Chatham Pool, Illuminations and Strawberry Shortbread...

23^rd of June 11.45pm Us Time...

What a great day!!!

I had a lie-in until about 10, uploaded a big old bunch of photos to facebook, started posting some of these blogs I’ve been writing and just generally chilled out until Louise and Vikki came over at about 2pm. We hung out for a bit whilst Louise moaned because she’d been forced to wear a lab-coat in her training because her skirt was inappropriately short. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I really couldn’t help it. Apparently, Rich Port even walked over to her and said, ‘Did you come in that?’, whilst Vikki wondered, ‘What’s she got on?’ but didn’t want to ask as it was just too awkward. I laughed so hard! Poor Louise. I’ve since lent her my pencil skirt, as we think she’ll get away with that tomorrow and this way she doesn’t have to go buy an entirely new skirt. Bless her.

At around 3pm we went to the pool with Taryn and we found Karyn there! I love Karyn, she’s from Scotland and it so funny. We met some French boys named Pierre (how stereotypical) and Something Else (didn’t quite catch his name, which was a shame really as he was kind of hot) after confiscating their ball. They were splashing us. And taking up the whole pool with their stupid-boy-game of throw-and-catch. Seriously, boys are so easily amused. They had it coming.

Once we’d finished at around 5pm we headed back to our flats because we wanted to catch Illumination: Reflections of Earth firework show at EPCOT and have some dinner too and on the way back we found Joe. YAY! He said he’d come with and we all agreed to meet in half-an-hour. Well because we are all uber-vain, none of us were ready until about half six, but whatever. I love us, so I’ll let us off.

We went into EPCOT via another Cast Entrance (I really don’t think I’ll ever tire of materialising out of thin air) and walked right onto World Showcase. I love World Showcase as its a massive path around a lake and a big old bunch of countries are represented with different pavilions hosting shops, restaurants and attractions. There is Canada, China, Japan, Norway, Mexico, France, Italy, Germany, Morocco and even England home to a proper English pub named the Rose and Crown. Seriously, on World Showcase there are tons of places to eat, and yet we couldn’t all settle on one so decided to go to Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavillion in Future World. Tons of different options to suit everyone’s taste and desert’s galore. NOM. Plus it’s all pretty reasonably priced.

Again, I went with a kiddie meal of chicken thigh with mashed potato and rice. I know that potato and rice don’t often go together, but it loved it. Wanged a big load of soy sauce onto my rice and hot sauce onto my chicken. The mash was lurvely so it didn’t need anything extra. I had it with a cup of pink lemonade (NOM) and followed up with a strawberry shortbread which was just scrumptious. Mmm. I could eat it all over again.

Once we’d finished up at dinner we walked back to the lake to catch the fireworks from the bridge near to England (an excellent spot if you’re ever after one). Once again, we had planned to meet up with my Vista pals like Kristian, Sexy Rich Elliot, Katie and Leanna, but we couldn’t find them, L so once the fireworks were over we walked over to the bus stop at the Beach Club Resort (this happened by mistake as we used the wrong exit out of the park. However, it was totally for the best as we didn’t have to wait in line for the monorail back to the TTC (Transportation and Ticket Centre)... WIN!)

Can’t believe it’s so early and yet we’re all so tired! I think it’s finally catching up on us. I have my in-park training first thing tomorrow, so I really should get some rest.

Wish me luck for tomorrow... keep your fingers crossed for the Great Movie Ride for me J

Love

gabriellasofia

Traditions, The Magic, The Memories and You and Cosmic Rays Nommings.

23^nd June 2.00am US Time...

Today I finally got to go into a theme park!!! AND got my Disney ID which lets me in on all the perks and good stuff that comes with being a cast member. What does that include? I hear you ask. Well, it’s 20% off in most Disney restaurants, between 20% and 40% off in the shops, between 20% and 60% in the hotels and... well you get the idea. Just a big old bunch of free money basically J

So what happened today? I was up at 5.30am to get the bus to Disney University (yes, Disney has a University) for my Traditions class. We had to dress up really smart in business attire, so I wore a denim-look silk blouse tucked into one of my Sixth Form black pencil skirts, plus nude panty-hose, my tan brogues and a tan belt to top it all off. I think I looked rather chic even if I do say so myself. Oh and I’d curled my hair with the new curlers I’d bought from Walmart (a pair of Conair’s for just $15... I’ll review them on my beauty blog _____________) I was carrying my folders in my hand and I had my little brown fringe bag from Topshop.

