Friends Forever

It's cheesy, but I truly think this summer i made friends forever. It's been a couple of months now since i got back in canada, and I've kind of avoided this blog just because I miss this summer soooo much. Yesterday was the interviews for next years group of summer cast members, and even though I wasn't there I couldn't stop thinking about disney and how outstanding this summer was. Being an entertainment cast member and living in Vista Way was absolutely incredible. Since coming back home, life has been busy. I caught my plane early in the morning, having fallen asleep pretty much right after writing my last post and being woken up less than an hour later by giuli arriving with her dad to drive me to the airport. I quickly shoved the rest of my stuff into bags, remembering everything except, unfortunately, my disney id. luckily i had taken a picture of it, so it isn't entirely lost but still disappointing. I cried when driving away from my summer home, then again when saying goodbye at the airport. I got through security and everything pretty quickly, and promptly fell asleep on an airport chair wrapped around my carry on luggage. I slept again on the plane, despite a gabby woman sitting beside me. After staying awake not wanting to miss a second for so many days i was exhausted mentally and physically. I landed in buffalo and found my nana, and we stopped at swiss chalet on the way back to her apartment. once we were at her house, i promptly (you guessed it) fell asleep, even missing part of the opening ceremonies of the olympics (disappointing cuz i LOVE the olympics.) I spent a lazy day at nanas house in front of the tv watching olympics, and then we headed home, with a small detour caused by some sort of propane factory exploding in toronto. After less that 10 days in ottawa, i moved to kingston and am living in a house that i love and really enjoying both school and friends.
Even Disney friends! a lot of us have kept in touch, and giuli and i still get to see each other all the time. She came up for queens homecoming, which was full of craziness (including drinking with undercover cops after they broke up a friend of mine's party, breaking into my own house and buying scalped tickets to the football game. good times lol) and then we went to brunch over thanksgiving. Next tuesday we are going to backstreet boys in quebec city, which i am super pumped for. I think the number one reason to participate in this program is for the friends. I truly have friends around the world who i love and have shared an amazig experience with. that is truly something special.

p.s i am trying to add pics up here but honestly the best pics of my time in florida are on my facebook, so if you have me on there just check them out instead of waiting for them to load on this page.

T'ear'ful goodbyes

not saying much here, but it is 4:46am and i havent really slept since wednesday morning--(two hours wednesdaynight, nothing since then!) I've had a truly amazing summer, and in about five hours i will be on a plane back to reality. it's gunna be tough to leave all these friends and memories behind. The past couple of days have been crazy busy and are kind of a blur-- yesterday was graduation so we woke up really early (slash didnt go to bed, silly us) and Giuli's dad picked us up to drive us to pick up our final paycheques at partners. So glad he drove us, cause we got in and out of there really quickly, unlike the masses of people who went on the bus. From there we went to Epcot for Graduation. there was some confusion on that bus-- we wanted to take the regular epcot bus and the driver tried to make us get off because it was nearly full. we stood our ground, even when he tried to convince us that graduation had been moved last minute. graduation was packed with familiar faces, and was a great way to say goodbye. we got our grad cap mickey ears, stood in a crazy long line to take our pics with graduation mickey, ate ice cream bar, said hello to roger and sue (the people that hired us from our canada interviews) and them took off around the world one last time, stopping to shop a bit in mexico, get our picture taken with mexico donald, a very familiar snow white, belle, and got bread (of course) in france. Then we took a couple of photopass pics near spaceship earth in our ears, and alison went into her two work locations to say some goodbyes.

we monorailed it over to Magic Kingdom, watched Disney dreams come true parade one last time (and cried) dropped off our hats to have our names embroidered, and wandered around. It was a bit of a sad day (obviously) and tempers were a little high. we took lots of pictures, wandered main street, and went on a few rides, then we went to dinner at Crystal palace with tigger, pooh, piglet and eeyore. Giuli's sister brenda came with us. It was great to be on the other side of a character dinner. From there we ran out to watch spectromagic and then wishes (and cried) and then shopped a bit on mainstreet. we ended up being just about the last people to leave, staying as long as we possibly could inside the park. it was really hard to say goodbye to the castle. We monorailed back to the ttc and took the cast bus home, then attempted to pack a bit more (i'm still not packed yet :P) and i signed a t-shirt for sam with about a million signatures. I'm upset to leave, but i have had truly the experience of my life.

