Traditions!

Disney is all about traditions. I am so proud and honored to be a part of the Disney company and experience what their standards, values and ethics are. "Traditions" is Disney's orientation process for new hires, complete with a tour of Disneyland and a couple surprise appearances!

Everyone who had Traditions on the same day as me met at "Team Disney Anaheim" (TDA), the office building behind the park. You may have seen the bright blue and green building when getting off of the freeway and onto Harbor Blvd. That is part of TDA. We needed to be there to check-in at 7:30 and the class went from 8:00-4:00!

We watched a couple of videos about the history of the Disney company and played some fun games! The first game was to get in a group of five and everyone had 90 seconds to write down the names of as many Disney characters we could think of. My group had the least amount..... :(

Next we got into larger groups of 30 people and were given laminated cards that had important events and milestones of the Disney company. Our job was to organize them in order chronologically. This was extremely difficult. But fortunately for us, Tinker Bell helped us out with some pixie dust and showed us a complete video of Disney's history, during which we could organize our cards. I think my group got a couple cards confused near the more recent years. 

We then had our lunch break at "Eat Ticket" one of the three cast member-only restaurants for breaks! They had pre-made salads and sandwiches, a salad bar, burgers, pizzas and much more. The eating area was decorated from old parts and pieces of Disney rides! There was a huge genie head on one wall! 

We then had our tour of the park, entering from the cast member entrance into Toon Town! We learned about It's A Small World, Matterhorn, Frontierland and spots in Main Street. Lots of Disney trivia and fun facts!

We then went back to TDA and ended Traditions with a special guest appearance... MICKEY MOUSE! We all got to meet the boss and received our name tags and cast member IDs! (Our IDs are our passes into the parks!)

Thanks for reading! Talk to you real soon!