Not the most exciting week

This week was me in the office...all week...with only about 2 other interns most of the time. Our task mostly consisted of making calls for everyone on the road and trying to setup appointments for them. We have been assigned counties for our visits but we had to research schools in those counties to see how accurate our current list is against what is out there. After that, we find out the senior class size for next year and what they did for their senior trip (Grad Nite, Grad Bash, cruise around the world, etc.). If by some luck we are able to get a hold of the correct individual, we then try to get all this information from them; however, most of the time it involves grilling the secretary to see what he/she knows. Then after 3 pm, when schools are closed, it's entering stuff into Seibel, our account tracking program. However, next week, I get to do schools in Indian River County (Vero Beach) and Orange, which is gonna be tough since that's basically in Disney's backyard so a lot of those folks have their minds made up regarding Grad Nite. I think I'm going to focus on the schools that have attended in the past to make sure we maintain a good relationship.

Mandy's family was here this past week which meant a lot of eating oot. The first day they were here, we went to Cape May at the Beach Club which is a seafood buffet. Now, in northern Illinois, seafood isn't way up there on everyone's list of favorite foods, but in Pennsylvania, it's how they roll. Mandy's self-proclaimed favorite food is crab legs, with crab cakes coming in at a close second. Apparently they go to Ocean City, MD every year which has, according to her, phenomenal seafood. She was also astounded that I have never been there. I am finally getting into crab legs since I was finally taught how to eat them.

However, Mandy went home with her parents on Thursday because her Gram was nearing the end of her life. Sadly, even though they took the earlier flight, Gram passed away before they could get back home. It was very unfortunate and a hard blow to the entire Spearly family. It's also tough when I can only be there for her electronically and she won't be getting back till this Wednesday. Life's not always quite fair as I learned with my grandmother years ago.

This weekend was pretty tame so far. We won our league game Friday, and they have it worked out at the bar across the street that the winning team gets a free pitcher. What a fantastic league I joined. My team consists of some pretty cool cats and I think we'll do real well this season. Yesterday my hangout plans fell through so I ended up cleaning basically everything I own. Washed my car, cleaned and vacuumed the interior, cleaned the bathroom, swept the porch, rearranged the TV area, blah blah blah. Super boring stuff but it needed to get done. Now today I am going over to hang with some ultimate buddies and grill and be adults and whatnot.

And finally, good news: I will HAVE a job come June 11th (end of my internship). I will be part-time (no full-time available anywhere) doing Rec at Bay Lake Marina, which is rec sport stuff for Ft. Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge. It's not super glamorous and it's a drastic decrease in pay, but it's a job and it will do until my Guest Relations plan kick in. They warned me that I would be outside all day and I assured them that was fine since I have been in an office way too much as of late. I'll also be able (allegedly) to pick up shifts at other Rec locations as well as Safaris, so I'm not too concerned about pay.

First Week of Sales Calls

So a lot changed since my last post. This past Sunday, an intern, who is also a friend of mine, discovered her grandmother had just passed away. It was very unfortunate, and I'm not sure if it was really expected. I understand they were very close and we all gave her our condolences. Needless to say, she was on the first plane back to Alabama. She was supposed to go to Georgia this week for sales calls. At the end of the day Monday, I asked our head manager if they were planning to fill her spot, and if that was the case, then I wanted to be that person. After some discussion, we decided that the schools in the area would be worth sending me to for a day and a half. I was psyched that I was going to get to do some traveling. Krista (my manager) then went into my future after the internship (big surprise for me). I had mentioned to her that I was interested in Guest Relations, and apparently she had not forgotten. I won't go into details, but she is definitely going to do everything she can to help me get into that area, as well as the Production Assistant role for the next year. She also mentioned that she thinks I would be pretty qualified/interested in a temporary role in Magic Music Days for the fall. It's awesome to have a higher-up on your side!

I just got back from Georgia/Alabama a couple hours ago. It was a lot of fun for the most part, because not every school stop went to plan. We only had a few appointments, but a couple times I did get lucky and got some unexpected face time with some decision makers. A couple of my visits also entailed follow-ups with groups who went this past year. All in all, I'm so happy I got the experience, but it was a pretty wearing experience and I'm not at all upset that I will be in the central Florida area next week. Side note: Even after all of Krista's offerings to help, I should have figured out that, no, our placement for sales calls was not based on job performance. However, it was really bothering me and I asked anyway, mostly because I'm an idiot. My suspicions were shot down, as I should have known, and I probably should not have. Oh well, hope I didn't screw myself over.

Also, ULTIMATE SUMMER LEAGUE STARTS TONIGHT. Praise Allah.

Sales Call Assignments

Hanging out with Jasmine and Aladdin

So, as promised, here are the results of the sales call assignments...and they weren't as I was hoping. Looks like I'll only be making day trips to central Florida schools. Since we have never really been told, we are just assuming that the interns that get to do the most traveling are our 'top' sales people. So following that logic, I'm at the bottom of the food chain. I bounced my placement and if I should be concerned about it off of some people on our floor and didn't really get a satisfactory answer. We are all doing the same job, which is selling Grad Nite (in addition to other youth programs), just different parts of the country, but are we considered to all have the same ability? I talked to Mandy and she gave me some good advice on how to approach my leader to discuss the issue without sounding like a turd. I think I deserve to know why I was placed where I am and if it is based on past performance, what I can do to improve myself for the future. It was just a long day in general. Luckily my laday is super amazing!

dinner at O'Hana (AWESOME)--I am overly excited

Tomorrow I work really early, 6:45. But Rene scheduled myself and Jenna and Mariah for the early shift so we can be done before because we're all (and Mandy) doing Goofy's Musical Mystery Tour! It's a big game for cast members that takes place after park closing at Hollywood Studios. There are 50 trivia questions, but they are only on the screen for 15 seconds each. That's when the game gets good. We are all bungee'ed together and have to solve different puzzles over the next 2 hours. Disney knowledge helps, but isn't 100% necessary. It should be a swell time.

Picture from Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse

Emily J was here this week, so I got to take her and her 2 friends park hopping Sunday. We only got a couple hours, but I got to lay on them all of my Disney knowledge whilst waiting in line. We started at Studios and did Tower, Coaster, and Star Tours. Then headed over to Kingdom for some other stuff, especially fireworks. It was really good to see her though since it was my first friend to visit!