Princess lunch and Pin

Ok so I think at the end of the last post I said that I was heading to lunch with the princesses for my friends birthday. It was so much fun. It was at the Norway pavillion at Epcot. We arrived about 15 minutes early so were able to ride the Maelstrom ride inside the pavillion. One of only a few rides in the entire world showcase. After that, we went back to our reservation. There were about 10 of us all together. We were greeted by Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She was doing the greetings at the front door because she couldnt manoevre through the tables coz of the size of her dress.

We sat down at the table and ordered drinks then got some salad and stuff from the buffet. When our meals arrived, the princesses started coming out one by one. First was Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), then Cinderella, then Snow White and finally Ariel. It was cool. They each came up to the table and birthday boy (Danual) had a photo with each f them. They were really cool - they stayed in character - Ariel was amazed that we swam so far to get here ;) I told her we ran into a few sharks on the way but it was no big deal. LoL.

After the lunch was over, we went for a walk around the show case - past all the countries - then headed to the Seas to see finding Nemo. It was a ride perfect for children that went through the Australian current and followed Marlin in his search for Nemo. Then we headed to Turtle Talk with Crush - which was entertaining.

Then we headed home and about 30mins later went to the outlet mall. The outlet mall was amazing - they have everything there - Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klien, Nike, Adidas, Hilfeger etc. All I spent was $15 on a t-shirt - I was quite proud of myself really.

After a long day with the princesses and shopping, we then headed home and I went to bed coz I had to get up for work at 5.30 the next morning.

I was working at a pin convention for 2 days. At Disney, there are little pins that guests can collect. As a cast member, I get a lanyard with 12 pins on it and guests can trade with me. At the convention, it was completely different. I wasnt allowed to wear my lanyard coz the pins that I had people were not interested in. These people are hard core collectors. I met one lady who had about 11,000 pins. People came with suitcases full of them. I was working at the pin board. The guest gets one minute to look at the board and trade 2 pins. The lines were about 40 people long the entire day. I saw the same guests in my line about 4-5 times. It was crazy but it was fun. It made the day go really quickly.

Well, thats all for now. Heading to Epcot tomorrow so I will keep you updated on that. Maybe going to Animal Kingdom sometime this week too. VEry exciting.

x

Epcot as a guest

Ok, so last week I told you that I was heading to Epcot as a guest and I did. It was fun. It went with my room mate Fran, and friends Kevin and Danual :) We got there about 10am and straight away got a fast pass for test track (one ride Ive been wanting to do for ages). We had to come back for that between 1-2pm. Se then we went and queued for Mission Space. That was awesome. It is a simulator that actually feels like you are being launched and flying through space. There were 4 of us and we each had a different task. I was navigator, Fran was commander, Kevin was engineer and Danual was the pilot. Like I said, we each had a different task to do, all that involved was pushing a button when we were told to haha. The journey only lasted a few minutes. Then we arrived on Mars....mission accomplished.

After Mission Space we headed to a place called Innoventions. In my opinion, it was more for kids...the activities that they had were kind of educational, but it was fun. We learnt how to ride a segway. It was quite hard at first...I got on and started rolling backwards which isnt what you are supposed to do....it's all about the balance.

We then met up with Kevin and Frans work mate Kelly, she joined us just in time for test track.

We then went back to Test Track coz we had our fast pass. So you walk through a testing lab pretty much. What it is, they are creating a new car and we are the testers. So we go through a series of test before actually driving it. Brake tests, bumps in the road, handling and finally a crash test. Then hit the track. I was a bit disappointed at the end, I was kind of expecting it to go faster, I think the top speed was about 65 miles which I think is just over 100km.

Test Track was all over then we headed to Norway to eat. Getting fruit and a soda....not really very norweigien!! Then Kevin drove me home coz we both had work later on.....so my day involved going to Epcot, going home to get ready, then going to Epcot.

Till next time x

Last week

Wow, havent been on this in a while, Im sorry.

