Palace Staff Interview - December 4th

[lunaology 3407]

Hello everyone! I'm Sofie, more commonly known as Sofieology and welcome to our tenth round of Palace Staff Interviews! Just a heads up, I will be closing this interview on Monday, so make sure you get your votes in beforehand! Okay, @BobRosscoe, stop your nagging and go find your wains. Today, I am interviewing the amazing @Aquaticalo! Aquaticalo is our Operations Manager and is also in charge of the Forums. He is often found helping out with community feedback and the support team. He is also hilarious and our resident Kim Kardashian. Here is the fabulous Aquaticalo!

[Sofieology]: How are you doing, Aquaticalo?

[Aquaticalo]: I’m doing pretty good, kinda tired but when am I not. Thank you for spending the time to interview me this week. As most of you know I’m Aquaticalo and I’ve been on the staff team for a little bit over 8 months now and it’s been a fantastic journey. I’ve been in this community for a little bit over 4 years so to be able to have an impact on it now is insane to me. Some of my favorite rides are Gran’ Fiesta Tour, Soarin’ and Test Track (as you can see I love Epcot). I think my favorite event that I’ve ever been to is probably MNSSHP  ‘19. I had taken a few months away from the community and that was the first event I went to when I came back and it showed me how much I missed it here. Over my time here I’ve met so many great people I'm proud to call my friends and that’s the irreplaceable part of Palace for me.  

[Sofieology]: You are a Manager on Palace! Care to tell us what it’s like? What are some things you are involved in on Palace?

[Aquaticalo]: Sure! Well each and ever Manager does something unique and I’m no exception. Since we all do something unique there’s a lot of work that happens cross departments and we all work really close to each other to get things done. Personally I work very closely with Mr @BobRosscoe and we work together on many of the policies you see for our GR staff members. Currently I’m  the Manager of both Operations so my job is to make sure both the Forums and Discord are running smoothly. I have more recently been stepping back into more of a Staff Relations role and I’ve been handling staff punishments, our hiring process and working to develop more policies and processes to keep our staff team moving efficiently. I think being a Manager is an amazing experience that I’ve been able to undertake and besides the extra workload there’s not much negative I can say about it. 

[Sofieology]: Since your start, you have worked on so many different teams throughout the staff! Care to share what has been your favorite thing to work on? What about your most difficult project?

[Aquaticalo]: Yeah I’ve worked on a few teams throughout my time as a staff member. At first I was super involved with the Events team and on my second day as a Trainee I messaged @creatorforparks to try and join to help out. Events have always been a fun little thing for me to work on and be creative with my spare time so I’ll always appreciate it for that. I’ve also been a part of the Staff Relations team for a while as I started working with the team as a Coordinator on June 12th 2020 and things have only progressed from there. Besides that I've worked obviously on the GR team as a Mod/Trainee and the Guide team as a Guide which were definitely fun times but I'm happy I'm where I'm at now. I think Events team is home to my favorite project I ever worked on which is An Inside Out Adventure which was hosted by @PanicAtTheJedi and myself. It was so fun being able to just build and hang out with friends while creating something that was enjoyed by the guests. I think the most difficult project I’ve ever worked on would probably be the staff training document. I just got really bored one night and decided I wanted to revamp the whole thing so I started working on it at like 3 am and was done by 5:30ish am. It ended up being 11 pages and it needed to be thoroughly edited but now it’s in use for all Onboarding training so if you ever get trained that document your trainer is reading off is made by yours truly.

[Sofieology]: As someone who has been promoted many times, do you have any advice for those who want to join the staff team? Any advice for people who feel a bit stuck in their current position?

[Aquaticalo]: I think the best advice I can give is don’t work for the promotion, work because you care about this place. If you work just for the promotion it just won’t come to you or you’ll get it and be tired out and won’t care anymore. You need to find motivation outside of a reward or promotion. My best advice for people trying to join the staff team is try not to be nervous in your interview. I’ve had to deny fantastic candidates because they couldn’t get a single word out in their interview. The best thing you can do is try your best to stay calm as hard as that is. Trust me I’ve been in the same situation, just ask Scan or Random about my interview in January I was a nervous wreck. My best advice for people who feel stuck is to try and switch it up. You won’t feel stuck in a job you enjoy or care about because you aren’t worried about moving up, you just want to do the job because you care. You need to find something that makes you feel motivated just because, not because it had opportunities to move up.

[Sofieology]: Quick Question: The Epcot Future World Loop - what makes it so amazing?

[Aquaticalo]: The Epcot future world loop is super sentimental to me because that loop has been there since I was a kid. Whenever I hear it I get flooded with good memories of being in Disney so that’s why I enjoy it so much. 

[Sofieology]: You are currently our forums head! Any fun plans you have for the future?

[Aquaticalo]: I have big plans for the Forums in the future honestly but right now I’m trying to work on a stable foundation for them. We’ve had some backend issues on the Forums I have to sort out before I roll out anything new. 

[Sofieology]: Let’s get to know Aquaticalo outside of Palace! Tell us a bit about yourself!

