here it is

I know I clearly have been suffering when it comes to writing in this blog considering it is now November almost December.
But to make up for it, here is a quick video that basically sums up my summer in a nutshell. I am hoping it is the first of many!!

my disney college program!!

Third of July

so I wrote about the 4th of July but not about the 3rd. Since Angie was going to be working on the 4th we decided to go to MK to celebrate it on the 3rd. Of course I dressed up in all America. We got off to a late start to begin the day but we got to Magic Kingdom and watched dream along with Mickey and then headed to Cosmic Rays for some lunch. We really didn't do much at the park that day just things that were dead. By the time we were done all the dead things we went to get our spot at the Polynesian for fireworks where Andrew and his friend were going to meet us. We watched the fireworks and I must say they looked even better from the Polynesian it was amazing!! Magic Kingdom was open until 1 that day so went back and hit up a couple dance parties but best of all we ended the night off with it's a small world. :D !

Fourth of July

For Fourth of July everyone was working and it sucked. But I still managed to make the most of my day... sort of. I was really, really sick and didn't want to get out of bed but I thought "hey, this is my only fourth of July and I will take advantage of it." I called my friend Bryan who works with me and he invited me to go with him and his roommates to Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Studios sounded perfect because they never normally have fireworks except for this one time of the year. We just walked around all day pretty much but because his roommates work at Hollywood we got a bunch of fastpasses for Tower of Terror and Rock'N'Roller Coaster and we just rode it over and over again until fireworks.
The fireworks were awesome. They had a band playing songs from all over the country with synced fireworks. After that it took us an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot!!!! But we hit up Steak and Shake for my first time, how american!!

Canada Day!

Yesterday was Canada Day and I was lucky enough to finally get it off after getting it denied 5 times. Obviously I wanted to hit up Epcot and go to the Canadian Pavillon. I went with Lindsay and Kelly and the weather was not looking great. By the time we walked over to Canada and went into the store it was pouring. We were in that little store for a while but I never noticed a lot of the things in there. And the best news yet... they now sell Tim Hortons in there. Way better than Folgers I'll tell yah that. I bought a maple lollipop, a Canadian pin, and moose spit chapstick.
We walked around the world showcase for a bit after we celebrated Canada but they both had to work. I walked Lindsay over the Beach Club where she was catching the bus to work and then I was on my own for a while.
It was still pouring and I wanted to go somewhere dry so I hit up the land pavillon. I did living with the land on my own and then met up with Victoria's roommates in Mexico where we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour and met Donald.
We then met up with Victoria and walked around the world and by the time we hit Canada again it was time for my reservation and I was just waiting on my friend Andrew. I had trouble getting the day off so I had trouble finding people to eat with. Everyone had their own reservations but lucky enough for me... on CANADA DAY at LE CELLIER I got a reservation for 4 just two days before. How lucky is that? Andrew got the steak and I got poutine which was delicious but doesn't taste like real poutine! and then we shared the maple creme brulee for dessert which was heavenly!
Neither of us wanted to go home afterwards so we walked through the UK, Andrew got a beer and then we headed to Magic Kingdom to watch the first night of the fourth of July fireworks. Andrew insisted they were Canada Day fireworks because he was Canadian for the day... to bad when people asked him where he was from all he could remember was Toronto. Silly boy.

catch up

well since the four parks one day there has been a lot going, including a lot of work and no play.
After work though we try to go out to ihop or denny's which makes things a little better.
There was one day a little while back which was fun. There was no one who had the day off with me so I decided to go shopping at the cast member discount stores and then hit up Magic Kingdom. I ended up buying the whole Toy Story gang but majority of them were 75% off. When I went to Magic Kingdom I pin traded a little bit and visited my roommates while they were working. I waited for a perfect spot for the nighttime parade which was worth it and it wasn't even pushy. Going by yourself isn't so bad because no one cares about a party of one you cut right infront of people and parties and they don't care. So I got an awesome spot for the castle show and wishes as well.

