Weekend with the Family

Wow, what a fun filled weekend it was! As usual, my weekend started on Thursday. I am taking a class through Disney called "Marketing You" and we had our first meeting Thursday afternoon. The class had a more laid back atmosphere than a regular college class. I'm hoping that this class will give me direction in my life. This is a four hour class with two breaks, so it makes for a long day. I sure am having a hard time getting back in the habit of studying! After class, I went to Magic Kingdom with a friend from work who had never been before! He has been here since May and had never been to Magic Kingdom or seen Wishes! It is so much fun to be with someone the first time that they experience something at Disney World.

Matt, Krista, and Maddy, Jack's family, left Thursday afternoon to come down for the weekend. I spent the day with them on Friday and we had so much fun! We went to Epcot first, then to Animal Kingdom. Poor Maddy hurt her leg at dance, so she had to be in a wheelchair. The positive thing about it was that we didn't always have to wait in long lines if there was a handicap entrance. ;)

Maddy and me in front of Figment!

After we finished up at Animal Kingdom we came back to the apartment, then went to our resort. We were all staying at All Star Sports. I went and checked my family in, but they weren't there yet. Then we started getting ready for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We had never been before, so we were all excited! I wanted to dress up as Belle, but I had a hard time finding a costume. About a week and a half before the party I texted my crafty friend, Nancy Tyson, and asked her if she had ever made a costume. She had, and I told her what I was wanting. Just a few days later she called me and said she had bought everything to make it. Talk about a talented lady! She had to make the costume without me there to try it on. So when Krista brought it down, we all said a little prayer that it would fit, and it was perfect! 

Nancy's sister, Lori, and their mom working on the costume. It was a family effort!

And Mama modeling it. They sent me this picture while I was at work and I cracked up!

We got ready and got on the bus to go to Magic Kingdom. Mama, Daddy, and Nathan left Friday around 11am to come down, and Nathan had been keeping me updated on where they were throughout the day. While we were on the bus, Mama (who has no sense of direction) called me and told me that she was in the cast parking lot at Magic Kingdom! I don't even know how she ended up there! We went in and made some pictures and did some trick-or-treating. Somehow Mama got to where she was supposed to be, and I went back and met them at the gate with their tickets. There were lots of people with really creative costumes. We did some more trick-or-treating, met lots of characters that don't normally do meet and greets, and watched the parade and Hallowishes! I really enjoyed the party and thought it was well worth the money. As cast members, we can sign up to work the party (giving out candy, crowd control, etc.). Once I figure out how, I'm going to sign up to work one.

Of course Mama wanted to take my picture by a trashcan...

Hallowishes!

Friday morning before I left to for the parks, Lauren did my hair like Belle's.
She did a great job and it held up pretty well!

The one character that I really wanted to get a picture with was Gaston. It would have been perfect! But by the time we made it over to his area, he had already stopped doing meet and greets. :( We tried to get some good pictures in his area in new Fantasyland, but it was so dark that they all turned out bad. I really enjoyed being a princess for the night. A huge thank you to Nancy and Lori for making my costume!

Saturday we got up and went back to Magic Kingdom. We loved seeing the fall decorations, because we've never been during this time of year.

That afternoon we went to Hollywood Studios and met up with the McRee's. They talked Mama into riding Tower of Terror! Now that was a sight to behold. Everybody in the elevator with us was cracking up at her. Jack had to work that day, so we got to ride Great Movie Ride with him as our guide. He did a great job!

This is kind of blurry, but it was so funny!

We saw Fantasmic, then headed back to the resort. Sunday morning we got up, checked out, and went to Downtown Disney. Disney has just released a line of Vera Bradley, so we wanted to check it out. The patterns are so cute! We went and grabbed some lunch, then came to my apartment for a little while. I had to get ready for work, and they had to get back home. Again, it was hard to say goodbye but I'm so glad that I got to spend the weekend with them. I was supposed to work on Saturday, but at the last minute I found someone to take my shift. I'm so thankful that God answered that prayer. I'm still having the time of my life but I definitely miss home! Thank you to everyone for continuing to pray and support me!

