October and Christmas is here!!

Hello world. Time for another blog post where I talk about my October (and a little into November).

So probably one of the first big events was Canadian Thanksgiving. I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in 3 years now, so it wasn't a big deal to me to not be home, but I was curious as to how it would be living in a different country. Thankfully, I am surrounded by many other Canadians who felt the same way. 2 girls from our pavilion were kind enough to offer up their apartment to us and host a Thanksgiving potluck the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It was awesome. There was so much food! I'm not sure how we all managed to cram into that little apartment, but it was nice. I'm very thankful to continuously have good Thanksgivings even though I'm not at home.

On real Thanksgiving, I did something a little different. I spent a lovely day in Magic Kingdom with some friends, then went to 1900 Park Fare for dinner. 1900 Park Fare is at the Grand Floridian (one of my favourite places) and has Cinderella character dining at dinner. Characters present were Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, and the stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. It was so much fun! For one thing, we got to meet a Prince and that was awesome. The stepsisters are absolutely hilarious. They essentially just run around screaming the entire time. I love it. Near the end of our meal the restaurant was quiet so the stepsisters were just messing around and at one point Anastasia pulled us up and got us to follow her skipping around the dining room. Not to mention that the buffet was really good. Lots of different kinds of food, and you can't go wrong with their famous chilled strawberry soup. Also a great way to spend Thanksgiving :)

Posing with Drizella

There was also one particularly awesome day in October and that was October 20th. October 20th I went on a beach trip to Clearwater beach. It was through housing and lunch was included in the price. I'd been dying to go to a beach since I got here and it did not disappoint. It was beautiful, and laying on a beach all day was exactly what I needed. It was nice to see real Florida, since we are so trapped in a Disney bubble. I want to go back to a beach so bad but it's really hard to get anywhere without a car :(

 Clearwater Beach

When I got back from Clearwater, I headed over to Epcot to watch Smash Mouth play at Eat to the Beat. It. was. AMAZING. I knew pretty much all of the songs, and they were great to watch. All Star (of course) was the finale, and they told everyone to come up on stage with them! Probably not a good idea in reality, but it was super fun! Got to jam and dance along with Smash Mouth onstage. That was honestly one of my favourite things I've done since I've been here.

View from up onstage

October included me and two other people trying to conquer the Kitchen Sink. The Kitchen Sink is located at Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club resort, and consists of 8 scoops of ice cream, every topping in the house, and an entire can of whipped cream. It was pretty spectacular. We 3 couldn't quite finish it on our own, but I would say we did pretty well. This was pretty high on my bucket list so I was happy to do it.

 Before

After

If you ever have the chance to make an early breakfast reservation at Magic Kingdom, do it, no matter which restaurant it is for. Ours just happened to be for Crystal Palace, which was fun we got to meet Pooh Bear characters, but not quite as exciting as being in a nearly empty Magic Kingdom. See, the park opened at 9, but breakfast reservations start at 8, which means if you have a reservation you can go in. I got some really beautiful photos from parts I could walk around.

Unfortunately, Halloween wasn't really celebrated for me (a shame because of how much I love it), but I figure I went to two Mickey's Not So Scary, so that makes up for it.

Now we're creeping into November, and with November 1st for me begins Christmas. There is definitely a Christmas tree in my apartment right now. And when I saw Christmas items in the stores I went nuts, and lost it when I saw Magic Kingdom decorated. Needless to say, I'm a Christmas nut.  My parents came for a visit last week. That was nice. We stayed in French Quarter, which meant I had a Queen bed to myself for 4 nights. It was awesome to have a little staycation, and to feel like I was on vacation. And of course it was good to see my parents. My Dad wasn't so into Disney this trip (party pooper), but my mom was so it was okay. We (or me and my mom) had a lot of fun.