The end is near...

July 28th:
After posting i headed over to apt. 2402 and watched the holiday with sam, giuli, hannah, and 'the gays'. it was a funny night, we talked through a lot of the movie, which of course made sam crazy. oh, we also picked up the tickets for graduation and surprised one of the boys with silly string, a balloon chandelier and a mickey peanut butter cup w/ a candle stuck in it.

July 29th:
Daisy Duck Town square, emh morning.

July 30th:
Day Off, went swimming then to cast connection and company d, then to studios, met the villains and pocahontas, and then giuli and i had a mini fight/misunderstanding (super silly, pretty sure we were all just stressed about having to leave soon and took it out on each other) so i left studios and had an early night.

July 31st:
Called in and went shopping with Giuli and Hannah. Went to the commons, walked through premium outlets to get on the I-Ride trolly which is cute and cheap but the slowest public transit i have ever been on. took us over an hour to get from premium outlets to prime outlets, which is only a 15 minute drive away! We were quite annoyed, but when we got to prime and started our shopping extravaganza we got over it pretty fast. We started with Victoria's Secret, then went to dinner, then starbucks, Bebe, Guess, Rue 21 and Charlotte Russe. At this point we had all run out of arms to carry our parcels, so we caught a taxi to downtown disney. In the taxi we consolidated our bags and checked the $$ status of our wallets, then we continued shopping at dd. well, first we ate at earl of sandwhich, then we shopped til we dropped, caught the bus home, and slept like babies, shopping takes a lot out of you!

Aug 1st:
Swam and tanned all morning with alison, then went in to work as a spare at MK at noon. Got pulled almost right away to lunch coverage at Judge's Tent Mickey B, into contemp dinner mickey 2. It was so good to be the boss one last time, I had been so worried that I wasnt gunna get the chance. My photo pass girl was really good in judges tent, she made a pass for me of picks of me and my minnie, carol, who I had worked with a bunch of times before. really cute pics! I ate lunch after my one set in judges tent with laurie, and then pulled the chef mickey costume. I had never worked contemp, so it was quite exciting! Mickey wears a cute chefs had and a red jacket, it is a cute ensemble. The characters for chef mickeys are mickey, pluto, minnie, goofy and donald. contemp is cool, we parked in th service area (as we always do at any resort) and climbed 4 flights of stairs to the restaurant, in a slope-y sort of stairwell that went inwards as we went up, following the slant of the inside of the building. Then we exited the stairwell and were kind of on a balcony thing, we could see the monorail track above our heads and could see the castle off to our left. then we stepped through another set of doorsm, through the kitchen and into our breakroom. (characters breakrooms are almost always in or under the kitchen, either way we cut through it at the beginning and end of our sets. I was group two, but I took the group one van run and learned the restaurants rotation and such, then watched reba and ate Wall-e cupcakes. our captain was one of the original donald ducks from the 70s-- he's an ornery midget who was absolutely hilarious. sets were good, pretty typical for the first couple, the last set was a little crazy-- i (Mickey Mouse) got carried around by a football player type guy, a server forced me and minnie to take a picture together (a BIG no-no) and there were some crazy guests with a polaroid camera. And then the night was over, at 11:18 pm. I had to go to security because the night before hannah had attempted to take the stuff i had bought at cast connection out of her locker, where we had left it before ging to studios. Of course security asks for reciepts, and I had mine in my purse, so the confiscated the items until one of us could bring in the reciepts :P so i went to MO-5, a building behind one of the main street facades. to get there I had to walk across one of the mainstreet balconies, right as spectro was going past, which was toooooooo cool! i got my stuff back without any issue and headed home.

aug 2nd
Daisy 1 Tusker house AK into Camp Daisy Lunch Coverage, a fun day, i liked tusker house and liz and kj were working at camp so it was fun. it was wierd to be a daisy who wasnt wearing her standard costume- daisy had giant hats and a very ak outfit that was cute but different. I was on turnaround, so 1.5 pay for 6 hours then 2x pay for the last 2 hrs, excellent, def made up for calling in thursday-- but I was EXHAUSTED, having got home at 1 am and left for work again at 5:30. So pool and then bed when i got home just after 3.

aug 3rd:
Daisy Town square: fun times, i love hideaway, last time working with eileen as my attendant, said goodbye to most of the weekend bid people, elana and the other munk whose name i never remember especially. got home and went to walgreens with angie then went to bed.

aug 4th:
Poly Breakfast- Lilo. Anna was working as my back to back and reading breaking dawn obsessively, and the other breakroom people were fun too. good, easy sets and then home, pool and walgreens again with angie, chris and chris, then sleep.