A girl in line in front of me got told off because her skirt was too short, but she was from somewhere Oriental and just giggled saying, ‘Oh oh oh no espeaky eenglish hee hee haha!’ So the woman let her off. Then I saw the same woman checking out my skirt and I thought, ‘Just try it, love, and I’ll be ‘no espeakin’ eenglish’, yeah?’ But she didn’t.

Traditions training is the Disney way of kind of initiating you and making you aware of the Disney employee life style. The mentality behind it is ‘We create happiness’ by using four keys, Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency. Sometimes you have to sacrifice one of the keys a little further down the line in order to preserve one of the others, for example if a Tomorrowland Cast Member (member of staff) sees a child about to get hurt in Fantasy land, sometimes they may need to spoil the ‘Show’ by going to ensure the ‘Safety’ of that child and crossing a Tomorrowland Costume (work uniform) into Fantasyland. But this is ok, because ‘Safe D begins with Me!’ which is another Disney Traditions motto.

After being brainwashed (I mean learning) about all these things, we got to go to the Magic Kingdom! Our Cast Member status was incognito of course, although we did enter via the Utilidors which are a series of tunnels and pathways beneath ground level in the theme park, designed by Disney Imagineers in order to preserve the ‘Show’ aspect of the resort. It was really cool to be able to see backstage... we saw a room of character heads (like Eeyore and Tigger... tons of them just lined up on a shelf), some people spotted a couple of princesses having their lunch or practising the dances for the parade in their underwear, and we saw this wall of Guess tapestries which was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photographs here but it doesn’t matter because I’ll never forget the memories J

We entered the park up some stairs via Main Street Bakery and the morning Trolley Show was going on at the time which was perfect. I took a bit of video of us seeing the castle for the first time with the Main Street USA song playing in the background. It was just perfect. We walked towards the castle and into Adventureland before slipping out of another hidden Cast Member entrance... really it feels like you’re walking onto Platform 9 and Three Quarters because the Guests must just see you vanish!

After that we headed back to Disney University and did some more training type stuff. They showed a video of Walt and some other people to ‘inspire us’ and it did in fact bring a tear to my eye, especially when he says that line which he gave in the opening Disneyland speech, ‘To all who come to this happy place... Welcome!’ And then as if I wasn’t a big enough blubbering wreck, Mickey came and paid us a visit!!! At least I wasn’t the only teary eyed one, and I think I hid it rather well. I won a little Mickey figurine or ‘critter’ as the trainers called it, and was presented it by Mickey himself. He gave me a hug and everything. In fairness, the question was the easiest ever to answer, ‘Name the founder of the Disney company.’ Wow.

After Traditions, we were free to enter the parks if we wanted to! However, a couple of my friends weren’t getting out of class until after six, and I was exhausted from my early start, so I decided to go take a nap before going to the Magic Kingdom in the evening for dinner and fireworks. After all, we are here for 10 weeks, so there really isn’t any kind of rush at all!

My nap was amazing. I slept for a bit longer than I’d hoped and was woken up by the internet man here to give us the cord we’d been missing. HUZZAH! LET THERE BE INTERNET!!! I was able to Skype home for a little while which was nice and I checked my facebook and university email account. I spent about two hours getting rid of stupid emails. Fantastic.

After all that I went to Walmart with Natalee Jobes for a bit as I really needed an American cell phone! Bought some shampoo and bits to decorate my room too. My cell should be up and running pretty soon so keep an eye out for my number!

Once I got in Vikki came over and we got the CP (College Program) bus to the Transportation and Ticket Centre with Taryn before catching the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Por favour mantenganse alejado de las puertas.

We had an hour or so to kill and were absolutely famished, so we walked down Main Street to Cosmic Rays quick-service, burger restaurant in Tomorrowland where I had another kiddie meal! This time I had chicken nuggets with carrot sticks, fries and a small Coke. Plus there is a toppings bar which everyone is welcome to, so I had some mushrooms, onions and tomatoes too. All for $5. Seriously, I am a money-saving genius!!!

Once we’d finished there, we plonked ourselves right in front of the Cinderella Castle for the new projection show The Magic, The Memories and You which was amazing. I’m going to video record it one day so you can all see, because it is really breath-taking. About ten minutes later, the Wishes firework show started which was (again) beautiful. However, whilst the spot where we were sat was perfect for MMY it was a bit of a hindrance for Wishes as any of the fireworks which went off behind the castle weren’t visible for us L Sad times. It didn’t seem to hold a negative effect on Vikki though; it was the first firework show she’d seen here and she was like one of those kids who is completely fascinated with a new toy. She had a massive smile on her face afterwards and it really showed me that Disney does make dreams come true. *Insert vomiting.*

Once the fireworks had finished we wanted to meet up with the gang from last night, but we couldn’t get in touch, so we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise (our skipper was amazing... and she was an ICP (International College Program Participant) from the UK too!) and Haunted Mansion before waiting in the MASSIVE monorail line to get home as Vikki has an early start tomorrow... well, today. She makes me laugh so much. Whilst she loved the fireworks, she didn’t ‘get’ the attractions. She was like, ‘You sit in a thing, and go around a thing, just looking at things.’ And yet she’s scared of any of the adrenalin type rides, so that’s her lot really!

