And THAT is why I Publicly Shame You - Star Wars Weekend Race Volunteering Report 2018

It's time for another Disney Volunteering Report!

This was the second of the year, Star Wars Weekend 2018.

I was up by 7:30, and chilled out after my shower. Once we packed up, and snacked up, we were on the road by 9:30. We grabbed lunch on the road at an Arby's, and ate on the way down.

With this being a much smaller race, the Volunteer check-in area was upstairs, in the smaller area. We checked in and got our credentials for the two races, and then hung out, eating our snacks.

Large Volunteer Space (Credentials way in the back there)

Healthy snack of Little Debbie Donut Sticks and Pepsi!

At one point, I realized that they were doing things a little differently, and we had to go check in with the Team Leaders. When we did that, we discovered that Hubby was doing something different than I was... whoops. I think the Kiddo and I were gEAR volunteers, while he was just "Expo Volunteer." Oh well. She and I headed over to shirts, while he was "Kessel Run Check-In Volunteer" (he said it was a lot of fun!).

Expo Check In, Shirts, Snacks

At gEAR, there were a lot of people already there, so the Kiddo and I were assigned as "floaters." At first, I kind of just stood around, helping people figure out where they needed to go, but that was pretty useless. I ended up spending a lot of time chatting with fellow volunteers. 

Kathleen, Michelle, Nick, The Kiddo

I would walk up and down the row of volunteers every little bit and see if anyone wanted a break, if they wanted a snack, but really, I felt like I was just wasting time.

Nick, a l'il cutie patootie was at Shirt Exchange, but he was miserable. There was another volunteer there - Cathy - who is like the worst kind of volunteer. The kind who thinks they know everything there can ever possibly be known about volunteering since the dawn of time, and must tell you how to do everything. No matter what Nick did or said, she would correct him, or try to give him some motherly advice. She was just shy of calling him sweetie, like he was her grandkid. I felt so bad for him, that I eventually came and inserted myself between him and her, to act as a buffer.

At one point, a guy came up to pick up his shirt. He then proceeded to take off his own shirt and try on the new shirt, bare-chested. Now, I'm not Nancy Know-It-All like Cathy, but I've been told on multiple occasions, by multiple Team Leaders, and multiple runDisney employees that allowing that to happen, and then take the shirt in for trade is a no-no. So, like any volunteer should do, I shared this information with Nick and Cathy.

Cathy listened to what I had to say, then basically gave me this condescending look that told me to go fuck myself. She said she's never heard that, and she's worked more Expos than me, so she knows the rules.

Perfect Reenactment of Condescending Cathy's Look

Y'all, I talk a big game about wanting slap people, but seriously... she was working my last nerve.  Condescension, they name is Cathy. I had to take a walk, man.

And she had me doubting myself, which really pissed me off. I went over to Nedra, the Team Leader, and then Darren, the runDisney leader, and neither of them had heard of that rule?! What the actual hell? runDisney leaders are the one who told me the rules last year (I think it was the tall guy, Tom). So, now I'm frustrated, and second-guessing myself, as I walk back over to Shirt Exchange. Darren and Nedra must have talked amongst themselves, because along came Nedra, telling everyone at the tables that, no, we can't swap shirts with people who do that... Jesus, people! You're killing me!

Oh, but it gets more frustrating. Cathy then catches me by the arm (you know, how grandmas grab you to pull you to the side when you're doing something wrong?) and said that she wanted to thank me for having the Team Leader clarify the situation. She only wants to do what Disney tells her to do. I am ready to poke her in the eye, but I very nicely just say that I went to get further instruction, that I didn't go over there to get anyone in trouble.

She gives me the condescending "Oh, girl..." look, huffed a little laugh and said, "You can't get ME in trouble..." and then turns away.

Okay, seriously, flip this fucking table, I'm so done.

I stayed away from her for a while, and then Nedra came around to see who wanted to go to lunch. I said that I didn't want to go, that Cathy could go. Cathy didn't want to go, because she wanted to go with her husband (said, again, with a "I'm better than you" tone). Fuck you, honey, I'd like to go to lunch with my daughter!  So, basically, it was an extremely stupid Mexican Stand-Off where none of us went until she gave in around 3:30 and went to lunch with her hubby.

Lord, it was so much more peaceful once she left!

The Kiddo & I went to lunch around 4, Hubby was already up there. We ate our sad sammiches, then stashed our leftovers and headed back to work.

To keep the volunteers peppy (afternoon into evening is always a dragging time), I attempted to get the entire line of volunteers to do the wave. It didn't work.

Back at Shirt Exchange, I was happy to see that most people were able to swap for what they want (even though it's not what they ordered... stay off the soapbox, Lazy...). We left around 7:15 and headed to WaWa for dinner before checking in at the hotel.

I got some chicken fingers (meh) and a birthday shake - yo, it was nasty. Hubby got a milkshake, and the kiddo got a Cookies & Cream Milkshake (they like shakes a lot more than I do).

Wawa Birthday Cake Milkshake & Chicken Fingers

After checking in, none of us were really tired, so we ended up playing Bullshit and Cards Against Humanity. We didn't end up falling asleep until 11, and man, that 2am alarm is gonna suck!

We actually rolled out of bed around 2:45 Saturday morning, hit up Wawa for snacks, but I really wanted some actual FOOD, after my disappointing chicken fingers last night. We went to the McDonald's on 192 and ordered a Sausage Biscuit, a Sausage McMuffin, and a hash brown. They were taking cash only because their computer was broken. So I paid cash only. Then we waited. We pulled up to the second window 10 minutes after we placed our order. We were pulled up to the "wait for your shit" spot. We waited some more. At this point, we'd been there about 10 minutes, before I finally stormed into the restaurant to figure out where the hell my food was.  Lesson: don't piss off a tired, hungry, fat girl! (So what happened? They cleared their screen and forgot I was even out there!) Luckily, they realized what happened, they got a fresh order together in about 37 seconds, and the manager gave me a free meal coupon.

