Busy-ness as usual

June 12th- Evening:
After my sick day naps, I headed over to Apt 4402 to chill out with Giuli. We ate a quick supper of box mix mashed potatoes and then, when Sam got home we headed off to see where she works- the Yacht and Beach Club. We got all dressed up and got on two stinky buses, and then wondered around the pool area for a bit. I'm a big fan of the pools, and the pirate slide. We stopped at Beaches and Cream for some ice cream, and then headed across the lake to the Boardwalk. We could see the Fireworks happening at epcot, which was kinda neat, and the movie Cars was playing on the beach. There were cute little swings along the beach, and five people bikes for the boardwalk. Being the smarty pants people we are, the three of us didnt realize you have to rent out the bikes, and accidentally hijacked someone elses, in our dresses... oops! We poked in the little shops and peeked at the pools, since my mom and sister and jordie and barbara are staying in the Boardwalk in July. and then we headed home and went to sleep.

June 13th:
I was a spare on friday which means that I didnt have an assigned location, a job assignment which means if someone calls in sick or wants an early release I would work, but if not, I would chill in the character zoo (the entertainment base in the tunnels at Magic Kingdom) for millions of hours. My shift started at 6:18 am, which meant I had to take a little shuttle van to west clock at 5:30. The guy driving the shuttle van didnt know where west clock is (which is ridiculous, it is where every MK cast member has to go before going to the tunnels and is where the shuttle was supposed to be going to) so we went to contemp, grand fla, and then west clock. This meant that I didnt arrive at work til about 6:10.
I quickly clocked in and went to costuming to scan out basics (the gray t-shirt, blue shorts with barcodes on them that we are required to wear for warmups and under our costumes) then checked in at the duty base. This process is the same for everyday I work at any of the parks-- it's called the Clock, Change and Check, and it must be completed before our shift officially starts.
If you're a spare, checking in with the duty window is exciting- they tell you whos called in sick in your height range, if anyone is. If not, which was the case for me on friday, you go into the warm up room and do one set of warm ups, then sit. Friday the warm up coach wasnt there, so we did self warm ups and sat. And sat. there were 6 mouse heights, an alice, a poppins, a cindy, an ariel and 2 plutos, plus 2 goofys and a charming all sitting around. Many of the other spares had nintendo ds and were playing mario kart frantically. I was people watching. It's kinda cool, because every character performer must warm up, so you see aladdin run through, or the mat hatter and a prince eric kissing, or a poppins bitching to a bert with a southern accent instead of an english one. Even with all the people watching, 5 hours of sitting made me extremely bored. I went to lunch, came back, and most of the face characters had been pulled or gone home. We sat for a few more hours, and at 3 pm us furs got pulled to do random sets in toon town merchandise and queue. I was Meeko, then there was a dopey, a daisy, an alice, and a prince philip. Random, I know. We also didnt have attendants (aHhhhh) which meant we got mobbed with children. We were only doing 2 twenty minute sets, so not a huge deal, but still annoying. We also were sharing an off set location with Belle, Aurora and Cindy, which was fun, but the faces can be snobbish sometimes.
And then, I went home at 5:30 :) Yay. 9 hours of sitting and 2.2 hours of work is exhausting.

Then Giuli and I went to Downtown Disney to see Baby Mama at the AMC theatre. And then sleep. Woot.

June 14th:

Same wake up and clock change check story at the 13th, 6:18 start, 5:30 bus. I got pulled to be mickey for contemp breakfast almost right away, only after I'd pulled my costume, and got into the van, mickey showed up. So then I returned my costume, went back to the duty base, and got pulled for minnie for poly. and the same thing happened again. So I returned my costume, got back into the duty base, and was sent to help out costuming with 2 other spares. After an hour of folding socks and cowls, I got pulled to epcot as Dopey in Germany. Fun Times. Another spare named cassie drove me over to epcot where I checked in with duty and was told to go to lunch. During lunch, a strange thing happened. People kept calling me Sophie and saying hi to me. Like, 7 people. Apparently I have a twin. Very wierd.
After lunch, I pulled the dopey costume and caught the van run to Germany at 12:40. My first set was at 1:20. So much fun to be dopey, and the Snow White I was working with was one of the ones who was a spare with me the day before. My Back to Back dopey was cool too.
In between sets we watched notting hill and I discussed politic with the Photo pass guy. 5 sets later, at 6:12, I was done. Returned my costume, and caught the bus home. I had a bit of a nap, then went and visited 4402 and sam. We chilled til Angie got home, then went to Bennigans and Walgreens. And then Bed.