Unleash the Villains

As I posted earlier, last night was Unleash the Villains at Hollywood Studios. This was a special Limited Time Magic event. It started at 8pm and ended at 1am, the 13th hour on Friday the 13th. Lauren and I were both off so we planned to go. Since the parks have not been crowded at all, we didn't expect a big crowd. Disney didn't expect a big crowd either, but boy were we all wrong! 

One of Lauren's coworkers had texted Lauren and told her that the traffic was really bad and that the park was at capacity. The only time the parks reach capacity is major holidays, like Christmas and New Years! We left our apartment around 7:30pm, thinking that we had plenty of time to get there. We were in bumper to bumper traffic for 45 minutes. While we were stuck in the traffic, we saw several Orange County police cars come by to help direct traffic. This is something that I've never seen at Disney. We were about to turn onto the road to Hollywood Studios when a police officer told us that we would have to park at Epcot and ride a bus to Hollywood Studios! I looked at him and said, "You have got to be kidding me." His response: "I wish I was kidding." By the time we got to Epcot it was 9:00. Then we had to stand in line to wait on a bus. Buses were being rerouted because of the traffic, so we went the long way to Studios. By this point I was ready to scream. If you know me well, you know that I don't handle traffic well, or people. We were packed on the bus with loud, obnoxious people and I really thought that I was going to have to spray one woman in the face with my pepper spray. We finally arrived at Hollywood Studios at 10:00.

Thankfully we got in with no trouble. One of our friends, Meghan, was in line to meet the characters. We met up with her and we were very lucky that we did. Had we not gotten in line with her, we would have missed the characters. I felt bad about cutting in line, but we had planned to meet up and sometimes you just do what you have to do! This was the longest and slowest moving line that I have ever seen. Later on managers started coming by and handing out cards with the characters' autographs on them, in case we didn't get to see all the characters. There were 6 characters. Then, guest relations members started coming by and handing out cards saying that if you didn't get a picture of the characters, you could e-mail them and they would send you a picture. This was their way of trying to encourage people to get out of line. We didn't get discouraged though. Meghan was determined to get a picture with Maleficent. 

Lauren met up with one of her friends who was farther up in line, and texted me saying that there were separate lines for the different characters. We stayed in the line that we were in because we didn't know what was going on. At 11:00 there was a fireworks show. This was really neat because Hollywood Studios only has fireworks for special occasions. It was one of the most amazing fireworks shows that I have ever seen! The music was perfect and there were so many fireworks! As we got closer, we could see that Maleficent was switching out every half hour with another villain. So we didn't know if we would even get to see her. Then cast members and managers began coming around and giving out free Dasani waters. At this point I knew that things were serious. This was Disney's way of saying "You're probably not going to be able to meet the villains." They finally cut the line off and there were literally 3 people behind us. We were told that we wouldn't meet Maleficent but we decided to stay in line just in case. It was midnight and she was leaving at 12:30. The line seemed to be moving so slow and I was ready to go up and make people snap a picture with Maleficent and leave. People were just walking up and cutting all of the people in line, and taking their sweet precious time interacting with her. But then, my faith in humanity was restored. There was a huge group of people in front of us and instead of getting individual pictures, they got one big group picture. So at 12:25, we finally met her! It was the fastest meet and greet I've ever done. She was trying to interact with us and we just wanted her to shut up and take a picture so that the people behind us could meet her too. After that we got on a bus back to Epcot and came back to the apartment. We were exhausted.

This was definitely an experience...I don't want to complain about how completely unorganized it was, because I know that the event managers and cast members were not expecting so many people and they were just very unprepared. I honestly felt bad for the company because there were so many upset guests and there was no one to blame. Many things could have been done differently to make the event go more smoothly, but they just did not realize how many guests would come out for this. Given the circumstances, they handled it very well and I am proud to work for such a wonderful company. All in all, it was a great night and I'm glad that I got to experience it!

Our quick picture with Maleficent!

These pictures aren't good at all. It was much better in person!

These are some random pictures from our Epcot/Animal Kingdom day!

