On the Job Training!
My last phase of training was finally hands on! I started my on-the-job training over in Tomorrowland's Pizza Port restaurant.
To explain my costume simply, it's McDonalds in Space....I mean, I guess I can work with that. My Pizza Port trainer, Stephanie, was super cool and I even ended up joining a cast member volleyball team with her!
At Pizza Port we trained as front of house workers rotating through three positions: bev tech, greeter, and pizzas. Bev tech is basically manning the beverage station in the middle of the restaurant. We make sure all lids, cups, coffee, bottled drinks, straws, etc. are stocked, as well as keeping the area clean. This part can get a bit boring if you're on the rotation for awhile, but you're also out on the floor so you'll get a lot of questions from people.
When working as a greeter, you stand at the door and greet people with awesome space themed lingo! Our standard greeting goes a little bit like, "Hey there Space Ranger, head on in to your left, grab a space tray and blast off to one of our stations." You can also call the little girls who are dressed up princess or tell people Happy Birthday. It's pretty fun, and you also get to pin trade when working as greeter!
The last rotation, pizzas, is pretty self explanatory. We take pizzas out of the oven, cut them and serve them out to Guests. Overall, Pizza Port was pretty fun and there is a lot of Guest interaction involved.
Another bonus of training in food service is that we get to try the food served at the place we're training! At Pizza Port that meant pizzas, pastas and salads; personally I recommend sticking with the salads, they're all really good.
Tomorrowland TerraceĀ (TLT) was nearly a 100% different. Food service workers are back of house cast members at TLT, unlike at Pizza Port. The costume here is more of a chef's outfit with these comfy pajama-like pants. The only thing that sucks about it is a hat that sort of makes me look like a boy. Anyways, the comfort is necessary and the looks are less important at TLT where I learned to work the assembly line.
Toasting buns, building and wrapping burgers, assembling the order, and scooping fries. It sounds sort of boring, but it's actually fun, and everyone who works there is really cool. Since we're back of house, we have a lot of fun talking and joking around. Although when it gets busy I start to have a bit of a hard time keeping up! Most everyone is usually super helpful though and willing to be patient. Practice makes perfect but I still sort of dread peak season. The food here is really good too, I like all the burgers, and there's a super fresh veggie sandwich! We also serve breakfast here and I basically drool over the breakfast burritos.
I've been working like crazy and overall it's been fun, yet tiring! I still can't believe this is my life now, but I'm loving it!