Strange situations and saying goodbyes

Monday May 28th: SeaWorld day! Great rides. Apparently Lindsay and I have funny screams on rides so Alexis had to sit between us so she could enjoy the “stereo” experience and then Ahen sat between us on the next ride so he could enjoy the experience too! I think Lindsay made a goat sound at one point which was so funny. I get super excited on thrilling rides, especially ones I’ve never done before. Manta was cool. It’s actually a head-first, tipped down thrill ride. Look it up to see what it is all about. We also went to pet stingrays…I kept trying but it was too scary for me.

We finished off one ride and the exit took us through the aquariums. As we got to the beluga whales, we were wondering if they were fighting.This man came up behind us and whispers “they’re mating”. It was such a shocking experience, especially when the whales were right up against the glass. There were children watching too. SeaWorld seems to be the playboy mansion for marine life because other people I’ve spoken to have witnessed other marine animals mating in the aquariums.

When we got back to Vista I hung out with a bunch of people at one of the apartments in building 20, then Emily, Victoria, Amy, Steven and I went to Wendy’s.  Later on we  went to Walgreens and then got back home at some early hour of the morning.

Tuesday May 29th: Great day today. I started off the day going to Magic Kingdom with Amy and Victoria. We rode Thunder Mountain, which just reopened, and we also did Snow White’s Scary Adventure, which is closing in a few days for good.

Tonight was the last night I worked with the Spring batch of CP’s (College Program students) who were finishing the program. I loved working on the TTA (Long name: Tomorrowland Transit Authority  PeopleMover) with Jordan. We had such high energy and the guests were having a great time. I enjoy Jordan’s Beyonce move that he does to escort people onto the ride.

After closing TTA a huge group of us went to Applebee’s. On the way there Brandon pointed out how Starships and Party Rock Anthem have the same background music. Put both together and you’ll hear it, it’s amazing. I loved getting up and dancing the Cupid Shuffle with everyone once we got to Applebee’s. Stitch cast rules! Plus Jordan singing Our Song and acting it out was amazing to watch. There were a couple more dances I saw that night that I want to learn. I really enjoy that Applebee’s has karaoke. I totally want to go back again! It’s crazy how you meet some people then they leave a week later. They all are really cool! I’ll be meeting a bunch of new CP’s soon and hopefully some more ICP’s (International College Program students) that I’ll get to work with. It’s basically Americans, another Canadian plus me and a few Australians. Maybe we’ll be getting some from France or Italy in the next few weeks. I wonder who I’ll work with for the rest of the summer…I’m excited.

Wednesday May 30th: Started off going to the Polynesian with Jeremy and Carissa to get Dole Whips. We get to serve our own and pile it up as much as we could. Jeremy and I had a competition to see who could pile their dole whip the highest. Later, we walked along to beach to findPearl, Sara and Lindsay then we headed over to Epcot. We went to the UK to meet Pooh and Tigger and Crys was working as their character attendant plus Elio was “friends with Tigger” when we visited. We ate in Japan. I loved how after I bought my food the cast member said “arigato” then I told her how I thought of the song and she started singing “domo arigato mister roboto” I was like ah! I got a legit person from Japan to sing me that song (they hire people from each specific country to work in their pavilion so if I wanted to work at one of the pavilions, I’d have to work in Canada). That was such a magical moment for me. We later went to shop in Japan. We all tried on kimonos. They are so comfortable! Then we went on Mission Space. When we got back to Vista, we checked the pool because there was talk of another pool party. Some said they were heading over, but Sara,Pearl and I headed over to bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings). On Wednesday nights, this is where like all the CP’s go. Every night there’s a different place where the CP’s go to party. Before the night started when Sara was on her way over from Patterson to Vista, she overheard a guy questioning some girl bringing a huge watermelon to Vista and he said some cheesy line like “Vista is a watermelon of a place”. Randomly, these guys came up to talk to us at bdubs without knowing Sara heard the watermelon conversation, funny how people connect so easily while working here.

“There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day”

Sunday May 20th: Last Sunday was my first shift without a trainer and I worked until 3am because of Extra Magic Hours or as some cast members refers to it as extra “tragic” hours. Basically where the park opens either earlier or later for guests who are staying at Disney resorts.

In attractions, we have rotations that happen so usually I won’t be on a position for more than 45 minutes. I remember in QSFB last summer at All Star Movies we’d be in one place for the whole shift. It definitely keeps it more interesting when we constantly change in attractions.

I enjoyed how today I met a couple who looked at where I’m from and jokingly said “we’re enemies” because he’s fromBuffalo,NY. I sensed some hockey rivalry. I just generally love when people read my nametag and ask questions about where I’m from or get excited about where I’m from. Yes…I do make sure my hair is away from my nametag so people can see. A group of girls got so excited aboutOntariothat one of the girls said she wasn’t that happy during the day but after seeing another Canadian she is very happy.

Monday May 21st:  My only day off this week. I had to make it super packed! Started off going with Sara, Lindsay and Alexis to the cast member preview of the new Art of Animation resort. We went on a tour and got to try out the rooms. Also coolest thing ever, the arcade in the resort was free for the day! We could play any games we wanted in there without paying anything.

Later on we all went to Universal. Did all the amazing rides and of course had some butterbeer. A few days ago, Lindsay met a boy named “Tray”. We were eating and I noticed she was looking off in the distance. We all had trays and she said “this just makes me think of him”. I love her. There was about an 80 minute wait for the harry potter ride, but Sara led us to the single rider line, we literally just walked right on the ride and I got to sit beside Sara. We did it twice in a row.

After Universal, I went to the pool with Lindsay. We decided to go on another adventure at about 2am. I gave her a tour of the neighbourhood as we tried to avoid sprinklers on the road while also trying to avoid the cars beside us. It felt like a video game. On the way home, we stopped at Walgreens and I found Emily again! Later on in the night, Emily and I went to the clubhouse and met up with Stef. Then bed time at 5am.

Tuesday May 22nd: Pool times with Stef, Emily and Elio then we headed over toMagicKingdom to play. Basically we did a lot of Tomorrowland. 3 of us had to go backstage to get ready for work. One of my positions was strollers today, a guy named Eli, who is also on the program, came up to talk to me for basically my whole time there, which made strollers more interesting.

I enjoy all the comments I get from guests. Some people try to be funny. Like when I asked how many people are in one guy’s party and he’s like 300 thousand. I’m like okay all you 300 thousand can go in this one car. He’s like really? All 300 thousand of us? “…Yup”

When I got home I dropped off my stuff then met up with one of my best friends from last summer’s program, Marc. We had dinner at Uno. Great catching up with him.

After this I met up with Emily and we got Steven then went to Walgreens to get supplies for a baking party! So fun. Steven and I were insanely hyper and being really weird, like everything we said made no sense. We brought the stuff over to Stef’s and had fun chatting away.

Wednesday May 23rd: I was pretty tired today. I was going to go to ihop then blizzard beach with everyone but actually stayed home and relaxed for once.

I went to work and currently I think my favourite ride to work on out of the three is the PeopleMover (or TTA I just interchange what I call it sometimes). I did all the positions on it today. Also I have never seen someone I know go on the ride while I’m working except forDallas. I met him a few days ago and of course he’s fromTexas. He caught me right after my break just before I went on rotation.

