Day 10: First Day at Work

6am: Woke up and watched an episode of The Office in preparation for the day.

6:30am: Got up and started getting ready for my first day! I had straightened my hair the night before, but after a restless night of sleep, it turned out to be more wavy than straight. It turned out fine, but after applying my make up and brushing my teeth, it was time to get dressed in my Disney Look and face the day.

7am: Went downstairs for a breakfast of a bacon, egg, and cheese Lean Pocket. I packed my lunch of pasta and two apples and filled a water bottle full of water and was ready to go to Access Control to figure out my whole ID situation.

7:15am: Left for Access Control, which is right behind Magic Kingdom. Traffic was surprisingly alright until right before the cast entrance, which I guess a lot of people start at 8am at Disney University.

7:45am: Arrived as the first one in line at Access Control. Soon a guy lined up behind me and it was soon clear that I made the right choice to come so early. By 8am there were at least 9 people behind me in line and as I only had 30 minutes, at the most, to spend at Access Control, it was a great decision to be so early.

Access Control - Like the Disney DMV

8am: We were let in promptly at 8am and I took the first ticket - F62 - and waited in the lobby of chairs until my number was called. My number was finally called and I told the woman my issues, that I needed an ID with a photo and she understood and needed my Personal ID number for Disney. I gave it to her and said that Access Control actually didn't do picture IDs anymore and that I had to go to WDI (I'll explain later) to get my ID. I asked where that was and it turns out that it was in EPCOT. I go on to ask her how I am supposed to get into EPCOT without an ID and she explained that I had to get security clearance to enter the parks. I was getting really confused as to why my leader at Traditions told me to go to Access Control, so I asked Loretta (the person helping me in AC) why I had to go to EPCOT to get my ID and she said it was because I was part of WDI. After hearing WDI too many times, I finally asked what WDI stood for - I guess it stands for Walt Disney Imagineering, which is NOT the department I'm in. After I explained to her that I am in the Digital Marketing Department, she looked further into my file and found that my "status" was set as me being in Glendale, California and not Celebration, Florida. Since they can't process California ID's I was pretty much out of luck until someone could change my status. Further, since most departments don't open til 8:30am, Loretta couldn't get a hold of anyone to get me clearance or any answers. By this time it was 8:22am and I knew that it took at least 25 minutes to get to Celebration, so in attempts to not be late, I had to cut my losses and leave Access Control with the situation unresolved, to get to work. 

8:50am: I arrived at 220 Celebration, where the Digital Marketing office is, and I was still pretty upset that I didn't have my ID and the fact that my status was set in California. I decided to call my recruiter, Melissia, and told her the situation and she was really helpful, so I'm hoping that I can get the situation figured out by tomorrow or Wednesday!

The front of my office building!

9am: I walked into 220 Celebration and sat in the lobby with other nervous Professional Interns until Kim Keller, my leader, came out and took me up to the 5th floor, where my office is located. The 5th floor is mainly compromised with marketing and sales folks for Disney Destinations, which includes the Parks & Resorts, Adventures by Disney, Disney Cruise Lines, and Aulani Resort in Hawaii. Kim took me into her office and discussed how the office was broken down and what I would be responsible for during my internship. I learned that Kim really wants me to be marketable after this internship, so I will be able to dip my feet into a lot of different departments other than my own. I will be working primarily with digital marketing strategy, but I will have the chance to work with activation (the team who carries out our strategy plans), community managers (the team who manages the Facebooks, Twitter handles, and other social media pages), and other departments within Digital Marketing.

A sign by the elevators :)

The same sign in the kitchen!

10am: Kim took me on a tour of the 5th floor and as we were in the "Black Couch Lounge" - named so because it has a huge black lounge in it - there was a cart coming up behind me and it had Panera Bread bagels, cream cheese, fruit, and a huge bouquet of pink heart & Disney princess balloons! The whole Digital Marketing team came around to welcome me to the team and had a quick breakfast with me. It was so nice to meet everyone and they were all super welcoming and funny! It was nice to see that they are pretty laid back and fun because there is nothing worse than a stuffy office.

My balloon bouquet :)

My computer and phone!

