Christmas Day Photos!

They gave us these rice crispy snowmen at the bus stop. They tasted horrible, but they look cute and hey, it showed they appreciate us lowly CPs just a little!



I woke up reeeeeaaally early before work to go to my friends apartment to open presents! This is their Charlie Brown Christmas tree with all their present under it. Our tree was bigger, but we had about one quarter of the gifts.



We went around in a circle opening our gifts one at a time. Jenna and I were the first to run out, but it was fun watching everyone get their presents!

This is Cami getting her pirate presents!



Jenna and her super cute footy pajamas. (Okay, so they didn't actually have footies, but I have no other word for these! LOVE them! lol)



Katelin and her car ride certificates... she wanted a car so a coupon for a ride when she gets back home is at least a little close.



Emily and her princess hat.



Kelly and her bling-a-licious purse!



And the only picture I have of me is after opening the book that Cami gave me. Thanks Cami! (But also thanks to Mom who also gave me some Christmas gifts! THANK YOU! And sorry I don't have photos of me opening them!)



Less than a year til NEXT Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

Second post of the day. But I wanted a mini-update real quick. Because I wanted to note how totally EASY and SLOW the parades were tonight!

It was soooooo stinking sloooooow.

Probably cuz I was west though. The south was totally packed. And my friends who worked south said they sent everyone over to us but nobody wanted to come.

Guests have this weird idea in their head that the parade is only able to be seen from Main Street and that if you watch the parade in any other spot on the parade route, it's not as good or has different dance moves or something. They don't believe us when we repeatedly tell them it's good EVERYWHERE!

But it was a great Christmas Eve. We all jumped and cheered at midnight, and our managers kept us informed all night as to the whereabouts of Santa. He passed over Florida and was headed into Georgia around 11:45. He started in Europe this year, though and was somewhere around Italy as I started work.

Now I get to look forward to TOMORROW!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas! Seriously. It's is by far the most wonderful time of the year. And despite the fact that I have to work a lot and don't get to see any of my family, I still am happy as ever that it's Christmas. I love Christmas in Florida too! Where else can I eat an ice cream sundae in short sleeves in December!



However, today I'm spending my time psyching myself up for this next week. And now I present to you my schedule for the rest of my program. So in case you need me:


12/24---7pm-1am (PAC West)6 hours

12/25 CHRISTMAS!!!---10:45am-4:15pm (PAC West) and then 7pm-1am (PAC South) 11.5 hours

12/26---10:45-4:15 (PAC South) and then 7pm-1am (PAC South) 11.5 hours

12/27---10:45-4:15 (PAC West) and then 7pm-1am (PAC South) 11.5 hours

12/28---7pm-1am (PAC South) 6 hours

12/29---10:45-4:15 (PAC South) and then 4:15pm-10:45pm (Greeter) 11.5 hours

12/30---10:45-4:30 (PAC South) and then 5pm-1:15am (PAC South) 14 hours

12/31---10:45am-1:15am (PAC South) 13.5 hours

1/1--- (I'm also driving my roommate to the airport at 4am this morning) 4:30pm-10:30pm (PAC West) 6 hours

The hours aren't how many hours I work, but how many I'm getting paid to work (because they take out break times). That's why some of them add up a little weird.

January 2nd will be spent doing laundry, getting my stuff together, and meeting my dad who's coming down here. The 3rd will be spent driving my roommate to the airport early in the morning and moving out and getting last minute stuff done before the 4th, which will be the day that I fly out at 7 in the morning for Idaho, arriving at 7:15pm.

School starts on the 5th. Chemistry at 11:30am.

Maybe next year's holidays will be more relaxing!

Teamwork

One major part of my job is breakdown. We breakdown our ropes as close to the back of the parade as possible to make it seem like no parade ever existed and facilitate the movement of the gigantic swarm of guests that always ensues shortly after a parade. The parade route is, in a way, cut in half when it comes to breakdown. The breakdown process in the west is entirely different than in the south.

For this post, though, I will only explain breakdown for the west. Each person gets two position, one for during the parade, and one for breakdown.

