Road Trip!

M&M store in the Florida Mall

Since I only live about four hours away from Orlando, my parents and I took a trip down to explore the area and get a feel for what's around the area OTHER than Disney World. This was also a good chance to go shopping for clothes and such, because it's difficult to find clothes that actually fit correctly where I live. So Saturday morning we got up early and made the drive down.

The Florida Hotel

When we finally got there we stayed at the Florida Hotel. For those of you that don't know the Florida Hotel is a hotel, connected to the Florida Mall. That's right, readers, CONNECTED to the mall. It was a REALLY fancy hotel, which honestly surprised me and then to find out that I could walk into the GIANT mall through the lobby? Let's say I was impressed. We spent the rest of that Saturday walking the mall, going into the M&M World store, the Apple Store, the Disney Store (I had to. lol) and a lot of other stores that I've never heard of before. This trip to the mall also blew my mind with prices, the stores were...SWANKY. Nordstom, Saks Fifth Avenue, H&M, all stores I had never heard of and that were kinda expensive.

Anyway, after a day of shopping, I came away with four new dresses and the ability to power through large groups of people without dying. (There were SO MANY people there, it was ridiculous.) All things essential to my Disney College Program. The next day we drove to Chatham Square.

Chatham bus stop

Can I just say that it wasn't like anything I was expecting? I guess I honestly had low-ish expectations since it was for primarily CPs but when I got there, my mind was BLOWN at how pretty everything looked. The buildings were pretty, the lawns were well-kept, and I was freaking out a bit about the stone work on the signs and along the roads. (Cause I'm a dork who appreciates such things.) Our GPS took us to the wrong side of Chatham at first, and I got a good look at Patterson Court as well. Patterson did indeed look newer and very pretty, but I'm already kinda in love with Chatham. When we finally got around to the entrance of Chatham, we saw the bus stop, which is nice and shaded and there's a porch. (I'm guessing that's the "main office" of the complex.)

I obviously couldn't get in because of security nor did I expect to be able to get in, so we were stuck being creepy and taking pictures from our car. Haha. Anyway, as we were finally leaving, we had to turn around at the end of the street where I saw the enterance to Mickey's Retreat, it is quite literally across the street from the Chatham bus stop. That made me happy, and I got a brief look at some of the things they had there. I saw some CPers playing soccer, so that was kinda cool.

We then drove to Vista Way, which wasn't far, but it's definitely not a walk. It's not even on the same side of the highway as Patterson and Chatham. (Unless we took the long way, which is entirely possible because we don't know our way around Orlando very well.) So, we looked at hotels close to Vista for check-in and finally decided on the Holiday Inn with the Applebees attached to it. I figured my roommates and I could eat there the night before check-in. :)

All-in-all it was an eye-opening trip that made me even more excited for the internship than I already was. I didn't think it was possible, but it sure is. While I was there it started to sink in, but we left too soon for it to have any positive or negative effects. So while my brain is still sort-of in denial about this whole thing, my heart is freaking out about everything.

Yesterday was 50 days until check-in, today is 49, and now that my parents and I have reserved the hotel room, it's only 47 days until I'm in Orlando. I remember when it was over 200 days. It's honestly going by so quickly and I'm getting more and more excited. AHH!

I Had a Realization Today

I never really thought about it before, but most people who will be doing the program have never been to Florida for an extended period of time. I lived here my whole life and when I'm reading blogs about people currently doing the program, I think to myself, "Yeah? Lizards and Muscovy ducks, that's normal. What's the big deal?"

I just never put it together that people in other states actually don't HAVE these types of problems. (Then I'm quite envious, to be honest.) I can't count how many times I've been chased by an angry Muscovy or how many times I had to catch a lizard (or make my dad do it.) The bi-polar weather is nothing new to me, and wait till the dreaded lovebug take over. (Boy are you all in for a surprise.)