Aug 5th
LAST DAY OF WORK!! So sad in hideaway saying goodbye to people i have become quite close with, rob and copper and pluto and alexis and ashley and all the family fun and trolley people. KJ came visiting from expo side and it was just really sad. Abrah, one of the staging and performance specialist, came around and observedme than gave me a glowing evaluation and asked if i'd considered trying for face. She didnt realize it was my last day, she was evaluating me cuz it was my 60th day of work and they are meant to give us an update on how we are doing. I'm glad i got evaluated in daisy, i feel most comfortable in her, i am her so regularly that i really know what works in her and i play, A LOT, especially yesterday because i knew it was the end for me and i wanted to make it special. i think i was way more playful than i usually am, and the showed in my eval. She said that the writeup she did would be on my record and could potentially help me get rehired next year, even if it is past a year since my training and my colour coding has expired. At the end of my last set, my attendant got thepeople in the area to yell we love daisy and i did a little curtsy. ya i was crying a little in my head. Put away my costume for the last time and headed up into the park with michelle, who was headed to epcot. I was headed to dvc to get my id photocopied so my mom could get my discount on the membership. i got picked up and driven over there, cynthia took care of the photocopying and then i got ice cream and chatted with some former entertainers in the transportation area-- it was cute, as soon as i said i was in entertainment one of the managers whipped of her heels to show me she was a former mouse too. then i got a ride back to vista way, sam and i watched hercules on my computer then went swimming and hot tubbing with alison and giuli and went to sleep.

Aug 6th:
Day off, i let giulis fam squad into the park at studios early this morning, then alison and i played. it was fun, we got midway mania fast passes and exclaimed over the wierdly long line, discovered the ride was having technical difficulties and hadnt opened yet even though it was 15 mins after the park had opened... we got our fast passes for 12-1 and then headed to abc commissary, ate b-fast, went on tower of terror with creepy mist action then rocked rockin roller coaster, then did animation academy and drew goofy, and went back to midway mania. The ride was still closed so we got our pic taken with a Green Army Man, and then as we were walking away there was an announcement that the ride was opening, so we went straight in and got on one of the first rides of the day. it was fun as always. so then we headed back, alison had to head to work and i had to attempt to pack. I've got most of my clothes packed now, my issue is souvenirs. i have to run out this afternoon and buy a second piece of luggage, not as big as i thought i would need but def a decent size. tomorrow we have to get our final paycheque, go to our grad at epcot, then we are heading to mk for our last hours as cast members. we have dinner reservations at crystal palace (giuli loves tigger, so it's her deam meal, lol) and then we are going to watch wishes and spectro, obvi and then pull an all nighter. Friday giuli's fam is driving me to the airport, cuz i am taking one of her suitcases home (she has no room for it and her whole fams luggage in the car, so she is paying the extra baggage fee for me to take it on the plane.)and then i am off, leaving neverland for good. Havent decided what i'll do with this blog after this is over. I kinda like having a record of what i do with my time. It is too easy to forget everything you spent your days on.

Time is Flying!

Oh my goodness. Time is going by so fast and again, blogging is the first thing I forget to keep up with. So now I have pretty much no idea what I've done since July 8th, which is probably not a surprise since that was 20 days ago. But here goes a try at remembering the last 20 days...

