Dr. Raffikee or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Disney

raffikee @ 2008-02-07T21:00:00

2008-03-20T01:00:45Z

So this last week was fun! I worked more! Went bowling with new people I met, one of them who works at Innoventions with me and the other a safari driver at Kilamanjaro Safaris, and went to Universal!

I had Monday and Wednesday off this week, which was nice. Monday I was busy! I went to Hollywood Studios where there wasn’t too many people. And a cast member was really unnecessarily nice to me. I was in the fastpass distribution line for Rock’n Rollercoaster and this lady was in front of me and she must have been getting fastpasses for everyone in her family reunion party because I was behind her for like 3 minutes before I sort of did something. I held my cast member ID, which you also use to get your fastpass, at an angle so the cast member at the fastpass distribution would see it and maybe, if he was nice, do something about it. And he did! He gave a one that was good for up to three people! So I thanked him and went and got one for Tower of Terror.

But I really didn’t need to use it for TOT because the stand-by lines there were only “13” minutes long. I rode it about 5 times in the course of the day, so much so that I was actually sick of it. But the neat part was that I think I experienced all 4 or 5 different sequences they run. I think my favorite is the one that actually pushes you up before they drop you, since it is so unexpected!

Then I rode Rock’N Rollercoaster (RNR) single rider twice, and had enough of that. It is no longer exciting for me. :( But I heard that they regularly have cast member night where they leave the lights on so that might be cool to do. I also got a “real” fastpass for RNR but it was for 5:30 and I was pretty much done with the park by 4:00 so I didn’t want to wait and waste my time.

I also rode the Great Movie Ride once more and somehow ended up in the middle of a large family that had met down here, and when it came time to tell the person how many in the party, the guy said 13 instead of the 12. It was really cute how they “adopted” me for the ride! But I was more excited that I got to be in the front set of cars, since one part was different than when I rode in the back set of cars. If anyone gets a chance, ride both, if not ride in the back set of the cars, as that experience is better.

After The Studios, I went to Magic Kingdom, and did all the “boring things” that nobody who is usually with me would want to do like the Hall of Presidents and The Country Bear Jamboree. At the Hall of Presidents, the film they were using was wearing out so a part of it had a line running through it, like what you see at the dollar movies. But the audio animatronic presidents were really cool…until they started introducing EACH ONE by name…and then the Bush Jr. one gave a 2 minute speech about something, probably defeating the terrorists or something, I really wasn’t paying attention.

And then I watched Spectromagic, the newer electric light parade, and did the Country Bear Jamboree, which really was not anything special. And as I was getting ready to watch the Fireworks, Daniele called and asked if I wanted to go to Downtown Disney and so I nixed watching the fireworks to beat the crowds rushing out of the park to the monorail, and picked Daniele up and went to Downtown Disney to do some shopping before my larger “holiday” discount expires on February 13. I unfortunately didn’t get to make another rice crispy treat, but did get SOME shopping done!

Tuesday, I was supposed to go to Epcot with Denise, an Innovention co-worker and her kid to show them around, and play in the parks (of course!), but she didn’t call. Her loss…so I called Daniele up and we went to Universal Studios (US), where I got a season pass for 12 months to both US and Islands of Adventure (IOA) for $99, the Florida discounted price of $130-$30 for having a coke product (even though I neither had a Florida driver’s license, or a coke product! The lady at the booth was just feeling really nice!) One thing, both Daniele and I noticed was that the workers were not really nice! But the pretty decently sized pizza I bought for $8 was pretty good. And next time, when the park is open longer, I and Daniele are thinking of doing the meal deal, where for $20 a day, you can eat all you want, all day! Quite a deal, especially at a theme park!

And Christopher Walken is an integral part of Disaster! That was probably the highlight of the day! And MIB was fun, as was dueling dragons and Jurassic Park river adventure, and The Mummy was quite the ride! It is definitely unique! I will give Universal Kudos for that. And Shrek 4D was also fun!