The clipper begins the process by going to each of the posts (or stanchions) and unclipping the ropes from the stanchion and then clipping them to each other. The stanchion puller grabs the stanchion and puts it on the nearby cart pulled by the cart puller. The plugger comes next putting the plug in the hole left by the stanchion. At the rear of the process comes the roller who rolls up the rope on a heavy roll they wear on their chest. Both sides of the route break down at the same time, and to be sure each roller is the same distance behind the back of the parade, there are two rope holders that each have one hand on their roller and one hand on a rope and their job is to push of pull the roller to ensure both sides are breaking down at the same speed.

Ideally, this entire process remains within ten feet of the back of the parade. I'm proud to say we usually do a very good job, too, and it's very fun when we all get it right! But we really heavily, if not, entirely on teamwork to get the job done.

The two hardest jobs are clipper and roller. The ropes are very tight, so you have to be strong to get some of the clips off. I've even had guests help me with it a few times after watching me struggle. The clipper also has to be careful not to cut their hand open (something I've also done) because if you start bleeding you are no longer allowed to help in the breakdown process at all. No bleeding on ropes because we have to make new ones and that takes forever!

Roller is hard because you have to be constantly moving your arm rolling up the rope and the roll gets very, very heavy near the end. It's also hard because if the clipper or others have trouble and get behind, you have to make up for it by suddenly rolling super fast. The third reason it's the hardest is that it's very easy to lose the roll. By "lose the roll" I mean the rope sometimes gets off the roll track and instead gets stuck between where your hand is on the handle and the actual roll it's supposed to be on. When you lose the roll, like cutting your finger open, your done with the breakdown process and kicked off the route and someone else has to jump in and roll the rest by hand which is way harder than using the roll.

The reason I'm explaining this is partly for my own memory's sake, but also because I have learned a lot from this breakdown process. I've learned a lot about team work and learning how people work together to accomplish things.

I have stories, but this post is long enough for now. This post may (or may not) be a precursor to other future posts and stories about my job and things I've learned, so be sure to remember it. :)

A Simple Greeter Shift

I had a nice, relaxing Greeter shift last night. I get greeter maybe once a week, sometimes less (Greeter means I work the turnstiles instead of PAC).

My shift was 7:15pm til 1:15am. I got there and we were fairly busy, but I got to be put on the Cast Member entrance. Since it was a block out date for Magic Kingdom, all I did was notify the few cast members that came to me that they couldn't enter with their guests. They were kind of bummed, but no one yelled at me!

After my first break I was put on exits, which is sometimes terrible if I"m by myself, but fortunately there were like four of us doing exits, so that was easy as well. A zillion people were leaving the park, but everyone listened and I hardly had any people trying to walk through my stroller/wheelchair exit.

Then after my second break it was getting late so I got tasking. First I covered turnstiles with a few people, then we restocked the maps and times guides. Restocking takes forever. And we kind of took our time because we knew they were running out of things for us to do. Then I got to make the white board for the next day. (We have a white board in our break room that has all the info for that day on it, park hours, what day it is, when the parades are, etc.)

I finally ran out of things to do and so worked on exits for a little longer before clocking out. It was such a good shift, I had forgotten jobs could be that easy.

And now I'm re-energized for tonight when I'm doing PAC. I'm ready!

Yucky Day

Yesterday was my worst day of PAC ever. And hopefully, nothing else will ever be that bad again, although I'm considering canceling my Christmas day shift, just in case. I'm trying hard to just forget about it... brush it off.

It was also the first day I ever cried on the job. Most of the girls I work with have ended up crying. I promised myself I'd never let a guest get to me so bad I'd cry. But then it happened.

On the up side, I was also reminded of what an unbelievably awesome life I have. I have such incredible friends who will stand by me as I stand by them. They help encourage me to feel better and be better. One even offered to go find me cookies and hot chocolate! I didn't want any... I just felt sick.

I'm grateful for awesome friends.

Thank you world, for still having decent people. And thanks for creating the nasty ones so I know how NOT to act.

Graduation Today

The obligatory photos:

Yep, It Seriously Happens...

I, personally, have dealt with every one of these...

