Disney Traditions

The first official day of any cast member begins with his or her traditions class. During this class one learns about the past, present, and future of the Disney Company.

It was actually an interesting class. I learned a lot of Disney history that I did not know before. For instance, the first animated character Walt created was Oswald the rabbit. The company he was working for (now Universal) told Walt that they were taking Oswald and all but one of his staff, and he needed to leave. On the train ride home Walt created Steamboat Willie. Do you know what Walt wanted to call Mickey before his wife vetoed it?

There are lots of other interesting Disney facts. We also got to take a tour of Magic Kingdom (MK) and go through the utilidors (the underground tunnels). It was pretty neat... reminded me of a walkway a stadium would have. They also have several carts for EMS stored underground (they use LP 12's in anyone was wondering). There are four words every cast member must go by and in that order: Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. Safety (or Safe-D as it's called) is always the number one priority, and there are a ton of safety measures in place that the guests do not realize.

After traditions we were supposed to get an hour lunch before more training, but that didn't happen. So we completed 2 hours of computer training, and then got our costumes. Tomorrow I will have my Declamation, which is the tour of Animal Kingdom (DAK) as a whole. Disney's training is three fold: The company as a whole, the park at which you will be working, and then the individual program you will be doing.