First day of training done, I'm so tired!

I got up early and met my formation in reception at 7.45am. It was soooo cold and still a bit dark. Instead of getting the long bus to Disney, which takes 35 minutes, we got the bus to Val d'Europe which takes 5 or 10 minutes, and then the RER to Disney which takes 1 minute. This meant we got to work really early, so we headed to Starbucks in the Disney Village for a coffee.

At 9am, we met our trainer, Cyril, in the Imaginations building (one of the backstage staff buildings). He is small and French and really nice, I guess he's worked here for a long time. He took us upstairs to get our Disney IDs, which we need to have showing at all times in the backstage areas. They also mean we can get into the park for free, and get our discounts on food and merch, as well as hotels. They're never allowed to show in guest areas or on public transport to and from work though, in case we ruin the magic for the guests.

Once we'd all got our IDs, we got on the 'Pluto Rapide' bus to the Simba building, where we had another tour and then got taken to the training room. We watched a short video on the first 15 years of Disneyland Paris, it was quite magical and made me want to do my job really well so I am assuming it worked!

We got our lockers, which took us ages to work out how to open. They have those swivelly locks where you have to put in the combination in exactly the right way to open it. In our lockers we get given a navy blue comfy tracksuit, a massive white t shirt, some boxer type shorts, some socks, a balaclava and a chin strap. Afterwards, Cyril told us which characters we will be training as - I got Dale!

At 12, Cyril sent us for lunch. We went out of the building and jumped on 'Pluto Rapide' again to take us back to Imaginations, where the big staff canteen is. However, we got on the bus going the wrong way and ended up on the other side of Main Street USA. Luckily, we could just cut across the park using the Cast Member entrances. While we were backstage we saw a Tigger about to get onto the Allstar Express (the little train which goes through the park every couple of hours). He blew us a kiss and waved and acted all Tigger like even though he was backstage which was really cool of him. We did see Remy the rat from Rataouille just sitting on the steps not moving, which made him look really funny, like a huge teddy bear.

When we got onto Main Street, the Allstar Express came through, so we stayed and watched it. The music is so cheesy that you can't help but get excited, and then it snowed (fake snow)! It was so Christmassy and happy, and seeing the characters dancing about on the train made me really excited to do it.

In the staff canteen, there is loads of choice. At least three meats, loads of veg, chips, pasta, couscous, salads, sandwiches, paninis, so it is really varied. I had a gigantic portion of pasta and veg, and it cost me 70 cents!! So cheap! I will definitely be using the canteen everyday, it's probably as cheap as bring sandwiches from home.

After lunch, we had to change into the top half of our kit (t shirt and hoodie), and meet Cyril by costuming. We're not allowed to wear make up to work, but some girls had tried to put on a 'subtle' coat of mascara or some concealer. Cyril was having none of it and checked all of our faces thoroughly - the girls with make up on had to go to cosmetology and wipe it off.

We collected our heads from costuming and took them to the training room, where we were taught how to put them on. You have to wear a sort of frame on your head called a 'cerre tete' (no idea how you spell it), which clips into the character head. You also attach your chin strap to the head, so that when you put it on, your head is just in between the cerre tete and the chin strap, which stops the head from wobbling about. It feels kind of weird at first, everything sounds muffly, and in my Dale head I can only see out of each eye in separate directions, like a fish. It's going to be really hard interacting with all the kids in the park I think.

Once we'd tried our heads on, we had a really long talk about health and safety, and how to bend down properly to take autograph books with kids etc. It felt like it was NEVER going to end. The lady who did it was very lovely but her English wasn't very good so it took too much effort to listen. She went on about cabbages at some point, whilst doing a motion like pushing a trolley. I have no idea what she was on about.

Eventually, we were allowed to stand up, and we did a warm up to some intense dance music which was funny. We were then split into two groups, and half put their heads on whilst the other half had to pretend to be guests in the park. I was a 4 year old so I had to walk around on my knees, there were also some abusive teenagers and somebody who hadn't taken the lid off of their pen (the characters aren't allowed to do this). Then for 10 minutes, we had to pretend we were all in the park whilst the guests went around and interacted with the characters. This was made absolutely hilarious by the lady putting on some more intense dance music, so it felt like a surreal techno Disneyland. We then swapped and did the same thing again. My cerre tete was on the smallest setting but it was still too big. To compensate I made my chin strap really tight, but this scrunched my face up, so inside my Dale head I probably looked like a pug dog or something. It got sooo hot and sweaty in there under a balaclava and a head - I can see why we can't wear make up, it would be pointless!

Eventually, at 4.45pm, Cyril came back and gave us all our character packs for our height. My height is 157cm, and the head characters I can play are: Bashful, Chip & Dale, Doc, Gideon (the cat from Pinocchio), Grumpy, Happy, Jessie (from Toy Story), King Louie (from Jungle Book), Max (Goofy's son), Mr. Penguin (from Mary Poppins),Rabbit (from Winnie the Pooh), Remy (from Ratatouille), Robin Hood, Sleepy, Sneezy, Suzy & Perla (the mice from Cinderella), Terk (from Tarzan), Timon (from the Lion King), White Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh!!

This is a massive list, but apparently the 6 dwarves rarely go out (the 7th one, Dopey, is played by a smaller height), and I guess characters like Terk, Max and Gideon don't do too much, but I may be wrong. I'm very excited to play Jessie though!

On the way out, we all checked the rotas for next week. Mine does indeed say FIT, which is potentially exciting. In my formation there are about 6 or so 175s (these are people on character only contracts), and the rest of us are 220s (character and parade performer contracts). Out of the 220s, all but one of us are down for FIT. The girl who isn't is a bit put out, so I think she is going to call up and check. She is really pretty so I can't see why she wouldn't be down for it if the rest of us are. 175s can't do face characters because I think you have to have a certain level of dance for them. I don't know whether most of us being down for it means that they think we all have potential face character looks, or they have just decided to put most of us down for another reason. I asked a guy in the corridor who looks like he's been here a while, what FIT usually means, and he said 'oooh you're gonna be a face character!!' and then backtracked and said that it could just be a fitting for a costume for bungee or something. Playing a bungee puppet in the parade would be equally awesome though, as you get to be attached to two pieces of elastic on a float and just bounce around and go upside and stuff! Either way I'm trying not to get my hopes about about whatever fitting I have on Monday, otherwise I'll just be disappointed if I don't get anything extra. Tbh all of those characters plus dancing parts in the parade is a lot so I'm sure I'd be happy doing those!

After work, we went to the Studios and queued up for Crush's Coaster, but just as we were nearing the front some guy over the tannoy said 'power down immediately' and all of the lights came on and we were sent out, which was very annoying. The Studios closed then, so we went across (via backstage which is much quicker) to Main Street USA in the Disneyland Park, and went on Space Mountain which was really fun. The atmosphere in the park is so lovely because it is really Christmassy, so we wandered around for a bit and then watched the Fantillusion parade which is the one with all the lights. The floats and costumes look absolutely fantastic - I can't wait to do that parade!

Anyway - that was a long entry. I get to wear the whole costume tomorrow so I'll update again!

Night night xxx