"What time is the parade?" (as the parade is literally coming down the street at that very second) "Oh, well where's the best spot to see it from?" (at this point... just go home! you'll get a better view on youtube)

*on their way to exit, with tickets out and ready* "Where do we insert these?" (no need to insert tickets to leave the park) "Oh... well how are we supposed to get out then?" (just walk through the turnstile... it's okay, I promise) "They just turn?" (yes, I promise)

"Do you get wet on Splash Mountain?" (....... O.o ...........no)

"Where can I get a hot dog?" (Casey's Corner, right over there) "No, I'm sick of waiting in lines. Where can I get a hot dog without waiting in line?" (um, are you aware that you are in Disney World? Line capital of the world?)

"Can you tell me which direction the giant Mickey's Sorcerer's hat is in?" (umm... that's in Hollywood Studios... which is an entirely different park) "Okay, so can I go through the castle to get there?" (*facepalm*)

"How do I get to Disney World from here?" (again... *facepalm*)

"Why is it raining?" "When will it stop raining?" (sorry, I'll check with Mickey about controlling the weather more to your satisfaction)

"What's the wait time for the Jungle Cruise?" (yeah, since I'm a cast member I magically know the wait times of every ride in the whole park every minute all day long.... no wait. No I don't. Let's go with 20 minutes?)

"Is Walt's body really held inside a crypt in the castle?" "How much does it cost to see Walt's body?"

"Where is the exit?" (all the way down to your right) "But there's a rope up! How am I supposed to get over there!?" (well, let's see... you could go five feet around it... or under it... or over it... just don't try to go through it)

"Why is it called the castle stage?" (because it's a stage... and there's a giant castle behind it) "Castle? What castle? Where?" (right in front of your face)

*walking completely opposite from the exit* "This is the way to the exit, right?" (umm.. actually no... unfortunately when people ask this question they never stop to actually listen to an answer so I never get to tell them directions on how to really get to the exit... they just keep walking and I've stopped fighting it. If you walk away before letting me answer a question I'm not gonna answer it)

"Excuse me, do you work here?" (no, I just like to wear this ridiculous car freshener costume and Disney nametag to be funny... in their defense though we used to have a regular guest who somehow got hold of a fake nametag and impersonated a cast member...)

"Can I sit here?" (considering there's a taped X on the ground and no one else is there five minutes before the parade, probably not, no) "Oh, I thought X marked the place where I was supposed to be sitting..." (no, X marks the place where I get to sit. sorry to burst your bubble)

And my personal favorite that I got just last night:

"Excuse me, how do I get to Magic Kingdom from here?" (um... you're in the Magic Kingdom...)

On a more considerate note, when you're on vacation, you really do leave your brain behind. I'm sure I asked my fair share of stupid questions on our cruise. I'm sure I've looked like a total bimbo plenty in my lifetime. The people who asked these probably all could have figured out the answers themselves, but the face that they're on vacation means lack of thinking, and lack of thinking means fun stories for others. Just thought I'd point that out, I'm sure we've all had these moments. :)

Rabbit Rabbit Day!

December is my favorite time in the world. For one thing, it means my birthday and for another it means Christmas!!!

I means happy music and movies and presents and spending money and candy and Christmas trees and wrapping paper and ornaments and Nativities and lights and gingerbread and bells and parades and snow (yep, snow even in Florida... try going to Main Street U.S.A. or Celebration!) and just plain happiness.

Even at work I've noticed guests are way happier during the Christmas parties than they were for Halloween. People are more willing to do what is asked of them and more helpful. People are more cheerful, there's more smiles... I just LOVE it!

I love coming home to see my tree lit up. I love listening to pleasant Christmas music. I love the Salvation Army dudes outside with their red buckets and bells and remembering how my mom always told us it was bad luck to pass one without putting at least a little something inside.

I love how it reminds me of being a kid. It feels so magical to watch snow falling and listening to sleigh bells. I just love December and everything that comes with it. I'm ready for one of the best months of my life!

And I said Rabbit rabbit this morning so that makes it all the better.

Thanksgiving Day!

We have new Park Greeter costumes that took place on Tuesday. Tonight will be my first greeter shift wearing the new costume. I like the new costumes way better. Not because they look any better, but because they fit better and the nametag spot is better. I love how Disney is literally always improving and becoming better. Pictures soon!

