When the Vacation Ends.

This is literally my third, count them, blog post in the last twenty-four hours. I have been so busy trying to play catch up it's crazy. Well. This is a post entirely related to my job, my training, and generally when all the actual work for the program starts. 
So I talked a little bit about traditions, but didn't really get into because it was supposed to be a super quick short blog because I had missed so many chances to blog. 
So 
Traditions: It is usually the Thursday after you arrive, in some cases it was Friday, all dependent on your schedule they give you at casting. In my case two of my roommates and I had the early morning traditions. We needed to be there by 6:55a.m! This is one of the only time that Disney provides a bus for you so that you do not need to use the main transportation buses and interfere with others going to work. So do not get on the normal buses. This is business professional, and I am not going into detail on that, but for those of you with tattoos refer to one of my two tattoo blogs. When you arrive they you the handy-dandy-booklet you got at check-in to split you into smaller groups and you are taken into different classes rooms. 
You spend a majority of the time listening to them talk and tell stories, there is some interactive play type games they do. And then you go on a tour of the tunnels (WHERE NO PHOTOS ARE ALLOWED TO BE TAKEN) Be aware, this will ruin some of the magic for you. The tour is short, then you go out in to MK and each group goes to a different location. My "class" went to the Story book Circus, and we had to split into smaller groups and then go and look for examples of the Four-Keys, which you will learn at traditions. After that you go back to the class room, they talk some more, Mickey comes into to deliver your name tags to the leaders, they pass them out and you leave. 
Traditions takes anywhere from 4-5 hours, and then travel back.
The times for my move in week were
Thursday: 6:55am. The class started at 8 and went till around 12:30
Thursday 1:35pm. The class started at 2 and went till around 7
Friday 1:35pm. The class then started at 2 and went until around 7

Friday I had my Operations course. That you take at Disney University, where traditions also takes place. That day I also had my introduction to Merch class.
Operations : Is basically the course where they teach you more on the four keys, you go through this "game" or "journey" through the land of the four-keys and you learn what is and isn't a good repersentation of them. You learned your zones(Green, Yellow, and Red) This is funny and I don't want to ruin the enjoyment for anyone so I will leave it at that. 
For those of you in Merchandise. The intro classes just shows you how the four-keys play out in the store setting and guest interaction. 

Saturday and Sunday were my days off so it was like a mini-vacation. 
Monday I had: 
Rolling Out The Red Carpet: This is usually done in your locations "Cast Services Building" Like in my case I had to take the bus to the All Star Cast Services building, where we sat in a class room learned about the history of the resort, the vision of the resort, and how they plan to make that happen. We then went on a tour of our location which took about 2 hours and they skipped a lot of things. We then went to costuming, like I mentioned before I had a bad experience doesn't mean you will too. A lot of other people have encountered wonderful experiences. 

My next day of training was Tuesday and it was a Tier 1 training day which meant we basically went back to our locations and explored some more. 
I had my first experimental training on the registers at DU, and then Yesterday had my first opening shift for Front Of House (FOH). I have a closing training shift tonight. 

It's a lot of fun. Even though it's work your leaders know that you are young and this is a journey. and it's Disney World, so they try to kept things interesting. My location had a dance party yesterday and encouraged us to sing to the soundtrack that was playing. We had so much guest interaction, which being in a hotel gift shop i wasn't expecting, but I talked to soooooo many people yesterday and made an impact in some of their lives. 

I hope this helps with some of your questions on what the training entails. If you have any questions feel free to comment/contact me. 

Have a magical day guys!