Despite not having anything in particular to do tomorrow (my in-park training doesn’t start until Friday eeep!) I’d better get to bed. Need to try and kick this jet lag.

So good night. Sweet dreams. Love and miss you all J

gabriellasofia

Vista Pool, Purple Jumper, Beaches and Cream. Nom.

22^nd June 1.30am US Time...

What a delicious day it’s been! I woke up kind of late, like 10.30am(ish) had a nice long shower, put my red bikini on under my red Pearl Jam t-shirt and grey Forever21 jersey shorts, grabbed all my stuff and headed for the bus to Vista at about 12 for my 1pm meeting. I didn’t really know what the arrangements were that I’d made with Kristian so I figured I’d just get the bus over and mooch around the pool hoping to find him, but luckily he was waiting for me at the bus stop! What a sweetie J

So the clubhouse at Vista Way was all set up with different stations where we needed to hand over and receive different bits of information. We had to take along the same documents as yesterday, and because I didn’t have the DS-2019 form I had to hand over the bits and bobs which the hot immigration guy told me to hand over and I was told that they would keep my passport as it would be couriered to Washington in order to verify a new form! How exciting. People keep saying to me, ‘Aren’t you nervous that you don’t have your passport anymore?’ I just reply, ‘I had my DS-2019 and I somehow managed to lose that. It’s probably for the best that I don’t have my passport right now. It’s safer out of my possession.’ Haha. Silly Moron Me.

I also received a piece of paper telling me that I would be at Hollywood Studios on an ‘Icon’ attraction... included in this sort of attraction is the new Star Tours, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show, The American Idol Experience and... the attraction I requested and have been dreaming about since I first applied for the program... The Great Movie Ride! I’m trying really hard not to get my hopes up and I know that my area is full of amazing attraction, yet somewhere in the back of my brain I really want to get excited on the hopes that I may become a Movie Rider... We’ll have to wait and see! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Anyway, after all that paperwork style stuff I came out of the room to look for Kristian (he’d finished a good 20 minutes before me), but he was nowhere to be seen and his phone isn’t working here, so I couldn’t text him. Luckily I knew a girl who was behind me in line and we decided to head to the pool where I found the cheeky child sitting with some of his hot flatmates. Nom. There’s one from France who is just beautiful... but... he smokes. Major turn-off. VOM ALERT. Bleaugh.

We swam together for a little while after which stage I realised I didn’t have a towel with me. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times; Stupid Moron Gabbi. After a bit of a catch-up we walked (and I dripped) all the way to his friend’s flat and got her to join us and before I knew it there was a crowd of us... including Sexy Rich Elliot. Nom.

I definitely got burnt. My nose is red and my shoulders L Leanna did warn me in fairness and I never listened. I had to learn the hard way.

I met some really cool people including Leanna, Katie, Sherrie and others whose names shamefully escape me. They were initially planning on going to Golden Coral but I managed to persuade them that Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort on the Boardwalk is the way to go. Yay! We met at about 8ish on the bus then walked through this cast area to the Beach Club hotel. There were literally about 30 of us, but by the time we made it to the restaurant we had managed somehow to lose a bunch of people.

Sexy Rich Elliot was definitely wearing a jumper. In Florida heat. Bizarre.

After about 45minutes of hanging around the Beach Club pool with the NON-alcoholic drinks we’d purchased at the bar, we got seated at various tables. I had a hot dog which was pretty yum then I managed to force Kristian and Vikki to share a Fudge Mudslide with me. *Salivates at the memory*

Once we’d finished we went to find the others who had left the restaurant a little earlier on the beach as we realised our bus wasn’t for another half hour. They were showing Finding Nemo on this big screen and it was so cute!

When we got in me and Vikki went to sit by the pool for a bit since I had no idea where it was. It is pretty lush... can’t wait to jump in tomorrow. We had a bit of a catch-up as we seem to do at the end of every day before heading back and the rest is history!

Ciao for now my lovelies and stay tuned.

gabriellasofia

Day One Housing Orientation and House of Blues!

21st June 2011 – 2.30am US Time...

