Second Week Reflection February 9-16

This week I started my housekeeping training. On Monday and Tuesday, I went to Disney University. On these two days, I learned numerous tools and skills that are required to work in housekeeping. We were told that it is the hardest position in all of Disney World, which is very nerve racking. On Monday, we went over operations in a four hour class. This class went over proper working techniques that make it easier for you to perform your task and not get injured. This included working in your green zone, versus you red zone. This means that, instead of reaching in an area that will put a strain on your body, you instead, use muscles to take the weight of areas such as your back. On Tuesday, I went to a class named “Welcome to Lodging”. This class was only two hours long and talked about the different roles in lodging and why they are so important to the success of the Disney Company. This included going over all of the resorts and what their ranking is on a scale of 1-5 diamonds, mine being 4. The instructor explained that in order to have a 5 diamond resort, you must be exclusive, which is not the Disney way.

            After “Welcome to Lodging”, each of us, students, went into our separate classroom, based on our role. The class of housekeepers was 8-10 people and included people in the Disney College Program, along with people that were training for full time. This class taught us exactly how to do our role. At the end of the class, the instructor came us to me and another girl, who was going to start at my resort, and handed us a piece of paper. It was a schedule saying that we started training the next day! We were so over whelmed we did not know what to do. Our instructor, Miss Benny, told us to go straight to costuming the next morning, so we could have clothes for training.

            Wednesday came and myself and DF, the other trainee, were not prepared at all for what was about to happen. We both got there an hour early, in order to go get our costumes. What no one told us, was that the costuming center was not open on Wednesdays. This meant that we had to run around, like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to find a manager to help us. A manager let us into the costuming room and we tried to ask him for help but he said he had no clue what we needed, then he left. We had a picture of the costume on our schedule, so we matched it up, (keep in mind, this is a room with at least 50 different costumes, each has at least 2 parts) and tried to check them out. Well, because it was our first time using out card to check out costumes, the machine would not let us! A woman came in as we were trying to check out and got very snarky with us saying “I’m not supposed to even be talking to you” as she grabbed the garments from our hands and helped us check them out.

            Unfortunately, this was just the beginning to a horrible day. On our sheets, it told us to go o the Tempo Bay Training room, in order to begin our training at 8 o’clock AM. Up until this day, we had been in classes with ten people at the most, and expected Wednesday to be no different. We got to the classroom 20 minutes early, so we would not be late. As soon as the clock hit 7:45 AM, all hell broke loose. It was one of the scariest moments of my entire life. I felt like Simba, during the wildebeest stampede in the Lion King. People were yelling and shoving, just so they could get to the time clock and clock in 15 minutes early.

            After the people clocked in, they shoved us into the Tempo Bay Training room, where we were told to be. We sat at the front of the room, in chairs, waiting to see what was going on. At the front of the room, 3 very important looking people stood, observing what was happening and taking notes. While this was happening, I had no clue what was going on. All of the people were either speaking Haitian or Spanish and I could not understand a single work they were saying. Both DF and I were in complete vulture shock. Not only did we not understand people but we had no clue what was happening. One of the meant at the front of the room began to talk and everyone stopped talking. H explained that the people there with him, were very important and that everyone dressed in the “Disney Look” and had been doing a great job. After he spoke, everyone walked to the front of the room, where there were tables with pieces of paper on them.
These papers were assigned by name, to everyone in the room, excluding trainees. I was sitting in my seat, not knowing what to do, when a woman gestured for me to come over to her. Her name tag said Gisselle She explained that she would be my trainer.

            We walked out of the building and into the break room, where she had me read information about the position of housekeeping, while she went and put her stuff away in her locker. We went to the South wing of the Contemporary Resort and she showed me how to load a housekeeping cart. This included how to restock, fill chemicals, and make sure the cart is clean and organized. We went into our first room and Gisselle taught me how to clean a bathroom. She mentioned not feeling well but I did not think anything of it. We finished our first room and went to a suite. Gisselle told me she was going to the doctor and that I should clean the bathroom until she got back. As I was cleaning the bathroom, Gisselle rushed through the door and told me she was going to the emergency room! She also said I would have to get a new trainer.

            So much was happening at once and I began to panic. Luckily, my new trainer, Maria, was extremely kind and helpful. Originally, I was only supposed to do 8 rooms because I was training however, because I changed trainers, I ended up doing 18 rooms.

            By the end of the day I went home, called my mom, and told her I wanted to come home. For the first time in my entire life, I was homesick. Everything all together was so overwhelming I was completely beside myself. I was 100% ready to pack my bags and go home.

            Thursday came and it was my second day of training. I signed in and there were a lot less people at the time clock then the day before which, already put me in a better mood the day before. I had the same trainer as Wednesday and we began immediately. We ended up doing a full board, list of rooms for the day, which was 16 rooms. I felt so much better than the day before it was awesome! I was getting better at cleaning and the work was coming more easily to me.

            Friday I had my third orientation day. The class was from 9:30 AM-3:30 PM and made me never want to leave the Contemporary Resort. The hotel was beautiful and the history, along with the restaurants. I felt like housekeeping could not keep me from staying in that resort for my whole stay at Disney. My day ended early, at 2:15 PM and DF and I went to the Wave, a restaurant in the Contemporary. We feared that housekeeping would get harder and we would have to leave such an amazing resort.

            Saturday I got a day off that was wonderful. All I did was take a break, sit down, and watch TV. I kept telling myself that I am strong and no matter what, I could make it through housekeeping or do the best I possibly could. It took every piece of my being, no to quite my first day and every day since has been better.

            Today, Sunday, I went back in for my third and final day of training. I was supposed to split the board with my trainer, so I could get experience doing it on my own, but we had 12 check outs, which means clean everything and it takes longer, so we did the whole board together. I had a great time and the day was great. I am really nervous about doing rooms on my own though, starting Wednesday.