Kimono at last!

I'm sorry, but a seperate post just had to be made for this. While I was studying Aikido, I became interested in Japanese culture and learned a bit about what a kimono is. I had been wanting to try one on ever since, and added it to my mental bucket list. When I was taking a Koto class (Japanese instrument) I missed the opportunity to wear one around. I then happened upon the Japanese club allowing the people to try on kimonos one evening after class, but I didn't have time to do anything but take a few pictures. So today, at Epcot, when I learned that you can try on any of the beautiful kimonos in their Japanese merchandise shop, I jumped on it. And I got to wear a kimono for a brief amount of time! So there you have it, checked off my bucket list. Next step - travel to Japan during the summer festival and purchase a yukata!

Rain, rain, rain and Late nights

Soooo hello again! I am here relaxing on the morn of my second day off, and I have much to tell! For the last week I have been working night shifts, finishing around 11 or 12 meaning I get home at 1. This hasn't been so bad, as I quickly adapted to it and now my body doesn't feel exhausted until 3 or 4am. However, in the coming week I will be working mornings again, so that might be a pain. Having mornings off was great because I got to sleep in and just mess about before going to work, but I haven't really gotten to see anyone. There's not enough time to go anywhere before work, and most people are already at work anyways. Instead, I have been trying to do some clean-up around the house and getting other chores done - I even made it out to the gym! Apparently there is a hurricane beneath us, as we have been having flash showers (and boy does it ever come down) followed by a few days of rainy overcast weather. There was one point on the bus while we were driving along the highway that I looked ahead, out the front window, and I could literally see a wall of rain that we were about to head into. Once we hit it, it didn't stop. I swear, the weather here is really weird. It actually starts coming down in like a curtain of water within 10 seconds of being sunny. While it's a nice break from the humidity we've had, I would like to have the sunshine back. On Monday after work, I got off the bus and was just wondering if Jeremy had gotten off of work yet when I walked right past him chatting with two girls he had met on his bus. I joined them and immediately discovered that there was a Spanish girl present whose french is about at the same level as mine. We happily switched between English, French and Spanish during our conversation while Jer made comments about how he had started it all. At about 1:30, I knocked on our friends' door, the Dangerfield sisters, and since Amy was free and neither of us were tired, we went for a nice walk to Walgreens for a hot chocolate. At about 3:45am I finally made it to bed and fell asleep. The next morning, I got up at 9:30 and quickly got dressed and ready for a day at the Magic Kingdom. I made it halfway there with my group of friends when I realised, as we were changing buses, that I had left my ID at home. After making plans to meet up with my friends at 3 in Tomorrowland (it's such a pain not having a phone!) I got back on a bus heading home and ended up sitting across from two of my surprised roomates. As it would be, one of them had forgotten her ID as well! Eventually, after having a nice long conversation with all of my flatmates(it's been a while since we were all home at once)I made it back to Magic Kingdom by half two(as my british roomates say, meaning 2:30). I was early, so I took my party of 1 to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and had a good laugh at Mike Wazowski before finding my group again. It started pouring on us for almost our entire stay, but we managed to make it onto a few rides before going home to play board games. After a failed attempt of ordering pizza and a not-so-successful game of Clue, we switched to Apples to Apples and spent the rest of our evening laughing and having fun before heading back home to bed, after a wonderful day.

A cool scene I got between two "rocks" in Tomorrowland

A sighting of Buzz Lightyear!

Our fashionable and necessary rain ponchos. Yes, mine is just a garbage bag.

Can you guess what ride THIS is?

Ah, languages.

Our photo from the Space Mountain ride. The goal was to look terrified. I was enjoying the ride too much.

We were walking past the castle when suddenly fireworks went off and pairs of princesses came skipping down either side of the walkway leading to the castle stage. They were pretty flighty once they reached the crowds, but I managed to get a couple.

Moi :D

Snow White and Prince Charming escaping the crowds (as one woman ran along next to them and posed for the camera)

One of my favourite rides!

This creepy tombstone only breifly and rarely opens and blinks her eyes, and somehow I accidentally managed to capture it

Finally, we all shared a Dole Whip float before leaving the park. Delicious!

