I went to Disneyworld! Oh and a great Site Review
So last month I went to Orlando to get some
knowledge about our Retail operation. Let me tell ya, it was great. I found it
very exciting and I felt like I learned a lot. It was very interesting to go
visit a couple of the stores and watch and talk with the managers and staff.
Took lots of pics too. I won't put them in the blog as that would be pretty
boring to 99% of you. But it definitely stirred some ideas for my own location.
I hope to be creative once we slow down in
September.
Now I didn't just work, of course. I got to play a bit. On the first day I visited a couple of the parks. I first went to Animal Kingdom.
Not the most exciting park, but it's not meant to be that. It's mostly a place to see some animals and have a bit of fun. I got some great pics of the animals, even though my camera only has a 2X optical zoom.
It also rained at the typical 4PM in Florida, so I chilled at the closest eating place I could find....Mc Donald's....yeah, I know. Anyway, I wanted to go to the main attraction there - Everest. But this is as close as I got:
It looks pretty real in person. The wait was 2 hours and it was about 5. The park closes at 7, and I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom. So that's what I did.
Of course the first place is Main Street.
And a better shot of Cinderella's Castle:
So, of course I had to go to Space Mountain first! Totally cool! It was about a 45 minute wait. That was the normal wait for me on just about every ride. Maybe a bit quicker. I then just started walking around the park. I next hit It's a Small World. Between the wait for Space Mountain and Small World, I just had to text a couple people and mention that I was getting paid to ride the rides:) Just a couple Small World pics:
As soon as I got off the ride, Scott calls me and I begin singing that song;) Evil I know. So I hit a roller coaster next. No pics as I was on the phone the whole time! It was a cool one. Then Mickey's Philharmagic. Definitely something geared towards kids/families, but it was pretty cool. A 3D film that also has wind, rain, and smells. Pretty cool too. The 3D effect was nice. When a character came out of the screen, it looks like he/she is coming towards you personally. I took off the glasses a few times and you could see that they split the image at least 3 ways (left, middle, right) to achieve the effect.
After that, it was getting dark and I was a bit tired, so I started to head back to the entrance to go back to the hotel. Cue the night shot of Cinderella's Castle.
So as I'm walking towards the entrance, I notice that there are strings/ropes along the sides of the road, people lined along the sides, and not too many people walking in the road. Hmmmmm....now it's been 20+ years since I've been there, but I knew something was up. It didn't take long for the light to come on and realize that there's a parade around 9PM. So I start walking faster to get to the entrance. I had just about the best spot to this parade. I got pics of almost every float. My battery finally gave out on the 2nd to last one, so I missed Minnie's float. Oh well. Here are a few:
Ok, so then I did work the next two days. After the first day we did a group dinner and I just went to the room afterwards. I had a feeling it could be a late night at Downtown Disney, and I really didn't want to do that and then drag into Day 2 :) After Day 2, we got some VIP treatment! Can you say, front of the line for Pirates? I thought you could. They updated the ride very recently with characters from the movie. Captain Jack's character was amazing. Especially the first time you see him. We thought it was a real person.
After that, on to Disney/MGM Studios to see Fantasmic. On the way, we took the Monorail. The cool part was we got to ride in front! Hellz yeah!
The only way you can get this shot is by sitting in front.
So Fantasmic. Again VIP seating. Yeah, it's good to know people. Pretty amazing. Basically a multi-level stage in the middle of a lake. So there are a lot of use of water. At least 60% of the show is clips from Disney movies projected on a screen of mist. Nice effect.
So that pretty much sums up the fun part of the trip.
Just a couple weeks after all this fun, we had our site inspection. My first one of the year for the Arena was not a pleasant one. Retail was good as usual. The next one was much better. Mid 90s for both areas. So now can there be a repeat? Yep. Lost .4% in the Arena so not too bad. And Retail regained some of the lost points from the last time.
So things on that front for me are going well. 2 Site Reviews in a row where my departments score well. My staff is doing a good job. It also doesn't hurt that the restaurant managers are doing a great job at the end of the night walking off the staff. So as I have kept telling everyone, thanks for the praise, but really praise the staff and managers.