July 8th:
Day Off

July 9th:
Didn't work til 3:28, so went swimming all morning and then headed off to epcot to work Mickey PM Character Spot. It was a good night, met some new people that i've seen a lot since then, Claire and Michelle (minnie and munk) especially. We had fun in the break room, character spot is a bit wierd, you have to take a van to the mouth of epcot's very deserted tunnel, which only goes under Spaceship Earth. Character spot has two seperate offset rooms, one with a TV couches and powerade which is a good 5 minute walk from the room where we leave our costumes and where the door on set is. C-Spot is also kinda high tech, with hangers for our costumes that air them out. The hanger has fans in the shoulders. it is strange. C-spot also has lights hidden above the windows in front of the set that go on when our back to back is ready to go on set. kinda smart, makes 5 minute warnings and such unnecessary. In the break room we watched "hunt for red october". I was supposed to meet giuli and sam after work to go see fantasmic, but ended up calling that off because giuli had a migraine, turns out this was good, since i got force extended after our captain forgot to close our line and we got offset almost 15 mins late. Bussed home with Michelle and her friend dustin, who worked in Canada and has now gone home to vancouver.

July 10th:

Up super early, caught the 5:30 am bus to MK with Michelle, who was a munk in townsquare while I was daisy in town square. We grabbed breakfast and then clocked in and pulled our costumes, then a bitchy duty lady got mad at us for checking in 2 mins late, even though we clocked in on time... so then we headed back to my home, town square's break room. I pretty much live there, not even exaggerating. I love it though, the people are hilarious. The breakroom is used by the attendants and characters for family fun day parade as well, so there are always lots of people to talk to. We watched willy wonka and the chocolate factory and talked to Rob, a hilarious munk and very gay guy who has worked at disney for years and years, Brittany, a cp attendant with a wicked sense of humor, Rob, an attendant cp from england who knows tiddelypom, another character who i have never actually met in person, Eileen, an older lady attendant who doesnt say much in the breakroom but when she does look up to contribute to the often inappropriate conversation always says something really wry and sarcastic. Giuli and Hannah visited me at work and met miss daisy, then we went character hunting (i think. This might actually have been on a different date, but it definately happened at somepoint in the last 20 days). We saw the 3:00 parade and then met hook and smee, timon and rafiki and then went home and went to walmart to buy food for our dinner party the next night.

July 11th:
My first time doing dining! I worked Lilo at polynesian, which I've done a lot since. It meant an early morning, a 5:30 am bus and a 6:18 clock in time. the people are funny, except the captain, daniel, who is a bit power happy but we all kinda ignore him. we get fed at poly, and the breakfast is yummmmmmy. 3 sets, pretty easy but I HATE lilo's costume. Too many snaps and layers of gloves and wierd boots and hevy head with almost no vision. And on top of that lilo isn't that fun. She is just kinda there. lame. so then i was done at 12:42, so I headed home and had a bit of a nap, then Giuli and Hannah came over and we made waaaaay too much pasta and alfredo sauce, ceasar salad and garlic bread. Tres yummy. Then we had smoothies and alison came over. And then I kicked them all out at about 11 cuz I had to wake up and go to poly again early the next morning.

July 12th: Lilo at poly again, but I have no idea what I did after my shift ended at noon...

July 13th: Daisy town square. I got there early to work on giving away my shifts while my family was here, but then got distracted and rememberedto check in but forgot to clock in. oops. Met liz, who i've worked with a lot since and gives me rides home :) dont know what I did after work...

July 14th:
Day Off, cast connection, company d, and the pool.

July 15th:
Stitch 2 tomorrowland, and then who knows what. I think we did hollywood studios, and went on tower of terror, and midway mania, but i'm not sure.

July 16th:
Daisy town square and then monorail to epcot for Girls Night! Hannah and Giuli met me at the electric umbrella and we explored epcot, ate dinner in england (flashing ice cube!) met jasmine and genie in morocco, saw acrobats in china, bought bread, berets and perfume in france, met tigger and friends in england, rode space ship earth and then rode the monorail with some drunk businessmen. headed to walgreens and bought candy and treats for movie night. We made virgin daquiris, ate kraft dinner and chips and dip and other junk food and then watched bring it on and had a slumber party. it was fun.