June 15th:
I was Stitch 01 in Tomorrowland. I left at 6:57, started at 7:30 and clocked changed and checked. When I checked in I found out Stitch was in Welcome Show and Welcome Train :) SOOOO EXCITING! I pulled my costume, did warmups, then put on my costume in the tunnel. Then Snow white (same snow as the day before) showed me where to go (toon town rehearsal Facility.) All the welcome train characters waited there haf dressed for a little while-- Stitch, Mickey, Alice, Snow, Daisy, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Jiminy Cricket, Mary Poppins, Chip and Dale. A manager came i and got us all to sign an autograph book and a magical moments certificate for the family that won the oppurtunity to open the park. Then we all finished getting dressed and went out to toontown to meet the family. They were all crying with happiness as this huge group of characters gave them hugs and welcomed them to the park. Then we boarded the train, spread out to take up most of the seats. mickey sat with the family toward the middle of the train, I was in the first row of the 3rd car. We choo chood along to the Main st. Station, where we waved from the train while dancers danced in front of us. Then mickey announced that he had brought along friends to open the park, and we all stepped of the train and helped him "count backwards from 10" to the time the park officially opened. Stitch apparently always takes this literally and turns around to count, so I carried on that tradition and turned around, then daisy carried on her part and scolded me and turned me back the rightway. And then we stepped back through the train to the station,filed through and into the expo hall ofset location, where our personal gear had been brought from the tunnels. I picked up my bag and walked across the parking lot between mainstreet backstage and tomorrowland backstage and Stitch and Buzz lightyear's breakroom. After that the day was pretty normal-- kids love stitch, possibly even more than they love mickey, and it is always really fun to animate him, despite the heat and weight of that costume. it is to stitch that kids frequently say "i've been looking all over for you!" or "i saw your movie" which I think is too cute. As usual, I greeted a couple of make a wish kids and families, which is always emotional for me, and due to rain one of my sets was cut a bit short. And then at 5:30 it was time to go home. In the changeroom of the tunnels tho, I ran into giuli and joined her and gemma in a MK adventure in the rain. We ate ate Pinnochio's quick service place in fantasy land, then went on splash mountain and big thunder then watched the tiki room show and country bears. and then home and to sleep.

June 16th

Day off
Sleep
Supposed to meet gemma in mk cafeteria but she was at home sick
monorail to
Epcot - Living seas with nemo, Canada, England and dinner in France
home and sleep

June 17th
Day off- day with Gemma
Epcot- Soarin Fast passes (that we never used cuz life got busy and there was 6 hrs between when we got them and when we could use them), canada, England (met Lord Kensington, lol, and bought a mars bar ), France (met Princess Aurora), Morocco, Japan (fans and mirrors!)
and then after a morning of shopping and poking in the pavillions, we needed to go to downtown disney to buy our tickets for cirque du soliel for my b-day. Apparently no buses run from any of the parks direct to downtown disney, so we took a bus to Port Orleans French Quarter resort, had our feet in the pool there for a little while, then got on the water taxi to Downtown marketplace, then another one to west side. Bought the tickets, then took a bus to contemporary resort, and walked from there to MK, went through the park, into the tunnel, bused to west clock, and crossed the paking lot to Cast Connection- aka the best store ever. Discount discontinued disney merchandise, damaged merchandise, lost and found from the parks, and excess stuff from the resort rooms. Literally it has everything from golf carts to wall paper to t-shirts. I got a decorative plate that is gorgeous for $9 and plan to go back and get lots more stuff. We then went home with our finds, and were going to go back to epcot but realized we had missed our fast pass time :P so we went to CiCis pizza buffet instead. CiCis is cheap, but I wouldnt recommend the food. And then we did our laundry and went to sleep, with a little drama thrown in there for good measure.