Life is good. Get to go to Disney World on a company trip, and a great Site Review.
L8r,
Marz
Now I didn't just work, of course. I got to play a bit. On the first day I visited a couple of the parks. I first went to Animal Kingdom.
Not the most exciting park, but it's not meant to be that. It's mostly a place to see some animals and have a bit of fun. I got some great pics of the animals, even though my camera only has a 2X optical zoom.
It also rained at the typical 4PM in Florida, so I chilled at the closest eating place I could find....Mc Donald's....yeah, I know. Anyway, I wanted to go to the main attraction there - Everest. But this is as close as I got:
It looks pretty real in person. The wait was 2 hours and it was about 5. The park closes at 7, and I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom. So that's what I did.
Of course the first place is Main Street.
And a better shot of Cinderella's Castle:
So, of course I had to go to Space Mountain first! Totally cool! It was about a 45 minute wait. That was the normal wait for me on just about every ride. Maybe a bit quicker. I then just started walking around the park. I next hit It's a Small World. Between the wait for Space Mountain and Small World, I just had to text a couple people and mention that I was getting paid to ride the rides:) Just a couple Small World pics:
As soon as I got off the ride, Scott calls me and I begin singing that song;) Evil I know. So I hit a roller coaster next. No pics as I was on the phone the whole time! It was a cool one. Then Mickey's Philharmagic. Definitely something geared towards kids/families, but it was pretty cool. A 3D film that also has wind, rain, and smells. Pretty cool too. The 3D effect was nice. When a character came out of the screen, it looks like he/she is coming towards you personally. I took off the glasses a few times and you could see that they split the image at least 3 ways (left, middle, right) to achieve the effect.
After that, it was getting dark and I was a bit tired, so I started to head back to the entrance to go back to the hotel. Cue the night shot of Cinderella's Castle.
So as I'm walking towards the entrance, I notice that there are strings/ropes along the sides of the road, people lined along the sides, and not too many people walking in the road. Hmmmmm....now it's been 20+ years since I've been there, but I knew something was up. It didn't take long for the light to come on and realize that there's a parade around 9PM. So I start walking faster to get to the entrance. I had just about the best spot to this parade. I got pics of almost every float. My battery finally gave out on the 2nd to last one, so I missed Minnie's float. Oh well. Here are a few:
Ok, so then I did work the next two days. After the first day we did a group dinner and I just went to the room afterwards. I had a feeling it could be a late night at Downtown Disney, and I really didn't want to do that and then drag into Day 2 :) After Day 2, we got some VIP treatment! Can you say, front of the line for Pirates? I thought you could. They updated the ride very recently with characters from the movie. Captain Jack's character was amazing. Especially the first time you see him. We thought it was a real person.
After that, on to Disney/MGM Studios to see Fantasmic. On the way, we took the Monorail. The cool part was we got to ride in front! Hellz yeah!
The only way you can get this shot is by sitting in front.
So Fantasmic. Again VIP seating. Yeah, it's good to know people. Pretty amazing. Basically a multi-level stage in the middle of a lake. So there are a lot of use of water. At least 60% of the show is clips from Disney movies projected on a screen of mist. Nice effect.
So that pretty much sums up the fun part of the trip.
Just a couple weeks after all this fun, we had our site inspection. My first one of the year for the Arena was not a pleasant one. Retail was good as usual. The next one was much better. Mid 90s for both areas. So now can there be a repeat? Yep. Lost .4% in the Arena so not too bad. And Retail regained some of the lost points from the last time.
So things on that front for me are going well. 2 Site Reviews in a row where my departments score well. My staff is doing a good job. It also doesn't hurt that the restaurant managers are doing a great job at the end of the night walking off the staff. So as I have kept telling everyone, thanks for the praise, but really praise the staff and managers.
Life is good. Get to go to Disney World on a company trip, and a great Site Review.
L8r,
Marz
Posted: Monday - August 14, 2006 at 10:41 PM
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Published On: Aug 06, 2007 08:06 PM
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Published On: Aug 06, 2007 08:06 PM