Returning to my Home Away from Home... Wilderness Lodge!

14^th July 2011 (1.30am US Time...)

I had the day off todayyyyy! Well, yesterday, technically as it is so late. You know what I mean.

Work on Tuesday really wasn’t so bad. I’m really starting (slowly but surely) to get used to the uber-long hours.

So, enough about work. Let me tell you about the lush day I’ve had today!

This morning was a bit bizarre. The people that organise the program were holding casting calls to choose some people to star in the next ICP video. If you haven’t seen one of these videos already, check this out... So naturally, you know what I’m like, so I just had to go along! I walked to the Commons where the ‘audition’ was and managed to find my way over to apartment 812. Literally all I had to do was write down my information and answer the following three questions: 1) What’s your favourite part about the program so far? 2) What are you going to take away from being on the program? AND 3) What would you say to someone who is on the fence about applying for the program?

Honestly, I think I gave all the right answers... I was on about making new friends, facing new challenges blablabla. The only problem was that it was all so informal that I was talking in my normal voice. Like, I was expecting to reel off a quick script in my best ‘I’m-a-cheesy-Disney-ICP’ voice. Hmmm, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The guy said they aren’t sure about how many people they need, but that I’ll hear by Friday if I’m successful, so I’ll keep an eye on my emails I guess!

After all that me and Vikki had planned to go mooch around a Magic Kingdom resort or two, as she’s really not so crazy about the parks. So we decided that we’d head to the Wilderness Lodge. Before we knew it, Louise and Karyn had invited themselves along too (the CHEEK OF IT!) I figured it would be nicer to take the bus to Fort Wilderness then get the boat to the Lodge rather than getting the bus to Transportation and Ticket at the Magic Kingdom then the bus to the Lodge. It was lucky I made that executive decision actually, as we found the best value meal in ALL OF DISNEY WORLD... so far at least.

Now, Trails End is a family favourite of mine. We often go for the lunch/dinner buffet and it is one of the most reasonably priced buffets in the whole of Disney. They serve fried chicken, pulled pork, chilli con carne etc. Really yummy, rustic type food that makes you think of home comforts and whatnot. Anyway, it would seem that they don’t do a lunch time buffet anymore L HAVE NO FEAR they have an a la carte menu which effectively has all of the buffet items on it. And guess what, if we go to any Disney restaurant at lunch-time, Cast Members (CM’s) get a whopping 40% off as opposed to the usual 20%! Epic win. Plus the serving sizes are massive.

Karyn had an appetiser of chilli as her main meal followed by a s’mores dessert which she shared with me so I think her end price was like, $8. That’s like, £6. Louise and I shared a BBQ pulled pork sandwich which they split across two plates for us, and so Louise spent about the same as Karyn. Vikki absolutely pigged out and had the chilli AND a whopping great burger and still only spent about $14 (£11 or so), whilst I added a pot of ‘Hop n Jack’ to my shared items (it’s basically rice and peas with a BBQ marinade) and I spent about $13. That all includes tips as well.

I love it there. I think we’re going to go for the breakfast buffet next Wednesday as we were so impressed with it. Plus, our server, Edsel, was quite literally the nicest man EVER. He had some sort of sexy Southern accent and kept laughing at Vikki for being such a notorious P.I.G and he kept refilling our drinks and being really attentive. We even gave him a Great Service Fanatic card (which is a bit like a gold star or house point on his record card!) as he went totally ABOVE AND BEYOND our expectations. He loved us too.

Once we were full up we headed to the dock and waved Louise off on her way to work before getting our boat to the Wilderness Lodge. I'll be honest, it was odd being there without my family :( Then we spent the next four hours lying on the beach by the lake... it’s a hard life. After a while Vikki decided to head back so she could Skype her boyf (kinky, much) and me a Karyn went and dipped in the hotel pool. Naughty naughty. It was so lush! After soaking up the last few rays, drying off and people watching we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to catch The Magic, The Memories and You, then Wishes. We skipped the stupid Main Street Electrical Parade as she’d seen it about a million times, I hate it and Vikki wasn’t there to bully us into watching it just so she could listen to the bleepy snails.

It was quite a productive night to be honest. We bought pineapple floats (I had orange ice cream on mine this time and yummmmm), rode Splash Mountain and Space Mountain and saw Mickey’s Philharmagic, which I just LOVE with a fiery passion. I had a really good time.

Absolutely exhausted now though! I’m definitely going to go to sleep until whenever I wake up tomorrow as I have another day off. Desperately need to do my laundry but apart from that I have no plans as such, so we’ll see what the day brings. Might pop along to the Premium Outlet mall across the street, sunbathe by the pool and catch Fantasmic and the finale of the American Idol Experience in Hollywood Studios, but I don’t know anyone else with the day off, so we’ll have to wait and see J

Je t’aime!

gabriellasofia

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

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