All of the Things...

Oh hey blog. 

Long time no see!

I've thought of you often over the last month or so since I last posted, but its been a struggle putting in the effort to actually post something.

Now that I'm back momentarily, I have no idea how to describe where my life is at on my Disney journey, or how to put into words the amount of fun I'm having. All I can say is that life is ridiculously good right now, I'm still having the time of my life and I can't believe I've been here around three months! It feels like a lifetime ago that I was checking in on my first day, but at the same time it feels like yesterday. The people I've met here are my Disney family and I can't imagine what my life would look like if I hadn't started this adventure!

So with the mushy stuff out of the way, here is my life update in photos...

 We're smack bang in the middle of Holiday season here at Disney, first up was Halloween. Richmond, Struan, Claire and I attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party and got into the spirit by dressing up as Pikachu, Wendy, Clark Kent, and Little Red Riding Hood. There we are hanging out at Struan's home, The Haunted Mansion.

I went to my first American Halloween party, again dressed as Wendy, with a bunch of my fellow Vacation Planners and Claire. They really are the best part of work, so much fun!

Disney pointing up at our boss, Cinderella's castle in the background. This is our life now!

Vacation Planners meeting the boss!

Taking advantage of Fall/Autumn decorations before we move onto Christmas.

Spent yet another day at Universal Studios with Struan. We also conquered Halloween Horror nights, zombies and all! I swear I only screamed a little...

We've made the most of Epcot's Food and Wine festival, drinking and eating around the world!

Nights out with the girls, all the food and drink we can handle!

Still not sick of the parks! The rides will always be awesome! But we obviously needed a nap...

Still in awe over how gorgeous the parks are. Magic Kingdom has my heart!

Last week Disney transitioned into the Holiday season, its officially Christmas here!

So there you have it, a small glimpse into my crazy Disney life. I promise I'll try and update more often, although now that the Holidays are hitting us, things are going to get even busier! I have a lot coming up, including Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, my first ever Thanksgiving, more trips to Universal and the Disney Parks, and anything else I can experience while I'm here!

U.N.I.V.E.R.S.A.L

We finally made it out of the Disney bubble.

Admittedly we did just visit another theme park... but baby steps friends.

Thursday was Struan's birthday and to celebrate Claire, Struan and myself went a visited Universal Studios, where we had one of the best days of my life!

The very first thing we did? The Wizarding World of Harry Potter of course!! Where else?

Childhood dream come true. Right here. I may or may not have cried like a baby as soon as I got inside the castle. And then proceeded to go on the ride three times. It was the best thing EVER!

My lovely friends decided to document my minor geek out... Pure happiness...

I loved Universal, the rides are amazing and so much fun, a lot more intense than the ones we have here at Disney. But apart from Harry Potter, where I'm pretty sure I left a piece of my soul, Disney has my heart! We pull off atmosphere and experience a lot better than Universal does. We just need some bigger rides to even that playing field!

I purchased my Annual Pass, so I can visit Harry Potter and geek out whenever my heart desires!

Now for photos... All of the photos!

Welcome to Islands of Adventure!

Be still my heart!

The wise old sorting hat. It talks to you as you pass

The Triwizard Cup!

Secret staircase to Dumbledore's office!

Hogwarts here we come!!

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks. And my first ever Butterbeer!!

For me this took up my mind for most of the day. I enjoyed the other rides, especially The Hulk, The Mummy, the Spiderman ride, and the Transformers one. But my one true love was the Wizarding World.
I did moentarily geek out over the car from The Walking Dead however! There is a lot more exploring to do at Universal, and I have a whole year to do it! Bring it on!

Eight Days a Week...

Work.

I said I would come back to the topic of work in my last post, and it has taken me a while to get around to it.

My main excuse?

Exhaustion.

There is so much to do and see here, and I am working all the time, so it barely leaves me any time for sleeping. Somehow I have been surviving off 4 or 5 hours sleep a night, with the occasional 6 hour sleep thrown in there. It hasn't been great sleeping that little, but I know that I would rather be out there having fun, and feeling tired, than not experiencing everything this program has to offer me.

Now work itself has been...interesting. 

I'm going to be honest and say I hated it at first. I'm whats known at Disney as a Vacation Planner, essentially we sell the tickets to the parks, and do about 500 other things along the same lines. It is stressful!! There is so much to remember, and guests are constantly coming up with different requests, or weird circumstances, and most of the time I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

But it has got better. Somewhat.

