See ya real soon!

I apologize for not writing in a really long time and I also apologize for never actually concluding my blog. So here it goes! THE GRAND CONCLUSION OF DISNEY ICP 2012.

Marc and his girlfriend ended up coming to Florida :) So I got to spend half a (rainy) day with them at MK. I wish they could've stayed longer so they could've ridden Space or Splash or something but it was lovely to see them both and show them around the best I could :)

My last few shifts at CRT were phenomenal. I got to do most of the roles I really enjoy one last time. I also had some really good stories about some really..really special guests that happened to be there. ;)
A lot of other girls were finishing up their programs at the same time so it was a really emotional time at CRT. On my last night of work I watched Wishes with a few girls while we just cried and cried. There were guests by us, thinking we must have been a little crazy for getting so emotional over fireworks we see every night.
I'm glad I got to say goodbye to everyone though! I had bought an autograph book and I got everyone to sign it.. I read it (and cry) and remember all the amazing people I met this summer!
On my last night at work I was "last check" which means I closed podium. The park closed at 10 (weird eh?) so there wasn't too many people around so I got to really soak in the last few hours of being a cast member :(

My last break!

NO MORE NAPKINS

GOODBYE LOVELIES 

My last day in the parks was also a really fun experience. I went to Magic Kingdom in the morning with my kiwi Nicki! It was one of the saddest days in the Magic Kingdom though because I knew all the experiences would be my "last", for awhile at least. We got off the bus at the Contemporary and took the monorail around to the front of the park "let's not walk, it's too hot". So it was my last monorail surfing experience, my last por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas, my last Bay Lake experience for awhile at least.

We got Sorceror's Cards and then set out to do ALL the fun things, one last time. We did Splash Mountain (as my absolute favorite), Haunted Mansion, tea cups. We also got to eat a delicious breakfast at Sleepy Hollow (waffles with nutella and fruit SO GOOD). We took a MILLION photos too.. and I said my goodbyes to Crystal Palace, the castle (the first goodbye of many), and new Fantasyland including Storybook Cricus :(

That afternoon we ended up going over to Epcot and meeting Grace. We had lunch at Akershus in Norway! This was so exciting! The same princesses that come to CRT also go to Norway and it was nice to see them all and get them to sign my autograph book :) The food was really good at Akershus too. The appetizers were buffet style, then the main course was a la carte, and dessert was served family style. I'm glad I got to experience Akershus to a) experience another princess dining and b) so many people come to CRT who are supposed to have reservations at Akershus so I wanted to know what the big hype was! It's funny when people come to podium and you look them up and their reservations are actually at Norway. Try telling people that! "Your reservations are at Akershus.... where?... Akershus, in Norway... where?.... Akershus, in Norway, in Epcot.... where?....Take a monorail."

Norway

HI ARIEL!

I experienced a Disney first by taking the boat from Epcot to Hollywood Studios!

At Studios we waited in a long line for Rock'n'roller coaster, rode my new love Tower of Terror one last time and then we watched Fantasmic!!! We didn't have the best seats in the house but it was nice to be able to see it one last time.

So on my last day of life in Orlando, the Canadian crew went to Crystal Palace for breakfast. It was lovely to experience CP as a guest, since I had worked there several times this summer and never actually had any of the food. The award for my favorite breakfast at Disney World goes to 1900 Park Fare, but CP was fun :)

We also got to MISCI for the last time :(!!!

We then headed back to Vista because ALL of us had packing to do. Packing wasn't too difficult surprisingly and I was able to bring home everything (important at least) 

That night was our GRADUATION. The program threw us this big BBQ to celebrate finishing our programs. Lots of Americans and other people were finishing up too, so we had a combined graduation with them as well.  We got free graduation ears and got to meet Mickey and Minnie. We also had some yummy BBQ food. It was a really really hot day but it was nice to say goodbye to everyone who was also leaving.