Oh, and I didn't forget! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I'm sure your Thanksgiving is going better than mine. Not that mine is bad... it's just not very Holiday-ee. I slept in because I didn't get home until midnight last night and then I had to stay up and watch "I Shouldn't Be Alive" because a new episode came out last night. So I didn't wake up until noon! All my roommates had already gone to work for the day by then. So I woke up, watched a bit of TV, talked to my mom, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned my room, took out the trash (okay, well it's bagged and sitting on the floor ready for me to take out as soon as I'm willing to show myself to the world), and, most importantly...



Put up the Christmas tree!!!!

I have to work at 7:45 tonight (until 2:15am yuck!). This means I'm closing greeter. Most of the people I work with hate greeter but I'm actually okay with it. I mean, I kind of prefer PAC, but greeter is a good change. I'm just gonna laze around for the rest of today and maybe go to work early to start shopping for Christmas presents! Our 50% kicked in yesterday!

My Thanksgiving Dinner

I'm thankful for the Thanksgiving dinner Disney helped provide for me. I got a $1 dinner the other day with my friends. For only a dollar we got turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, peas, a roll, pie and a drink. It was cafeteria quality, but totally worth my dollar!

LOVE my job!

Silly People

For the record, if you're trying to list all seven dwarfs, two of them are NOT, I repeat NOT, named Duck and Angry.

That would be Doc and Grumpy. And yes, some guests today called them Duck and Angry during the parade and I would have corrected them but I think I already made them mad by telling them they couldn't stand in my crosswalk.

While I was on turnstile exits today these two older women approached me with their park tickets out and ready to go. They walked up to the turnstile and then looked around, confused as to where they needed to put their ticket in. I walked over to them and let them know they didn't need their cards to exit the park.

They looked confused. "Well then how are we supposed to exit?"

"You just walk right through the turnstile here."

"Through here? I just walk?" The one woman asked me, doubtingly.

"Yep. Just walk right through."

She walked up to it and put her hand on the turnstile and pushed a little. As it gave she slowly moved forward looking back at her friend.

"I just keep going, right?"

"Yes ma'am."

I was trying so hard not to laugh.

In other news I saw some awesome ads recently talking about plans for the new Downtown Disney area Hyperion Wharf. I can't believe all the incredible, nonstop expansions Disney comes up with! But what I'm most excited for is a new park! When is that gonna happen? My friends and I decided we need a Marvel theme park now that we bought them out last year. However, I doubt that will happen. But I do think we're gonna go further with the whole "superhero" theme. I'm so excited!!!

I can't wait to figure out my schedule! I have half a mind to just stay up all night until our new schedules come out! I want to know if I'm working December 3rd and 4th. Because something stinking exciting is happening and I will do just about ANYTHING to work those parade days!! I hope I work and I hope even more that I'm NOT working turnstile shifts! But we'll see.

Our managers warned us today that while we were busy tonight, this was nothing compared to what's coming. It worries me a little. But it'll be fine cuz I have tons of friends and less than a month and a half left. While I've enjoyed PAC, I'm definitely glad it's not something I'll be doing my whole life.

And I'm going to leave this here because I really do need to sleep. I know it's a weird abrupt end to a post but I've never been good at conclusions so this'll just have to do. The end.

Christmas Party

The awesome thing I've noticed about working Christmas parties is everyone is so much happier! I guess it's just the Holiday cheer or the awesome music or the fact that it's a scented parade with horses and roller skaters or that Santa Claus visits Disney World.... I don't know. People are very happy though, and that makes me happy!

I got to play with this 8 year old guest who comes to Disney all the stinking time before the first parade. He's gonna be the CEO someday, I can tell! He insisted that I dance with him during the castle show. I danced for a bit and then told him I didn't know how to dance and asked if Chris (a guy I work with) could dance instead. The kid responded: "Nooooo. You don't get it! When you dance it has to be one guy and one girl. Don't you know anything about dancing? Chris is a guy, I can't dance with him!" And then he made me do twirls in my skirt.

That kid is so stinking hilarious! I love that he comes to my park! And I love that I got to play with him.

I love working Christmas parties!

Flag Retreat

And did I mention I LOVE my job?