I am so exhausted and yet I really don’t feel in the mood to sleep! I guess I’ve got that excitement going on right now where I don’t want to miss anything, but I’m actually going to have to force myself to go to bed in a minute as I can hardly keep my eyes open right now...

So this morning we had to make our way over to The Commons (the living complex for all of the Cultural Representative participants like my friend Charlotte from home) to use their clubhouse for our housing orientation. Luckily, The Commons is only about a ten minute walk away from my place, so this meant that to be there at 8.30am we all met up at about 8.10am by security and headed over as a big group. On this first orientation thing we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted which was a relief as I hadn’t unpacked my smart clothes at this point! On our little yellow paper schedule for the next couple of days it advised us to bring along our Program Guide (given to us yesterday in the envelope), our passport with the I-94 stamped card inside, the dreaded DS-2019 form and our proof of medical insurance, although to be honest I don’t think we really needed any of that... The only time they came in handy was when I needed to fill out my social security form and I needed my passport number. We filled out and signed a few more things including our soul over to Disney; if we have an idea which could benefit the company, we are now legally obliged to share it and hand over the rights to it. Nice.

We had a variety of different presentations including a ‘welcome session’, Immigration Presentation, Housing Welcome etc. They gave us a massive run-down of the ‘rules’ which include no hazing or initiations, no weapons or threatening behaviour and NO ALCOHOL if you are under 21. It was all pretty obvious, but I guess it is good that they went through it all as one French boy was still confused despite the repetitions about the fact that if you are in a wellness apartment you really can’t drink... ‘But, what if it’s been a long day and I just want one?’ ‘Well, are you 21, sir?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then no, sir, that would not be allowed.’ Poor guy, everyone laughed so hard at him!

The immigration guy was particularly scary telling us how we shouldn’t pay to bail a friend out of jail or be involved with any drugs or under-age drinking as those mistakes could haunt us for life in border patrol.

After we’d finally finished at The Commons I realised that I was actually going to faint if I didn’t have something to eat and soon, so we headed to the Premium Outlets across the road from the complex to have a bit of a Food Court Feast. I chose Chinese and went with Sesame Chicken, Vegetable Spring Roll and Fried Rice which was lovely, but not as nice as I’ve had in the past in the Florida Mall... Will definitely have to compare.

In the meantime Emma was concerned about what to do as she’d been told that her roots were coming through too obviously to be part of the ‘Disney Look’ and that she would have to dye them... It is bizarre really because I think the colour in her hair is really quite natural. Anyway, she decided she’ll take her chances and leave it as it is.

Once we’d finished eating we headed back to Chatham as the buses were to arrive for us at 1.45pm to take us to Vista for our official housing check-in. When we arrived we handed over some paperwork, had our pictures taken and got given our housing ID’s which was great as it now means I won’t have to carry my passport and temporary yellow-paper-proof-of-residence everywhere with me. Having said that, my face has been squashed right down in the picture and I look a right chubby pig on it. Wounder.

At least I’m not the only one. Vikki obviously has the same problem with hers.

Once we were sorted over at Vista we headed back to Chatham and everyone kind of wandered off in separate directions. We’d agreed to do Downtown Disney tonight and go to T-REX ages ago on the facebook group, but we had a couple of hours to kill so I decided to come back to the flat and unpack properly, which was very grown-up of me as I could have just gone to sit around the pool. I rearranged our room a bit also as all the plug sockets were covered up by beds and bedside tables for some reason, but now they’re tons better. I even had time for a quick nap before showering, doing my face, choosing a dress and heading out with everyone.

By the time we got to Downtown Disney T-REX was packed. There were people queuing out of the doors so we decided to give it a miss. We split into smaller groups and everyone headed to different places. Some went to Rainforest Cafe, others to Earl of Sandwich, a couple even went to Pollo Campenero (which I hear was a big of a disappointment) whilst we headed to House of Blues. It was Johanna’s birthday so it was nice to do something special!

Whilst the servers sorted us a table for 13 people we sat at the bar. Glass-doors (Johanna), Jayne and Bethan celebrated with a cocktail, whilst me and Vikki went wild and savoured our Cokes with lime. Delicious. While we were waiting, a guy called Joe who I’ve never met before materialised and we invited him to join us. I think I’m really going to be good friends with him. He’s so funny. Gay though. Gutted.

Once we got seated I decided I would have the kiddie cheese burger which was about $8. I chose blue cheese and had a side of blue cheese dressing too. Vikki chose the adult version of what I had which I think was about $15 but a massive rip-off as when they arrived mine was only about two ounces lighter than hers with a few less fries and a smaller salad. PLUS I only ate half of mine and took the other half away in a doggie bag. Economical Gabbi For The Win!!!

