Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Discovery Day

Today was Discovery Day, which is my Epcot orientation!  Every Cast Member that works at Epcot has gone through Discovery Day, whether they start here or transfer over from another park! Discovery Day is where we learn about the exploration and discovery that Epcot represents.  
A quick selfie on my way to Discovery Day!
Epcot is a really special park because "The Florida Project" was Walt's last theme park idea and the whole reason that we even have Walt Disney World in Florida. Originally, Epcot wasn't going to be a theme park, but instead a model city, hence the name Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt was a man well ahead of his time, and wanted to create this perfect city in hopes of fixing the many problems in our world.

Unfortunately with his passing, this project changed a little, but Epcot still encompasses many of Walt's ideals and visions. We discussed in our class how Epcot combines innovation with culture in Future World and the World Showcase.
My Epcot Park Orientation day!
Discovery Day is where we begin to get acclimated with the park as a Cast Member. We were given a tour of the entire park. Now I've been to Epcot MANY times, and I could probably make my way around with a blindfold, but it was still exciting to view the park as a Cast Member and realize that I have the opportunity to work at Walt Disney's legacy.

We had a special Cast Member welcoming that I can't talk about (we swore to Mickey!), but it is done in view of the guests, so you may have seen it before, like I actually had!  It was a really special moment that I will never forget!
I received the famous "Earning My Ears" tag!
After the Discovery Day portion of the day was over, we were picked up by our trainers. There are two other Epcot Vacation Planners that checked in to the program on the same day as me and we will be going through training together!
Welcome to the Epcot Vacation Planning team!
We were given a tour of the Vacation Planning areas and we even got to observe in the booths! This was incredibly helpful because we got to witness guest interactions before we started training ourselves. We also got to pick up our costumes, which was really exciting!
Trying on my costume for the very first time!!!
It was a long day, but an exciting one! I'm now part of the Epcot family!

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