Late shifts and People

The last couple of days have been mostly about work. My shifts have started in the late afternoon and completed at around midnight, so in the mornings I have mostly...played online scrabble. I know, I know, I really need to get out and enjoy that Florida sun. I'll do it today. I promise. It's been different, working in the Marketplace at night rather than the gift shop during the day. You get to see a lot more families and couples just picking up groceries and alcohol after a long, fun day at the parks (we sold about 4 or 5 bottles of Crown Royal alone last night!) It's fun for me, I like to imagine what their day might have been like. One particular family all came in sporting rosy tans/sunburns, so I imagine they spent quite a bit of time at the pool. Others come in wanting to use up the rest of the cash on their room cards just before they leave the next day, so they'll buy 14 packs of mixed nuts. That's one of the reasons I love working with people - it's so entertaining to imagine what they're story is. I had the privilege of meeting a mother and her children who came from northern Quebec. I overheard them talking while they shopped, and so when they came up to the cash, I greeted them with "Ca va? ("Everything going well?") The mother responded with and english yes, and behind her, her son whispered in french, "Mama, I think she said that in french." It was cute, and it lead to a wonderful conversation in both french and english about Canadians and how their vacation was going. I have to say, that was probably my favourite moment of the day. I also got to deliver some grocery orders, which is a lot of fun, too. The rooms that we deliver to are super-deluxe time-shares, and they are just gorgeous. It's like someone cut out a picture from an Ikea magazine and turned the room into an exact, life sized replica. The thought occurred to me while I was putting the groceries in the fridge that although it would be a wonderful experience, I would never actually stay there in fear of viewing my bill once the vacation has ended. Instead, I'll just use my imagination and experience the rooms on the rare occasions that I deliver groceries :P

Spark in the Dark and another Water Park

Yesterday was my second day off, and it was packed full of events! All the Canadians and Brits had to rise and shine extra early for a 6am appointment to get our social security numbers worked out. We formed a huge line at the Pavilion where our papers were double checked, then loaded onto two coach buses and didn't leave for the social security office(which opened early for us) until 6:30. I found myself seated beside a lovely girl named Sabrina whom I had befriended before. She's Quebecois, and so naturally we chatted about language and school until we got to the office. We were lucky enough to get our appointment times within the first group of people served, so we were out of there before 8 o clock. Jeremy and a few others from my regular group were hanging outside the 7 Eleven across the street by the buses, and so I bought a coffee nd joined them until it was time to head home. As a student, I can say I truly have learned to appreciate a cup of coffee after an early morning wake up. When we got back, we got a few people together and ventured off to the Golden Corral down the street. With our cast discounts, our breakfast buffet came to less than 8 dollars a eprson, which was excellent considering it was the best breakfast buffet I have ever experienced. There was french toast, 5 or 6 different types of cooked potatoes/hash browns, eggs, quiche, tacos, fresh fruit, oatmeal, grits, toast, sausage and every other kind of meat, yogurt, and a dessert bar which included bread pudding, a soft serve oce cream machine, and a chocolate fountain! Oh my goodness, were we ever full! The walk home helped a lot, but even at 10am we were sweating. We got home, changed quickly, then met up at the Vista Way bus stop and headed to Blizzard Beach, Disney's other water park (Cast members don't get in free after June 10, so we wanted to go while we still could.) It was so much fun! We ran into countless other ICP's while we were there, everybody got a great tan(slash sunburn), and we hardly spent any time in line-ups. One thing I will remember about the park though - the pavement gets super hot. Even with workers and automatic sprinklers routinely spraying the pavement to cool it down, everybody's feet were raw by the end of the day. Also, remember how boring the lazy river was as kids? It's probably one of my favourite places at the park now. That, and the huge free-fall water slide that Jer convinced me to go on near the end of our stay. On the bus ride back home, a lot of us were falling asleep, so we agreed to take a 2 hour break before meeting up again for the organised event that evening, Spark in the Dark. After a nice shower and relaxing on the couch with my roomates, I put on my brightest coloured dress and went back to the Pavilion, which now had party music pumping out and black lights set up in an outside tent with a DJ. There were also Disney characters like Mickey and Donald Duck at the party to pose exclusively with Cast Members! At the door we were given glow necklaces and bracelets, and in the back was served free pizza and drinks. There were a couple games as well, like tossing the beanbag into the hole, as an excuse to give away freebie disney merchandise. Jeremy ended up winning a couple of Disney ICP wallets from dancing the dougie with a girl on-stage. I headed back to my apartment for a caffiene break and lo and behold, the empty apartment across the hall from us was being used as a breakroom for Mickey and Donald! We tried sneaking pictures of them, but the Character attendant shooed us away. When it was dark, I headed back to the party and danced it up until it ended. It was such a blast! The party ended at ten, as some people had to work early the next day, so those of us who didn't shuffled over to the pool to cool off. Turns out everybody had the same idea - there was probably close to a hundred people there. By eleven, we were all getting pretty tired, so we said our goodbyes and called it a night. Aaaand here's a couple blurry pictures of our evening!