Our waitress was lovely and she helped us all choose. She even put all our food on separate bills and wrote a little ‘Good Luck as new Disney Cast Members’ note on the bottom of each one. Attention to detail or what???

After we’d finished at House of Blues half of us came home whilst the other (over 21) half went over to Bongo’s for more cocktails. So jealous of them.

We waited for the bus in the completely wrong place so ended up missing it but eventually we managed to make it home. Vikki and Joe came back with me and Taryn for a bit and we exchanged some stories and just generally had a bit of a gossip!

They left about an hour ago and I’ve since had a shower and am pretty much ready for bed. Stupid internet still isn’t sorted even though me and Taryn bought a wireless router yesterday. It turns out we need a cord which they were supposed to provide us with when we moved in but it wasn’t here so we have to wait for someone to bring us a new one tomorrow. Will be nice to be able to check my facebook, Skype my family and of course upload these blogs! I’m supposed to be at Vista Way tomorrow by 1pm so I’d better go to sleep as I don’t want this lack of rest to catch up on me and accidentally sleep until the day after!

Thanks for reading and keep checking back J

gabriellasofia

ps. The weather has been amazing... can’t wait to get some tanning in tomorrow. Saw Kristian on the way to DTD and he said we could hang together at Vista Pool after our meetings tomorrow so I’m super excited!

Finding 'Home'!

20^th June 6.00am (ish) UK Time... 1.00am (ish) US Time...

Phew! I’ve made it. Finally!!!

So where did I leave off? As soon as the shuttle arrived, the doors opened and Summa was there, a girl I met at my visa interview, with a bunch of friends. Thank Baby Jesus for that. I wouldn’t be on my own on the way to Vista Way REJOICE!!!

I’d managed to get in touch with Vikki and Bethan in the meantime and discovered they would be living at Chatham along with a bunch of other people from my flight and I just thought, ‘Oh God. I’m going to be all by myself because I’ve arrived later than everyone else. Great.’

There was a proper full-on Thunder Storm Extreme occurring which was a beautiful welcome into Orlando as you can imagine... The shuttle journey was kind of uneventful as I was just shattered and I’d had such a nightmare at the airport that I really needed a quiet moment or two. As we got closer to Vista Way I started to see places I know or know of, like Hooters, Applebees, Bahama Breeze, Cici’s and Olive Garden. Yes, they are all restaurants.

As we pulled up to Vista Way I started to mentally psyche myself up to move again and when we saw the ‘Welcome Centre’ I got a bit excited. We had to put our suitcases in this kind of holding pen while we checked in with some of the staff. There were us Brits then a few Turkish and French people. In fact, there was a rather delicious young man named ‘Clement’ from France who I immediately clocked... le yum.

We were ushered into this room where it was hard to ignore the fact that there were apples, and oranges and cookies on the tables and an ice-cold water fountain in the corner of the room. I was so thankful... my mouth really needed to taste something other than just my tongue. We received a little blue tote bag with an envelope in it... in the envelope was my key... to... my... flat... at... CHATHAM SQUARE!!! Woot woot! The first thing that had gone right all day, I would be with Vikki and Bethan and Louise and everyone I love... well, not everyone as I soon found out that Kristian and Sexy Rich Elliot are over at Vista, but then two out of about 20 ain’t bad right? Beggers can’t be choosers and all that.

So what happened next? Well, I had to get from Vista to Chatham, right? So this meant I had to move my suitcases (after taking a handful of cookies and apples for the ride... I didn’t know when I would next see real food ok???) to this mini-van where Clement helped me load them in. Then we all jumped in and had a bit of a tour of Vista before heading over to Chatham. I was getting really nervous to meet my room-mates. Although not nervous enough not to, ‘Switch le numbers’ avec Clement. Haha, we agreed to head to Walmart together in about an hour after arriving and he said he would text me. His friend Virginie said she would come too. Totally ruining our little food-shopping-date but whatever, she’s pretty sweet so I didn’t mind... Clement is the boy in the background with the hat at a jaunty French angle...

We made it to my flat about halfway en route to dropping everyone off... Apartment 17210 baby YEAHHH! The driver guy helped me... well... carried my bags up the stairs for me as I’m one floor above ground level, knocked on the door then unlocked it for me. And who should I find but Taryn Whitman from Wales who I met at the interviews! What a coincidence! So it’s just me and Taryn in this massive one bedroom apartment which I was initially a bit disappointed with, only because I really wanted to get the experience of sharing a flat with other cultures and having a bit more of a party atmosphere. But in hindsight I think it’s going to be pretty sound. We’re both quite easy going and really don’t have much to complain about. I really doubt she’ll cause any trouble with drinking or partying until the early hours or bringing strange men back, so I’m onto a winner J

I kind of ditched my stuff then me and her headed out for Walmart to meet Clement and Virginie. This is after making sure I had this yellow slip of paper, my passport and my keys as we need all these to get onto the busses and into the complex until we get our housing ID’s tomorrow.

