Feeling Better!

Hello! I'm feeling much better now! I even finally got my voice back. My voice was gone for like a week and a half. Its funny because a lot of my co-workers were making fun of me and mocking my voice, but now many of them lost their voices after I got mine back so now the tables have turned haha! But...their voices were only gone for like 2 days as opposed to my 10. Not fair. Anyway, all is well again. Things have gotten so SO much more wonderful here in Orlando for one very exciting reason: I GOT A CAR! Well, van lol. But hey, NO MORE BUS! YAAAAAAYYY!!! I'm so excited to be able to drive again! You have no idea how amazingly wonderful it feels to be able to drive myself places. Its like I'm truly alive now lol like I've woken up from a deep slumber. Its just a great feeling. I flew up to Atlanta last Friday to pick up the van and drove it back the same day. When I got to Atlanta, I got to see my family again which is always wonderful. I missed them so much and it was so great to see them. Also, why is it that every time I go home they have a new pet? Last time when I came home for my dad's Ordination, they had a new kitten Tiki. This time, they had not one, but TWO new puppies! I ws like, O-M-G! lol. They are SooooOOOO CUTE! Oh yeah, and I got to see FERGIE!!! AwWwWwW!! Fergie! She is my heart. I miss her so much! So yeah, after I visited with my family, I drove back down to Orlando. The drive went so smooth. It was amazing. I didn't get tired at all for the whole drive. It was really exhilirating because it was my first time driving long distance by myself. I was so proud of myself for making the drive all the way without stopping except once for food and once for gas. It was so much fun! Driving to work is so great. I no longer have to leave 2 hours in advance to get to work on time! I can now go to the store and get as much as I need in one trip! Not I can eat fast food! lol. Having a car is amazing.

I just finished a long week of work and today I finally got to go somewhere that I've been wanting to go for a very long time: Universal Studios!!! WOOT! I finally got my annual pass so now I can go whenever I want! SO AMAZING! Ok, I'd just like to pause my story and say that first of all, I'm a theme park junkie. I obsess over theme parks and thrill rides. Going to theme parks is one of my favorite things to do. Every time I had the option of going on vacation, my first choice is always anywhere there's a theme park lol. Every time. My favorite of these has always been Disney World and Universal Studios. So with all that said, do you know how incredibly unreal and wonderful it is to know that I can now go to all four Disney World parks AND both Universal parks whenever I want as many time as I want for the next 5 months??? I'm in paradise! lol! Its amazing. So today I took my first visit to Universal. I couldn't find anyone to go with because they had to work. So I went by myself lol. I went to Universal Studios first. I hadn't been to this park in years and they have so much new stuff there. I decided to get up early and get to the park right as it opened. This turned out to be a very worthwhile decision. I got there at about 8:50 and the park didn't officially open until 9, but they were already letting people in. I headed straight for the Revenge of the Mummy ride which is an indoor dark roller coaster type ride. Its one of the most popular rides in the park and the lines are normally extremely long, but at this time in morning, the wait time was 5 minutes and I walked right on. The ride was great! So much fun. It was kinda scary at first, but it wasn't bad at all lol. Next, I went to another new and extremely popular ride, The Simpsons Ride! O-M-G this ride is fantasic! It really made me pretty sad as I was walking through the line because this ride took the place of the Back to the Future ride which used to be my favorite Universal Studios ride. But after the ride, I'm ok with this ride taking the place of the old one. Its an incredible ride. Very thrilling and SO funny! Its a very entertaining ride. After that I went to ride the new Jimmy Neutron ride that took the place of my other favorite Universal ride, Hannah Barbara. Its essentially the same exact ride as the old one, just as the Simpsons ride was the same as Back to the Future. They just have new themeing. But the ride was still very fun and entertaining. And the Nickelodeon gift shop at the ride's exit, O-M-G! I wanted pretty much every item in that entire store! lol. Most amazing gift shop EVER! I'm soooo gonna spend money there when I find some lol. Right next door to the Jimmy Neutron ride is the brand new roller coaster ride they're building called Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. When I first heard about this coaster, I thought it was a copy cat of Disney's Rock N Roller Coaster. But now that I see it, I see that it is very different and its going to be an amazing coaster. I can't wait for it to open! Right across from Jimmy Neutron is Shrek 4D which I went to next. That show was also very funny, and its pretty different from other 3D shows in ways which I won't reveal so as not to spoil anything! But overall it was pretty cool. After Shrek, I went to one of the few classics that are still left in the park, E.T. Adventure! I was so excited to see that this ride is just the same as I remember it. All the sights and smells brought back so many memories. They even still do the thing where E.T. says your name at the end! So cool, so funny lol. Next, I went to the other classic Universal Studios ride Jaws! Creepy! That shark gets me every time haha! And of course I had to be sitting on the side of the boat that gets splashed and I got all wet lol. It ok though because it was really hot. After Jaws, I rode Men In Black. That was really fun. Men In Black is kind of like a more grown up version of Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at MK. I used the single rider line and pretty much walked right on. Fun stuff! After that I decided I had done just about everything that I cared to do for today at Universal Studios, so I took one more ride on the Mummy before leaving. On my second trip to the Mummy, the ride was a lot longer, so this time I opted for the single rider line. THANK GOD FOR SINGLE RIDER LINES! Only had to wait about 10 minutes while the rest of the people had a wait of about 60 minutes! It was great lol. Well, great for me ha! Oh yeah! I forgot! I also went on the Twister ride! Scary! But honestly not as terrifying as it was when I was younger. I told you Orlando was getting me over my fear of storms! lol. Getting there early was definitely worth it. I was able to ride everything I wanted to to everything I wanted to do in about 2 hours. My longest wait was only about 20 minutes. So much more fun when you don't have to wait long! After I was done with Universal Studios for the day, so I went next door to Islands of Adventure!!! First stop: The Incrdible Hulk coaster! What a ride! Again, THANK GOD FOR SINGLE RIDER LINES! The wait time said 75 minutes, but my wait was only 15 minutes! Great ride. Next, I rode the Dr. Doom's Fear Fall. I used the single rider line again and only waited about 20 minutes as opposed to 75. I wasn't scared until I actually sat in the seat and got all buckled in. O-M-G! I was like, Why? Why did I do this? WHY? lol. But it was so much fun. The only reason I can handle that ride is because it shoots you up from the bottom instead of picking you up slowly and dropping you from the top. So you really don't get a chance to see how high up you are, and it doesn't really drop your stomach. Its more exhilirating than scary. Its a lot of fun. After Dr. Doom, I went next door to the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman ride. Again, single rider line! 20 minute wait instead of 85. GREAT ride. This is such a unique attraction. It combines a moving vehicle with a simulator with a 4D movie. SO cool. Next, I went over to the water rides. I rode Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls first. Now, this one was my longest wait. I used the single rider line and waited 35 minutes. However, I was glad to wait all 35 minutes because if I had to wait in the regular line, I would have been faced with a wait time of 130 minutes! Not that I would have actually waited 130 minutes lol. Thats pretty ridiculous don't you think? But anyway, the ride was fun and I got soaked lol. After I got off the ride I saw that the wait tme was now an insane 250 minutes! WHAT? Thats crazy! What kind of person gets in line for anything longer than 90 minutes? Or even 60 minutes? But 250 minutes???? Not me. Not me. lol. SINGLE RIDER LINES WOOT! Next I tried to ride Jurassic Park River Adventure, but they didn't have a single rider line and I wasn't about to wait 70 minutes so I kept it moving lol. I headed over the The Lost Continent area of the park and got in line for surprisingly short line for Dueling Dragons. The wait time only said 15 minutes which I was highly skeptical about because this is a roller coaster and one of the park's more popular rides, so I asked to attendent if the wait time was accurate. He said it was so I stored my bag in one of the free lockers and got in line. I was delighted to find that the wait time was accurate and I waited less than 15 minutes. While I was walking through the line, I also saw the construction area for the new Harry Potter themed area that they're adding to the park which is scheduled to open some time in 2010. It should be great! Can't wait! So when I got to the train, I sat down in my seat and got all buckled in, and then just as they were about to dispatch, they told everyone to get out of the train and go back in the gates. Immediately I knew what was going on before the spiel even played. There was inclement weather approaching. Sure enough, a few moments later the inclement weather spiel went off. The people had the option to stay in line and wait out the storm, but I work at an outdoor attraction and I see the guests who wait on the weather to clear and they typically wait for about 2 hours, so I knew I wasn't going to ride anytime soon. Thats the beautiful thing about owning a season pass. You don't feel pressured to cram everything in to one visit. If you don't get to ride something that day, you can just come back another day. And thats just what I plan to do. On Tuesday actually. WOOT! As I walked outside, the rain was coming down HARD. I was really smart and left my poncho at home, so I got to get absolustely SOAKED as I made my LOOOOOOOOOOONG walk all the way back to the parking garage. The lighting was so scary! But I'm really getting used to these Florida storms. Then again, not really lol. It was a really fun day. I rode 12 rides at two parks all before 3pm. On my way home I stopped by steak n shake and got a burger, some fries and a side by side strawberry and vanilla milkshake. YUMMY! What a fun day. But tomorrow its back to work for my longest shift yet. 1:00pm to 2:45am. 13 hours! Fun Fun....Not. But hey, Disney! YAY! lol. Also tomorrow is my Friday so its not so bad. I'm off Monday and Tuesday and I already have some super fun times planned! WOOT!

