The Most Magical Place on Earth is Here

As I write, I'm wearing my Leia buns and my R2D2 Mickey Ears (with 3D buttons). If that's not dedication, I don't know what is.

Highlights of my week include the Art of Animation Resort's Open Mouse, and more Star Wars Weekends (Star Wars Weekends, Episode 2).
On Monday, WDWs newest resort, Art of Animation, hosted an Open Mouse (like open house, get it?) for Cast Members. I went with Lesley and Lindsay, more Canadians. Art of Animation is a value resort next to Pop Century, and features family suites that'll sleep two adults and four kids. Everything freaking turns into a bed! It's magical, as per usual.

The hidden autograph in the lobby of Art of Animation.
It's John Lasseter's. 

Two of the four units were open for viewing. Finding Nemo and Cars rooms were viewable, but Little Mermaid and Lion King were still under construction. The resort is so full of magic and standard Disney detail, it was unbelievable! Lindsay, Lesley and I, being the only ones in attendance not in business attire, let everyone at the resort know how excited we were to be there by spontaneously bursting into song, testing every single bed and playing on the playgrounds (first Disney resort with playgrounds, holla).

Finding Nemo playground
I tested it. The slides are for guppies.

Lesley, Lindsay and I are car models, apparently.

On Tuesday, I met a bunch of Canadians after work at Magic Kingdom. I arrived in the middle of the Electrical Parade, which I have yet to see in its entirety, meaning I took the really long way around Cinderella Castle to meet them at Splash Mountain. Two of the group are leaving by the end of the month, as all good programs must come to an end, so it was their last viewing of Wishes, Magic Kingdom's fireworks. We took the ferry (my first time!) back to the Ticket and Transportation Center to top off the night.  Thursday I brought my former trainer, Katie, to the wonderful world of Property Control for her first and last time. She's also leaving at the end of the month. Sad face :(

Tonight I fought mad traffic on the bus to meet up with yet a different set of Canadians (Megan, Arin, Maggie and Chelsea) for more fun at the second weekend of Star Wars Weekends. I arrived on time to stake out a viewing area for the Hyperspace Hoopla, a massive epic dance-off between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys of the Star Wars universe. It was without a doubt the best thing I've seen since I've been here. It might be the best thing I've seen ever.

All the words you'd never thought you'd see together. 

Go Good Guys!
Get over Amidala and Leia being the same age. I did. 

You haven't lived until you've seen Boba Fett show you his moves like Jagger. Mostly everyone took off after that, but Chelsea stuck around for a spirited wander through Darth's Maul (a merch tent for SWW) and my first time of Fantasmic, the epic water/lights/fireworks/character show that caps off every night of Hollywood Studios.
I am off for more SWW tomorrow morning before work. A friend of mine, not Han Solo, is going to be frozen in Carbonite. Don't panic.

TTFN & May the Force be with you,


Note: How much fun are culottes in 35 degree heat? Stay tuned.

Thanks to: Chelsea for not judging my behaviour in Darth's Maul.

Look at This Trove, Treasures Untold

Update: I may have mentioned very briefly that I won an award at work not too long ago. May I present proof:

Heck yes, Merchandise Canada.

I've had a very successful weekend by my magical standards.

Thursday I woke up early (...okay it was 0900) to go to the Florida DMV somewhat nearby to finally get my Florida driver's license. As per expectations, the line was enormous, even with an appointment, but the bottom line is I'm now a licensed Florida driver and I can legally park at my house now (I have a parking decal that says 'The Commons' and everything).
That being done, I picked up Jen and we headed to Property Control and Cast Connection, as I hadn't been in awhile and might be assembling magical care packages to send to Canada...and I like to shop. Whatever. We got hungry after all that saving and went to Magic Kingdom for lunch (how decadent), as well as random wanderings and a few attractions, as well as purchasing things to contribute to said care packages.
Ooh, but while we were in Frontierland (home of Country Bear Jamboree and Splash Mountain...aka Canada..seriously, they sell the same merchandise as us), all of a sudden loud music started to play and random cast members appearing from nowhere started a random Frontierland flashmob! To make matters worse (or better), there was a seriously attractive cowboy selling hats near us when this whole thing started, so I turned and asked if he was expected to join in. He looked at me like I was crazy and said no. Five minutes later, oh yeah, he's dancing too. Lying cowboy Cast Member!