So today, I worked 9 hours and 15 minutes. At least I get paid time and a half for overtime. And for firework duty tonight, we were working a religious convention that rented out the whole patio in the front of the lagoon. And lucky us, the wind was blowing toward us so the Firework smoke ended up burning my eyes during the show! That was no fun! But it was easy, and I got to talk to some people, which made the time go by a lot faster. Now I’m tired and want to go to sleep but I have to finish watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith on FX…such a good movie! Even when it is edited! :)

raffikee @ 2008-01-30T00:18:00

2008-03-14T04:19:30Z

I think I am getting too busy to write these! But I will push myself to do them so I’ll have memories of my trip down here! So yesterday, at work, we had two groups of executives come through the house of innoventions. One was taken by another worker, but then the next group came through when I was up! Thankfully I didn’t screw up there part of the spiel! AND my coordinators (Rita and Diane) gave me a fanatic card for “going above and beyond at HOI (House of Innoventions) when he was one of 2 presenters available—and was pleasant about it.” And about three different people told me that it would go on my record! I guess it is quite the accomplishment?

Today, it was a rare day when Daniele, Krystyna and I all had the day off, so we decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon before our free entry to the waterpark stopped on February 13^th! :(
It was lots of fun, the theme and execution was brilliant (it was about an typhoon that hit an area) and all the rides were pretty much built into the big structure at the front of the wave pool, so no huge slides really stood out. Unfortunately there were only a few really fun slides.

One of them, was the Crush N Gusher, a watercoaster that pushed back up a hill; that was not just awesome, but WICKED awesome. It really made you think you were going to fly off the tube if you did not hold on! Thankfully the lines were short so we pretty much just rode again and again. And I swam with Sharks and fish and stingrays in the “coral reef” but I had a hard time breathing through my snorkel since salt water kept coming into my mouth. Even with the saltwater in my mouth, the experience was still really neat! And I had never seen anything like that wave pool! Every 90 seconds, a GIGANTIC wave would come out of nowhere and just push you toward shore! I hope I got a good picture of that wave behind my with the waterproof disposable camera I bought for today. If it turned out, it should be really cool.

So we did everything by three and went to Bennigan’s since the girls didn’t have that in New York, where they’re from. I got a very yummy bacon cheeseburger brushed with their AWESOME Guinness sauce, AND when I got the bill, it was discounted to $4.99 because it was “burger Wednesday”! What a nice surprise!

So we got home, showered changed, then went out to Epcot and I FINALLY got to see Honey I shrunk the Audience! I have been wanting to see it again for about 3 weeks now! And every time we go to play in Epcot it is closed, along with some of FutureWorld, at 7pm. It was pretty crazy and the whole audience was laughing and screaming the whole time. It was great fun (minus the crappy pre-show/advertisement for Kodak!). And then we did Mission: Space on the green “less intense” version and I was still impressed with it. It is still pretty fun, but not AS fun as the “original” “more intense” version. And then we played Mission: Space Race, which is actually run by Innoventions. And Krystyna and I had a blast on that! That was a lot of fun.

After Mission: Space Race it was time for Illuminations, and we were able to sit in the very front of the showcase plaza and see the fireworks. I think I prefer my spot by the speakers when I’m doing crowd control for them. But as a guest, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have the front row, or are sitting on the raised edge at the back. And Brett, one of the managers actually recognized me in plain clothes.

Now I’m tired and ready for bed. Krystyna and I are going out to Magic Kingdom tomorrow. AND my new roommate, Justin, had 8 fastpasses that expired TOMORROW (1/31/08) and he let me have them. Awesomeness!

raffikee @ 2008-01-28T00:16:00

2008-03-14T04:17:55Z

So today, I went to work for 6 hours and 15 minutes, from 1:00-7:15 and ran a number of tours through the house of innoventions. It is now getting easier, but I still keep on dreading doing the tours and prefer smaller tours. One of the tours had this kid with an annoying talking Mickey and he kept pressing it and Mickey kept talking and distracting me! It was really annoying! But I survived!

And then I came home had dinner (my last Arby’s sandwich) and then headed out to Downtown Disney to do some shopping before my 40% discount expires! :(

There I bought some pins, so I could actually start collecting SOME(!!!), bought a present for myself (a Jack the Pumpkin King mug that would scare mom) , and this awesome marshmallow treat from Goofy’s Candy Shop. This thing was a Mickey Rice Krispy Treat dipped in white chocolate then covered in butterfinger pieces, crushed Oreo cookie crumbs, crushed Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, and then drizzled with milk chocolate and caramel. At the end, it was just a huge layer of chocolate pieces and all types of candy. I included a picture so that I can remember it forever!