I got to West Clock after work and saw Sara! I ran to her in excitement. Then we had excitable conversations all the way home. She lives in Patterson so it’s more difficult to see her in the middle of the night with us not being able to hop over from 1am-7am to the other housing complexes.

I get home and meet up with Eli at the Clubhouse. He’s fromLas Vegas. He’s seen so many crazy things living there. I enjoyed the story of the drive-thru wedding where they were drunk, and the guy said “We want to get married!” and the girl goes over and says into the mic “I’ll have a number oneee”

Thursday May 24th: Started the day off playing atMagicKingdom with Lindsay, Sara and Dani then we all separated backstage into our various lands. I’d say my favourite position today was TTA greeter, I loved being able to listen to the music playing at Club 626. In Tomorrowland, we have a DJ playing on the stage sometimes. I love the music. In the other lands, it’s basically just loops of their theme music, which Tomorrowland has too, but it’s great when we also get to hear other songs.

After closing atMagicKingdom, a few of us from work went to Steak and Shake. I love the milkshakes and food there.

After this, I went to Amy and Emily’s apartment to hang out with a bunch of people.

Friday May 25th: Outlet shopping in the morning, then work time. Work was quite eventful. Alpha unit came to Astro, everything is good though, but it’s interesting having to deal with guests while these situations occur. There was also an intrusion on TTA that I was watching while on Stitch greeter. Also a guy wanted to take a picture of me in front of Stitch. After work I went home and went to Wendy’s with Steven and Emily then back toVista to hang out a bit.

Saturday May 26th: Cici’s pizza with Pierre-Luc, Emily and Stef, then some Property Control/Cast Connections shopping then off to work. I had to run an intrusion today at TTA, I did with Brooke. Basically walking that mile track to see what happened. Then later on in the evening we had to do an evacuation of TTA, I ran it with Ashley and we did the mile twice. Plus there were a few code v’s along the way, which was gross. Plus the cockroaches definitely came out of hiding when TTA was down. I can’t even explain it, but I’m getting used to them now… but if I find one in my apartment like last summer, oh man…that would be a whole different story. Also got another picture taken of me, this time, on a camera with actual film! I haven’t seen those around in a while.

After work, some of us went to Steak and Shake again. They were telling me all about basically everyone I’m going to work with.

All in all, I enjoy the work. It’s a lot different than last summer work wise. It’s more interesting and so many new things occur all the time.

Sunday May 27th: Went to bed after 4am and up at 8am for church. I went with Lindsay to the one beside the Commons. It’s a Catholic one. She’s Baptist and I’m Greek Orthodox so it was a bit of a new experience. We chatted about the differences, like the filioque added in the Nicene Creed that was read. It’s a bit far from where I live, but I’m hoping to go to the Greek Orthodox Church sometime this summer.

After this I went to Typhoon Lagoon with Sara. Last summer we did all the rides, and it’s our second time going this summer, so we decided to just relax, which is not like us because when we go to parks, we try to do everything. Today, we tanned, went on the lazy river, and relaxed on the chairs right at the edge of the wave pool, it kind of felt like we were at a real beach. We also got to meet Lilo.

Tonight I had work at 7:30pm until 4am for Extra Magic Hours. The shift went by pretty fast. So many funny situations happen on attractions. It’s so different from quick service, like I’ve never seen that many obstacles or guest problems in QSFB.

After work, some of us went to iHop also with some Fantasyland people. Then when we got home, Emily and I just chatted at the basketball court until 6am. We started noticing the sun coming out so we decided to call it a night.

Bed by 6:30a.m. and now up again for Seaworld and who knows what else I’ll be up to tonight.

“One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare. That door is opening once again, but this time, it’s opening for you.” The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

May 16th: My night training shift for the Stitch Complex (which includes the other 2 rides). I liked at closing when we got to ride around on the PeopleMover and see Wishes going off at Cinderella’s Castle. It was so beautiful I was holding back my tears. When we got off the ride back to the revolving floor, there were a few of the CP girls crying because this was their last shift there and they were here since around January. It was sad to see. After this, since we were closing TTA, we got our flashlights and had to walk the mile track of the PeopleMover. Yes, I may have felt tears of joy watching Wishes…but at this moment…I felt tears of horror coming on. Cockroaches. The whole entire track is filled with cockroaches running around. I didn’t even mind the spider that was the biggest one I’d seen in the wild, where my trainer said to just keep walking and not look at it. But these cockroaches in the south, I was disgusted. However, when I heard cast members were getting to ride Space Mountain with the lights on…my fear escaped me and I was like let’s get this done and I just walked through the cockroaches and ran through the rain to get to it. We didn’t make it in time but I got to see the control room ofSpaceMountain which was quite intense and cool. I think I’ve seen backstage each attraction in Tomorrowland. Guess what happened when we were getting home from work? Our bus broke down. We were stuck on the side of the highway. About almost an hour later another bus came and picked us up.

May 17th: Animal Kingdom in the morning. So many people came with us like over 20. We did many of the rides and watched Finding Nemo the Musical and Festival of the Lion King. Also ate at Yak and Yeti. After this, some of us went to Epcot. I’ve always gone to Epcot since I’ve been here at sunset and I love it at that time of day. I specifically enjoyed going to Pixie Hollow and seeing all the characters shaped from flowers at the Flower and Garden Festival. After this, we had a Canadian BBQ pool party atVista Way. It was nice seeing them all. Later on I went to see myNew Zealandfriend, Adam, and watched Glee. I haven’t seen him since last summer so it was nice seeing him again.

May 18th

Full day at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends. This day was pretty epic I have to say. Started off going with Dani, Sara and Lindsay and taking pictures with multiple Star Wars characters then Devin joined us later after work. We also got fast passes for Toy Story Mania, which is like the most popular ride in Disney World. Not only did we see Star Wars characters, like Darth Maul and Anakin Skywalker, we also saw Sully and Buzz and Woody. We went to draw Woody too. Somehow, mine turned out looking like he was drugged. I just kept drawing circles on the eyes and it smudged and so did some other parts. I’ll post it on facebook, it really looks funny. Like a Tim Burton version of Woody or Woody’s cousin who went down the wrong path…

When we actually visited Woody, he was shocked. I loved it. Then he signed it and wrote “good job!” We all laughed at how uncomfortable it was to show him my clearly wonderful drawing skills. We also went to Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. So good. I loved the food and the short horror films playing plus the seats looked like actual cars.

After this we went to Hyperspace Hoopla. It’s the dance show for Star Wars Weekends. Lots of fun!

Saturday May 19th:

Assessment day today! I passed! 226 questions, manager meeting and getting tested in 12 positions for the rest of the 8 hours. I got to take my “earning my ears” off of my name tag. After this I went right over to Hollywood Studios with Alexis (my roommate) and Lindsay (she lives across from us). We then met up with Sara who was waiting for Hyperspace Hoopla. Crys also came to join us to watch it. She got to work with Darth Maul the whole day. That is super cool. After this we went on Aerosmith and went through the single rider’s line so we wouldn’t have to wait in the long line-up. Guess who I sat beside? A girl fromGreece! We were talking about the ride and she was scared and I heard her accent so had to ask where she was from. She’s like I’m fromGreece. I was like me too! She said she is visiting her family inNew Yorkand has dual citizenship. I always get really excited when I meet Greek people at Disney because it doesn’t happen too often. I was getting really hyper today especially when we were about to go onTowerofTerror. It was Lindsay’s first time and she was so nervous. She also has the biggest and best facial expressions. So it was hilarious. We also met some Australians in the line-up who were fun too and this family in front of us was telling her that it’s not too bad. So we get on and she is making the most hilarious screams while we drop in the Tower. She was so terrified! All of us were almost crying of laughter. I think she liked it though and will go on again. Then on the bus home, Lindsay met a boy, and I just have to say the whole talk of it after we got back toVistawas the best and so funny. It was such a hilarious night with these girls. We continued the conversation on facebook and we seem to have a wedding planned already. After this, I went to finish catching up on Glee at Adam’s.