Muscovy Duck

Muscovy ducks are originally from Mexico and South America, but they have slowly made their way to the Sunshine State. They're very territorial and can be very mean. They have been known to chase dogs and people when they feel threatened. Not only are they ugly, but they also are considered pests. They eat away natural vegetation from lakes and ponds and then proceed to poop everywhere else. The males are bigger than the females at 34 inches long, and roughly about 10-15 pounds. The females are only 25 inches long, 6-8 pounds. So yeah, they're huge AND ugly. Wonderful. Pretty much, my only advice for you is to leave them alone and for the love of God, don't feed them.

The joyous lovebug

Lovebugs are harmless little creatures that's only goal in life is to annoy the hell out of everyone. They do not bite, they're just EVERYWHERE. About three times a year in Florida, we have a "lovebug season" where it seems we have black "snow" falling from the sky. This is not snow my friends, this is much worse. This is snow that once it falls to the ground, it gets back up again to fly about. There are so many lovebugs in the air that you can't walk outside without having hundreds of them swarm about your face.  There is no possible way to keep them out of your house, unless you barricade yourself in until it's all over, but even then you might get a few stragglers. Lovebugs have a simple life. They are single, the find a mate, attach to said mate to the butt, and fly around doing nothing for a couple of days until they lay eggs and die. The sad thing is, if you kill one of the attached bugs, the dead one will stay attached to the live one and the live one will carry it around until it too dies. Tragic, I know. But it's okay, you'll have a few hundred thousand take that ones place. (A bit of a side note, if you get a whole bunch on your car after driving it, try and rinse them off occasionally, the decaying bugs will eat away at the paint on your car.)

I have read that people are having a problem with frogs, also. Not big frogs, but the tiny tree frogs that are super abundant in Florida. Don't worry, they're not poisonous, but be warned, they do in fact pee on you. You go to catch it, to get it out of your home and back safe into the wild where it belongs, and BOOM your hand is now covered in frog pee. Cute, right? So, I advise that you wash your hands once you get the little one out on its merry way.

Lizards. They're pretty self explanatory. I can just say that don't grab it by the tail, it can pop it off whenever it feels like it. So you can think your crafty and grab its tail, but the lizard will make its grand escape and all you'll have is a lousy a souvenir to remember it by. So, if you have to grab one, try and get it on a newspaper, or paper in general, or grab it in the middle. I don't know if they bite, because I try to avoid all contact with them, but I wouldn't be surprised if it tried to. Fun, huh?

The flying cockroach from hell

But the fun does not stop there, my friends! There's no way you can properly be welcomed to Florida without a lovely greeting from the giant flying cockroaches from hell, Palmetto bugs! They look a lot like cockroaches, but do not be fooled. They're 1 to 2 inches long, and can FLY. Yes, you read right, they can FLY. It's personally my worst nightmare come to life, because roaches are the only things I run away from screaming. Add flight into the mix and I'm reduced to a crying 3 year old girl. Another lovely fact, when you "disturb" them, they produce an odor. A "disagreeable" odor, to quote Wikipedia. They like to stay in warm damp places, so, try to keep things dry. A plus side for those brave enough to go after the winged beast, they're slow. So if you can swat them down from the sky, you have time to kill them twenty times over. Have fun!

This can happen to you.

As for the weather, I can't determine how we thought it was a great idea to be called the "Sunshine State" because clearly we are the "Weather Can't Really Make Up It's Mind" state. Every day is humid, we have three days of spring, a week of fall, a few months of "cold" winter, and all the rest is "rainy, hot, sticky" days. We have flash floods all the time in the summer, it rains sideways for about 10-20 minutes and then there's not a cloud in the sky. The humidity kills every inch of your hair and decides that "frizzy" is the best look for you that day. Don't try and tame it, it won't work. You don't know how thick your hair really is until you come to Florida and the humidity decides that each strand has to be completely messed up. My advice, try to look up helpful de-frizzing anti-humidity hair products. I can't really suggest any because my hair is too short now to have a serious problem with humidity. Don't get me wrong, it's still annoying, but it's not as bit of an issue to me anymore.