Frontierland Flashmob
The lying cowboy is to the left of the bear. 

I woke up really early again today to attend the first day of Star Wars Weekends (every Friday, Saturday and Sunday now through June 10) with fellow lumberjack Bailey. It was packed, as it should be. So many Star Wars t-shirts, and soooo many Leia bun hairdos (mine included). We got Fast Passes to Toy Story Mania, as per usual, then rode Star Tours twice (yeah, I was the rebel spy), then got our picture taken with Minnie Leia. We watched the Star Wars Celebrity Motorcade and rode Toy Story Mania, then got out of there to go to Walmart. I'll likely be there at least every Friday from now until the 10th to get more nerdy things accomplished (picture with Chewbacca, anyone?).

Minnie and I matched. Obviously. 

Storm Troopers were on guard to weed
out the Jedi trying to enter the park. 

I shall return for you shortly, Star Wars Weekends. I will shop at Darth's Mall.

TTFN,


Note: My roommate was here and I missed her again! She left a note saying "Thanks for taking in my mail, have a nice summer"...

Thanks to: Jen for the authentic Nanaimo bars, Mary for the proof that there are real totem poles in Canada.

A New Fantastic Point of View

No more slacking, few blog followers, I swear!

Since Monday, I have proved my reign as Taboo champion at games, gotten soaked and cursed the location of my rain gear at work, welcomed a new lumberjack and managed to destroy another guest/friend via park visiting.

Thursday my friend Cindy was here on a mission to experience Epcot with a professional (that would be me). Little did she know I really only know my way around Canada, and even then, only in theory (yes, I can explain how to get to Kidcot. I've been there once). We were able to do a lot of the Future World attractions I hadn't gotten a chance to do yet, like Living with the Land (a boat tour), Captain Eo (Michael Jackson circa 1986), Journey Into Imagination (featuring Eric Idle and Figment) as well as the Gran Fiesta Boat Tour in Mexico.

We also found Nemo in the Seas.
Those seagulls do the hilarious Mine Mine Mine thing periodically.

I also finally got on Soarin', which is probably Epcot's biggest attraction now that Test Track is down. It's amazing. Get a Fast Pass. On our way to the ferry to Hollywood Studios (Cindy wanted to do Star Tours, who can blame her?), our timing perfectly coincided with a Twinings Tea Tour, lead by Sarah of the UK pavilion through the tea garden, in which cup-shaped flower pots are labelled with tea bags and are growing the plants corresponding to the teas. Here until the end of Flower & Garden.

I'm ridiculously excited for the Tea Tour.
Sarah not so much.

I'm really into building my own droids.
This was not here the last 32 times I was on Star Tours.

With the constantly incoming lumberjack population, my shifts are changing from being dead last to leave to second to last to leave. Eventually I'll get to leave dring Illuminations, which means an easy walk out of the park for me. It's easy to dodge people when they're standing still to watch fireworks. I even worked an afternoon shift this week. I want to say it was a good thing, starting at noon, but I got completely soaked by spontaneous rain at one in the afternoon, to the extent that I had to return to Costuming for a change of clothes (which looked exactly like the last set...).

TTFN,

Note: Incoming lumberjacks mean outgoing lumberjacks. I think four will be leaving June 1st (sad face).

Thanks to: Angela for the extremely appropriate and unexpected May the 4th gift and Cindy for her awesome care package!

Now's When My Life Begins

I was gently reminded yesterday that I haven't posted in over a week. I'm a horrible blogger. And a busy lumberjack.
Here's how my week plus went down:
Saturday (28th) - Magic Kingdom with Jen for park open for further birthday celebrations. I experienced Jungle Cruise for the first time, I met Mary Poppins and three of the Storybook princesses (Cinderella, Aurora and Belle) and had lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant, which is Lady and the Tramp-themed. Oh yeah, then I went to work for Extra Magic Hours until midnight.