Today May 20th, I have a shift until 3am. Extra Magic Hours also my first time on rotation alone without a trainer. I’m pretty excited. Also, cast members sometimes call it Extra “Tragic” Hours. We’ll see how it goes! Next Sunday I work until 4am for EMH.

“Hello recruits. My name is Alexandra. Welcome to the galactic federation prisoner teleport center.”

I’ve been super busy this past week. I found out my work location, been in training and have gone on many fun adventures.

May 8th: Orientation Day 2. First part of this day, there was a big mix up but I’m happy it was just a recording mistake since two parties work on our roles and locations. So thankfully I got placed back to where they originally had me. InMagicKingdom, in Tomorrowland attractions working at Stitch’s Great Escape!, Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover (TTA or PeopelMover, we have different names for it), and also Astro Orbitor. Today we also had a huge Canadian pool party! Also went to dinner at Cici’s pizza, great cast member discount and all the pizza, pasta, salad, and breadsticks you want unlimited! I met really awesome new friends today! At night, Crys, Sara, Dani and I went to Devin’s, a little alumni party.

Can I just say I love building 20? I live in 2012 and this whole building arrived the same day as me, pretty much all fromCanadaand theUK. I know people in every room in the building.

May 9th: Traditions! I won a Pluto figure since our table got the most Disney characters written down in the time they gave us. Yes I did enjoy the reactions of people when they see that Desperate Housewives andCougarTown are part of ABC, which is party of the Walt Disney Company. After Traditions, a bunch of us went toMagicKingdom. We went on many rides. Tea Cups felt trippy when you’re spinning. Also we took an ultimate trolling picture of us with pirate eye patches making moose ears on Splash Mountain and a couple in the front of us kissing. We also wore our pirate eye patches on Pirates of the Caribbean and did many other rides too including Snow White’s Scary Adventure, which is closing at the end of this month, and ate at Pinocchio’s Village Haus.

May 10th: “Once Upon A Time…Is Now!” class. It was amazing. All of us new cast members forMagicKingdom have to take this class. We got to see more of backstage and I loved how peaceful the park is in the morning with no one there except the characters walking to the welcome show. We went out to watch it too. During training we also got to go on lots of rides! We then got split up and all of us Tomorrowland Attractions cast members went with Terri, our general Tomorrowland trainer, so it was Courtney, Mike and I that are the new ones at the attractions there. Later we got our costumes. My costume isn’t that bad, I feel like a space agent walking around the land of tomorrow. Plus we got our work shoes too.

After this,Pearl, Crys, Sara and I went to Hollywood Studios. We did rides and watched Fantasmic!

May 11th: Really early training days. We greeted people as they entered Tomorrowland then did elearning. I’m glad I did a lot of them last time so I basically got to hang out with other alumni who didn’t have to do it too like Emily and Sara, just making jokes and funny faces at each other. After lunch, Tomorrowland people had to go back to do more, so basically I went to one of the break rooms and got to relax for like an hour and a half. We got to do really cool things today! Backstage of Monsters Inc Laugh Floor! Though I don’t think I can type about it over a blog of all the backstage Disney cool things. But it was awesome.

Later Crys, Dani, Sara and I went to Epcot. Went on a boat ride inMexicoandNorwayand also had a pretzel inGermanythen we watched Illuminations.

May 12th: First day of official training within my actual rides. We focused on Stitch and had to do a lot of reading. I was pretty tired waking up really early and going to bed late every night so I wanted to do something easy going today. I walked into my room and I was so surprised! Sara was just there sitting on my bed. It was so excited to see her. She was placed in Patterson this year and I’m inVista Way again. We basically joked and laughed about the random things that happened at work today and all the funny secrets we learned. Then I went on a Walgreens adventure with Jeremy then saw Emily there so after we went to the pool with Amy too.

May 13th: Operating Astro Orbitor today. We did pretty well. Also had to do our Stitch Spiels today to the guests. I look at rides and think, wow this won’t be hard at all, then I actually have to learn everything, which can be quite complicated at the beginning. Also more reading today, we have to read like 3 full books about the ride procedures. Disney really prepares you and trains you well before they let you go on your own since they have to keep their great image in tact. I also just really love working atMagicKingdom, I love just walking the tunnels and seeing lots of my friends around! Plus I’m happy many of us will have similar schedules this year, since last year a lot of my friends worked mornings.

After this a big group of us went to see Avengers at Downtown Disney. We wanted to do the movie with a dinner at the same time but only 3 tickets were left so we went to one that was just 3D with no dinner, so we ended up going to Earl of Sandwich before which was still really good.

May 14th: This early morning waking up and going to sleep late is really hitting me but I know the early mornings will end soon so I keep going since I know soon many of my evenings will be filled with work next week. Today at work we walked the whole one mile of the PeopleMover…twice. I loved it! We also got to seeSpaceMountain with the lights on too. It takes an hour and a half to set this ride up. Later we went to Property Control (75% off cast member store), I got a watch for work now, which is helpful since I have record times for various things. Then Sara came and we also went to Cast Connections. I love buying food there since it’s so cheap but great.

May 15th: Great work day today. Opened the TTA again and really hilarious jokes occurred today. I don’t know if they’ll make sense if I type it but yeah I almost cried from laughing because we just said so many stupid things. Our trainer Jason (fromChicago) said he totally has to visitCanada because if they’re like us, it’ll be a good time because we’re just so hilarious. Also loved our competition, we had to battle against each other for who knows the most amount of codes. E.g. what does 101 mean or signal 25? We have so many to learn. Also love how we have to hiss at each other during work to get attention of another cast member. It started in Tomorrowland then it gradually spread to Fantasyland and all the other lands ofMagicKingdom. We hiss because we can hear hissing over all the loud people around. Anyway I won the codes competition so I got to pick which ride we are going to go on, I pickedSpaceMountain. I extended my shift to 3 hours more today so I can learn more about the operations.

Sara works in Fantasyland and we finished at the same time so just hung out inMagicKingdom. I had a taco salad at Pecos Bill, super good. We also just strolled around and relaxed since we were a bit tired, especially since I woke up at 4:15am the past 2 days of work. We went on the train around MK, and saw Allison working! So we got to be railroad guest conductors. We decided to go on TTA twice, it’s so relaxing. I’m happy I’m working on it this summer. We want to have a full park opening to closing of just sitting on the TTA. We also met withMerida, the newest Disney princess. To go home, we went backstage through the Stitch break room and I saw my trainer there again. We walked through the tunnels to get home from work. We also went to the Mousketeria to fill up our water bottles and saw Emily and Amy on break. Yes that’s one of our cafeterias inMagicKingdomfor cast members, the Mousketeria, I love the name. I ate there pretty much every day I’ve been working.

