Aloha Day and Training for Merchandise at the Polynesian

Alohaaa! 

 

It has been pretty swell here on my little Polynesian island. I've been here for two weeks already, and it is flying by! So far I've gone through my Aloha Day at the Polynesian (which is a "Welcome to our 'Ohana" class where we are acclimated to the resort and what it has to offer), and I have also done a couple of days of training in the merchandise stores: Moana Mercantile and BouTiki. I think my favorite store to work at is going to be Moana Mercantile, because so many things take place up there. 'Ohana (table-service dining), Tambu Lounge (bar), Kona Cafe and Kona Island, and the monorail are all located on the second floor of the Polynesian Village Resort. It gets a lot of foot traffic and business, whereas BouTiki's customers are 'just looking' and picking up packages. PLUS...all of the kid's toys and plushes are upstairs in Moana Mercantile AND the pin cart! 

Aloha Day

Aloha Day was a short day, but we learned a lot about the resort and what types of rooms and services the Polynesian has to offer. Once we listened to our speaker introduce us to the resort, we took a tour (in the 100 degree heat) of the resort. It is one of my favorite resorts on Disney property. It's just beautiful, but I prefer to look at it when it's not sweltering outside. :) Then we went into the Great Ceremonial House, also known as the lobby, and were given leis by Auntie Kaowi. She is the grandmother of the Polynesian. You can find her to the right of the Polynesian lobby making leis and authentic flower headbands (for cheap compared to Disney prices!) or if you catch her at the right time (I think between 1:30-2:30) she'll be passing out warm, fresh cookies to guests in the lobby. Back to my story, though, she gave us all leis and welcomed us with a traditional kiss on the cheek or if you were lucky you got an eskimo kiss! I was not one of the lucky ones. :( She did call us all beautiful, though! Afterwards another woman came over along with quite a few leaders and instructed us on how to hula dance. It was extremely fun and a great way to welcome us in to the Polynesian 'Ohana. 

Big shout out to Blake's Nana for the Mickey bar! What a great way to end my week!:) 

Training 

I have a total of three days of training. I have already completed two of them, and today is my last day of training and it's a closing shift. Yuck! My first two days went alright. It keeps getting better, though, so I'm happy about that. I am just excited to start doing things on my own! My first day of training was very basic. We walked around a lot and did a lot of nothing I felt like. We stood around the shops and awkwardly welcomed guests to our store. It was awkward because there were four of us trying to say "ALOHA!" all at the same time. It was a mess. We also did a lot of pin trading, and I did my best to stand out to my leaders...because you know me, GO ABOVE AND BEYOND, and I would bend down to the little kids and show them my pins (because that's what we were told to do), but no one else did that. I'll keep doing it though...it gives me a chance to stretch my legs out and rest my feet, because we stand a lot and never get to sit down. My legs hurt so bad at the end of the day. On the bright side, my calves are getting really toned from all this walking! :) Day two's training went more smoothly than day one's, in that, we were on the register for the majority of the day. This was just a refresher from the training I had previously gotten in my Merchantainment class, but actually putting it all together was a whole new ball game. After the first 5 customers I think I started to catch on, but it will eventually become second nature. It's just figuring out where all the buttons are located at and under which heading. It's confusing...but I enjoy it! Today is a closing shift, and from what my trainer told me yesterday, we are going to learn how to close down the shop, how to stock, possible more register training, and who knows what else. And then tomorrow I'm on my own! No trainer! No body to tell me where to go or what to do every second. SCARY! The cast members at each merchandise location are super friendly, though, I've already met them and I know that they will help me out if I need something. 

Homesickness 

So here's something that my pictures might not show. Homesickness! Yes. It's so tough being so many states away from my family, my boyfriend, and my friends. I wish they would all just pack up and move here. I think what I've been struggling the most with is trying to find something to do during my free time. WARNING: RANT ALERT. It sounds silly, because the most logical thing to do would be to go to the park, but after working 8.5 hour shifts or all of your friends work the opposite shift you do, that's really the last thing you want to do. My focus is to try and enjoy being by myself. This is a big chunk of the reason as to why I wanted to come down here and do the program in the first place. I need to gain some independence. I hate being by myself, but I am hoping that this will help me learn to love it. I really think it's teaching me that I will never be a housewife or a stay at home mom, but that too!! :) 

This feeling comes in waves, though, and I am so thankful that the waves are getting more spread out. Hopefully they will disappear! 

MY BIRTHDAY IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM! 

For my birthday we got reservations to Be Our Guest! I was THRILLED! Some people have to wait months for those reservations and we got them the night before! We all dressed up and looked super cute! I wore my mini princess tiara and the girls wore their mouse ears. Cinderella made some reference to me that I was the princess and brought all my mice with me today to MK. We met a ton of princesses, Minnie and Daisy, Gaston (what a hunk and kind of creepy), and even Princess Tiana and Naveen to top the night off. We rode The Magic Carpets, Dumbo, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, the Carousel, Barnstormer, and probably more I just forgot. It was such a magical night, and Belle and the Beast even gave me a birthday card and complimentary grey stuff. If you don't know what that is...go listen to "Be Our Guest" on youtube. It was delicious. 

A look ahead

In the next few days Natalie and I will be heading to Typhoon Lagoon to play at the water park and splash around before it gets too chilly. We also plan on snorkeling there! Neither one of us has ever done it before, and so we are super excited to swim across the sand shark lagoon and see what it's like! I've never been to either water park at Disney, so I'm so excited to suit up and test them out! 

The Mousekateers, as my mom has named us, have decided to OFFICIALLY tackle the kitchen sink for sure this time! We plan to go one night early this week and eat it up! I hope it's on a night that I don't have work the next day just incase it makes me sick! :) 

I also hope to be voluntEARing at one of Disney's voluntEAR events for Give The Kids The World. I haven't heard back yet, so that's still up in the air, but these events are for kids who are terminally ill and we, as students, go and make a little magic for them and their families.