Four Parks, One World pt 2

Erin and I had decided to do the Four Parks Challenge and so far, we had successfully rode/seen two attractions and met more than two characters in EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. Our next park was going to be Hollywood Studios so we rode the bus from DAK over to Hollywood Studios. We hadn't utilized our time as well as we wanted to and it had started to rain but we tried not to let it deter us. Since it was close, we went over to Tower of Terror after getting into the park but while we were walking down Sunset Boulevard, it started pouring rain. Neither of us had a jacket or a cardigan and we were both wearing white so we walked through the shops to avoid the rain while Erin debated buying a poncho. I told her not to because I've learned that with Florida weather, it pours for twenty minutes and then stops for the rest of the day.

Erin decided to tough it out and wouldn't you know it, it stopped raining as we approached the ToT queue. We were slightly annoyed because we were wet and because there were tons of  loud, rowdy teenagers around us. We waited in line for about fifteen minutes and once we got on the ride, Erin and I started getting nervous, as we always do when we go on that ride. It's weird because I'm not afraid of the ride but I hate the feeling of dropping really fast. This was the first time I didn't cling to Erin's arm though, so that was a good thing! 

After the ride we went to take a photo in front of the Sorcerer's hat! We were too lazy to ask a photopass photographer to take the picture so we did it ourselves and I think it's kind of funny because it looks a little like I'm wearing the hat. 

Afterwards we walked over to Star Tours because we always love that ride and we got the second ride out of the way! It's one of my favorite attractions at Hollywood Studios! We then decided to head over to the park's character spot by the Animation building because you can meet Wreck-It-Ralph characters, Sorcerer Mickey, and some of the Incredible's characters. Since we had never met Mr. Incredible and Frozone before, we decided to see what they were up to because the line wasn't too long. Truth be told, the line is never too long for any character over there because the area isn't very well known about.

It was cute because there happened to be another excited princess standing in line behind us and right before we were next to meet the characters, they had to go make sure the check on the city. When they came back, the princess behind us could barely contain herself and she shoved her autograph book in Frozone's hands when he came over to us. He and Mr. Incredible signed her autograph book and then her mother told her to wait her turn. We told them that they could go in front of us and of course they said no, so we went next. Frozone was so lively and fun. He kept trying to get us to pose a certain way and we kept getting confused by it but eventually we got it and this was the picture we all took together.

I got their autographs and we left afterwards to get on the bus to Magic Kingdom. Once we got there, we tried to think of characters we hadn't met before that hung out around MK. We didn't want to meet Mickey because we met him earlier that day and we didn't want to meet Rapunzel, Aurora, and Cindy because we've done that a couple times already. We thought about meeting Chip and Dale or Woody and Jessie over in Frontierland but they were done doing meet and greets by the time we got to the park. We thought meeting Jasmine and Aladdin in Adventureland would be a good idea so we got in line for them. At this point, Erin and I were done with this challenge; all we wanted was to go home, take a shower, and eat food. We were really hot and tired but we couldn't give up on the challenge when we were so close to being done.

We waited about twenty minutes for Aladdin and Jasmine to show up and when they did, we were disappointed. You see, sometimes Jasmine isn't as approachable and nice as she should be. We've seen what she can be like backstage, which isn't very nice, and it just so happened she was acting the same way during her meet and greet. We even saw her do something that was very blatantly out of character, especially for her. Maybe she just wasn't feeling like herself. Aladdin tried getting her to focus on the little princesses that came up to them but it was obvious she wasn't feeling it.

We got out of line and decided to ride our second to last ride, which ended up being the Haunted Mansion. The ride is such a classic and we walked right into the stretching room without waiting. Afterwards, we went over to Fantasyland to see if Peter Pan's Flight was a short wait. It was 40 minutes and that was too long for us so we opted for It's a Small World because I haven't ridden it since I got here. Halfway through the ride I was ready to get off, not because the song gets on my nerves, but because the animatronics freak me out a little. When we got off the ride we went to look for other characters to meet. First we went to see if Buzz was out but he wasn't and we were extremely discouraged by this because we were 98% done with the day. We went over to Merida's meet and greet too but she was done. We went to Ariel's Grotto because I knew Ariel would still be out since I worked in that area a lot. We didn't want to meet her very much because we've met her before but we didn't have much of a choice. We waited in line for probably ten minutes and when we finally met her, we said hello, took a photo with her, and left. We wanted to make it short and sweet because we just wanted to leave.

We only had one other character to meet before we had completed the challenge and the only other option was to go to Pete's Silly Sideshow in Storybook Circus. We were annoyed that we hadn't thought to go there before because you can meet Minnie and Daisy or Donald and Goofy together. We got in line to meet Daisy and Minnie and waited for about 25 minutes. We decided that we wouldn't try to interact with the characters because all we wanted was to get out of there.

