First Week!

Hello there! My goodness does time fly. A lot has happened since my last post, the most important being that I am now officially a Disney Cast Member! Last Saturday we had Traditions, which is the class that teaches Cast Member values and Disney History. There is also a Disney trivia portion to the class, which I rocked. For prizes the offer what they call characters, which are little Disney figurines exclusive to Traditions. There were 5 different ones, so of course I got all 5.

My Traditions haul

We also got our name tags and Cast Member I.D. which means...we could get into the parks for free! Unfortunately, I did not make it that night. However, after a long day of classes on Sunday, I went to Magic Kingdom for the first time in 8.5 years. It was pretty amazing. That moment when you walk around the corner and see the castle never ceases to be special, and Magic Kingdom's castle is that much more impressive than Disneyland's castle. I also had the pleasure of going with my roommate Sarah, who had never been to any Disney park ever in her life, so seeing her reactions was very fun for me. We only made it on two rides, but seeing the Magical Light Parade was fun after so many years, and seeing Wishes fireworks is an experience you can only understand if you see them in person. It's a magic unlike none other you will ever experience in your life. 

The beautiful castle

Wishes. Just Stunning.

The next day we had our Discovery Day at Epcot, which was cool because we got to tour Epcot. Our schedule said we would be done at 4, but we were let go at 12, so a group of Canadians and myself went to Animal Kingdom. We were only there 3hours, but since it was dead, we managed to do all of the important stuff. The longest line we waited in was for Kali River Rapids for 30 minutes because it was a very hot day. On Kiliminjaro Safaris, we saw a baby giraffe (who didn't look like a baby) named Fred, which was pretty cute. All in all, it was a great day.

Baby Fred is on the right!

Tuesday included a tour of the Canada Pavilion, and an evening trip to Magic Kingdom with some Canadians. I finally got to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It was a little like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but with Dwarves, and it was pretty fantastic. Totally worth the hour and twenty minute wait. New Fantasyland in general is stunningly beautiful. I'm very impressed by it. We also found a Restroom area in the theme of Tangled, which I was pretty excited about.

Tangled Lanterns!

The night was once again finished with Wishes, only this time there was a giant tree blocking our view. No matter, we'll have plenty of opportunity. On Thursday I had my first day of job training at Le Cellier. Thursday and Friday I was trained as a Seater, which I think I'm getting the hang of. Le Cellier in general is beautiful and I want to eat there quite badly. They have poutine on the menu! It is quite expensive, but I'm sure I can work it out. 

Me in my Le Cellier Costume

Tonight is the Villains Unleashed Party at Hollywood Studios, and I'm pretty excited. More on that later :) Talk to you soon!

I have arrived!

Wow, it's been over a month since my last post. I suppose there hasn't been any news. Anyways, I'm here! I arrived in Orlando Monday night. The last couple weeks have been difficult, saying goodbye at whatnot, but I'm here now. My Dad and I drove to Spokane WA Sunday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport. It took us about 45 minutes to get through the border with my Visa, but there were no issues. In the morning, we caught our plane to Las Vegas, where we had a very short layover before boarding our flight to Orlando. Let me tell you now: Southwest is not a good airline for long flights. They are small planes and they don't have TV screens. Anyways, once we got off the plane we got our rental car and headed out. That humidity though. Oh my goodness, it hits you the moment you step outside. Something I'll have to get used to I suppose. Thanks to Google Maps, we found our hotel easily enough, but had to pay 3 tolls, much to my Father's chagrin. After checking in we headed to Downtown Disney. There weren't many restaurants available at 9:30 at night for some reason, but we got a table at Paradiso 37. The main draw there is the pretty rainbow bar centrepiece, but as I am not 21 until January, I can't drink, but feasted on fish tacos and corn dog bites and it was all good.

My Dad in front of the rainbow bar

After a perusal through the World of Disney store (where I'm sure I will spend a chunk of my pay check)  and Basin (my new Lush), it was time to head back to the hotel and go to sleep.

The next day was check in day. My check-in time wasn't until noon, so my Dad and I managed to get a reservation at the Grand Floridian's (my favourite resort on property) 1900 Park Fare. 1900 Park Fare is a breakfast buffet and character breakfast, so as you can imagine, I had a good time there. 

 Me and Pooh Bear at 1900 Park Fare

Mickey Waffle!

The characters present were Pooh Bear, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice, and the Mad Hatter. A decent assortment I would say. The food was also decent. The buffet included Mickey Waffles, which are my favourite. The highlight of our meal was the orange-papaya juice, which our waitress graciously refilled consistently. The Grand Floridian itself is beautiful, and I can't wait to explore more.