More to come later about this little ball of holiday goodness...

Thunderbirds!!!

I'm in the news!



I'm the PAC member to the left working across the street from Amanda, PAC member to the right. Yeah, there in the background...

Okay, so you can't really see me very well, but it really is me! Amanda and I got the best positions ever on this day when the Thunderbirds flew right above the Magic Kingdom during our normal 3:00 Parade (also known as "Day Parade" and "Mickey's Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade").



You can see the rest of the article here. There's less about me... but more that you're probably interested in. :)

I had the left side of the street... Amanda had the right.

If you watch the video at about 2:23 some fireworks go off in the background. This makes me laugh. It's during the Dream Along with Mickey castle stage show. It's so funny because sometimes guests see the fireworks and freak out that they're missing the fireworks show. But really there's not that many during the show.

Also, if you watch the video, around 5:00 it shows them doing the flag retreat. The people in the PAC costumes at the bottom of the screen... yeah, those are my friends. And would be me except I didn't work retreat that day. But I do on other days!

Just thought I'd give you a little taste of what I do! I love my job!

I Love Kids...

I'm a professional hopscotch maker, ring tosser, juggler, hula hoop hander, bean bag thrower, and Duck Duck Donalder! I love my job!

Tonight was another Halloween party night and was really fun. We had one serious problem, but everything worked out, as usual, in the end, thank goodness. I won't talk about the serious problem, but here's a different story.

During the first parade tonight, I got a crier. I don't think I've ever had a kid who was actually scared of any part of the parade, but as the villains came closer, a little girl near me in a stroller burst into tears, scared out of her mind. I heard her mom trying to console her and finally decided maybe I could help.

So I turned to her and began talking to her so her mom could enjoy the parade with the other kids. I explained that I was friends with the villains and they were actually really nice. They just pretended to be mean in parades, but I assured her Mickey Mouse would never hire anyone who was actually mean. Then I talked to her about how I like to go backstage and dance with them and laughed at them, telling her they were just being silly. Because really, watching Frollo and Cruella dance their weird rendition of the Boo To You song is really silly. And the guys dressed in black and orange playing the guitars? How is that supposed to be scary!? Geez, they're not very good at being bad guys...

I got the girl to stop crying nearly immediately, but she still wasn't taking her eyes off of the hyenas, still pretty scared. So then I started to talk to her about candy. I told her to look for Pluto because Pluto meant the beginning of the candy! Yes, during the Mickey's Halloween parade they hand out candy at the end! So I told her to get her bag ready and she grinned when she finally saw Pluto. It was the cutest thing ever and the mom thanked me at the end. I even got her to laugh with me at how silly the villains looked when they were pretending to be mean.

It's funny because the part of the parade that still freaks me out to this day is the gravediggers. They scare the living snot out of me with their shovels. One came really close to my head during a previous parade as I was watching a guest... they just were literally right there by my face and I still haven't gotten over it. I also am a little freaked by the hyenas because, again, I was distracted by a guest and I turned to go back to my position and the hyena's head was literally right there. I wonder how poor Simba felt!

Anyway, I love my job! I love that every day gets to begin and end with characters, shows, fireworks, parades, or all of the above! I complain sometimes and get pretty bummed but the fact is, over all, I love it!

Face Paint

Today was such a good day! I didn't have a single angry guest. All. Day. Long. And I worked three parades! Two of which were for the Halloween party. It went well. In fact, I had a bunch of particularly pleasant guests! So wonderful!

Maybe it's because I got my face painted! I must have been too cute to yell at tonight.

They come and do face painting for my area every other Halloween party, and since I've worked all but two of them, it's a wonder I haven't gotten my face painted yet. But I did tonight. I told them to do whatever, just not too extravagant. I think she actually did a pretty good job!



Minus my terrible hair, but keep in mind this picture was taken after the very long night.

My nametag also came in, finally today. I got to be Dianna again! And then everyone at work kept calling me Chris as a joke and asking if I was sure Dianna was my real name. My old nametag I left pinned to my vest when I turned it back in.

I feel like I've been running a hundred miles an hour for the past week nonstop. I've been averaging about 5 or 6 hours of sleep every night. Which is why I really should be in bed right now. But I'm not.