Prince Eric and Ariel in the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade.
They were totally talking about my Mickey ears. 

Walking through Cinderella Castle, aka my future home. 

Sunday (29th) - Hollywood Studios for park open with Jen, Amanda and Briana. Tip: Always sprint to Toy Story Mania for Fast Passes as soon as you get there. Best ride ever! We did Star Tours again (of course), as well as Rock'n Roller Coaster and The Great Movie Ride (first time since 2006). I had to leave at noon to work in the afternoon, but met the remaining party-goers at Jellyroll's, a dueling piano bar on the BoardWalk, afterwards.

The birthday girl and I queuing for Toy Story Mania.

Monday (30th) - Downtime. Slept, worked, made magic, the usual.
Tuesday (1st) - Mackenzie arrived from big Canada for a visit! I met her at our resort, All-Star Music, with balloons and other swag the check-in Cast Member gave me. We had time to have lunch at the resort before I had to make magic in Canada for the afternoon.
Wednesday (2nd) - Magic Kingdom Mania with Mackenzie! She hadn't been for a very very long time, so we hit up all the classics like Pirates of the Caribbean, it's a small world, Peter Pan's Flight, Dumbo and the Carrousel. We had lunch at Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger and met Peter Pan. WE then passed out by the piano-shaped pool at our resort.

Thanks for having us for lunch, Pooh!

Thursday (3rd) - Typhoon Lagoon water park in the morning for fun times on the Crush'n Gusher (all three slides, heck yes) and salt-water snorkelling with sharks and tropical fish. Then off to Epcot, specifically Norway, for lunch with the princesses - Belle, Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White. Afterwards, we made our way through World Showcase en route to the Seas, where we got a backstage tour of the Seas and the 300-foot tank the various animals of the Seas call home. Then...wait for it...Mackenzie went scuba-diving in the tank with another guest, a dive leader and a videographer. It's called Epcot Dive Quest and is only for licensed divers (not me). I did get to watch, take a lot of pictures, and field questions as to why exactly there were divers in the tank with the sharks.

Mackenzie, Disney Diver, on the left. 

Friday (May the 4th be with you) - Hollywood Studios for park open (for Toy Story Mania, of course). More Star Tours, as well as Voyage of the Little Mermaid and dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe, which is themed to look like your mom's kitchen in the 50s. Then more piano-shaped pool time.
Saturday (Revenge of the 5th) - Mackenzie had to go back to Canada to start her third semester of med lab school, and I had to go back to work. But first, I met my friend Zo (from MUMC) and her family for lunch. Oh, and I won an award at work (the Top Dog Award) for my abundance of pin-trading. Sweet!
Sunday (6th) - Magic Kingdom (I live at Magic Kingdom now) with Zo and her family first thing in the morning. We did lots of Tomorrowland attractions before I had to go for groceries and work. More magic-making, of course.

I met Buzz Lightyear! YAY!

Monday (7th) - Making magic. I pretended to be a leader at one point (Chase, one of my managers, taught me to use the radios for no real reason) and learned this: If every single jet in the Fountain of Nations were to go off simultaneously, it would consume two hundred gallons of water. YEAH.

I hope you enjoyed my novel.

TTFN,

Note: You could put Spaceship Earth (165 cubic feet) in the Seas tank (300 cubic feet) and have plenty of room to spare.

Thanks to: Every Cast Member who made magic during my stay as a guest, especially Will for letting me backstage at the Seas.

Down Here All the Fish is Happy, as Off Through the Waves They Roll

Updates: Remember that magical moment I mentioned a few posts back about the girl named Princess and the birthday mustaches? Good news everyone! I acquired a picture.

Princess is the far left guest, and I am obviously the lumberjack.
We are twirling our mustaches. 

