the custodian princess diaries p.3

Street shifts were a very rare breed to CPs because managers just LOVED giving the CPs (college programers) bathroom shifts. I literally had a week full of Harambe Female shifts one time, and it was not fun. But when you got streets, there were also good and bad areas to work in. I won’t go into all of the areas because that would take too long but I will tell you what area I hated the most.

The Kilimanjaro Safari queue line. And let me tell you why.

Okay, imagine being in a maze, a big long maze with thirty trashcans spread around every nook and cranny you can find. Doesn’t sound that hard right? As long as you know where the cans are, it won’t be too hard to find them…right?

WRONG.

THE MAZE IS FULL OF PEOPLE AND THE TRASH CANS ARE ALWAYS OVERFLOWING.

I know, I know, I’m being overdramatic. And to be honest, I don’t think very many people mind doing safari, but I did because I hate literally squeezing through people with three full trash bags in my hands.

Now, I don’t fault Disney for putting the trashcans there. Without them, trash would be all over the queue line because that line gets up to anywhere from a 60-minute wait to a 120-minute wait. That doesn’t mean it didn’t suck to do a trash run in the queue. Oh, and dealing with throw up on a jeep is no picnic either, let me tell you.

Street shifts were pretty straight forward and usually pretty easy and fun. There were different zones you could pick up, and like I said, some were better than others. This is all you had to do during street shifts. In your zone, you would have trash cans. These trash cans you had to change out every thirty minutes to an hour, depending on how busy it was. You would also have to deal with any codes in these areas. There are multiple different codes and they’re all fun in their own way…especially if you had the privilege of cleaning them up.

Code V is vomit, that one is pretty easy. Code U is urine, again pretty easy. Code H is feces. H? H…is what? H for human! BBP clean up… Bloodborne Pathogens. Yeah, we had to clean up all of that, but it was part of the job description.

There were a lot of irritating things that could happen when you were doing trash runs. For example, you would be standing at a trash can and have the can out of the metal container that it was in, and some child (or adult) would come running up to the trash can you were cleaning and throw away a (nearly full) cup of coffee, soda, or water and then you would stand there and watch them either walk away, look at you in horror, or say “Did I really just do that? OMG I’m so sorry!” To which I would reply, “It’s okay, it happens all the time…” and pick up whatever they dropped and throw it in my full trash bag.

Another irritating thing that would happen is navigating the banana boats. Banana boats are the big black carts that we used to throw away all of our trash bags in. I don’t know if you all have seen me recently, but I am not very strong. I’m about 106 pounds and have no arm muscle. Those things got heavy. Especially when you’re going down a slight incline and the banana boat is full of trash bags and there’s a sea of people in front of you. The worst thing was when you were working near FOLK and a show let out and you had to move through a bunch of people with your banana boat. Eventually, I learned the schedule of when the shows ended and knew when the best times to do a trash run over there were and when they weren’t a good time.

My absolute favorite part about streets, other than guest interaction (we’ll touch on that in a second) was that I had the privilege of watching performers every day. It wasn’t like it was just one or two okay acts either. These people were incredibly talented. In the morning there would be drummers who were all very silly and who had so much energy and I always loved to watch them. Some of them even would point to me during a show and smile because they knew I watched them so much. There were singers and acrobats that performed as well and I loved watching these people so much. One of my favorite memories I have from the program, was one night all of the CPs decided we wanted to dance to Waka Waka, which was the last song the band performed and the one song we could dance to as cast members. Well, right before I was going to dance, I was about to leave the restroom I was in (Lion King) and head over, but one of my coordinators asked me to take something over to Tusker. I literally ran over to Tusker, and ran to the stage just in time to dance. We all got in the crowd of guests and danced and had so much fun.

Guest interaction is a HUGE part of custodial, in fact, it’s part of the job. You are actually supposed to ask guests if they need help finding something, and talk to them for ten minutes about how their vacation is going or what their favorite thing to eat was. That’s creating a magical moment for them. I loved seeing people sitting on a bench taking a break and asking them if they were having a good time or asking them where they were from. I had so many conversations with different people because I took time to get to know them. There were times I absolutely hated working, but the guests really did make the experience better. And sometimes they really didn’t, but I love thinking about the times where they did. There was one time I was cleaning a trash can and a little boy came up to me and was asking me about something and I stood there and started having a conversation with not only the little boy, but his sister and their parents and pretty soon we learned that we lived about two hours away from each other in Kentucky. It’s little stuff like that that made the job so much fun.

That’s why being a custodian was so freaking amazing and unlike any other role you could have at Disney World. They want you to watch the shows and they want you to be around the guests and have those guest interactions. Yes, you have a thousand people stop you and ask you where the restroom is in the same spot every single day, but it’s worth it. It’s not only making memories for you, but also for guests. Custodial was so different because managers weren’t constantly breathing down your neck or checking your area. I was on my own. I had to make sure everything in my area looked great at all times. If not, someone in that area, who wasn’t a custodian, would call over the radio and tell a manager that the area needed attention, and trust me that’s embarrassing. I think I was always pretty good at making sure all my trash was taken out and that the area was swept.

Speaking of sweeping, I want to quickly talk about pans and brooms. I wish I had listened to some wise older men during my training when they were talking about my pan and broom. “Guard that with your life. People will steal it.” I laughed it off and thought they were crazy, but within that first week, boom. Some lucky fellow custodian stole a shiny pan and broom from a brand new CP without any thought or care in the world. Even when I had an old pan and broom, it got stolen. This old pan and broom was special because both the pan and broom had “Tom” marked on it. Apparently Tom was an older custodian who had since retired, but his pan and broom were still at Disney. I took it and kept it as my own…That was until it got stolen out of my secret hiding spot. We literally had to hide our pans and brooms, guys. It was every man for himself.

I seriously miss Disney so much and the more and more I think about it, the more it feels like a dream. It doesn’t feel like I spent five months of my life in a different state at one of the most recognized and beloved theme parks in the entire world. I miss the friends I made, I miss my coworkers, and sometimes I even miss my job. If you’re considering doing the college program, I highly recommend it. It’s one of the best experiences you will ever have. Yes, it has its downsides, as everything does, but just remember that this is an opportunity you may never get to experience again.