I have tons to do tomorrow... like a never ending to do list. Which is weird because I was hoping that when I'm not in school I wouldn't have any worries or stresses outside of work. Unfortunately, I have managers to deal with, a car that needs work, friends to plan things for, departure dates to figure out, and a whole religion to deal with.

But it's okay because I love my life! Maybe I'll get back to telling cool stories later.

For Serious

I have enough trouble getting people to listen to me at work.



Did they really think putting a bat on my head would get me more respect?






You're welcome.

Happy Halloween

Tonight is my first night working the Halloween party. It's also the first Halloween party of the year.

I have a different costume. And it's ridiculous. And loud. And coveted by those who don't have to wear it.

It's a special issue costume which means I'm only allowed to have it checked out for a week at a time.

And I have to wear a bat on my head.

Pictures soon. As long as you promise not to laugh. :)

PAC

I'm doing PAC all day today. And by all day I mean from 1:45pm until 1:15am. Which is not only all day, but all night as well.

PAC, since I haven't clarified before, stands for Parade Audience Control. Basically I make sure people don't run in front of the floats and die... which you'd think isn't much of a job but, seriously, it's ridiculous how much I have to do. Kind of like turnstiles. You'd think people would get how to put their ticket in the opening that says "Insert ticket here." But no. I've actually had people walk up to my turnstile and just stand there waiting for instruction. And then when I ask for their ticket, they act all surprised and they have to pull out their bag and then their wallet and then filter through that to get their ticket. And then, after finally finding said ticket, they just hand it to me, ignoring the machine right in front of them.

Anyway, back to PAC. Since there's no fireworks or parades tonight (It's the Night of Joy which means a bunch of Christian rock bands have come to put on this special event) I think my job for tonight is just controlling all these people. They say the Night of Joy is second (craziness level) only to Grad Night!

Part of my job is actually to protect the castle. We form a kind of human wall around it making sure people don't climb on the stage or go into the castle or anything. I think it's hilarious. Protecting the castle... just another thing I do. :)

So today I work the 3 o'clock parade, then do flag retreat, then break, and then do whatever I'm told to protect the park. This should be fun. I love my job!

Random Pictures

Helen had never driven a car before (from China) so we went to the Tomorrowland Speedway to let her try her skills... unfortunately the cars there max out at about 6 MPH. Seriously... I can run faster than they go. But she had fun.



Helen kept asking me, "Why do Americas... they trow their money away? You in recession, no? But I just sink it funny you trow money down there... no one get it!" All I can say is.... yep. You're right. :) Haha. But really it's only a few coins per person and for a few pennies, if you can give someone hope and a wish (after spending $5000 on a trip to Disney World)... it's worth it. :)



The talking trash can sang happy birthday to this princess. It followed them all around the park AND knew their names!




My first Mickey Mouse pancakes!



My old store location. It's so depressing!!!





Feeding the duckies! There wasn't a sign, so we were good.

Magical Moments

In my job we have these things called "magical moments." Not sure if I've written about them before, but it's basically where we try to make a certain guest's day extra special. When I worked merch, we would play games like tic-tac-toe or play with bubbles or do puzzles. Sometimes it would be a bit bigger like taking their picture and having a particular family be the "model picture" of the day and they'd get a free 8x10. In my job now we let certain families participate in the parades or we get veterans to participate in the flag retreat ceremony. Magical moments can sometimes be as big as giving a guest a free stay in Cinderella's Castle for the night (I think they've stopped doing that at the moment though).

What's really cool, though, is that sometimes guests can be magical moments for the cast members. The most common magical moments for us come from little kids. And yesterday I got to have one of the best magical moments ever from a six year old.

I put up the ropes for the parade and was standing in front waiting and watching my area making sure no one was running out into the street (I had TWO runners on Monday!! they about gave me a heart attack!). And suddenly this little girl was freaking out. And by freaking out I mean I have never in my life seen a child more excited for something. She was jumping up and down and screaming.... in a good way (yes, Dad, that is possible).