[Aquaticalo]: Well first of all the Aquaticalo outside of Palace is known as Evan as some of you may already know. Honestly I’m pretty basic, I’m a Junior in high school and get my Strawberry Açaí refresher with lemonade and love to just walk around the mall. Haven’t been able to walk around the mall in a bit but it’s okay. I used to do these monthly movie nights with some of my irl friends where we would all pick a movie and go see it every month which was a ton of fun. Currently I haven’t been able to travel or do much fun stuff at all because of the time we’re in but I have a great group of friends that I hang out with almost every day and we play games like Dead by Daylight or just chill out and listen to music. Disney has always been a big part of my life and I haven’t been able to go in almost a year now. If anyone needs food recommendations I have plenty because I love eating at all the different on property restaurants. 

[Sofieology]: Now, you like crying, sleeping, and eating. Choose the best places in Palace to cry, sleep, and eat.

[Aquaticalo]: Honestly crying is best when done in bed wrapped up in as many blankets as humanly possible. My favorite place to sleep is in my own bed but I can literally sleep anywhere. I’ve fallen asleep on a turf field, bleachers, a bench, inside a car, on the floor and so many other places. I’m also a very heavy sleeper so good luck waking me up. Eating in my opinion is best when at a restaurant because you’re not only getting the food but also an experience. 

[Sofieology]: You are our resident Kim Kardashian! Why do you love Kim and if she was reading this now, what would you tell her?

[Aquaticalo]: Honestly I grew up watching KUWTK with my mom so she’s almost ingrained in my head as an influential figure. She just had this boss girl energy which I love to death. If she was reading this right now I’d say “Hey bestie ✌️”.  

[Sofieology]: Quick Question: Kourtney Kardashian or Raquelle? Why?

[Aquaticalo]: Oh Raquelle over Kourtney any day of the week. Raquelle knows what she wants and she’s got an agenda to do it, Kourtney just cries and can’t figure out what she wants ever. Like it changes every episode Kourtney make up your mind.

[Sofieology]: You are close friends with @Brant, one of our Palace Owners! How did your friendship start? Tell us a bit about him!

[Aquaticalo]: I’ve been close with Brant for a while now and it’s actually kinda funny how we first met outside of Palace. I was just sitting afk listening to music in a Hypixel Murder Mystery lobby when I saw him join the lobby so I said hi. I wasn’t playing with anyone so he invited me to come play with him and a few other people for some fun rounds of stabbing people. After they were done playing Murder Mystery they went to play Golf with your friends but felt bad leaving me behind so Brant invited me to their call and bought me the game so I could play with everyone and it was great. Honestly the friendship came very naturally and I just started coming around calls and hanging out with him more and more and now we practically hang out every day and play Dead by Daylight with the lovely @TheCraftyBatman. He’s probably one of the most kind people I’ve ever met in my entire life and would do anything for any of his friends which is something I respect a lot about him. I know if something went wrong in my life I could always count on him no matter what. 

[Sofieology]: You have been a part of Palace for quite some time! What are some of your favorite memories here?

[Aquaticalo]: I have been apart of Palace for a bit now and I’ve made some great friends and memories along the way. I’d say a few of my favorite memories are from both of the events that I hosted, the TSL opening back in 2019. When I first showed my irl friend Grace the server and we did a whole day at Disney type thing and went to all 4 parks and rode all the rides. The NewMK opening when I was picked to be one of the 20 Nobles to get to go in early. There’s so many more that I could list for days because Palace has given me so many amazing experiences and continues to bring me joy no matter how bad things get. 

[Sofieology]: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

[Aquaticalo]: I think the last thing I’ll add is thank you all for being apart of this community that brings me so much joy because it wouldn’t be the same without each and everyone of you.

[Sofieology]: Well, thank you again for talking with me today, Evan! I hope you enjoy the holidays!

[Aquaticalo]: I also want to give a special shout-out to Sofie as she’s been helping me with the Forums since before she was even staff and she’s been able to take over some of these projects for me while I work more on Staff Relations and backend projects so let’s give it up for Sofie. Thank you to her once again for giving me the opportunity to talk about myself and reminisce on some of my best memories from the past. I hope everyone has a great rest of your week, and I’ll see you around.

(Sofie Note: Evan that was too sweet of you!! Seriously, it's more like me annoying Evan for 72 straight hours until something gets done  . Love ya!)

Sofie here again! Thank you all for tuning into this week's edition of our Palace Network Staff Interview. If you have any changes or additions you think could help improve the Interview, let us know down below! And make sure you vote for who should be interviewed next! Tune in next week when we interview @Cubits! And remember, keep an eye out for a special interview with a mystery guest this week!

Until next time, have a magical Palace day!!

[RocknRocco 476]

The forums dream team!! ❤️❤️ 

[baifelicia 4372]

lovely interview once again sofie! and absolutely iconic evan, raquelle is an icon just as you are

 

[TheCraftyBatman 455]

Oh my gosh I remember that day on Hypickle! I had forgotten all about it, but look at us now: we are game buddies for life! 

Great interview you two!

[CharlotteGrande 526]

icon legend manager aquaticalo, great interview both of you! ❤️

[BobRosscoe 1328]

My dreams have came true. I’m a aquastancalo ❤️

[AriPenguin 349]

Amazing interview! Wooo Stan Aquaticot!

[pinkiness 3936]

So lovely to get to know Aquaticalo more here on the forums!! Another wonderful interview as always Sofie!! ❤️