A Day of Firsts

Yesterday, a lot of things happened for the first time! I had Traditions (which is like Disney orientation and I got my name tag!) this morning at 8 and randomly sat at a table with 4 other people. One girl named Maggie was so hilarious and made us all laugh and I think she is the reason all of us hit it off so fast. The two facilitators were asking Disney trivia and those who got the answer right earned a Traditions pin. (I didn't know much about pin trading until today, but people collect Disney pins and wear them on a lanyard and trade with each other.) For special events, like Traditions, there are special pins. And everyone at my table had won one, except me. But then it was their goal to help me answer a question and get that pin. When the trivia was over, they started handing out little character figures and I got one of those, and then the rest of my table did too! We were on fire. It was probably Maggie who named us the Dream Team. But the moral of the story is that I finally got a pin at the end, but only after I asked if they were going to give out any more.

Kelsey, Emily, Kevin, me, Maggie (someone jumped in the picture and Maggie got mad because they weren't at our table, so she scribbled them out hahah whoopsies!)

All of our Traditions pins! 

Any way, the 5 of us all had fun and some of the other tables weren't even talking to each other. So I lucked out! Towards the end, Kevin was telling us about his fraternity and Kelsey asked if anyone else was in Greek Life. I told her that I was a Kappa Delta and she looked so surprised and then said "AOT sister!" I wish I could have got her reaction on camera because it was so sweet! We talked about KD stuff and it was like someone was speaking my language!! I just think that it was so cool that we just happened to sit by each other and were kinda friends first before we knew we were sisters. Kelsey is in attractions too and she will be at the Kilimanjaro safari in Animal Kingdom.

Disney decor EVERYWHERE, I love it!

After Traditions, I went home and changed out of my business wear and then went to Kelsey's apartment. She also lives at Vista. Her roommates came home, and some of her other friends in the program and Kevin from the Dream Team, met at her apartment and then we went to Magic Kingdom. I think it will take me a while to get used to being able to just casually go to the parks 6 pm and have fun with friends! Usually it's a whole day event that takes so much planning. The humidity was killing me, but it was worth it because I was at Disney World. We went on a lot of rides that I had never been on. The group of us had a lot of Disney nuts in it who practically grew up at the parks. It was nice though because unlike other obsessed people that I have met, they don't make me feel bad for not knowing every little detail about Disney. They excited for me to ride Haunted Mansion for the first time and I loved it! We also went to the Country Bears Jamboree and it was so funny. I'm surprised that it is still a ride because it was a little outdated. But I loved it! We were one of the only groups laughing so hard in show.

We sat down on the ground behind the castle for the fireworks show "Wishes" which happens every night, and it is so magical. They play classic Disney songs and Tinkerbell flies over the crowd! From where we were sitting, we could see the back of Cinderella's castle which is still beautiful from the back, and the Beast's castle in the distance. I absolutely love Wishes. Then we literally ran to Space Mountain after the fireworks and only waited in line for about 5 minutes. While we were in line, some of the group started singing Bohemian Rhapsody and it sounded pretty good! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an older lady in line who was loving their performance. She saw me smile at her and then told them how much she loved their voices and Queen. She even asked if they were voice majors in college. Haha! She sang a little bit too and ended up sitting behind me during the ride. She walked out of the park with us and we found out that she had come alone and it was her first time at Walt Disney World! She was so sweet. She took a picture of us in front of the castle, told us all about her week in Florida for a conference, and gave us all hugs. I feel so lucky to be able to meet people like her every day and help make their vacation magical!

New friends at Magic Kingdom!

On the way out of the park, we saw that the line for the monorail was going to take forever, so we were going to walk to a near by resort and take a bus back to housing. Welp, we walked down a path that was a dead end, and then had to walk in the absolute opposite direction to find a bus stop. The first bus got filled up so we had to wait 25 minutes for another one. We were all exhausted and even though it was midnight, I was covered in sweat. We finally got on a bus in some air conditioning and I got into bed at 2 and set my alarm for 5:45 am for another day of training! Even after an exhausting and really sweaty day, I can really only be happy because I am at Disney World.

So to wrap it up, I got my official WDW name tag, made lots of new friends, met a Kappa Delta sister, took a ride through the Haunted Mansion, ate dinner at Pinocchio's Village, sweated about 20 gallons, found a new path that leads to no where, and became a Disney Cast Member!