I got home and one of my British roommates, Emma bought baking pans and held them up. I burst out laughing because last night she kept going on about a “bacon” party going on downstairs and not having “bacon” pans. My Canadian roommate and I were thinking…why would they be having a bacon party? I mean bacon is cool and all but I never heard of a bacon party. Then I realized with her accent she was saying “baking” all along. So basically I started saying baking in her accent and making Emma and my other British roommate, Abby, laugh. They both said I have a Cockney accent when I try to sound like them. Basically a Cockney is a person fromLondon, which is where Emma is from. I told Emma she sounds like Sporty Spice, which she totally does to me. It’s interesting hearing the different British accents, like I can distinguish between a Liverpool accent and aLondonaccent now. I really enjoy all my roommates.

New Beginnings. Disney ICP 2nd Summer.

Alright this is going to be a pretty big post about the last 5 days, including the rest of my pre-Disney vacation and first 2 days of my Disney program.

May 3rd Ahen, Sara and I went to Aquatica! Since Ahen works at Seaworld, he gets discounts at Universal, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and a few other parks, so we got discounted admission passes! This was quite an eventful day. Sara kept spilling her water the whole day and I actually decided to take my huge glass of ice cold water and pour it on myself…I don’t know why I did this but they kept persuading me to. On one slide we went on, Sara ended up breaking her bikini top. The snap actually broke but we didn’t realize this and we kept trying to fix it while standing at the bottom of the slide as more people kept shooting out of it. Sara ended up having to go buy a new bathing suit. On another ride that was super dangerous, I ended up flying on my friends in the family sized raft while going down a slide because it was so bumpy in there, I got back in my place but the slide tunnel went pitch black and Sara and Ahen kept calling for me thinking I hadn’t been able to get back on the raft.  I was laughing way too much and I couldn’t answer them. Now THIS is what I call a thrilling ride, with actual danger involved! Actually most of the Aquatica rides felt dangerous.

The coolest ride at Aquatica was the slide you go down and you open your eyes in the tube and you see all these dolphins and cool fish around you! Also, the lazy river was not lazy at all. We had to dodge these jets that were so strong.

Best way to end this day? We took a 30 minute power nap while tanning. Yes, I do have a little tan line even though I am still super white.

We then got back to the hotel room, joked around then ate dinner. Each time I visit the food court I think back on my memories from last summer and the amazing people I miss. There’s only like 3 people left from last summer still working there and everyone else has moved to different places. Such amazing people I worked with last summer, and I am hoping for the same wherever I am this summer.

May 4th: May the forth be with you! What an eventful day today! Sara and I did all 4 Disney parks. ate at all 4 parks and saw 2 night time shows!

We started off at Magic Kingdom, saw the welcome show which was beautiful and so happy that it made me happy. We went to the new Fantasyland expansion and went on many other rides around the park and took a picture with Donald Duck. I loved when we saw the Dapper Dans and that we got to take a picture with them! After this we went to Animal Kingdom, ate lunch and did some attractions.  Then it was off to Hollywood Studios, ate ice cream and did more attractions while singing Elvis songs to Sara before going on the Rockin’ Roller Coaster since it was on her bucket list of things to do this summer. Also, Aerosmith’s ride makes me super happy, it’s so thrilling.

Epcot next! Oh I do love Epcot.  It is my 2nd favourite park after Magic Kingdom. We ate dinner in China…please ask what happened in China because there were two really hilarious situations that occurred. We then decided to book it over to Canada. We watched the Canadian show and every time I saw Ottawa on the screen I kept pointing it out. We felt patriotic. Later Sara and I decided to stay for Illuminations. We wanted to see Wishes at Magic Kingdom too but we were just so into Epcot and didn’t want to miss the show. So right after Illuminations, we ran and took the monorail (also saw an Avengers monorail which was exciting) to TTC then took a boat to Magic Kingdom and made it to watch Wishes with time to spare. We also ate a snack at Magic Kingdom after the show so we were able to fulfill our goal of eating at all 4 parks in a day. It was a great 18 hour day.

May 5th: Sara and I ran the Expedition Everest 5K race at Animal Kingdom! It was fun and we had met up with Sean and Lesley beforehand at Sports. I ran the whole thing. There was a cool scavenger hunt after the race then an after party, so we went on rides and danced to some awesome tunes. We went back to our hotel room and found Crystal, who had just arrived in Orlando!

May 6th: I loved singing “bacon strip and bacon strips and bacon strip” with Sara as were getting ready in the morning. Crystal was in bed and she’s like “Are you really singing that?” haha

We checked into Disney housing and I’m back at Vista Way in room 2012 (like the year)! So happy. The whole Apartment 20 building is filled with mostly Canadians and Brits. Everyone was saying hi to everyone, it was really nice. I also have 3 roommates this summer! 2 British girls and 1 other Canadian.

A bunch of us went to eat at Earl of Sandwich then we were off to the Polynesian Resort to watch Wishes from the beach (it’s a Canadian tradition on the first night of the program). Then a few of us went to House of Blues (HOB) in Downtown Disney after the fireworks. I’ve never been since I wasn’t old enough last summer so I was happy I went. Sunday nights there play like techno/top 40/dubstep.I love meeting all the new people today!

May 7th: Orientation day 1 in the afternoon then Typhoon Lagoon party at night. It was a huge party for college program kids. Free food, including Mickey ice cream sandwiches! Plus the dancing was lots of fun on the beach with a DJ and fireworks! There were pirates running around and the wave pool was open as well as all the rides. It was also raining, which was cool seeing Typhoon Lagoon like that. I also got to see two of my old roommates from last summer again, Chloe and Katy. I was very happy seeing them again. I also really like Sara and Crys’ roommates, they are so much fun.

First Couple Days in Orlando

The past two days have been really busy and super fun, and as Sara pointed out, we haven’t even started working yet, let alone started the program yet, which means we’ll end up being even busier.

First off I loved landing inWashingtonD.C.and hearing all those funny American accents, especially the southern ones. The 8 year old girl who was sitting beside me on the flight toOrlandokept asking questions about my life and also just random things, she was so cute.

I got on the Magical Express (Disney bus to resorts for guests) and just seeing all the scenery ofOrlandoagain felt so surreal. It feels so good to be back here.

So I got to All Star Movies, where Sara and I are staying for 5 nights, and basically I opened the door and we’re so weird we like danced to each other then tackled each other. It’s been 9 months since I’ve seen her so we were super excited.

May 1st, the day I checked in, is the same day we met last year, so we did the same thing we did last year with a few added bonuses. We went to Downtown Disney and got free slushies at Goofy’s then free chocolate at Ghirardelli. Then we ate at Earl of Sandwich. We heard music coming from the stage so we went over and started dancing. It was like aerobics with the instructor at the front, so fun! We would have stayed but we knew we wanted to catch Wishes. So we went to the Polynesian and sat on the beach watching the beautiful fireworks across the water atMagicKingdom. We then went on the hammocks tied between two palm trees and started swinging and just being really weird and running around on the beach. When we got home I put on Greek music and started dancing tsifteteli in the background as she was on skype. But an over exaggerated version it was funny.

