Goats May Not be as Stupid as One Once Thought

Well, this concludes my first week of training. I surmise the best way to start this off is that I have only been here for 9 days, and it seems like I have been here for months. I am not sure why, and it's not a bad thing, just hard to believe I have only been here for nine days. Since the last post we have been working on some different trainings. We went over the Kid's Discovery Clubs (KDCs) and how to operate them, as that will be one of my major roles. We also did "interpretation" training, which I am still not 100% sure of the point of doing that. Several times we also got to go on some of the major attractions so that we could know what the experience was like, so we could properly inform our guests of how the attraction is. I think it was more to break up the day, but that was their rationale behind having us ride some of the rides. The only thing better than riding rides at Disney is having Disney pay you to ride the rides.

There is still a lot of back stage stuff I need to get used to... as if it was not hard enough to navigate through the on stage areas, I have to learn to navigate through the back stage areas as well, and there is no map for that. It is also neat getting to see the animal handlers work with the animals, which brings me to the title of this post. We were walking back from lunch the other day, and the goat handler was working with the goats. She could call the goats by their names and they would come over to her. When she said "speak" they would bleat.... it was quite amazing. For those of you who thought goats were stupid, including myself, this goes to show you even goats can be trained well. I just wish I could have trained my sheep to do this for the shows... I would have won grand champion for showmanship for sure!

The other side of being backstage is a little awkward, and that is seeing the characters backstage. I do not think I can talk about it too much, but I will say it is "different," to say the least. It is really neat though, on a side note, they that cell towers around the park, and Disney has camouflaged them to look like trees. I had to take a tripple check to make sure it was a cell tower or not. I don't think you can even notice it from the park, but maybe you could from the Lodge, if you were looking hard enough.

I have also developed a new project. For those of you who do not know Disney has the Disney World Wide Conservation Fund. Through this fund Disney has donated millions to different conservation efforts. Guests can donate money to the conservation fund, and receive a button at various locations throughout Disney World. My goal is to collect them all. The only one I am going to have trouble getting is the Disney Cruise Line one, because one can't simply walk onto the ship. The second one to get would be Disney's Vera Beach resort, which is about an hour and a half away, but this is more feasible than the Disney Cruise Line one.

I visited Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge yesterday to get the button from there, and to see the lodge. It is a very impressive resort to say the least. All of the theaming is just impressive. Unfourtunatly, they were sold out of the buttons, but I did find safari Pooh... which was exciting. Even more exciting was being able to use my Disney Discount for 50% off.

I think that about wraps the week up. If I think of anything else I will add it. I have Saturday and Sunday off this week, which is very nice. My regular days off, however, will be Wednesday and Thursday, starting in February.

Disney Fun Fact:
How many leaves are on the Tree of Life in Disney's Animal Kingdom? ....Stay tuned for the answer.