And I just want to add that time flies when you are having fun (like pin hunting and shopping!) I almost spent all the money I made today at work. :p

And I found out that our cast member discount at DisneyQuest cuts the cost down to $19.75 from $37. And we get 30% off for Cirque du Soleil BUT we have to buy the tickets that day starting at 11 AM. I’m excited because those are both on my to-do list!

Done with House Training!

2008-03-08T17:06:33Z

So I checked out of training, meaning I passed, by doing a spiel in front of real people. The group was actually really distracting and I think my trainer, Peg, passed me out of pity, since I just kept going through the show. There was only like 8 people, but those 2 families were distracting as nothing else was. The young girl was swinging on the ropes, even after I warned her not too, and when the rope broke, the dad was like “see what happens when you don’t listen to authority!” and just various stuff like that throughout the whole show. That was Wednesday and I have been working since then. My next two day break is Wednesday and Thursday, meaning I get to work for 7 days straight! That is what happens when you work for Disney.

So I have done about 7 tours so far, from groups ranging from 5-25 people in each, and I AM getting better. It is exciting, but when you screw up, you are just like “uhh” and people are looking at you and waiting to go on. I have a feeling most people can tell that I am still pretty new at this and are like “good job” at the end, or I am just being critical of myself. I had one kid about 6 actually ask me “who can afford all this stuff.” I made up something about prices dropping fast enough to be able to afford some of it soon.

raffikee @ 2008-01-21T12:05:00

2008-03-08T17:05:39Z

So I went to church yesterday, I think it was pretty good. But what was interesting is that it was ONLY a church sanctuary. And everything else was in portables “modular buildings” next to it. I had never seen that approach to building a new church before. I also found the Target and Taco Bells (yum…I’m ready for my 4^th meal!) and went to Panda Express (double yum when it comes to their orange chicken!)

Then I went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios) to go merchandise shopping and ended up going on Tower of Terror twice, MuppetVision, the Great Movie Ride (which is definitely a must see!), and various other things. And I didn’t mind that I was alone since I was learning my House of Innoventions Spiel (“Spiel” is the official name for it, as apparently it is not a “script”) in line, when I did not utilize FastPass (one of the world’s GREATEST inventions!).

And on my way out, I saw the FUNNIEST show at Disney! On Sunset Boulevard, there is a ragtag group of comedians that all they do is tell jokes and act all crazy. And these are the really terrible jokes that make you laugh really hard! It was so good, that even though the temperature was in the forties, their jokes made you forget about the weather!

This morning, Krystyna and I went to the Studios again, got our FastPass to Rock’n RollerCoaster, then stood in line for it. We weren’t there early enough for the rope drop, but it was good enough to only have to wait 20 minutes in the standby line. Then we did Star Tours, Muppets 3D 4D (yes, I did also see it yesterday, you can never have too much of the muppets!) the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Star Tours, Sounds Dangerous, Rock’n Rollercoaster (using our FastPasses) and then the Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show before we had to leave around 2, so Krystena could make it to Magic Kingdom (MK) by 4. I had forgotten how much fun Indiana Jones was, and even though the car stunt show was REALLY loud, it was really cool! I wonder how many sets of tires those cars go through a month! There was rubber all over the stage when they were done!

And I came home, took a nap, worked on my spiel, wrote this out, and hopefully I will be going to Wal-Mart with my roommates (when they eventually come back!) so I can get some food! (Not for tonight, as I really am craving Taco Bell tonight!)

Disney Fact:

The asteroids on Space Mountain look like Chocolate Chip Cookies! Supposedly the imagineers just scanned in chocolate chip cookies, instead of creating their own.

And even more training...and fun

2008-01-27T16:28:01Z

Today was the second day of training for House of Innoventions (HOI) and it was pretty much memorizing! I took a really nice nap during my lunch and that helped me stay alert for the rest of the afternoon. And the Chex Mix and Milky way (provided by our Trainer, Amber, and co-trainee, Denise, respectively) helped too. We made it through page 4 of the script, up to the “Liftmatic Oven by Siemens.” Then in the evening we wanted to go “The Studios”(really called “Disney Hollywood Studios”, formerly Disney-MGM Studios) to see Fantasmic, but they closed at 7, and we (my usual posse) left our apartments at about 6:20. We wanted to do Fantastic Plastics and Segway Central at Innoventions, but they cut off the line early and we did the HOI. At least Daniele had a blast going through it. Then we did Turtle Talk with Crush, Soarin’, Spaceship Earth (which I video’d with my phone, I hope it turned out), and then headed back home. At Soarin’ it was a walk-on, but we asked the girl if she would turn on the interactive video game/screens in line, so we could play, and we had a fun time playing in the queue line. The girl said that was a first for her. :)