The main thing that is frustrating me, is I am only getting one day off a week. I am working 6 days every week, while my friends and roommates are getting 2 or sometimes even 3 days off. We are meant to be guaranteed at least 2 days off on our program, but apparently Vacation Planners do things differently. It is exhausting! I have been having these awesome days off, doing super fun things, and spending the entire day out adventuring, but obviously not catching up on sleep for the rest of the week. Its a vicious cycle my friends.  

This week it has taken its toll, and I am sick. Full blown coughing fit sick. But I'm still going to work. Its not fun.

But rant over. Work is work and it's going ok now. I'm still hoping for those illusive second days off, but I may just have to give away some shifts every now and again. Take a health day haha. 

More life posts to come... And trust me, a lot is happening, tiredness aside...

I Don't Care

I LOVE IT!

Struan's birthday drinks at our favourite Irish pub!

Finally met my boss! It all started with a mouse...

Um... Wow.

So I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those Disney bloggers who finally gets to Florida and stops posting...

Totally working out well...

I have been so much busier than I anticipated I would be. Whether it be with training for work, or playing in the parks, I have had no time or energy to sit down and write anything. Until right now.

So catch up, where to begin? I left of after our housing meetings, and our trips to Walmart. I'm far too behind to write everything down in order. So I think I will write a few posts themed around certain aspects of my time here.

First up we have fun... Because that's what it's all about...

My lovely flatmates getting our Princess on.

I hung out with my flatmates at Downtown Disney, Disney's free boardwalk type area. We browsed the stores, looked around in awe, and ate dinner at Raglan Road, a great Irish restaurant where a fantastic Irish band was playing. It was a fabulous bonding evening.

I have played in the parks. Oh how I've played!!

I had my first Magic Kingdom experience during Traditions (which I will talk about later) and it was magical. Such a strange feeling to be walking around in front on Cinderella's castle knowing I will be able to pop in whenever I want for a whole year! I've been back many times since!

We hung out with Pooh and Tigger at Animal Kingdom. They are too adorable! But its strange knowing you may know the person who is "friends" with them that day.

We partied at Hollywood Studios, which is now my favourite park!! The film buff in me gets excited around every corner! Plus the rides here are awesome! Rock 'n' Roller Coaster being my favourite so far!

I did also make it to Epcot, Disney World's fourth park, but was only there for dinner and the fireworks, so have no photos. I have plans to explore there next!

All in all I have having a fabulous time. I'm making great friends...

And I'm attempting to see and do as much as I possibly can!! 

It's so hard to put everything I have been up to down in words, but I am loving life.

Work on the other hand... Thats a story for another time.

Disney Check-In...

Monday morning brought our first actual encounter with the Disney program. We met at one of the complexes called The Commons, we went in, handed some of our forms and our passports over, and received our welcome packets which let us know where we would be living for the next year!

I found out I would be living in Vista Way, the oldest complex and the one with the party reputation, and that Rachel would be living in Chatham Square. So all of a sudden we were swept off to different areas, and that was that. We were alone to discover our new homes.

Lucky for me I found one of my roommates as I was exiting the first meeting and it was one of the girls I had met on the flight over from Auckland. Without really discussing it we decided to share a room, and we aimed to get there quickly and claim the one with the en suite. We are in a 3 bedroom, so there are 6 of us. And so far we all get along so that's a bonus!

After arriving at our apartments we were free to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day, so we made a trip down the road to Applebee's for lunch where I got something called "Potato Twisters" thinking it would be like curly fries. It wasn't. It was potato crisps twisted up. The sauce was good though. We then continued on to Dollar Tree which may quickly become my new favourite place. Unlike in NZ dollar stores, everything there is actually $1. Winning!

After this we hopped on a bus to every new Disney Programmers must-do. Walmart. It was MASSIVE! Think two Warehouses and a supermarket shoved together. We had no idea what was going on, but managed to pick up some bedding and a few necessities. 

As we were leaving Walmart we heard the tell-tale thunder that meant a Florida rainstorm was on its way, we hopped on the bus and managed to get our stuff upstairs into our apartment before it started pouring down, ruining our plans to go out for dinner. But we were all pretty tired so we accepted it and just hung out instead. At about 11:30pm we had a knock on the door, and a somewhat tipsy american guy came in to introduce himself, he ended up staying for a couple of hours. He knew nothing about New Zealand and was then bombarded with facts and questions about America. Poor guy.

Tuesday we had an afternoon welcome meeting so we took it easy in the morning, going out a couple of times to buy a few more things. I can't quite get over the heat here. Every time you go outside its like walking into a wall of thick hot air. It's insane. 

We ended up having an early night as we were all exhausted. Only Claire and I were woken at what seemed like 4am by some loud drunken people next door. We were all ready to be pissed off and report them... until I looked at my phone and it was only midnight. Oops.