Week Thirty-Five: Training at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train & ADVENTURES!

September 18th (Monday): I had my first Mine Train shift for training day one (of four)! Super exciting! I worked from 5pm - 11:30pm and we closed one of the consoles in the station that's in charge of removing trains for the night. We also walked the track to pick up lost and found and check some technical stuff! I think I walked 21 flights of stairs just doing track walk because it's so hilly and because we have to climb up two different lifts (granted, they're short, but still!). We picked up a few positions and read a lot, and it was super helpful having a foundation in rollercoasters from working at the Barnstormer. So nothing was too overwhelming for me, phew.

September 19th (Tuesday): I worked a mid-training shift at the Mine from 10am - 4:30pm and we picked up a ton of positions. For the most part it's pretty similar to the Barnstormer, just more complex and bigger. Their grouping position ("how many in your party? Rows one and two") is tougher than Barn due to sheer size and setup, but merge (the person combining standby and FastPass) is MUCH better because there's normally two cast members there to help with efficiency.

September 20th (Wednesday): I had a nice EARLY shift (ew) from 6am - 12:30pm training at the Mine and it was good!! We learned what to do in case of an evacuation, and walked the track in the morning to reset and power up the track. Lots of walking, but it went smoothly! SUPER funny story though, when we were checking to make sure a gate was locked, a frog jumped onto my trainer's thigh and he started shrieking and shaking and dancing and it was SO FUNNY. What makes it so funny is how reserved and put together the guy normally is, I was crying from laughing so hard. After work I went to Universal and met up with my Circus coworkers, and we rode Mummy, Spiderman, Jurassic Park, and the Hogwarts Express. We also got Butterbeer ice cream and found Michaelene at work!! She is seasonal at a few of the shops in Diagon Alley. After Universal we went to Disney Springs and got Blaze for dinner (pizza!) and then all went home.

September 21st (Thursday): I was off Thursday so I went over to my favorite park, Animal Kingdom and took my nice camera with me. I somehow managed to score a FastPass for BOTH Pandora rides?! I also rode Everest and Kilimanjaro Safari.

September 22nd (Friday): I was also off this day so I went to the beach with Michaelene and Jenna. We went to Cocoa and had an awesome day at the beach followed by DELICIOUS acai bowls and some cuban food!

Also I got a gummy bear popsicle.

Then I attempted to make homemade cool ranch dorito fried pickles at home and they were a big disappointment. :(

September 23rd (Saturday): I had an early circus shift, 8:30am - 2:30pm and we almost opened late because of a repeated brake failure. We were also using paper cards instead of pagers at Dumbo, so basically everything was a disaster in the circus. I worked a good mix of positions, then after work went into the park and rode Winnie the Pooh and The Little Mermaid, then watched Philharmagic, got dinner and called it a day!

September 24th (Sunday): I was off again and went to church in the morning with Michaelene, then went to Typhoon Lagoon with my roomies! We spent the afternoon mostly in the lazy river, but also hit the wave pool and a couple of the slides, and got food! Like always.

And that pretty much sums it up!! A pretty jam-packed week, but lots of fun and good times!!