After graduation a whole lot of us headed to Magic Kingdom for the last (last) time. :(

I still had an incomplete Sorcerer's Cards set so we headed to Tortuga Tavern. This was actually one of my favorite memories of the program. Tortuga Tavern is a quick serve restaurant in Adventureland but it's only open for lunch (i think) and in busy seasons. So at night, it was "closed" but people go in there to trade and display their cards!! So we went in and met two very lovely cast members who were just there to trade cards on their days off! Even though I didn't have two star cards to trade for the two star cards I needed they gave me the two cards (Nibs and Flynn) that I needed to complete my set so I could go home with a full set :D. Thank you Tortuga Tavern!!!

We ended up watching DEP and the Magic Memories and You and Wishes for the last time :( TALK ABOUT CRY FEST. 

The park closed at 11 that night but it seemed like EVERYBODY who was in the park past 10:30 was just college program kids spending every possible second in the MK as they could.

I went back to CRT and said my final final goodbye.

Another really really cool (but sad!) memory was just walking down Main Street for the last time.. I didn't know which way to face because I wanted to see the castle for as long as I could!! It was dark, and a huge thunder and lightning storm was happening but without rain! It was epic, and an epic way to leave the kingdom.

My taxi was booked to pick me up at 4:30 am or something crazy like that so after a very hectic (and last!) A bus ride home from MK, I just stayed up. I spent lots of time with Grace, Nicki and Alex. 

My taxi ride to the airport was devastating. I just cried the whole time in the backseat. I cried when I checked my luggage. I cried when I boarded the plane.

The good news was I was going to surprise one of my favorite people Lidia!! She had no idea I was coming to visit her :) We ended up having a super weekend going to Niagara Falls and Toronto and everything!!

So thus concludes my summer at WDW! I can't wait to be a cast member in the future- but I don't know when and where that will be.. which is exciting :) 

I had an absolutely fantastic experience as an ICP cast member- I just wish the program was longer! I highly recommend this experience to anyone and everyone!

Thank you to everyone I've met and thanks a bunch to the boss for a fantastic summer job :)

Magical Moments

I worked a double yesterday and today :)
Yesterday I was on podium for lunch, then for dinner I was a seater for a bit and breezeway greeter as well. It was fun! I love being breezeway greeter even though you get the same questions over and over again- "what is this?" "can we go in the castle?" "Why is the door shut?" "where are the bathrooms?" "How do we make reservations?"
Last night we all went to Nicki's apartment and got dressed up and hate a little goodbye celebration. The other girls who work at the castle are all unique and beautiful and I am very happy to have met them.

Today I was greeter for lunch, and for dinner I was updater then greeter again.
Tonight was very emotional. It was my last night working with some of my best friends at the castle, and I had to say goodbye. We all got to watch Wishes together from underneath the castle, and Cinderella even joined in.  I had many tearful hugs goodbye tonight.
This experience has been unreal, and the end seems even more unreal. I normally struggle with transitions- this one is gonna be a douzy. I'm excited to go home and I truly miss Nova Scotia and my people so to speak- but I'm leaving a piece of my heart here for sure.

Bye bye Universal

Yesterday I worked 2:45-10:15. I went to Magic Kingdom early to get Sorceror's Cards. I ended up having a lot of time so I watched the Country Bears, ate lunch at the Colombia Harbor House and collected some fast passes :) My fast pass collection now includes all Fantasyland fast passes which I'm pretty happy about. Big hearts for FanLand.

I had a random room mate last night! For some reason some girl needed a room for one night before her flight back to her home country (Moracco!) today.. so she slept in our apartment in my bedroom. She was nice, but it was just so random!

I went to Universal today for the last time this summer. The good news is I ended up going to Universal 4 times so I got my money's worth for the annual pass :)
I went today with Sara, Alex and Sara's bf from Canada Ryan. Great crew, we had a great time :) Said goodbye to Hogwarts and the Rip Rocket Roller Coaster and the Mummy and all the good rides. :(

I work two doubles in a row starting tomorrow. Going to get my full of CRT before having to leave it! :(
Two doubles in a row = Lindsay going to bed early tonight.

Lately.

The past few days have been crazy! My friends left for Canada :( I miss them already but I'll see them soon!