Homesickness

It's been just over two weeks that Jer and I have been here at the Happiest Place on Earth, and while I am certainly having a wonderful time and making lots of memories, a tiny bit of homesickness has begun setting in. It's not a big deal, I don't cry myself to sleep or anything, but I have caught myself wishing that I could spend some time chatting with my dad, or give Liam a big hug or have sushi with Ben or lay outside in the sun with my mom. I guess it's normal (one of my new friends left today for England, having self-terminated because of swollen ankles. When I commented that it really sucks that she had to leave, she replied that she was ready to go home.)I think it is also because I have been spending less time hanging out with people and more time either at work or sleeping. I need to figure out a schedule for myself. In the meantime, I think next week will be a good week for tanning. The cloudy, rainy weather has finally ceased and the sun's been hot and shining for the last few days, plus most of my shifts begin at 3pm or later. I think I'll do the best I can to soak up as much Vitamin D as possible. Also, good news! I have finally figured out the right measurements of coffee appropriate for my now-functioning coffee maker. Hurray!

Image - This sign was hanging in the stall of the cast member bathroom at work. The first and third lines are obviously English and Spanish, but the middle line seems to be some adaptation of French (ex: in french, "et puis" means "and then", but said really quickly can sound like "ehpee", which is what the word "Epi" on the sign seems to sound like.) My best guess is that it is a form of Creole. I probably spent more time examining it then I should have :P P.S. Comments are always welcome! If anybody has any suggestions or advice on what I should do while in Florida, or even just to say hi to let me knowyou're reading, I'd love to hear!

Days 13 and 14

These last two days have been a lot of fun. I finished up my training and spent some time with friends, which was really nice. Waking up for a nine thirty shift was actually not easy to do, after having gotten home from work after one in the morning the night before. I had a new trainer, Brendan, who reviewed a lot of things that I had already been trained on and taught me a lot about stocking and grocery deliveries as well. Did you know at the Contemporary, people who own time-shares actually can put out grocery orders that we deliver to their rooms? It’s about the price of a regular supermarket, but we usually have the groceries sitting on the counter or put away in the fridge before the guest checks in to their rooms. Now that I think about it, that’s probably been around for quite some time, but I have never experienced it so I thought it was kind of neat. I also found out that another way Disney Cast Members “preserve the magic” is by adding certain accessories sold in our store to our costumes. I, for example, am on my third day of wearing the Princess crowns that go with all of our princess dresses. So far I have switched between the Belle, Aurora, and Ariel crowns. I sometimes forget I am wearing a crown, like when I got into the elevator at the beginning of my break and three construction guys bowed to me and called me Your Highness. I have one manager who now refers to me as the Canadian Princess. I’m seriously having a blast. My shift the second day with Brendan ended at two (yay!) so I went monorail riding until I got to Epcot. I met up with Val, Kim, Cara, Devyn, and McKinna, and we went around the world again. This time, we got through England, France, Japan, America, and Canada. Canada was a hoot, all we saw were French words to the restaurant, moose plushies in Mounty uniforms, and maple syrup. A true representation of our country. I got really excited when we went to France, as Belle and the Beast were there as well as Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. We passed Alice and Mary Poppins in England, as well as Tigger and Eeyore. After gawking at kimonos in Japan, we headed to America for a good ol’ fashioned burger and fries meal. Except I had a veggie burger and grapes. Still, dinner was delicious. We had heard rumours of the delicious pastries in France, so we went there for dessert and I ordered completely in French! It was a little nerve-wracking, but I’m proud to say I understood the entire conversation. My friends told me they were jealous that I could converse with a certain French boy before his break, as he was replaced by someone else by the time they got their turn :P After dessert, we took the boat over to Hollywood Studios and met up with Val, one of my friends from Quebec. This weekend is the first of Starwars weekends, so we watched a performance that included Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers dancing to “Sexy and I know it,” and then rode the Tower of Terror once. Let me tell you, it’s a lot scarier when it’s dark out. After a fresh adrenaline rush, I headed home around nine and headed straight to bed. It was a great day!