July 17th:
My fam squad arrived! Me and giuli went to get our hair done at kingdom kutters in the mk tunnels, which was fun and I died my hair dark and got it trimmed a bit. Then we met up with hannah, picked up our pay cheques, ate sub way and chatted with theo in the mouseketeria and went on the guest bus to the boardwalk, attempted to check in for my parents but didnt wanna pay the balance of the hotel, so went over to Yacht and beach, found sam at the marina and got wrist bands for the amazing pool. swam for a couple of hours then it started to rain so we went to beaches and cream for amazing ice cream sundays. then went over to boardwalk and giuli started to french braid my hair and my fam arrived! we went down to our room and then hannah and giuli left, we went to espn for dinner and then for a swim at yacht and beach. Then bed.

July 18th:
MK day! We did almost everything at MK, Castle show, met minnie and mickey, goofy's barnstormer, went through all of toon town, took the train to frontierland, saw the country bears, splash mountain x2, pirates of the carribean, big thunder got rained out, day parade got cancelled, haunted mansion, went home for 2 hours during the storm, and then went back and stayed til 2am doing tiki room, agrabah's carpets, big thunder mountain, spectromagic, wishes, laugh floor (jordie was that guy), buzz lightyeays space ranger spin, ate at cosmic rays, did the carousel, mickeys philharmagic, peterpan, and small world. I got back to vista around 4, left vista again at 5:30am to go to work.

July 19th: Spare, ended up pulled right away to poly as lilo, ERd after breakfast was done and went to boardwalk, met with my fam at the pool, then we went to gasparilla's for dinner, explored grand fla a bit, and then went swimming at y & b.

July 20th: Epcot EMH am, woke up early, caught the boat over to epcot and were there before it opened. We did Soarin' right off the bat, which I had never done before. I loved it!!! so cool, def wanna do it again before I leave. then we did journey into imagination, the living seas and saw the dolphin presentation, and then did spaceship earth. I ditched my fam after this and they continued to do some of world showcase while I went to vista for a few hours, then met them back at the hotel, where we got fancied up and headed to grand fla for 1900 park fare cinderella's dinner. The food was good, buffet style, and we met prince charming, cindy, and, the stars of the night, the Tremaines. Oh my goodness, they were HILARIOUS! stealing boyfriends, screaming at each other, yelling things like 'spin me' and 'cinderella, clean that up' and just completely stealing the show. It was terrific. From there we went to Hollywood studios and mom, olivia, barbara and I rode rockin roller coaster, and then all of us did midway mania before heading home and to sleep.

July21st:
Hollywood studios am emh. We got there as the park was opening and instead of running with everyone else to rockin rollercoaster and midway mania, went to star tours and then muppetvision 4d. as we were headed into muppets, we got dream fast passes, which was nice. then we ate breakfast at ABC commissary, watched Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (jordie got to be an extra), High School Musical, met kim possible, did backlot tour, midway mania, watched block party and all the atmosphere characters (citizens of hollywood) who were amazing and hilarious. We got rained out for lights motors action, did animation academy, rockin roller coaster twice, tower of terror (even olivia!) and then went for dinner at hollywood and vine, the fam went to see voyage of the little mermaid while i went backstage and checked my schedule and then went on tower of terror again and watched fantasmic and headed back to boardwalk.

July 22nd:
A down day, we went to a vacation club info session and then to olivia's cafe and then bought our cirque du soleil tickets and then hung out on the boardwalk. Olivia got a hair wrap done and then i headed back to vista.

July 23rd:
Woke up early thinking i had to work, went to work, didnt have to work (my shift got picked up) attempted to get from mk to boardwalk, very hard to do before mk is open. Took the monorail to epcot, waited for epcot to open and then walked through to boardwalk. met family, went to ak. Kilamanjaro, Kali river rapids, festival of the lion king, nemo, everest, rain, y&b cape may cafe, back to vista.

July 24th:

Slept at vista, relaing morning,then met up with fam and took olivia to MK for the afternoon, saw day parade, went on the carousel of progress, met stitch, rode the tta, went on space mountain, the tea cups, met ariel, did it's a small world, and went shopping, then met with family to see spirit of aloha dinner show at poly (so amazing!) and went to sleep.

July 25th:
Worked at hollywood as daisy at the hat. EMH mornings, 2 sets then met my fam at the gate, let them in and went to ABC commissary for bf with them, got the pink tray which meant a magical moment free dessert (random) ate in gmr breakroom and then did a special meet and greet with my fam got to meet 6 vips all at once (if you count stitch as a vip...) they were super excited. then finished work, met mom at the hat and left the park, went downtown for some shopping, saw cirque du soliel (it is just as good the second time around!) and then they went to the hotel and i went to vista.

