Wishes!

Today after work, my roommates, our friend Brian and me all went to to Magic Kingdom so we could see wishes! it was awesome!! It was my first time seeing them or if I saw them when I was younger I don't remember.  I even shed a tear or two :) Before the fireworks they have tons of different pictures of everyone who visited the park that day.  Super cool.  After that we had an hour before the park closed so we rode buzz light-year, space mountain (twice!!) and of course the tea cups :)  This is really the best time to be in orlando.  There are really no lines.  If there are lines its like a 10-15 min wait which is nothing compared to 2 hours it takes to usually get on a ride.


Alrighty..Better get off and go to bed now though..I have to be up at 4:50am :( super early..Good night y'all! :D

Finally a Cast Member!

It's been a few days since I updated.  Tuesday I went to my Traditions class and I have been working 8.5 hours everyday since.
Wednesday I had a food and beverage class which was mostly just safety in the kitchen.
Thursday I had my welcome day at The Grand Floridan (the resort I am in).
Friday was my first Official on the job training.  It was definitely a very long day.  My costume is very uncomfortable and my shoes I have to wear hurt my feet a wholleeee lot! I was working in the window area where I handed the food out after the cooks made it and people are very impatient and I was the face they would yell at so I was worn out when I got back.
Saturday I learned how to use the cashier and it was much less stressful than Friday, but very long day.  We get one hour break during our 8.5 hours of being there so its much different than target when I would get a 15 every 2 hours or 30 every 5 hours.  But I am sure I will get used to it.
Today I work as a pm stocker.  I don't start until 4 and I will get off at 1230am.

Here are a few pictures of things I have received in the last few days...and the dreaded costume pic I will post :)

The card with my picture is my I.D to get into my apartment complex.  Then the blue I.D is my work id and also what I will use to get into the parks for free as well as show it to get my discounts at various disney owned stores and restaurants as well as other places.  That is my name tag, and the red strip says I am "earning my ears"  (aka I am being trained)  Then the key is a key to one of the Grand Floridan rooms before they switched to cardstock keys so that is super cool.  Then I also got a little mickey statue that says "It all started with a mouse".

Here is my little certificate that says I completed my welcome day at the resort :)

dun dun dunnn...my costume.  haha I look ridiculous here but even worse in person :)  And like I said before it isn't comfy at all...but I hope I get used to it.

Universal Studios :)

Since today was Monday, I was able to contact the college rep office and find out more info about my situation regarding when to attend traditions.  I'm now scheduled for tomorrow and have to be at the bus stop at 6:45am woo that's early!! But after that I can go to any of the Disney parks at my leisure.

But today my 2 suitemates and I bought annual passes to Universal Studios and spent the day there.  We had so much fun and it was so beautiful.  About 80 degrees :D

On the ramp getting on the high way..I'm still not used to seeing palm trees everywhere! I love them though :)

Here we are at one of the entrances to get in the park! 

AH the Cat in the Hat! loving it! 

AND THEN...HOGWARTS!! gosh I was super excited to get into the wizarding world of harry potter :)

This is the Weasleys flying car. How awesome.

Here is Zonko's its a joke shop in the book.

And on the ceiling they had extendable ears! And I was told they actually work for listening in on other's conversations :)

See I am suffering just like you guys with snow! ;)

Here is the Three Broomsticks.  A restaurant they ate at in Harry Potter

Butterbeer!

Drinking our butterbeer! It didn't have alcohol in it and kinda tasted like cream soda!

Dora!! I had to take a picture because I know Elena likes her :)

Another entrance

More beautiful palm trees as we were leaving. Seriously loving these :)

The adventure begins..