There's no real point to this post, just that I've never thought about how different Florida might be to other people before. I've been more focused on what's going to happen at Disney when I finally get to work there, that I've completely ignored the fact that most people have to adapt to the weirdness of Florida. I'm lucky (un-lucky?) enough to be able to skip that step. (For the most part anyway.)

Image sources: http://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-id/muscovy-duck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_frogs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug
http://www.city-data.com/forum/florida/70177-palmetto-bugs-2.html
http://www.sheknows.com/beauty-and-style/articles/827105/fast-and-sneaky-beauty-boosters

It's Official! And the Roommate Search is OVER!

I'm moving out soon.



Yeah! Stuff!



Today my mom came home with a whole bunch of supplies I would need for my apartment at Disney World. She bought me a bed set for my room and a bunch of kitchen supplies and brought them home to show me and I just stood there in shock. I'm so ridiculously excited, I don't know what to do with myself. The next day she brought me a mattress pad, a egg carton cushion (because apparently the beds are uncomfortable...) and stuff for my Mickey Mouse themed bathroom.

Everything just hit home, in 68 days, I'm moving to Walt Disney World to pretty much have the experience of my life! My mom and I just started looking around at clothes to find me some business casual dresses for Traditions and my Disney classes, but we're having trouble finding ones that are long enough, because I'm freakishly tall for a girl. Haha.

Last night, I had a G+ Hangout with my roommates. It was AWESOME. I love all of them already. I'm super excited to see these girls in person and to spend almost five months with them. They will be my Disney family and we'll be celebrating all of the holidays together, which is a big deal for me. A brief description of all of us:

• Alex- She's working Pirate's League, she's the only one who knows what she's going to be doing already. She's the shortest out of all of us, she's planning on doing a character audition, and she's pretty much the cutest person I've ever met. She's very bubbly and LOVES Peter Pan.
• Brandi- She is the one who will be sharing a room with me, hopefully. She's going to be working merchandise. She wants to work at Magic Kingdom, somewhere in Adventureland. She's the oldest out of all of us and she's pretty much into everything I'm into, which is really awesome. We have a lot in common. She loves Alice in Wonderland and Dumbo, and she also shares my love of Captain Jack. ;)
• Daurie- She is the one who seems the most down to Earth and calm out of all of us. While we're bouncing off the walls, excited about Disney, she's sitting there watching us, agreeing, and smiling. She's the one who has all of the Disney-themed board games that she'll be bringing so we can have game-nights. She will be working Quick Service Food and Beverage, she wants to work at Pizza Planet in Hollywood Studios. She lives the furthest away from Disney out of the four of us. I don't actually know which movie is her favorite, but she is the only one who will be flying into Orlando.
• Katie (me)- I'm the techie nerd of the group. I'm the one who knows how to fix technology (most of the time) and I'll be the one drawing pictures for everyone. I'll be working attractions, and I only know that I'd want to work at either Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. I love Pirates of the Caribbean and Aladdin, but my main man at Disney World is the Mad Hatter. :)

We all agreed that we want to live in Chatham Square in a Wellness (under 21) apartment, but nothing else has really been discussed. We all agreed that we'll be meeting for dinner the night before check-in, but we haven't decided where. Any suggestions?

Favorite Ride at WDW

For lack of anything better enough, because I don't have anything to update on my DCP yet, I'm going to post a story about my favorite ride in all of Disney World. (Ironically enough, it’s not even in Magic Kingdom as everyone expects.) While I love a LOT of rides in Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios Twilight Zone Tower of Terror holds a place near and dear in my heart.


Words cannot describe how much I love this ride. Not only is it fantastic, but I have one of my fondest Disney memories on this ride. In the spring of 2009, I got to perform at Downtown Disney with my theater group and not only was that a dream come true, but I got to spend two days at two parks with my closest friends. The day before the performance, we went to Magic Kingdom and stayed basically all day there. The next day, we performed for hundreds of people and then split up into groups to go to Hollywood Studios. This was the one park I had never been to before. I went with my four closest friends to explore the park and begin our adventure back in time to the 1940’s Hollywood scene.