Next day, May 2nd, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure! I got to see one of my other best friends, Ahen! Overdramatic running hugs occurred. Obviously right when we all got in the car, we had to put on “Get Down” by B44. One of the best Canadian songs I’d have to say.

First we went to Wal-Mart to buy our American cell phones then we drove to Universal. We did so many rides, I won’t even mention them all, we did some like 4 times in a row since there were virtually no lines at this time of year!

My favourite, as usual, is going to Harry Potter World. When we walked around the park, especially when we were about to go on a rides we went insane, like singing, dancing, making sounds like “yuhyuhyuhh” and just basically super energetic. We’re so weird. We ate at Three Broomsticks, where we usually go and sat at a nice round table right on the water beside Hogwarts and just joked and laughed like crazy. We continued doing more rides in both parks then got back to the resort. All three of us started having a really intense pillow fight! Like it was super hilarious. The things we were saying, the intense moves we’d pull out in our battle field. It was war! But fun.

Later Chris M was at the pool so we met up with him, great seeing him again. I went in the food court and saw some other people I worked with like Chris L but most people have left from last summer, it’s all new people.

Sara, Ahen and I walked to Andy’s room (from Toy Story). It’s a life sized room with a big Woody and Buzz! You walk in and feel like one of the toys! I love it, I didn’t really visit it when I worked at All Star Movies but I finally got pictures, I’ll post on facebook later.

I loved eating the lunch/dinner food from All Star again! I really enjoy the food at this resort. After dinner we walked Ahen to his car then Sara and I just chilled.

Today we’re off to Aquatica! Not sure on our plans for after but I’m sure it’ll be fun.

“Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy”

Some family and friends asked if I was doing a blog again while at Disney so I’ll be updating throughout my time there. I’m leaving now and staying at All-Star Movies Resort (where I worked last summer) for 5 nights with Sara who is a really great friend that I met last summer on this Disney program. We’re actually going to see each other the exact day we met on the first day of our ICP, which was May 1st 2011. We have an epic week of adventure planned before we check into Disney housing on May 6th. I’ll update on our plans as the week progresses.

Last year, I went there knowing pretty much no one and made friendships that will last a lifetime, and the coolest thing is that they live all over the world! I’m happy that many of my Disney friends will be there this summer and I can’t wait to see them again! Plus I am really looking forward to meeting tons of new people, like the new Canadians, awesome people from other countries and new people I’ll be working with! One of my favourite pastimes is meeting people, good thing that I’m working in one of the largest hospitality and entertainment companies. This year I made a bucket list of everything I want to do, there’s a lot on there but I’m determined to do it all! Three months may seem like a long time but it went by way too fast last summer. I’m probably going to stay a bit longer down there too.

My blog last summer was pretty neutral and a basic overview of what I did. Let me tell you, this is not a normal internship. I wish I could write about all the crazy/weird/awkwardly hilarious things that went down and will go down this summer. Actually, I love to tell all these stories so just ask me in person and I’ll gladly tell you. I have a feeling this summer is going to be even better, if that’s possible!

“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” - Peter Pan

Before my last day of work I went to Epcot with Katie M and we ate at Les Chefs de France. It’s a beautiful French restaurant in the France pavilion. We then went to Japan and I did not notice how hilarious their comic books can be until we read some.

Many goodbyes occurred during my last day of work and I almost cried with some people especially when they started to cry. After work, I went straight over to Katherine’s apartment in Vista Way. We had Kraft Dinner and tea until 4am.

The next day I returned my costumes from work then went to Animal Kingdom with Sara wearing our Mickey Mouse graduation ears. We did all the rides we usually do and watched Finding Nemo the Musical. Then we went to Mexico in Epcot to eat at San Angel Inn. The feel of that restaurant is very romantic with the candle lit dinner, low lighting and slow boats floating by beside the restaurant. Sara and I had a song stuck in our head so decided to listen to it while walking to the UK. We arrived in the UK and each bought the same “Keep Calm and Carry On” t-shirts. We have multiple outfits that are the exact same that we have purchased while here. We then headed over to Magic Kingdom. Did more shopping, did more rides, then watched The Magic the Memories and You then Wishes for the last time. Best show ever. We kept singing Wishes and did more rides. We sang to each other “A Whole New World” while on Aladdin’s magic carpet ride, not really sang, more like belted it out and pretended we were really soaring on a magic carpet ride. After some more rides, we called it a night and went back to Vista Way. I started packing, and Chloe comes in the room in tears because she saw my note that I left for my roommates and thought I already left. But I was still packing and I started to cry too. I later gave up on packing at around 3am and went to the basketball court with Adam to hang out. I saw more of my friends and said more goodbyes. It was emotional. Adam helped me pack my suitcase and I had absolutely no sleep that night. I went to see more friends in the morning to say bye too. I felt like it was just so dramatic. It’s kind of funny now that I think about it. But I am going to miss so many people, especially making such close connections after spending three months with them.

My parents picked me up and we got to the hotel, I fell asleep from exhaustion. We went to the Yacht and Beach club for dinner. They really loved the boardwalk just as much as I love it.

The next day a few of us from All Star Movies did ALL FOUR PARKS. We did Animal Kingdom, then Epcot, then Hollywood Studios and finished the night at Magic Kingdom. It is totally possible for those who have doubts. It started off with Gavin, Ahen, Derek and I at Animal Kingdom, did rides and saw Finding Nemo the Musical, then we headed over to Sizzlers. Yeah not only did we do all four parks, we also went to eat at a restaurant outside of Disney, it was an epic buffet where you also get a meal that comes with it. Before Epcot, we also went to All Star Movies to drop off Gavin at work then to Cast Services. We snuck into the administration office and made a whole Mission Impossible situation. It was great. Hiding behind doors so the administration wouldn’t see us, then we’d run by to get to the next room. We did, however, turn on some lights, and we are allowed in there but it was fun to make it intense anyway. We wanted to get the free All Star Movies bags that Derek had but couldn’t find them. So we then drove to Epcot and then Hollywood Studios where we did rides. Then finally, we went to Magic Kingdom, which is our favourite park for all three of us. We did a whole bunch of rides. The line ups were short so we just kept going on so many. We got Ice Cream at the Ice Cream Parlor then had dinner at Cosmic Rays. I got to see Chloe working! We continued doing more rides and were so into it that we came out of one and realized the finale of Wishes was on, which is my favourite part of Wishes. Derek then started to sing one of the Wishes parts and I would sing the other. We also really enjoying singing “Threw it on the Ground” from SNL that night. We made up our own lyrics about work, like I died laughing multiple times. We ended the day looking out on the water right where the castle was. We decided to go to The Contemporary after, we were being so smiley and loud while singing random things and joking around. Jumping and skipping then finally sprinting to The Contemporary from Magic Kingdom. We took the monorail back to TTC. Said bye to Derek then Ahen drove me home.

Yesterday I woke up and went to lunch with Gavin and Rahul at the Outlets. I had to go pick something up from Ahen at All Star Movies then saw Rahul who got an ER so drove him back to Vista Way. Then later that night I hung out with Gavin again.

Today while driving to Naples, Florida my brother and I watched Dinner for Schmucks, we are still laughing at the jokes. Steve Carell and Zach Galifianakis are so funny. Naples Florida is beautiful. We’re staying in a really nice condo on the beach and I’m currently watching the sunset which is my favourite time of day and my favourite setting is with palm trees on a beach at this time so I am feeling wonderful. It’s going to be a relaxing couple of weeks, then back home to Ottawa August 14th.

