Friday 25 October 2013

All of the celebrating

Soooo I may have embraced the server lifestyle with very open arms haha!! Been out so much in the last week!

After writing my last blog post I headed over to Epcot to do some Food & Wine with a few people after they finished work. It was CRAZY BUSY!!! Met everyone over at Germany and got myself a grapefruit beer at The Brewers Collection stand which sounds bizarre but is actually pretty amazing! Then we went to China and I got the chicken potstickers and a Happy Lychee cocktail that had vodka and tequila in it. Then we finished off at the Dessert and Champagne stand with a glass of Moet and Guylian chocolate truffles. We all then decided to leave early and make plans to go out later. Then that night a small group of us went to Howl at the Moon on International Drive. Never been before but it was good! Kind of like Jellyrolls with piano playing, but better drinks and more atmosphere! I got a cocktail that came in a bucket and had 68 ounces in it... Defo to blame for the next days hangover!

On Sunday I nursed my hangover and then went back out again that night. Instead of going to House of Blues like normal, I proposed going to Downtown Orlando instead. We went to Ibar but it was pretty quiet and there was a few messed up incidents, like one of the girls nearly having her bar stolen... luckily she realised it had gone and we saw the guys with it before they ran out the door!

On Monday I had the day off again thankfully, and spent the majority of it sleeping! Decided not to go to Lasses that night as I knew I would be mega ill the next day and I had my first shift as a proper server in the morning. 

On Tuesday I headed in for my am shift and had a good little indoor section, managing to turn my tables a couple of times. Boyz II Men were playing as part of "Eat to the Beat" during Food and Wine so a group of us decided to go see them after as we had a change of clothes with us. We went to Italy for dinner and then headed over to the American Adventure and got our seats. It was sooooooooo good! A bit cheesy but not too bad. Knowing they have been around for 22 years makes me feel old. They have a residency in one of the hotels in Vegas at the weekends so it's not too shabby seeing them for free. After the set, we went back to Italy and sat outside drinking Rosa Regale (yummy sparkling red wine) and chatting. Then we left before Illuminations started and it got crazy busy getting out of there.

On Wednesday I had my second am shift and had an indoor section but it was much quieter. I did have a weird incident with two women though! Twin sisters that were about 60 years old at a table together kept asking me weird questions and then one of them asked if the pub had a ghost. I was like "ummm.... no?" She then told me that she could feel a presence and then felt something touch her, that she has a guardian angel but this was different as her angel is a woman, and this was a man. The whole time, the other twin kept giggling and telling me how friendly he was, and the two of them kept telling me not to be scared... not scared, just think the two of them were mental! It was the last day for one of the servers so after the shift a group of us sat outside the pub for a few drinks. Also went to the Irish stand and tried the seafood and lobster fish pie and the chocolate cake with Baileys custard. Another country ticked off! Most people were then going to see Boyz II Men again and then do more drinking but I was feeling tired so just headed home. I had said that I would meet them later but I ended up going to sleep instead.

Yesterday I was really excited for my friend Lesley arriving!!!! Had another am shift and had a lower deck table for the first time. The weather has dropped and its getting much cooler at night, so it makes a difference to where people want to sit. Yesterday was pretty cool so I had a lot of people wanting hot teas and coffees. When I finished up I went home and then went to Walmart to get some bits and pieces for Lesley and then went home to wait for her to land! She got to her hotel about 9pm and I got a taxi over there, laden with stuff. Had a big catch up and did a fair amount of drinking! I have no idea what time we went to sleep, but I felt a bit rough this morning. I was working a pm shift today so packed up, got a taxi to work and then ran around like a crazy woman on lower deck all night. Home now and I'm exhausted, nearly all the PM's went for food and drinks but I just wanted my pjs and my bed. Tomorrow I have another PM shift and then I'll be heading back to the hotel as I won't be back at work until Thursday. Can't wait to have Disney adventures!

Saturday 19 October 2013

A whole new level of exhaustion!!

I've just woke up from a 10 hour sound sleep and have the next three days off.... relief! I have no plans what so ever, which is completely unusual! So catching up on some blogging before I go find something to do.

Starting where I left off, I said that my friends and I were going to go to Florida mall... we were too tired in the end so I headed to their hotel, we laid in the sun for a bit then headed to Hooters for a lot of food and cocktails :) After that me and Holli went and did the CSI thing on Idrive which is complete crap for the amount of money they charge but after a few cocktails we found the whole thing hilarious. Went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit longer before I needed to leave. Was pretty sad to be leaving my bestie so I had to just not prolong them too much or I would have been crying all the way back up Idrive, not ideal! This holiday will definitely be memorable for them as on the plane flight home, Iain proposed to Holli!!!!! He didn't have the proper engagement ring, instead he had a stand in.... a mickey shaped ring with a cut out love heart in the middle. So happy for them, can't believe my best pal is getting married! 

