Painting the Roses Red

Two weeks have past and not much has happened besides work, but I’m going to fill you in on what I can remember.

Tink in the Pixie Hollow area EPCOT where you can see her and her friends

I experienced my first Daylight Savings moving the clock forward one hour (well the first that I can remember) which killed me. I lost one hour worth of sleep and had work at 6:30am that day. I then had a Crystal Palace shift that went by quickly, luckily I had a friend working there as well that day, so time went a little faster. Last week I finally got my usual Meet & Greet back at Character Spot – I missed it so much, I’m glad that since then I’ve been scheduled there once a week. Still over Dining, but it does make time go faster.

Silvermist, one of Tink's friends in Pixie Hollow

They had all these different fairy homes throughout Pixie Hollow Gardens, I liked this the most

On Tuesday I went and had a look at the Garden & Flower Festival at EPCOT, which was interesting. I got a map and went on a search to find all the characters in plant form. I’ll include some pictures throughout the post. I was only there for a couple of hours, but got a little burnt – thankfully I don’t burn as bad as I do back at home – maybe for the first time ever I’ll get a tan whilst her in America! That afternoon I had my Disney Heritage class – all about the theme park history (Disneyland and WDW), I found it interesting and it’s nice to know a few extra facts about some rides here at the Magic Kingdom.

Farmer Mickey and Minnie at the gateway to the World Showcase

Wednesday was a friend’s birthday in which he celebrated by inviting us all along to join him for breakfast at the Grand Floridian’s 1900 Park Fare – a character dining experience (and my first as a guest!). The food was pretty darn good, and so much of a selection – it’s a buffet style restaurant, and it was only $20 with our discount. I say only because I was honestly expecting around $30-35 since character dining can be expensive. Afterwards we jumped on a monorail and went over to the Magic Kingdom for a while. Everyone left and I stayed as I was meeting another friend – Brittany – in two hours time, it would have been a waste of time to go home. So I rode the Walt Disney Railroad steam train, watch PhilarMagic again, went into the Enchanted Tiki Room for the first time, and got a waffle with strawberries and cream from the Sleepy Hollow food area for ‘lunch’ (4pm).

Beast and Belle in the France Pavilion

After browsing in some stores Brittany was finished with work and we went on some rides. She also showed me her necklace – ‘Aztec Gold Coin’ from Pirates of the Caribbean 1. I didn’t even know they sold that, so off we went so I could purchase one for myself. Then, since we were right there and it was a ‘5min’ wait, we jumped on the ride. The evening went fast, and after riding Peter Pan’s Flight we headed home, before Wishes so we could miss the rush of people to the monorails and boats, at the rush of CPs to the CP bus. It was a long day, but one I enjoyed a lot.

Cars 2 - Japan (Seeing as Cars 2 was set mainly in Tokyo)

Since then I had my shift at Character Spot yesterday and my shift at Ohana’s at the Polynesian Resort. I’m back there tomorrow, but since it’s Spring Break and drawing closer to Easter the Breakfast and Dinner hours have been extended at all dining locations. At least I’ll be fed dinner whilst I’m at the Contemporary (we only ever get fed at Ohana’s). And with my pay, I’m never one to pass on a free meal now days.

Snow White in Germany

Next Wednesday Lauren, Jen and I are going to see the Hunger Games. Back home I would have been to the movie already – these types of movies I book in advance and see them on the day of release. But unfortunately I had work today (release date in America) and have work for the following few days. Oh well.

Woody and Buzz found in the American Pavilion

That’s all I have to ‘report’ on. Eat, sleep and work is mainly all I do lately, but at least I love my job.

108 sleep until my brother arrives!

Heffalumps And Woozles (Week Full of Pooh Characters)

Afternoon!

I survived my four shifts at Crystal Palace, I do have another shift there on Monday, but thankfully it’s only one shift next week. Crystal Palace – or Crystal Prison some people call it – wasn’t too bad, I mean I had fairly bad expectations of the place so that may have helped on my own perception. I didn’t love it, but it’s definitely not the end of the world if I’m scheduled there. Today marked my last day there for my four days of Hell, in-between those shifts I had my first shift at Contemporary Resort at Chef Mickey’s. Pluto gets to have a little chef hat and an apron, so even Pluto dresses up for the occasion.

Not much has happened work wise this past week, however two roommates were removed from our wellness apartment, which left the biggest room in our apartment available. So, the next day Jen and I got up early to clean it up and move ourselves to the big room. And may I just say: it’s wonderful. We have so much space we don’t know what to do with ourselves! One positive after that fiasco, I was not only excited about our big room, but the fact I now have my bed against a wall. I hated having my bed in the middle of the room; it just got in the way.