July 26th:
Daisy Town square, and then i saw daisys everywhere. First i got attacked by ducks at the guest bus stop, then the bus drivers name was daisy, then I saw a daisy fresh maid service van, then i went to downtown disney with mom and livvy and one of the shop clerks name was daisy! After down town we took a taxi to my apt and i showed them around, packed a suitcase with a bunch of stuff i dont need here and said goodbye to my fam for 12 more days. and then i went to sleep cuz i was exhausted.

July 27th: Daisy Town square, liz and michelle were both there, along with erwin and a whiny horace horsecollar who whined her way into a costume disapproval. It was a fun day, we watched pretty woman, used up my dining plan by getting 5 meals at caseys and eating that in addition to more xmas in july leftovers. Brandy was our captain, and she is hilarious. We made plans for all of us to go to see dark knight in the pm, but I ended up not going because i wanted to use up table service and snacks and so after liz gave me a ride home Giuli and i headed to hollywood and vine and ate way too much, then went to sweet spells, a bakery and candy shop and bought 15 snacks: 2 things of cotton candy, 3 things of popcorn, a candy apple, a brownie, a nemo cookie, a dory cookie, 2 candy coated marshmellows, 2 peanut butter cups, a piece of fudge and a bottle of water. Good times. We came home, went to hannahs apt, went to walgreens, went to giulis apt, went to alicons apt, went to my apt and predrank, and then went to house of blues. It was so cool inside! It is two floors and lights and people and just a really good atmosphere. I liked it way better than hull clubs, less grinding more talking. Us 4 got hit on constantly, it was kinda hilarious. Hannah lmost got picked up by a girl, and giuli's life with a guy was recited to her-- how many kids, where they would get married, when they were getting divorced... apparently the divorce was my fault, cuz i was the guys mistress... it was a really fun night just laughing at pick up lines and dancing. One guy from mexico predicted that we knew each other because we had similar facial expressions. we found his reasoning pretty strange-- obvi we knew each other since we were all chatting all night!! One guy called chris just laughed at all his friends attempts at picking us up and then asked us what the lamest one was. turns out he had just got home from vancouver, where alison is from, so they had a chat about the island. and then we danced some more and headed over to the bus stop. The bus was full so we took a taxi back, and went to sleep.

July 28th:
Day off, slept in way late then went swimming for a bit and have been lounging around all afternoon. and then i spent almost 3 hours writing this post.

glossary

Glossary: (cause i thought maybe you'd like to know the lingo)

MK- Magic Kingdom

DAK- Animal Kingdom

EC- Epcot

Studios- Hollywood Studios

Poly-Polynesian Resort

Grand Fla- Grand Floridian Resort

Contemp- contemporary resort

Animation- To bring to life, to make real- using actions that fit with the characters personality bringing the costume alive.Backstage- area behind the scenes where guests should not see.

Back-to-backs- two performers who perform the same character in the same area; performers alternate so only one is on stage at a time, this ensures constant character coverage.

Basics: Black shorts and gray shirts worn under character costumes. Checked out in the parks and cannot be worn in the parks or home (although to get to certain set locations we march through the park in basics, barcodes on the chest and all, with our black character bags holding our costumes. i often wonder what people think our jobs are... a bunch of overly short and tall people who go in a door mickey and goofy later come out of...)

Character Attendant- An assistant to the character (and their lifeline/best friend)who watches the character on set and helps with line coverage, guest flow and keeps guest counts.

Costuming- WDW has the largest working wardrobe in the world,and character costuming is part of it and part of a characters daily rountine. All items are scanned out, and everything from socks to skull caps, sneakers to heads can be found inside. Rows and rows of mickey heads, cindy dresses and cruella coats...

Defog- Used to stop fogging on lense eyes

Disney Service Basics- Rules to live by at disney, repeated constantly and the WORK. - I project a positive image and energy.- I am courteous and respectful to all guests including children. - I stay in character and play the part. - I go above and beyond. - because I can make a difference for a guest. All roles in the disney company follow these guidelines everyday.

