First Week of Food and Wine

The Food and Wine festival started this week at Epcot! I went one day before work to have lunch and everything was so good. They set up little booths of different places from around the world all around the World Showcase and each place sells 2-4 appetizer size food options and around 5 drink options. Everything is themed to that country and from what I've heard, it's authentic. People go nuts over Food and Wine. I had never heard of it until I moved here, but this is the 20th year that it's been around. The merchandise for the festival is really cute. Since the portions are so small, there is a little plate with a drink holder that would have been nice to have, but Food and Wine would be the only place I'd use it.

I first went to "Hawaii" and got a pork slider and it was sooooo good. It had a sweet and sour sauce on top with pineapple chunks. Don't be fooled by the picture, it was way smaller than my palm. Then I went to "South Korea" and got a lettuce wrap and an alcoholic banana milk shake. Both of them had a ton of ginger in them. I wouldn't have thought to put banana with ginger, but I liked it! I'm glad I tried something new. I usually would have never chosen to eat something at South Korea, but my roommate Leanne works there! I went to say hi and she recommended the milkshake.

Hawaiian pork slider

South Korean lettuce wrap and adult banana milkshake

Epcot has been a little crazy since the booths opened and we have had a lot of intoxicated guests at Spaceship Earth. Sometimes that means it is harder for them to get on/off the ride. 

Another out of the ordinary thing that happened this week, my sweet friend Chelsi was having chest pain while we were at work and as it escalated, the paramedics were called to take a look at her. I was really worried about her. They told her that she had a panic attack, which resulted in both of us getting released early from work because I had to drive her car home. Poor thing!

I went to Epcot today on my day off with my roommate, Amanda, and we ate at the Mexican restaurant there. We rode Spaceship Earth, of course, and I introduced her to some of my friends. We wanted to get dessert at one of the Food and Wine booths, but we were so full that there was no way. The festival is at Epcot until the middle of November, so I'll have plenty of time to try more food! I just can't stay away from Epcot.

XX good night!

Food and Wine Mickey in the background

For some reason, there was a cranberry pond in the middle of the park. I don't know the real name for  it, but it was cool!

So many pictures of Spaceship Earth!

Hollywood Studios

On our day off, Mary Holland and I went to Hollywood Studios! We missed the exit on the way there, but has a lot of fun once we finally found it. I had never been there before so MH was kind of like my tour guide for the day. We went on Great Movie Ride and it was so cool. Slow moving ride that had show scenes of classic movies. We went through "The Wizard of Oz" which is one of my favorite movies ever. That might be my new favorite ride! I love doing something at Disney because I get to be a guest again.

Great Movie Ride!

Next we went on Rockin Rollercoaster and Aerosmith stuff was everywhere. The cars were a stretch limo and it took off really fast. Then we went on Tower of Terror and made some friends in line. Everything was so themed and detailed, it was so cool! The cast members were all really into character which made it even more fun.

Rockin Rollercoaster

After the ride we found a stand selling raspberry coladas and since MH isn't 21, she had a frozen lemonade. Both were delish! While we finished our drinks, we watched a group of "directors" find random people on the street that they confused for celebrities and interviewed them! They even met Beyoncé and Jay Z and asked the power couple about their new song that's coming out. The guests went along with it and of course loved being told they looked like celebrities.  There are also "people of Hollywood" all over Hollywood Studios that are straight out of the 40s and 50s. Everything is so themed and that's why it's my new favorite park!

We saw the Beauty and the Beast show and honestly, I thought it was kind of corny. It was a shortened version of the movie and they had all the great songs in there, but I guess I was just expecting more. It was fun to see Mrs. Pots and Gaston though. On the way to the Toy Story ride, we went to the little Walt Disney museum. They had a bunch of history about the program and also models of many of the icons of the parks. MH posed next to the Spaceship Earth sphere, our home! 

MH and mini Spaceship Earth

Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland Paris :)

We ate at Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) and then went on the Toy Story ride. I loved it! I see why the line is always so long. We took a selfie with the green army man from Toy Story and he blew a kiss to Mary Holland when we left. We had a really good day at Hollywood studios! I am excited to go back soon and do the Great Movie Ride again and  maybe get another raspberry colada.

That night, we went to a Disney Cruise Night at a housing complex that was just for DCP's. We got snacks, there was a DJ and everyone got a little sailor hat. I met up with some friends and we danced til the DJ left. It was so hot and humid, even at 10 at night. I had such a good day off! Mary Holland and Chelsi made it even better! 

