I am seriously on a roll this week. You should all be so proud of me.
After a day off on Monday, I worked Tuesday-Thursday. Tuesday I had more seater training, though I'm not sure it exactly counted as training. I didn't have a designated trainer, and no one followed me to make sure I was doing it right. Honestly, seating is pretty easy. Even if I mess something up, like forgetting to bring crayons with a child's menu, it's not the end of the world.
Even though it is pretty simple, I do enjoy seating. Greeting is a more involved position, but at the same time you're trying to extract all the information you need from the guest as quickly as possible, to minimize their wait time. At least with seating, you have a few minutes to talk to the guest, ask them questions and get to know them, even if it is for a short time.
I have sat plenty of people who don't seem interested in talking to me, which is fine, I understand. But I've also seated some parties and had conversations that lasted much longer than it took to show them to their table, because they were just so friendly and personable.
The downside of seating is that when the restaurant is slow, there isn't really anything to do. One of my managers is very particular about having us stand at the gates in a welcoming position, greeting people who enter or saying goodbye as they leave. Admittedly it's a good idea, and makes the restaurant a much warmer place. But it's seriously boring. Standing there and occasionally saying "Good night, thank you, etc." isn't exactly intellectually stimulating.
Of course, everything is better on days when my friends are working. Everyone at Citricos is very nice and was very welcoming to me, but it's still the most interesting to talk to the people near my own age. It's nice when one of my friends is working at the podium as a greeter, because I can stand by them and talk when the restaurant is slow.
Wednesday there wasn't a designated trainer working at the podium, so I assumed I would be doing more seating. However, instead they had another ICP, who had been at Citricos since August, do more greeter training with me. It's not exactly a complicated job, once you get used to the reservation system and learn which questions you're supposed to ask the guests. The only part that takes some getting used to is looking at the table assignments and figuring out whether we can take walk-ins. Normally the assignor is pretty good about keeping you updated about availability, but it can be difficult because we're not supposed to give guests specific times.
For example, if someone comes to check in and asks how long it will be before their table is ready, I'm not supposed to say "Oh, ten minutes," because if something goes wrong, guests could get upset about having to wait longer than expected. It makes the job slightly more stressful when we're busy, because people are already frustrated and there's nothing I can do to help.
Thursday I had my third and final day of greeter training. I don't really understand how training works, because it doesn't seem to follow a set schedule. For instance, Tasmyn had only two days of greeter training, and the trainer didn't even let her touch the computer. However, I spent three days doing essentially everything on the computer while my trainers just watched and corrected me as necessary.
My training days weren't particularly busy, which was nice in terms of being able to absorb everything without distraction, but made me nervous when I had to greet on busy nights.
Friday I was off, so I headed over to the Epcot! I had a fastpass for Soarin', and Captain EO, which I love more than any sane person.
While I love the Disney parks, and obviously you guys do too, I don't really think it's worthwhile to describe everything I did in the parks day by day. Of course, I'll let you know about interesting things that happen.
Saturday was my assessment! I had to come in early, around 2 hours before Citricos actually opened, but my manager was quite busy that afternoon so my assessment didn't really start until around an hour later. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. I had to fill out a seating chart with the table numbers, then she just asked me a bunch of questions about the restaurant and surrounding areas. I didn't get all the questions right, but thankfully I passed. It would have been embarrassing to have more training after my assessment had already been pushed back four days.
After that, I was working as Seater 2, which means that I stay 1.5 hours after closing to do some closing sidework and fold napkins for the next day. Nothing terribly interesting. But I was off the next two days!
Sunday I went to church in the morning, then had a lazy afternoon. But on Monday I headed off to MK!
My favorite place in the entire world is the Mark Twain Riverboat in
Disneyland. There's a little room on the inside with mirrors on either side of the wall, so you can see for eternity. It's perfection, and I love to just go sit in there. Naturally, that sentiment also extends to the Liberty Belle Riverboat here at WDW, even though it doesn't have the mirrors.
So on my day off Monday, in between my Fastpass times, I stopped in Liberty Square and hopped on the boat just a few minutes before it left the station. I was just wandering around, taking a bunch of pictures. Unexpectedly, a cast member cam up and asked if I was alone. When I responded in the affirmative, he asked if I would want to go up to the Wheelhouse with him. Umm, YES? IS THAT EVEN A QUESTION???
So I got to spend my riverboat journey in the wheelhouse with the best Cast Member ever. I took some super awesome pictures, and got to press a button to start the informational spiel. At the end of the ride, I even got a pilot's certificate. So it was basically the best day ever. However, I apologize for the lack of pictures here. I did take some, but the internet in my apartment sucks if more than one person tries to use it, so uploading them is not really an option right now.
The rest of the afternoon was super rainy, but I didn't let that discourage me. I spent about 6 hours playing in MK in the rain and texting my friend from work. All in all, despite the weather, it was a wonderful day.
Love,
Kira