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Amber Earns Her Ears

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Amber Sewell is 'earning her ears' at Disney World from the ground-up: her first experience as a Cast Member was her participation last year in Disney's CareerStart Program. Maybe you saw her at EPCOT's Electric Umbrella? If not, you'll be 'seeing' a lot of her on Disney Dispatch as she shares her stories about what it's like to be young and working for the Mouse. Amber's stories are fun, fascinating, and plain ol' fantastic. And maybe, just maybe, they'll put you on the road to earning your ears, too.

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FROM: Amber Earns Her Ears Published Mondays

Amber Trains at the Electric Umbrella

Finally, it's here: training! After all the time spent applying to the program, worrying about acceptance, driving to Disney World, meeting her roommates, and finishing the formalities, Amber starts training for work at Epcot's Electric Umbrella.

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Disney's CareerStart Program is a great way for young kids with a high school diploma to spend five months at Disney World earning money as a Cast Member. For some, it's a dream job en route to college, for others the start of a Disney career.

In her weekly column, Amber Sewell shares her experiences as a former CareerStart Cast Member.

The C bus is always host to an interesting assortment of people.

You have the chatty ones, who are riding to work with their friends, or at least with a cell phone attached to their ear that they are screaming into. Then there are the people who, like me, are not in the least bit social during early hours, and who seem to attach their sanity to their headphones. And then, being the bus that goes to EPCOT, there are the international participants. Sometimes they travel in groups, prattling away in a foreign language. Other times they are quiet and withdrawn, staring out the windows as we make our stop at Vista Way before heading to the Cast building.

My first ride on the C bus came a few days after Traditions. I had had quite a break in between the frenzy of arriving and the beginning of work, and I was eager to find out what it was I would be doing. The first day was our tour of the park; again, a lot of the people who are participating in these programs have never actually been to Disney World. That is why we arrived at EPCOT early in the morning to meet in some room tucked away in a random building. We were to be taught the specifics of our park, what it stood for, its history, the layout, and so forth.

Amber Endures Basic Training

I imagine that for some people, this meeting is incredibly dull. I have to admit, there were points when I found my mind wandering to other things. But what made my group different was the group of French participants. All of them tall, dark headed, and with a plethora of inside jokes (told mostly in French, of course). It seemed their mission was to see just how angry they could make our instructor. Whether it was comments muttered across the room in French or raucous laughter erupting from the back of the meeting room, not five minutes went by without someone receiving a glare from the poor woman trying to get through her spiel about EPCOT.

After the initial seminar, we went on a tour of the park. Unfortunately, a lot of us hadn't planned on it being so cold. In my skirt and cardigan, I was not at all thrilled about the chilly, blowing wind. We were there before World Showcase opened, and as we watched, a Segway tour winded its way through the pavilions. Our tour guide, taking pity on us (and I'm sure there was personal motive, too), decided to spare us the trek around the World Showcase. Instead, we boarded a Friendship boat and the tour was conducted from there.

When we got off, shivering in the wind, someone in our group lent me his coat - a welcome display of chivalry. We headed off toward first aid, the most important location on the tour. It was there that the group of French students, quiet for the majority of the tour in the park, began to act up again. This time, our tour guide was having none of it, and stormed to the back of the group. Their futile protestations of not understanding her English because she spoke too quickly were immediately shot down as she threatened to have them sent back to their complexes to delay their training. All we heard from them the rest of the day were markedly quieter chuckles.

The majority of training is a blur to me now. A lot of hours spent in front of a computer, watching monotonous, energy-draining videos about the proper way to serve alcohol and what to do if we observed someone shoplifting. Some of the training videos were specific to Quick Service, and others we had to watch regardless of our roles. There were some more classroom-setting seminars, where we learned how to properly lift boxes (stay out of the red zone!) and other mundane information. It was all necessary, of course, but that in no way made it more interesting.

Amber Lights Up the Electric Umbrella

Eventually, I got to meet with my training coordinator. There were four of us who were being trained at the Electric Umbrella. I arrived at the Cast building early and took a seat in the break room. I settled down to read until the others started to show up. We all introduced ourselves, made sure that the shoes we'd bought (most of us brought them for approval) were okay for working in the kitchen, and headed to Costuming. There we tried on our wonderful two-toned red shirts, baseball caps, and black polyester pants. Disney sizes really do not make any sense, I must admit. I wore so many different sizes, and even within one size - 4/27, for example - they ranged from the legs needing to be rolled up to me having to hold my breath to fasten them. Some people were upset about the numbers attached to their clothing, but the thing to keep in mind is that they are just numbers, and half of the time, the numbers attached to the clothes were wrong, anyway.

