Closure, Indifference, Hunger

     Yeah, so I have done a pretty awful job keeping the blog updated. But in my defense, Disney has done a fantastic job of sucking my soul into busyness. And business. That, and I've never been super into the whole blogging thing. Long, uninterrupted blocks of text and I aren't very close friends unless they're in some sort of very compelling novel. But, here's yet another uninterrupted block of text for anyone bothering to read.
     Yesterday, I worked Tomorrowland stroller parking. It was awful. Basically, I spent five hours along side one of the other Star Tours GC's yelling "keep to your righthand side!" while knit-browed tourists act like they're planning to run me over...or make me burst into flame using their angry gaze. Soooooo not the funnest thing in the world. Normally, I like GC shifts. Not when it's busy. Ew.
      And I'm getting a lot guest control parade shifts. Those are interesting. Not so much angry guests with daggers for eyeballs, but they still aren't very happy about being told they can't watch the fireworks from where they're standing. We have quite a few people to squeeze into a fairly small space, and we have to keep an open walkway. It's not the easiest thing in the world, especially because I HATE yelling (talking loudly, not so bad, but yelling sucks) but it's not near as bad as doing the Star Tours split. At least the parade leads are fun.
     I would like to take a moment now for some fashion policing. Now, look see here, I don't exactly dress up to par with ze fashion world, but some faux pas even I can't help but notice. How can you walk out in public in a vest that is DROWNED in sequins, and not expect anyone to laugh? Or, some cases, for their brain to explode? Really? I saw a group that had a fella with a mullet and the most sequin covered vest I have ever seen in my life. It begs the question: What were you thinking? Is this a joke? Please, please say it's a joke. The lady this man was with was wearing something very similar. It was highly disturbing. Think about your clothes before you walk out of the house. And when your sequins call JUST SAY NO!
     With less than two weeks left in the program, it's been an interesting time for reflection. I've met a lot of fun and interesting people since I've lived in the apartments and worked for Disney. I feel like if I could go back and do the whole thing again I would have tried harder to hang out with other CP's. I guess to some extent I felt intrusive inviting people to do things all the the time, but really, there are only four months which is not as long as it seems when your whole life is spent working at a theme park. Though, I do think that to some extent I at least tried the best I could. I also would have gone into food services, had I wanted to make more money. A LOT more. Other than that I did everything I had particularly wanted to, so I am content with how my program experience went. And soon, on to Hawaii.

Weekend in the life of a DCP intern!

So I had a video that I posted, BUT the audio was waaaayyyy out of sync, so I took it down and here's the transcript:


So... this is me, Kayleigh, doing a video blog. And yes, I actually wrote what I'm going to say, because that's how I roll.

This is sort of a fun experiment. I'm not sure if I'll keep doing videos, but it'll be sort of fun to try it this once[and it apparently doesn't work...]. So, um, anyways... I'm functioning on kind of a lack of sleep, which as my mother could tell you, is my usual state of mind, Disney Cast Member or not.

But believe me: You have never been tired before you've been a Disney College Program intern. So... well, I mean, that is to say, if you're a traditional college student, who lived a fairly quiet life, and had no children, you have never been tired before your college program.

Because I'm sure being a parent is probably more tiring. I'm assuming. I think if any parents are watching/reading the transcript, they will agree.

ANYWAYS. So I've never been more tired in my life. Because pretty much all my time is spent on the go.

I had Thursday and Friday off this week, which seems to be pretty usual now. On Thursday, I went to the mall with some friends. It was pretty cool. It was actually the first time I've been off property- off Disney property(besides grocery shopping). That was a little funny. It was weird going into stores and, like, looking at prices and going, "Oh, that's the actual price I would have to pay, my little blue card won't do much for me here." And after that we came home and Miranda and I went to the Magic Kingdom and walked around for a few hours. There's a story there, but I really won't go into any detail on that. 

