Back to Work

I haven't posted in like two days... new record?
I went back to work Wednesday.  I was on set ups- which means you're pretty much backstage the entire time and you just put together trays of cutlery, plates and napkins for the setters to take out and set tables with. I thought I'd hate it- minimal guest interaction, repetitive behavior. Turns out I really enjoyed it. You work at your own pace and you're constantly doing something- instead of when you're a seater and you just stand there for awhile. It's also cool to interact with the people in the kitchen- there are some great people in there!
Wednesday was a pretty boring day though so I didn't write.

Yesterday I went to Golden Corral with Alex C, Alex G and the Dangerfield sisters. Yum yum yum. I was full all day but it was soooo worth it. They have the best breakfast buffets!

I was seater/setter yesterday at work. This officially means I have done all positions. Seater/setter means you seat tables for the first turn of dinner but after that you set tables. Again, I dreaded doing this but turns out it makes the time go by quickly and it's great exercise. Who knew I could set a table??

Curious about the positions I do?
There are several:

Podium- you stand underneath the castle (the only outdoor position, but still covered), and check people into their reservation. You answer a lot of questions-- where's the nearest bathroom? (to the left of the carousel behind Pinocchio's Village Haus) Can I come in the castle? (No) What is this? (A restaurant) Where did they move my stroller? (Behind Mickey's Philharmagic) Where are the fastpasses for Winnie the Pooh? (Beside Mickey's Philharmagic) Although it gets repetitive I love answering these questions and interacting with guests.  There are 2 podiums, so 2 podium roles.

Greeter- as soon as a party's table is ready their receipt will print out from the podium. You put it in a royal invitation and then go to the lobby and play these bells and announce, in a microphone, that the table is ready. I love being greeter- even when names are hard to read. I feel very organized and efficient. You also get to wear a radio headset!!

Greeter Assistant- LOVE this role. You stand in the lobby and talk to guests. Pretty much. You also help the greeter pass out royal invitations and you make sure nobody sneaks upstairs to the restaurant without their royal invitation (which is sometimes difficult to do)

Those were the downstairs positions. Now upstairs:

Seater 1: You take people to their seats! They hand you your royal invitation and you take them to their table. We have 45 tables- and I'm finally confident with their numbers!

Seater 2: Likewise.

Seater 3: "seater/setter"- you seat, then set tables. I did this yesterday. Very busy, surprisingly fun.

Updater: You have a radio headset on and the table assigner tells you like "table 17 has a birthday", "Table 28 needs a highchair", or  "set table 11 for three" and you have to update the tables accordingly. You also do a ton of table setting. Updater is fun- very busy.

Set Ups: you stay backstage pretty much and set up trays of cutlery, etc for the people to take out and set tables with.

There's also stocker for which I am trained but luckily haven't had to do yet- that's a whole different kettle of fish.

My favorites would have to be the ones with the most guest interaction. Although setting and updating make the time go by I'd rather still talk to guests. There are days that I'll actually tear up watching children get excited to see princesses or show me their autograph books or talk about Disney World. I love it. It's really a special experience- I am so lucky!

Next week I'm at Crystal Palace.. I hope I don't have to roll silverware all week...

A WHOLE CAN OF WHIPPED CREAM! A WHOLE CAN? A WHOLE CAN!

It was my second day off today. My friends were all headed to Blizzard Beach but I decided to stay out of the sun because my sunburn was still quite painful and I couldn't imagine having more sun/burn on top of it.
I decided to take the bus to the Florida Mall. Our buses go out to the Florida Mall only once a week so I thought while I had the chance I should go since it runs on Tuesdays the month of June.
Even though I was by myself it was still really fun. They have an m&m store like the one I went to in Times Square, New York. M&M as in the candy, not the meat shops (lolol @lidiasimoes :)) They scan you and tell you your color mood... apparently I'm sensitive. I think they're right.

