Four Parks in Two Days? Not a Problem!

2^nd July 2011 1am (US Time...)

Definitely had the best couple of days ever! Yesterday after blogging, I napped for a couple of hours then once Vikki and Heather were ready we went to meet Kathryn, Lucy, Leanna, Kristian, Sexy Rich Elliot, Katie, Nisha and probably some others that I can’t quite remember at EPCOT. We did us a bit of World Showcase eating around the world... I have half a portion of fish and chips from England and a Werther’s caramel covered strawberry from Germany. Yum, yum, yum! We rode the little boat ride and took stupid sombrero pictures in the Mexican pavilion, so some of the others decided they wanted Mexican food, but when they realised that you can’t get fajitas at the quick service restaurant there, we decided to just head over to the Electric Umbrella in Future World. I kind of feel for them really as the food wasn’t very good... think rock solid burger bun with grim rubbery burger inside. Yuk.

We were able to just about catch Illuminations from the Future World entrance to World Showcase (again a great spot, particularly for seeing the video clips on the globe...) before deciding to head home as Leanna wasn’t very well and some of the others had work the next day. HOWEVER, once Kristian expressed that he wasn’t quite ready to go home just yet, I suggested we went over to the Magic Kingdom to hang out for a little while and whadya know, it was a good idea! We jumped on the monorail and actually managed to see Wishes while we were riding which was just amazing. I’ll literally never forget how beautiful the view was.

Once we got into the park, we managed somehow to convince Vikki to do Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (she’s scared of adrenaline rides) and I think she kind of enjoyed it. God knows I did. I spent the whole ride trying to make her laugh by hollering this ridiculous guttural scream from the back of my throat. Once I got off the ride, I literally could not get a single sound out of my mouth. On the plus side, Vikki laughed a ton which took her mind off the imminent death which people with speed-fears and the like usually cower from. Great success.

After all that jazz, we watched the Stupid Main Street Electrical Parade, as I fondly refer to it. I don’t like this parade as I much preferred SpectroMagic as the music was better and the characters were WAY more recognisable. Like, what relevance does Pete, from Pete’s Dragon or some nameless rabbit whom I didn’t even recognise, have in today’s society? None, so there really shouldn’t be a parade dedicated to it, even if it is to commemorate such-and-such-an-amount-of-years-of-Disney. I have spoken.

Vikki, on the other hand, went crazy for that parade. She likes the cheeky snails that make a bleeping sound. But again, I have no idea what these snails have to do with Disney. I’m sure they are there for a reason, but they really aren’t very iconic. Unless you are Vikki.

Seriously, the best part of the whole parade was getting a personal performance of Heather Marsh’s incredible miming skills, in the flesh. She mimed the entire opening segment of the parade and Kristian, Vikki and I were really rather impressed, especially as we have watched her miming videos on YouTube since she made them first available to view... it was like meeting a celebrity! If you haven't see the videos before, check it out:

After the SMSEP we came home.

Today was awesome. A Gabbi, Vikki, Kristian day to remember! We started the day off bright and early (well, it was like 10.30am, but you know how I like my sleep...) and headed over to Animal Kingdom. We collected Fastpasses for Expedition Everest (I still don’t know why Vikki agreed to it...), caught poachers on Kilimanjaro Safaris, rode Everest (and I did my screaming again... I really can’t talk much anymore), watched Finding Nemo: The Musical, got terrified on Dinosaur (especially Kristian... I feared he’d ACTUALLY pooped his pants when I saw the look on his face in the picture afterwards... he hadn’t as it turns out, HIGH FIVE), saw the wonderful Festival of the Lion King (really wish I could perform in that show!) and caught the Jammin’ Jungle Parade. Exceptionally productive visit to the park! Nearly got into a row with some fat pig, because he was stood RIGHT in my way. I asked him politely three times to move, when he didn’t, I shoved his leg and said something like, ‘Just because you’re a fat pig doesn’t mean it’s ok to blog everyone’s view.’ His mom shot me the vilest look ever and swapped places with him. Luckily, she was marginally less obese and didn’t obstruct my vision QUITE so much as her fat bap of a teenage son. Seriously, obesity is an epic problem in this country.

