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.

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!!!

If I Don't Post Now...

It may never happen. So much stuff happens here that I never get around to posting because I'm too tired or I forget.

Tonight was so totally amazing. Actually, today was totally amazing. Actually, every day is freakin' amazing.

After work tonight I headed over to the MK to hang out with some friends. We stayed until park close (which was at 11pm). After watching Wishes (the fireworks show) we ate Funnel Cakes and rode Thunder Mountain Railroad twice in a row. We wanted to do Splash Mountain but it was too late. After 11pm. BUT Spectromagic, the parade was stepping off at 11 so we waited around to see that. Because Thunder Mountain is at the back of the park we just hung out around where we knew the end of the parade would be.

And there was nobody. Literally no one there. It w as so great. Just the four of us, some cast members who were controlling traffic (or should I say the lack of traffic) and one other family with a stroller. We were the only people for about 150 feet. We put our bags down on the ground and then followed each section of the parade. We walked with one section of the parade getting 100% attention from the characters, and then ran back to the next float for more attention. Mickey Mouse blew us kisses and made the "I *heart* you" sign. Pluto acted all bashful as we all screamed to him. He came over to us and we pet his nose and gave him high fives. The Queen of Hearts gave Heather the "Off with your head" symbol and then Mary Poppins came over to us and apologized for her. Peter Pan got into a fight with Snow White because her dress was too poofy and the seven dwarfs were just hilarious!

Gipetto was definitely my favorite. He's on the last float with Pinocchio and then Minnie is behind them. We were planning on following Minnie for the last little bit of the parade but as luck would have it the float broke at the very end. So those characters were just stuck for several minutes stopped until they dragged in a back up motor to pull the float the rest of the way off-stage. In the meantime however we totally got one-on-one time with those characters. Gipetto started dancing so we copied him. When he realized the float stopped he acted like he had a paddle and was trying to paddle the float the rest of the way. Then when that didn't work he held out his thumb like a hitchiker. We told him he could come with us so he pretended to jump off the float. As we were distracted by Minnie, Lis started taking her hair tie out of her hair. So Gipetto started fixing his hair. And then his mustache. And continued on and on. Then he made the "call me" sign. Then he got Pinocchio's attention and told us to call Pinocchio. Basically setting his son up with us. So stinkin' funny. LOVE it!

Anyway, working in Hollywood has had it's perks too. I happen to go to work every day right before they start the parades. I get to see the characters at their finest and it's amazing. I freakin' LOVE my job!!!

Picture Overload

Here's those photos I promised... These are from random days in the parks. Near the end they're all from the Christmas party, but other than that it's mostly random. Enjoy!

Apparently I missed the memo to be making that hand sign. Ah well....



We went to go to the Crystal Palace a while ago. But we got there really early for our reservation. So we decided to go on Thunder Mountain Railroad. Right before we got on the ride, Janessa grabbed my camera. I asked her what she was going to do with it and she just said, "You'll see." She held it in the air the whole entire ride! It's a good thing I trust her. She got some awesome photos!
















Heather and I and Pooh.



Heather likes Eeyore. Actually, she just likes everything.




I just like Piglet!



Sorcerer Mickey awesome. To be honest Im' not really into character meet and greets but if I'm living at Disney World I have to put a few in.



And then Mickey made me kiss him. Do you see the red in my face? Ugh.



It's a joke at Disney World that everyone learns from the trams how to say "Please stand clear of the doors" in Spanish. Wanna learn? It's right here!



This is at Hollywood Studios. They have this kid thing where kids actually get to fight Darth Vader. It's adorable to watch! I just had to blog about it!



For Halloween I dressed up as a twenty year old college student. See, I'm really only nineteen. It was funny cuz as we stood in line for candy moms of little monsters and princesses would look at us and say, "Oh, this is the candy line! You can go around us if you want. We're just waiting for the candy." We just responded with, "We're waiting for candy too." Teehee, I like candy! (Actually the majority of it was candy I don't like and I ended up giving almost all of it away)



I just really really like this picture.



