Bev's Magical Disney Adventure

Day 2 of my Disneyland Paris work experience at the Space Mountain Mission 2 attraction as Animateur/ Operateur attractions.
Day 2 and already very tired! Today our leader was Stef. We did the tour des portes again just like yesterday morning, did the validations de cote principle which includes le gare, staging (garage), et zone 6 et 7, where we tourne les rails dans 2 sens and RAZ (remise en zero) after having called "le tour" (the nervous system of Space) with the intercoms attached on the walls to ask if it's clear to proceed and that everyone is "safe and clear" . Had to do this twice because there was une arret d'urgence. Then we also did the validations for the "Lift B" Zone where we again actually have to go into the mountain right next to the tracks.
After all these check procedures were done, there were still some problems such as the audio on one train didn't work and there was something wrong with the capteurs and a suspicious sound on one train. So eventually the attraction opened up for guests at 09.45 instead of 08.00.
After a break of 15 mins, walking around and doing things we went for lunch at 10.30am! Lunch I say! Which is 45 minutes. And as a nice surprise the canteen was free today as a nice little gift for Christmas! So then we went back at about 11.15 to learn more about 101 (which is the code for when the attraction is out of service) and about evacuations. There was so much information to take in!
So for the evacuations:
To evacuate: Utilise Porte:
Zone 6 4
Lift B 3
Zone 3 (gallerie des photos) 16
Catapult 22
Zone 3 2

Now this is just the easy bit to remember all these numbers and also to know all the codes and telephone numbers, it's harder to actually find the right doors when we have to do the "tour des portes".

When the train is stopped in zone 7, it is not possible to evacuate the passengers from this zone because the tracks are too high up and it will be too dangerous. So then les pompiers have to be called.

There are a few positions in which the castmembers (CM) rotate every 15minutes or whenever the next one comes to replace your position. There are:

Greeter 2 - who stands at the very beginning of the entrance greeting the guests and checking the height of the children to make sure they are over 1.32m. Here you stand in a sort of telephone box which has an intercom and two heaters so it's quite okay.

Greeter 1 - who stands at the entrance of where the waiting line enters inside the building, here we greet the guests "Bonjour!! Hello!" and again check if there aren't any children who are too short. Also we have to check and control the amount of guests, so if it gets too many we might have to only let through 10 per canon blast for example to control the flow and so that it doesn't get too crowded.

Mixer - who stands where the "normal" guests and the guests with a Fast Pass ticket enter the queue

Grouper - who stands at the boarding of the trains to ask how many people each group is with and to which gate they can stand and wait for the next train. I find this the most difficult position because you have to be really fast and control/lead the guests who are coming from 2 lanes and just want to walk right past you pretending you're not there, but it's very important to keep everything controlled. And sometimes, well most of the times, people want to sit in a specific place such as at the front or back so they have to wait for the next train and then block the other guests from entering. Also you can't tell whether to speak English or French most of the time, although sometimes it is very obvious to tell who are real tourists and who are not.

Load - here we have to give the validation signal after "le tour" gives permission, so that the dispatch person can launch the train also. Also here we have to check all the harnesses on this side at departure and open any blocked harnesses (either by pushing on the harness or by stepping on the lever at the back of the train and then pushing on it) at arrival.

Dispatch - here we do the same with the harnesses but on the other side of the tracks and when we get permission for the Load person we can Launch the train to leave. Also we are in control of the opening and closing of the gates (les portillons).

Unload - when the guests exit from the trains to help them find the exit and help if the harness doesn't open by itself.
Ticketing - who stands at the fast pass ticket machines and helps out over there
Trieur - who stands at entrance to the fast pass entrance and checks the tickets
Montaigne 3 - who helps the handicapped people, for example to bring the wheelchair to the other station at the opposite side, at the gare principle, where the train will stop when it left from the gare annexe for example.

The first working day has been quite tiring and different that I had expected. It's much more difficult and complicated that it looks from the outside viewing as a guest than as a cast member who actually goes inside the mountain, does all the security checks and everything.

So after leaving Les Pleiades at 5am to catch the 05.25 bus towards Chessy Gare in the freezing cold black night, changed into costumes and took another bus to Discovery Land where we had a quick briefing and we were off to the Mountain. First we did a "Tour des portes" with David our leader who was very friendly. We only had 30minutes to do this to check all the normal and emergency doors and to check the intercoms, rails, test out the trains and we also did a "Tour de show" where we actually had to ride the attraction to see if the effects were working normally and no problems. It was very scary, even with a looping, don't think I will ever go again! hehe. Maximum speed of 75.6 km/hour! We then climbed to the top of the catapult (canon) to check the intercoms over there and enjoyed the view from so high up (60m or so) when the park was getting ready to open.