SINGLE RIDER LINES!!!!


Love, Michelle

The Flu Bug Bites :(

My last few days at work have been pretty awful. I came down with the flu a few days ago and it has really thrown me for a loop. My whole body aches from head to toe, my throat is scratchy and sore, my nose is runny, my ears keep clogging up, and my head is pounding. Its pretty terrible, especially having to work through it for 11 hours one day, 8 hours the next, 8 hours today, and 7 hours tomorrow. I don't know how I did it, especially the 11 hour day and the first 8 hour day when the flu was at its worst. Yesterday I took some day-quil and some aleve and that helped a little bit for a while, but it wore off and I felt awful again. One of my managers saw me and could tell that I was not feeling well, so he told me that he would talk to the scheduling manager to see if they could let me go home early. The scheduling manager said that they were boarderline as far as having enough people to work that day, but if I really needed to go home, then I could go. I told them that I would stick it out as long as I could. By that time I only had about 3 more hours to go, so I decided to just stay. By the time my shift was over, I was absolutely exhusted. I was so happy that I would be able to sleep in as late as I wanted today because today I don't go in until 6:45. But I work until 3:30. That should be fun. Not! lol. When I got home I found out that my roommate Michelle also has the flu, and that most of her friends have it as well. So I guess its just going around. I am feeling just slighty better today, but I'll probably take some more day-quil and aleve before I leave for work again. It seemed to take the edge off a little bit. I'm truly looking forward to my two days off this week!!! I need the rest badly. I had to work 7 days in a row. I was originally only scheduled to work 6 days in a row which is still more than usual, but I picked up a shift on Monday for my co-worker Michelle. She really needed to trade shifts with someone and she was the one that traded shifts with me so that I could go to my dad's ordination, so I had no problem helping her out. So now instead of being off Monday and Tuesday, I'll be off on Tuesday and Wednesday. So yeah. Well, I will let you all know how work goes today! Thanks for reading!

Love, Michelle

Fun Stuff!

Hi! Yesterday Nikki and I went to Disney Quest. It was so much fun! First we rode the Buzz Lightyear bumper car/dodgeball thingy lol. Then we played this virtual reality shooting game thingy that was pretty boring lol. Next we went on Virtual Jungle Cruise. That was really fun. You have to sit in these inflatable rafts and row yourself down a river its awesome. After that we did the Pirates of the Caribbean game. That was way too awesome lol. Its a 3D game/simulator where you stand on this boat and shoot cannons at other boats to collect their booty. Its so much fun. After Pirates, we went to Cyber Space Mountain. That's the place where you get tp design and ride your own virtual coaster. We made our coaster as scary as possible lol, and then we aptly named it - The Jolly Express. LOL what a great name. The Jolly Express was awesome. We also of course played a numerous amount of video games both old skool and new skool, including, but not limited to: Skee-Ball, Pacman, Frogger, Skee-Ball, Mario Bros., Virtual Tennis, Flaming Finger, Skee-Ball, some random motorbike racing game lol, and oh yeah, did I mention Skee-Ball? lol. I mean, come on. FREE, UNLIMITED Skee-Ball??? Just just sheer awsome. lol! OMIGOSH...then we found the most glorious floor in the entire building. Guitar. Hero. I didn't even know they had Guitar Hero there!!! I was flippin out lol! We played for like an hour lol it was awesome. But yeah. They also had Dance Dance Revolution, but I suck at that so I just played more Guitar Hero lol. So yeah it was a really fun night at Disney Quest. I'll be going back soon.