Overall, a good day, and I should go do the elliptical and learn some more lines. (Exercising helps increase the blood flow to the brain, which helps with better memory!) And tomorrow since I get off early (I get off at 4:15), Daniele and I are going to the parks to see Krystyna and make fun of her and her lapbar closing motion that she gets to repeat a million times! Hehe!

raffikee @ 2008-01-15T11:26:00

2008-01-27T16:26:35Z

So the roommate did not show up today, which is nice. I went to the front desk to pick up housewares that we were missing when we moved in, and hadn’t gotten, and asked the guy about the roommate: he said he was coming from Commons, and that he had 48 to complete his move. Acting on that, Krystyna and I went to Animal Kingdom, which “is a jungle, not a zoo.” I beg to disagree but it was the coolest zoo/jungle I’d been. I took a bazillion pictures on the Kilimanjaro Safaris (alligators, giraffes, and hippos, oh my!). Then we did Everest, twice, with fastpasses, did the spinning wild mouse coaster, saw Finding Nemo the Musical and the Festival of the Lion King, and rode Dinosaur (formerly Countdown to Extinction) twice! Everest was fun, riding in the very back AND the very front, and when riding in the front, you can see the structure of the mountain, and how the track changes (very cool and unexpected). The wild mouse coaster was “eh,” if not rough, the both shows were GREAT, with the Nemo show being really well produced, but a few of the songs could use tweaking. Dinosaur had me really scared my very first time, and the second time was a little bit pleasant, with some fear thrown in. The second time, we were with a family with two little boys (one was about 5) and he kept his head down the whole time, and both mom and dad came off the ride with the little kids’s face make-up on their sleeves, because the kids were so afraid! And we did all of this in basically 5 hours!

Then from there we went to Epcot, to finally see what I was going to be presenting in innoventions! It is nice when you don’t have to pay for parking since you can park hop with your car all you want! So we saw the House of innoventions, then did Test Track, Ellen’s Universe of Energy (which was as slow as I remember, but was still funny with Ellen) then headed to the world showcase, did the Three Cabellero Gran Fiesta boat tour in Mexico (which seemed to me the same thing as it’s a small world, except with a different theme), the Maelstrom in Norway (with the same smell and twirling white light I remember from years ago) and then walked around through the rest of the countries. We wanted to eat in one of the countries, but our 20% discount did not go far enough for it to be affordable! Then we went to Spaceship Earth, where we discovered the great new ending! Krystyna and I could not stop laughing! Since Krystyna had not seen Illuminations, we HAD to stay for that :p and then

Disney Trivia:
In the Winnie the Pooh ride, you can See Mr. Toad handing over the deed to Pooh, as the ride building used to house Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

raffikee @ 2008-01-14T11:25:00

2008-01-27T16:26:11Z

Woke up, went to company connection, found sunglasses for 25 cents, Christmas tree ornaments for $1 a piece, 2 camera cases, and 2 pretty good umbrellas. Then went to play grocery bingo to, as the name suggests, win a bag or two of groceries. So I get there at 11:15, and we play until 1, and it seems that about one third of the people there (total of about 50) get groceries, and it just seems like I had a crappy card! MAYBE next time, if I have another 2 hours to waste. So I had scheduled to go to Wal-Mart and get groceries and stuff after bingo, in the chance that I would not have to buy some things, but I thought, “hey, the parks close at 8 or 9, let me go after that!” So I found Krystyna (from two floors above me, also a big Disney fan and full of trivia too!) and we went to Magic Kingdom. We did a ton of stuff, like the Astro Orbitor, for my very first time, space mountain twice (both with fastpasses, which are really a godsend, when you have them!), Philharmagic, which was VERY cool(!), Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin twice, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (again, with the help of a fastpass), Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Jungle Cruise (where our skipper was very funny). The skipper/driver had actually lived in Plano in the 70s, and currently had investment property up in Allen, which she herself said “was a smart move) and she had retired from Arthur Anderson, moved to Florida, and worked part time at Disney on the Jungle Cruise. And since I hadn’t been in the parks for my Birthday, I got my “It’s my Birthday” button from the Magic Kingdom Town Hall, and got wished a happy birthday from CMs (Cast Members). Oh, and this time, I saw Wishes without the interruption of rain, but just in case (and also to make it out of the park to the monorails before most people) we were under a covering at the train pavilion just inside the entrance of the park.