This coming week, starting tomorrow, I have breakfast at Polynesian Resort, then Crystal Palace, Character Spot for both Wednesday and Thursday – I’m excited to go back to meet and greets after almost 4 weeks of just dining, and Saturday I’m back at the Polynesian Resort for breakfast again. Not too bad of a week! We also have our first housing inspection on Tuesday, which I have the day off. Don’t particularly want to be here when it happens, so I may try and disappear somewhere. Daylight savings begins tomorrow, yet Spring is not until the 20^th March… Yeah makes no sense to me either having Spring on a random day in the month, but that’s how it is here.

That’s all for now!~

Topsy Turvy

Hullo

‘One More Disney Day’ has been and gone – it was extremely busy. I finished work at 10pm, and since the monorail from EPCOT to Magic Kingdom stopped at 10pm, I had to catch the bus back to our apartments then onto Magic Kingdom. By the time I reached MK it was 11:15pm and it was packed. I haven’t seen it that busy before (seeing as I haven’t worked here in the Summer yet), lines for rides were ridiculous and to see Mickey and Minnie it was a 90min wait. First I met up with a friend to say good bye as she was leaving early the next morning, watched the Electrical Parade at midnight and then went to the Dance Party at the front of the castle. There we found more friends and danced for a while there. Later I found out that some disappeared, I contacted one of them to find out he was in line to see Flynn Rider – off I went. He had found some friends there too, so we kind of cheated and cut the line a bit. By the end of it I had waited 2.5 hours and the girls who were there before us had waited a total of 4 hours! Flynn was very popular. I’m also glad to say I had enough courage to ask if there was anything in Flynn’s satchel, which there was – Rapunzel’s tiara.

Flynn Showing Me the Tiara - whilst Rapunzel points out it has flower on it too

By then it was 5am, so we headed over to Sleepy Hollow for some breakfast, which is where a lot of others had the same idea. They didn’t get their breakfast until 5:45am! I sat with them as they ate and by the time they had finished the park was closed – we had made it till 6am! That day I literally slept majority of the day. Friday I went to Animal Kingdom where I was finally able to meet up with Brittany! She had been to the park before so knew what was good, what times to go etc so that was definitely helpful! I also finally got to go on the Safari, we went once in the middle of the day and the next at 5pm (park close) where we saw a lot more animals out and about. After Animal Kingdom we went over to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic since I hadn’t seen it yet, it was amazing! Definitely my favourite.

Yesterday I had my spare shift from 3pm-9:30pm, which I ended up having to ER at 5pm. But during the day I had gotten excited for my travels after the program with one of my friends back home, so I had been looking up tours and things to do in each city we’re visiting. Today marks the first of 4 shifts at Crystal Palace. Ugh. I’m trying to look at this positively, but it’s not working. And the Hub is down so I cannot view my schedule for next week.

127 days until Ben and Hannah get here. And it’s officially been 2 months since I arrived in America.

New Friends

Hullo,

So by now I’ve done a few more shifts and got to make a new friend along the way, but before I get to that I’ll go through my days in order.

I had my second shift at Garden Grill on Saturday with my friend Pluto; the shift went fast so I was happy with that. Unfortunately I didn’t get to bed early and had an early start the next morning for character dining, yet again with Pluto. This was at the Swan Hotel in one of their restaurants. It was dead for the first three sets, but when Pluto went out on his fourth set it was packed, only because majority of the guests were runners from the Princess ½ Marathon. I then had a 3 ½ hour break inbetween my shifts, so I decided to go have lunch in Paris, then wonder the rest of the worlds. It didn’t take up much time, I then decided to just go back to base and read. I ended up putting in for an ER when I finished my first shift (ER for my second shift) and it looked like I wasn’t going to get it until my captain got a call as I was jumping into the van – my ER had been granted and the person taking over me was coming. So I only worked an hour for that shift, I couldn’t care because I knew I’d be exhausted the next morning if I had to stay until 10pm.

The next morning, waking up at 4:15am, I headed over to Magic Kingdom for my spare shift. However, it didn’t turn out to be a spare shift. Thank goodness I was not pulled for character dining (I have enough shifts currently and next week to last me a lifetime) but I was pulled to make a new friend – Tweedledee, as well as his brother – Tweedledum. I was so happy to make a new friend and we had the best time – they may be my favourites now, shhh! Don’t tell Pluto! They also got to ride the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups on their last set – which they both loved! That night I went with some friends to the Beach Club Resort (where I’ll be staying with my brother) to have a go at the kitchen sink challenge – we did pretty well! Afterwards I went home since at that stage I was still planning to go to the Star Wars auditions and they were bright and early.

However, my alarm went off at 6am and I went back to sleep. I knew there was no point going, I wouldn’t get anything and I was mainly going to see what happens during them, but I had worked with a face character the previous day who told me exactly what happens. So, I decided not to go and caught up on sleep. During the day I did my washing, met up with friends, went to my first class – Disney Heritage – then went out for dinner at the Olive Garden, which was amazing! I don’t like soup, but one of my friends (who originally disliked soup) insisted to try the Chicken and Gnocchi soup. I listened and I loved it! And it was free refills, so I got some to take home – guess what’s for lunch today! Oh and today is the ‘One More Disney Day’ where Magic Kingdom and Disneyland are open from 6am on the 29^th Feb until 6am 5^th March. I was thinking about going for the opening, but I love my sleep more at the moment. However, I am going tonight after I finish work at 10pm.

