December (Part 1)

I'm very, very far behind in my blog... so here's part 1 of a very long summary of December... I'll try to update more often in January!

Monday December 1st I worked on the popcorn carto from 1:30-10:30pm. I had a lot of fun, but because of the late shift I couldn't sing in Candlelight. After singing 6 shows, going two days without Candlelight kinda put me in withdrawl. It didn't help that the guest narrator was Neil Patrick Harris(NPH), either. I love NPH. For those of you who don't know who that is he's Barney in How I Met Your Mother, and he was Doogie Howser MD when he was young. I spent the entire night looking over at the American Gardens theatre wishing I was there. Poor Tyler and Ashley (the other people working with me), I must have mentioned NPH at least once every 5 minutes. After work I came home, exhausted, but I realised I had to sign up for my medical benefits, so I signed up for health and dental with Disney and then went to sleep... Overall a good day!

Tuesday December 2nd, I'd taken an ADO so that I could sing in at least 1 NPH show. I spent the entire morning on the Hub, checking to see if anyone had dropped shows and as it turns out I was able to sign up for all three shows! To make things even better I was placed near the centre of the tree so I wasn't far from NPH! If you have/find any pictures from the December 2nd shows please let me know. I was able to find these on flikr...

After the shows I came home to get ready for Collin's throw out. Heather, Justin, Kathryn, and I ordered pizza and put on Jurassic Park, but then I got a phone call from Rebecca. As it turns out, the spiel sheet had gone up today for times to spiel to a manager on Wednesday or Thursday, and it was already full. I was quite upset that I'd missed the opportunity to spiel, especially since I've been ready and waiting to do this for so long. Still, I thought I'd better start preparing because I'd be able to spiel soon enough, so I went to Rebecca's to get everything I'd need to study. I spent the rest of the night preparing all my index cards so that I could start memorizing all the items.

Wednesday December 3rd I worked PM greeting. During my shift I spoke with our area manager, and she said a new spiel sheet would be going up soon for next week. *Whew* this was a breath of fresh air since it meant that at least I would be considered for entry into a tipped position soon. After work, I went to the throw in. We haven't had one since October so this was actually Heather's throw in too! We had a pretty big arrival group this week, so it was nice to see so many people! Everyone is pretty excited because this new arrival group contained quite a few guys... a rare thing at Disney!

Thursday December 4th I had to be at work at 9am for a Town Hall. A Town Hall is where people from all over Epcot come and they discuss major things going on in the park. This Town Hall was on our new theme for 2009, "What will you celebrate?" It was really neat to see all the new things they have planned for next year: more new buttons, new parades, and shows! The only thing that was annoying was that the theme song "It's the time of your life..." kept playing over and over on a one song loop. After 30 minutes, it drove us crazy! If you haven't seen the commercials yet, one of the biggest promotions in the "What will you Celebrate?" year is that you can get into a Disney Theme Park for FREE on your birthday! If you already have access to the Disney parks there are other offerings, but it's a pretty sweet deal!

After the Town Hall I worked as AM greeter. Unexpectedly, the new spiel sheet was posted with spiel times for tomorrow! I signed up for the 10:30am spot and after work I went straight home to study! Heather and Rob were both BIG helps!

Jenn's Tips for spieling:

1. Make cue cards, one for each item (mine were colour coded with a colour for each type: dessert, drink, entree, appetizer).
2. Record the different spiels as "songs" on your computer and make them into a playlist. When you get frustrated and need a break from studying just run the playlist in the background. You'd be surprised how much you actually absorb.
3. Wikipedia every word you don't understand and be able to describe foods like "polenta" or "ragout" in case a guest asks. Know portion sizes, allergies, as much as possible!
4. Practice a "spiel" with a friend. For people in Canada, when you spiel you first give a tour of the menu (spiel one appetizer, one entree, one dessert, one drink) and then you're quizzed on different items and asked to spiel items that are different between the lunch/dinner menu.
   

Friday December 5th there was filming in the morning at the Canada pavillion for a CBC holiday greeting from Florida, but I didn't go. Since I had to spiel at 10:30am, I wanted to spend time preparing and getting all the sleep I needed. I was so nervous, but Rebecca was incredibly supportive. As it turns out, she was right, spieling wasn't too bad and I did really well! Of the 10 of us that had spieled since Wednesday I was one of the 4 that passed! This isn't a usual failure rate, but because we'd all crammed we weren't as good as we could be. Because I'm one of the first 4 I'm going into food running the first week in January! I'm so excited! Even though it's not for awhile I'm glad there's an end to working podium in sight! After spieling I worked seating from 11-5pm, then did the late pair with Brian Stokes Mitchell. Since I hadn't signed up I sang gold robe. It was so much fun, he's a great narrator... though incredibly tall! Looking over, I couldn't help but notice how much he towered over the Cast Choir!