A Few Thoughts and Pictures

Today is my Thursday and I am spending it relaxing. I did that yesterday, too. I guess I'm adjusting to this new climate because I've got a cold, so I'm trying to rest so that I will have energy while I'm working. Not having Saturdays and Sundays off has really been a big adjustment for me. I usually have Thursdays and Fridays off, and work the weekends. I really hate that because I can't go to church. Most of the time I'm not even here to watch a service on TV. That is one thing that I have really missed down here. 

It has been a really long week. Friday I had an 8am shift, then Saturday and Sunday I had 6:30am shifts. Those make for long days. I can't even function that early in the morning! Thankfully one of those mornings I was in restrooms and I had a good partner. When you work restrooms, you have a male partner that works the same area that you do. The other morning I worked streets, but I met a nice person who worked at Guest Relations who talked to me throughout the day.

When people ask me how I like it here, I tell them that I like it but it's so different from home. The more people that I meet and interact with, the more I realize how different it really is here. Most of the people that I meet don't have the same morals and beliefs that I do, which is new to me. All I've ever known is a small town where everybody knows everybody and most everyone goes to church. That's definitely not the case here. I knew that the whole world wasn't like that, but I had just never experienced anything different. It's so odd meeting people and finding out that they grew up completely different than I did. This is the case with a lot of my coworkers. It's sometimes very disappointing and discouraging because it's hard to find good people to connect with. But I truly believe that God has me here for a reason and it's all part of His plan. I'm so thankful for the good friends that I have made so far, and look forward to making many more!

I have a few pictures from a fun day in the parks to share. This friday is "Unleash the Villains" at Hollywood Studios, since it's Friday the 13th. All the villains will be out. I'm very excited because you don't see many villains around here anymore. Pictures from that will follow soon!

Molly and I with Ralph and Vanellope!

Singin' in the rain!

Lauren and I with Jasmine and Aladdin!

We love fall at Magic Kingdom!

Family Visit

This weekend Mama, Grandmother, and Paw Paw came to visit. I was so glad to see them! They got here Saturday night and I met them at the hotel after I got off work. We stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort. I stayed with them because cast members can get their families 60% off rooms right now if the cast member is staying in the room. It was nice to get out of the apartment and spend some time with them. 

Sunday we slept in and then went to the outlets here in Orlando because I wanted some new shoes. Funny story-I have several pairs of flip flops called Sanuks, and they're made out of yoga mats. They are really comfortable, but when they get wet they squirt soap and become slippery. I love to wear them to the parks but when it rains, which is almost every day, I'm in trouble. So we decided to try to find me some comfortable shoes that I could wear when it is raining. It took us forever to get in because it was so crowded! I don't understand why people want to come to Orlando to shop, but they do! We spent several hours over there. Then we went to Red Lobster to get a late lunch/early supper. After that we came to my apartment to let Grandmother and Paw Paw look at it. I think it made them feel better to see where I was living and how safe it is in our complex. We went back to the hotel after that to just relax for a little while. Then me and mama made a quick run to the grocery store and to get some frozen yogurt. We found a place here called Sweet Frog and it is so good! 

Monday morning we had to check-out by 11. I already had all my stuff for work with me, so we went to Downtown Disney for a little while so that I wouldn't have to go back to the apartment before work. We spent about two hours there, then headed back to Pop Century to get my car and leave. Saying goodbye just doesn't get any easier, even when I know that they will be back. 

I'm so happy down here, but I miss my family and friends so much. I have had some really hard days and right now I'm ready to have a few days off and spend some time in the parks. Even though I've been down here almost a month, I really haven't had a chance to go to the parks that much. I haven't been to Animal Kingdom at all! It's hard to find someone who has the same days off as me. 

No matter how hard my days are, I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. I am blessed to have really nice managers here, and a coordinator that I love! Coordinators are below managers, but above the cast members. His name is Gerhard and he is from the Netherlands, but he speaks very fluent English (which is rare around here). He is so personable and nice. He loves to tell stories, interact with guests, and is so helpful to everyone. 

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support! It means so much to me! 

Had to play catch up...haven't had a chance to share these pictures!