After I dropped Krystyna off, I went to Wal-Mart and then Chili’s (to get a Chicken Caesar Pita to go) to use my gift card I had stolen from home. And I was still wearing my birthday pin, and when the server saw that, he brought out a free bowl of ice cream, which I had there, at the bar, waiting for my food to be done. It was very nice of him, but I felt a little awkward not being able to share any of the ice cream with anyone, and having random people at the bar singing happy birthday to me!

I’m pretty much done for the night, and going to sleep, but first I have to clean up everywhere (I am mostly tidying though), since our new roommate is coming tomorrow, and we (at least Tank and I) are curious to see what kind of person he will be! Mikey probably doesn’t care, since usually when he at home, he is sleeping anyway!

More training...zzz...

2008-01-27T16:25:24Z

Today was more general training about innoventions called M.E.R.G.E. and then crowd control training dealing with illuminations, woohoo! So starting at 12:45 all five of us innoventioners were all dressed in our “costumes” and ready to go. On top of learning how to make someone’s day magical, we got a better look at the tunnels, which I think are pretty cool, as we can get from one part of the park to another without any of the guests really knowing! And they are going to be a lifesaver when it rains!

Then we had dinner at the Disney Diner, run by none other than my dear friend Aramark! But the only difference here vs. UTD was that the prices were pretty reasonable here. The food was still only “eh,” but at least we didn’t pay too much for it.

And in the evening (about 7:30) we headed out to showcase lagoon, where illuminations is held and helped with “crowd control” (ie: making sure people don’t cross the ropes into the safety areas where ash may fall on them, or into places they aren’t supposed to be). Illuminations was really cool! Even if you are standing in front of a speaker tower, wearing earplugs (which were thoughtfully given to us). Unfortunately I couldn’t carry my camera while working, but I definitely want some pictures of the cooler parts of the show!

That’s it for now! Tomorrow is grocery bingo, hosted by the living community, so that might be fun, and maybe I’ll meet new people! And my goal is to be up by 8:30 so hopefully I can be at the Company Connection by 9!

Random Disney Fact:
Mission: Space’s entire building can fit into the Seas w/ Nemo and Friends’s tank with room to spare! That is how big it is. Worldwide, it is in the top 5 largest aquariums. AND it has 90% of the same water it opened with; that is how good the water filtration system is.

Discovery Day Training at Epcot (ie: More training, YAY!)

2008-01-22T00:46:16Z

This morning I took the bus to the Epcot “cast services” building, since I had no idea where to park as a “cast member.” So I took the 7:20 AM bus to be there at 7:50 and be on time for my 8:00 “discovery day” training. So we walked around futureworld and saw the many different attractions and rode in the clams on The Seas with Nemo and Friends (formerly the Living Seas). We got to enter through the tunnels because of the half marathon running through the park and that was in itself exciting for me. We then had a boat trip around the World Showcase and were told some really neat facts about the different world pavilions. One such example is a drawbridge that goes up around 2-3 pm for about half an hour for workers to bring out the barges that are going to be used for the fireworks show into the lagoon.

After the tour, we got a powerpoint on Diversity, and how “we are a part of the show” and got to see the conception of EPCOT. They actually showed “Walt’s Last Film” about the city of EPCOT and how it developed after that. THAT was really cool!

Then we were split up, and innoventions workers went to lunch with “Ginny” our leader for the day, as our real leader took a personal day. We went to eat (backstage, they have some really reasonable prices) and then went to costumes. I am apparently a 36x30 in Disney pants (with WONDERFUL pleats on the front) although I had to tie a belt around my 35x30 khaki pants today so they wouldn’t fall off. While waiting to try the costumes on, I mentioned to Ginny that my birthday had just passed and she dialed a number and gave me phone. It was goofy wishing me a happy birthday!! And the extension coincidentally was 2144, the first and last digits of my phone number!