We got to the area with ToT and Rockin’ Roller Coaster, we grabbed a fastpass for RRC and headed over to wait in the 15 minute line for ToT. At this point, we interacted with the cast members there who were trying to scare my youngest friend out of riding and provided a lot of entertainment for all of us. We finally got inside the ride and the lobby was BRILLIANT. The cobwebs, the time period furniture, the AIR CONDITIONING, I loved it. We got to go into the room to the right, and we stood back, not knowing what to expect.

When the lights suddenly went out after a rather convincing lightning strike and the TV appeared out of the bookcase, I was completely enthralled and sucked into the story of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Being a huge Twilight Zone fan, I enjoyed the short episode telling the story behind what went wrong in the Tower, and then being told that I was to be the star of the next episode in my own still working maintenance elevator- lets just say…I was excited.

After walking through the boiler room, we boarded our elevator and rode the ride, I won’t explain much else just so people can ride it themselves and be as surprised and excited as I was my first time. But I will say that we loved it so much, we rode it two and a half more times throughout the rest of the day.

That’s right, two and a HALF, because my friends, on our fourth ride through the ride STOPPED. Right before we got to the point in the ride where the elevator would drop, the ride stopped and after sitting a few minutes in the dark, the lights came on with the kind audio telling us that our ride has indeed stopped. With nothing to do other than wait for the Cast Members to get us, (Because someone in the other elevator had a panic attack and had to get off the ride, and because of that they couldn’t just start the ride again, they had to evacuate and reset the ride) we began to talk to everyone in the elevator with us. We found out that we were riding a group of kids visiting from Wisconsin and one of them had never ridden a ride in her LIFE. NEVER. So instantly, we blamed the whole ride being stopped on her (she was a good sport about it) and then everyone in the whole elevator began singing random Disney songs.

We were just finishing our rendition of There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow when I decided to look at my phone and see what time it was. By this point, we were stuck in the ride for 30 minutes and my group was now late for our check-in time to leave. I had to call our troupe leader and explain that we were only late because we were currently stuck on Tower of Terror.  At first she didn’t believe me, but I was never one to lie to her so she told me that it was okay, to take my time and to keep her posted. When the CM’s finally came to get us, the Wisconsin group decided to sing Kumbaiah and we were let off the ride. We were offered to cut the line and ride again, but since we were late, we couldn’t.

My best friends and our Cast Member savior

So my friends and I got to ride the real working elevator in Tower of Terror and to prove it we took pictures on my phone with the official cast member manager of the ride on the elevator. We ran all the way to the entrance of the park only to have the entire troupe, minus our leaders, not believe that we were stuck on the ride. We had the pictures to prove it and they still didn’t believe, but I don’t really care about that.



The only picture of me, and it's blurry. Gross. (I'm the girl in the black shirt)

 Being stuck on that ride was one of the best experiences at Disney that I’ve ever had, and not a lot of people could say that about being stuck on a ride, but it’s true. My friends and I tell that story all the time and even though we’re all in college now and we don’t get to see each other as much, we still talk all the time and try and visit whenever possible. But Tower of Terror gave me that moment, and it will always be my favorite ride in Disney World, no matter what anyone says about it. :)

(Sorry for the long post, I’m seriously missing Disney right now. Only 68 more days!)

Weekend at Disney!

Okay, so I just came back from my little weekend getaway to Disney World and I looked at everything differently there since I'm going to be a Cast Member. I actually noticed a lot of the things that they did and I even met and spoke with someone who was on the College Program.