Vikki was at the bus stop with a bunch of other Brits, so unfortunately I kind of migrated away from Hottie McFrench-Alot but this was fine. We jumped on the bus and half an hour later we were at Walmart. Just before we’d left for the supermarket I’d spoken to Bethan who was already there and she really didn’t seem happy with her flat L As we were getting off the bus I saw her getting on and I kind of gave her a squeeze (oo-er) and said I hoped everything would be ok. I felt bad that I couldn’t stop and talk it over with her really, but she was with Louise and Emma so I knew she was in good hands and I didn’t want to lose Vikki again like I had at the airport!

Me, Vikki and Taryn shared a trolley and we ended up with so much stuff... It doesn’t help that everything is so much bigger in this country than in England... Here is what I had when I got back:

Very healthy as you can tell. Carrying all the food in was an absolute task. Vikki’s flatmate Heather even had to get some randoms to help her carry all her stuff as she’d bought water.

Vikki and Heather have only just left now actually, as I’d taken one of Vikki’s bags by mistake and since it was the bag with her Milka and Snickers she really couldn’t go one night without it. Addict. Yes, her and Taryn were fascinated by the English food aisle... LES CADBURIES FINGERES!!! THEY TASTE THE SAME... THEY TASTE exactly THE SAME!!!

Anyway, I have a big old bunch of stuff to do tomorrow and since I’ve been awake for about 26 hours, I really think it’s for the best that I get some sleep.

Take care and stay tuned!

gabriellasofia

Hell in Immigration...

19^th June 11.00pm (ish) UK Time... 18.00 (ish) US Time...

So remind me never to lose the DS-2019 ever again. Not to scare anyone else that has, but it created a major inconvenience in immigration which I really wish I’d avoided... So what’s the story?

Well, following an excellent ‘Disney Cast Member Shout-Out’ from the lovely air stewardess, to which rapturous applause and cheering ensued upon landing, we all left the plane. Immediately upon leaving I spotted a delicious specimen of a man with dark hair, a smouldering expression and a federal government uniform on. However, since I was ‘laying low’ due to the loss of my vital US document I let him pass and joined the queue for immigration. Probably for the best. Anyways, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity but probably only lasted about half an hour, I made it to the front of the queue. I got an old-man immigration officer. I gave him my documents, did my fingerprints etc, but when he asked for the fatal document and I said I couldn’t provide it, he looked at me like I’d told his three-year-old the ‘truth’ about Santa Claus. I told him about the nice American guy at Gatwick, but neither of us had any idea who he was. Damn, I should have taken that guy’s name and job role or something. A complete case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. He said, ‘This is a VERY important document. You now have to enter a room where they will decide whether to let you into the country or not.’ Then he pulled a face like he didn’t hold out much hope, sarcastically muttered, ‘Welcome to America’, tutted and sighed as if exasperated for a little while, took my picture, then escorted me to this little room.

Now, he was obviously a complete douchebag because at this stage I was thinking, ‘Oh my God. I’m being treated like a common criminal, like on Nothing to Declare or Border Patrol (yes, I watch too much LivingTV...) I’m going to be led to this dark room alone and have to answer questions and all my friends will be gone L’ He failed to mention the fact that all of us were going to be led to this ‘Doctors-Waiting-Room’ style place. Fool. He could have put my mind at ease. He obviously wasn’t interested in that. So when I got there, I saw Jasper and Robert (two lovely Dutch guys I’d met on the plane who were also coming to work for Disney) and the others began filing in after me.

The immigration guys had kept our passports and after about twenty minutes they began coming out and announcing names, handing people their passports and sending them on their merry way. Jasper and Robert wished me luck and left. Then Louise and Emma did the same even though they were after me, and that’s when I realised I’d probably be there for a long time. I told them to leave me behind and I’d find my own way to Vista Way, which was very grown-up of me if I say so myself.

This old-black-man meanie immigration officer came out, read my name, so I was like, ‘YESSS I CAN LEAVE!’ Unfortunately, all he said was, ‘Your DS-2019 isn’t here.’ Well, duh, old man. Get with the program. We’ve already been through this. ‘Yes, I lost it... I told your colleague...’ I replied. ‘Lost?’ Seriously, this guy was even more of a moron than I am for losing it in the first place. ‘Yes. Lost.’ ‘Well. That’s interesting.’ Then he walked off. Thanks dude. Thanks a lot.