Another day Julia, Victoria and I decided to make reservations at Whispering Canyon for lunch because cast members get 40% off and it was a lot of fun. But before the reservation Julia wanted to do a cute photoshoot at Magic Kingdom. We literally walked in, took pictures, and left. We explored Wilderness Lodge a little bit afterwards and it was a lot of fun.

We went shopping at Downtown Disney until it poured on us. For dinner we wanted to find somewhere with a TV but everywhere was packed so we ended up eating at CiCi's which is always good. Then to end off the night we saw the midnight viewing of Monster's University which was an amazingly cute movie.
The next day the three of us continued to resort hop at the monorail resorts  and Victoria's roommate Brianne came along as well. We hit up Polynesian first and then swam at Grand Floridian. We ate there as well at the Grand Floridian Cafe and that was delicious!! It started to ran so we took the monorail to Contemporary and Bay Lake to keep dry. Brianne had to work early so we drove her over to Caribbean Beach resort and explored over there a little bit. It was pouring so hard but we wanted to check out the Boardwalk before I worked. Then I worked and that was the end of the fun for that day.

Just a few days ago though we had a great day! Julia, Victoria, Kathleen who is from Quebec, and I went to Tampa for the day. It was very exciting. 4 little white girls blasting Justin Bieber driving through the ghetto is the thrill of a lifetime. We spent the day at the beach and it was the perfect weather for it and the ocean was so warm. But the whole reason we went to Tampa was because we wanted to see the Jays vs. Rays game. We were going to buy $10 tickets at the very top but we decided to go big or go home and we got tickets for front row behind the Jays bullpen. We lost but it was a lot of fun while it lasted :D

four parks, one day

Wednesday was my friend Lindsey's birthday and for her birthday she wanted to do all four parks in one day. We got the bus over to Polynesian at 10 and took the boat over to Magic Kingdom. Once at Magic Kingdom all we wanted to do was take pictures! We took castle pictures, pictures with the Mayor and the Dapper Dans. The Dapper Dans were awesome as always. They told us a story about Canada and it went a little like this:
"There were three men camping and they wanted to name the land they were camping on. They each decided they would take turns picking a letter. So the first guy said "C, eh" the next one said "N, eh" and the last one said "D, eh" and that's how they got Canada."
I thought it was pretty clever. They then sang us some songs including happy birthday and fanned us like princesses because it was so hot out. When we were done with Main Street we made our way to Fantasyland to make birthday wishes in Cinderella's Wishing Well. We met the Fairy Godmother and went to Gaston's Tavern to have Lefou's Brew! On our way out we made sure that Lindsey got pixie dusted to make sure her birthday wishes would come true.

From Magic Kingdom we took the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge and took the bus to Animal Kingdom from there. Our friend Julia met us there but unfortunately she forgot her blue pass to get her into the park. So Lindsey, Kelly and I did Animal Kingdom and met Julia at Epcot. In Animal Kingdom we took our pictures infront of the tree and I got my first jalapeño stuffed pretzel while the girls got fried rice. It was disgustingly hot out so we ate our food in the shade and then headed to Dinoland. In Dinoland we wanted to play the carnival games to win Lindsey birthday prizes. I played whack-a-mole which I always win at! Kelly played a ball toss game and won! and Lindsey tried to play basketball but couldn't make a basket. The lady running the game was super nice and kept letting her try again and then when Kelly and I tried to get a basket we did. Which is how we were lucky enough to win Daffy the Dinosaur, Lindsey's new baby. Before we left Animal Kingdom Lindsey made sure she got Daffy a matching birthday button.

From Animal Kingdom we took the bus to Epcot where Julia could actually get in! We took our pictures infront of Spaceship Earth and went to Club Cool. I was so ready to get Julia to have a Beverley but they were completely out. So we made our way to the Canada Pavillon. On my bucket list is to eat at every pavillon and from Canada I got ketchup chips! I was going through serious withdrawal! We left Epcot and hung out at the Beach Club/Boardwalk for a little bit and then took the boat over to Hollywood Studios.