I lost my wallet in the Magic Kingdom the other day, with all my IDs and $80 in it.. but IT TURNED UP THE NEXT DAY AT LOST AND FOUND. Thank goodness for honest people :)

I worked at the Plaza today, just a random shift :) It was fun to be on Main Street and to watch the parades and stuff. The Plaza only has 33 tables and no characters or anything so it was relatively stress free compared to CRT. I decided to wear my Acadia University name tag today and somebody recognized it! They were from Toronto.

The costume is identical to the Crystal Palace one with a different apron.

I am officially ready to make the most of my last work week!! I'm going to see Marc hopefully, go to Universal one last time, and of course, the parks one last time. Let's do this.

Imagination with Figment!

I went to Epcot today with the girls from home :) It was fun! Epcot is really what you make of it I guess. We did Imagination (haha one of my new favorites), Club Cool, Soarin', Mission Space, Living with the Land. Ellen and I got to meet Stitch :) Ellen had to leave early so she's back in Canada :( I had to say bye to her but I will see her soon :)

I worked 2:45-10:15. It was a good shift :) I got to help out our special events manager and help prepare balloons and stuff for our special packages which was fun. I was a seater for the rest of the night. Jill drove me home and we stopped at Wawa a new gas station. It has amazing hoagie subs for really cheap! It was nice to be able to have some food and spend time with Jill :)

I'm going to visit with Alex soon then go to bed. SO TIRED.

PS Our last schedule came out today.... I am so devastated. The more I reflect on this experience the more I love it and I just appreciate literally every second I spend here. I'm going to soak it all in, dig my in my heels.. I don't want to leave. I know leaving is inevitable though and leaving will only make me grow even more fonder of this place if that's even possible. I know there are more adventures to be had as well :)

Big Life Updates

Hey!
I haven't blogged in sooo long! Here's what's new:

Work:
Work has been going tremendously :) I quite like my job in case you haven't noticed. I worked a double today.. I've had a few days off too. I did set ups one day and was magically bumped to podium which was like a miracle. Today I did some random tasks for a bit- lately it's been like I don't get actual positions, just do random stuff. It's cool though. I'm going to miss CRT cast so much when I leave :(

Life:
My friends from home came to visit me!!!! Lidia came in Tuesday and Ellen/Shelby came the next day. Lidia and I stayed at Coronado Springs the first day. It was fun! We rented a boat at the Contemporary Resort and got to drive around Bay Lake. We got to see where the old abandoned water park River Country was. After that we went to Downtown Disney and watched the Katy Perry movie with Alex :)
When Ellen/Shelby got here we located to Pop Century and we played Tower of Terror Clue then we went to the pool and swam. The evening consisted of going to the Polynesian resort and getting Dole Whips, and watches Wishes from the beach <3
The next day was our Animal Kingdom day. It was fun! I got to spend the morning with them before I had to go to work.
Yesterday was Magic Kingdom day. Boy what a marathon. It was the hottest day everrrrr. But it was fun- we ate at CRT which was like.. two worlds colliding with them there.
Today they did Hollywood Studios but I worked a double so I wasn't with them.

So that's life!
I'm so happy to see them again- it's weird they're here (like the world colliding thing) but it's also quite amazing.

stocka stocka stocka

I worked 11:30-10:15 today. Lo and behold I got pulled to be stocker again. This time from 1-7.
It's physically hard work. You're in charge of stocking ice (involves shoveling ice.. it's heavy), trays, plates, spoons, lids, straws, cups (big one), hot bread, waters, watching the soup, preparing butter, preparing lemons among other things. It's just a lot to balance and all the stuff is all around the kitchen so it's a lot of walking too.
I didn't mind though.
Other positions I did were breezeway greeter (love of my life), greeter assist, podium for a bit, seater, seater/setter. I guess I'm not important enough for a real position these days!
Now I'm watching Big Brother and anxiously awaiting tomorrow!!! :D Lidia comes!

whistle while you work

Not sure if I posted yesterday or not.. I was extra hands at work (2:45-10:15) so I folded a lot and helped set tables. I like doing that! I love the rush of trying to get everybody up before fireworks and having to finish off the last tables... Wishes now makes me stressed out but I love the adrenaline!

