WDWCP: A Saloon Girl In Action

Dan, the Man.

As a Quick Service Restaurant Hostess in Frontierland, I had 3 costumes to go with my 3 different main jobs. Today we will take a look at my first costume and the job duties that came with it!

I loved this red saloon dress so much. I wanted to keep it! Some of our black aprons had a tiny pocket the right size for our ID, so I always hoped for one of those. When you went to work you didn't bring anything with you. It all stayed in the locker room, so having a pocket for my Disney ID that I had to take with me was basically necessary. 

One requirement of the costume that I was not a fan of.... the nylons. You HAD to wear them. Nylons in a restaurant, yeah and then things get on you and you're stuck wearing it all day because it's on your disgusting nylons. I bought the cheapest, most generic nylons from a vending machine in the Tunnel just outside of our locker rooms. I was not about to spend real money on something so gross that would end up destroyed in only a matter of a few work days. 

The plasticware section on my day off

If you look at my shoes you can see that maybe they are cute? No, no you can't because my feet got cut off. They were cute little black Chinese slippers that look like Mary Janes. I thought they were cute. I brought them from home because I just always wore that type of shoe. They were less than $5 at the Import Plaza. They were NOT a good choice for working all day in a theme park, and I had shin splints to show for it! Bad call, Ronda.

So what did I do? 

As I mentioned in the post about my first day, one task was filling drink orders as they come in. I loved that job. I mean seriously, it was just filling fountain drinks!

Also behind the counter I would greet the guest and check their ticket so I could then get the corresponding tray with their order on it. I would then grab their drink order, usually a fountain beverage, but sometimes a water, milk or orange juice. I hated working that spot in the mornings and having to give people the tiniest little carton of juice or milk. You can imagine theme park prices. Imagine paying a theme park price for something a grade school child might get during lunch. I was so embarrassed! After giving them their order I'd use the all light Disney Point to let them know where they can find condiments, napkins and silverware. The time there went really fast. It was just go go go!

Carlos showing off the snazzy
men's costume. I loved theirs!

Outside of the counter area I would be in the actual restaurant. My favorite assignment out there was to be doing the tray collection. You'd push or drag around a big cart and just go grab the used trays from tables or the tops of garbage cans. Then I'd take them down this sterile hallway to the back of the kitchen where I'd leave them to be washed. This gave me time to see the 3 o'clock parade every day. That Jafar, he terrified me, but we will cover characters another day!

Another task would be to stock the napkins and plastic forks, knives and spoons. A lot of times we ladies would sit on crates behind a red curtain and catch up on the latest gossip while getting things ready. That was fun!

And the last thing I did in this costume was the topping bar. After doing a full day on that topping bar and never getting to rotate, well, I can't be around sauerkraut anymore without wanting to vomit. That smell didn't bother me at first, but after an endless day I wanted nothing to do with it. I wouldn't even freshen it up. Any time it needed changed out I'd make someone else do it! Aside from that, doing the topping bar wasn't so bad!

Erica - she did the cashier stuff!

There was one other job for this costume, but thankfully I never had to do it. That was the cashier/taker or orders. I can't even imagine having to do that all day. Different accents, picky eaters with special requests (hello, that's me!), problems with credit cards, etc.... I'm happy I got to miss that. Now Pecos Bill Cafe had kiosks where you can place your own order in the machine! And sadly Mile Long Bar doesn't exist anymore, so I'm happy I did get to work there during its final days of operation!

So that's the job. I had a lot of fun even though it had some trying times. I recall later in the evening and this guy was mad at me when I handed him his order. He said his fries weren't good enough and he wanted new ones. But he said it with this attitude that made me not sure if he was serious or not. I watched him leave, hit the topping bar and proceed to eat all of his fries. 

Then he came back demanding a fresh order!

I obliged because as a Cast Member we are empowered to do Guest Service Recovery. Some Guests know this and they do abuse it. But who are we to question? I hope he enjoyed that double order of fresh fries. 

Alright, well that was the Pecos Bill/Mile Long Bar counter jobs. Next time we take a visit to work we will dive headfirst into the kitchen of one of the busiest restaurants on property!

See ya real soon! °o°