At Hollywood Studios we took our pictures infront of the hat and got some sweets. We got slushies and we all shared a Carrot Cake cookie which was absolutely delicious. Lindsey works on Sunset Blvd. so we walked up and down that and did the drawing academy. I see why Lindsey wanted to do that so badly because she is amazing at drawing and she wanted to make us feel bad. Once again might looked like an alien. Once we were done in there it was time for our reservation at 50's Prime Time. Our waiter was awesome he was this little Hawaiian man who was super nice and funny. He noticed that it was Lindsey's birthday and asked her how old she was turning and when she said 20 he looked so surprised. He said "well I guess I better go back to tell the guys because when I told them I had a table of 5 ladies today they were upset because you looked so young but let me go tell them your over 18." Later on he brought Anton over to our table who was too busy flirting with us when he should have been serving his table. He made the 7 year old at the table beside us his wingman and brought us all free cupcakes. It was a funny dinner and very memorable.

From Hollywood Studios it ended up just being Lindsey Kelly and I again and we rushed back to Magic Kingdom to see Wishes. We ended up catching the finale from the bus but we saw it and thats what matters. We got in there took nighttime castle pictures and got to see the castle show which was perfect. We rode our first ride of the day which was Haunted Mansion because Kelly works there. After Haunted Mansion we rode Cinderella's Golden Carousel because that is Lindsey's favorite princess so she wanted to ride Cinderella's horse and we did. We got some end of the night sweets and walked over to Contemporary to get the bus back. Normally we always give up our seats for people who have been working that day but by the time they got on the bus we were fast asleep in our seats.

and so we lived happily ever after.
the end.

My one day off this week!

So it turned out that my roommates and I all had Wednesday off!! We made reservations at one of my favorite restaurants Cape May Cafe for 5:30. We took our time sleeping in and then hit up Animal Kingdom. Luckily Lauren has a car so we didn't have to worry too much about getting from AK to Cape May or bus times or anything like that. We got to Animal Kingdom and it had stopped raining. It had been raining all week long and it had finally stopped in enough time for us to go! Alex had never been to AK before so it was very exciting for her. Unfortunately we really didn't get to do much because of our timing. We got into the park hit the Safari and grabbed fastpasses and on our way to Everest someone had stopped us and given us free fastpasses for it! That was great because it was an hour wait. It started raining again so we waited in the gift shop until we could use our fastpasses. Alex was terrified but she loved it! Our fastpasses for the Safari were at the same time so once we were done we went over there. I was so excited to get the back row because I love being able to look back at the animals. Well not this time. This time I was not okay with the back row. As soon as we took off it started POURING!!!!! It was raining and windy so all the rain soaked us from behind! As soon as we got off the safari we made a B line for the car and made our way over to Beach Club.
Cape May was as delicious as always!!!!!! I love love loved it. And I cracked my crab perfectly all by myself! When we got back to the apartment it was time for the Where's Perry Welcome Event. So we met Perry ;D !!!!! You can't meet Perry in the park so it was awesome!
At midnight everyone at World of Disney was going to meet up at Dennys. I was waiting for the bus to go to WOD so I could get a ride there but the bus drove right by my stop and right by me and didn't stop. Needless to say I was pissed. But because I have the best friends in the world they came to pick me up! Dennys was closed for maintenance so we went over to Fridays. I didn't get home until about 2:30 and had to work 10-11 the next day.

The shift was long and tiring but awesome at the same time. I was on sales and normally I don't like sales because I hate being on register. But my shift consisted of register, door greeter, line guide, collecting ink tags and just about everything you can have. I loved the variety!!

AH SO BUSY

Sooooo many long shifts, so there is nothing interesting to write about. Most of my shifts are between 10-13 hours long, racking in the cash... LOLJK I am making like 2 cents an hour. Oh well, I love my job and I love my friends at my job so everything is okay. My feet though... not loving it so much.

crazy week!