His name is Sam and he's from Wisconsin, he was working at Disney's All-Star Movie resort. That day he was writing down when the buses were arriving and leaving the resort, so while I was waiting in line to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom, he noticed my totally awesome Avengers shirt and walked up to me and started a conversation. He told me that he LOVED working at Disney and he extended his program and I'll be able to see him when I start my DCP in August. We bonded over our love of Thor and Iron Man, why I wanted to stay in Chatham, and the fact that we're both college program Cast Members (well, I will be, I'm not an official CM yet.) So, in short, I'm already going to know one cast member when I get down there and I'm totally excited! He said he'd be looking for me in August, that made me smile.


While exploring Magic Kingdom, I noticed all of the different QSFB jobs at the park and the All-Star Movie resort and a lot of them were pretty cool, I noticed merchandise, and character attendants, but I mostly paid attention to attractions and the costumes. Some of them, honestly, are horrible. There's no way to look remotely attractive in them, but everyone is wearing them, so it's not like you are the only one dressed horribly. Haha. But then there are some when the inner nerd in me WANTS to wear them. For example, the new Fantasyland costumes.



New Fantasyland costume designs



You can't tell, but they have mini coattails. <3



I personally think they're wonderful and I would LOVE to wear them. The only ones that I have seen in person so far are the Dumbo's Circus ones, but I didn't think to take a picture myself, so I took this one off of the Internet, I have no idea who they are. Sorry! D:

But I also noticed the Pirates of the Caribbean costumes, and they were wonderful. I loved all of them. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they were just revamped or something, because I don't remember them looking that awesome. (I tried to find a picture, but I didn't find one of the new ones...) I want to wear one SO bad. I mean, to get to dress up like a pirate ALL THE TIME? That is seriously a dream come true for me. Haha.

The Haunted Mansion ones were the same, and they look wonderful, but I wasn't too thrilled with the CM's "performance" while I was there. Now, they are testing the new Fastpass system, which I don't know a lot of details about, but I really don't think that Haunted Mansion is in need of a Fastpass... But I'm sure I'll blog about that later when I have more details. Anyway, back to what I was saying, because of this new Fastpass line, the waiting queue is a bit messed up. They just added the Interactive Graveyard which is SO cool and the sign says "Entrance right" and "Entrance through the Graveyard left." But because of the new FP line, the right entrance is only for the FP people. You do have the option to wait along a hastily constructed green wall, or going through the slightly longer graveyard queue, but it's very crowded, and very uncomfortable and awkward. 

Now this is understandable because they just started testing the new FP, but the CM's did not seem "in-character." They were saying all of the correct lines like "Fill in all the dead space!" and "Step lively!" But they were SHOUTING them like they were just normal people doing their job. Maybe they were stressed, it was hot, but at the same time, it kinda ruined the fun of Haunted Mansion. Don't get me wrong, the ride was amazing, the new hitch-hiking ghosts were hysterical, I rode the ride twice in a row, but you're supposed to get the creepy vibe of the ride from the very beginning. The CM's are not supposed to be happy looking, (which in Florida heat and humidity is TOTALLY easy to pull off) and they're supposed to have dead-pan voices. Ha. I'm so witty They're supposed to make you feel like the house is really haunted, not that it's just another ride at Disney World.

Maybe that's just me, maybe you think I'm a crazy Disney-freak, but that's why I love the idea of Disney World. It's a place where you can get away from the real world, away from the annoying college students who are rude as you place your order at Quiznos, away from the stress of work, school, life, etc, and enter a "World" of imagination, fantasy and fun. You can visit the fairy tale characters you love, go on a wild and dangerous adventure, see the world of tomorrow, conquer the wild west, go back in time when things were simpler, and adventure into America's history in a fun, air-conditioned way all in one place.

The whole point is to tell the guests the story of the new world that they just entered, and to make them forget their stress; it's the cast member's job to help them. It makes me sad that no one really seems to think that way, because that's what Walt wanted the experience of Disneyland and Disney World to be. That's why he was so innovative and popular, he provided something new and wonderful to the world, but now it's considered old news. No one cares as much anymore, and the people that do are laughed at and called crazy. Story of my life It makes me sad.