How I look in uniform - wearing Aurora's crown

A bush Pluto at Epcot. What a beautiful sky!

The lumberjack outfit that the Canadian reps at Epcot have to wear.

Mary Poppins chatting with an adorable little boy.

The miniature France of Epcot!

Bush Beast and Belle in France.

The Japan of Epcot!

We went inside of a merchandise shop in Japan and of course there was a whole room dedicated to pokemon and anime! I just had to pose with this cute little pikachu plushie.

There was a kimono room and a restaurant attached to the shop, and every single cast member was dressed like this. So jealous!

I saw this purposely unfinished painting in France and immediately wanted to go up and paint it.Agh!

Anybody recognise this from Finding Nemo? Everybody in my group who saw it literally broke out into a chorus of "mine, miiine, mine, mine." Haha!

Day 12 - Fudge sampling!

Today was my first closing shift at the gift shop, and boy was it fun! I had my original trainer, Sherida, who I found out is also training to become a Co-ordinater. She really is such a sweet lady, and very personable (or chatty as she calls herself). She told me I remind her a lot of herself because talking with the guests seems to come naturally and comfortably for me. What a compliment! I always have had an interest in people, so I suppose that makes this job all the more enjoyable. We started at 3:30pm and just did the usual stuff, reviewing where stock is and covering breaks at the three different stores. At one point we covered the candy counter(which technically doesn't sell candy - but it does sell a delicious assortment of fudge, ugar cookies, cupcakes, and chocolate cups!) I learned how to scan and package fragile items and the "candy" items, and then we went into one of the back stock rooms to cut and refill the display case. My trainer told me that since guests would and are known to ask detailed questions about the taste and consistency of the fudge, she had received permission for us to taste-test a few. What a treat! I think that was my favourite part of the day. What I find is also a cheerful addition to a day shift is that there is a constant flow of Disney movie songs playing softly, both the originals and redone versions (I prefer the originals, personally.) One of these for example, is any song from the Little Mermaid, or Zip a dee doo dah. I try not to sing along too much, but it's hard :P We worked the cash registers and traded pins for the next few hours, then at ten o clock Sherida took me outside the store and up near the windows to watch the end of the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. We could even hear the music that accompanied them! I caught myself again getting excited like Liam does, but I couldn't help it. I never get bored of fireworks! It got busy for the last half hour before closing, as everyone was returning from the parks, but we were able to get the registers counted and closed up and taken downstairs to be put away by 12:15am, which isn't too bad considering we were going slowly. By the time I got home, it was after 1am, and so I ate a quick bowl of cereal for dinner, checked my emails, and headed for bed for an early rise the following day.