Today I worked mornings.. It was such a weird morning since our systems were down.. I was breezeway greeter, greeter assist, seater/setter, covered podium AND I got pulled to cover stocker's break. It was my first time stocking since I was trained for it in May but it went well. It's physically exhausting though.

I went to Hollywood Studios tonight with Alex and her friend Bill. It was fun! We did rocknroller coaster and tower of terror (LOVED the drop sequence, it was sickkkk).

Now I'll probably just watch Monsters Inc and go to bed. I work 11:30-10:15 tomorrow.

PS Big Brother has started.... Officially love it!

if you had the chance to change your fate twice... would ya?

This morning I went to the AMC dine-in movie theatre at Downtown Disney with Alex, Emily, Amy and Victoria! It was a really neat experience, a dine in! Great idea. We watched Brave again... turns out I slept through some important things the first time and I actually really enjoyed it the second time. Who knew.

I had to leave early though to head to the Magic Kingdom for work! I work 2:45-10:15 and was on podium all night. Other than our computers acting funny all night, nothing was too exciting. Reeeeally routine shift. but I love CRT.

The fam got home okay ! I miss them already!

famjam

Yesterday I worked 2:45-almost 12, and I was greeter all night :) It was a good day!

Today I did Animal Kingdom with the fam: Mum, Dad, Jake, Molly. They were very brave and went on Expedition Everest TWICE! We ate at Tamu Tamu and Tusker House for dinner. We got to do most of the rides and even went to Rafiki's Planet Watch and met Rafiki!

Tonight was grocery bingo at Chatham.. I went with the Dangerfields and Alex :) I WON GROCERIES!!!! YAY!!

It was sad saying goodbye to my parents today. We had a fantastic experience. I didn't get to see them 24/7 obviously but the time I spent with them was wonderful :) I love them very much! <3

poohfectly wonderful day

Today I let the fam into Epcot.. I got to ride a few things with them before I had to monorail to work.
I worked at Crystal Palace today- it was amazing :) Such a great shift!! So very happy with it :)

DHS and family

Today was our DHS day :) (Disney's Hollywood Studios)
We got a lot of it done surprisingly. Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Walt Disney's One Man's Dream, Lights Camera Action motor stunt show (first timer for that one.. AMAZING), American Idol, Toy Story Midway (TWICE!!!!! We're pros), the Voyage of the Little Mermaid (it broke down though.... very weird), Muppets. We met Mr. and Mrs. Incredible. Jake, Molly and I did Rock'n'Roller Coaster.
We had lunch at pizza planet and a buffet dinner at Hollywood and Vine. Then got our socks blown off at Fantasmic! Amazing show as usual :)
Fantastic day all around!!! :)

Magic

Today my family did Magic Kingdom.
I'm exhausted because we went from 9am to after Wishes..
but it was absolutely amazing.
We did most of the rides, ate at CRT (yummmm, I had the grilled chicken pasta, and it was so amazing to be a guest and not have to seat!) and our picture was on the castle during the Magic, the Memories and You!

What a special day :)

Reunited

MY FAMILY IS IN TOWN!! :)

So Friday I worked 11:30-10:15. Long shift but it was a really really good one :) I then took a bus to the Pop Century resort and was reunited with my fam <3 :)

Yesterday I went to 1900 Park Fare with Alex and company for Alex's birthday :) 1900 Park Fare is a full service restaurant at the Grand Floridian and it's character dining with a bunch of British characters! It was soooo good! We had an all you can eat breakfast. Then we all went to Magic Kingdom to play for a bit.

Afterwards I went back to chill with the fam. We went to the Premium Outlets near the Commons and went shopping. Afterwards, we went to Downtown Disney and I ended up having a nice dinner with just Jake and Molly. It was nice to be able to catch up!

Today is our Magic Kingdom day! I can't wait to share my favorite place on Earth with them! :)

Sand and Safety

Hey bloggers

So Alex's parents are in town and they're staying at the Yacht and Beach Club- and so Sara and I pretended to be Alex's cousins and we went swimming at that resort :) It's pretty impossible to get in there without actually staying at the resort (or having the keys) so it was a really neat experience! The pool has an actual sand bottom which was super cool!