At Food and Wine with my parents

Lastly, last night was the Very Merry Christmas Party. I was so super excited for this. Like I woke up early because I was so excited. I bought Christmas ears and a shirt specifically to wear to the party. And it was fun. My main focus of the evening was meeting Flynn Rider. I LOVE Flynn Rider, and he was meeting with Rapunzel. Also at the party was "Sandy Claws" (Jack Skellington dressed as Santa), which was pretty epic, especially since I absolutely love Nightmare Before Christmas. We got in line at 6:15 for him. The party started at 7. He actually came out at like 6:20, and thank God he did. We didn't get out of that line until 7:30. And I thought we'd be out by 7, but Jack is a ton of fun to meet so it was worth it. 

Nice to meet you Sandy Claws

Our next target was Flynn so we headed to Fairytale Hall. The line hardly ever moved. It was very frustrating and when we got in the room we saw why. Flynn and Rapunzel were spending forever with the guests. One girl was crying because she was so excited to meet them and they spent at least 5 if not more minutes with her. I understand wanting to have good character interactions, but when lines are long like that you can't be spending that much quality time. It just causes a lot of frustration. Finally getting to meet them was awesome. I've met Rapunzel a lot so as much as I adore her it wasn't overly exciting, but meeting Flynn was pretty fun. I got to look in his satchel and he has Rapunzel's crown in there. It's beautiful. Prince Charming and Cinderella were also in the room. I felt kinda bad for them because it was obvious everyone was more after the other two, but they were both lovely as well. 

Rapunzel and Flynn

By the time we got out of there, it was close to 9. Celebrate the Magic was on at 9:15 and Holiday Wishes at 9:30, so we barely had time to grab a Christmas cupcake from Gaston's Tavern before heading to watch. The fireworks I've gotta say were pretty spectacular. I love when they do perimeter fireworks. They can't do them all the time because they have to shut the roads down, so they save them for special events, but when they happen they're stunning. I shed a tear as they are set to Christmas carols and I loved it. After the fireworks we set ourselves up in a place where we could watch the stage show and the parade. Honestly, the stage show has mixed reviews, but it was one of my favourite parts of the evening. If only for Goofy singing "Must Be Santa". It was way too adorable. The parade followed. It was good, I liked the Halloween and the Disneyland Christmas parade better, and I don't understand why Frozen needs 3 floats, but I was mad because there was this couple in the front row who insisted on standing even though everyone behind them was sitting. Who does that? We couldn't see sitting, but we didn't wanna stand in front of the kids behind us. We ended up standing because we wouldn't have seen anything, but my goodness. Have some courtesy. They also started making out in the middle so that's nice. Aside from frustrations the parade was cute and got better and better as it went along. After the parade we booked it to try and see Snow White and Aurora with The Prince and Prince Phillip, and when we got there they had cut the line, but we were second in standby so we waited. They were leaving at 11:30. At 11:28 they saw the last person in the line and left. No one in standby got in. Then we tried to see Scrooge but the line was cut. So was Minnie. We did get to see Santa Goofy, so that was good. The party was fun, but there was just a lot of frustrating moments. We didn't get to do half the things we wanted to. We're going to go again because there's no way I'm not meeting Philip, Scrooge and Clarabelle and Horace (who I didn't know were there until last night!!!). Next time we won't be as stressed and rushy :)

Well, this post turned mainly into a Very Merry post, but that's alright. I think I'm going to bring my new Sven stuffie to the next party, because I love him and he's a reindeer so that's Christmas:) What else is there? I wrote my service test and passed, no date for food running, but I only cared about passing. I go to Magic Kingdom every week. I love it and never get bored of it. It's like my happy place. I think I need to go every week to keep myself sane. I have to keep that Disney magic going for myself or being here would be way too hard. I've also watched Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom twice this month and it always makes me really miss performing. Not that I could be in that show because I'm white and can't dance, but still. So do parades and castle stage shows *sigh*. I bought tickets for Book of Mormon though in January so that's really exciting! Oh, and James Monroe Iglehart came into Le Cellier last week AND I WAS WORKING POPCORN AND MISSED IT!!!! I was devastated. I love him. If you don't know he's the Genie in Aladdin on Broadway. There are some very exciting things coming up in the next month or so, so stay tuned for that ;) I'll hopefully post in the next month. Until next time.