Today I worked from 11:15 to 9:00. It was a pretty uneventful day until about an hour before it was time to leave. I was at Fastpass Distrobution and I noticed there were some dark clouds coming in. One of my managers came out and told me that we were down for weather. So yeah, no big deal. But the clouds kept getting darker and darker and I kept getting scareder and scareder lol. I already didn't want to be outside, and then my manager comes back outside to tell me something that almost made me pee my Frontierland shorts lol. He goes, I just wanted to let you know that there's a tornado warning in the area so if you hear us power down then I need you to let all the guests in the area know to take shelter inside the Briar Patch gift shop and then come on back to Big Thunder, but if its storming too bad just stay where you are ok? Then he left! I was like.....WHAT?!! Oh, uh uh. Lol I was SO scared. I saw my coordinator Marylin walk by and I was like, uuummmm...Marilyn? I get off in like 30 minutes, can I go home now? lol. She told me she would go check to see if we had enough people working and she would get right back to me. Man she was only gone for like 10 mins, but it seemed like an hour! I just wanted to get away from all that lightning! lol! She finally came back and was like, ok Michelle you're clear to go home now! I was like THANK YA JESUS! lol! Man I clocked out so fast and was gone! Woooo.....But yeah. Thankfully there was no tornado and the weather really didn't get too bad. I made it home safely, of course. Lol what a night. I'm so crazy!

Love, Michelle

Back In Full Swing!

Wow. That's all I can say lol! Its been WAY too long since my last post, I know. I apologize, I will do better I promise! Hmmm...let's seeeee lol where to begin? I will try to start as far back as I can remember lol. The last thing I can remember doing besides working is I went to Atlanta to see my dad's Ordination! It was fabulous! I got to see my family and my church family. The Ordination was great! I'm so proud of my dad! Oh! And I got to see my family's little kitten Tiki for the first time! She is so tiny! She's much smaller than I expected her to be! But she's just SO adorable! AWWW!! And Fergie!!! I missed her so much! And she remembered me! I was so happy and I miss her so much already! AWWW Fergie! lol. Anyway, I made it back home to Orlando safely - obviously lol. And yeah. Now I'm back in full swing! I've been working crazy hours at the Tragic - excuse me - MAGIC Kingdom. lol. Man oh man. I've been tired, but the paychecks are pretty nice lol. Um, I can't really remember too many details about what I've been doing for fun in the past few weeks, but I've been going to the parks of course, and just trying to relax and rest when I get the chance. Oh, I did go to the France pavillion with Nikki last week and we got some desserts. She had the Creme Broule' (if I'm spelling that right lol) and I had the Napoleon. They were both absolutely delicious. I love France! lol.

Well I know that really wasn't much of an update, but the posts from now on will be much better. Today is my day off. I'm off tomorrow too and I'm getting my hair done! Finally! lol. Today I had some me time. I went to Downtown Disney and ate at this restaraunt Renise has been telling me to try. OMG, that place is amazing. It's called Earl of Sandwhich and they have all kinds of hot subs. They're delectable lol. That place is my new best friend. I will definitely be visiting them often. After my yummy lunch, I went to the movies and saw My Sister's Keeper. Whoa buddy that movie is a tear-jerker if I've ever seen one! I was sitting there crying like a little baby! Lol, I was balling. It was awful. Such a great movie though. So after the movie, I went window shopping at the stores. All was fine and dandy...until....I wandered into the World of Disney Store. Omg, talk about a Disney lover's paradise! lol. That place is super dangerous when you have money you're not supposed to be spending lol! They have a whole entire section of the store filled entirely with Disney character plush dolls! Oh the Mickeys! lol. I'm so going to buy one...one day lol. Considering the cost $30+, that day will be one far from now lol. I did, however, break down and buy my first trading pin - a Mickey Mouse pin of course - as well as the Wishes CD. Wishes is the nightly fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom which I get to see every night I'm working and which I look forward to every day lol. That's definitely one of the best parts of my job is getting see Wishes every night, or at least getting to hear the music if I'm not working an outside position at 10:00. Lol, its funny because I have the whole show memorized including the songs, and even the choreography of the fireworks! lol. I love it. So tomorrow I'm probably gonna go to Disney Quest with Nikki. I'm super excited! lol. Yay for unlimited Skee-Ball!! lol. I will keep you posted! Take care!

Work, then Fun!

Hi! How are you? I'm well. On Sunday I worked 7 hours. I got off at 2:45am. It was my first closing shift. It was good though because I got the easy position for closing lol. All I had to do was stand at the dispatch console and wait for the tower person to tell me when to pull the trains to storage. To pull trains to storage, all I have to do is press a button lol. I love pressing buttons lol! On Monday, I had to work 10 hours. It was a pretty long shift, but it went by pretty smoothly. Working is getting to be pretty much routine now. I know all the positions well now, and even grouper is slowly getting better. Its a lot of fun to work with all different kinds of cultures. You really learn a lot! There is one girl that I work with named Licia who is from Italy. I was talking to her about italian food, because I love me some Italian food lol, and she was telling me that here in America, most of the food that is claimed to be Italian food is not really Italian food. She said that pepperoni pizza in Italy doesn't have meat on it. Pepperoni pizza is more like a bell pepper pizza. When they put meat on their pizza, they call it salami pizza. And also, she said that the lasanga here and true lasanga is very different. I wanna find some true Italian lasanga!