After costume fitting, we went to the Wonders of Life pavilion, which is now permanently closed and did computer based training about chemical safety and how to properly interact with guests, etc… AND THEN we got to go up INTO THE PAVILLION (!!) and see it from inside. I wish I had my camera, because it was quite a site, partially emptied out. Ginny said they use it for Segway training (and it was last used for the Food and Wine festival). So then we got to go back to innoventions and see the backstage area of that, and meet more important people. AND we found out that we could get involved with pin trading if we wanted (which is definitely a plus!) but that comes after training. And speaking of training. I have training tomorrow (Sunday) from 12:45 to 9:45, have Monday and Tuesday off, and then kicks into high gear Wednesday through Saturday. And then they already have me down for training in a brand new attraction dealing with Velcro, which starts on February 9^th! Talk about planning!

After training, I came home, had some cereal, and headed out to Magic Kingdom with Danielle and Krystyna, since it was open until 11 because of the fact that it was a Saturday [I know it is a really long sentence, but I’m sorry, I don’t want to rewrite it]. We rode TTA (Tomorrowland Transit Authority), with the model of the Walt’s EPCOT on display, Stitch’s Great Escape, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and then went on the Teacups before we went to go watch “Wishes,” the fireworks show. I’ve been told the view is better from Adventureland since they shoot the fireworks from both sides of you, but since it was my first time seeing it, we saw it from the front. And five minutes into the show, I had a drop of water drop on me, and 3 seconds late (no joke) the sky OPENED UP and it was pouring hard. So we ran to a restaurant, then decided to go to Winnie the Pooh, and then went on to Haunted Mansion, and then wanted to utilize our fastpasses to Space Mountain, but it was shut down “to refuel the rockets.” We wanted to see Space Mountain with the lights on from the TTA (it goes right through the building, with a great view of the ride), if they were trying to fix it, but that was shut down too, perhaps to prevent guests from seeing that.

So then we went on Space Mountain and called it a day (even though we still had an hour left to play), since everyone was already tired and still wet.

All things considered, it was a fun and eventful first visit to Magic Kingdom!

Training

2008-01-22T00:41:00Z

So this afternoon was basic Disney training, how to point (either with 2 fingers or your open palm) or how to be polite to guests, with an emphasis “INCLUDING KIDS” (I guess there have been problems in the past). And we got our badges that allow us into the parks, WOOHOO!! During training, our leader was like “Who lives in Chatham Square?” my apartment complex, and there was polite cheering, and then was like “who lives in Vista Way?” and there was a much louder noise and cheer, and he was like “ya, you guys are carrying on the legacy that Chatham Square is more of a country club, and Vista Way is more the social club!” And I must say that is very true.

By the time we got a chance to go, it was about 7, and Disney-Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios) closed about then, so we decided to go to Epcot! I went with my roommate “tank” and a girl and her roommate I sat during orientation. It turns out she lives 2 stories above us, and we happened to sit at the same table during orientation. And I got really lucky getting to know her because she has A UNIVERSAL SEASON PASS ALREADY!! WOOHOO! So know I’ll have someone to go to Universal with!

So at Epcot, we went on Soarin’ in the land pavilion, which has some REALLY fun interactive games when you are waiting in line for it (I was too busy playing to take a picture) and then Figment of Your Imagination, which was a little bit disappointing (except for the part where he just disappears), and then Mission Space and Test Track. There was a point in figment which scared the JEEBERS out of my roommate and I and we both jumped, causing our car to shake (and the girls to laugh at us). And in mission space, there was a “delay” meaning that probably someone had thrown up in it and when we entered our cabin/ride car, the motion sickness bag was missing. That when I realized I should probably carry my hand sanitizer with me in the parks!

And one of those girls was a Disney trivia junky, knowing about as much useless (Disney) trivia as me, which was pretty neat, as I actually had someone who I could discuss stuff with vs. just tell to.

Tomorrow I have “discovery” starting at 8 AM at Epcot, which I believe is when I go around Innoventions, where I am working, and go see what I will be doing. I am super excited that I will have a chance to ride Segways! It is like a dork’s dream come true!

(I’m sorry, this is posted late, but the internet was giving me trouble before, and now, livejournal is giving me a hard time.)