I had a safety class at work today. Now I know how to safely lift boxes. Helpful!
I was breaker at work after that- meaning I literally did every single position possible while breaking people. This was fun but a bit of a headache!

My family comes to Orlando tomorrow and I could not be more excited :)

Independence Day

I worked yesterday morning. It was a lot of fun, a really solid shift. I was greeter then podium. I had a few weird questions and a few angry guests but other than that it was a really smooth morning shift! Yay!

After work I got changed and went upstairs to play :) I met up with Nicki, Kim and Grace from CRT and we all visited CRT together (can't get enough of that place!) We also rode Big Thunder and the train. The exciting part was riding the new Dumbo!! Storybook Circus is AMAZING!! Instead of waiting in a regular line you wait inside an interactive play tent and they page you when you're ready to ride. Very cool.

I also only have one ride left to do before I'm done the Magic Kingdom!

We also stayed to watch the Fireworks. They were the special July 4 America fireworks even though it's July 3. Alex G came to join us :) Well a freak thunder and lightning storm delayed the fireworks considerably, we just waited in the Hub in front of the castle. The fireworks were well worth the wait! They were shot off from all areas of the park and not just from behind the castle (FanLand). Yay America!

So today is July 4. I'm spending time talking with LIDIA SIMOES the best friend in the world. Can't wait to see her and the crew soon!!! :D. I just want to be able to share the happiest place on earth with them and also just to see their faces again haha. 

I work 2:45-10:15 tonight. Should be absolutely crazy and I absolutely can't wait! :)

Edit: tonight I was podium! It wasn't too crazy surprisingly! It was just really weird cause fireworks were at 9  instead of 10, and so our fourth turn and fifth turn were both affected by fireworks. We also got some tasty July 4 food :) And I got to watch the fireworks again cause I was downstairs!

Friendship Day

I have really amazing friends! At home, and here in Florida. I just wanted to say that to all my blog followers. I miss everybody from home very much. I am having a fantastic time here in Florida but I do miss and think of everyone back home every single day.

Tonight I hung out with the CRT crew :) We went to the outlets, then to Magic Kingdom to visit people who were actually working. We also met Cinderella :) We ate at Cosmic Rays for supper.
We went to Beaches and Cream afterwards for ice cream :)

Great evening.
I love the people I met here, I love the people back home, I have a lot of great people in my life!!

Happy Canada Day!

Yesterday was THE best Canada day I've ever had and I wasn't even in Canada!

We started off the morning by meeting up in Alex's room- Alexis, Emily, Danielle, Sara and I. A few of us had some Canada paraphernalia so literally got all decked out in Canada stuff- tattoos, stickers (for those of us who don't hate stickers...), and Alex even had a Canada flag cape. I've NEVER gotten so dressed up for Canada day!

We took the C bus to Epcot. During the day we'd see a bunch of people (some we knew, some we didn't know) dressed up for Canada day and they'd be like HEYYY and we'd yell back HEYYY. That was kinda cool! The first thing we did was go to the Canadian pavilion. They had a bunch of flags up for Canada Day.

The Canadian pavilion features a 5 star restaurant called Le Cellier. Normally it's by reservation only I believe but Sara talked our way into getting in! (Alexis, Alex, Danielle, Sara and I). It was so cool! I FINALLY got to have poutine (it has been a long hiatus from poutine). At 1pm the whole cast of Le Cellier sang Oh Canada and we stood up and joined them.

Afterwards we met up with some more Canadians and watched the Oh Canada 360 degree video. That was fun, because every time we saw where we were from exactly we all clapped and cheered. After this, we were invited by some cast members to go backstage and have some free ice cream for Canada Day!! Thanks Disney! :)

After this, we pretty much attacked Epcot and did all the rides. We did Journey into Imagination, Living with the Land, the Nemo ride, Turtle Talk with Crush, then ventured into World Showcase to do the Mexico boat ride and the Norway boat ride. We were losing a lot of energy at this point but we decided to stay at Epcot to do Spaceship Earth, then Character Spot. We met so many characters today- Br'er Bear (SOOOO excited about that), Baloo, Alice in Wonderland, Duffy the Bear, and at Character Spot: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy.