After all that excitement, it was time to get back to work for my food running week. I was scheduled to work 6 days of food running from 12pm until at least 10:30pm every night, then straight into a 8:30am start for service core training and then working from 11am-close for the next two days. Needless to say, this is more than slightly excessive! You don't realise how exhausting food running is until your actually in the middle of it, and with food and wine going on, the restaurant has been a lot busier. 

After a couple of days I was utterly knackered and completely sick from the amount of caffeine I'd been using to keep my energy up. It was my arrival groups 6 month anniversary and we had booked a stay in a Savannah view room at Jambo House at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was expecting to be working till late so had brought stuff with me. There was three food runners that day so I asked my manager if I could leave a bit earlier... he said I could go right then if I wanted! I wanted to earn a bit of money so said I would stick it out until 8pm but by 3pm I was fading quickly so he pretty much pushed me out the door! I went home, had a nap and then headed to the lodge to meet everyone. We brought a load of booze with us but actually didn't do much drinking, instead we went to see the animals, had dinner and then all fell asleep watching tv haha! The next day I packed up my stuff and headed back to work, feeling totally refreshed! There was five food runners scheduled for the Saturday, so I got given an ADO as well for that day :)

Sunday was a very early start with our core class starting at 8:30am. Our lovely trainer Laura arranged a taxi to pick us up from housing at 7:15am, and stopped by Panera Bread on the way there to buy us breakfast :) Got to work and we went through all the stuff we needed to know to begin serving tables, like the different sections, spieling, order of service and a bit of till training. Then we helped to set up the kitchen and went to pre-meal, which is where all the servers gather with the managers and chef before the restaurant opens and goes through information we need for the day. My trainer for the day was Stuart and I watched him serve a table and then took over and served the other tables in that section for the rest of the lunch shift. He kept close by at all times and would help me ring through the orders and watch me put through the million and one different types of payment accepted at Disney! Then we banked out and that was us done for the day.

The next day Zoe and I got there for 11am and had our wine tasting class. Basically it meant that we tried each of the wines that we sell while our trainers told us about them. Slight buzz to start the day off! I had Abbie training me and again she would watch over me serving tables and frequently stop me to ask what I was doing, and then would tell me if it could be done in a better order, etc. Had our lunch break and then we came back for the dinner shift. It was pretty busy, and apart from having a cockroach fall onto a little girl at one of my tables (the dangers of an outside table in Florida at night!), it all went well. 

On the Tuesday, we headed in early again, with our Lasses hangovers (yes, despite being utterly exhausted, I still managed to go to Lasses!!) for another core class. This one involved a lot of note taking, and learning all about the flavours, etc of the different wines and whiskys that we sell and about upselling. This is what was previously needed to pass the written service test, but at the moment they are using a pre service test paper for the service class. Ridiculous, as it means you are pretty much doing the same paper twice. It was good to do the class though as it made me feel a lot more confident about what we are selling. I love upselling, especially when it comes to alcohol, so I enjoyed it. We had a long lunch break and then headed back for the PM shift. Scott was my trainer and I had an outside section that was mostly filled with big tops. I had expected to be manic busy but it was actually completely chilled out and my big tops pretty much took care of themselves. We were KD that night, which basically means being last out as we have to check off that everyone's section is clean and their sidework is done before letting the servers leave. So it was quite a late finish. 

I had Wednesday and Thursday off, on Wednesday I went to the outlets and finally spent some of my hard earned cash! Bought a bunch of new clothes and then headed back to housing to lie by the pool for a couple hours, as the weather is unseasonably hot right now. Like over 30 degrees and sunny all the time! Went out that night to downtown Orlando with a small-ish group of people and let my hair down, knowing that I could enjoy my hangover the next day! On Thursday I just chilled, studied, and made a trip to Walmart. I also finally got my rank bathroom floor replaced... and I slept through it haha! My roommates were a little bit shocked that I could sleep through that, as it was pretty noisy, I was just so tired! I had a new roommate arrive early on Tuesday morning... very early. Of course she walked in the door to me, hungover and trying to sleep after Lasses... she may as well get used to it. She is Japanese and is friendly, but extremely timid and her English isn't great. I have to keep telling her to make herself at home but she still will ask if she can use crockery, knocks the bedroom door before entering, etc. Hopefully she settles down after a while.

Yesterday was the big test day! Had to be over at Epcot for 9am (another early start, eugh) and went to do my written test which was freaking the life out of me. I hate written tests!! Thankfully it was not as horrific as expected and I passed! Yayyy! Then I headed over to the Rose and Crown to do the other half of the assessment. At the moment we aren't doing a test table (where a manager, chef and core trainer sit at a table and you need to treat them like normal guests). Instead you just work a section and a trainer and the managers will observe you. I loved my wee shift, all my tables were nice and even though I got triple sat (by accident, the assignor didn't know I was being tested), and had a table with a million allergies, it all went really well. So I passed!!! Yay!! Newest server at the Rose and Crown :):)

Everyone was hungover from a big night out the night before so there was nothing going on last night, instead I just chilled out, had a nap, read my book and then slept for what felt like eternity! My friend Lesley is arriving on Thursday for a two week holiday, more excitement!! I've managed to get some time booked off so I can't wait!!!!