Downtown Disney and stuff

2008-01-12T03:50:26Z

Today, Thursday, 1/10/08, early in the morning, we had to go fill out NDA (non-discloser agreements, for all you non-lawyers out there) and basically sign our lives over to Disney for the next 4 months. Then I actually unpacked for a little bit and went to a welcome pool party, where I (nor my roommates were able to meet anyone as the atmosphere was not really conducive towards that). After that we went to Downtown Disney as we still don’t have our badges to get into the parks! (That is coming tomorrow, so I might be too busy playing tomorrow to write something up J). So we driving into downtown Disney, I took a picture of the famous “welcome” sign. And I would like to say for the record, I took the camera out of my pocket and took the picture(s) while being completely safe! And also for the record, Downtown Disney was really cool, like a larger version of Universal’s CityWalk, except with the Disney touch. Pleasure Island, which is actually an island with a huge number of clubs, looks neat, and of course Cirque du Soleil, which we get discounts too (hopefully it is a big one, as $70 for the cheapest seats are RIDICULOUS!). And I can’t wait to try DisneyQuest, which I think we get free admission to (vs. the overpriced $37 “guests” get to pay!)

A snapshot of downtown Disney. (Sorry it is a little dark, but in the back, you can see the Cirque du Soleil tent, which I will hopefully be going to see soon! With a discount of course. And then you have DisneyQuest, and the Virgin Megastore)

As a side note, I am really tired from walking as I guess I’ve been sitting for too long these past 4 days.

Moving in

2008-01-12T03:42:41Z

WARNING: LARGE UPDATE AHEAD

So yesterday, check-in day, I got up to the place at 8:20 (they said they were going to start at 9 in the morning, but I wanted to beat the crowds) and I zoomed through the many stations with ease. There was room assignment, policy agreements, car registration, the “Disney look” station , etc… and I did it all in about an hour. So I drove to my apartment complex (Catham Square), a VERY nice complex, and had a hard time deciding which room to choose! First things first though, when I went to choose what size apt I wanted (each apt. can hold up to 8 people), I knew I wanted 4, but THEN they presented me the option o f a 2 person, which would be just me and my pre-assigned roommate. And I haven’t really told many people about my pre-assigned roommate, but he seemed like a nice guy, but wasn’t sure if he was a fry or two short of a happy meal. And a friend had said “all you need is one good roommate” speaking from her own experience, and so utilizing such advice I chose the 4 bedroom. It turned out to be a good decision, because unfortunately, I was right about my preasssigned roommate. So it took me about 5 minutes to decide which bedroom and then which bed. Did I want the bedroom with the bathroom open to the living room? Do I want 2 windows facing East? Do I want the one with the HUGE walk in closet, which unfortunately is through the bathroom? Or did I want the smaller closet with direct access from the bedroom? So I was like “this shouldn’t be a hard decision!” and went with the one with the big closet, private bathroom, one window east (and one south) because the ONE window means less light will filter in through the blinds, waking me up early, I needed a LARGE amount of storage for everything I had brought, and my private bathroom meant that visitors would use our roommates bathroom.

Inspecting the apartment upon walking in, it could not be classified “clean.” There carpet may have been vacuumed but with one that wasn’t working; the coffee table had a red dried Jello substance on it; some of the dishes had dried food left on them; the drawers had rice in them; the microwave had food on the walls; there was permanent marker on the fridge (which Comet got out), but mind you…I’m NOT COMPLAINING! I am just stating the condition of the apartment. So I ran to the closest store I could find (like 10 minutes away, there was a CVS) and bought a pack of 40 lysol disinfecting wipes. And I started wiping EVERYTHING down. I emptied the cupboards, the drawers, I did the table, the countertops, the kitchen cupboards, EVERYTHING, and I still have a few wipes left. And we went and borrowed a vacuum from the front desk and vacuumed like it should have been done and everything was finally good. EXCEPT for the fact that we couldn’t run all the provided dishes and silverware through the dishwasher because we (actually, I ) discovered the apartment's hot water wasn’t working.

Our very pretty building in our very nice apartment complex.

So I started unpacking and realized I had brought 3 sweaters and 2 sweatshirts, on top of my heavy coat and a whole plastic drawer full of long sleeved shirts! So far, I don’t even think I will be needing ANY of that. The mornings aren’t even that bad, and evenings are BEAUTIFUL. (PRU, you have a reason to be jealous!) I hadn’t realized how south I had to come until I set out .

And I was very excited that my dress shirts and slacks didn’t wrinkle and I didn’t have to iron them (the “Disney Look” requires they be pressed) thanks to my big sis’s ingenius idea of putting them in garment bags.