Dole Whip

Is it bad that I like going to the parks for the food? HA! No, of course not. Park food is delicious! I used to think that every food booth had only stuff like popcorn and hot dogs, but Disney has done a really great job (of course) at theming each location and only serving items that fit. I went to Magic Kingdom today and had my fist Dole Whip, which is a delicious pineapple flavored soft served ice cream. My roommate Jalie works in quick service food at MK and she gets to serve Dole Whip most days. 

I watched the Electical Parade and I loved it! I saw Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, Snow White, all the Dwarfs, Cinderella and Prince Charming, and my favorite, the Fairy Godmother. I left the park right after the parade and I walked to the bus at the Contemporary resort. The parade got over at 8:20 and I knew it would be really hard to get out of there if I stayed for the firework show. I felt guilty not watching it because I love it so much, but it's so crazy trying to leaving then. But including the walk to the Contemporary resort and the wait for the bus to housing, I got home at 10:30. I watched the fireworks while I was sitting at the bus stop and the music was playing in the hotel lobby, so it was like I was there only without being shoulder to shoulder with strangers.

I rode It's a Small World and I really love that ride. Since I've worked in attractions, I'm curious how the behind the scenes work for other rides. Like if someone jumped out of the boat I don't know what the cast members would do. The water makes it more difficult than Spaceship Earth. 

Speaking of Spaceship Earth, we were open late last night for Extra Magic Hours. Guests staying at a Disneh resort are able to stay in the parks while everyone else goes home. I closed last night at 11:30 and it was fun because a lot of my friends also closed. A guest came up to me with his young son and asked me if they had just ridden Space Mountain. I said no... Space Mountain is at Magic Kingdom, sir. And he looked at his son and said "I told you so!" Hahaha. People often confuse our ride for Misson: Space which is actually at Epcot, but rarely do they think that it's a ride from another park.. after they are done riding it... It made me laugh! 

I finally got groceries yesterday because about the only thing I had in my fridge were condiments. I took an Uber for the first time, because it would have taken me an hour to get to Publix by bus and I could have walked there in the same amount of time. I had told the cashier to cram everything into as little bags as possible because I had to carry it all at once. 

Life Through Rose Colored Glasses

I just got over pink eye! So gross, but I am all better now. On Tuesday, I knew I had pink eye and thank god it was my day off, but I took the bus to Disney health services to get treatment. I was told that they could not write me a prescription because it was not a work related injury, but they put it into the system just in case I needed to miss work. They were playing Monsters University in the waiting room, which is one of my favorite Pixar movies, and the nurse called the urgent care center and they have a transportation system for patients so a van came and picked me up! I saw a doctor there, got eye drops, and then the van took me back to my apartment! Kinda cool. I had to wear my glasses to work for two days and I really hate wearing my glasses. Especially because they fog up from the humidity here.

A few nights ago, me and a group of friends from work and also several of my roommates went to the House of Blues again in Downtown Disney for their rewind night. They played 80s. 90s, and 2000s music including all of the classics. It was fun, but soo packed and sweaty.

I am still really loving my job. Sometimes it can be frustrating telling people over and over "two per row please" and they still don't understand that all 8 people in their group can not sit together in one car. A nice guest today heard me trying to explain to another family something very simple like two per for and told me how I must have a lot of patience to work here. And I agree with her. I say the same couple of phrases over all day. But I really do love it.

I have been really homesick for the past week or so, which is weird for me because I have been away from family or friends a lot before. I am so thankful for my two good friends and Spaceship Earth coworkers, Chelsi and Mary Holland, because I talk to them almost every day and somehow, even though we are so different, we're always laughing. Or complaining together. Same thing. My mom is coming to visit in a few weeks and I could not be more excited!! The other day I saw a mom playing an arcade game while her two 9ish year old kids were horsing around behind her. I was really surprised at that only because I know that my mom would never have taken my turn or make me wait for her to play a game. I'm just so lucky that I have such a selfless mom. Even though it was a little thing like a dumb arcade game, it stuck with me. And she cannot get to Orlando soon enough!