That’s all thus far. My next two days I have off, then a spare shift at EPCOT and then I begin my torture at Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace… I swear someone is getting back at me for giving away that 11.5 hour shift last week. 4 shifts at Crystal Palace? I’m going to cry, let’s just hope the roster for the following week has me and my friends out and about the parks, not cooped up in restaurants.

131 days – the numbers are decreasing quickly! I like this…

Ev'rybody Has A Laughing Place

Afternoon!

So this past week I’ve been sick, again. I seem to get colds more often here than I did back home, which is annoying. I’ve had the past two days and today off (because I was able to get rid of my Crystal Palace shift!) Everyone said, but think of the money you get doing that shift (since it was 12pm-11:30pm you’d get overtime), but I’d still make hardly any $$, so it wasn’t worth my unhappiness.

The 18^th was my first time working at Dinoland with Pluto – who is with another friend at that location – Goofy! I have only ever worked one pairing shift and that was with my friend Eeyore and his friend Tigger, so I was excited to have another shift with pairings. It was a lot of fun and made time go faster than usual. Sunday I was back with Rafiki at his Planet Watch, nothing new there. I wish he was able to go out and about at Oasis again like he used to before I arrived, but unfortunately most of the time he’s stuck at his Planet Watch area. Monday I got to experience an amazing shift that had me go through several emotions. I was with my friend Pluto at Give Kids the World village (for Make a Wish children) down in Kissimmee, for those who don’t know what Give Kids the World is, here’s the website: http://www.gktw.org/. The village is designed so well, everything is wheelchair height and wheelchair accessible, everything is decorated for the kid’s enjoyment (buildings decorated to look like it’s made out of candy). It’s so well done, it put a smile on my face seeing that there was something like this for these kids to enjoy. Pluto was located outside the theatre where Minnie and Mickey were meeting and greeting, so on most occasions Pluto was the first character they’d get to see! Everyone was excited to see Pluto there, apparently he doesn’t get the opportunity much to visit as there’s usually Mary Poppins there instead. If I get that shift again, I’ll definitely be looking forward to it. Tuesday was another first, my first time at the Garden Grill restaurant at EPCOT with my friend Pluto. I’m not a fan of Character Dining, but I enjoyed it here.

Wednesday was my first day off for this week, Jen and I finally made our way over to Animal Kingdom for our first visit. We weren’t there for long though. That evening I went to the first Speaker Series which was with Cast Members in the Events department of the Walt Disney World/Parks company. Seeing as I have a degree in Event Management and want a full time job with Disney, I had signed up for it and headed over to The Commons where the Speaker Series was held. I had just arrived before it started pouring down with rain and I got to experience my first (and definitely not the last) Florida thunderstorm. Like ours back at home in Brisbane, it didn’t last long. I found the class interesting, but it also made me realise that it definitely is hard for international participants to gain a job with Disney. Luckily I was able to speak to one of the Guest Speakers about it in which she recommended to look into events concerning the Disney Cruise Lines, as that’s an opportunity available for international participants. Yesterday I went to the Outlet Mall yet again, with Lauren and Jen. This time I only bought a few items and didn’t break the bank like last time… We then journeyed over to Walmart for some grocery shopping and I’m happy that they have Cadbury chocolate out for Easter! Granted, it’s a small selection, but it’s there! Also the first sad/strange thing is THEY DO NOT HAVE HOT CROSS BUNS HERE. I may cry about that… And second is that they don’t only give/receive chocolate for Easter, but jelly beans are a part of it. A little odd, but I like jelly beans so no complaints.

Today? I’ve spent the whole day in bed catching up on my TV Shows – Once Upon A Time and The Big Bang Theory. I also remembered a movie my mum hired out from the video store for me when I was a kid, and I actually really enjoyed it – Man In The Moon. I’ve found it on iTunes, so I’ll probably rent it off there to watch at some point. Today I’m really missing my cat – sorry family Luna has overtaken you for today – I’m not sure what brought it on, but I’m really missing her more than usual. I think it’s the fact I was remembering her unusual quirks…

Tomorrow I’m back at work at the Garden Grill again with my friend Pluto, a late start which means a sleep in! Before my horrid Sunday shift where I’m doing a breakfast Character Dining 6:30-12:30, then I’m back there again for 4pm-10pm, THEN Monday I start at 6am, therefore I have to be up at 4am to get the bus to Magic Kingdom. So, I’m not looking forward to that. I’m happy I’m at Magic Kingdom (maybe I’ll get pulled for the Welcome Show!) but Sunday is just annoying how they’ve got me doing a split shift.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll write about how it goes. Oh, Ben and Hannah: 136 days until I get to see your faces (and I get to sleep in a comfy bed).