited for. I can't wait to capture those moments for the guests that I have the opportunity to meet!

     So overall, PhotoPass is amazing, and I really do think that it's one of the best roles I could have gotten. I am in love with it. I've taken pictures of babies (and gotten them to smile!), families, couples who just got married or just got engaged, and even a few Make A Wish kids. This weekend, I've had a ton of runners due to the Princess Half Marathon. I even got to watch some of them this morning as I walked in, and they were so inspiring and had the best outfits! On my very first day of on location training, I had one of the most magical moments I'll probably experience, when I got a perfect picture of a Make A Wish child. I also get hugs from small children every so often, which is pretty sweet! The other day, I told a family, "All right guys, now give me a big hug!" and the kids apparently thought I meant for them to come and give me a hug, not that I meant for the whole family to hug. So they dashed at me, and hugged me. It was awesome! PhotoPass definitely isn't easy, and there are moments where it can be frustrating. But rather than bad days, I think there are just some that aren't quite as fun as others.

     As always, thank you so much for reading my blog! Have a magical day!

-Christie

More Fun Times Before Real Works Begins!

     Hold on tight, guys. This is going to be one long post! On Sunday, I went to Downtown Disney with a friend to take advantage of our holiday discount before it's over. We had a great time, and I got to go to Earl of Sandwich! I absolutely love that place, they make such good sandwiches! Parking there is an absolute mess right now, but Disney is working hard to make it better and the new parking garage is beautiful. After DTD we parted ways as she had to get to work, and I headed to Epcot. It was already pretty late when I got there, but I still got to go on most of my favorites! I rode Nemo, Soarin', and Spaceship Earth, and beyond that I just wandered around both Future World and World Showcase. While in World Showcase, I also found a good spot and watched Illuminations again! After that, I went home and went to bed, ready for another day of fun in the parks on Monday!

Spaceship Earth is so beautiful at night!

Illuminations, from a much better vantage point!

     On Monday, I went to Hollywood Studios as I continued my park-a-day adventure. Although a little eventful, it was still wonderful. I went on basically everything, except Midway Mania because the line is somehow always ridiculous! I'm going to have to get there right at opening or have a Fastpass for it. I also skipped Rockin' Roller Coaster, because the line was just too long. The first thing I did was go on Tower of Terror, which was totally awesome! It's the only ride that still makes me nervous, I love it! After that, I saw the Beauty and the Beast show, which is fantastic. They manage to include all of the major songs and everything! Right after Beauty and the Beast, I walked out of the theater to find that the nice, sunny day was gone, and suddenly it was gray skies and cold rain. Of course, I managed to forget my coat, so I ran into the closest store and bought a poncho. I would've waited it out, but I could just tell that it was the kind of rain that comes and stays for a while. Besides Tower, which I also rode again later, I also went on Star Tours I love how they've added other storylines, so it's a different ride every time. The Great Movie Ride was also a lot of fun! Before leaving, I also took the time to go through One Man's Dream and watch the show, it's a really interesting exhibit. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Walt and the making of Mickey and the gang, and how one small idea led to all of this. After that, I headed home with the intention of getting to bed early enough to get to Magic Kingdom early the next day!

The remains of the hat. Although huge, I still loved seeing it and I'm very curious what the main icon will be now.

The Tower of Terror! Such a fantastic ride!!!

This ride terrified me when I was little. I blame you, Dad :) Great theming though!

     Although I got to bed at a decent time, I still didn't make it into Magic Kingdom as early as I'd hoped. I explored alone for a little while, but unfortunately it was an incredibly crowded which I wasn't expecting at all, since the crowd projection wasn't too bad. I went to Monsters, which is always a joy, then met up with some friends. Right after getting together, we decided to head out of Magic Kingdom because all of the lines were just too long. So, we caught a bus over to Animal Kingdom and played around there for a little while, as it was the exact opposite of Magic Kingdom. The waits for both Kilamanjaro and Everest were less than 20 minutes, it was amazing! At least with Everest, it almost felt too short. I've always loved looking at all of the details in the queue itself, it's amazing how dedicated the Imagineers were to portraying the Himalayas in an accurate manner.

I've always loved the okapis, they're just the coolest animals!

The big male elephant along the Kilamanjaro trail!

And the rhinos, of course! The name white rhino is actually from a faulty translation, which I thought was pretty interesting.

     After Kilamanjaro, we went to Hollywood Studios for a little while where we had an awesome time! The lines were also incredibly short there, except for the usuals... Toy Story and Rockin' Roller Coaster, which were both crazy. We went on the single rider line for Rockin', and unfortunately it also took forever. But, it was totally worth it! It always feels a little too short, but it's definitely still a great ride. Finally, we went on the hunt for a cream cheese pretzel (we were foiled in that plan), and along the way managed to find Cinderella's carriage for the new film! Which inspired us to watch the preview for it, and it was  excellent! I'm so much more excited to see the movie now, it looks like it'll be pretty good!