So, what has happened over the last week or two?? Heaps to be honest. I have met a few people who have been here for 6 months already. They have told me all about their adventures and experiences since January - interesting :)

Just been working quite a bit to tell you the truth. I work in merchandise at a store called Mouse Gear in Disneys Epcot. I worked there for 2 weeks before being deployed. Being deployed means that you move jobs for a short time. You are still working in merch but at a different store. It could be at the same park or anywhere across Disney property. Luckily, I was deployed to a store still at Epcot. That meant a new costume for a week - goody :) I went to get the costume which consists of a bright red shirt with all the countries of the world on it with white pants. I had to make a trip to wal mart to buy some shoes for the week $12 what a bargain. The new store was called towers and it was at the entrance to the world showcase at Epcot. It was right on the water and come 9pm everynight - a perfect view of the fireworks. I like working there for the week. Part of this store, were kiosks outside. They were under cover and had fans but were still outside. I workd in the kiosk for a few hours for 2 days. One of those days, we had to close. There was a storm coming with thunder and lightning. It was funny coz I had guests coming up to me and coz the kiosk was closing, they all assumed the park was too. The storm passed and we were able to open the kiosk again, fun times. Overall, I enjoyed my deployment. But, as they say, all good things come to an end. Back to Mousegear I go.

Yesterday I headed back to mouse gear and was on stock for the night. That was interesting. I had never done it before. I was just checking the stock on the floor and then going down to the stock room and topping it up. Back at Mouse gear tonight.

Im at Epcot everyday but havent actually been there as a guest yet, so heading to Epcot as a guest on Wednesday before work so I will keep you updated on that.

x

the past week

Oh my goodness!! I have been so slack with this thing over the last few days.....sorry!!!! The truth is,  I am having too much fun =)

So, after our training session last week, we kinda all went our separate ways and got familiarised with our work places. For my position (in merchandise) I had 4 days of training including 1 day of on the job training - fun. Then at the end of that I had an assessment to make me a fully qualified sales person LoL. My store is huge as. The stock room alone os 3 floors (so not what I am used to). Got a tour of that - it is prob going to take me 6 months to get used to the stock haha. Then had register training then was left on my own for a bit which was great. I think that the currency is going to take a while to get used to. 

Thrusday (29th) was a day that was all me :) my first shift alone. Training done. It was pretty scary but the people that I was working with were all very cool. There are about 200 people that work in that store alone!! It's huge!!! 

Phoned home today too. It's dads birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Spoke to mum and dad a bit. They said it was cold back home!! Times like those, Im glad Im here :) 

Friday (today) was fun. I had the day off - yay - so I went to Walmart. I bought a phone last week and it is playing up!! I can receive phone calls but not text messages :( so I took it back and they said that they would replace it but I didn't want one exactly the same so I got another one. Taking a while to set up though. Heading off to the movies now. Talk later xx

21 July

We had what they call "traditions" today. We got up at about 6am (too early for me) To go the Disney university. Some of the sights along the way were amazing!! When we got the university, we were separated into 2 groups (yellow and pink). When we got upstairs we got the all important access pass which allows us to get into the parks (for free) and get into work! After about an hour we went on a small tour of the Magic Kingdom - for those of you who dont know, that was one of the original parks and is the home of Cinderellas castle :D

After a very small tour we went back to our class. There was a knock at the door - I thought a person had been locked out of the room - but when she opened it, it was MICKEY MOUSE!!! He had come to deliver our nametags. It was so cool :) So after finishing our Traditions class and about 4 blisters later (new shoes) we came back to the apartment and got changed. For traditions we had to wear "formal attire". 