Once I’d finished causing trouble, we got the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to have a quick mooch around, as Kristian can’t decide where to stay when his boyfriend arrives here in September. I really love that hotel and so did the others. We made the decision to explore more of the resorts during our stay here as they are just as nice to look around as the theme parks!

When we’d had a bit of a relax we got the bus to Hollywood Studios (yes, four theme parks in two days, HOLLAAAAAAAA!) We didn’t do too many attractions as we were mainly going to see my favourite night-time thing ever, Fantasmic! But we managed to slip in a quick go on Star Tours and Tower of Terror before grabbing some very average ‘Italian’ sandwiches at Rosie’s All American Cafe. To be honest, I’m getting kind of sick of crappy quick service food. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some places (like Flame Tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom where me and Vikki shared a pulled pork sandwich earlier on today) are amazing, really tasty. But seriously, most of them just have the same things on the menu... burger, pizza, chicken tenders, variations on a turkey sandwich and ceasar salad, followed by chocolate fudge cake, key lime pie or marble cheesecake. Boring. Seriously, if you could count how many quick service restaurants in Disney World offer those items, you would be shocked. I’m really craving a full-service Disney meal right now to remind me of the excellent quality and tastiness of the food. I just need more money, that’s all.

Oh, and you know the handsome guy I mentioned a few days ago? He gave me his number today! He wrote it on a Fastpass, bless him J I really like that he went out of his way to be brave and give it a go. I’ve already texted him and we’re having a bit of flirtexting right now. Mmm. This pleases me greatly.

After finishing our average sandwiches we followed the crowd to Fantasmic. The theatre was rammed, no joke, absolutely rammed. We were going to have to sit in the crap seats round the side when I spotted Jasper out of Jasper and Lobert! You know, they Dutch guys from my airplane! They both work Audience Control so he was able to hook us up with VIP seats RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STAGE. No joke, I’ve seen that show about 15 times in my life, and never have I had such amazing seats. I am eternally in Jasper’s debt and I have texted him my thanks since. Bless his little sexy pants! J

Anyway, I am absolutely exhausted and I have my assessment tomorrow (well, today) which should be a lot of fun as I have NO voice whatsoever. My spiels are going to be a joke. Anyway, wish me luck J

gabriellasofia

Maybe I should drop out of uni and work at Hooters instead...

1^st July 2011 4.00pm US Time...

So jeez two days of early starts! 7.30am but luckily I was only in until 2pm, just having a quick run through of the assessment that I will have to do on Sunday before I am officially certified to fly Starspeeders for a living. There is going to be a written paper of about 50 questions, then my assessor Steve is going to watch me in each of the positions to make sure

Also, I met a guy today J He’s really cute and flirty. He has a killer smile and I think he likes me back. Who know what might happen! Watch this space.

On Wednesday I finished work early so me and Bethan, Vikki, Rich Elliot, Nipple-Target, Joe, Steven, Emma, Meaghan and Karyn all went to... HOOTERS!!! We had such a good time. It was ‘Wingsday Wednesday’ so I had super-spicy chicken wings with fries and blue cheese dip, followed by a killer piece of chocolate fudge cake. We got the bus to Crossroads which was really easy, but then we had to walk from one side of the strip to the other which proved quite a difficult feat considering the sidewalks were minimal. Following a rather dangerous stroll into some random swamp surrounded by bushes, we managed to find the way, and a whole two hours later we arrived at Hooters! Totally worth it though.

There are tons of restaurants round there, so I hope we’ll go more often. I saw a Black Angus and an International House of Pancakes (IHOP) which are just two of my family favourites, so I hope we can make a trip over there at some point again! As usual I only ate half my food, so I kept the other half for work the next day, where everyone was super jealous of my delicious smelling chicken. NOM.

Anyways, might head to Epcot tonight with Kristian and the gang... have a bit of a sleep first I reckon. I have the day off tomorrow and I don’t have any specific plans of what to do just yet, apart from have an epic lie-in. I’m pretty sure I’ve earned it with all this week of intense training. Oh and also, Katya took me to eat my lunch in the Great Movie Ride break-room which was just the coolest thing ever. Even though I’m starting to accept Star Tours I still am so jealous of anyone working over there. Oh well. If life gives you limes, don’t whine about them not being lemons... make limeade right?

gabriellasofia

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