Thursday 3 October 2013

Birthday Week! And more....

Been so busy recently that finding the time and energy to blog isn't the easiest so here it goes....

As I said in my last post, a group of us had booked tickets for a hockey game at the Amway Center. We had a bit of a crazy trip there, crazy traffic meant that we went a really weird detour and pretty much seen most of Orlando but we finally made it. Our seats were pretty high up but we still got a good view and could totally see what was going on. And we got really into it! I defo think hockey is my game lol.... loving the fights, broken hockey sticks and was just upset there was no blood! Afterwards we went to a nearby bar for some cider before the taxi came to take us home.





Before the hockey game I went to Magic Kingdom with Charlotte to check out the Halloween decorations and have some park time. It did mean that there was a bit of a rush to get back on time to get the taxi downtown but I managed!




On the Friday (the day before my birthday) I was told that we were going to Raglan Road for drinks and I went round to Charlotte's apartment, to be surprised by a bunch of friends dressed up in costumes with a ticket for me to go to Mickeys Not So Scary! Luckily I did bring my Minnie costume with me so that was another sprint back to my apartment to quickly change and get the taxi. If you don't know what it is, it's at Magic Kingdom from 7pm on certain nights and you need a seperate ticket. They play music from spooky Disney films or attractions, have a completely different parade, special fireworks, a villains stage show, different meet and greets.... and lots of candy! You get a bag as you go in and then make your way around the park, stopping off at different locations for trick or treating. A lot of American chocolate and other stuff... and Craisins...?? I had a very full bag by the end of the night! We did a couple of attractions, watched the parade which was amazing, met a few characters and then watched the fireworks. Then we headed to do some more stuff and the final thing was going on Haunted Mansion, where I turned 29. Not a bad birthday at all and I really appreciate the effort my friends made.





On my birthday I had the day off again so I laid out at the pool for a while then headed to the outlets to buy something to wear that night then went to Walmart and then coloured my hair again. Then began getting ready to go out!  A bunch of mates came over to pre-drink and then we headed to downtown Orlando to go to Wall Street which is 8 bars on a closed road that you can wander about. I believe I had a good time haha, there's a lot of blurryness!



The next day I got through my hangover and then got the Iride trolly to my friends hotel. Was so good to see my best friend after so long! We went for some food and then back to their hotel to get my stash of Cadburys and to make a plan of action. On Tuesday I met them at Animal Kingdom and we got round all of that and then went to Hollywood Studios. Which was a bit of a let down! They packed the Indiana Jones show with guests then told us they could only do the first scene because the staging wasn't working. Then Fantasmic was completely rammed full, never seen it so busy and the heavens opened, it poured it down and that got cancelled! My friends were getting picked up from the TTC so we headed back there and it had stopped raining so I took them to the Polynesian beach to watch Hallowishes. The next day I met them at Epcot and we did all the attractions and walked round World Showcase. Glad we did that before Food and Wine hit and it got crazy busy! I was completely exhausted after all of this so headed home to sleep!



The Food and Wine booths had been up for a little bit but it was weird to see them finally open. They did a soft opening on the Thursday and then it properly started on Friday. Friday and Saturday were crazy busy! We're also open an hour later on Fridays and Saturdays during F&W so its long days! I've had fairly long breaks at work so I've been bringing a change of clothes so I can go try food on my break. So far I've been to Scotland and Canada twice, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco and France. Saturday was my last podium shift and I cannot explain how happy I am to not work out there anymore! Was tired on Saturday night so went to the cinema after work for a late movie.

Sunday was my first day of training and me and I was doing it in a different order to what we normally get. The first day was culinary so I had to check out chef whites and work in the kitchen all day. Was a good day, learnt a lot about the different dishes and ate sooooooooooo much food! They make you a big sampler plate with lots of different things to try, I struggled! The next day I had my first day of food running which went well. The day after I had my bar day which I think was my favorite day of my whole program so far! Felt so good to pout drinks again, but it's a whole different way of doing it as they don't measure out the drinks like we do. The night flew by and I was told by my manager that I should get a bar pack so I can do my bar test once I'm properly in service. Wouldn't get in the bar till January, but it would be another wee shake up. Wednesday was my first tipped food running day, yayyy! And I worked freaking hard for that money! It was a tragic shift and we got really busy so I pretty much was running! Didn't get out work till 11pm and still managed to get into the taxi going to Ibar by midnight, result!

I'm now off for four days and then doing 6 days of food running next week which is around 60 hours! My friends leave soon so today I met them at Magic Kingdom and did loads of attractions and watched the parade. Because Mickeys Not So Scary is on we had to leave at 7pm but we got everything done before then, just a shame they couldn't see the fireworks properly! Tomorrow I'm going to meet them at their hotel and then off to Florida Mall :) Think I've summed up everything as well as I can for being completely exhausted!