Yesterday my was day off. I went to Animal Kingdom with Nikki. I don't know how she did it, because I promised myself I wouldn't go in that show ever again, but somehow she dragged me into It's A Bug's Life! That show is scary! lol. There's this one part where these wasps attack and they sting you! And then there's the part with the roaches and beetles...EwWwWwW! I hate bugs. Anyway...lol. Then we went to ride Expedition Everest YAY! The standby line was 50 minutes, and the Fastpasses were all gone, so we went in the single rider line. Thank God for single rider lines!!! We rode it twice. I freakin love Everest! Its pretty much the most amazing thing ever lol. That Yeti man! He's pretty scary! After that, we went to get something to eat. We went into this beautifully air conditioned restaraunt lol, and got a little snack. Nikki had chicken strips and I had fries. After we ate, we had all these condiments lying around lol, and it made me think about something that my sister Diamond always used to do. Sooooo I decided to try it! Haha. I mixed together ketchup, salt, sweet tea, barbecue sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and dijon mustard. Then I dipped a french fry in it and ate it. Well, actually, attempted to eat it lol because I couldn't really get it down lol. Yup. I'll never do THAT again! So after we were done eating...or, whatever we were doing lol, we went to ride Dinosaur. Omigosh. While we were standing in line, we noticed that the guy in front of us was probably so excited to be in Disney and wanted to maximize the time he had in the parks, so he decided to skip a few showers....WOW our noses were CRYING lol!!! And we stuck behind him for the whole 40 minutes we stood in line! Yeah. But besides that, Dinosaur was awesome. Next, we rode Primeval Whirl. I had never been on it before. It was ok. Really short though. Oh! Then we played these little carnival games! Nikki played the little roller ball game and won a purple Iguana and named him Iggy Star-Pop! lol. I played the basketball game and won a super cute bear in a baby blue basketball uniform! I was so excited lol. I named him Dwight! Hahaaha. After that we went on Kilimanjaro Safari. That was really cool! We got a decent sighting of some animals, but we really didn't get to see a whole lot. We saw different kinds of antelope, elephants, rhinos, hippos, flamingos, and a bunch of birds. The tour guide said that there were some cheetahs and lions, but I didn't see any. But it was still really nice. After the safari, the park was closing, so we decided to go over to Magic Kingdom. As we were heading over there on the bus, one of thise famous Florida storms came in. It was lightning like crazy and really really heavy rain. We we got to MK, we got drenched trying to run into the nearest gift shop lol. We found this really neat little theatre room that plays old Mickey Mouse cartoons. It was so cute and perfect for waiting out bad weather. After the storm had died down enough, we headed over to Fantasyland and got on the Winnie the Pood ride. Well that broke down, so we we to ride Snow White instead. Then It's A Small World.....yeah. No comment lol. Then we went back to Winnie the Pooh lol. It was so cute! Next we headed over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lighyear. The rain had scared everyone off, so the lines were pretty much non existent. We got to ride twice, they just let us stay on lol. I was so mad though because I was winning both times until the very last second when she pulled ahead and won! Can you say, Cheater? lol. Anyway, after that we went on Carousel of Progress. Another ride that I had never been on before. It was pretty interesting though. It was funny in a cheezy kind of way. lol. After that, we went to our homeland, Frontierland! I finally rode Big Thunder at night. It was awesome. It was so funny seeing all my co-workers as I walked in. Everyone had to do a double take lol. They're like, "Howdy Fol....Michelle?" lol!! It was great. Then we rode...SPALSH MOUNTAIN!!!! YAY! It never gets old lol. We got SOAKED though lol. Ah. Perfect way to end a beautiful day at Disney! I'm off again today. Going to some more parks! Wooooo!!!

Love, Michelle

Getting the Hang Of Things!

Its been a few days since my last post. A few LONG days lol. I can barely remember what all has happened since Thursday. I'll do my best lol. Thursday was another 12 hour shift. It wasn't too too bad though. When I was in Tower, which is the position where you have to watch all these screens and keep an eye on the guests on the ride and there's all these buttons and if the ride goes down you're pretty much in control lol, but anyway...when I was in Tower, of course the ride HAD to go down, and it was my first time being in Tower when the ride went down so I was like "Uh Oh..." but before I had time to panic, all these people started rushing the tower and doing everything for me lol. I helped out a bit though lol I got to spiel to the guests to let them know that the ride was experiencing technical difficulties and that they would have to exit the queue at this time. I was so professional! lol. Anyway, the next day, I was in Tower again...and the ride broke down again. I was like, are you serious? What's wrong with me? lol. But anyway, just like the day before, as soon as the ride went down, people started rushing the tower, taking over for me. This time, one the coordinators who was also one of my trainers, told everyone to back up and that I was in Tower and to let me handle things. So I got to do a little bit more. At first, I was ok with all the people trying to take over for me because I wasn't 100% sure what I was supposed to do lol, but NOW I know exactly what to do!!! First you call maintenance (8855), then you call the Greeter and tell them to pull the rope because we're 101 (ride is down), then you spiel to the guests in the queue, then you turn the ride animation off and the work lights on, then you start filling out the 101 paperwork. Yay! lol. So after we got the ride back up and running, I started thinking, well wait a minute...I know what to do when the ride goes down while I'm IN Tower, but what am I going to do when the ride goes down when I'm NOT in Tower? Lol, very soon after that thought passed through my head, the ride goes down. And I was NOT in Tower! lol. I had never done an Evac (evacuation) on my own before, but I guess there's a first time for everything! Thankfully, I got to evacuate the one part of the track that I knew how to get to, so it went very smooth. I got everyone off the train and led them back through the mountain and out to the exit. After all the trains were evacuated, we had to reset the track. I had never done that on my own either, but again, thankfully I got to reset the one part of the track that I knew how to get to. Sooooo, it went very well! I even got a "Good job Michelle!" from the coordinator! I was so proud of myself lol. So today I was in Tower again, and I just knew it was going to break down again lol. I was ready for it though, even looking forward to it because I knew exactly what to do. Of course, it didn't break down. It can't break down when I actually know what I'm doing! lol. But yeah. That's ok. Its sure to break down on me again when I'm in Tower, and when it does, I'll be ready! lol. Today I was supposed to get off at 9:00pm, but like 2 hours before 9:00, one of the coordinators came up to me and asked me if I wanted to extend until 10:00. I was like, um sure! And he was like, "Really??" lol. I mean, its only one more hour, so I didn't have a problem, but he seemed really impressed and he was really grateful. So yeah. One more hour of overtime oh yeah! lol. When I clocked out, he came up to me and thanked me again. So yeah...I'm in good with the coordinators so far lol! Tomorrow I get to sleep in YAY! I don't go in until 6:45pm. I'm super excited! And SUPER sleepy! Goodnighty!

Love, Michelle

Days Off Pt. 2

Well, the second of my beloved days off sadly have come to an end. Now its back to work bright and early tomorrow morning and for the next 5 days straight. Today I went to see Up. It was a really good movie. Its pretty funny though, because I never cry on movies, but this one part in the movie...I just couldn't help it lol. But yeah, it was a really funny movie too. Disney has done it again! lol. After the movie I went back home to eat lunch, and then I was gonna go to Animal Kingdom by myself. But just as I was getting ready to leave, Michelle came home and asked me if I wanted to go to Hollywood Studios with her and her friends. Even though I've already been to Hollywood Studios like 10 time since I've been here, I couldn't resist lol. It was funny though, because all of her friends speak spanish, so there were a lot of conversations that I completely missed out on lol. But they were all very nice and they included me in their conversations as best they could by trying to explain to me in English what was being said. They were even helping me to learn some spanish phrases. We didn't get to do a whole lot at the park because we didn't get there until about 6:00 and the park closed at 9:00. First we rode Rock N' Roller Coaster which was awesome as always. Then we went over to the Journey into Narnia attraction. I had never been in there before, so I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be pretty cool....yeah, no. lol. It was pretty boring. Next we went to watch The Little Mermaid show. That was really cute, but waaaaaaayyy too short lol. They tried to condense the movie so much that it turned out being kinda confusing. Lol, although it would probably help if I'd actually seen the movie before! Anyway, we saved the best for last - Tower of Terror! ALWAYS a blast! Oh, and I saw that one guy who's like the poster boy for Tower of Terror. His name is TJ and I see him working every trip I take to Disney. He plays his role so well! But yeah. Not much else to report. Fun day! But the fun is over now lol. Thanks for reading!