Duty Base- Where characters check in, do warm ups, and spend time as spares. At MK, called the zoo, at epcot the PICO building, AK the Parade building...

Early Release (ER) permission to leave work early without penalty or pay.

Face characters- portrayed by someone who looks like the character and the face is seen on set-- ie. Snow White

Fur- Characters performed by entertainers wearing a sculpted character head, whether or not the character is furry.

Fitting- Process of trying on a specific costume for management approval

Height Range- Measurement Scale which determines what characters each cast member can wear- ie. Duck, Mouse, Munks, Smee, Pluto, Goofy

Judges Tent: Character greeting area in Toontown behind mickey's house, mickey and minnie are located in this location.

Off Set Locations: 'break room' where characters rest between sets and prepare for the next sets. Usually has a tv, some movies, lots of racks and hangers for costumes, a fridge stocked with yellow powerade, a water jug, and some couches. Some are nicer than others.

On Stage- any guest area

PASS- Pass Show flow ensures everyone (characters on set, attendants, and photo pass) know whats going to happen with each guest, and ensures each guest has quality interaction with each character. An Acronym-
P- Preshow- A wave or outstreched arms welcoming the next guest to come forward. The beginning.
A- Activity- hi-5, dancing, pointing out pins, playing peek a boo, pointing out characters on t shirts, any kind of interaction with the guest.
S- Sign and Share- signing the autograph and showing it to the guest.
S-Snapshots and send offs- posed pictures and good bye hugs, waves. The end.

Sets- A character experience or meet and greet. during the summer, they are 20 mins on stage in an outdoor location followed by 40 mins off set in a break room, or 40 mins onstage in an indoor location followed by 4o mins offstage in a break room. Usually a shift has between 6 and 10 sets, though some shifts have as few as 3.

Skull cap- Surgeons cap used to keep hair from falling in a performers face inside the heads.

Spare- Extra character scheduled to fill in for those who call in sick or request an ER. AKA most boring shift of life.

Traditions: Class that marks first day as a disney employee. the passing of the disney tradition to new cast members. emotional day at disney university.

Vista Way- Apartment complex where I live.

VIP Characters- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto (the fab 5) Chip and Dale are also often added, and Daisy Duck, and Stitch has been upped to VIP status. Originally referred to the original characters, now refers to popularity and frequency of appearances.

Walk time- each shift includes 20 mins of paid time at the end of the shift used to return costumes, change clothes, etc. You may clock out anytime during this period.

Warm Up- Stretch program at the beginning of each shift. Mandatory.

West clock- bus stop at MK cast parking where you catch the bus to the tunnel entrance.

Adventure Ho!

Just got home from Pleasure Island, went to comedy warehouse and adventurers club, super funny, i loved it. overall a good laid back day off, sleeping, blogging yesterdays whopper catch up blog, and swimming, and of course chatting with the momma. Oh, and Angelica made me Kraft Dinner.yum
Giuli and I didnt decide to go out til like 8, gemma had already left to see wall-e and sam and angie were having a girls night watching chick flicks. I'd had a dull day and giuli had worked all day, so we wanted something interesting. We didnt leave for PI until past 9, got a milkshake when we got there and then waited for the 10:25 seating of Comedy Warehouse. The club itself is really cute, with old disney memorabilia all over the walls. They seated us and then asked about drinks etc, and then the keyboardist sat down and did the little intro, then the show started. It's kinda like whose line is it anyway, and the actors and actresses are terrific. The show was an hour and a little bit, and was excellent. Then we wandered over to the adventurers club, which is also a comedy club but is a little quirky.
Basically, it is open house day at the 1937 adventurers club, and there is a very strange group of characters assembled in ramshackle mansion. They move about different rooms and do little skits. We got there in time to see a library show with the professor and the Club President, where they attempted to put on a radio show. It was really hilarious, but an extremely drunk and confused audience participant kinda stole the show. He was called to the stage to be the 'sound guy' which meant holding up the signs for the audience to react to, but he just couldnt get the hang of it. It was really funny. And then we stopped at mcdonalds on our way out, and were home at about 12:30. A good night, i def got my daily dose of laughter.