Work, Work, Work

My work days were long and tiring especially since I took Disney's free provided bus transportation (it was about a hour drive each way). On my bus rides I would watch movies/tv and listen to music/podcasts. I was a merchandise cast member at Disney's Animal Kingdom. My specific location was in DinoLand U.S.A., at my location I had several of roles in which I performed.

One of my roles was glow, a shift consisted of being sent out into the park with a cart full of "glow" merchandise that ranged from bubble wands to light up toys. For these shifts you stayed at your given location for the duration of four hours. You had one hour before and one hour after you went into the park to prepare your cart and make sure your merchandise was counted for. The total shift lasted for six hours and there was a morning glow shift and a night glow shift. DinoLand U.S.A. merchandise cast members were in charge of the glow operations for the entire park. These were my least favorite shift, however, many of my coworkers preferred these shifts. The costume for this shift was a tribal like patterned tan/brown shirt (I actually liked the shirt a lot) and brown shorts/pants. We were also given a headset to communicate with leaders throughout the shift. For all of our costumes, we wore black sneakers with black socks. We had the option as well to wear a tan coat if the weather was cold/rainy as well as black gloves.

Another one of my roles was working in the gift shop off of the ride DINOSAUR. For these shifts you stayed in the one location and you rotated between working photo and register. When we weren't too busy, you could help organize the shop. I really liked working my shifts at the DINOSAUR gift shop. My favorite part was working photo because I got to have fun interactions with the guests. These shifts were a full eight hours. The costume for this shift was a gray/yellow/black zip up shirt with gray pants. The costume was alright, not my favorite.

My last role consisted of many different positions that rotated approximately every two hours. I say approximately but occasionally they could last ten minutes or three hours at one location. I rotated between the main store Chester and Hester's Dinosaur Treasures, Dino Rama Cart, Boneyard Cart, DinoLand Cart, and the Fossil Fun Games. Starting with Chester and Hester's, this location sold a wide variety of merchandise from apparel to plushes to toys. At this location I mainly worked on register but I would also help straighten out the store. The Dino Rama Cart sold some apparel merchandise and tickets to play the Fossil Fun Games. The Boneyard Cart sold apparel and pet merchandise. The DinoLand Cart sold all things pin related. The Fossil Fun Games consisted of five different family fun games that anyone could pay to play. These shifts were a full eight hours but they went by quickly because I was constantly moving around. The costume for rotation shifts included a blue shirt and gray shorts/pants. This costume was pretty comfortable and casual. For all of my roles, I enjoyed how many pockets the shorts/pants had, it was very convenient. These shifts were my overall favorite since there was a lot of variety. Of course I loved working in the main store the best but I also really enjoyed working at the carts especially the DinoLand and Boneyard Carts. Before working at Disney I never got into Pin Trading, that quickly changed once I started working at Disney.

During my shifts at the DINOSAUR gift shop and my rotation shifts (besides working at games) I was required to participate in pin trading. I loved this aspect of my job because I got to have a lot of interaction with guests. I would wear my lanyard of pins, some facing the guests and some turned around to have a mystery effect. I would make this interaction a fun experience for guests by having them complete a trivia question before the trade. I would adjust the questions trying to make the questions easier for the younger guests and I would allow hints and help from family members and other guests. In my experience, guests loved the trivia questions and had fun answering them! I loved that I was able to do this with guests and add a little extra magic to their trip.

Now that we have a better understanding of my roles, I am going to talk about my last day of work. I had no idea that my last shift was going to be my last shift. As far as we were concerned, Walt Disney World Resorts were not going to close because of COVID-19. We were very confident in this and the decision happened before we knew it. I went grocery shopping just days before the news was broken to us. I was working at the games selling tickets when one of my DCP coworkers came over to me and asked if I received the email, I told her I had not because I was in the middle of my shift. She quietly told me that we were closing and being sent home because of the virus. Shock. I was in complete shock. I did not know how to react. I started to feel the tears gather up in my eyes. Just as I was about to breakdown crying, a leader came over and brought me backstage. Backstage there was a huddle of the CPs sobbing. I joined them. We stayed there crying, calling family members, talking to leaders for about a hour. After that hour passed, the leaders said we could leave if we wanted to. I had about a hour left of my shift and it was too hard for me to complete it. We took a few group photos of the CPs we could gather and then went our separate ways. I had less than a week to finish out my DCP and move out. The day I found out was March 14, 2020 and it was my last shift. The following day was the last day that the parks were open. On March 18, 2020 I began my journey back home. I knew that leaving Disney would be one of the hardest things I have ever done, I was heartbroken that my dream was ending early.