I was at Spaceship for 5 hours today and then went to work the crowd control of Illuminations (which I don't really like) for two and a half hours. At first I was only assigned one break, and for such a long shift, even though it was split, I should have gotten several 15 min breaks and a 45 min lunch. The coordinator switched some things around for me and got me a 45 minute break! I was scheduled to be at the wheelchair seating area for the show. Before I went over to my station, I was answering questions for guests and most of them were really confused about what the fast pass viewing area even was. There was a family of an older couple and their two adult granddaughters and the grandma had a motorized scooter. Her husband was very frustrated that in all the years previous, they had watched Illuminations from where the fast pass area now is. They had a lot of questions and it is always difficult to explain the fast pass process to someone who has been a guest for a long time and the technology is now new to them. They were upset that Disney is "changing everything to fast pass," but there wasn't much I could do for them. They were there over an hour before the show started and would have been able to find a viewing spot any where around the lagoon. Some people don't like change, but I learned during one of the many orientation meetings my first week, that Disney really tries to keep up with what's new. If they didn't update things or change some peoples favorite rides, we would still be surrounded by rides from 1982 (when Epcot opened.) It's not fun when you go to the parks and something you have been looking forward to is no longer there, but the successful company has had many changes over the years and it can be sad, but I think it's done for a reason.

I went over to the wheelchair seating area to make sure only guests with wheelchairs and their families were in the small white box and "La Vie en Rose" was playing in the background. I love that song and it put me in a good mood. One guest got mad at me because there were two guests in wheelchairs who were out in the crowd and were apparently "taking up room" and not in the wheelchair seating even though "that's what it's there for." And this guy was right behind someone else right at the fence. But the other people I met were so sweet. I met a family from Argentina who were celebrating their daughter's 15th birthday. The dad spoke the most English, which still wasn't much, but he was translating for the rest of his family. I told them about my friend Kenzie who went on her mission to Argentina for 18 months. They didn't understand the word mission, but they understood church! He learned all about the Disney College Program and I suggested that their oldest son applied for the international program. We talked about how I was from Idaho, and when people really have no idea where it is, I just say that it is kind of near California. I feel like I made a friend and after the show he shook my hand and said how nice it was to meet me. I also met a woman from England and she hadn't yet been to "England" in the World Showcase. If I was in a different country and there was somewhere USA themed, I would be there in a heartbeat! Just to see if it was anything like home. I don't like working Illuminations, but tonight was really good.

I work 8:45-2:45 tomorrow and then I am in desperate need of groceries so I will be taking the bus to Publix! Hopefully they have some good deals. I would have gone shopping if I hadn't have gotten pink eye, but it's not a big deal because I would rather have an excuse to go out to eat anyway.

XX

At Epcot Again

 So my feet hurt always hurt after work, but the last couple of days have been really bad. They hurt so bad on Saturday night when I got off at 9:30. I went to bed but couldn't fall asleep because of a sharp pain in the bottom of my foot going up my leg. I iced it and gave myself a massage and tried to go to sleep. I got up again at 3am and iced it again. I had to work at 8:15 that morning but by 6, I had only gotten a few hours of sleep and could barely stand! So I called in sick and spent most of the day relaxing/icing my foot. That night, some friends from work and I had plans to go to House of Blues in Downtown Disney so I took some Advil and had a fun time! I'm not really into clubs, but it was fun to hang out with friends from Spaceship Earth.

Today my friend Mary Holland and hung out at the pool then went to Epcot! I swear I live there. I just love Epcot. We rode our ride, then walked the World Showcase. We went on a little boat ride in Mexico then ate a sandwich and strawberry tart in France. We split everything which is the best way to do it because we only spent 10 dollars each on food today. We met Belle! She thought we were sisters and liked our purple headbands.

We obviously can't go shopping when we're at work, so it's always fun to look through the shops when we can. I bought two pairs of Mickey earrings and they're so cute! I'm excited to wear them to work. I always wear earrings at work because that is the only thing that makes me feel like a real person. I am always sweaty and my hair is always up and frizzy, so earrings are my last chance to feel like I actually got ready.

Good Day at Disney

The last few days at work have been kinda rough. Yesterday, I didn't get off to a very good start because I got on the bus to work and realized that my zipper was down. I saw it in a mirror right above the steering wheel and immediately zipped it up and then I just had to laugh at myself. I then ended the day by waiting 20 minutes for my bus to go home in the wrong spot (but to be fair, the cast parking lot has been closed and it just reopened and I forgot about the new pick up spot.) But other than me just being forgetful, yesterday wasn't too bad! I went over to my friend and coworker Chelsi's apartment and she made me and her roomies spaghetti and garlic bread. She was so sweet and said that it was to thank us for being good friends to her and taking care of her while she was waiting on a credit card to come into the mail.