They also had a really nice H&M and a Disney store... as if I need to look at more Disney merch.. the bright side is, I get a cast member discount at Disney stores :D

The Forever 21 wasn't too impressive- I didn't buy anything! 

Ahhh Disney even makes it into the mall. 

The H&M was amazing! 

I never get tired of palm trees.

So I bought some eyeshadow, some body spray at the Disney store, and two dresses from H&M. I was pretty good for having such an amazing mall to explore!! I tried on some really cute cardigans at Hollister and was really tempted and I also found a watch I LOVED at Swatch but those will have to wait after I get some money. :( slash I can't wear watches at work. I know what I'm asking for for Christmas though.. that watch was adorable!

Here's a link to the watch:

http://www.swatch.com/zz_en/watches/ss2012_newgentlacquered.product-SUOW100.html

(hint hint mum) :)

Anyway.

I had fun at the mall. My lunch from the food court was meh but I bought a cookie treat later which was good! 

I came back to Vista then a group of us (Dani, Devin, Alex, Sara) played Apples to Apples :) I love that game! 

We then met up with Shae and went to the Yacht and Beach Club to the restaurant Beaches and Cream.

While we waited for our tables Sara and I hoola hooped :) 

This restaurant is famous for a huge dessert called the KITCHEN SINK :) 

The Kitchen Sink comes in a metal "sink" and has 8 scoops of ice cream, an entire can of whipped cream and every single sundae topping you can imagine- cherries, sprinkles, brownies, bananas, everything. 

Every time a server brings one to the table, these sirens and lights go off and they announce the kitchen sink to everybody and it's really quite the show. I loved it! The theme of the restaurant was very 50's diner with juke boxes and stuff but also quite beachy. It was precious. The resort was beautiful too. 

It's AMAZING by the way. Om nom nom. The 6 of us only got 2/3 finished! It was fun though. See some pictures below.

Back to work tomorrow :) I'm happy about it! :)

Dani and I :) 

It got all soupy after awhile :( 

The crew minus Devin

WE CAN'T EAT ANYMORE

Revised Disney Bucket List

Before leaving August 6.... 

• Ride all the Rides
• Go on the hot air balloon at Downtown Disney
• Go back to Universal 
• Cirque du Soleil La Nouba 
• Busch Gardens
• See Animal Kingdom Lodge 
• Disney Quest
• Participate in Eating a Kitchen Sink
• Go to the Florida Mall
• See Brave
• 1900 Park Fare
• Watch Dream Along with Mickey
• Meet Rapunzel or Tiana or both 
• All 4 Parks in One Day
• Golden Corral Breakfast Buffet again. 
• VoluntEar
• Go to World of Disney
• Buy a Haunted Mansion shirt 

Let's go to the beach, each Let's go get away

Today I went to..... DAYTONA BEACH!!

I went with Sara, Alex and Sara's room mate! She has a car, and is very sweet, so she drove us there :) 

We stopped at the Dollar Tree before heading out to buy pool noodles :) 

It was about an hour and a half drive. I really enjoyed the drive though because I got to see a lot of Orlando and sites I haven't seen before. On the way we saw the Daytona Speedway (the picture above). It' was way bigger than I expected! It was long- it seemed like we were driving past it forever.

We had great tunes on the way there and back.. Music really makes or breaks a road trip. 

The beach was beautiful. There was a boardwalk, some carnival rides, arcades, food, everything you'd expect at a wonderful beach! The water was really warm but still not as warm as I expected. It was very similar to the beaches back home- the color of water and the wave size and stuff. Actually I think beaches back home might have bigger waves.

I expected it to be more crowded... true, as far as you could see in either direction was beach, but from pictures I've seen of Daytona it always seems packed. We had soooo much space. It was great. We decided to stay close to the lifeguard stand because of the obvious reason but also because it would help us locate our stuff when we went in the water.