Be our guest be our guest

Only two days of work left! While working at the cash register on Sunday I met a couple of Greek families. Dreams do come true. I’ve wanted to meet Greek guests and speak Greek to guests since I started the program and finally got to. I felt so connected to them, like we were family. One of the yiayias even told me where they were sitting if I wanted to visit them and asked my work schedule and when I finish. That family is from New York. Then a second family later on was speaking Greek too and they are from Panama City, FL. Beautiful conversations occurred and I was super happy. After work I hung out with Travis for a few hours before going home.

When I got home around 6am, I slept for a few hours then headed to work. My favourite shop is Majestic and even though I’m always scheduled for cash now, they put me there. Ahen was in Lyric but switched to be with me. It was our last shift together. Derek, Rose and Katie were also in Majestic. Side note: I’ve hung out with about seven different people with any form of the name Katie while I’ve been in Florida so it might be confusing on who is who when I’ve mentioned them all in my blog. But anyway it was a good night. Ahen, Derek and I have a really funny handshake we created. We also were attempting at English accents since this Katie is from England. She found it funny how we sounded. The one I usually do apparently sounds like I’m from South London. Also, Ahen and I started singing “Be our guest be our guest would you like chicken breast” while we were serving it. We actually sang the whole song with made up lyrics too. When Ahen or I needed help on the catch position, we sang to each other “Help I need somebody Help not just anybody Help” (Beatles song), it was quite a musical night in Majestic. I found it funny when one of our managers told Katie we are going to have ice cream at the end of the night then when we asked her she looked confused and said she must have been having a blonde moment because she doesn’t remember saying that. But she agreed so we got free ice cream of our choice at the end of the night so I got a Mickey’s Ice Cream Sandwich.

Today I finished my Harvard Business Certificate in Leadership and Management. I’m looking forward to having Disney and Harvard on my resume. After I finished that I went over to Katherine’s (there we go another Katie I hung out with), then headed to Company D at Epcot so I could buy my Disney College Program Alumni sweater. Right now I’m going to head to work for my second last day.

“We’re always exploring and experimenting. We call it Imagineering – the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how” - Walt Disney

Just four more days of work and a few more days living in Disney housing and being on this internship. I’m super sad that it’s almost over. Currently it’s after 4am and my roommate and I are having moments of laughing our heads off and moments of feeling like crying from living in Disney World ending soon. My roommate has been here since February so it has been even longer for her. We also have our housing inspection tomorrow so had to make sure the whole apartment is clean.

To add to my graduation day, my roommate Kelly went outside of our apartment screaming for someone to help us get a lizard out. We live like right beside the welcome centre, so this guy form New Zealand that arrived a few days ago was walking home and he said he would help us with this situation. We ended up talking for hours about random things, such a cool Kiwi. We lost the lizard and I ended up finding it yesterday in our bathroom.

The day after graduation was pretty chill. I went to Wilderness Lodge and The Contemporary with Katherine. Wilderness Lodge kind of reminds me of Canada. We took a boat to The Contemporary and ate at Contempo Café, where you order on a screen.

Next day: Thursday!

Took the K bus (our work bus) to All Star Movies with Katherine. We have different lettered busses for different locations that take Disney cast members living in Disney housing around Walt Disney World and some parts of Orlando. Our work location had 180 accident free days so to celebrate we get chicken and ribs. It was fun and I got really hyper because I had lots of caffeine so was literally bouncing in my seat pretty much the whole time while smiling and being weird. I also put coke on our cake and we thought it tasted great. Derek just had his interview with a head imagineer. He showed me his work and he’s so talented! Being an imagineer would be so cool.

After the BBQ, Katherine, Ahen and I went into his car and blasted music. It’s always so much fun. We sing and dance in the car. We met up with Marc at Downtown Disney and went to Disney Quest. So great. We went on all the rides and Rebecca also joined us later on. We created our own songs. Super funny. Ahen Marc and I created the band AMA (I know what you’re thinking, it’s so original to combine our names together). You pick through genres of music and what type of singing voice you’d like and you pick through a selection of song titles then fill in the blanks with a selection of lyrics. Our first song was called “My Dog Gets More Dates than I Do”. Our second one was “Nobody Understands Me”. Some of the lyric selections were so awkward, so we always picked the most awkward. It was a blast making it. We decided for the second one to have a male rocker voice with Latin music. I bought the CD.

Later, we were walking to Earl of Sandwich and met up with Derek. Love that sandwich place. We were the last ones there since it was around 12:30am. We played around with the flowers they have set up and took lots of random pictures. Ahen also pretended to propose to me. As we drove home, we blasted more music and had a car dance party. When Ahen dropped Katherine and me off at Vista, I almost cried. Just thinking how that would be our last Thursday hang out and one of the last times we see each other this summer.

Friday was the start of my 6 days left of work. Before work I decided to buckle down and work on my Harvard Business class in Leadership and Management. I finished my Persuading Others section and started my Strategy Execution section. Work was good, just like today (as in the 23rd but I’m writing this around 4:30am which is technically the 24th). I’m always a cashier now. It’s nice talking to the guests and I love when other cast members that work at All Star Movies come up to talk to me. So many jokes. I love when I have late night hang outs after work too. Also I enjoy late night hang outs after late night hang outs when I get home to Vista Way.

“We’re all just children reaching for our dreams” - Wishes

I’m a graduate of Walt Disney World’s International College Program! I started off the day going to breakfast at iHop with my two British friends Christina and Katie. We had so much food that I packed up my pancakes to bring home with me. We felt too tired to do the 20 minute walk home so took a cab.

Later on I went with Christina, Katherine, Anita, Tara, Anthony and Shawn to graduation. We got our Mickey ears with tassels on it. Plus I got my diploma and the international students also got a package with future opportunities we can do in the Disney Company. I would absolutely love to work for the company again. We also got a lot of food at graduation and got to take pictures with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and they were wearing graduation gowns! Just before I left, Sara and I had to find each other to get a graduation picture.

All of us All Star Movie graduates decided to go to Magic Kingdom. We had our graduation Mickey ears on and were super excited running around. We got our names embroidered on the back of the hat too. We went on Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor and Shawn’s joke got picked. The show was super funny, as always. Then we went on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Shawn got the ultimate highest score! I would love to figure out the secret targets to hit. We went to eat some ice cream after and watched Wishes. Shawn took us to the back of the castle, where the fireworks go off in front and behind you. It was so cool to see it from this angle because you were right in the middle of it. I love Wishes so much. I sang along and Katherine and I really felt like crying at the end since we won’t be able to see it for too many more times. The lyrics really inspire me. We then went over to dance! There is a spot in Magic Kingdom with a DJ and music blasting. I was having the greatest time while dancing. We ran over when we heard the Cupid Shuffle. I love doing it! We continued dancing then went over to pick up our Mickey ears with our embroidered names on it (I continued dancing until I couldn’t hear the music anymore as we walked along).