Days 10 + 11: Training week begins

SO I have made a very important discovery! (and many thanks to Jeremy who originally made the finding) - a cappucino machine that sells hot chocolate, french vanilla, coffee, espresso, etc. for 30 cents a cup! The place that I rent my movies from, the Clubhouse, is going to be getting a lot of visits from me from this day forward thanks to that! Not a whole lot of social networking has been happening over the last few days as all my new friends and roomates have received different schedules, so it has been difficult to organise any park visits for any decent amount of time. I have been doing a lot of reading and movie watching though(I am trying to get through all the Disney princesses :P) Okay, so on Tuesday morning I was up and in costume and on the bus to work by 7:15am, and when I arrived had everybody confused as there was no assigned trainer scheduled to work with me. One of my managers ended up assigning me to the cash register (which was terrifying) for an hour and then sent me on an early 30 minute break. During my break, one of my coordinaters approache dme and told me I was free to go home. As it turns out, I was supposed to have attended an orientation class in professional attire rather than been on the floor in costume. I had been checking the wrong schedule. I got home and had a glorious nap, followed by cooking up some pasta and meatballs for dinner, and then getting ready to set out into the rainy evening to pick up some cereal from the Dollar Tree. No sooner had I stepped out of my apartment did I happen upon a group of friends heading to the pool to chill in the hot tub. I decided to join them and spent a the rest of the evening getting to know some more lovely people from Canada and England. The next morning I was up and out again for a shift at 9:30am. My first trainer, Sherida, wasn't there but I did have a new trainer who was just as nice and very informative. Our job was to cover breaks for the day, so we worked the cash registers in both the Marketplace and the BVG (bayview gifts) gift shop. I also received a lot of info on theft prevention, which was great to know. We have to count "the Disney Way", which is counting change backwards to the guest. It requires a little bit more thinking than the way I udo it at Tim Hortons, and when you are dealing with traveler's cheques, Disneyworld charge cards that require extra ID, signing receipts, and package delivery, it's difficult to do everything the "disney way". I'm slowly getting more used to it though, and there are always people around to help. I think my favourite part of the job so far is that I am not only allowed to but encouraged to go and stand out in front of the cash and talk to the guests for as long as I want, if no one needs to check something out. Also, pin-trading is a lot of fun, but I am trying not to get attached to my favourite pins. They aren't mine to keep, but yesterday I almost had trouble trading off a beautiful little Snow White pin to a lady who handed me a Mickey Christmas pin in exchange. Oh well. I can't wait to get my own starter kit to start trading for my favourite pins! After a long day of standing/ more eLearning, I got home by six o clock. There were a couple of people who invited me to watch the fireworks at epcot, but I couldn't get in touch with them as they had already left. It's very strange and limiting not having a cellphone. I am strating to rethink my decision about buying an American one. Jer and I ended up venturing out into yet another rainy evening to the Dollar tree for some dry foods, and then met up with his friend Ken in the clubhouse, drinking cappucinos and playing chess. There was a very bizarre movie on as well, which we ended up leaving before the end because of how strange it was. Plus, Jer and Ken had to work in the morning. I finished off my evening with Sleeping Beauty and then a late night into bed. The end :P

Day 9 - Cast Connection

Today was my second day off, and so I forced myself to sleep in. Thanks to that, I didn't quite wake up all the way for the rest of the day. Oh well. My roomates and some of her friends were going to head to the waterpark(they're only free for us during May) but the sky was still completely cloudy so I suggested we try out that discount store we'd heard of. It's called "Cast Connection" and it is only available to Cast Members of Disney. You have to show your cast ID when you enter. There are two buildings - one that sells discounted merchandise and disney clothing that is either out of season or discontinued, and the other that sells lost or broken merchandise from the guests that didn't retrieve their things from Guest Services after losing them. There was some pretty cool stuff, including Star Wars toys, Mickey ears hats with peoples names sewn in the back, and 25 cent sunglasses. FRom the discount store, I bought a loaf of restaurant bread for 95 cents, two coffee makers for a buck each(!), and my very first Disney pin for my own tradeable pin collection. It was getting muggy, so we headed home and lounged both in and by the pool. My poor roomate Amy was desperate to work on her tan, but the sun didn't show for very long. Just before the afternoon rain started, we headed inside for a late lunch/early dinner and to make our evening plans. Originally we were going to watch Wishes at the Magic Kingdom, but a walk to Walgreens(the nearest drug store) took place instead. Amy and Vicky bought ice cream and post cards, and I bought some coffee and filters for my new coffee machine. I'm looking forward to using it. As I didn't take any pictures today, here are a couple from that time I volunteered for the action movie show at Hollywood studios. Judging by the photos, I may have gotten a little bit too into it :P