More names were read out and the people from the Virgin flights that left Gatwick and Manchester at a similar time came and went. Luckily there was still a bunch of them like Craig, Vikki, Emily and her friend Heather who were still around when this hot young immigration office called me out. I couldn’t decide whether to take my bags or not, and in the panic I nearly broke my neck. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but I stumbled a bit in my heels.

Thankfully, this guy was pretty sound. Very professional, but he didn’t seem to be there just to scare me like the others. I explained everything to him and he told me that I was about the 6^th person for Disney today who had the same problem and that I wouldn’t be the last. When he took my fingerprints, I’m not even joking, Emma who was miles away at the luggage carousel says she could see my hand shaking. I was so nervous! These nerves were eased a little by this mixed-race-hottie-pants immigration officer walking by and very UNprofessionally looking me up and down before going, ‘DAMN! Dude, are you handpicking them???’ to the guy who was helping me. Taking my tights off on the plane was evidently a good shout. ‘No, man, she’s got a 419 (don’t remember the number but it was something like that) you wanna take it?’ That’s when I realised how much of an inconvenience I was to them, because Sexy Immigration Officer was like, ‘No way... it’s not worth it’ before winking at me and walking off. Great. Now Sexy Immigration Officer thinks I’m an idiot too. Boo.

I was taken into a little office where me and my guy sat in silence for about 40 minutes while he filled out a form. Eventually, he told me I’d have to talk to my program co-ordinator and get them to sort me a new DS-2019 (which he said was a ‘very expensive document to lose’... naturally I nearly had a seizure as I’m tighter with money then an Oriental's... well, let’s just say I’m pretty tight.) Then he grinned, said ‘Welcome to America Gabriella, have a magical day!’ to which I laughed, gushed some thanks then left with my passport. A mere three hours after my plane had landed. BAH. It was all my own fault for losing the document, I know that. But still. BOO.

Now it was time for my next drama of the day. So I come out of this office and was chuffed to see that Vikki and Craig had only just gotten out too. We collected our cases together (I have two massive ones remember) and began to leave with a couple of others. To get from the immigration side of the airport to the area where we needed to catch our shuttle you have to take a monorail, and to get to the monorail, you have to go up an escalator. Well, I was never going to manage that with two suitcases so who was I to turn down the opportunity to meet my bags at the other side? There was some airport people who were like, ‘Ahhh just put your bags on this conveyor belt, then they will arrive at belt B27 when you get off the monorail.’ Like an idiot I believed them. Epic Fail. At least I wasn’t the only one, Vikki and her friend Charlotte did it too, but because they were on a different flight, their suitcases were going to be in Zone A.

Standard. When I got to B27 the carousel was closed. Of course it was. I asked a guy and he was like, ‘Uhhh no, this carousel stopped moving like an hour ago because everyone off the BA flight has gone.’ HELLOOO??? Apparently not! I am living proof of that. So he sent me to a BA office. Which was of course closed. Then I wandered around panicking for a little while with everyone sending me in the wrong directions. By this time I’d lost Vikki, Craig and the others so I was feeling pretty depressed when finally a man from Air Lingus went and found me a BA staff member named Mary Wilson. She was so nice. She took me into the back office and let me use the phone to call Vikki (who didn’t answer... pfttt) and then Disney Arrivals to find where to get the Mears Shuttle from. In the meantime she found my cases for me, then walked me all the way to the shuttle stop, which is where I am now. I bought my ticket ($16 from $31 because I’m a Disney Cast Member eeep!) and I’m now waiting with a little buzzer thing on a bench in the Florida heat! Sucks that I have to get it alone and that I couldn’t get in touch with Vikki, but hopefully I should be there in an hour or so.

What a day from hell. Managed to call dad just now and tell him that everything went swimmingly... I hate to worry him and to be fair what didn’t kill me made me stronger I guess J Hope he didn’t mind a phone call in the middle of the night...

Anyways, I’ll keep you posted guys! Au revior!

gabriellasofia

The Journey Begins!

19^th June 2011 – 17.00pm (ish) UK Time... 12.00pm (ish) US Time...

Hello guys! So I know I promised more advice on applying back in December, but then I realized that most of that information can be found in my Vlogs anyway, so if you want to see it please check out http://www.youtube.com/TheGabriellaSofia and if you have any further questions please ask and I'll be more than happy to help you :-) Thanks for following my Disney Adventure so far! I’m writing this first blog from the airplane. We are only one-and-a-half hours away now, so that’s not too bad I guess... So let’s do a boring recap of my day J

4.30am – I woke up at the Travelodge where I was staying with Louise and Emma. Realised I had another couple of hours worth of sleep so dozed off again.