The water had this sand bar like wayyyy out so if you swam far enough eventually you could stand up again. We did this and it was a lot of fun- it wasn't too bad of a swim. We followed a rule Alex said her mother always says- never be the furthest one out. Then a shark would get you first! 

We swam a LOT and laid around a LOT. The sun felt soooo nice. I think the beach is my happy place. It sucks you get sand everywhere and sunburned but it's soooo relaxing. I think God made beaches for humans to enjoy.

 I also bought a tshirt and postcards and stuff from a shop :) One tshirt, 4 postcards and a keychain for only $10! I was impressed. 

We went into a Hilton hotel.. this hotel's doors pretty much open right up onto the beach.. Must be pretty pricey to stay there! We were trying to find a bathroom because the ones in the arcade weren't what we were used to.. we helped ourselves to the Hilton orange and lemon water. There was a fancy banquet going on and we thought it would be funny to crash it. Of course we didn't actually crash it hehe. 

It was a really fun relaxing day. A perfect beach day. Perfect. 

On the way home we stopped at Steak n Shake! My first steak n shake experience! I had a chocolate covered strawberry milkshake and it was soooo good. We also moved tables to make room for a party of 11 so the milkshakes were on the house :) My meal was a southwest chicken salad and it was really good. It was also one of ~4 options I had to choose from, considering I don't eat steak or beef. I made a point to look if there were ANY vegetarian meals- nope. Unless you got a salad without chicken. Or a side. But oh well. 

So I'm pretty sunburned but also quite content :) I might hang out with some people tonight. As Alex always says, we can sleep in August. It's kinda fun to stay up late with people and just hang out and get to know people. :)

I... LOVE.. FLORIDA. So happy. 

Shine Your light and let the whole world see

Sunday. I love Sundays.
This morning I went to church with Pearl, Kenneth and Alexandra. We went to the Catholic church. It was yet again an interesting experience. Even though it's so different, it's nice to be in Jesus's house :)

I went to work- my first day back at nights. I worked 2:45-11:30. It was fun being back with my night crew. I was a seater and then PODIUM. I had so much fun on podium tonight- it's easily my favorite position. So much fun.

Tonight I went to Wendy's with some sweet Canadian girls (Emily, Amy, Alex and Erin) and hung out with them for a bit.

It was nice to interact with people again. Not many ICPs work mornings so this past week has been a Lindsay week pretty much. Today is my Friday, I HAVE THE NEXT TWO DAYS OFF :D
Although days off aren't terribly exciting- I love my job so much!

Fun Times

Today I worked. I was greeter then seater. It was a really regular shift- nothing too exciting but nothing too bad which is great. No complaints :)
After work I changed and played in Magic Kingdom myself. At first I thought it was lonely, and it was a little lonely, but it's also fun. It's good exercise too cause I speed walk everywhere. It's cool to be able to go around wherever you want and ride whatever you want. The alternative was just being home alone cause everyone works so I thought might as well go out and play! I also got to meet Merida the new character from Brave :) she's so fun!!

I saw some of my friends at work and I visited CRT multiple times :) My manager didn't recognize me in street clothes right away!
I also took the opportunity to ride rides I haven't ridden yet- see my blog post about riding all the rides from March to see what I have left! Not too many for MK!
The most exciting was Big Thunder Mountain which is open from being closed for refurbishment!

Lots of love for you all.

you can't run from trouble. ain't no place that far.

Today I worked early again. I was greeter then seater. It was stressful but ended up okay :)

Tonight I'm just relaxing. I'm soooooo tired. I want to go to bed at like nine. 

My favorite part of today is right now! I'm watching Song of the South. It's the movie that the ride Splash Mountain is based on. Splash Mountain is my favorite Disney ride- and that's not an easy decision to make!! 

The movie is super cute. I love Brer Rabbit! I've decided to stay at Magic Kingdom tomorrow after work depending on how tired I am just to play in Magic Kingdom and go on Splash Mountain!!! :)