Since last Friday I've been working on earning my ears in the Emporium and as of Wednesday, January 16th I have done it! I have earned my Merchantainment ears in the Emporium! :)
It was a lot of hard work (5 days of orientations and training) but it's nice to know that on Sunday when I go to work I can do everything on my own, and if I need help there will be someone there to help me! I'm pretty terrified to go out on my own, to be honest, so at least there is another CP who earned her ears with me on Tuesday that will be working with me at first.
I think the best part about the training I had in the Emporium is that they set it up really well, I had one day in costume training, followed by a day of classroom training, followed by an entire day of register training in costume, followed by another day of in class training and finally my last day of in costume training which basically went through all the jobs we could possibly do in the Emporium followed by 3 days of to rest and recharge. (Minus baby care and stocking of course, as those are separate training sessions I won't be getting for another week or two.)
My first day was basically an orientation of sorts, where I got my costume and got to wear in in the park while I had my Main Street tour! We went in all the back stockrooms, all over backstage and then into every single store on Main Street West and Main Street East! We also went up in front of the train station and nearly all the way back to the castle, so we could see where our costumes would take us and where they were not allowed. We also did a lot of paperwork on the computers, pin traded and met all the coordinators, leaders and managers that were on staff.
The second day was Merchantainment which started out with computer work that is required by Disney and ended with about 3 or 4 hours of a lecture and practice on our point of sale machines (Registers!). This class was actually pretty boring, but has a lot of really important information that we needed to know and remember. I also got a long lunch and ate in the Mouse and got more costumes this day!
Day three was another park day that started early and went seemingly forever. I spent nearly the entire day moving from zone to zone in the emporium working on the registers. I learned how to do all the paperwork that we can possibly do with a customer, how to send things to hotels and to the front of the park and also how to package mugs. I also pin traded some more and learned how to trade in my lame pins that no one wants for good pins that go super fast!
Day four was another classroom day that really had nothing to do with a classroom. Technically this was my park orientation, but I had basically had all of this my first day so I was pretty bored out of my mind. It was a lot of trivia I already knew, and a lot of park history I had read a lot about. For the people who had nvever been to Disney World, it was fun, but for me it was not so much fun.
Day five was my last day of training and we basically did a mishmash of the things I did on day one and day three. I ran the registers for a while, did some merchantainment, pin traded and once again visited just about all the storerooms we have. I also took my final test for merch and I passed! The test really is common sense, and they go over just about 95% of what is on it, but the other questions are pretty easy to answer if you know your basic safety!
However, not all merch training is set up like mine was. My roommate G works at the Boardwalk, and she has nearly 10 days of training because she is being trained in 4 stores vs the one I work in. So just keep that in mind if you are merch, because even on the other side of Main Street USA the training is longer than mine (But there are 4 stores to work in, vs my 1 gigantic store!
Past the training I've just been trying to get used to living in Florida and using the buses. I went to Typhoon Lagoon on Thursday though, which was great! We were there for about 2 hours and we rode every slide with no wait! (AND FOR FREE!) Other than that I'm heading to the parks soon, even though I really haven't bee motivated to do so, and I'm gonna ride Mission Space and Space Mountain!
Till next time!
Kelci
It was a lot of hard work (5 days of orientations and training) but it's nice to know that on Sunday when I go to work I can do everything on my own, and if I need help there will be someone there to help me! I'm pretty terrified to go out on my own, to be honest, so at least there is another CP who earned her ears with me on Tuesday that will be working with me at first.
I think the best part about the training I had in the Emporium is that they set it up really well, I had one day in costume training, followed by a day of classroom training, followed by an entire day of register training in costume, followed by another day of in class training and finally my last day of in costume training which basically went through all the jobs we could possibly do in the Emporium followed by 3 days of to rest and recharge. (Minus baby care and stocking of course, as those are separate training sessions I won't be getting for another week or two.)
My first day was basically an orientation of sorts, where I got my costume and got to wear in in the park while I had my Main Street tour! We went in all the back stockrooms, all over backstage and then into every single store on Main Street West and Main Street East! We also went up in front of the train station and nearly all the way back to the castle, so we could see where our costumes would take us and where they were not allowed. We also did a lot of paperwork on the computers, pin traded and met all the coordinators, leaders and managers that were on staff.
The second day was Merchantainment which started out with computer work that is required by Disney and ended with about 3 or 4 hours of a lecture and practice on our point of sale machines (Registers!). This class was actually pretty boring, but has a lot of really important information that we needed to know and remember. I also got a long lunch and ate in the Mouse and got more costumes this day!
Day three was another park day that started early and went seemingly forever. I spent nearly the entire day moving from zone to zone in the emporium working on the registers. I learned how to do all the paperwork that we can possibly do with a customer, how to send things to hotels and to the front of the park and also how to package mugs. I also pin traded some more and learned how to trade in my lame pins that no one wants for good pins that go super fast!
Day four was another classroom day that really had nothing to do with a classroom. Technically this was my park orientation, but I had basically had all of this my first day so I was pretty bored out of my mind. It was a lot of trivia I already knew, and a lot of park history I had read a lot about. For the people who had nvever been to Disney World, it was fun, but for me it was not so much fun.
Day five was my last day of training and we basically did a mishmash of the things I did on day one and day three. I ran the registers for a while, did some merchantainment, pin traded and once again visited just about all the storerooms we have. I also took my final test for merch and I passed! The test really is common sense, and they go over just about 95% of what is on it, but the other questions are pretty easy to answer if you know your basic safety!
However, not all merch training is set up like mine was. My roommate G works at the Boardwalk, and she has nearly 10 days of training because she is being trained in 4 stores vs the one I work in. So just keep that in mind if you are merch, because even on the other side of Main Street USA the training is longer than mine (But there are 4 stores to work in, vs my 1 gigantic store!
Past the training I've just been trying to get used to living in Florida and using the buses. I went to Typhoon Lagoon on Thursday though, which was great! We were there for about 2 hours and we rode every slide with no wait! (AND FOR FREE!) Other than that I'm heading to the parks soon, even though I really haven't bee motivated to do so, and I'm gonna ride Mission Space and Space Mountain!
Till next time!
Kelci