End (or at least close to the end) of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.



I think Heather's been wanting to do this for a while, but as we were driving on to property one day we decided to stop and get pictures in front of the sign.






On the metro on the way into Magic Kingdom for the Christmas Party. Except the monorail stopped and s at idle on the tracks for like ten minutes. Ugh, we got bored. But we took pictures!







My first decent view of the l it up castle. What a freakin' awesome sight! (Be prepared, many more castle pics will be down farther below!)



The awesome castle and my awesomER Santa hat!



Unfortunately, shortly after we got there, it started raining. LAME! So we went to seek shelter. Where else is better than a place that gives us free cookies and hot chocolate!?

I try to get a good picture of Heather and I and just look at what she does!



I love me some hot chocolate!



The rain only got worse though. A bunch of character spots w ere canceled as well as some shows. Sad! So we went to a dance party at Ariel's Grotto. The stepmother and stepsisters from Cinderella were there.

The stepmother came over to me and actually freaked me out a bit so I went to take a step back and basically stepped on Heather. The stepmother saw me and came right over to me and said, "You are not dancing. I was to see some moves." in her "stepmother" way. I chuckled and started dancing. Later we did this song "A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut, McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut" and you have to do the moves with the restaurant and it gets faster and faster. The stepmother came over to me again as that song was playing and I was attempting to keep up with the music. As she approached me I told her, "Hey! See? I'm dancing! Happy?" She came up to me and said, "Ohh, so you know this song do you. All right then, let's see it!" I tried to dance, obviously failing since I've only heard the song like twice in my life. She watched me for a few seconds as I laughed and "danced" and then said, "I do not approve," And walked off with her nose in the air. Shoot, good thing I don't have a stepmother.




It was funny though because when the "Cha Cha Slide" was playing there's a part in the song where it tells you to go down to the floor. As everyone went down, the stepmother remained standing and directed everyone else to stay down pushing her hands down at us and stuff. Sooo funny!



Pretty castle!



Just a little taste of how crowded the Cosmic Rays dance party was. Probably because it was raining.



The fireworks show was awesome. All kinds of Christmas songs and the fireworks were literally all around us and the castle kept changing colors and it was just awesome!








































This was my attempt at getting a shot of the finale of the fireworks show. 'Nuff said. :)



After the fireworks we hung around for a bit because we were hoping the show would start right after (actually, it was scheduled to start ten minutes after).



During that entire ten minutes this crew of tons of people came out and started squeegying (sp?) the stage area off. They worked fast and did a magnificent job. We even applauded.



We got bored of staring at them though so we took a few picture of ourselves. Then the sad announcement came on...



Sorry, no show. It was canceled just like the other one earlier due to rain. "But get your cameras out for this 'unique' photographic experience! All the characters from the show came out with a sign...



They shot some fireworks...



And then left... Can you spell "depressing?" Ah well.




After our attempt at watching the show in front of the castle we went down Main Street to watch the parade. I didn't really get a picture of it, but it was snowing! On Main Street! In Florida!! LOVED it.


I just love Heather's excitement at this stuff. She's the only one of us who had seen the parade already but was possibly more excited than both of us for it to come. So funny!




Mickey and Minnie started off the parade beautifully. But they moved around so much it was hard to get a decent picture. Actually, everyone moved around too much to get a decent picture. At least... that's my excuse!



I love Winnie the Pooh!










Chip and Dale are just so stinkin' amazing!



Who else but Santa Claus is going to end the Christmas Parade?




I just can't get enough pictures of the castle lit up at night.




Right after the parade we looked down Main Street and saw that the show had started up again, so we quickly ran down the street to see the end of it. We actually caught a decent sized chunk of it! It was cute, but I still wish we'd have seen the whole entire thing from our old spots!










As we were leaving the park we just had to say goodbye to Piglet and Tigger!