Now over 20 minutes late to our shift (we should have been there at 4am), we sped over to Epcot and found our team leader, Debbie, only to be told... there was nothing to do... The 4am call was so that we wouldn't get stuck in traffic.

So I sat down and finally ate my Sausage Biscuit, while bullshitting with the Team Leader and starting the outline for this blog post.


Around 5:45, we were told what our job was. We would work in teams of 2 to hold signs so that runners knew where their bus was. One volunteer would hold the sign at the end of the line while teh other volunteer would stay up near the bus area.

The Big Signs

Hubby and I chose to be Bus 8 for Caribbean Beach, while The Kiddo would be Bus 10, Pop Century and Art of Animation. Once everyone began to disperse, it was noted that there was no one to be Bus 9 (Yacht & Beach Clubs, Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin Resorts). Debbie asked if I'd be okay working that one alone, and I said sure. I ended up not even having a sign to carry - it was missing! So, it was just me and my Disney Voice™.

See that bus behind the guy with the ponytail? Waaaaaaaay over there? That's Bus 10

My view for the next few hours

And then, we just waited for runners to show up. I worked well with my Disney Cast Member Al (Alfred?). We'd count out 50 people and then start a second line. Buses would come by every 5 minutes or so (later, as the morning went on).

Awesome Al!

The morning went by fast, and it's a super-easy volunteer job, too - you get to see some fun costumes.

Hooters Boys

Vulptices

Leia & Obi Wan

We finished up around 8:15, checked out at the volunteer tent, and then headed to the car. We acually ended up moving our car to a spot closer to the entrance of Epcot and headed in to the park. I took advantage of it being Flower and Garden Festival time to take lots of photos. I rode Soarin' alone while the two of them chilled out and played Pokemon Go at Sunshine Seasons. The wait was about 30 minutes. 

Welcome to the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival 2018

Ooooh, pretty!

Oooooh, prettier!

Oh, you gettin' artsy naw!

Legs on Soarin' Around the World

The Kiddo was over it at this point (remember, we're going on about 3 hours of sleep), so we headed over to pick up our Annual Passholder magnet, then left the park.

We're some crazy people, standing in a long-ass line for a MAGNET

Since she was feeling the worst, we asked her what she wanted to eat for lunch. She said she wanted cheese... melted cheese, plastic cheese, electric cheese... so we went over to the Golden Corral... Can someone please explain to me why a Golden Corral should cost $40? I mean, really? We could've eaten AT Disney for less money! But, she got her electric cheese, so all was good in the world for her.

We were back at the hotel by 1pm, but, dammit, our key didn't work! I had to trek all the way to the lobby (and got lost, cuz I'm an idiot) to get the key redone... geez!

Once we got back, I got some ice for my drink, updated my blog outline, read my book and eventually fell asleep around 2pm. And stayed asleep until 7pm! Holy crap!

By 8:30, we were all ready for dinner, so we went to Chick-fil-A for me and Wendy's for them. Because of our nap, we didn't fall asleep, again, until 11pm.

Sunday, the alarm was even earlier, set for 1:45am.  The Kiddo never even slept! Sure wish I had her stamina!

We packed up and checked out, since our shift was supposed to end after check-out time. We hit up Wawa for breakfast then headed to the Volunteer area at ESPN.

It was in the new Arena section, in a little side area. There was a LOT of space inside - I hope they keep doing check-ins here!

This table has shirts for volunteers

Once we got our water, our snack box, and our shirt, we bussed over to Epcot to learn about Bonus Medals.

(It's called "Bonus Medals" when you sign up online, so "Challenge" = "Bonus")

Our Team Leader asked for any volunteers who were good with tech - yeah, so us! We were set up at the tables out front. As a runner came to pick up their challenge bib at the Expo, they had their photo taken. When a racer finished the race today, they'd come through this line, and we'd look them up by their bib number. This would cut down on the number of people who run with someone else's bib. Photos were simply files, and you looked for them via the "search" function of Windows Explorer. The keyboard didn't have a number pad... oh boy...

Small laptops... no num pads... this is gonna suck.

Once we learned our task, we were able to roam the course. What did we do? We wandered around Epcot, of course!

We had a volunteer take our photo... she wasn't the best at it...

First row = Challenge Medal     Second Row = Kessel Run Medals

What runners saw as they came for their medals

The first challenge runner came though around 6:45am and went through Hubby's line. It quickly picked up though, and it didn't stop until after 10am. Within an hour, I was getting dizzy, going from bib to computer to face to bib to computer to face to bib... well, you get the idea. And because we were holding them up from getting what they really wanted, they didn't really even care. I know that sounds weird, but it felt like we were an obstacle in their way, and they didn't like us. I didn't like the feeling.

Once we were done, the adrenaline had left my body, and I could feel my feet throbbing! We stood in the same place for over 4 hours (no movement!). I was miserable the entire bus ride back to ESPN.

In the car, we decided lunch at Steak n Shake on 192 (not the sticky heroin bathroom one from last year). We popped into Wawa next door for travel snacks and soda, then hit the road. Since it was after Easter, we had our pilgrimage to Russel Stover for clearance candy. We got 46 Maple Cream eggs, 4 bags of solid chocolate eggs, 2 plain chocolate bars, 10 Banana Whip eggs and 12 Vanilla Cream eggs for $33. I love clearance at Russel Stover!

We were home by 3:30 and all I did was unpack, veg on the couch with some tasty Wawa and chocolate until I crawled my ass into bed at 7. Yeah... 7.

I was asleep by 8:30!