A bamboo plant, a card from Kim, and an Eeyore card holder :)

A poster in my office. Funny story - my roommate, Nick,
went to High School with the boy in the brown!

The cute little Eeyore on my desk :)

10:30am: After bagels & fruit, Kim introduced me to Melissa who is Kim's secretary and she helped me get set up on the computer and gave me a huge binder that was full of consumer insights for Disney Destinations, marketing plans (or as they call them Road Maps), and other confidential information. I was told that the binder had to stay in the office and locked up when I wasn't there because the information was really confidential. I only had a few moments to look through the binder, but I honestly was geeking out at all the information contained in this one binder. It made me realize that I was in the right job and maybe I didn't oversell myself after all.

11am: Kim told me in our one-on-one that she would take me to meeting at 11am and I was more than ready to get my feet wet, especially after looking at the binder full of helpful information. We went to the lobby and then walked to what looked like a nook, but it turned out that the front part of this huge room was a "dumbed-down' Starbucks, which had every drink you could order at Starbucks, but for cheaper and then a huge open space with bright colors and a wall painted with whiteboard paint. It was the coolest space I have ever been in and then I saw what they call "The Grid." The Grid is essentially this room with six TVs arranged so it makes one large screen TV. It turns out that this meeting was with Pixar. Yes, THAT Pixar and it was on our partnership with them and how we can be most effective in future partnership opportunities. Jay Ward was the speaker and he was actually very influential in the making of Cars and making it very authentic to how cars are actually built. He also was close with Steve Jobs, yes THAT Steve Jobs. To think that I was in the same room as someone who rubbed elbows with Steve Jobs truly blew my mind. I just kept thinking, "Wow, what is my life right now?"

In order to keep the Disney Look, they
have hairspray and lotion available!

An adorable lounge area on the 5th floor
that has Mickey and Minnie pillows!

12pm: After the meeting, it was time for lunch and I basically just ate in my office and looked through the confidential binder, practically eating up the information more than the barely-heated pasta. It reminded me of a Sex and the City quote where Carrie says "Sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner because I felt it fed me more." I always thought that quote was so ridiculous because you were comparing knowledge to actual food for survival, but at that moment, I finally understood what she meant.

1pm: Melissa came back to walk me through setting up a bunch of programs and different things in order to get set up for Disney. It turns out that I will be doing a scavenger hunt on Friday of Disney, which will be really fun! It will be done mostly through social media, since that is mostly where I'll be working, so expect lots of updates on Friday :)

3pm: I guess that Mondays and Tuesdays are considered "Show Days" for the marketing team, which means that the sales/creative teams give updates on what they are working on. Kim invited me to two different "shows," one for Walt Disney World Resorts and one for Disneyland. The one for WDW Resorts was really interesting in their projections for the first quarter which goes from August to December, I believe. They have conference calls with the California office (supposedly where I was supposed to be) and everyone is really involved - it's great to work with such passionate people.

3:30pm: The next meeting was with Disneyland, where we were on the other side of the phone, but unfortunately the TVs were not working, so we couldn't see any of the creative. After 20 minutes, Kim and I logged off the chat, went up to her office and looked at the creative by ourselves and left it at that.

4pm: After the two "shows," I went back to my office and checked my email - I have an official Disney email y'all! - and found that I had over 50 meet-and-greets that Kim wanted me to go on, so for the next few weeks, I will be having one-on-ones with my team members from not only the Digital Marketing team, but also with those from California, and even the Senior Vice President!

This is what my schedule looks like for this week -
so many meet & greets!

5:30pm: I finally left the office and went on my way home with Day 1 completed, but not without taking the obligatory Mickey Mouse hat picture!

So much for straight hair!

In other news, Nick and I decided to go to Taco Bell as I have never had a Doritos Locos Taco before. My reaction? Meh. I think the shell was stale, so it was chewy. Not too impressed. I also got a Baja Blast as I have never really been to Taco Bell and after drinking half of it, I came to a realization with a gasp: damnit, this has Mountain Dew in it. So let's see if I can go to bed before 1am tonight.

My first Doritos Locos taco!

Also, here is your weird Floridian habits picture:

Yup, let's just chill with the door open.