#daklodge

Working at a resort requires special training. The gift shops there sell cigarettes and alcohol, which means every Cast Member needs to be aware of the laws regarding the sale of those items. I emailed my leader stating that I wanted to expand my experience with Disney by working in a myriad of locations, and that included resorts. I knew it required special training and I asked if he could add that training to my list so I could take it and pick up shifts there. He allowed it. The training was just an online course. It didn’t take much time and I did it late one night in my apartment. What I was nervous about was remembering all the alcohol laws. See, Walt Disney World is actually spread across two counties: Osceola County & Orange County. Up until very recently, these two counties had different alcohol sale laws. Visitors of the county could purchase alcohol at different times depending on which side of property they were staying on. Some returning guests actually said they picked their resort of choice based on these differences, which was pretty crazy to me! In any case, I did my best to memorize the rules and wrote down the hard-to-remember ones. 

I double checked that my training went through by looking at extra hours hotline. Sure enough, resort hours started popping up. At one point I picked up a shift for Caribbean Beach Resort, but after somebody explained costuming and the bus drop off, I got nervous and decided to skip it. Resorts were scarier to me than the actual parks themselves, mostly because it felt easier to get lost and go unseen. At least at a park, you could always find somebody to ask if you were lost. At resorts, its a little different. The end of my program was near though, and I was really determined to get over my fear and pick up a shift. So, I took a deep breath, and signed up for a 7am shift at Zawadi, Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Is anybody surprised to hear that I got lost again? With DAK as my home park, I knew where the costuming building was, so I went and picked up my costume. The pants were flowy and had an elastic band at the top, making them feel like pajamas. The elastic on the pants were covered by a long smock that went down to my knees. My only disappointment was the lack of pockets. Later, I discovered that the older version of the pants were the only ones without pockets. Other than that, I left Costuming really excited. The 7am shift was early and I knew it would feel tough after all the night shifts I was picking up across property, but changing into pajamas for work didn’t seem all that bad.

Early in the morning I woke up, changed into my costume, and headed out. I was told to go to the guest entrance to the parking lot and tell them I was there for work. Then they would direct me to the Cast parking lot. The instructions I received were vague though. She told me to go a few stop signs down and it would be on the right. Down I went, until I saw a small lot that looked like it could be for Cast Members. To this day I still don’t know if I parked in the right spot. With it being early, I didn’t really look at where I had parked. I had to find Zawadi though. 

DAK Lodge is HUGE. It’s actually separated into two sections; Jambo House and Kidani Village. Jambo House was originally the only part of DAK Lodge, but later on, Disney’s Vacation Club announced they would be adding DVC villas to the resort. They called it Kidani Village to help with guest confusion. DAK Lodge is probably the most confusing resort to me because of this. No other resort on property is split up this way, and even walking to and from the two buildings doesn’t make much sense, at least not the path that I was on.

That morning I felt extremely directionally challenged. There were no signs around to tell me which way to go, and I wasn’t familiar enough with the resort to even know which building Zawadi was in. A quick google search made me about 80% sure that it was located in Jambo House. The only problem was, I had no idea where that even was. I started on a path to the left, figuring I had to run into something helpful soon. It was a while before I hit a sign that said Jambo House was the opposite direction. I turned around and started walking quickly to lobby. Time was ticking and the last thing I needed was a half point for being late. I finally made it to the lobby, but the doors to Zawadi were closed. Evidently, my shift was starting before the store even opened. I couldn’t figure out how to get backstage to clock in, so I walked up to the front desk and asked for help. 

It occurred to me then that Walt Disney World was brave for allowing merchandise Cast Members pick up a shift wherever on property. I doubt it looked very professional for me to approach the front desk with my purse, verbally admitting I was lost as a guest next to me checked in, but my other option was to stand in the lobby with a confused look on my face. The front desk Cast Member was nice about it and told me to go out the doors and to the left. There I would find a glass side door that would probably be unlocked for me. I flew out the doors and found the glass side door. Locked.

A Cast Member that was already inside saw me looking in. She pointed further down and mouthed the word “GATE”. I was confused but started my way further down the sidewalk anyway. Sure enough, I found a gate that was cracked open. Another Cast Member was opening up boxes and taking care of stock. Inside this area, a door stood ajar, revealing the back stockroom to Zawadi. Everybody knew immediately that I was EHH. In larger areas, it’s easier to figure you just haven’t met that person before or that they were new and just started training. But in a small location like Zawadi, where everybody knew everybody, I stuck out like a sore thumb. 