Later, I went to hang out with Anthony then came home around 5am. I’m always up until that time or later now and I feel 5am is when night time starts. So it’s weird when the security guards at the Vista Way gates say “Good Morning” to you as I’m so used to it being kind of like my afternoon. I hung out with my roommate until some other hour of the morning then fell asleep. Today has been a relaxing one, hung out with roommates and now just about to start my plans for the day. I have lots of plans for the rest of the day but not sure exactly which ones I’m going to end up doing. I guess we’ll find out as the night progresses.

“In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence, showing it the fun and joy of living; showing it that laughter is healthy; showing it that the human species, although happily ridiculous at times, is still reaching for the stars.” – Walt Disney

It’s been a fun past few days. Work was great on the 15th. Since it’s not too busy during my shift until about 11pm, I draw at my cash station. Since I have stamps to stamp receipts for people on the dining plan wanting to come back for their desserts, I used the Santa Claus head stamp and drew in the body to give to Ahen and Gavin working at Rialto. I also drew King Neptune for Ahen because Ahen and I sometimes prank call Anthony as King Neptune. We had a Brazilian tour group of just over 500 young teenagers. So what we are told is to take the few other guests we have out of the line that are not in the tour groups and give them their food so they don’t have to wait. After I helped out, I asked my manager what else he would like me to do. Since the 500 of them were all on one credit card, which means they only go through one cash register, the rest of us cashiers were not too busy. He said I can go help Marc out in The Grand. I was ecstatic because The Grand is my favourite place and Marc is one of my best friends at work. I had to go back to cash for a couple hours because I was the closing cashier. At the end of the day, we got free chocolate croissants, chocolate chip muffins and chocolate chip cookies.

On Saturday Sara, Amy and I went to Universal Studios. I bought Duff because I wanted to try The Simpsons drink. It tasted great. We ate at a 1950’s themed diner too. We watched Fear Factor Live. We got to see scorpions being placed on a girls head and other fearful situations. We went on the Men in Black shooting ride, Mummy ride and watched Barney live. I loved him as a child. After seeing his show, I understand why. He is just so positive about life. Sara was in shock the whole show. Especially at the start where it goes pitch black, then bright when Barney pops out from a secret door under the stage with an overabundance of positivity. Amy and I sang along to the songs. I remember all of them from when I was little. I really liked how cheesy it was. We could not stop laughing. I would most likely go to see it again. We also got to meet Barney. We met Alex from Madagascar and four of his penguin friends. I loved how they were blasting music and dancing around. After being at the Universal side, we went to Islands of Adventure and spent about four hours in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We stayed there until closing. It was so beautiful to see it in the dark with all the nice lights on. We went on the Flight of the Hippogriff ride then waiting in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It was a journey just in the line up. Right before this we went to Ollivanders and Sara bought herself a wand. I found my birth month wand but decided to buy a Time Turner necklace instead. Sara was using her wand the whole time in the line up for the ride. The dark clouds were coming over and we knew a huge storm was coming. We just got in the section of the line up where it’s covered, just before it started to pour. People were going mad. There was lighting right above us and you could hear the thunder at the exact same time as the lighting struck. It was so cool. It started going away and Sara made a comment wanting to hear some more “Snap, Crackle and Pop” she wants the breakfast variety. We were having so much fun in this lighting storm. It was the perfect setting for being in Harry Potter World. We video taped a lot of the time waiting in the line with the thunder storm. We were being entertaining and weird for the other people in line. We got in the ride and loved it as always. Sara also used her wand to fight off the dementors while on the ride. We got out of the ride and shopped in Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods. Sara and I got our Wizarding World of Harry Potter t-shirts and Amy got postcards, which you can get stamped from here, like you’re actually sending it from Hogwarts. Since it was getting late, the park was emptying out. I loved walking around at night in this magical world. We saw a huge frog. Sara decided to do a spell on it and poked the frog in the back. It hopped away weirdly and shocked. We were acting very dramatic and telling her not to do it. We then went to Honeydukes and got chocolate frogs, I went into Zonko’s and we also went to Dervish and Banges. We got hungry so went to eat at Three Broomsticks. I love this place. The Drake concert was cancelled but it was quite a successful day at Universal.

We were heading home and since Amy is from Hong Kong, she was teaching us Cantonese. I was such a fun thing to do. I was teaching them Greek. We then decided to role our R’s and make all these other weird pronunciations in different accents. It was super funny hearing Sara trying to speak Cantonese.

Yesterday I switched to a morning shift. It was weird having to wake up at 4:45am, which is when I’m usually still awake from my night shift. As I walked outside, I stopped and observed the way the sky looked. I never see that time of day. Then I continued on to the bus. I worked in Majestic with Shawn and Christina. In the morning shifts they said if you want an authorized day off or early release, just talk to the managers and they will give you one, because they have so many people working but not as many guests. I wanted to work for a bit but asked for an early release. So I was out of there by 11:30am. It felt like a day off. I went to a soccer game with Katherine, Christina, Angel and Shawn. It was a game between Bolton, England and Orlando, Florida. Since Christina is from Bolton, we decided to cheer for them. Bolton won! It was a good time.

Today I was supposed to work until 2am but switched with Tyler so I only had to work until 12am. We were both on cash and played hangman.

I guess it is after 4am so technically it is the 19th of July. So today I have my graduation! Woohoo! Plus three days off of work! Lots of fun planned.

“Get in while you have the chance to at least look and see, and out of it might come something.” - Walt Disney

Time is flying by super fast here at Disney. Just 14 days left until the last day of my program! I wish international students could extend their program but I’ll make the most of the rest of my time here.

Today is going to be my seventh day in a row working. Before each of these days I’ve went to the pool, shopped, Starbucks runs and did a couple parks. Some nights I got a good amount of sleep and some nights I only got to sleep for a couple hours.

July 9th: I enjoyed cash today. There was a huge Brazilian group that was there but they didn’t buy any food, just used their mugs at Beverage Island (I sold 175 mugs to them). I thought it was crazy just seeing 175 of them swarming around Beverage Island, but I was wrong because more tour groups came to our resort during the following days. I enjoyed being on break with Ahen this day. We prank called Anthony as King Neptune and send funny texts, as we did the week before.

July 10th: The Brazilians and Paraguayans always come one hour before closing to Majestic, which is the pizza shop. There are so many teenagers and I am always placed on the cash register closest to the pizza shop, which has a blank spot beside me so I have to make sure no one slips through, which I catch pretty often with these teenagers. Welcome to the wonderful life of working at a Disney value resort.

July 11th: Went to bed at 4am and woke up at 7am (I did Ian a favour by letting him and his friends into Magic Kingdom for opening). I felt super awake and was so in awe of this time of day called morning that I do not see often. I have never went to the opening of Magic Kingdom, it was so beautiful, singing and dancing characters smiling at you welcoming you into this magical world of Disney. Then only sleeping three hours a night hit me, after a few hours at work, I felt super tired. I had work until 2am that night doing a closing cash shift. The managers and Uriel (GT – General Teller) really tried to switch things up to get me an ER (early release), it didn’t work out so one of the managers told me I will be first on the list for tomorrow’s shift to get an ER and one of my other managers told me she would switch me to Majestic because she knows I love that shop.

July 12th: I was happy when I saw my name put under Majestic as the catch position, which is my favourite. I also loved everyone I was placed to work with. I only worked a few hours because I got my ER so got to go home. I got driven home by a girl who also got an ER and decided to go to Walgreens. Thunder storms are crazy here. I have actually witnessed lighting right in front of me! It pours super hard here too. I saw another Canadian girl who was also in Walgreens so we decided to go on this adventure home together. I literally walked in a foot deep puddle of rain. I had plans to go to the parks but with the rain and bus schedule I spent time with my roommates then went to get Starbucks with Katherine.