After we'd stored our costumes in our lockers, we headed to the Electric Umbrella for the first time. We were given little slips of paper letting the cashier know that we were trainees, then gave our order and met our coordinator upstairs with the food. There we sat, ate our meal, and filled out forms on the service: were the cashiers friendly? Did the fillers have a good attitude as they passed us our trays? Were the people in charge of cleaning up beverage island - the drink station - scowling as they mopped up another mess?

We were not wearing our name tags, but the guy bussing upstairs recognized us as trainees. He ambled over to our table.

"You guys about the start training here?"

We all looked up at him. I, for one, was a little put off by the attitude of knowledgeable Cast Member he was trying to give off.

"Yes."

"Do you wanna know how it really is?"

Now, let me just say, not all Cast Members are ideal. Not all of them fit the happy, upbeat, friendly mold that is the overriding image at Disney World. A major problem that I encountered even before arriving in Florida was that a lot of people were here simply to get a semester off school to go party. After all, how hard could working at Disney World be? This guy fit into this category of less-than-impressive Cast Member.

Of course, the other girls wanted to hear his insight into the workings of the company. As he rambled on about the inconveniences and ridiculous hours, I ate my burger and fries. When our coordinator rejoined us, the pessimistic Cast Member left to half-heartedly wipe down a table or two. Needless to say, he didn't rate very high on my evaluation sheet. (On a side note, he didn't make it very far into his program, either.)

Amber Goes to Work

The next day - or the day after that, I'm not sure - it was time to put on my costume and board the C bus, embarking on my first day of real work. Our training schedule meant that we arrived around noon and stayed until after closing. We were given a trainer when we came in who taught us several new positions throughout the day and then showed us how to close an area.

Training is a tricky thing. I learn quickly and independently; I'm not afraid to ask stupid questions, as long as I know how to do something. Some people need more assurance or guidance, and others take it up very quickly.

My first day of training didn't go well, so it was a good thing that I wasn't the dependent type. My trainer was an older woman, who was supposed to teach me how to do the easier things at the Electric Umbrella - bussing, lettuce and tomato (standing in front of the massive char broiler and putting lettuce and tomato on the hamburger buns), and filler, mainly. Simple tasks, but made a bit more complicated when she would disappear at times.

After showing me the basics of lettuce and tomato, she went on her lunch break, leaving me alone in the kitchen during a rush. I worked in silence for a long while, simply doing what she had told me. I asked questions when they switched me somewhere else, and when the rush died down, I found myself working both front of Nieco (taking the hamburgers off the tray and putting them on the buns) and lettuce and tomato.

The thing is, trainees aren't in the computer with regular Cast Members during their first four days. That means we don't show up when coordinators or leaders are moving people around, assigning breaks, and the like. They rely on trainers to ensure that we are taken care of. In my case, that first day I was forgotten. Eventually, someone realized that it was my first day, and told a manager that I was missing a trainer. It turns out her break was almost over, so they sent me out to another position until she came back; then I would go on my break.

Not all of my training days went like that. Most of my trainers were great; they made learning the different positions a lot of fun, and even cleaning the fryers wasn't as horrible as some people made it sound. Ovens was an adventure; another trainee was learning the same night I was, and the smell of the grease and discarded food from that day combined to make her sick. Our trainer looked after her while I finished dropping off bun crates and towels. Truthfully, it did smell ghastly, but as I had worked at an animal clinic for seven years, I was used to gross smells.

The fourth day of training (and the last) was across the street at Fountain View, the ice cream shop. The atmosphere there was drastically different from the Electric Umbrella; not only did less people work there (five people on average), but it was more laid back. It wasn't as hectic or busy. I loved it.

Overall, training was a great experience.

I have always loved learning new things, and within the Electric Umbrella and Fountain View, there were myriad things to pick up on, from how to properly clean a trashcan to how to make waffle bowls. In four days I hadn't learned everything I would need to make it through the next six months, but it was a good start.

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