I officially finished training yesterday! My training started last Tuesday and was very detailed. After Traditions I immediately started the classroom portions of my training. I learned about all the different animals I will staff, and I got to meet the keeper teams for those locations. I already have a favorite animal in the Animal Kingdom and it is the White Cheeked Gibbon. I probably will end up posting an entire blog post about this when things get slower.
We also began to learn about the eight locations that Wilderness Explorer Troop Leaders will staff. Each location has its perks and flaws to working with them, but I enjoy each station. Currently, the Gorilla Badge is my favorite simply because there is so much to talk about, and I love primates. The hardest for me so far is the Asia troop leader location because you are required to have conversations about forestry and then switch over to animal calls. The transition for me is still pretty bumpy, but it will get better over time. The other badge locations we staff are insect badge, wilderness explorer call/animal find, fossil badge, tracking badge, and flamingo badge.
Our classroom training also had a big component of interpretation and conversation. This was probably the most useful part to my training simply because the skills I learned here will translate into my everyday life. We learned different transitional methods, how to interact with guests, and how to read conversations. We also learned how to invite, inform, and inspire which is a great method to get guests to be interested in what you are saying. Overall, this portion was one of my favorites.
On Monday, we finished classroom training with a scavenger hunt around the park and a written assessment. I did really well and feel confident about my job. On Tuesday, we started shadowing days, I was selected to be in the only group of two trainees which I loved because that offered more chances to experience my job with a trainer because her time was not spent with another person (most groups had three trainees). I was paired with Stephanie, and we were the bomb! I also trained with her on Wednesday which was great. Thursday started partner days (which was nothing new because I was already with a partner), and I was with Jorge. We didn't have a trainer this day unless you were at a station you never worked. Jorge was great, but we had a few mess ups that could have been avoided. For instance I read my watch wrong and caused us to leave a location early and it could have been avoided if he had a watch or if I had a brain. My last partner day was Friday with Amanda! She is a super star, and I am so glad I got to work with her. My only hiccup was that I was on break and using the restroom when core team came looking for us telling us we were supposed to leave our break like 5-10 minutes early to open a location...Now I have staffed every location, and I am on my own on Sunday!
The first day by my self post will be a thing followed by a guest interaction post! I've also crossed a few things of my bucket list I just have to post pictures. I went to see La Nouba, and I've earned all my Wilderness Explorer badges making me a Senior Wilderness Explorer! YAY To reward myself for this week, I am going to Magic Kingdom today!
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