September Stuff

So it's been a while since my last post. Time flies down here. In a couple days I'll have been here for 8 weeks, which is crazy, but seems like such a small number when put against 52. In general, I've been having an awesome time. I go to the parks for fun at least once a week, I recently bought a ticket to an Ariana Grande concert in March, and I managed to get reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table in a few months.So, good things are happening. It would be silly to talk about everything that's happened in the past month and a half, so I'll give some highlights:

I was fortunate enough to have a surprise dinner at Be Our Guest one evening in September. For those who don't know, Be Our Guest is a restaurant in Magic Kingdom that looks exactly like the Ballroom in Beauty and the Beast and fills up reservations 6 months in advance. What happened was, I was hanging out with someone in Magic Kingdom who was going to a reservation for 4. I knew I wouldn't be able to go so it was okay, but when she got to the restaurant, they sat 4 at a table for 6, and if I could get there in 2 minutes I could join! So I very unsafely (for those who know me it was a shock I didn't face plant) ran from Frontierland to Fantasyland in my sandals, on the wet ground, in the pouring rain. I made it and was able to eat.

Me with the Beast!

The food was good. You won't remember it, it was nothing special, but it was good. The experience however, is more than worth it. It looks exactly like the movie. There is even snow falling outside the window! The whole experience was completely magical. I have a reservation in February, so hopefully I get to go again :)

The Restaurant

I also was able in September to A: See Harry Potter World and B: See my friend Katrina! That was nice. She was in town rehearsing for a touring show she's doing, so I met up with her and some of her castmates at Universal one day. The main thing I gathered from Harry Potter World is that I will be spending a lot of money there.  It is the only area of Universal that holds a candle to Disney on any level, although they do have The Hulk Coaster and Spiderman ride, which are pretty fun. But Harry Potter World though. There are interactive wands. I need one.  Although I must say there is a sad array of merchandise if you are a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.  I bought a Ravenclaw shirt, but I do wish they had more stuff.  I've been to Universal 3 times now, so I've already more than paid for my Annual Pass. And also Frozen Butterbeer. I have dreams about Frozen Butterbeer. The only thing I can compare it to is Cream Soda, but if you're ever in Harry Potter World, get Frozen Butterbeer. It will change your life.

Me, Katrina, and Hogwarts

Another thing that's happened is Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! It's cheaper for Cast Members to go in September, so I went twice in September and I'll be going no times in October. The first time I went with my roommate Natalie, and the second with a group of Canadians. It's fun because they have characters out that aren't normally out. The dwarves anyone?

You also go trick-or-treating, and between the two trips, a have A TON of candy. The parade and fireworks are also really good. Unfortunately, rain and thunder prevented us from watching the parade the second time, but it did mean we go to meet Tarzan, which was cool. Another cool thing about not so scary is that the rides are walk-ons, so we were able to walk on Splash Mountain and get a photo with all 8 of us filling a log. I was also Rapunzel that night, wearing my child's costume I bought in the parks. It was great because I had people ask me where I got it who had no idea (and I looked super cute :) )

All in all, the Halloween parties were great fun, and make me super excited for the Christmas parties!

Lastly, the Epcot Food and Wine Festival is in progress. This Festival is going to break me. The park is busier, which can ether be good or bad for working, but going to the festival is amazing. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love food. Going around to the different countries and eating is actually the greatest thing ever. It is my goal to try at least one thing from each country kiosk. So far, my favourite things I've eaten are the Flan from Puerto Rico, and the Mushroom/Gruyere Macaroni from France. The Festival runs until November 10th, and then Christmas Season starts (yay!!)

As far as how me personally is doing, it's been an up and down week. There's been highs, but a couple lows this week where I really miss people (to my friends: I never talk to you, but I miss you probably more than you know). Money has been a struggle as well, but I do what I can. I do write my service test in a couple weeks, which is exciting and stressful So much studying! But it's all good. I live in Disney World. There aren't many ways it can get better than that. I'll try to update at least once a month.

That's all for now folks! Until next time :)

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 :)