She was so excited for the parade to come it was hilarious to just watch her. She asked me if she was going to see Mickey and I told her, "Of course!" She then informed me that she knew Mickey would be in the show, but he told her he had to go take a shower because he was sweaty from the last show that he had just finished performing in called "Dream Along With Mickey."

As the parade came by she was asking me to name every single character. I was able to get Stitch to come say hi to her and he made a face at her so she stuck her tongue out at him. As I started to walk away to make sure the rest of my area was clear she grabbed my shirt and yanked me back to her to tell me I couldn't leave because there were characters still coming. And she was jumping up and down and screaming the whole. freaking. time. Her dad was taking pictures of the two of us the whole entire time. It was the most fun parade I've ever done. Even though I've only done about four so far. She was so much fun!

When the parade finished I had to leave and it was so cute how she kept grabbing my shirt and pulling me back into her because she didn't want me to leave. I love working parades. I love guests who are so excited! I love that I'm in about a million photo albums and probably just as many home videos! I love living at Disney World! I love my life!

Costumes!!!

I have two costumes this year! The first is for park greeter. It looks horrible, but is super comfortable. I know these are terrible pictures of me but I really wanted to show off my costumes...



And this is my PAC costume. At least it would be except for the hole you can see in my right knee. That's because I fell. On the ground. In front of a thousand people. And hurt myself. And my pride. And my pants.



It was actually kind of funny because immediately after I fell, I had about five people on me making sure I was okay and really the only reason I was upset was because I was scared of having to pay for these stupid pants! I know if you lose them they charge you $120 directly out of your pay check.

But my trainer assured me I wouldn't be charged. So all is good in the world. Enjoy the pictures!

Best Day To Go To Disney

I would just like to document that yesterday was pretty much the best day of the year to go to Disney. Even the MK was emptier than I've ever seen it. Ever! We also heard that the other parks were empty too.

Helen and I were there for only four hours (from 11am-3pm) and hardly waited in a single line. Seriously! No more than about five minutes of waiting anywhere!

We went on: Space Mountain (fastpass), the teacups, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, Splash Mountain (fastpass), Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Carousel of Progress, the Tomorrowland Speedway, the PeopleMover, Mickey's Philharmagic, the steam engine train, and the Barnstormer. All within four hours... plus we watched two parades, listened to a traveling oompa band, saw the talking trash can, and took a couple of drink and bathroom breaks. It was great!

Now I'm off to the MK again, but this time for work. Tomorrow I begin training for PAC... something everyone has been telling me to be excited about since day one. I can't wait!!!

My AWESOME Job and Park Playin'!

I've actually written about five entries since last time I posted. However I haven't ended up posting any of them because I always end up wanting to write about stuff I'm not allowed to write about... and then it gets put in my other, private journal on my computer. Or it just gets insanely long and I feel bad making my reader(s) read that much of me. But moving on.

I've finally moved into my final apartment. My roommates are awesome. Three of us work in the Magic Kingdom and my fourth roommate, who's from Hawaii, works at the Polynesian Resort.

Our actual apartment has some problems... primarily water and the fact that there's flooding in random parts of our apartment. Like in our front hallway and in front of the stove of all places! Also, we woke up this morning with no water in our toilet... that was weird. My roommate's reporting that stuff right now though so I'm sure it'll be fixed soon. They are really good about maintenance here.

As for my job I'm loving every second of it! Well... almost every second. There was one day a day or two ago that I just wanted to burst into tears, give up, and be moved. But I only had one more hour of work that day and I forced myself through because really, I'm not a quitter. This job is way way WAY harder than my old job though. Yeah, I had a whole post going off of that sentence there earlier that I never posted. I may post it later though because it had many funny stories in it. :)

Yesterday, Cami, Jenna, and I went to EPCOT. Neither Cami nor Jenna had ever been before. In fact, they'd never even been to Disney really before this program. I got to be their tour guide for the day. Unfortunately, no one loves EPCOT quite like I do, but I think they still had fun. Jenna really loved Test Track... she was laughing uncontrollably, it was so funny!

I got to say hi to a bunch of people I worked with last year. A lot of them didn't recognize me without my glasses (I wore sunglasses most of the day). It was so funny because they all just looked at me for a second staring and then jumped and were like, "Heeeey!!! What's goin' on girl! You here to stay!? Oh, I haven't seen you in forever!" I love those welcomes!