Love, Michelle

Days Off Pt. 1

I had my first day off class today. I was almost really really late though lol. I forgot to take my phone off of silent before I fell asleep, so my alarm didn't go off in the morning! Thank God Nicole came in and woke me up lol. I only had 10 minutes to get ready though. Its a really, really good thing that the class is in a building right next door to my apartment lol. Class was good. My teacher is really nice, but very crazy. In a good way though lol. She's been with the company for 29 years, so she has lots and lots of experience and valuable information to share. I'm excited about the class. It should be really good. One of the things we had to do today was to draw a picture of what our childhood dream was. I remembered that when I was little and my mom was working for US Air, I wanted to be a flight attendant lol. So I tried - key word, TRIED - to draw an airplane with the passengers inside and me as a flight attendant giving the pre-flight instrusctions lol. It was a special picture lol. After class, I went with Nikki to the post office so she could mail a package to her friend back h0me. After that, we were going to go to International Drive to explore the different shops and little attractions in the area, but we ended up not going. We went to Disney's Boardwalk instead. It was really cool. There was a magician who was really good. He put on a good show. Then we bought corn dogs....Oh my goodnesssss YUM lol. Pretty much the best corn dog I ever had ever lol! Next we went to check out what else was at the Boardwalk. We went down to the left end of the boardwalk and found these two really neat looking clubs and decided to take a peek inside. The first one was very creatively named "Dance Floor" lol. We went inside and it was practically deserted lol. There were only a few couples in there, all of them in their late 40s/early 50s lol. We quickly left. Across the way, there was a club that was misleandingly named "Jellyroll". I was thinking, Hmm...donuts! lol. No donuts. But it was still pretty cool because it was like a piano dueling show. It was pretty neat. There was, however, a $10 cover charge to get in....I was about to turn right around but then added that cast memebers get in free, so I was like well in that case....lol! The best thing about that place is that they give out free popcorn! Yum! But yeah. It was funny. After the piano place got boring (about 15 minutes lol) we headed home. It was pretty fun though. I want to go back again another day because there was a whole bunch of other stuff on the other side of the boardwalk that we didn't see yet. Well, I have my second day off tomorrow. I'm probably gonna go to Animal Kingdom. Wooo Hooo!!!

Love, Michelle

Red Shirts Everywhere!

I worked my first full day on Friday. It was a 10 hour shift and man was it LONG! It was good though. I got a lot of practice in each of the positions. My favorite position is Fastpass Distabution, and my least favorite is DEFINITELY Grouper. Grouper is so awful because you have to assign people the rows that they're gonna sit in on the train, and you're trying not to split up the parties. The people just do not listen and they always try to choose their own rows and of course everyone wants to sit in the front lol. But one of my co-workers gave me a few tips. She told me to spiel to the guests before I show them to their rows and say, "Ok everyone's gonna follow me all the way down, please do not stop, please DO NOT choose your own rows!" That helped a little bit lol. On Saturday I only had to work 8 hours and 30 minutes, but that day was very...um, "special" lol. Saturday was the annual "Gay Day" and it seemed like they ALL came out to celebrate lol. They all wore red shirts to identify themselves. There were red shirts everywhere! It was SO funny because normally Country Bear Jamboree has little to no wait, but on Saturday the lines for the show were out the door and all the people standing in line had on red shirts lol! I just wonder what the families who had no idea it was Gay Day were thinking that day! lol. Sometimes we would get parties of 15 red shirts and they all wanted to sit three to a row. They said they were very "close" lol. So yeah. It was a very interesting day lol. Yesterday was a doozy. I had to work 12 hours. I guess my body just has to get used to the routine. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but I was still exhausted when I got home. Yesterday was the first time I got the guests very mad at me lol. I was at merge assist, where you take the guests' fastpass tickets, and my neighbor Tom who also works with me was at merge point, where you merge the fastpass guests in with the standby line. The ride went down for technical difficulties and everyone was asked to leave the queue. Well, normally, the people are supposed to keep going down toward the trains to exit so that they can get fastpasses to get back in line later. Well, Tom stated sending the people back the way they came in, so I started giving them their fastpasses back, but Tom told me not to, so I stopped. People got very angry lol. I did my best to apologize and sympathize, and some people were nice about it, but some were still very very upset. I had one older man demand to see a manager, so I took him to see the manager. Tom and I are both new, so we didn't really know we were doing things wrong, but I should have just stuck with my original instinct and kept passing out the fastpasses. Later on, the manager talked to me and told me the right way to do things, which was to send the people down to the trains so they could get their fastpasses. He told me I wasn't in trouble or anything, but he told me to always air on the side of the guests'. I was kinda embarrased, but the manager was nice about it and now I know for the future. So yeah. You live and you learn lol. Well, I work again today, but its only for 6 hours so its not so bad. Then I'm off tomorrow and Wednesday. YAY! lol. But tomorrow I do start my Marketing You class. Its from 8am to noon. Oh boy. It should be cool though. Well, thanks for reading!

Love, Michelle

Around the World and into the Future

Royal Swords in Great Britian

Naruto poster in Japan!