Saturday:
Saturday was my official Downtown Disney orientation called "Our Town." It was alright but boring at times. We basically learnt the past, present and future of Downtown Disney and walked around. Walking around was not the best because it was like 492487589 degrees out!!! and a lot of it was just explaining what was in the stores and after you've been there so many times  you pretty much already know what is inside the stores.
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Sunday:
World of Disney training!! My roommate went through this while I had a day off and she absolutely hated it. She said her trainer was and the group was annoying. But we had some great trainers!! We pretty much just toured the store and did a little bit of e learning stuff! World of Disney is slowly becoming a lot smaller!

Monday:
Merchantainment! Probably the boringest part of my training so far! It was a class on how to work the regiesters and on loss prevention. They say working merchandise at Walt Disney World is a lot harder than working retail anywhere else but the register is really quite simply. The only good thing was I was being paid for this because it was just so long and boring! It was also at 8am but thank god my friend had a car because I would have had to get up at 5am just to be there on time.

Tuesday:
Register training at World of Disney! I had the most awesome trainer for this! Her name is Seema and she seems to be friends with just about everybody! I love how friendly she is because she makes it a lot easier to meet new friends! The first half of my training was pretty much meeting new people and talking to them! The second half was all register which I am not too bad at thank god! I also got put into the Great Hall North room which is the room with the entrance right behind the waterside stage. When the DJ dance party was going on Seema kept encouraging me to go out and dance on greet which I was totally okay with and loved every second of it! I enjoyed my shift a lot and met a few great people!

Wednesday:
Wednesday I worked with Alicia (my roommate) and before work we went to Earl of Sandwich. I normally wouldn't buy lunch but NONE of our stovetop burners were working and we still didn't have half of the supplies for the kitchen so we couldn't cook anything in the stove. This shift was even better because not only did I know exactly what I was doing on cash but Seema also made sure that I had at least an hour and a half outside on greet for the DJ dance party. The only thing that wasn't so great about my shift was as a mom and her little girl were walking out of the store he daughter felt dizzy and fainted. Her mother was screaming out for help so myself, Seema and a manager went to help her out. While the manager called for 911 and Seema calmed down the mother I was trying to distract the little brothers. They both looked around the age of 7 and were completely adorable. One of the boys clearly had cancer but was wearing a button that said "remission rules!" My manager made sure she took note of it and congratulated him and told him she was proud before he left. I got the brothers up and dancing with me to the music, talked to them about their favorite rides and characters and gave them their first pins for pin trading! We also took care of their purchase with a no strings attached card. This card basically means Disney has taken care of it and the customer doesn't need to purchase a thing. Before going to bed Alicia was telling me she didn't like her training and was really considering leaving like she had been talking about all week.

Thursday:
Thursday morning I wake up to find Alicia's side of the room completely packed up and the first words she said to me were "oh good, you're up. I'm leaving tomorrow morning." I was sooooo shocked she had made a decision so fast! So I woke up and hung around the pool and then went to Walmart with Alicia to return a bunch of her stuff. And we went out for dinner at Cici's with our friends Hailey, Kellie and Katie! That night was the night in lights welcome party that the Disney Housing offered. It wasn't too bad but I only knew a few people going. Alicia was too tired and others just weren't interested so I went with a girl I knew from home and her friend which ended up being a lot of fun!