July 13th: Started off my day as a cashier again. There was no person closing on cash that day, so I was either allowed to extend or move to Roxy. I wanted to go to Roxy. It was fun because there are absolutely no guests until about 11pm. It just started being empty like this in July. They have to cut down on 1000 hours for this week is what one of my managers told me because of slow business. So many people want an ER that they have no problem doing so. It was lots of fun talking to everyone in Roxy. Basically it was just like hanging out with friends and joking around. I was talking to this one culinary guy named Joseph, and we had a beautiful chat about Christianity and hope.

July 14th: I loved work today! It was so much fun. I was super happy. I do smile very often at work but I was just super smiley today. I was on cash, so still just got to hang around until 11pm when we get a lot of guests (a.k.a. the Latin tour groups that are staying at our resort). Just really funny situations had occurred today and heartfelt ones too. I’m going to miss so many people that I work with. Also today I got mandatory overtime pay plus I also got extended because of the craziness of the night with the Latin groups. Plus when I went to do my paperwork and money counting, our machines were not working, but we did get a bunch of key lime pie, chocolate cake, carrot cake and cheesecake that we could take home! I loved this day at work (yesterday) so much.

July 15th: today. Pest Control finally came! Chloe and I were sleeping and all we hear is a loud whistle being blown and smiley people announcing their arrival into our apartment to spray our house for bugs. Clearly, only at Disney do you get over ecstatic bug control people. Chloe and I were still in our beds when they came in but she said in the most bubbly way “Thank you Sir, you did a fantastic job on controlling our pests.” I was laughing under my sheets. I love coming home from work to Chloe at 2am or later. We watched funny body language videos and acted them out, and interpretive dance to songs like “All By Myself”.

I work today until 2am again, then tomorrow is my day off, which means Universal Studios and Drake Concert at night!

Rapunzel: So I’m just gonna tell you: IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! Tada! Mother Gothel: No no no, can’t be. I distinctly remember, your birthday was last year. Rapunzel: That’s the funny thing about birthdays, they’re kind of an annual thing.

July 7th (My Birthday):

July 6th night: hung out with Sara and ate a tub of Butter Pecan ice cream, a bunch of cookies, Cheetos and drank fruit punch juice boxes, but before we went to Walgreens to get all this, we sang to my roommate Kelly the Canadian National Anthem. For some reason, that night me and my roommates were singing National Anthems and pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Sara and I haven’t seen each other in over a week so had so much to update each other on about our Disney lives. We sat on these cushioned benches in Vista Way then did a count down until my birthday. I was super excited when I turned 19. She sang happy birthday and serenaded Get Down by B44. We have just been obsessed with that song, especially the end because we find the back up singers hilarious, so we usually just sing the back up singer part all the time. I got home to Chloe, then left to be on the phone for like three hours with Anthony. When I got back she baked me about 30 cupcakes. It was so nice. She came in my room with candles lit on one too.

I had five of her cupcakes for breakfast then met Ahen who took me to a movie at Downtown Disney, but before we could get out of the car, it started to pour super hard! We actually saw lightning strike right in front of us! We played ipod games and listened to awesome music to wait until it calmed down. We were hungry so walked over to Wolfgang Puck then headed over to see “Bad Teacher”. The movie theatre food was all self serve. The drink station was INSANE. You click on one type of drink, and within that type of drink, there are about 10 options. Want sprite? Here are 10 different flavours of sprite. I definitely mixed a lot of drinks together in a Mega cup. We took our popcorn and poured an insane amount of butter on top. As you can tell, I was very healthy this day. Oh and got chocolate. The movie was absolutely hilarious. We kept repeating lines from it. When the movie finished, we met up with Anthony for a bit then headed to Magic Kingdom to meet Sara. But before that, we decided to park at the Contemporary Resort, and then take the monorail. We somehow could not get on the right floor. It felt like a N64 Mario video game. That’s how we explained it. We got on the monorail and at Magic Kingdom, we watched “The Magic, The Memories, and You” then “Wishes”. I love watching those shows. It’s always a toss up of Illuminations and Wishes, but for sure Wishes is my favourite night time show. It makes me happy. Sara and I were saying how we’re really going to bawl our eyes out the last night we see it. After the show, the line ups were inexistent in the theatre for Mickey and Minnie Mouse, so we went in to meet them. Later on Sara and I were going to go to iHop, but we spotted a sketchy Chinese Buffet. Actually it was called “Dragon Court Super Buf” (because the “fet” lights were out). So we totally had to enter. We got excited, and the thought of pancakes escaped from our minds. Chinese food was taking over. The buffet part was closed, but they said we can take Styrofoam containers and fill it up with what was left in the buffet. We got our food then sat outside a Subway and ate away. We were so full and tired. It was late in the middle of the night, and the clubs would close soon so didn’t really have time for that. I’m really looking forward to going to House of Blues Sunday nights! Though I do work nights (when I don’t give my shifts away) so hopefully one Sunday I can find someone to take my shift because it looks like a good time there, and being 19, I’m allowed in now. I got home and hung out with Chloe for a few hours before going to sleep.

Next day (today): went to Property Control and Cast Connections with Stephani. I cannot get over the great deals. I got a lot of wonderful things, including the soundtrack to Wishes, which I am listening to now. I had paper bags from shopping today that were in my room. Chloe and Kelly decided to kick the bags and have a race. They’re very entertaining girls. We’re having a High School Musical night then I’m going out for another good night.

“I get red, white, and blue at times.” - Walt Disney

I got about 10 hours of sleep before waking up for Independence Day, which was nice because I haven’t had sleep like that since home. I had breakfast at the Grand Floridian then we headed over to Animal Kingdom. When I got back to Vista, I put on my red white and blue outfit and headed over to Epcot to meet up with a bunch of girls from All Star Movies (morning shifters). The park was packed. We got to see Illuminations (we watched from France then Morocco) then the special Forth of July fireworks, which we watched in China. They were amazing! During the finale there was an explosion of fireworks, it was so loud, I’ve never experienced fireworks like that before. The fireworks were also not just in one spot, they were going off all around us.

Today I went to Hollywood Studios with Andy and Anik, did a lot of rides and got to go to the place where they have a bunch of characters that come out. I always love riding Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Those rides always put a smile on my face. During the past few days I went to Stake and Shake with my family, then worked in Rialto (ice cream shop). One of my managers asked me to keep watch on Roxy (grill shop) if they need any help and to also watch the Grand and help stock there too. I’ve done everything I possibly can in QSFB as an ICP at All Star Movies. I really like working in the shops. My past few shifts have been cash and for the next few weeks I’m only placed on cash. I do, however, enjoy talking to the guests from all over the world. We currently have a huge group of South Africans at All Star Movies. I’ve connected to a lot of guests that they come back to my register just to chat.

I also went to Islands of Adventure with my parents, brother, family from Tampa and uncle from North Carolina. We did many rides and I got my butterbeer mug.

After about 10 days, my family is back in Canada now. I’m still not sure if I’m going to go home when my program ends or stay in the USA for a little longer.