Lol me in Mexico

Mission: SPACE

EPCOT

Today was my day off. I went to EPCOT with Nikki. It was so much fun! First we rode Spaceship Earth. It was pretty fascinating lol. Next, we went into Innoventions and did the little video game maker thingy. TOO funny! We made a game just like the one I made with Renise. After that, we went to ride Mission: SPACE. It was too much fun lol. That launch is way crazy. We were gonna ride Test Track next, but there was a 60 minute wait, so we got fastpasses instead. Oh yeah I forgot, when we were in Innoventions, we saw a stand where you could sign up for the Kim Possible scavenger hunt in World Showcase. It looked like fun so we decided to give it a try. We got a ticket instructing us to report to Italy in World Showcase to receieve our assignment. On the way over to Italy, we stopped by the Imagination pavillion to ride Journey into Imagination. I was surprised to see that the ride had only a 5 minute wait time, but after riding, I understood why. It wouldn't be missed if you decided to skip it, and next time I will lol. We continued our path to Italy, and when we got to World Showcase, we were suddenly hit with a wave of hunger, so we decided to make a pit stop in Mexico to find some FOOD lol. Mexico is a really cool pavillion. Right outside the pavillion, they had a mariachi band playing some really cool mexican music. Inside the pavillion, there are gift shops and a restaurant, as well as a cute little boat ride called Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Callaberos. I had never been on it before, so Nikki and I decided to give it a try. So....pretty much its a mexican version of Its A Small World. Yeah. lol. It was cute though, only slightly more tolerable than Small World. We were gonna eat at the mexcian restaurant on the inside, but the prices were far out of my price range lol, but we found a smaller mexican restaurant on the outside of the pavillion that was a bit more reasonable. I had a burrito filled with beef, rice, black beans, cheese, sour cream, and salsa. It was GREAT. I seriously had a great time eating it lol. As we were finishing our meal, it started to rain. Hard. So we booked it to the next pavillion to wait out the rain, which just happened to be the Norway pavillion. YAY! Malestrom! Lol, that ride is so random, but I love it! Its pretty much my favorite part of World Showcase. After we left Malestrom, we continued around the world and shortly arrived at our goal destination, Italy. We walked up to the Kim Possible booth and picked up our handy dandy Kimmunicators. Its actually a cell phone that plays videos that explain your mission and gives you clues on how to complete it. Our mission was to go to Japan and stop this evil baby robot thingy lol. It was pretty cool though. We had to go to different points around Japan and when we got there, something special would happen and lead us to the next spot. While we were in the Japan pavillion, we visited this SUPER cool gift shop called Mitsukoshi. They have all kinds of awesome Japanese souveniers including a plethora of anime collectables. There was a Naruto section, a Dragonball Z section, and a Pokemon section among others. It was SOOO cool and its a really big store. I could probably spend hours in there. Anyway, we were finished with our mission helping Kim Possible save the world, so we finished our tour of the world and headed back to Future World to ride Test Track. It was too fun. I'd forgotten how fast that ride goes! After Test Track, we went into Innoventions West and went into this 3D show that simulates a tornado destroying a house and educates you on how you can better storm-proof your house. It was really cool. After that, went to the area where you can try out a Segway! That was amazing lol. It took me a minute to find my center of balance, but when I did I was surprised at how easy it is to ride it. Its really cool. When we were done there, we went to the Land pavillion to ride Soarin', but the wait time was 70 minutes and they were all out of fastpasses, so we opted out of that one unfortunately. We went to the Seas with Nemo and Friends instead. We rode the little Nemo ride that takes you inside The Seas, and then we went to see Turtle Talk with Crush. That show is SO cute! I was cracking up just like to little kids lol. I like that show! After Crush, we decided that we were ready to head home. It was a fun day. I really enjoyed it. On the bus back to the apartments, we had a pretty good view of Wishes, the fireworks show over in Magic Kingdom. They were beautiful. I had a really nice day. Tomorrow is back to work though. My shift is from 10:30am to 9:15pm. So I have a long day ahead. Thanks for reading! Goodnight!

Love, Michelle

Ears Have Been Earned!

Well, I did end up going to EPCOT! I went with Renise. It was a lot of fun. Renise had never been to EPCOT before, and she mainly just wanted to see what it was like as well as visit World Showcase. First we went into Innoventions East, and we found the greatest thing ever! There's this setup where you can actually be in a video game and play as yourself! You record yourself running in place, jumping, and doing your victory dance lol. Then it transfers you into this computer game, and you get to play as yourself! Its TOO funny. We could barely play our game because we laughing so hard lol. It was great because we even got to email ourselves a link to the game so we could play it at home and send it to friends and family. TOO funny lol. So after that, she wanted to go check out Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Now, as we were walking in, I remembered that Renise has a snake phobia. There's a part in the show where the audience is shrunk and there's a loose python that attacks the audience. The show is also in 3D, and I figured that could be pretty traumatizing for her, so I did the nice thing and told her about it in advance lol. I did however, leave out a few other details including the part where the mice get loose and run into the audience while the room is pitch black and you can feel the mice scuttle across the floor and brush up against your legs (actually puffs of air) lol. Pretty evil, right? MWUAHHAHHAAA!!! Anyways...after that, we headed on over to World Showcase and circled through the countries. We stopped in some gift shops and upon reading the incredibly insane price tags, we quickly made our exit lol. We didn't stay at EPCOT long, but it was fun regardless. I'm actually probably gonna go back tomorrow and hit some of them thrill rides WOOT! lol.

Yesterday was my last day of training. We spent the day getting more practice in each of the positions. At one point in the day, a bee infestation was dicovered in the upstairs queue area, so we had to re-route the guests so that they wouldn't be by the bees. That was fun. NOT! On a normal day, there's only one merge point where the fastpass line is merged in with the standby. But on this day, we had to have three different merge points in order to keep the line flowing correctly. It was pretty crazy. Today was my assesment. I was tested on everything I had learned during my week of training. I was really nervous lol. It was a two part assesment. The first part was a written examination that was 114 questions long. It took me 2 hours to complete it lol. I did pretty well though, I only got about 15 questions wrong. After the written part, I had to actually work in each position with my trainer right there with me watch me, making sure I do things right. I was so nervous, but I did pretty well. The positions really just take practice, and the more experience you get working in each position, the easier it will become. Right now, I have to be a bit more technical than those that have been here for a while, but as I get more and more comfortable with what I'm doing, I'll be able to loosen up more. I'm looking forward to the job. There's definitely never a dull moment! Its super fast paced, but I like that. So after I had rotated through all the positions, I was done! My trainer told me that I had passed, and I have officially earned my ears! YAY!!!!! YAY ME! lol. After I checked out of training, I still had about and hour and half left before I got off, so I went into rotation. This was it; first time on my own! Whoop whoop! lol. My first assignment was Grouper. Great. My first time on my own and I had to get the position that I least like. Wonderful lol. Grouper can be quite a doozy! The good thing is, you only stay in one position for about 30-45 minutes, and then someone comes to bump you out and you go to a new position. I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I was when they came to bump me out! Lord JESUS! lol. My next position was Unload. Unload is probably my favorite position so far. Not a lot of craziness, just a lot of button pushing. YAY BUTTONS! lol. At Unload, you are responsible for checking the guests' lap bars in the last 3 cars of the train. Then you go to the station console and press the dispatch button which makes the train go. Funness! I was only at Unload for about 15 minutes before the next person came to bump me out. I was confused at first until I realized it was time for me to clock out (already!). Well, at least I know the time will go fast! So tomorrow I get a day off, then its back to work for 5 days in a row! On Thursday I have a 10 hour shift! Oh Boy....lol. Well, I'm SUPER sleepy lol. I was knocked out on the bus home today lol. I woke up and this girl was like staring at me...I'm like, um, wow. Embarassing lol. I will let you know how EPCOT goes tomorrow! Love ya!