Friday:
I woke up to an empty apartment and it was weird! This was also the Monstrous Summer All Nighter at Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately all cast member IDs were banned from the park and everyone was working. I had nothing to do so I figured I would pick up a shift. I worked Fantasyland Zone 2 which includes the Seven Dwarves Mine, Enchanted Grove (the cart outside of the Merida meet and greet), and Pooh's Hundred Acre Goods. I LOVED it. It was a little weird at first. I couldn't find lockers or anything/anywhere to put my stuff so I asked a manager who put it on her desk in a locked room. This made it pretty hard to get to on breaks so I ended up buying lunch in the Mouseketeria. I got to know the utilidoors a lot better and I really hope I pick up more shifts around there. I loved the atmosphere, guests, and cast members. Lucky for me I picked up an easy shift. Just 5-12!! Most people I talked to had crazy shifts like 5-6:30am or something like that. It was kind of scary coming back to an empty apartment but I learned to love it. I got off of my shift really late and ended up getting back around 2:30 or 3.

Saturday:
I woke up to the sound of someone walking into my apartment.... how scary. Turns out I got a new roommate! Her name is Lauren and she is from Alabama. I am happy that she moved in because she is super nice. I had my stock training on this day which was 330-12 and it wasn't bad at all I loved it. I love everything about my job!!

Sunday:
I had the day off and Julia and I hit up Hollywood Studios for a reservation at 50's Prime Time Diner. I LOVE this restaurant. The themeing, the drinks, the food everything. This time unfortunately I was not as impressed. It may have been that we were just a party of two teenagers or it could be that is was lunch time I'm not sure. The food was delicious but not worth the money because really you pay for the atmosphere which wasn't all the impressive. It was Sunday of memorial day weekend and Star Wars weekends so the park was absolutely PACKED. The wait lines at one point were 180 for TSM, 130 for Rock'n'Roller coaster and 70 for Tower of Terror. It was crazy. So we met up with our other friends Katie, Haily, and Kelly. We were all waiting in front of the stage for the Hoopla! The Hoopla was hilarious  It probably would have been better if I knew who these Star Wars characters were but either way it was hilarious. While we were waiting I overheard a conversation behind us. A tween went up to the guy behind us and said "Has anyone ever told you, you look like Macklemore?" He said yeah and the kid asked if he really was Macklemore and the guy answered yeah. The kid ran over to his friends and then went onto to get pictures. EVERYONE around us old and young were asking for pictures. We were the only ones around who knew he wasn't actually Macklemore. It was hilarious watching him take pictures with his "biggest" fans. When the Hoopla started playing Thrift Shop everyone turned around and he just went along with it. After that we waited to watch the 10:30 Fantasmic viewing and got front row! It was a little wet but we loved it.

Monday:
We got another roommate!!! Her name is Alex and she is from California. She is super nice and I love her! I got so lucky with roommates! I also had my assessment at work which I passed :D 60/62 not to bad at all :D buuuuuut today (Tuesday) is the official day I earned my ears!! I am so excited to be..

AN OFFICIAL DISNEY CAST MEMBER 

First day of Disney Freedom!

All College Program participants are allowed to get into the Water Parks for free until June so I have decided to take advantage of it while I can. The first park I went to as a Disney Cast Member was Typhoon Lagoon with a girl I met in the immigration meeting. It turns out she lives in Burlington and goes to Laurier so she is pretty much my neighbour in every way! Her name is Kelly and is so so lucky because she will be working at Haunted Mansion.
Typhoon Lagoon had been closed all week because they needed to reapply for a water pump or something. The park was dead and I am assuming it was because no one knew it was open again or something. We got there about an hour after opening and did all the Crush'n'Gusher's, Shark Reef, Mayday Falls (or something like that), Lazy River and the Wave Pool! I got a little bit more burnt than planned.
As soon as I got home I grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to Epcot with Hailey. It was the only time I was going to be able to view the Flower and Garden Festival so we ran around Epcot for a little bit, mostly just the World Showcase. I tried Frushi and it was pretty delicious. Instead of Sushi and fish, it is FRushi. Sushi with fruit!

Afterwards we headed to Magic Kingdom for fireworks but before that did Space Mountain and watched the Main Street Electrical Parade. My friend Julia had only been to the Magic Kingdom during Traditions so she was in awe watching the fireworks and seeing the castle.

I have to say I got a lot done on my first official Disney day!