But altogether, my weekend was WONDERFUL, don't get me wrong. I saw many characters and I remembered how much I loved the Mad Hatter. He noticed me and danced with me the three times I saw him during the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it Street Party. I rode Space Mountain five times in one day, and took a picture with Mickey Mouse for the first time! The All-Star Movies Resort was awesome and I loved it, SO much. I even got a Mickey Mouse waffle for breakfast one day. Aha. Awesome.

I Have Roommates!

Ahh!!! I'm so excited!

Looking for roommates is incredibly hard when you're under 21. For those of you who don't know, the apartments at Disney housing are divided into Wellness (under 21) and Non-Wellness (21+). Obviously this is to make sure no one is doing anything illegal under Disney's watch and if anyone in a Wellness apartment is found with alcohol it's immediate termination from the program.

But anyway, I've been searching for roommates since I was accepted, and at first no one seemed to have the same arrival date as me, then everyone was over 21 and not interested in "babysitting" as one person told me. Rude.  Then when I did find people under 21, they were interested in drinking and partying! Excuse me? Do you guys not care about your program? You crazy. The Facebook groups aren't that helpful either, I've been looking but EVERYONE is over 21 or partiers, or people who wouldn't get along with someone as nerdy as I am...

But finally, I found roommates! They're both one year older than me and rooming together. One is even working Pirates League! I am so jealous! Pirates League is the pirate equivalent of the Bibbibi Bobbidi Boutique princess makeover, but it's better because you're transformed into a PIRATE! So, I'm very excited for her, because she gets to dress like a pirate every day! Dream job.

The other is working QSFB which is Quick Service Food and Beverage, which means she'll be working one of the food carts in one of the parks, which is still exciting, but hard work. But she's in the same boat as I am, not knowing which park we'll work in or what land we'll work in. It's so suspenseful!!

Anyway, we've been emailing each other back and forth and we're getting really excited, but we still need to find one more roommate. One who will be sharing a room with me. It's incredibly difficult. I almost had a roommate and we had everything in common and were talking every day, but then Disney called her and asked her to change her arrival date. SAD. (They didn't really provide a reason though...) We can't be roommates if we don't have the same arrival date.

So back on the roommate hunt again. Ho hum.

Whoa

So, after a month of not posting anything on here and reading other DCP blogs and forums, I realize how freaking excited I am. I'm literally bouncing in my seat right now. I have 117 days to go! I just need to share my excitement, so hopefully someone will humor me by reading this.

I'm excited about finally being able to live on my own. Well, I guess I'm really just excited and NERVOUS. I've always had my own room my entire life, so obviously suddenly having to share a room is going to be a big transition. But the good thing about this is that I'll finally know what it's like to live on my own and how to support myself financially. Being only 19 years old, I've never had to. Now I'm going to have a job with a consistent paycheck and an apartment to live in, buying my own food and anything else I need. (It's also going to be terribly hard to NOT buy everything at Disney World...Cause I admit, I have a "buy everything in the Disney Store" problem. I'll get over it...hopefully.)

I'm also excited about finally being able to see the fireworks at EPCOT for the first time, and being able to see Fantasmic! for the first time. Whenever I got to visit Disney World, my parents would always get tired and would want to beat the fireworks crowd out of the park so we could get on the monorail without much trouble. So, I never got to see the shows. I finally got to see The Magic, the Memories, and You! on my 18th birthday because that's all I asked for (and I got to see it twice. :D)

Now, I understand that its not going to be all sunshine and rainbows, that people are in fact rude or mean. I like to say I'm prepared for that, but no one ever really is. I know that there are going to be serious reality checks and I'm going to be exhausted. I know I'll have good days and bad, but I believe that I'll be able to get through it. I'll just focus on the good to help me get past the bad, and talk to my family almost every night to keep off the homesickness.

One thing I am very nervous about is the language barrier. I know a lot of foreign guests come into the parks every day and I'll be working attractions, so how will I say "Your child is too small to ride." or something along those lines? Hopefully during training they'll tell me how to handle those types of situations. :)