We met Daisy first and she was super cute. I had her sign my autograph book because it was the first time I had ever met her. Then we quickly met Minnie, who was also very cute and we got a photo with her too.

Once we got out of Pete's Silly Sideshow, we booked it over to Main Street because we had one thing left to do: take a photo in front of the castle. We took a crappy one because it was dark and at this point, we were too happy to be done with the challenge to care.

Afterwards we speed-walked down Main Street and out the exit to catch the bus home from the Contemporary. For the Four Parks Challenge, we ended up riding ten rides and meeting ten characters in eleven hours and we were completely dead afterwards. We endured heat, rain, long lines, hunger, and lots of painful walking to accomplish it and all I'm gonna say is that challenge is way harder than it seems but it was totally worth it. 

Four Parks, One World pt 1.

On Friday, April 19th, Erin and I decided that it would be a good idea to do the Four Parks Challenge. The objective of the challenge is to visit all four parks, ride/see two attractions, take a photo in front of each park's iconic structure, and meet two characters. The night before, we planned everything out: we were going to get breakfast at the All Star Resort, go to EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, then Hollywood Studios, and lastly, Magic Kingdom.

We woke up around 7:30 and caught the bus to the All Star Resort where we ate Mickey waffles! Getting Mickey waffles is one thing I've wanted to do since I got here so I was pretty excited about that. There were a lot of high school classes at the resort, which is something we weren't really anticipating so it was super crowded but we were able to get two Mickey waffles, bacon, grapes, and chocolate milk. The waffles were delicious, of course. I'm glad we got up a little earlier than we wanted to get them.

After breakfast we hopped onto a resort bus and went to EPCOT. We knew that we wanted to ride Soarin' Over California so the first thing we did was grab fastpasses for it. It was only 9:00 and the fastpasses were for 11:30 so we decided to get our first attraction of the day out of the way: Figment. Since many people don't go to that attraction we decided to ride it first because it's Erin's favorite and we knew we would be able to walk onto it. I've always thought the ride was lame but Erin gets so excited; she even knows the words to Figment's theme song. She's the most entertaining part of the whole attraction!

After Figment, we decided to meet some characters and since we didn't feel like walking all the way over to World Showcase, we went to Character Spot to meet Mickey and his friends! When we got there, Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto were out and the line was super short. We waited probably five minutes before it was our turn to meet the boss. Mickey was so cute, as usual. He signed my autograph book, had us kiss his cheeks, and kissed us back when we hugged him. Pluto and Minnie were equally adorable. We also made friends in line with a little princess! Erin and I always love watching little kids react to the different things going on at Disney and this princess was so excited that she almost ran in front of us to meet Minnie! We offered for her to go ahead of us because we wanted to see her interact with Minnie but her mother politely declined.

Here is our picture with Minnie. We didn't like any of our other pictures with Mickey and Pluto.

Since it wasn't time for our fastpasses, we decided to go on some other attractions. First we went to the Finding Nemo attraction and once we were done riding it, we looked at the different sea creatures in the aquarium, argued about whether or not the dolphin in the tank is real (I don't think it is), and we watched some rescued manatees swim around and eat heads of lettuce. They were the best part; we probably watched them for 25 minutes. We then went on Living with the Land because I had never been on that attraction before. It was what I expected it to be-- educational but overall, a little dull. When we reached the part about how Americans lived on farms and there is that farmhouse with rolling hills behind it, I joked that I felt like I was back home.

When we got off that ride, it was time for our fastpasses for Soarin' so we ran over to it. The standby line was 120 minutes and the fastpass line was 30! That's a little ridiculous for a fastpass line but Soarin' is the most popular attraction in the park so it wasn't so surprising. At one point we still had some time left in the queue but a cast member walked up to us and asked if we had a party of two. When we said yes, he had us skip the rest of the line and walk onto the ride. We were in the bottom row but I was okay with that because I'm afraid of heights. Erin was so nervous. She kept saying that the takeoff was scary so I expected something really fast but when the ride got going, I didn't think it was scary at all. I almost wished we were on the top row because seeing people's legs dangling above us took away from the experience.

About a minute into the ride, we were brought back down and the ride was stopped temporarily. Erin was mad because she didn't want to do the takeoff again and I was just trying to figure out what was wrong. I think there was a Code V because I saw a cast member with some towels. We had to wait almost ten minutes until the ride started back up again which slowed us down in terms of time. Once the ride was over, we ran to the front of the park to take a picture in front of the EPCOT ball, exited the park, and looked for the bus to Animal Kingdom. We ran to a line but then we realized it was for the Animal Kingdom Lodge and when we found the bus for DAK, it happened to be driving away. Go figure. We had to wait 10-15 minutes for the next one to come. Good thing we factored in travel time when we planned our day out the night before.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom and the first thing we did was get a picture in front of the Tree of Life since it was right there. Can you tell it was hot and humid that day? My hair wasn't looking too good.