On Friday, I got up at eight in morning to go to the Animal Kingdom and ride Dinosaur with Miranda and watch Finding Nemo: The Musical. We had planned to ride Dinosaur. It's a funny story: Every time I've gone on that ride before, I've always gone with a total stranger. And it's a scary ride, and you kind of always end up screaming and grabbing the person next to you, which is always awkward when it's a total stranger, so Miranda and I basically planned to go on it together, because we're like, "Hey, we're friends. Let's go on a ride where we're already friends, and we don't come out new friends." You know? So we went on Dinosaur,  and then we went to Finding Nemo: The Musical, because it was right there, and it was just about to start, so that was pretty cool. I really liked it, and they did a good job with that. Anyways, then I went to a class at Epcot where I walked around The Seas for two hours, and that was really cool. And then I went home... yeah, just briefly... and then Miranda and I went to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Lights, which was so cool, and I have some pictures of that. And then we went to her apartment and watched the new Bones episode.

Then on Saturday morning, I woke up at FIVE to go to the Magic Kingdom for the Christmas Day parade filming. I spent the next twenty minutes laying in bed contemplating my existence and figuring out just how mad my friends would be if I didn't show up... and then I got up, because I decided they would probably be mad if I didn't show up. And then, after being in the Magic Kingdom until about eleven, I went home, did laundry, and then I went to work, which was from 4:30 to 2:45, because there was a hard close at one o'clock. And then I got home at 3:30ish. Normally I would have woken up at 8 this morning to go to church, but I slept through that alarm. So I'm going to watch a conference talk or two at home. Later tonight, I'll be working glow at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. It's a nice short shift. I'll be off a little bit after midnight. On a normal midnight close you wouldn't get off until an hour and forty-five minutesish after park close, so it's nice.

I do love my job. I complain about my hours all the time, but you would, too, if you were at the park until 2:45 in the morning. But I love working at the Magic Kingdom, and I really like doing Glow. I get to see the parades and fireworks and shows every night. Last night, I got to see the Electrical Parade twice from where I was, and that was really cool. I didn't get to see the fireworks, though, because for the zone I was in, I had to stay to the side during the fireworks so people can see. That's okay, because it was the regular Wishes show, and I've seen that... a lot. I sing along with it. Or lip-sync, if guests are near. Depends on my zone. If I get this zone for the Christmas party tonight, though, I'll be sad. Or I'll rebel and take my cart to an area where I can see the fireworks. Because Holiday Wishes is really pretty, and I haven't seen it as much, and the fireworks are just mind-blowingly awesome.

The Christmas parade is okay. I do like it. Clarabelle Cow has her own float, and it's my favorite. She gets SUPER into her dance and the gingerbread cookies. It's really fun. The thing is, it's a really slow parade. And mellow. Very chill. Of the holiday parades, I definitely prefer the Halloween parade. The energy was a lot higher, and I feel like it was a little tighter. The Christmas parade has some moments where you're going, "eh... that was a little off... and I have no idea what those elves are lip syncing to, because the float with their music is definitely way up by Casey's Corner, and we're definitely still in the Hub." Also, it has the princesses, which is cool, but Rapunzel is not there. AND SHE TOTALLY DESERVES TO BE. I get that they can't just add her to the Princess float because there's only so many spots, but she should at least have a float like Snow White or walk in the parade. With Flynn Rider. And Bo Peep needs to not be in the parade. Or she needs to be less creepy looking. I love Bo Peep as a character. When I found out at the beginning of Toy Story 3 that she had been sold, I cried. But she doesn't really translate well to a character in the parks. She's a mask character, and the proportions are just weird. She's just super creepy looking.  Honestly, she would be a lot more approachable as a face character. I get that it's hard to do with the Toy Story characters, because it's so perfect to do them as mask characters,  but right now, Bo Peep is pretty terrifying.. 

And that's pretty much it. I wanted to keep this short, because I personally dislike watching long videos. Have a magical day!

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!

Beach & Food

Today, I went to Blizzard Beach!

I wish I had pictures. But I don't. Because it's sort of dumb to carry electronics at a water park. So I'm going to link to some pictures from the web.

Here's Summit Plummet. It's a body slide with what I guess is a 12-story drop. Yes, I went on it. The wait was scarier than the actual drop. But it is really really fast.

This is the Slush Gusher. It's right next to Summit Plummet, but it's shorter, so we figured it would be a good practice run. It was not fun. The Summit Plummet was better. Slush Gusher was painful and I actually caught air... which is terrifying on a body slide.

The Lazy Creek was pretty fun and relaxing.

The Toboggan rides were awesome. This pic is of the Racers ride. The Slalom one was pretty awesome, but it's hard to get good pics of it.

Runoff Rapids was also fantastic.