Today, I clocked in at 8:45 was told that Spaceship Earth was down for technical difficulties. There were park wide electrical problems and several other attractions were down. Spaceship Earth is the first ride at the front of the park so we were the first ones to deliver the bad news that our ride was down, which was good because I'm glad that we didn't have to be the 3rd or 4th ride to give them bad news. Everything else went back to normal quickly, but we were down for almost 2 hours. There were about 6 of us standing at the entrance of the ride telling guests about every 10 seconds that the ride is down so please check back later today. Some people didn't understand what that meant… They would ask why it was down, what time it would be open again, what they do about their fast passes, if it really was "technical difficulties" (it really was), every question over and over and then again in another language. We all felt like broken records, but I did understand their concerns because I would be wondering all of the same things. Some people were just rude though. They would pout and roll their eyes and walk away. But some people who are just kind people would tell us thank you and to have a nice day even if it was their favorite ride and they knew they might not be able to ride it today. I guess I have just learned a lot about being a good guest at Disney or anywhere really. Sir, I am not an engineer! I cannot tell you what is wrong with the ride or when it will be running again because I literally have no idea!!

Once the ride was ready to run again, I was actually the one who got to power down the ride and restart it. I apparently forgot to call a few people to let them know we were back up, so I felt bad about that but nothing bad happened because of it. We rotate assignments every 45 minutes and when I was at greeter at the very beginning of our ride, everything was fine until a guest got very mad at me. She was furious because the wait time said 30 minutes, but she and her family waited in line for 30 minutes and then left the line because it was definitely NOT a 30 minute wait and that was just ridiculous. A guest in front of her at the podium was getting written a ticket for a return time because they had a disability card through Disney so they would be able to get on the ride whenever they come back. That is Disney's policy and my coworker was doing her job and not giving this family in front of this very rude lady any special treatment, but just what the protocol is. Sooooo the rude lady told me how ridiculous it was that the wait was not actually 30 minutes like the sign and then said she was just going to wait there in line for a fast pass. And then I told her in my best Disney voice, that if she wanted to make a fast pass reservation she would have to go to a kiosk and the card that the family in front of her was getting was not a fast pass, it was something else. This angered her even more and she told me that she was just going to get written one of those cards! I said that this was for a special circumstance, and then she said "Well, isn't waiting in line for more than the 30 minutes a special circumstance?!" I said "Ma'am, they have a disability card."  First of all, I hate calling people ma'am, second, I should not have said that someone has a disability in front of other people, but I didn't know how else to explain it to her and I was mad that she was comparing her situation to this other family's. Anyway, she stomped away, I think I told her to go to guest relations if she wanted to, but I know that I was just doing my job and wait times posted are only estimates. And you can't just get written a fast pass because you don't want to wait in line, that's not how fast passes work and written ones don't even exist! I didn't let this interaction ruin my day, but it bugged me how she was so rude. Also, Spaceship Earth is a slow moving ride that picks people up constantly. The line moves quickly because there is only a few seconds of wait time between cars that are picking people up. I really think the only reason this guest had to wait so long was because we were down earlier and there was a big wave of people returning to ride it.

SO after my shift, I planned on going to the World Showcase which is also in Epcot to look around and eat lunch. I changed into regular clothes and relaxed. It was so nice to go around the park at my own speed and to be able to do whatever I wanted! I walked through the whole circle of countries and stopped to get "chips" in England. I got to walk past Mary Poppins in England and Belle in France and then I met Minnie Mouse in the American Pavilion. It was nice to see the flag half staff and so many people wearing USA or red white and blue outfits in remembrance of 9/11. People were here on vacation to have fun but didn't forget to show their support. It was so hot today that I didn't stop much in the other countries on my way back around the circle. I am at Epcot almost every day and I am looking forward to bringing a change of clothes with me to work more often so I can explore as a guest! Despite the unusual problems at work, I enjoyed the rest of my day! I believe that a bad day at Disney is still a good day. I feel very lucky to be able to work for such a great company and interact with guests who are experiencing the park for the first time.

View of Spaceship Earth from the other side of the World Showcase

Earned My Ears

A few days ago, I finished my training so I have officially "earned my ears!" I  don't have to wear the little red ribbon on my name tag anymore. I have been working as a regular cast member and have two days off a week. A lot of people in the college program tend to have closing shifts, so the last couple of days I have come in in the afternoon and closed Spaceship Earth at 930. I prefer having a late shift like that. I was also trained on crowd control for the firework and light show at Epcot called Illuminations. I have only worked there one night since my training and I got to see a proposal! I teared up a little but other than that, crowd control at Illuminations is not my favorite.

A few nights ago, a bunch of Spaceship Earth cast members and I went bowling at Downtown Disney after we closed. We had a lot of fun and I'm glad that I got to sleep in the next day. That next afternoon, my Grandma Mickey and her good friend Adele came to visit me and took me grocery shopping and to lunch. It was so fun to see them! I am lucky that I live close to family while being able to work at Disney.