When we were done with that, we went to ride Dinosaur since I had never been on it before. I was a little apprehensive because I heard it was really scary but it turned out to be really fun! It's one of my favorite attractions at DAK now! It was really jerky and dark and that's what made it fun. At this point, it was HOT. The temperature was supposed to get up to 90 degrees that day and the humidity was cray cray so we weren't really feeling walking around DAK for a long time. We got burgers and cooled off at a nearby quick service restaurant and then went to the Festival of the Lion King. This show is my favorite thing at DAK because it's choreographed so well and the singers are AMAZING. If you're at DAK, see the show; you won't regret it. Truth be told, we didn't think the show was as good as it usually is but that's because we've seen it a few times before. But to a guest who hasn't seen it as much as us, it wouldn't matter. Even when the show is just good, it's still wonderful.

After Festival of the Lion King, we walked over to Camp Mickey Minnie to meet some characters. We got in line for Baloo and King Louie from the Jungle Book because we had never met them before and the line was really short. Baloo was cute but King Louie was weird to me. His face was hard to look at and he couldn't move his hands but to be fair, he is an orangutan and they're kind of ugly, but it was still a little alarming. I mostly paid attention to Baloo. We got a picture with the two of them and we left.

When we were about to exit the park, a woman approached us and asked if we would answer a few questions about our experience at the park that day. Now, at Magic Kingdom, cast members usually ask the guests questions and they fill out an portable, electronic survey as guests answer them. I knew we were on a time crunch but I said that we would do it and I immediately regretted it. Instead of asking us the questions herself, the cast member  walked us over to a computer and told us to fill it out on there. We didn't really want to but we did anyway and it took FOREVER. Okay, it probably took like thirty minutes but that was thirty minutes of time we had wasted when we should have already been at Hollywood Studios. We obligingly filled out the survey as quickly as we could and left the park. That was when it started to rain.

I have the best coworkers.

My friends from work have been talking about wanting to hang out as a group after work  one night and on Saturday, I got a text from my friend Kelly while I was on my way to work. It was a group message to a bunch of my coworkers asking if we all wanted to go to Steak and Shake after work that night. Since everyone was getting off between 12:15 and 12:45, we all agreed to go.

Since everyone was excited about our plans, we told other coworkers about it and in the end, our group of about six people turned into a group of at least thirteen people. After work we all got on the bus to Westclock when we got a call from someone who had left before us. He was already at Steak and Shake and he said that it was packed with people. We shouldn't have been surprised because most people who had closing shifts had just gotten off work and the restaurant was packed with cast members, no doubt. We brainstormed a few different places we could go to as an alternative, decided on Denny's, and we were on our way!

It was a great night. Two coordinators went with us and it was so nice to hang out with everyone outside of work. We made lots of jokes, took lots of pictures, and somehow ended up flying paper airplanes everywhere. Bonding with everyone was definitely overdue considering I've known these people for at least three months and this is the first time we've all hung out.  

Here are some pictures from the night.

This is nowhere near all of the people that were there. We took a group picture at the end of the night but I"m not sure who has it.

We didn't end up leaving Denny's until around 3:00 AM. It was kind of a bittersweet experience because a lot of people are leaving next month. More than half of the CP's I've gotten to know and love are going home and we realized that this is probably one of the last times we'll hang out as a group, which is sad because it was also the first time we've hung out. Regardless, I'm glad that it finally happened.

Throughout this whole experience, they've become some of my best friends. I don't think I'll ever forget any of them.

To stay or not to stay?

Reading my mom's status makes me realize that things have really changed. I can't wait to go home and see my parents again but that won't be a for a little while, and it turns out okay with that.

The people who are doing the Spring program are leaving VERY soon and it's putting things into perspective. I was homesick for the entire month of February and I kept saying that one of my only regrets about this program was doing Spring Advantage because all I wanted was to go home. But now that I've gotten over my homesickness, I'm so, so happy I chose Spring Advantage. Four or five months just isn't enough to fully experience everything Disney and Florida has to offer. I feel like I haven't put a dent into all of the things I want to do and I've been utilizing my days off almost to the fullest by going to the parks with people and still I feel like I've barely experienced anything.

It's funny because I keep asking people who are leaving in a couple weeks if they feel like they've done everything they wanted to and they keep asking me if I can switch programs with them so I can go home and they can stay til August. It's a joke, obviously since that's impossible but my immediate response is to laugh and say, "Not in a million years." It makes me realize that even though there are a lot of things I dislike, like Florida weather, late nights, long shifts, feeling unappreciated, and dealing rude guests, I'm still really happy here. I'm living my dream-- the biggest dream I've had in recent years and it would have been stupid of me not to choose the longest length of time to be here.