The day at Epcot ended with watching IllumiNations (my first time this year!) at the Canadian pavilion!

So it's a CP Sunday night tradition to go to House of Blues at Downtown Disney. Sara and Alex convinced me to go with them so we ended up going there afterwards. It was super packed!! The music was great though and it was a really neat experience to say the least.. We were really tired so we didn't stay too long but I'm glad I went.

I have another day off today (jeez, I know! So many days off!) but I'm back at work tomorrow for the rest of the week!

Lots of love for you and for Canada!

Oh... one more thing.. you'd be surprised how many Americans do not know what Canada Day is! So many of them were like "Is this a special day in Canada or something??" We know about their July 4! Come on guys!

... and I can't believe this is my first July post. WHERE IS MY SUMMER GOING :(

al green.

Today was another day off :)
I went to Magic Kingdom with a friend of mine.. we did Haunted Mansion (they just happen to be an expert on it, so I learned a lot about it. I really appreciate the Haunted Mansion even more every time I ride it!!), Splash Mountain, Big Thunder. We also did Stitch's Great Escape (my first time!! It was really strange...) and Mickey's PhilharMagic <3.
It was an excellent morning indeed :)

This evening I went to Universal with Sara and we saw Al Green in concert! To be honest I had never heard of him before tonight but he was amazing! So full of soul!

Great day :)

ODF

I was woken up this morning at 7 am by a phone call from Deployment. They told me that instead of working at Crystal Palace I was needed at ODF (Outdoor Food). I found this really peculiar because I'm not trained on cash so I thought there would be limited roles I could do.
I spent the morning sleeping (I was sooo tired for some reason), doing odd apartment chores, and calling back deployment several times to figure out where I should clock in and what costume I should wear.
I had "Mickeyroni and Cheese" for lunch- kinda like Kraft Dinner but with Mickey shapes :) It was delicious!
I took a really early B bus to give myself lots of time to figure it out.
Costuming was a hassle! I was told several different things until finally I ended up speaking to a costuming manager who called deployment for me. They told me to get the main street ODF costume.
WELL.... You should have seen my face when they showed me what to wear......

This is me in the Cinderella break room. I went to CRT before my shift so they could all laugh at (with) me.

SO HAPPY

Anyway, my shift was really fun :) i was on two different stands on Main Street... one on the right hand side, one on the left hand side, right in front of the castle. I helped distribute the snacks and drinks people bought- scooping popcorn, using the fountain pop machine. It was fun! :) I got to watch all the castle shows (DREAM ALONG) and the parades. :)

I wouldn't want to do it everyday but it was fun being in the sun and stuff like that! Very enjoyable :) Great experience!

I'm off again tomorrow :) 

Ohana and Wonderworks

A day off :)

My day started off by catching the B bus to the Polynesian to eat at the Ohana restaurant with some of the CRT crew :). Ohana is character dining, which means we were visited by my new friends Pluto, Mickey, Lilo and Stitch. The food was excellent :) We had unlimited fruit, Mickey waffles, and eggs/potatoes/sausages/bacon/biscuits and bread, served family style at the tables. We also had this delicious fruit juice, and I had some hot chocolate. I love love love Disney food and I will miss it (among many, many things) when I leave.
The company was excellent as usual :)

Us and our boss. 

My main man. 

Lilo <3 

Pluto. 

Cutest alien ever

The whole crew- CRT + Linda's husband & friend

CRT crew

I was just a little excited. 

Afterwards, I took a bus back to Vista and met with Sara and Alex and we started the big adventure for the day. Our destination was WonderWorks.
We had to catch a public transportation bus (!!) from the outlets by The Commons and drive down I-Drive.

