Livin’ The Main Street Lifestyle

Hiya folks and welcome to the Magic Kingdom, a world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy! Enjoy your day!

Okay so maybe that isn’t quite how I greet every guest, but the cheery tone is definitely fitting. Give you any hints of my role location?? I’m sure most of you have been like, ‘Victoria, where the heck have ya been?’; long answer short: working. I know many of you have been waiting to see where my journey has taken me so far and I’ve been trying to find the time to sit down and tell everyone about my experience! So here I am, in my pajamas, on my relaxing day off, ready to tell the world about my DCP pt. 2.

First of all, it has only recently come to my attention that I never even announced my work location on my website! I’ve been so caught up with my Instagram and Facebook recently that I didn’t even realize! SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO

I have been spending my past few weeks both welcoming and farewelling guests at the front of the Magic Kingdom in the Emporium on Main Street USA!

It definitely is a high speed joy ride, but I love it! My usual day involves stocking inventory or working at a register while interacting with the tens of thousands of guests that past through the massive store each day! It also involves some late nights and lack of sleep so I blame that as another reason for not writing recently.

ANYWAYS, blame aside, I was definitely nervous when it came to finding out that I would be working at the Emporium. For those of you that don’t know, the Emporium on Main Street is probably the most well-known store in both Disney World and Disneyland. Think of it like a classic ride created by Walt Disney himself. The store is created to look like a classic 1920s department store (outfit included), located on Main Street which was designed by Walt Disney as tribute to his hometown.

The store itself is usually the first stop for many guests on their early mornings in the parks, and for many it’s also their last on late nights. This means that the store can be pretty chaotic multiple times throughout the day, but I like to call that organized chaos. The only main thing that tends to get to me every now and again is the fact that Main Street stays open an hour after the park closes. This allows those straggling guests to make their way to the exit while purchasing any last minute items on their way out. But this also means that I work until the wee hours of the morning watching guests leave then restocking. Its not too bad really because it’s cool to see the store empty (a VERY rare site) as well as all of Main Street being vacant as well. It almost looks like an eerily cheery ghost town. Just think of Disney in the dark with all the lights and music still playing, but absolutely no people around. Spooky yet cool right?

Overall moving in, going through traditions and welcome events today was a mix of a surreal feeling with a bit of nostalgia. Almost like I was having a severe case of deja vu or stuck in a pretty good dream. The roommates are great! Emily and I are reunited once again and overall things started off just as great as they did last time. Training at first was extremely intimidating. A crazy packed store with a ton of different information to memorize was all too much the first few days in, but overtime I realized it actually was pretty easy to get the hang of. My fellow Emporium DCPs rock and we go through our trials and tribulations together which is nice knowing someone is in the same boat you are. Even the full-timers are all extremely sweet and friendly!

So far my only issues have seemed to really be revolving around the fact that I see all the new merchandise come and go from the store on the daily. Lets just say my paycheck is certainly not a big fan of that, especially when my brain thinks 20% in Disney is somehow a great deal when it comes to buying EVERYTHING. Watching the Halloween Parties are great and seeing all the guests’ unique costumes make those late nights worth it. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the program has to hold and I certainly cannot wait to share more updates with you all soon!