Team Boat Springs was pretty fun. We got put in a tube with some guys from the UK, because there's a minimum of four people per tube, and we only had three.

And that's pretty much it for Blizzard Beach! We got a Sand Pail, which is ice cream with lots of toppings in a little plastic bucket. One of my friends took a picture of it, so I'll post that when I get it from her.


Later today, I went to Epcot for food! Here's some pics:

I went on The Seas with Nemo and Friends for the first time! It was pretty adorable, but the area at the end is even better. It's like a small aquarium, with lots of observation areas. I saw lots of different kinds of fish, including sharks. I also saw manatees! I couldn't get a good pic of them, though. I did, however, meet a cast member who is involved in animal research here at the parks.

Then I went to Argentina for a beef skewer. I totally forgot to take a picture, but trust me, it was fantastic.

Then I went to China, where I got this:

Black Pepper Shrimp with Sichuan Noodles! This was soooo yummy, and almost a meal by itself.

Then I went to Italy:

This is my second chocolate cannoli. SO FANTASTIC. I couldn't walk by Italy without getting it.

Then Belgium:

What else? A Belgian waffle. This was basically heaven. Strange thing about this photo... it looks sunny outside. It was actually really dark.

And finally, on my way out of the park, Australia:

Lamington! It's yellow cake with chocolate and coconut flakes. It's wonderful!

And that was pretty much my day. But I've been promising pictures, and here they are! Though they are all of food. Sorry about that. But I'm sort of a fan of the stuff.

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!

Living, Learning, and Earning

Well. I have decided that so far, I love my job. I know it's still shiny and new, so my feelings may change, but right now, I love it. I've been working in Pirates the last two days, and it's been fantastic. The Pirates Bazaar is really busy, because the Pirates of the Caribbean ride empties into the shop, so there's usually lots of guests(except for an hour today when the ride was closed).  Here's my pirate costume:

The pose is odd, because LOOK AT THOSE SOCKS! And yes, the pants are highwaters. Stylish, I know. There's a vest that goes with the costume, but it's optional right now because it's hot. I'm sure it will be required in a month or so, but for now, I refuse to check one out from costuming. Also, I'm technically not 100% in costume here, even with the optional no-vest. My nametag is off, and when I'm working registers, I have to wear a lanyard for pin trading.

So that's the "Earning" update. Now for the "Learning" update. I wasn't originally going to be taking any of the classes here, but they're piloting a seminar that just seems too good to miss. It's on environmentality and sustainability in a Disney context, and that is right up my alley! See, I love working here so much that I'm starting to wonder if it would be worth pursuing a future job with Disney. This class involves learning about animal care and the greenhouses at Walt Disney World, which is probably where I would be looking for a job in the future. So I'm excited to (maybe) be taking that seminar! I have yet to hear back from the people in charge, but hopefully I got in.

Now for the "Living" segment.

See this empty space? That's off to the side of our living room. We have NO IDEA what to do with it. Suggestions are most welcome, but please bear in mind that we are broke college students. Also, we cannot stick anything on the walls. We already have a whiteboard calendar there where we all write our schedules and important dates.

So that's the update for now! Have a magical day!

Merchantainment!

Disney likes to make up words. Utilidor, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Zippity Do Da, aaaaaand Merchantainment! Basically, it means that even the stores at Disneyworld should be entertaining! I love merchantaining. It's everything I love about guest service. When I'm merchantaining in the Pirate's Bazaar, for example, my job is to walk around the store with a hat or a sword or some other combination of props, and interact with guests. My favorite is to wait at the ride exit and swordfight with little kids. The parents love it, too. I've actually been asked to pose in pictures with little kids who have bested me in swordfights, and I've been in a lot of videos. I keep waiting to show up on Youtube.

Anyways, what I'm trying to lead up to is this:

This is my Adventureland costume! Since guests were taking pictures of me, I asked around, and it's 100% okay for me to take a picture of myself in costume as long as it isn't backstage. This picture was taken in my bedroom. This is the costume that I can wear anywhere in Adventureland. My bangs look funny because there was a TON of rain today, and I forgot my rain gear. So I got soaked. But this costume dries REALLY quickly.

I'll post pics of my Pirate costume as soon as I remember to bring that costume home. It's currently in my work locker. I'll try to remember it tomorrow.

Anyhoo, that's all for now! I just wanted to get this picture up because people have been asking about my costume. Have a magical day!