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.

it's been a while

me in the middle with giuli and hannah at mk

So time is flying and i'm forgetting to keep track of it. A lot of this past week and a half is a blur, i'm struggling to remember what i did each day!

Saturday June 28th

Stitch at the Hat at Studios-- This was a fun day, different from other days I've been in this location cuz of Star Wars Weekends! We shared an off-set location with Leia Minnie, Jedi Mickey, Darth Goofy and Storm Trooper Donald. They were very cool-- donald was actually a guy! (rare) he did an awesome robot :) normal sets for the first two, the 3rd was during the star wars parade, so we did a roaming set in the great movie ride courtyard, which was really fun, then took a big group picture of all the hat characters. after my work day was over, i watched block party and then met up with giuli to explore star wars weekends. We met Leia Minnie (the same girl who was in my off set location, which was fun, she recognized me and gave me big hugs) and then tried to meet chewbacca, but it started raining. So we met mike and Sulley instead, then played with the singing in the rain umbrella and walked up and down streets of america. we tried to watch the Star Wars Hoop-la show, but it was downed due to rain. So we went home and to bed.

Sunday June 29th

Dopey in Germany (epcot.) Worked with a snow called whitney who was awesome, and then went home and did i dont know what.


Monday June 30th

Day Off, went to studios with gemma and friends, and giuli, went on toy story mania, did an animation academy class, saw block party and then went to partners, and then sam and I went hot tubbing.

Tuesday July 1st

Tuesday was a highly anticipated day for me-- it was the day of my kidnapping! Giuli and Gemma had given me strict instructions to be at their place by 7 am. At almost 8, we departed, along with jennifer, to the club house, where we got into a mears shuttle. we arrived a little later at universal studios! It was a blast, i really enjoyed it, although i could really see the difference between the service standards there and in Disney.
We started out the day at the Simpsons ride, which was very cool, and hard to describe. I would def recommend it tho! And then we visited Gemmas very dear friend E.T, where she attempted to buy out the shop. We saw the Terminator 3d show, and then watched a hilarious Horror Make-up show (hilarious except the line 'this isnt the magic kingdom,we dont have to be nice to you) and then we went to watch the Shrek 4-D show, which was cute, and then had lunch at Monsters Cafe, which played clips of old cheesy horror films. It was tres gory and fun.
After lunch we did Twister, which was basically standing in a room while things (including an obviously plastic cow) whirled around you, Jaws, which had an obviously plastic shark swimming towards you, and the Mummy, which was an AMAZING roller coaster with fire and all sorts of cool effects. Then we did Men in Black, which is kinda like buzz's space ranger spin in mk. We ate Dippin Dots too (love!) and then headed over to Islands of Adventure.

Gotta say I liked islands of Adventure better than Universal Studios. Universal was cool, but a lot of the rides seemed either dated or 3D, which is cool but there wasnt a lot of variety. The theming at universal was cool, a lot of landsapes and such, but overall it was fun but not amazing. The roller coasters at islands of adventure were AMAZING.
We started out at the Hulk, which was incredible, and then walked through Super Hero Island to Comic Book City where we went on Dudley Do Rights Rip Saw Falls, which was like splash mountain but way steeper, and with a way longer queue line (not that there was anyone in the queue, but we had to walk all through the line area anyways). Giuli made me sit in the front of the log. I got soaked, and the view from the top of the drop was terrifying.
Then we walked through the jurassic park area, which i wasnt fond of, i really hate dinos, so we continued to the lost continent, where we rode the blue and the red side of dueling dragons, another awesome roller coaster. Strangely, nothing had anylines-- literally, the longest line we stood in was for Jaws, and that was only 30 minutes. so after the Dueling dragons we went to Suess Landingand rode the Trolley in the Sky, and then left islands of adventure again. By this time my feet were killing, so we sat for a bit, then giuli really wanted to do jurassic park so i went with her and waited outside while gemma and jennifer dis the jimmy neutron ride at universal. Then we went to see the Universal laser show, which wasn't anything amazing-- it was fireworks and clips from moview projected onto white floating thingys-- but the fireworks werent even as good as local ones in barrhaven on canada day. we were unimpressed. Then we went to Hard Rock Cafe, which was awesome, and then headed home.

Wednesday July 2nd

I was a spare at mk starting at 6:18 am. I didnt get pulled for anything, but I did get fitted and disapproved in jiminy cricket. I left at 5:30 pm, went to the hot tub with giuli and hannah, and then went to bed really early.

Thursday July 3rd

Spare again, starting at 6 am, got pulled for one set at judges tent, spent my lunch in ariels grotto visiting my friend from training, karley, and then helped decorate the warm up room/duty base for 4th of july. Left at 3:30, went home for a nap, left again, met giuli and hannah at giuli's work in the Grand Floridian Resort, ate at Gasparilla's (her work), took a boat to MK, watched the AMAZING fireworks for the 4th of july (a day early but who cares?) and then went to Hall of Fame, met Chelsie as Princess Aurora, then met belle and cindy. Went to judges tent (where I had worked earlier in the day...) and waited way too long to meet mickey and minnie. Then home and to sleep.

Friday July 4th

Stitch 3 at Island Mercantile. A good day, but a long one. a bbq at the parade building for all of entertainment was fun tho, with lots of awesome desserts. Off at 5:30, home, nap, Giuli and I decided to see 4th of july fireworks at Hollywood studios, which were even better than the ones at MK (tho much shorter). We got there on a bus 10 mins before they started and were on our way home on the very next bus. sleeeeep.

Saturday July 5th

Daisy at the Hat at Studios. Fun, easy, short day. Home by 2:30, 3 sets and a magic moment. Afterwards went home and had an early night.

Sunday July 6th

Daisy 1 townsquare, MK. A really good day, i love being daisy, shes so girly and diva-licious. Done by 3:00, got a ride home, which was great. Another early night, after visiting apt. 2402.

Monday July 7th

DAY OFF. apparently the physical toll of these costumes is catching up with me-- i'm exhausted. Or it might be the early mornings i've had this week.... Mostly today i've cleaned my room, talked on the phone with my momma, and have plans to swim this afternoon. Fun Stuff!