Long time, no post!

Ahoy there! It's been a while since I last posted- only excuse is that if I'm not working, I've been playing at the parks.

Work: I love my job. Honestly, it gets better every day. I love love love working the glow carts. Here's a pic that my friend took of me while I was working at Not So Scary:

Yeah, I look a little angry. One of my other friends took a picture while I was smiling, but they all came up to my cart at a REALLY crazy time. That's my "Don't touch that! Stop pressing the buttons! No, none of this is free!" face. But I promise, I really really enjoy it! I like being out in the middle of the park and getting to see the shows and parades. And the Halloween parade is one of my favorites.

Also, here are some pictures from September 27th. I finally tracked them down- this is from when I went to the Halloween party as a guest.

This is the group I went with. This is us waiting in line to meet the seven dwarves.

And this is us with the dwarves! They were so awesome!

Let's see, what else have I done... Oh! I went on a backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion!

It.

Was.

AWESOME.

Seriously. I highly recommend it.

So here's the story: Sunday night, I worked Glow for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I got off at 00:45. Took the bus home, got home around 1:30. I chatted with my roommate until about three, and then I watched Community episodes on my laptop until 5:30. See, I had tried to go on the tour the previous week, and I epic failed because I couldn't wake myself up enough after my glow shift to go. So at 5:30, I started to get ready. One of my awesome coworkers lives in the apartment complex next to mine, so she was giving me a ride(the tour was for College Program interns from Adventureland Merchandise). We left at 6, and got to the cast parking lot at about 6:20ish. Most of the other people going on the tour were there, too. We got on the white bus to go into the park.

Once we got to the utilidors, a couple of us dropped things off in our lockers, and we headed upstairs. We came up by Columbia Harbor House and walked over to the Haunted Mansion. We had to meet our group by 6:45.

While we were waiting, we got to watch a bunch of the Christmas floats go through the parade route further down in Liberty Square. (Side note: I'm super excited for the parade! I probably won't go to the cast preview, buuut I'm working Glow for the very first party).
The cast member from the Haunted Mansion came out. She greeted us and took our IDs. We walked into the mansion through the VIP entrance. While she was getting the animation turned on, we chatted and got more and more excited. Finally, the maintenance guys began turning on the animation, and we began walking through. Apparently people spit on things in the Haunted Mansion as they're going through  the ride. SUPER DISGUSTING. So we had to be careful not to touch things unless our guide touched them first.

I really wish I could describe everything, but it's just not possible. So I'll give you a couple of fun facts: There are 9 hidden Jack Skellingtons throughout the Haunted Mansion. Some of them, you can't even see from the Doom Buggies, because they were kind of put there for the benefit of the cast members. But keep a look out for them! Also, the dresses that the dancing ghosts are wearing in the ballroom are the same as the dresses the princesses used to wear when they just walked through the parks without any attendants.

I'll post more pictures as soon as I get them together. Our coordinator took a bunch of group pictures, and after the tour was over, we got to ride through and take flash pictures, which was pretty cool. So I'll try to get some of those pics to put up here. Here's what I have for now:

So there are monsters throughout the ride. This is one of them. See the teeth, eyes, and tongue?

That's Master Gracey, the master of the mansion.

Madame Leota, who is actually LEOTA TOOMBS.

And the singing busts! Woohoo!

After the tour was over, we all went on Peter Pan's Flight, since it was only a five-minute wait, and then we scattered. I went home to get some sleep since I had work at 8:15 PM that night.

And that's pretty much it! Have a magical day!

Not So Scary

Guess who went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party? This girl! That's right, I broke down and got a ticket for it. I went with a group of two people who I knew and four people I didn't. I didn't dress up, but major props to those who went to the park in full costume in that humidity. I got off work at 7 that night, along with a friend of mine form Facebook(that's right, we first met on Facebook. Let's not be judgmental about that). After I changed, I went back upstairs and got my wristband- it was that easy. With the wristband came  a bag that I could fill with wonderful goodies. Which I most certainly did.

We met up with my friend's friends(she's been here for three weeks longer than I have) by the Haunted Mansion. They had just come off it, and so we decided to go on the ride ourselves and meet up with them in the line for the Seven Dwarves. The Haunted Mansion was pretty cool- the cast members there were in more costume than usual. Zombie makeup and all that. So we went on the ride. Sometimes that ride stops. It happens. Unfortunately for us, it stopped while we were in the Attic, which is the creepiest room ever. We got stopped right in front of the bride... so yeah, that was terrifying. 

After the ride, we joined the rest of the group in the Seven Dwarves line. We took turns holding our spot in line- normally I don't feel okay with that, but since we were all taking a picture together and not seven separate ones, I felt fine with having someone hold what was essentially one place. When we weren't waiting in the (long) line, we went on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We walked onto both of those rides. And by walked, I mean we entered the standby line and walked with nobody in front of us until we got to the log or train. That NEVER happens, especially on Splash Mountain.

The Seven Dwarves were totally awesome. I need to get the picture from someone I went with, and then I'll post it here. After we met them, we ran over to the Hub(the middle of the park in front of the castle) for the fireworks show and the Villains' show. Both were awesome. Then we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride(also no wait) and watched the Boo to You parade. Also awesome. After that, we trick-or-treated and gallivanted about the park until midnight, at which point we went home.

So on a more serious note: Work. I enjoyed my Glow Cart training. I have a Glow shift tonight, so I'll let you know how that goes. To be honest, I'm kind of nervous, because I'm going to be by myself for the entire shift, responsible for a cart full of things that have a nasty habit of walking off. People, please never make jokes about stealing when you're in front of me. Don't come into the Crow's Nest to buy water and joke about how you're distracting me so someone else can steal a bunch of other waters from the water cart outside. Please don't pretend to walk away from my glow cart without paying. You will make me very nervous and you will most likely not be getting the best of service from me. Why? Well, at Disney, Safety is the top priority- it even comes before Courtesy, which is what Disney is really known for. Even a joke about stealing is essentially a threat, and threats make me as a Cast Member feel really unsafe, especially if I'm all by myself. I'm also concerned about the safety of other guests. If you're the sort who would openly threaten to steal, then who knows what other sorts of laws and rules and general codes of social conduct you're willing to break? So save it for someone who will actually enjoy your joke.

Less serious: Epcot's Food and Wine festival is going on! I went the other night(for the food, of course). It was AMAZING. Seriously- the food is the best of the best. I had a sausage in a pretzel roll from Germany, a chocolate cannoli from Italy, and escargot and a crepe from France(though the crepe wasn't from their Food and Wine booth). They were all amazing. I'm excited to go back and try food from other countries.

So that's pretty much it for now! Have fun!