Yesterday, what I thought was going to be a day of laundry and cleaning turned into a day of the Board Walk and resorts. Amanda, Megan and I bused it to Epcot, where we zoomed through Future World and Canada, got stuck in the UK for a few minutes (I'd never seen it as a guest), and left the park via International Gateway, the second entrance to Epcot (today's trivia is that Epcot is the only park with two entrances). International Gateway leads to Disney's BoardWalk, the most adorable strip of shops and restaurants and an arcade and dance hall that you'll ever see. Anyone know of Cat Cora from Iron Chef America? That's where her restaurant is located.

Yay for BoardWalk! So much pretty!

The BoardWalk leads to surprise! the BoardWalk Inn. We were able to wander straight in and tour the lobby, hallways, porches and pool area. I'm pretty much in love.

A way better version of those doors in Labyrinth. You know the ones. 

Further along the BoardWalk, there's a fork with the Swan and Dolphin resorts to one side, and the Yacht and Beach Club to the other. We wandered to the right, the Yacht and Beach Club. It's gorgeous. Again, we were able to wander about the lobby and grounds. There's a restaurant there called Beaches & Cream which serves an ice cream monstrosity called the Kitchen Sink. I plan to conquer that at some point over the next ten months.

We met up with another Canadian, Jason, and decided to move along with our resort visits by booting back through Epcot and onto the monorail to the Polynesian, one of the original Walt Disney World Resort hotels. It's obviously Hawaiian themed.

The Polynseian's beach. And hammocks.
That I fell out of. It's fine. 

OH! Since an underlying theme here is my weakness for dairy, I should mention that the Polynesian has self-serve Dole Whip, which is pineapple and/or vanilla soft-serve deliciousness. From the Polynesian back to monorail into the Grand Floridian aka the Grand Daddy of pimped-out Disney resorts (I think they phrase it that way in the guidebooks). I want to live here. It's the most giant, decadent, detailed piece of architectural gorgeousness one would ever hope to witness. Fact: When we walked in, I got goosebumps, and not due to air-conditioning. Fact 2.0: An orchestra was playing Part of Your World in the lobby when we arrived. I must live there.

Why they call it the "Grand" Floridian.

Donald Duck detail in the main entrance way. 

Today I hit up Blizzard Beach for the second time in two months. It gets blocked out in the middle of June (cast can't go for free), so I'll have to get there at least once more in the near future. It was the first of many days of Jen's birthday celebration (tomorrow, Magic Kingdom). We went for park open and stayed til park close -  that's seven whole hours of (free) Blizzard Beachiness, people. Seven glorious hours of no sunburns and frequent rehydration, not to mention a few slides I hadn't done before, like the Downhill Double Dipper, a set of racing slides featuring a pretty solid drop, and Snow Stormers, another set of racing slides that are set up like slaloms and you take them on foam toboggans. Most importantly, multiple visits to Cast-Away Creek (the lazy river, ringing some bells). Oh but MOST importantly was this, the Sand Pail. It's a literal plastic sand pail filled with ice cream, fudge, caramel, whipped cream and sprinkles shaped like Mickey. It was amazing.

AMAZING. Not to be consumed solo.

TTFN,

Note: Water parks do have characters, but they don't behave like they do in parks. For examples, we saw Goofy twice today at Blizzard Beach. The second time, he was standing on a bridge over Cross-Country Creek and dumping buckets of water on riders. 

Thanks to: Angela, for her mail, and Mackenzie, who's coming to visit soon!

What I Love Most About Rivers is, You Can't Step in the Same River Twice

No new pictures since I helped save the world the other day! I'll work on it!

Look at that sky. Of course it rained for three days. 

So it's rained for the last few days here. I was down at the cart yesterday, and my rain gear was at the store (good place for it). Of course, it started to rain. Of course, it poured buckets. Of course, I could not close the cart fast enough. Of course, me and two other Canadians, not to mention two of our coordinators and one manager (also Canadian!), got absolutely positively soaked.

It's times like that when I remember this happened.
OMG What does Duffy do when it rains?