Cinderella's carriage! It is absolutely gorgeous!

    Finally, we headed back to Magic Kingdom so that my friends could head home, as they were feeling pretty tired. I stayed for a while longer because I really wanted to ride Seven Dwarves Mine Train, and I was hoping that waiting until during Wishes or something would be helpful. Sadly, it's still new enough that that doesn't help very much. I did end up biting the bullet and braving the wait, and although it took about an hour it was a really great ride! It still felt a little short, but overall it's well done and beautifully designed. And, a lot of fun! When I got off, I noticed that the line didn't look nearly as long, so I rode it again. I sat next to a lady who talked to me the whole ride the first time, which was nice but a little frustrating, so this time I was by myself and I enjoyed it quite a bit more! Besides Seven Dwarves, I also rode Space Mountain and Big Thunder with nice, short waits.

And of course, it seems right to end with a picture of the castle :)

     Overall, it was a fantastic four days of playing in the parks! I've been training and working ever since, which I'll write more about in my next post. Thank you for reading, and have a magical day!

-Christie

A Wonderful Day at Animal Kingdom!

     So after heading to Vista and getting my account on the Hub all ready, I headed over to Animal Kingdom for a few hours! It is such an amazing feeling to be so relaxed in the parks, knowing that I can come back any time. There's no rush, I can wander and explore and it's totally fine! With the new events and attractions coming to Animal Kingdom, there's currently quite a few construction walls up. I can't wait to see everything when it's done! Although I didn't realize it at the time, apparently the area right in front of the Tree of Life recently had some construction walls go down and now it's a perfect spot for pictures! So, of course, I had to stop and ask a fellow Photopass cast member to take mine!

The Tree of Life!

     Afterwards, I headed over to Expedition Everest, which is one of my favorite rides! The theming is so incredibly impressive, and the coaster itself is fantastic. After that, I wandered around the Maharajah Jungle Trek. With such a bright, sunny day, it was fantastic for taking photos. And, as always, the exhibits are phenomenal! The habitats themselves are always so beautifully maintained, and the animals appear very healthy. The paths around and the various murals and things are also totally amazing, and as far as I know they follow the local art.

I was so intrigued by the neck of this lizard! It's so incredibly long, but you know it has the same number of vertebrae as other reptiles.

Beautiful habitat, and one very healthy-looking tiger!

 

The Maharajah Jungle Trek has amazing murals along the way!

     One of my goals for yesterday was also to see the Festival of the Lion King, since I've heard so much about it! It was so cool!!! I'm absolutely amazed by how realistic Simba, Pumba, and the giraffe and elephant are. Especially Simba, he lifts his front legs to dance and everything! My favorite part was the monkeys, I loved watching all of their acrobatic tricks. I wish I could be that talented! If you go to Animal Kingdom, absolutely make some time to go see the show. It's worth every second!

Festival of the Lion King!

I loved the look on the stilt walkers face! I would love to learn how to use those, it looks so fun!

     I also wanted to go and see Finding Nemo, the Musical. I love the song Just Keep Swimming, and last time I saw it was a while ago. The musical was fantastic! The songs themselves are great, and the way they perform the show is really creative, I especially love how Dory seems to interact with her actress along the way, and I was blown away by the different sets and things. Nigel especially is quite cool. I couldn't get any good pictures during the show, so I guess you'll have to come and see it for yourself!

 

Finding Nemo, the Musical! Such a great show!

     After Finding Nemo, I went on the Primeval Whirl and took a spin on DINOSAUR. Then I headed out of the park, stopping along the way to get some souvenirs, and went home. Today I'm planning to do some shopping and go to Epcot, so I'll post that update sometime soon! It's still so cool to think of Epcot as my new home, I know it'll be long hours and all but I'm so excited to really start working! Not that I'm wishing away this time, at all. It's pretty awesome to have some time to play! Thank you for reading, and have a magical day!

-Christie

Setting Up An Account on The Hub

     Yesterday morning I set up my account on the Hub, which is Disney's main website for various cast member things. I mainly wanted to get this done in order to change my address to that of my apartment at the Commons so that my Main Entrance passes will get sent to the right place! Setting it up is normally pretty easy but for some reason the computer gave me a little trouble. I went over to the Learning Center at Vista (it's in the clubhouse) to get it all done, and they're very helpful! They'll walk you through the whole process.

     I also wanted to set it up as soon as possible in order to request days off in March for a medical school event, and to see my family. The earlier you request days off, the better, so I'm crossing my fingers that those will come through! Thanks for reading, and have a magical day!

-Christie