Well I still haven't started working.  There has been a delay in everything for me here.  Originally my background check hadn't cleared in time for me to go to my scheduled traditions class (this is just a class talking about the background of disney and the parks and we get to go under the parks to see how things work) so I just had to wait one day longer.  That wasn't too bad.  Then today I was told to follow my same directions on the sheet they gave me at check in and be at the bus stop at 6:45 where I would get a bus to take me where I needed to go.  The bus never showed up.  We called and they said that they didn't scheldule a bus for us so we needed to hop on the A bus to get us there.  We did that and ended up 30 minutes late and they wouldn't accept us in the class.  So since we (the 3 other people that were having the same issue as me) hadn't been in traditions we couldn't get our cast member ID's which allow us into any of the parks for free and we can't start working until we take that class.  So we called EVERYWHERE so we could see if we could at least get park hoppers since this miscommunication was not our fault.  But today was Saturday and every office is closed until Monday.  So we left messages and everything.  So I have no idea when I will start working now :(
But we did have some luck.  A girl had 3 extra passes she wasn't going to use to get into the parks so she let us in and the other girl with us had a florida pass so she also could get in.  So today wasn't a complete waste of time.  We went to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.  I got sick so I had to go back home but then a couple hours later I felt better and they were back at Magic Kingdom so I met up with them.  I'm glad we got to at least see the parks, it just stinks that we could only go today because her pass was only good for one day.

Front gates to Magic Kingdom :D

And here is the beautiful Cinderella Castle!!

Learning how to get around

Today we had a day off and we decided to find out how to get to our jobs.  We rode the bus and took the tram here are a couple of photos.

Two of my roomies and me on the bus.  The girl who shares a room with me had to go and figure out her work schedule. 

Us again in some cute disney hats.  

The view of the resort I will be working at from the tram.  Its called The Grand Floridian.  I will be working in a little grill and arcade

It is super pretty I am really excited to work here even though its not one of the parks.

I was in awe when I walked in.  This is a huge 3 level chandler 

And here is the ceiling!

I didn't actually take any pictures of the actual grill I will be working in but its on this property :D

My apartment

This is our apartment building.  Our apartment is on the third floor and on the right side.

This is the view from my bedroom door of mine and my roomies room.  That is my bed and cork board.  I didn't bring pictures however so nothing on it yet.  But we have already been taken a ton of pics so I am sure it will fill up fast.

Our beds. 

This is our shared dresser and the door to go into our bathroom.

Our very huge bathroom!

Her side of our extra large closet.  We can honestly say we don't have enough clothes to fill it.  But then again you can only pack so much when flying.

This is my side of the closet.

Our cute little kitchen table and our community cork board we will put our schedules and notes on.

this is our family room.  

our kitchen and pantry and 2 of my roomies.

the front door and little computer area.

And here is the second room.


I share an apartment with 3 other girls.  It is two bedroom with 2 girls in each bedroom and each bedroom has a shared closet and bathroom.  I don't have any views out of our windows but its mostly just parking lots.

First Day in Orlando

Leaving the Windy City and I accidently sat on a wing seat :( but it was too cloudy to see anything until we got to Florida.  Actually we weren't allowed to take off our seat belts the whole ride.  We were even flying over a state (I forgot which) when the pilot said they recently had tornados! Kind of scary.

Where the clouds finally started breaking through so I could see the ground

First glimpse of Florida!!  Overall the flight was okay.  Kinda bumpy and we couldn't take our belts off but thats okay it was only about a 2 hour and 15 min flight.

This is my hotel room!! I got 2 queen beds all by myself haha

140lbs of luggage!!

A group of us went to downtown disney tonight and I saw this.  Its a dragon in the water made out of legos and I thought of Cyrus :)

Here is the Orlando Harley Davidson!! This also was in downtown disney-for my dad!

Well I have a long day tomorrow.  I have to be up and out of my hotel by 5:40am which is 4:40 at home :O  I guess check in is extreme and you want to be in the front of the line to get a good apartment.  I wish I found a roommate.  I guess I could of found people via facebook like all the people I met today but I didn't even think about going on facebook to meet people.  I guess lesson learned! More pictures to come as I go out and about :)