It's going to be extremely hard saying goodbye to all of the cast members who are leaving. There are some people going home as early as May 10th-- some of my best friends, and I'm not looking forward to it. I can only imagine what part time and full time cast members feel like. We've created bonds with everyone and it would probably suck to say goodbye to great people every semester just to have new CP's come in. If you're doing  Fall or Fall Advantage, give some of the regular cast members time to get over the departure of old CP's. I can imagine that the transition is at least a little difficult for them every time. Even I don't feel as welcoming as I should be to whoever is coming after the Spring CP's leave. I'm sure they're really great but it's hard saying goodbye to people that you've gotten really close to.

I've been playing around with the idea of extending in recent weeks. Part of me doesn't want too because I miss my family and I'm not entirely sure I want to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. But then I do want to extend because it's Disney and I know I'll miss it so much when I go home. I'll probably be homesick for Disney longer than I was for my actual home. I missed it for an entire year and I had only vacationed at Disney for three days! I would be here for Halloween, Christmas, and probably New Years which would be great because so many cool things happen around that time. But I would be so homesick... On the other hand, though, I would probably work such a ridiculous amount of hours around the holidays that I wouldn't have much time to think about home. I just remember being so upset over the fact that I wasn't home for Easter and that's such a minor holiday in comparison to Christmas. But it was also my first major holiday away from home so some sad and negative feelings were bound to arise. I would be here for my 21st birthday too and that would be pretty great. I could have my first legal drink at EPCOT. But not being home for major holidays would still suck and I know I could just request those days off but it would be so difficult...

There's also the question that if I did extend, would I want to stay in custodial or would I want a new role? I wouldn't want to give up the freedom of walking around wherever I want and talking to guests for as long as I want, but it might be fun to do something new.

But if I didn't extend, I could go home, finish school, and coming back to Disney later is always a possibility. I only have one point on my record card for calling in sick once and I've been here for almost three months. Most of my friends have reprimands so I guess I'm doing pretty well in that department. For those of you who may not know, your record card is a huge part of whether the company rehires or extends you after your program. But I've also heard that your record card goes away after six months or something so would that even help me?

Do you see what I have to go through? This is a big decision to me for multiple reasons and I'm not sure what to do. I think I should probably talk to my parents about it but ultimately it's my decision. I don't know. There are some days where I'm like, "I should extend!" and there are some days where I'm like, "Okay, I want to go home in August." It usually depends on what kind of work day I've had.

I'm probably making a bigger deal out of this than I need to but when I think back on it, working for Disney was all I wanted for the longest time. Do I want to let that go so soon? I've got a lot of thinking and figuring out to do. Good thing I have until around June to decide.

I have an awesome job.

Today I had an interaction with Lana Parrilla, who plays the Evil Queen on Once Upon a Time!!! She was walking passed me near the Beast's Castle in New Fantasyland so I curtsied and said, "Hello your majesty" and I realize that sounds stupid but this is the maGIC KINGDOM AND SHE PLAYS A QUEEN AND THEMEING IS EVERYTHING OKAY.

I feel as though that was literally the only thing I could have said that wouldn't have been inappropriate. Managers were saying that we couldn't talk about the cast being here and people were worried that I would get in trouble for my interaction, but that doesn't make sense. It's not like I asked for her autograph or a picture; I acted like I would with any other guest. So I'm not very concerned.

In the past few weeks, Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, and Usher have been here and I felt so indifferent about knowing their presence. I actually saw Adam Sandler backstage and I didn't even care because I always ruin the idea of a celebrity for myself by thinking that they're only normal people. But Once Upon a Time is literally one of the only shows I watch so I was extremely excited about knowing the cast is here. I am so, so extremely grateful for my job because I would never have the opportunity to see the people and things that I do if I wasn't here. It's amazing.

My laptop charger broke again.

That's why I haven't been updating lately. Sorry guys! And naturally I'm working a lot again but I'll try to post something new tonight since I'm not working late. But if that doesn't happen, I'll try to post on Wednesday or Thursday because those are my days off. (We're back to two days off again!!)

Until then, have a magical day, lovelies!

Children are so observant.

Yesterday I was talking to a family and about ten minutes into our conversation, while I was talking to a little princess who was probably six or seven, she randomly said, "You look really tired." I was embarrassed that she had noticed.. I had hoped I was hiding it well. I told her that I was tired because I had been making magic for a very long time that day and I was still getting used to how much I had to do it. That wasn't a complete lie, was it?