There weren’t any lockers, so I set my bag down in a corner space and figured nobody would mess with it. I took a minute to wander around the stockroom. I thought that clocking in was going to be fast and easy, and I was early, so I wandered. Then I was asked if I had clocked in yet. When I said no, they told me I needed to go ahead and do that. I asked where to go and they said, “Downstairs”. I was so confused. Zawadi was on the first floor of the lobby, so I really wasn’t sure what they meant. A Cast Member took me across the lobby, down an elevator, into an underground set of tunnels. I was so baffled. I had no idea that DAK Lodge had its own set of utilidoors like Magic Kingdom. There isn’t much public information about it, and I didn’t have much time to explore, but I was told that it only existed under one part of Jambo House instead of stretching all throughout DAK Lodge. We used a wall clock to clock in and went back upstairs. 

The shift was surprisingly busy in the morning. I guess I should have expected it. People were checking out and grabbing last minute souvenirs and snacks, others were checking in and picking up a few things they forgot. Then there were the guests that were headed to the park and were grabbing a breakfast to go or a few pins for trading. The store was larger than some of the resort merchandise stores I’ve seen, so I had a great variety. Most of it I had seen over at Animal Kingdom though, so it wasn’t new to me. I did think the decor of the actual store was very impressive though. 

Then came my first alcohol sale. I should note here that I really knew NOTHING about alcohol. I had no business selling it. Besides being shown where the key was to unlock the glass behind me, I had no clue where things were and how to get it to a guest. When they told me what they wanted, I was so confused. Finally, I found the bottle and rang it up. After the transaction was done, I panicked. Had I just sold alcohol to a guest before the county allows sales? It was 11:00am exactly. I was nervous for a good part of my shift until I could go backstage and look it up. I was fine. I wasn’t going to get fired or arrested today after all. I sold cigarettes and was asked questions about wine, asking for help from others along the way. I really had to rely on everybody else for help, which again made me wonder why Walt Disney World allowed Cast Members to pick up shifts wherever. Is it really that helpful to have an extra set of hands if that extra set of hands is consistently useless? Sure, I could ring out basic things, straighten out shelves, and answer general questions, but specifics always made me lost. That was true of every location, but at least I had spent enough time in the parks to feel like I could answer things. DAK Lodge, while beautiful, was a mystery to me. 

My lunch came up shortly after. Downstairs in the Utilidoors was a little cafeteria, so I figured I’d go there. In my nerves from the morning I hadn’t really packed a lunch. The menu was surprisingly extensive though, and the chef behind the glass was making everything fresh and to-order, which was kind of incredible. I had a loaded baked potato and honestly, DAK Lodge raised to the top of my list in terms of Cast Member food offerings. By the way, the Utilidoors at DAK Lodge smelled EXACTLY like the Utilidoors under Magic Kingdom, which was disorienting.

My shift was over in the early afternoon, which was the perk of having to be up so early. I was heading out to leave when the coordinator asked me to fill out some paperwork. Apparently in addition to clocking in and out, there’s a paper on a clipboard that everybody has to sign when they clock in and out. I didn’t really understand the point but I filled it out really quickly and went back downstairs to clock out. The thing about the Utilidoors at DAK Lodge that was interesting was that after I clocked out, I had to go back upstairs to the lobby and leave out the front to get to my car. I asked a Cast Member if this was right, because at Magic Kingdom, you clock out downstairs and then you go straight to a shuttle backstage to get to your car. They told me to go through the lobby, so I did. It made me wonder what the point of doing it all downstairs even was. If guests were going to see us coming and going anyway, clocking in and out shouldn’t have been a big deal. I get the feeling though that because I was only there for a short morning, I wasn’t being given all the right answers. They probably figured it was just easier for me to go through the front. Or, that really is the truth and it’s just weird.

After all that, I headed to my car. I knew the general direction my car was in, but I honestly had no idea which parking lot it was in. I hadn’t given it much attention when I walked into work because it was so early and I was more focused on getting to the store. I walked up and down the sidewalk trying to figure out where my car was. After ending up in Kidani Village for the second time, I pressed the alarm button on my key in every parking lot until I found it. 

It was kind of a mess of a morning, but I came home happy. I had done something new, had checked it off my bucket list, and overall had fun learning something so different about the resort I had worked next to all program long. If that had been my first shift outside of my home location, I might not have been so eager to pick up other shifts. But, because I had picked up in so many other places, I wasn’t easily discouraged. It was fun! Strange, but fun! I’m so glad I went for it and worked at a Walt Disney World resort!