Later in the afternoon, we went back to the Magic Kingdom to have a proper look and wow - what a place!!!!!!!!! It is amazing. So big - it is really easy to get lost haha. My room mates decided they would go on "Splash Mountain" I just stayed and watched. Standing still in this heat is not a good idea by the way! Anyway, when the others got off the ride, we went down to the Pirates of the Caribean ride - that was fun :) the lines for some of the rides are so long - like 30-60min wait). After walking round for a bit, we were all starting to get really hot and tired so we checked out "tomorrowland" and saw an extremely funny Monsters Inc show - we all laughed our heads off!!!!!!! Once again, the lines for the roller coasters and stuff were like 45 minute waits so we decided to make our way thru thousands of people back to the monorail to get back to the bus terminal. It is quite cool - the bus dropped us off at the terminal and we could either catch the ferry or the monorail over to the park - awesome!! After getting back to the bus terminal we caught the bus which seemed to take a very long time - I think the driver took the LOOOONG way home. 

I think we are all going to have early nights tonight - I have training at 8 tomorrow so that means getting up at 6ish :(

till next time xx

Arrival Day

The 17th of July was always going to be a long day!!! Getting to the airport only to be told the plane was late!!! Grrrr....Oh well, we sat and had coffee then it was time to go. I think saying goobye to my family was one of the hardest things to do!

I got on the plane (had a window seat) and met some guy who was travelling to England via the States. It turned out that has was on the same plane over to LA too. Anyway, we got to Auckland and had about 90mins between planes. I was following this guy round coz he had been there before haha. We arrived at the international terminal and had to check in to get a Qantas boarding pass. Then it was time to go thru security and board. The plane was HUGE!! first class looked so fancy but of course, we had to walk thru it to get to where we were. I had another window seat which was good. A guy came and sat with me and it turned out he was going to Disney too :) the 2 people behind us were also going....then another group of people overheard us and they were going too...it was great. The flight was so long - it is quite difficult to sleep on the plane - I found it hard to get comfortable coz the guy in front of me kept putting his seat right back!!! The food was quite good :) beef lasagne and salad with cheese, crackers and a bread roll - and a drink. Then ice-cream. About 4 hours into the flight the lights were turned off to give everyone a chance to sleep. With about 1 hour til landing, we had breakfast - scrambled eggs with baked beans and sausages - yum!

We arrived in LA - man, what a HUGE airport!! It was a bit of a mission to find your way through but we got there. They had intense security all the way thru. After finally getting thru security, we made it to the domestic terminal to board the plane to Orlando. By this stage it was Saturday morning in the US and the middle of the night in NZ - we were all pretty tired. We got on the plane - the people at American Airlines didnt seem to care about much - people were taking on Starbucks and Burger King!! That flight was OK. I had a middle seat, they guy at the window put the blind down straight away GRRR!!! The plane doors closed and there was a spare window seat so I put my hand up straight away! I tried to sleep for some of the flight, but it was difficult. That flight was about 4.5 hours. 

We arrived in Orlando and the heat hit us straight away!!!We all waited for a bus to take us to the apartment complex and when we arrived, we were all greeted by Disney people and given welcome packs and an itenirary for the next few days. Later in the afternoon, we went to Walmart :D yay and got some supplies for the apartment and ended up getting home at about 10pm.

The beds in the apartment are not the most comfortable but after travelling for so long, it was good to lie down. Waking up the next morning - MAN it was so hot!!! I went for a bit of a walk and met one of the other girls who has been on the program for 6 months - it was good to meet her face-to-face!!!

Going to go and get some food now...til next time :)

The week before

It is getting close now...my goodness. I had my farewell party last Friday night. It was great to get together with my friends and see them all before I go. I got lots of photos and I got them all to write something in a little book so I can keep in contact with everyone. 

Now with only about 10 days to go, I have a lot of people to catch up with still. That's what I'm up to this week. It is summer over there at the moment too, so I have to go shopping to get some summery clothes - that could be difficult in Wellington LoL. 

Keep an eye on this blog...I will try to update it as much as possible. Keep your eyes on facebook too, there will heaps of pics I promise ;)

Take care guys....xx