6.15am – Emma texted me from her room saying something to the effect of, ‘Eeeeeeeep!’

6.20am – My dad texted me to wake me up... he seriously thinks I’m an idiot. As if I would oversleep on the day of my flight to the Happiest Place on Earth.

6.30am – I got up out of bed and Louise agreed to let me shower first. Jumped in the shower, brushed my teeth, put on my travel outfit. If you are interested in what this outfit included then... I have on a black pair of tights (which I will remove upon arrival in the US obviously as it’s going to be like an oven...), my little white dress (which has been unzipped for most of the flight as I’ve been feeling a bit bloated L), my denim over-sized shirt, my brown T-bar wedges from Miss Selfridge (I know... ridiculously impractical, but if I’d had them in my case I would have had to pay overweight I bet) and a little denim flower Kirby grip in my hair. I did my makeup and packed up my last bits.

7.25am – Me and Louise realised we only had twenty minutes left before the shuttle arrived and began to panic.

7.45am – We made it to the shuttle! It cost £3.50 to get to the North Terminal which really wasn’t too bad. However, us girls don’t travel light and I in particular had two whopping great suitcases, so a variety of ‘big strong men’ assisted us. Good Samaritan, eat your heart out.

8.10am – My cases were weighed (I’d paid £34 online the night before so I could take two cases) and surprisingly they were a couple of kilos off the limit of 23kg. GREAT SUCCESS.

8.20am – Not such a great success, Louise’s case was 3 kilos over L Her case is one of those heavy plastic ones though which the check-in lady says weight about 6kg alone! Remind me never to use one of those bad boys. Louise had to move some stuff to her hand luggage which was difficult considering she didn’t have hardly any heavy things. She ended up chucking some nail varnish remover, deodorant and wax and she also moved some handbags to my hand luggage so all was well and we were back on our way.

8.50am – Made our way through security without a hitch.

9.00am – Found Bethan John. HUZZAH!!! We headed over to Wetherspoons and were soon joined by Johanna (Glass-Doors) Bretherton, Jayne McEvoy, Rebecca Ripley, Danni T, Karyn, Joanne Lister and Melissa. I epically indulged in a full English to commemorate my leaving the country.

10.00am – Bought a couple of extra adaptors, a memory card for my camera and some batteries in duty free, plus some Jelly Babies, a big bar of Galaxy caramel (nom) and prawn cocktail crisps. I also got Tatler and the Company High Street Edit mags for in case I got bored.

11.00am – Began boarding the plane after chatting with Mom, Dad and Meewps. I was asked if I had my DS-2019 Certificate of Eligibility to Work in the United States... Well... About that... I lost it. I know, how stupid am I??? Yesterday I had an absolute nightmare when I couldn’t find it and genuinely thought I wouldn’t be able to go L But thanks to an absolute HERO named Barbara at Arrivals in Disney, I soon learned that this could be sorted. Anyways, I told the man that asked me the truth and he rang ahead to Immigration for me in the USA to forewarn them. He was really nice actually, while he was one the phone he was like, ‘I have this lovely girl with a beautiful smile here and I just wanted to warn you that you have to let her in once she’s filled out some extra information.’ I was so thankful because the day before, me and Meewps had literally been in tears thinking I wouldn’t be able to go!

11.20am – HOUSTON WE HAVE LIFT OFF!!!

And the rest in history. Only one hour and nine minutes left now. The food hasn’t been bad, I’ll admit. It was a choice between chicken curry or beef casserole for lunch with a smoked salmon salad and profiteroles for desert. Win. I had the curry. Yum. Just now the cabin crew bought around some sandwiches and following the initial outrage that the horseradish sauce was obligatory, the beef sandwiches went down well!

The in-flight entertainment has been great too. The movies have included Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Black Swan, True Grit, The King’s Speech and about ten others, and the television shows were ‘plentiful’ with The Simpsons and Family Guy being some of my top choices.

Anyways, getting closer so I’d better go fill out my customs form and put my memory card in my camera and my contact lenses back in my eyes (I haven’t watch a single movie but slept for about two hours, so the flight has gone relatively quick).

Wish me luck for immigration... I hope it doesn’t all take too long and I can head over to Disney with all the others! By the time I post this I’ll be in my flat so hopefully all will have been well.

Love you guys and I promise I will update as and when I can!

Have a magical day J

gabriellasofia