Love, Michelle

Enjoying some R&R

Hey! How you doing? I'm great! I'm smack dab in the middle of my joyous 3 days off in a row. Yesterday, my roommates and I were supposed to go the movies to see the new Disney movie, Up, but we ended up going out to eat at Olive Garden instead. Fine with me, I loves me some Olive Garden!! lol. Today was super fun. Nikki, Katelyn and I went to Typhoon Lagoon and then to Magic Kingdom! Typhoon Lagoon was so fun. First we rode Crush N' Gusher, and then I dragged them both on the super tall, super fast, super FUN body slide, Humunga Kowagunga. They were both terrified, lol, but they did go on it. I was so proud of them :) it was so much fun! We did a couple more water slides, and then hit the wave pool. It was a lot of fun, the waves were SO big! After that, we were ready for some FOOD lol. Katelyn and Nikki both had a super pretzel, yum, and I.....I had a delicious...scrumptous....delectable...super yummy TURKEY LEG! YUM :) It was so great. After we ate, we decided to do one more thing before heading over to Magic Kingdom. That thing turned out to be something that I had always been afraid to do - Shark Reef. Shark Reef is an attraction where you snorkel in a reef full of fish, sharks, and sting rays! I was so scared, but since I forced Nikki and Katelyn to go on Humunga Kowabunga, there was no way they were letting me back out of doing Shark Reef! (Karma) lol. The water was absolutely FREEZING! They have to keep the water temperature at 68 degrees for the sharks. I got used the water after a couple minutes though, and my fears were also fading. It was so cool! I'm really glad I decided to do it, or rather, they made me do it lol.

Next, we hopped on over to the Happiest Place on Earth, the Magic Kingdom! YAY! It was really special becuase it was Katelyn's first time visiting the Magic Kingdom! We we got there, we went over to City Hall on Main Street and got her a "1'st visit" button. Nikki and I also got buttons that said "I'm Celebrating", because we were celebrating Katelyn's first visit to Magic Kingdom lol. It was really cute. Katelyn was really excited, and I was excited for her. The first thing we did was hurry over to Adventureland because we suddenly realized that our roommate Jeanna was working today. She works as a skipper at the Jungle Cruise. We wanted to go surprise her at work and see if we could get on her boat. It was perfect timing becuase a few minutes after we got in line, we heard and announcement over the loudspeaker congratulating Jeanna on completing her Skipper training! We saw Jeanna and waved her down. She came over and told us that she was about to get off work, so we wouldn't be able to see her perform today. We still rode the ride though, because we were already at the front of the line. It was a really cute ride, and our skipper was funny. We got off and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. It was great because it was only a 5 minute wait, so we were able to almost walk right on. Katelyn loved it so much that she wanted to go on it a second time lol. After our encore ride, we met up with Jeanna and went to my faviest ride in the world, Splash Mountain! Unfortunately, when we got there we saw that it had a 70 mintue wait, so we got fastpasses for Splash and went to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Woot! We ran into a guy that I work with, and he was on duty so he gave us free fastpasses for the ride! We were able to get on with no wait. Big Thunder was so much fun! It was great being able to just enjoy it as a guest after working there all week. After that, we rode Peter Pan's Flight, Mickey's Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club, and Stitch's Great Escape. By then it was time to get back to Splash Mountain for our fastpass time. It was AMAZING as usual lol. After Splash, we went to watch the Spectromagic parade. It was so pretty! Last, but definitely not least, we watched the beautiful fireworks show, Wishes. Now, I really don't like loud noises, and I usually hold my ears during fireworks shows, but today I forced myself not to hold my ears. I didn't hold my ears even once for the entire show! Lol, I was so proud of myself! It was really loud though lol. But yeah. Didn't hold my ears lol. Woot! Anyway, it was a super duper fun day and Katelyn had a blast. It was fun to be able to be with her on her first visit and to witness her amazement at the incredible experience that is the Magic Kingdom park. So MaGiCaL! lol. :)

Tomorrow is my last day off before returning to work. I'd like to go to EPCOT, but we'll see how that goes. I think I'm the only one of my roommates who is off tomorrow, so, yeah. I guess I don't mind going by myself, but its always more fun when you have someone to enjoy it with. I'll probably do though. I'll let you know what happens! Thanks for reading!

Love, Michelle

Training Week....Daaaaaaaaaannnnggg! lol

Hey! Its been a while since my last post...sorry lol. I've been waking up every day at 5:00am or earlier for training. I've been SUPER exhausted! Wow, its pretty hard to even remember what all has happened. During training, we go to the different positions within the attraction first to observe what we will be doing, and then actually doing it ourselves a few times, just to get the idea of it. We also go to the training room to take notes on all the procedues that we will have to learn how to do. On Tuesday, I have my assess. Its a combination of a written examination and actually working in various positions. I'm a little bit nervous, but not as much as I was in the beginning. There is this one position, Grouper, that I was terrified of doing, but I got a chance to do it yesterday, and I actually really liked it! Grouper is the position where you place the people in the rows to get on the train. You stand at the bottom of the ramp where the people come into the loading station and yell, "Follow me all the way down please, all the way down!" Then you ask them how many people are in their party and you put them in groups of 2 or 3 and place them in their rows. Its fun except for when you ask someone how many people are in their party and they say 2 but they actually have 5....then they get upset when you seperate their party lol. Its like, well if you knew how to count....lol. Anyway, here is a list of all the positions: Fast Pass Distibution, Fast Pass Return, Greeter, Wheelchair Assist, Dispatch, Unload, Grouper, Grouper Assist, Tower, Merge Point, and thats all I can remember right now, but I know theres a few more lol. Its so funny because when you're visiting the parks as a guest, you don't realize how many people it takes to run a ride. I guess I just didn't realize just how involved this job would be! I love it though! Its a lot of fun.

The people I am training with are amazing. Its great becaue everyone gets along so well and we have so much fun. At lunch, everyone sits together, sometimes squeezing 7 or 8 people at a table meant to seat 4. We already have so many inside jokes lol. Last night, we had to do a Track Walk after closing, and we started our latest habit. At every little thing that happened, we started saying, "Daaaaaaaannnnnnggg!" LOL now I can't stop saying it. Its just so funny. Anyway, I'm off for the next 3 days YAY! I slept in today for the first time in what seems like forever. I was so happy and rested lol. I'm probably gonna go to the movies, or mivies, (Timmi lol) with my roomies to see Up. Tomorrow, Nikki and I are going to Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends to see the Stormtropper parade, and then to EPCOT. Fun stuff! lol.