Lobby of Grand Floridian

After breakfast, we drove over to Vista Way to get my housing assignment. There were only about 7 other people there with me. We basically received our assignments, got our ID cards, and were set free. Myself and 3 others were driven to our complexes, my Dad following behind with my luggage. Fortunately, I received my first choice of housing, a two bedroom in The Commons. In Disney, you can't possibly have a room to yourself, so there are two people in each bedroom. It seems as though most people didn't get what they wanted, so myself and my roommates are very lucky. My roommates were selected before hand (we found each other on Facebook), so perhaps that is how we got what we wanted. Anyways, I was the first to arrive. The apartment is quite nice, but very dirty. You would think they would hire a maid service after they let people move out, but obviously not. Sarah, one of my roommates arrived shortly after me, and my Dad took both of us to Wal-Mart. 3 hours. 3 hours we spent in Wal-Mart buying stuff. I don't think people would believe it, but it was at least 3 hours, buying everything from a toaster, to bedding, to food. It was exhausting and I never want to do it again. We also went to Best Buy afterwards to get a router to have Wi-Fi in our apartment. The little Nissan Versus we rented was completely packed with bags. We could never have done it on the bus. It took 3 trips to the car to get all of our stuff in the apartment, and much more time to un-pack it all. As it was 8:30 at this point, my Dad took us to Olive Garden for dinner. After dinner, he brought us back home, and we said goodbye. Our 3rd roommate had arrived at this point, and our 4th arrived shortly after. We were all exhausted from the day and went to bed.

This morning we had an Immigration Meeting at the Commons Clubhouse. A lot of our stuff is taking place there, which is nice because we don't have to bus. They just talked to us about our Visa and our role here in the U.S.A.  Sarah and I just spent a good amount of time cleaning the apartment, so it looks a lot better than it did. We have another welcome meeting tonight. Tomorrow is more meetings, then we get Friday off. Saturday is Traditions, where we will learn about Disney and become official Cast Members. It's been an exhausting day and a half in Orlando, but I think good things are to come. Talk to you later! 

A Welcome and an Explanation

Hello and welcome to my blog! As it is now exactly 5 weeks before I check in, I decided to start my blog. Here, I will be documenting my adventure working for the mouse.  As I have in the past month and a half received many questions regarding the next chapter of my life, I decided to use my first blog post as an explanation for what it is I'm doing down in Florida.

First thing's first, contrary to popular belief, I will not be performing in any kind of show, nor will I be acting as a princess or any other type of character during the duration of my employment. While that would be the dream, what I am doing is of a different nature. In Disney's theme park Epcot, there is an area entitled "World Showcase", which features 11 different country pavilions, and cast members from those countries to work in their respective pavilion. As it can prove difficult for non-Americans to work in America, Disney set up what is called the Disney International Program, which offers different programs for non-Americans to live and work at Disney World. The program I am taking part in is called the Cultural Representative Program, which means I will live in Orlando for a year working in the Canada Pavilion in the Food and Beverage area.  Most likely I will be switching between working in the Popcorn Cart and the Canada Pavilion's restaurant, Le Cellier, the second most popular restaurant in Disney World. While there, I will have free admission to all of Disney's theme parks and discounts on many things from food to merchandise. Due to my being there for an entire year, I will achieve many dreams by hitting every special event that takes place in a year at Disney (Halloween, the Food and Wine Festival etc.).

How did I get such an opportunity? I applied quite simply on the Disney International Programs website. I've applied twice before, once in October 2013 and once in February 2014. The October application resulted in a phone interview, the February application in nothing at all, and neither in a job. However, on May 6th, I decided to apply again. On May 8th, I received a request for an interview. On May 16th I had a Skype interview, and on May 19th, I was offered a job with 5 days to accept. Normally, they give you 30 days to accept, but as my start date was August 12th (August 12th 2014-August 7th 2015. 360. Get it? ;)), they needed to get me on the petition for a Visa immediately. So, from May 16th-May 19th, I had had an interview, been offered the job, and said my first goodbye. As you can imagine, this was all rather fast and stressful for me. My plan for the near future had drastically changed in a span of 3 days, and I'm assuming for the better.

You may ask, "Abby, how can you give up theatre for a year?", and the answer is, I'm not looking forward to it.  While putting aside my passion for a year and risk letting any skill I've developed grow rusty frightens me, working for Disney has always been a dream of mine. Besides, as I am at a point in my life where I face so much uncertainty as to where to go from here, there is no better place to figure it out than my favourite place in the world.

Will I miss my friends and family terribly? Yes, everyday very much, and leaving people for so long gives me great stress. However, I try as often as I can to not let fear stop me from doing things, and this is certainly one of those instances. If a year without performing and seeing those I love is the price to pay for a once in a lifetime opportunity to live, learn, experience, and make new friends, I'll pay it. And I'd love for you to come along on this journey with me. I'll try to update as often as I can. So until next time folks, Have a Magical Day :)