Wow it's been 1 month since my last post!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all!!

I'm back from the Bahamas, had an amazzzzzzzzing time...I have to say, the holiday blues aren't so bad when you are coming home to Florida.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a cruise but it was fantastic. The first night we sailed to Nassou, we got off the ship for around 11am, we got a cab straight to Atlantis (Paradise Island) - it's where all of the celebs go on hols. We had a look around the resort and then went to the beach and drank rum out of coconuts, was fab! We then headed back to Nassou where the ship was docked, Nassou in itself was a bit of a dump but still a laugh, we went to a bar called 'Senor Frogs', we had a good few cocktails before we set sail again at around 6pm. That night we sailed on to Castaway Cay, Castaway Cay is Disney's private owned Island and is absolutely gorgeous. We got off the ship for around 10/11am and headed straight to Serenity Bay, the adult only section of the Island, we set up camp and lay on sun loungers while being served Miami Vice's, the beach was amazing, gorgeous blue sea and soft sand! We had a BBQ on the beach with steak, chicken and fish, was FAB!

On the final night we went for a seven course dinner at the signature dining restaurant on the ship called Palos, the food was excellent, probably one of the best meals I've ever had. All of the food on the ship was very good, when you get to your stateroom you get a schedule of where you are dining on the ship, you take part in rotational dining so that you get the opportunity to try all of the restaurants on the ship, every night there is a 3 course meal. There is unlimited food and room service too, so we definitely did not go hungry!!

Anyway, back to reality now. I got my schedule today for Christmas and I'm working solidly now, I only have 1 day off which is next Monday. Other than that I'm working an AM shift on Christmas eve and a MID (11:30 - 22:15) on Christmas day....good times!!!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I'M GOING TO THE BAHAMAS!!

Hi all,

Quick update, just booked a cruise to the Bahamas on the 9th - 12th December. Me, Debs and Caoimhe are going on the Disney Wonder ship, we managed to get a really nice room with a Varandah aswell. The cruise schedule is:

Day Port Ashore Onboard

Day 1 Port Canaveral, Florida 3:45 p.m.

Day 2 Nassau 9:30 a.m. 6:00 p.m.

Day 3 Castaway Cay 8:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m.

Day 4 Port Canaveral, Florida 7:30 a.m.

Castaway Cay is Disney's privately owned Island, VERY EXCITED!!

x x x x

Hi all,

I have posted a picture of us UK guys with the 'guy' that was put up in the UK pavilion on Guy Fawkes night.... it was really fun, Disney put on pizza and ice cream and things for the cast members as it was firework night!

I'm really enjoying service, it's so much fun. You get so much more interaction with guests it's great.

Debbie, Caiomhe and I all had Saturday off together, it was the first time in AGES!! We all went to Millenia Mall, was FANTASTIC!! I spent $600 but who cares... I was in dire need of some retail therapy!! I bought loads of stuff, treated myself to a coat from Hollister and some stuff from Abercrombie :D . We went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, was great, I have only ever seen the Cheesecake Factory on the Big Bang Theory. The portions were MASSIVE, I only had a little bit of my entree and couldn't even fit any room in for cheesecake!

Really looking forward to Mum, Dad, Dan and Names coming out at Christmas, I can't believe it's next month, eeeeeeeek! x x x

I PASSED

Hi all!!

Just to let you all know, I AM NOW AN OFFICIAL DISNEY SERVER OF THE ROSE AND CROWN! My test went well today, I am so pleased I passed. I went into work at 9am this morning and completed another written test, this was about 1 and a half hours. I then began my AM server shift, I was sat tables up until my test table. On my test table I had one manager and 2 senior servers/trainers, along with my test table I was sat 2 other tables. They did test me, I had lots of questions and an allergy to deal with.....all was good though! I had to open a bottle of wine at the table which was interesting!

I am so tired right now I can't be bothered to write any more, seriously sleep deprived at the minute. First AM shift tomorrow on my own....WUHOOOOOOOO!

x x x

SERVICE WEEK, EEEEEEEEK!!!

WOW I have finally made it to my service week, WUHOOOO!!

I am finding service really good so far, my week started with Sunday by spieling to Chef Tony, he passed me no problem which was good - he just needed to say that I needed to sound a little more natural and less nervous. I then had a classroom session with Laura who went through all of the service information that I need to know. After my classroom session, I had my first AM shift, this involves serving the lunchtime tables - according to my trainer I did really well, and today was my first MID shift, which is an all day shift AM (lunch) and PM (dinner), again my trainer was happy with me, the only thing I really need to improve on is smiling - it's not like I'm walking around the restaurant like a grump, it's just that I'm concentrating on what needs to be done next. When you are training you are given a 4 table section, so you can be sat with all 4 tables at once, this gets difficult when tables want things all at once and we deliver the high service that they expect.... I really enjoy the buzz though when it gets busy. The only thing I am finding slightly difficult and need to start getting used to doing is spieling, it's amazing what you can sell to a table by spieling, yesterday I had a table that bought everything I recommended. I just need to become more confident and make it flow a little better.

I have tomorrow off which I am really great full for, as last week was a 54 hour week. This week is only 42 or something, but today was a 12 hour shift, I clocked in at 11:15am and didn't clock out until 11:25pm, so I am quite knackered!!! I have a classroom session on Wednesday and then I have another PM shift, apparently the trainer should really take a back seat and watch me in this shift and let me do everything on my own. Thursday is an AM shift and is my test day, I am sat in a 3 table section on my test day, and you serve as normal through lunch, and at some stage during my lunch my manager and a trainer will be seated, I will have to serve them as if they are a normal table. They won't make it easy for me though, one of them will have an allergy and they tend to do sneaky little things to check that you pick up on things (e.g. order iced tea and tear up sugar packets and scatter them over the table to see if you clean them up), it's all good things to test the server to make sure that they are picking up on what their guests are doing. I then find out if I have passed or failed, if all is good and I have passed, then I will have my first AM shift on my own on Friday. Watch this space!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I've not really updated you on anything other than work stuff recently, but all I have been doing is working, hopefully when (if...) I get into service things will calm down a little more.

x x x

AHHHHHHHHHH TOO MANY HOURSS!!

Hi all,

Right, Dad has been bugging me for never updating my blog, so I wanted to explain why....basically since I've started food running I have been working 6 day weeks, each day is a 10 hr shift....so finding time to update is hard.

Dad and I had a lovely weekend together. On Saturday we went to EPCOT for the day, it was a lot more chilled compared to what we normally do. We went to the Rose and Crown for lunch, it was nice that Dad got to see where I worked. It was Debbie's first day in service so she was our server which was nice. We then went to Teppan Edo for dinner which is a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant which was nice. The family that were eating on the same table as us managed to spill and smash a glass of wine on the grill (resulting in all of the food being taken off the grill and the chef had to start again) and melting their credit card on the hot grill...it did add some extra entertainment to the meal!! On Sunday we went to Kennedy Space Centre for the day and then on to Cocoa beach for dinner in a nice fish restaurant, obviously there was a mandatory stop at Dairy Queen for ice cream on the way back :D

Everything else is going well. I am hopefully starting my service training soon. I know that we are short on food runners, hence why I'm working mad hours food running.

xxx

A few recent photos

Happy Mondays - Italian lads and flip cup!!

Debbie's Birthday, shout out at Via Napoli (ITALY)

Drinking around the world in EPCOT

Drinking around the world in EPCOT. Jeni, Debbie me and Iain.