It's really hard to explain what WonderWorks is... it's kinda like the Discovery Centre in Halifax but weirder. Just a bunch of weird sciency explore around type exhibits. There was a hurricane wind tunnel, an earthquake simulator, a bubble room, a place where you could dance and your shadow did weird things, and other stuff like that. It was a really nifty afternoon. We also played a game of laser tag and Alex/Sara went on the ropes course high in the air. I didn't have good shoes to do it so I just took photos :) Laser tag was super fun though cause the three of us ganged up on all the kids we were playing with!!

THIS is WonderWorks... see what I mean by weird??

We had supper at a Greek restaurant. It was great- I love Greek food! The neatest part was Alex actually being from Greece and being able to explain all the food and say it in Greek and stuff :)

In the evening we just walked around the area on I-Drive. Lots of cool things to explore. We went in the Peabody hotel and went to the top floor just to see the view. We got some good deals at Bath and Body Works and went into other little shops (including an adorable art gallery).
The COOLEST part (literally) was that we ended up going into an Ice Bar. It's a bar, that's like.. in a freezer. That's right. They lend you jackets and gloves and you go in this freezer and like everything is made out of ice. The cups were ice. The seats were ice, with fur on top. It was just a really weird experience. We listened to a few songs, then got cold and left. But really really neat experience indeed.

We finally had to wait around for a Lynx bus to take us home. This ended up taking FOREVER. But I just love Alex and Sara and we were tired and hyper so we just laughed and talked forever :)

What a fantastic day off! Great food, great friends, great fun.
I'm visiting my old friend Pooh on Main Street tomorrow! Hope it goes well!

Give Kids the World

FINALLY! A day off :) and what a lovely one- as usual.

I went to Animal Kingdom with Sara and we were joined later by Alex. We watched Festival of the Lion King! It was just as exciting and amazing as I remember it from last year's Disney vacation. Sara and I met Safari Donald as well :)
We also did Dinosaur again. I love. That. Ride. Everest too :)
Sara and I walked a trail and saw some animals including the huge huge bats.
The three of us had lunch at the Yak and Yeti. I had sweet and sour chicken and chocolate mousse for dessert so I was soooo full but it was soooo good.

I then took a bus to the Commons to meet at the Disney Programming Office to go to Give Kids the World!!!

As a cast member we have the opportunity to participate in "voluntEAR" events. This is one that the CPs do a lot. The Give Kids the World Village is where a lot of the Make a Wish kids stay when they go to Disney World.
Only a van full of us were able to go, so it was just a handful. They were all really nice (didn't really expect anything else) and I was happy to meet them all :)

The village is absolutely adorable. It's just entirely kid friendly. They have ice cream shops, pools, games, boats you can steer, little trains, playgrounds, etc. The games room was beautiful. They had a big theatre too. It just looks like a child's fantasy.
According to their website:

Today the Village is a 70-acre resort complete with over 140 Villa accommodations, entertainment attractions, whimsical venues, and fun specifically designed for children with special needs.

With the help of many generous individuals, corporations and partnering wish-granting organizations, Give Kids The World has welcomed more than 115,000 families from all 50 states and over 70 countries.

The majority of our group was responsible for helping to run the night's talent show for "kids night out" (where kids hang out with the cool voluntEARS and parents get a little break). I was among five people who ended up going to the castle room to organize the arts and crafts closet. I didn't really mind this too much- it brought back memories of the rec department summers :) Even though we weren't working with kids directly we were still making a difference.

After our closet was clean and good to go (and they gave us some food!) we actually got to watch the talent show! It was adorable. The kids danced and sang and one duo had a comedy act. They even had kids be judges like American Idol style. We also got to play with them a bit in the games rooms afterwards :)

I'm really glad I got to experience this. I do wish I could do it more often but it's difficult to be off on nights when they offer the trips and spaces fill up fast. But it was certainly inspirational. Big props to the GKTW village, what a fantastic endeavor.

They have their own mascots :)

When I got home I went to Nicki's apartment and was the banker ("GT") for the big game of Disney Villain Monopoly with Kelly, and Nicki's room mate. It was fun :) I love my CRT friends.

Off again tomorrow :) Excited!! :)