We also went on some attractions I'd never done before. I'd never done them because I didn't think I'd like them, but they were actually really fun. We went on the Maelstrom ride in Norway and that was actually really good... It freaked me out for a good part of it, though. Also we did the boat ride in Mexico. It was good... just not amazing.

My Imagination area was horribly depressing. They got rid of Crystal Magic. They put walls up around the email picture machines. They stopped the "Imagination Institute" show. And next they're getting rid of my beloved pictures and puzzles that I used to make for people! They already got rid of Honey I Shrunk the Audience and put in Michael Jackson's Captain EO. We watched that. All I can say about it is that as I left the theater, the only thought going through my head was, "What the heck did I just watch?" Weird. Just weird. Maybe I would have liked it more if I knew Michael's music... or cared about him at all.

Today, I'm going to the Magic Kingdom with Helen (a Chinese girl from work) and Jenna (my room roommate). As I said earlier, our job is very hard in many ways. But one way is that we have to know a LOT of random knowledge. Helen was really having trouble with knowing the park and directions to places. She's also scared to go alone because she's only been in America for two weeks and still having trouble with language and normal culture shock. So we're going to go there today and work on knowing the park.

The main thing I was having trouble with was memorizing where all the busses and boats went to. How do you get to Wide World of Sports? How do you get to Disney Quest? How do you get to Fort Wilderness?

None of those answers were what I thought. I thought I could just send them to the TTC and from there they could get a bus... but no. It has to be complicated.

Anyway, my roommate just got back from the office and we're leaving at ten for the MK so I'm done. Maybe I'll have a post with pics soon. I haven't really taken many because I've been working and I'm not allowed to take pictures of the many amazing backstage things I see and Cami doesn't want her picture on the internet (but she only specified facebook... not blogger... heehee). But maybe sometime I'll have some play pictures up.

Also, today's my sister's birthday! Happy birthday sister!!!

Shows In Disney

I could be a pessimist and say that it's annoying seeing the shows all the time. Because I've seen certain shows and parades numerous times, I'm now aware of every time there is a mistake. Disney is unbelievable at covering mistakes. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Disney doesn't make mistakes... they simply use backup plans.

However, I am not a pessimist. And I choose to look at the bright side of life that says, "HOLY COW I'M SO FREAKIN' LUCKY THAT I GET TO MEMORIZE SHOWS SOME PEOPLE ONLY GET TO SEE ONCE IN A LIFETIME AFTER SPENDING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!!!!"

Oh yeah, and Fantasmic was amazing tonnight!

Thank you.

Disney Cruise Line....Part 4

The pictures that I took on this day pretty much just summed up the whole trip. This day was spent at sea and was the most relaxing of all the days, probably. I was grateful for this because I was having trouble moving... mainly just my legs. It hurt to walk anywhere. We had refused to take elevators until this day. And that was only due to the sunburn!





Also I took pictures of Hidden Mickeys. Yep, that's been my recent obsession. Finding Hidden Mickeys!










Our two servers. Steven and Agung. They were great!

Also, just because I want to remember this, we ate dinner we three other groups of people. Each was a mom with one of their children. Two brought daughters and the third brought her son. One of the moms told us she spent $8000 to go on this cruise! Another mom said this was her fifth cruise with her daughter. While obviously rich (either that or simply really good at spending tons and tons of money) I liked them. They were all very nice and friendly and we got along great. Just wanted to throw all that in as a side note. :)




Words can't even describe how much I love when this happens!




And of course the going away party that night!



I don't remember much about this day. We ate and sat on the promenade deck thing for the longest time. We watched the final show... I forgot the name of it. But it won an award for the best Cruise show at sea in the world or something. And it was fantastic!

The whole cruise was just completely perfect and fantastic. Except of course that this was the last day and we knew we'd go home the next day. We ate our last dinner in Triton's and also had breakfast there on our last morning before deboarding the ship for the last time.




Disney never ceases to amaze me. After working here and learning so much about them, I still hold Disney is such high respect. I'm so happy I get to be a part of this! And I'm so happy I went on this cruise! It definitely was worth every penny!