Speaking of storage, I had brought under bed drawers, which are sooooo useful, except that I brought 3 of them a storage tub. As it goes, I can only fit 2 because of that pesky frame holding up the bed! As we came back from Wal-Mart with my 2 roommates (more of that later), there were these black heavy duty plastic things right in front of our door. And after walking by them, I was like “HEY! I CAN USE THOSE!” and went back out and got them, cleaned them with those oh-so-wonderful-and-useful Lysol disinfecting wipes and put them under my bedframe, allowing me to fit all 4 of my storage containers I had brought! Very exciting! This was one of those moments where you can definitely say “God provides!”

And last night, I was going to write this, and found out that the wireless router that I had brought was DEAD. It was the very first wireless router that my family had purchased, probably for $90 or something and I guess it had met it’s maker. But don’t worry, that is just slowing me in posting my updates to the internet, not preventing me.

For housing orientation at 12:30 this afternoon, as we were filing into the big hall, they were playing “Nicest Kids in Town” !! from Hairspray. I did my best to prevent myself from singing, lest my roommate think I’m odd (which, all of you who know me, would just be postponing the obvious discovery). And unfortunately for about four of us, we were told to sit right in front of an air conditioning vent that kept turning on every twenty minutes. It was the longest 2 hours so far at Disney!

Driving to Orlando

2008-01-09T02:37:58Z

Woot! So I finally made it to Orlando and the drive could not have been better! I did not get caught in any rush hour traffic, no major construction delays, no flat tires/major events (which unfortunately our family is prone to having on long trips) and I made it with plenty of time to spare.
The highlight of my journey was the I-10 tunnel under downtown Atlanta (I know, I'm a dork, but tunnels are very cool to me) and this morning (Tuesday morning, to be exact) at around 7 when I was driving on a very long bridge after I left my hotel in Pensacola and you could barely see anything ahead of you or to the sides of you (I'm assuming there was water beneath). I just had to proceed with caution and with a little faith that the road wouldn't drop out from under me.

So after my drive today (from 6:30 AM), I arrived in Orlando at 2 in the afternoon (CST) and was very excited (why wouldn't I be!?!? I get to spend a whole semester working at the "happiest place on earth"). I took a nap and went to wal-mart to go get some sunscreen for move-in day tomorrow and ALL the wheelchair parking spots were taken. And there wasn't just a few of them, on the non-grocery side of the store, there were about 10-13 spots and each had a car in it. After doing business with the devil (w-m) I went to Taco Bell, and I was the only person (other than the cashier) under 50!! There were about 30 people in there and every single one of them (except for one which was bald) had grey hair! I kid you not, it felt very weird. I guess it really is true that people retire in Florida. And I totally understand why! The weather today was really nice, partly cloudy, then the sun came out with a slight breeze. My windows were open even on the highway. I just hope it stays this way!

That is it for now I better be getting some rest since I get to wake up in the morning and go move into an apartment! Such Excitement!
(I just hope I can sleep!) Last night, I kept waking up (after finally going to sleep at 8:00, 45 minutes after I got into bed) and ended up getting out of bed at 4:30.

Oh and since it was my birthday, my 97 year-old Grandma sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone and it was soooo cute! Since she kept repeating "Happy Birthday to you!" over and over, and then forget my name and had to ask mom for it. Hehe

Preparing to Leave!

2008-01-07T05:58:50Z

So it is the night before leaving and I am reviewing my driving plans and finishing packing. I am surprised I am not as excited as I was before, but perhaps that is a good thing, since maybe I can get some (and I stress SOME) sleep as I want to pull out of the driveway no later than 6:20 and it is midnight and I still have some packing to do. Mom is crying and giving me lots of food that I don't think will even fit in my car.

I have so much to do (check the air in my tires, finish packing, pack the car) and yet here I am typing this entry so that one day, when I look back on my journey, I can know what I was doing the night I left the Dallas area to go (really) live on my own! (And of course, I am also typing it so you can actually have something to read).

Goals/Dreams/Aspirations

2008-01-03T00:21:26Z

First Entry...as if you couldn't tell.

The reason I am doing this is to have an account of my time interning at Disney. However, "interning" may not be the best word (even though it IS used by Disney...). It is more of a crappy job with lots of benefits and experience opportunities, and though some people may think I'm crazy (like my parents, who still think I am, or my sis who initially I was), I have a pretty good understanding of what I am getting myself into.