Day 8 - The Avengers at the AMC

No pictures today :( sorry! I had the day off and spent most of my morning sleeping, blogging, or skyping my mother (to all moms who are reading this, Happy belated Mothers Day!) It was great to catch up with what's going on at home, and receive some parental advice on things :P I never thought I would actually admit to that, but it's true! Helen, Charlie, and I (my British roomates) headed down to the DOllar Tree for some cheap essentials, then cancelled our plans to go to the pool as it was still overcast weather. I had rented two movies from the office a few nights ago, so at around noon I decided to watch Forest Gump. Just as I was getting all teared up at Jenny's death, Jeremy walked into my room in full costume and gave me a typical Jeremy stare. We decided to head off to Starbucks for some espresso. Poor Jer had been up since 3:30, and he looked exhausted. After we returned, I had a piece of cake and was just deciding what to have for lunch when knock knock on the door, it's Jeremy again! He informed me we had less than two minutes to get to the bus stop for a trip to downtown Disney with a group of Canadians, so I grabbed a banana and ran with him there. We got onto the bus just in time and made our introductions to a few new friends, with whom we spent the evening with at Downtown Disney eating delicious and cheap sandwiches from the Earl of Sandwich and watching The Avengers at the AMC theatre. It was a terrific movie! We got back to the hotel at around ten and those of us who had to work early, including Jer, said goodbye and went to bed. About five or six of us who have today off, however, met up at the pool and spent an hour or so conversing and having a ghood time in the hot tub. I met one guy who studies at Mcgill and speaks English, French, and Mandarin, and another guy who comes from France but was studying in Quebec when he was hired for Disney. We spent quite a bit of time practicing our English and French with eachother, which was a huge plus for me. It was a great, restful day off.

Day 7 - My first Epcot experience

WOW! I definitely would have to say that EPCOT is my favourite park so far, or at least I have had the most fun(and that is saying a lot) in that park since I arrived. It helps that all I expected to see was flowers and old people, but it was so much mre than that! The day was started early once again (although I find I am less tired on the days I get up early for work than when I get to sleep in.) I took the bus with a new friend named Val from Quebec, and we had 7 hours of Merchandise training in business dress at the Disney University. It was a long day, but our lunchbreak was paid and an hour long, so a group of Canadians took the free Disney shuttle over to the underground tunnels of the Magic Kingdom and lunched at the Mouseketeria, a fully-stocked and VERY cheap caf for cast members only. While in line-up, Val and I were passed by none other than the evil stepsisters from Cinderella! It was awesome! I also ran into a group of very sweet ladies who work at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and I loved their costumes so much I asked for a picture. After the break was followed by eLearning, which is essentially training videos on the computers that are so straightforward and endless that the minutes can't tick by fast enough. They are informative though, and thanks to them I can almost call myself a certified Merchantainment cast member. As I am working in a resort where we sell and serve alcohol and cigars, I had a few more videos than the rest of my class, and was left in the computer room alone with my trainers for about half an hour extra. We took the bus home, got changed (and munched on a piece of leftover birthday cake. Cheers, Helen!) then headed off around four thirty to meet up with some Canadian girls at the Epcot park. We ran into them quickly and went into that ride with dinosaurs, jeopardy, and Ellen(anybody know what I'm talking about?)It was awesome! Oh, and Bill Nye the Science Guy was featured in it too! Apparently, he works at NASA now. Who knew?? We also went on Spaceship Earth, which was also crazy amazing! I was so impressed by how interesting they make learning about history! We then went on a hunt to find the right place to have dinner. Our journey took us through Norway, some parts of Africa, Germany, and Morocco! I started teaching what little German I knew to Val, who is planning on taking some German classes next year. I told her we should practice together and maybe teach eachother! It would be a lot of fun. We finally decided to eat in Morocco. I opted for a kids hamburger meal because it was cheaper, but I regretted my choice as my friends tested out the cultural cuisine of humus and different types of falafel pitas and the like. SOon enough, we had live music played as we dined, and I couldn't help but dance along. It was such a great time! As the sun set, we headed over near the waterfront and sat along the stairs to watch the Illuminations firework show. I couldn\t even contain my excitement. More than once, I caught myself squealing and scrunching my hands like my little brother Liam used to do when he was excited as a baby. Since the Magic Kingdom closes at eleven and Epcot at nine, we hopped on a bus and arrived just in time to witness the Wishes fireworks show there. We ran over to Spacemountain as everybody was leaving the park, and were only in line for 15-20 minutes. After that, Devyn (another Canadian friend I made) asked us if we would like to try one of her favourite treats, a Dole Whip, and we went to find a stand that sells them. Turns out that a Dole WHip is soft serve ice cream mixed with real pineapple juice. I shared one with our friend Nikki. Delicious! We didn't make it all the way through Epcot, so I am definitely thinking about heading back ASAP. What a day it was!

The ladies I met in the Mouseketeria from the Boutique

Captain Hook and Peter Pan!