Love, Michelle

Yet Another Amazing Day

Today was yet another amazing day of training. Walking through the park this morning, I actually had to stop to pinch myself just to make sure I wasn't deaming lol. Today was the second day of training. I got to work early, so I went to the "Mouseketeria" to get something to eat. I had a bowl of fruit (yum!). BTW, It seems so weird to be calling Disney "work" lol. It seems like those two words don't even belong in the same sentence! Anyway, at 7:30 it was time to meet up with my area trainer. Today my trainer was Jackie. It was pretty cool because my roommate Nikki works right next door at Splash Mountain, so we were in the same training group all day. First we went to the Fastpass machines and learned all about how they operate, how to open them up, and how to manually issue a Fastpass. Next we went to both of the ride entrances (Fastpass entrance and Standby entrance) to learn the various procedues for dealing with guests. Then came more fun! To my extreme delight, we got to ride Splash Mountain. I was SO happy! I wasn't even expecting to get to ride anything today, so it was even better! After Spalsh (YAY!), we went over to explore Tom Sawyer's Island. I had never been to Tom Sawyer's Island before, so it was really cool to be able to do something new. It was a lot of fun. Its pretty easy to get lost over there though, because there are so many different paths and tunnels and caves and stuff. But that's really the fun of it; getting lost and finding your way back again. When everyone finally found their way back, we headed back down into the tunnels to have lunch. I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwhich with onion rings and a sweet tea. It was yummy! After lunch we went to the Disney Learning Center for 2 hours of computer training. We had to sit at computers and watch modules and videos about our various job responsibilities. It was LONG. And I was sooooooo tired...I was sitting at the computer fighting my hardest to stay awake lol. When we were finally done with that, we went back up on "onstage" (out in the park) to help with the 3:00 parade. This was definitely the most magical part of the day. It was AMAZING. We were in Fronteirland which is the last stop for the parades, so while the guests were waiting for the parade to come through, our job was to carry hoolah hoops and play with the kids and just interact with the guests. It was really cool and so much fun. For me, the best part of working at Disney is being able to interact with all of the guests, but especially the kids. When I see them happy and having fun, it makes me think about all the times I came to Disney World and how much fun it always is for me and how happy I get just being at Disney World. Anyway, enough with the cheeziness lol. As the parade rolled into Fronteirland, We got to got over to the area where to parade ends and watch the entire parade as it rolled by. The parade is called, "Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade". Its so cool! I was SO happy when I saw Mickey and Minnie! It was too exciting and I felt like a lil kid lol. Well, after the parade was over, it was time to go home. We went back down into the tunnels to go clock out.

Later on my roommates and I all went out to eat at Hooters. We had a lot of fun and the wings were really good! Well, I gotta be at work tomorrow at 7:30am again, so.....I'm going to bed! 'Nite!

Love, Michelle

Having An Amazing Time!

Its only been a couple days since my first post, but there is so much to tell! Friday was Traditions. It was my first official day of "work", but I didn't do any actual work. Traditions is more of an orientation for new Cast Members where you learn the history, policies, and, well, traditions of the Disney company. It was four hours long, and we took four, 15 minute breaks over the course of the class. We watched videos that showed all the various components and branches of the Disney company and explained their background and history. We also watched a video that laid out and presented in a somewhat humurous and slightly cheesy manner Disney's expectations of its Cast Memebers. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that we also got out Disney World nametags!!! It was an incredible feeling knowing that I am now an official Disney World Cast Member!!! :)))

Today was even better. It was my first day of training, but, again, instead of having to do any acutal work, today was an orientation to my new work location: The Magic Kingdom Park! Although I am now an official Cast Member, today I, as well as my fellow Magic Kingdom trainees, was treated as a guest. We were given an exclusive "V.I.P." tour of the park, including various attractions as well as the backstage areas. I finally got to experience that mystical part of the Magic Kingdom; the famed Underground Tunnels. It was incredible. I'm sure I was walking around all day with my jaw dropped open without even noticing lol. As a part of our training, we were given the privilege to ride some of the rides - without having to wait in line! As a group we rode The Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lighyear's Space Ranger Spin. We were then split up into groups corresponding to our respective lands and we found out which attractions we would be working in. I got Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! At frist, I was pretty heartbroken becuase Splash Mountain is my favorite ride and I really had my heart set on working there. But I think working at Big Thunder will be a lot of fun too. I even already know some people who work there, and they seem to really enjoy their jobs. Since I will be working in Fronteirland, I and four other CP's were assigned to continue our training with Fronteirland's area trainer, Luis. He is such a funny guy! Once we got to Fronteirland, he showed us around at some of the key places that we would be accessing on a daily basis, and then we got to have some more fun! We went to the front of the lines to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (FUN!), Splash Mountain (OMG YAY! lol), Country Bear Jamboree, and the raft thingy that takes you to Tom Sawyer Island. We had some extra time so we even got to ride Pirates of the Caribbean! After all the fun (Best training EVER), we went to pick up our costumes. My costume consists of brown shorts, a sort of light burgandy buton down shirt, hiking boots and a cowgirl hat. Lol its so dorky but I love it ha! Wow I just can't believe I'm actually gonna be working in Disney World! Omigosh and by the way, today's training was paid so you know what that means??? I actually got PAID to go to Disney World and ride the rides! How crazy awesome is that?!?! I know!!! lol.

So tomorrow is my first day of training where I'll be doing actual work lol. And I have to be there at 7:30am, which means I have to catch the 6:05am bus, which means I have to wake up at 5:00am! I'm going to bed! lol 'nite!

Love, Michelle

A Brand New Experience

Hello and welcome to my blog! This blog is all about my experience in the Disney College Program. I'm starting this blog so that my family and friends can follow along with my experience of living, learning, and earning at the Happiest Place on Earth! I also want to be able to look back and reminisce on all the wonderful times and memories that I know I will have. Its so incredibly amazing to think about how I am going to be at Disney World for the next 7 months! I have always been a Disney World fanatic, but I never in a million years thought I would be working here and enjoying all the incredible opportunities available with the Disney College Program! I'm so blessed to be here!

I am living in a 3 bedroom apartment in Patterson Court. Its a gorgeous apartment! All the bedroooms have their own bathrooms and the kitchen has brand new appliances. There are 2 people per room, but I have a room to myself. I was pre-matched with a roommate, but unfortunately, she will no longer be here because she was given an assignment in Morrocco by the U.S. Air Force. Its awesome having my own room, but I don't expect it to last long. I'm sure I will be assigned a new roommate before long...lol. My roommates are really nice. Everyone gets along well. In fact, I'm about to go to the store with 2 of my roommates. I will write more later!

Love, Michelle