Week Forty-Nine: MERRY CHRISTMAS + Last Mine Train Shift Ever!!

December 25th (Monday): Merry Christmas!! I worked a closing shift from 4:30pm - 1:15am and felt pretty awful. I had this nasty cold and cough that hit me HARD in the middle of the night. So I got horrible sleep since I couldn't breathe, then went to work as a sicky. It was an insane day, we hit capacity and had to close the park entrance from like 10am - noon or something, but I was lucky enough to pull good positions. ALSO I GOT A GUEST LETTER!! So exciting :) I think I wrote about this a couple weeks back, but I had a family that had been evacuated off Peter Pan's Flight and got paper FastPasses as a form of guest recovery. The FP's excluded the Mine Train, but they told me that nowhere else would accept them since it was during a Christmas party, so I accommodated them. Well that family wrote an email to guest relations saying that this cast member (me!!) was really kind and helpful and turned a negative experience into a positive one. So my leaders printed off the email, wrote me a four keys card, and let me keep them! Super awesome. Also I got to close tower for the first time ever, which was very exciting because I got to sit for the last two hours of my shift. And according to my notes (I keep notes throughout the week on my phone so I remember what I did for these blog posts) I "didn't die, so that's good". Hahaha it was a crazy day so glad I came out on top ;)

December 26th (Tuesday): I worked from 1:15pm - 11:45pm and it was a WEIRD day. I pulled FastPass twice, which I hate, but clearly I survived so it's okay. I did have one guest call the guest in front of him an a**hole in front of the guy's little daughter. So that was awful. Luckily my coordinator was there so she could help fix the situation. Also this wack job of a woman HOPPED out of the train when we were dispatching it. She had a row to herself, so we think she slid over into the empty seat, then got up and jumped off THE MOVING TRAIN. I mean it was the very beginning so it had only moved a foot or so, but imagine if I hadn't been paying attention and stopped the train?! Like seriously WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! On a more positive note, we had one of the Dance Moms girls ride and I got to check her family's lap bars. So that's fun!! It wasn't a main girl, it was Sarah Hunt who pops up every once in awhile on that show.

December 27th (Wednesday): I was scheduled 11:45am - 8:15pm but was just so exhausted from being sick and working seven days in a row (this was my eighth) that I called in late and slept an extra two hours. I didn't pull great positions, but I had a really good day and good guests so that's good!! Bob Chapek (chairman, right under Bob Iger) was in the park and so was Chris Evans! He rode Mine Train while I was in tower so I didn't get to see him in person. But yeah, that was my day!

December 28th (Thursday): Off! FINALLY! I went to Animal Kingdom with Martia in the morning because I had a Flight of Passage rider switch that expired December 31st. We had FP for Everest and Primeval Whirl, and of course went and saw our roomie Jani at Festival of the Lion King. Then we did FoP and got to ride it 1.5 times because the first time it stopped halfway through!! We think it was because a kid threw up in another room. But yeah we got to ride 1.5 times so that's cool! Such an amazing ride. Then Marty went to work so I did Gorilla Falls and Maharj Jungle Trek with my camera, and rode Kilimanjaro Safari! They had a 125-minute wait, so I'm very glad I had a FP.

December 29th (Friday): I worked from 4:45pm - 1:15am and went into my shift thinking I had four mine train shifts left: today, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Well my Sunday and Monday shift were super long so I traded with a circus/mine coworker for the circus, and when I went to check out my schedule again, my Tuesday shift disappeared. SO IT WAS MY LAST MINE TRAIN SHIFT EVER!!!!! Insane right?!!? Overall it was a good day. Even though I was merge FOUR times, no one yelled at me, so it was a good day. I also got to be tower at one point, and end the night at grouper, my favorite position. I got to be the last one on the train and take gem pics, so shoutout to my coordinator Emily for letting that happen. So proud to be a miner :')

December 30th (Saturday): I WAS OFF BLESS. It was insane at MK with park hours until 3am, so I was VERY glad to be off. I went to Epcot during the day and rode Living with the Land, Soarin', and Spaceship Earth. I also got food in the World Showcase, and did a little bit of late Christmas shopping for the fam ;)

Then I went to the Polynesian to watch the New Years Eve fireworks (yes, they do them the 30th as well as the 31st) and they were AMAZING. I sat on the beach and watched the sunset, then watched them set off the 6:30 fireworks. I wasn't about to stay out until 11:50pm, I had to be up at 6:30am for work!

December 31at (Sunday): I traded my 17-hour mine train shift for a nice 8am - 4:30pm circus shift. It was pretty crazy. We were at capacity and closed the park off for a couple hours in the afternoon, and the Barnstormer was an 80-minute wait. The line went through the whole queue and extended BEYOND that. I have never seen that ride so busy. Insane. Some guest told me that Haunted Mansion was 300 minutes or something wild like that, so yep, crazy day. It was a pretty easy day for me, I was bummed not to get Barn grouper at all, but I had an easy day so it's okay ;) We did have a lady push a cast member though so when I left for the day we had a coordinator, leader, and security all down with this aggressive family. They pushed the CM at FastPass because she wouldn't let them up with a fake FP. Honestly people suck sometimes.

That's it for my CRAZY Christmas week!! My last full week of work. Wow. Going out with a bang, am I right? ;)