The three lumberjacks (me included) pretty much stood in the backroom of the store for the next ten minutes being sad, cold and wet (and eating chocolate brought in by a mystery donor), until our Canadian manager, Jamie, gave us a pep talk about working the Jungle Cruise at Animal Kingdom in the rain, then told us to put our best smiles on and go open the cart again. It had stopped raining in the ten minutes we had committed to being sad. I actually had to wear my lumberjack winter gear (it's a red plaid, polar fleece, double-breasted coat) to survive the evening on cart. That was also the evening of apparently most of Florida being very inappropriately intoxicated at Epcot. Really? You gotta drink at Epcot? (Interesting fact though, Magic Kingdom is a completely dry park). It's not even the International Food and Wine Festival yet. Who wants to teach me bouncing skills?

Random photo time: Lotso topiary actually smells like strawberries!

Also new this week: We got a new lumberjack! Another Lindsay! There's always another one. Also good news: I'm only third lowest in seniority now! Yay! Sadly I still can't have every Star Wars weekend off, but I don't think anyone actually does.

Sorry for the random post. It can't be breath-taking adventures in Canada everyday!

TTFN


Note: Off Kilter, our band in Canada, will celebrate their fifteen-year anniversary at Epcot this July 1st. Huzzah!

Thanks to: Jamie for his rendition of Tangled's When Will My Life Begin. It'll never be the same again!

I'm Your Basic Average Girl, and I'm Here to Save the World

Being a lumberjack is apparently engrossing work. There's no other reason for me to have not written anything lately.

Canada Magical Moment of the week: It was a girl's birthday. Her name was actually Princess (I checked her ID). Princess and her friends were going around the world and getting photos with Cast Members to celebrate. Oh, did I mention they were sporting matching fun-fur mustaches? In at least both the UK and Canada, they picked Cast Members to pose with them for photos and gave them mustaches at the end. I was that Cast Member in Canada, and my friend Linzi from Scotland was that friend in the UK. Our manager took our photo with our matching mustaches. It was magical.

I switched my days off for another lumberjack who wanted multiple days off in a row, so this week my weekend was Wednesday and Thursday, so this is in fact my Sunday night. Wednesday I woke up earlier than usual (uuuuhh 9 am) to get to Hollywood Studios to ride Star Tours all day with my friend Jen, who I mentioned last time was celebrating her 50th ride this week. Jen, Lesley and I rode Start Tours all freaking day! That's 29 times in a day for me, 33 times for Lesley and 35 times for Jen (correct me if I'm wrong).

What Star Tours looks like during an ice cream break.
What Star Tours Cast Members look like when you ride the attraction all day. 

The only noticeable side effects from the same ride all day were real or imagined swaying upon sitting, and withdrawal from Star Tours Cast Members. I also walked by Jedi Training Academy that many times, and you all should already know how I feel about Jedi Training Academy...

Jen, Lesley, our new friend Jon, and I.
One of Jon's flights was brought to us by Wookie Cookies. 

Today I woke up early again (9) to go for breakfast with my friends Anastasia and Arden (I have an American friend now, Americans are cool). We went to Cracker Barrel (YEAH, not Steak 'n Shake) then to Epcot to complete Kim Possible's World Showcase Adventure before it's re-imagined as Agent P's World Showcase Adventure (KP was cancelled...).

Arden and I beginning our mission in Italy.
The World Showcase Adventure makes you walk a lot.

We managed to save Japan, Norway and Germany today (You're welcome!) and stayed undercover to boot. It made me realize how lame the Canadian Pavilion is compared to all the others. We may have delayed the mission slightly to meet a very special World Showcase friend...

Arden, Anastasia, Duffy the Disney Bear and I.
This time I got the "I Hugged Duffy the Disney Bear!" sticker I was owed from last time.

I should really expand on the characters I queue to meet...but look how cute Duffy is! Did you notice his face is shaped like Mickey's head?

Note: A family from Perth came by last week! Their kids were too young to have ever overlapped with my years at Stewart or PDCI, but still!

Thanks to: My friend Samantha for sending love in the mail, and Kim for feeding the addiction I'm trying to kick.