A handsome devil that I met after our Norwegian boat ride.

A tiny village in Germany much like the one I saw as child in Holland!

Some characters from Cars in Japan.

My baklava and cappucino at the Moroccan Restaurant. Yummy!

A blurry photo of my group as we got ready to watch the fireworks.

Finally, my attempts to photograph the fireworks show. Apparently I was not on the right camera setting! :P

Day 6 - First day of training!

SO, today was my first day of training - on location! I showed up at Disney's Contemporary resort(the one with the monorail that runs through it) at 7:40am and wasn't actually retrieved by by trainers until 8:45. We then took an hour to figure out costume sizes,as the newer ones are larger than the old ones. Also, the costume sizes at disneyworld are very strange. Ask anyone - you have to go up 2-4 sizes from what you usually wear! I wasn't very disappointed with my costume in the end. It's not a dress, but it's certainly a bit more flattering than a lot of other costumes I've seen :P There are three shops I'll be working at throughout my shifts - Bayview Vacation Club giftshop, Fantasia,which are like Disney paraphilia stores, and the Marketplace, which is like a small grocery store that stocks beer and cigars. I spent the first half of my shift getting familiar with where the merchandise is (We sell fudge, cookies, and cupcakes too! I was excited about that :P) and how to explain directions to guests. I received a ribbon to attach to my nametag that says "earning my ears" to show that I'm in training still. I was surprised with how many people noticed it and wished me luck! Also, I received a pad with about 10 collectable pins for trading. Apparently, its a big thing to trade pins at disneyworld. I had kids and adults alike approaching me at least 6 or 7 times throughout the day to view my stock. I loved all the constant interaction with the guests, and my manager and trainer siad I'm a natural! Our break room is really nice, and has a huge flatsceen tv that I was watching the View on during my break. It was great. Also, during an 8 hour shift I found out that I get two 30 minutes breaks - one paid and one not. Which is also great! After spending about an hour and a half doing some dull online, video training, we had some extra time and so we jumped on the monorail and visited two other deluxe resorts, the Polynesian and the FLoridian. They. Are. GORGEOUS! The floridian is especially expensive, but if you have a couple thousand dollars laying around, I'd say go for it! There was a pianist playing these beautiful redone disney songs on a grand piano in the centre of the...couch area? Lobby? I don't know what to call it, but it was a huge open, victorian-styled space. I'll be sure to take pictures for the next time I visit. In the meantime, here are the lovebugs that are EVERYWHERE as well as me in costume!

Day 5 - An evening in Hollywood Studios

I had the day off today, so I spent it relaxinf and enjoying the benefits of being a cast member - by going down to Disney's Hollywood Studios. It was my roomate Helen's 21st birthday, so we indulged in a cake and then set off to celebrate at what used to be MGM Studios. It was buggy, and we were constantly walking into this peculiar type of bug that seemed to always be in the middle of mating while it flew around(I later learned they are called Love Bugs and are most popularly seen in May and September.) We had a great time though, riding on the tower of terror, the Rock n Rollercoaster(twice!) and meeting as many characters as possible. It was a great experience, especially with the Tower of Terror. We wanted to get Fast pass tickets but for some reason they were cancelled for an hour. Just as we were deciding what to do, two seperate parties of people approached us offering their fast pass tickets that they no longer wanted - free! There were eight of us total, and we managed to collect 8 fast passes all in a span of about 2 minutes. It was unbelievable. We went to the Backlot Tour and our friend Leah and I volunteered when they asked for four adults who wouldn't mind acting silly. As it turns out, we got dressed up in blue rainsuits and acted as crew members on a boat in a fake action movie. It was awesome! We had our own pizzas at Pizza Planet(which I didn't even realise was from Toy Story until I saw all the green alien sculptures decorating the walls)and then half of us decided to head home, as it was getting late - and I had to be at work for my first training day bright and early. And, here's alllll the photos!

My entrance view :)

A random impromptu act put on by some cast members on the Main Street.

Meeting Princess Merida from Brave

Meeting the Incredibles! Or two characters from the movie anyways..

The photographer took this while I was hugging pooh bear hello.

We went into a ride of Movie throughout the Years or something, and this was the set from Wizard of Oz

And last but not least, does anybody know who this character is?