September 25th (Monday): I worked a 3:45pm - 9:45pm circus shift and it was really good!! I had a lot of fun guests, and a dance party with my coworker Jasmine because we were so bored at Dumbo Fastpass and greeter. CUTEST STORY THOUGH: I was closing the play tent and this little girl goes "hello!!" so I went over to go chat with her, and note that she was probably four or five years old. The first thing she does is show me her earrings so I said something like that "wow, so you're like a big girl now, right??" and she goes "YEP! I'm also wearing underwear!!" and proceeds to lift up her dress and show me. Her mom couldn't stop laughing but was also mildly mortified hahahaha. So anyway I turn to my coworker Katie and was like "Katie, she has earrings AND underwear!" and it was adorable. Made my day.
September 26th (Tuesday): I trained at the mine train from 5:45am - 12:15pm, so exactly 8 hours after I got off my closing circus shift. My alarm didn't go off in the morning but LUCKILY I happened to wake up and check the time. Apparently sometimes the push notifications (notifications that turn up on your lock screen of your phone) will get stacked in front of your alarm, so the alarm won't go off until you unlock your phone and acknowledge the push notifications. So anyway, I had an instagram live notification that I think was blocking my alarm, but both alarms went off as soon as I unlocked my phone (even though it was 20 minutes after they were supposed to go off). At work we opened tower, so the position with all the camera and the big panel and there's a LOT to do. So we opened that, took over a few positions, read a lot, and were already done at 12:15! We took over wheelchair assist at one point, and that person helps guests with wheelchairs to load the train if they need assistance, and parks the wheelchair/scooter/ECV/stroller. Normally you'll have a couple parked but we had NINE which is insane. It all started with a party of ten that had three, then they just kept rolling in after that. So that was crazy.
After work I went to Animal Kingdom with Jenna and we did Wild Africa Trek!!! SO AMAZING!! We had a special cast discount for the month of September which was $50 + 50% off the normal price, about $75-80 instead of $200. WAT is a three-hour tour that includes some walking (think nature walk rather than hike), being driven around in a special safari truck, and a snack on the savanna. At the very beginning they gave us name tags and water bottles (to keep forever!) and fit us in our harnesses. We were only allowed to take items that fit in the vest pockets, or items that were attached to us. So no bags allowed, but I took my DSLR camera, my GoPro, and an extra battery. Jenna took her phone and some chapstick. We walked through Gorilla Falls until we got to the backstage trail entrance, then walked up to the hippo exhibit! We got to strap in and stand above the hippos, watching the animal caretaker feed the hippo lettuce and watermelon!
Right after the hippos we crossed a rope bridge over hippos territory, then another rope bridge over crocodile territory.
We got to do the same thing with the crocs that we did with the hippos, and got strapped to a cable line so we could safely check out the crocodiles!
After the crocs we got into our VIP safari truck and took a tour around the reserve, with longer stops for animals and in many cases, a closer up view than the normal safari!!
We stopped for lunch in the middle of the savanna with a FANTASTIC view, and got six little African-inspired snacks. They did have options for food allergies or vegetarians/vegans, so they were very accommodating. I am none of the above, so Jenna and I both got the standard which included a fruit salad with ginger/mint/honey, a chicken curry mango salad, some dried beef and prosciutto, shrimp, pita and hummus, and a salmon roll. They also had passionfruit/orange juice/guava juice mix which is DELICIOUS and we had like five servings. You get a 40-ish minute snack break.
Then we got back on the reserve and drove back out! We also got to donate (pre-paid for in the WAT cost) to a conservation group of our choice, so I chose elephants. Also please check out the shirt I wore (feat. kid's chicken nugget meal)
Overall it was an amazing experience and I would highly recommend it. We also saw Festival of the Lion King, rode Everest, and rode Na'vi River Journey where we ran into our old circus coordinator (she know coordinates at Pandora).
Jenna as a crocodile and me as a vulture.
September 27th (Wednesday): I had another opening training shift at the mine from 6:45am - 3:15pm. We opened tower again but there were tour groups coming in and out for like half an hour. Which was weird. This was a weird split shift day because we opened tower as a training group, but the rest of my shift was my assessment. So after opening I took my written test and we picked up every position so my assessor could see if I was competent. I passed! Yay! Also we went and met Pinnochio because they were doing a special cast event in the tunnels.
After work I went grocery shopping and made a delicious homemade strawberry guava lemonade.
September 28th (Thursday): I worked from 11:45am - 9:15pm in the circus and had a good shift!! The first two hours were actually spent in a meeting to go over our training, so six of us met with some leaders and we talked about what we did and didn't like! We were a part of a pilot training program (the first in WDW history!) so they wanted our feedback. So I actually worked the circus from 2:15 - 9:15. At work I had the cutest tiny little boy waving at me and blowing me kisses outside of Barn which was sooooo cute. Also I had a guest ask me if someone braided our hair for us, and if braids were required to work in the circus. Super funny, but we all just happen to prefer having braided hair for work. So that was a first. Also inspections came to our apartment and we passed.
September 29th (Friday): I worked a 3:45pm - 11pm circus shift and it was also a party night, so we had lots of guests dressed up in costume! Super fun. A little girl was dressed as Maleficent so I said something like "hello Maleficent!" and she kind of leans over and whispers "I'm a good Maleficent though". So that was cute. After work (I took the bus this day) we waited FOREVER for the bus, one girl had actually been waiting for TWO HOURS and FIVE busses skipped us. So a bunch of people called and complained. Sometimes this happens on party nights because they use perimeter fireworks and those kind of fireworks block the normal route. Super annoying though.
September 30th (Saturday): I was off! Yay! I went to Epcot in the afternoon with Jenna, then we popped over to Magic Kingdom and did a TON. We rode Pooh, Buzz, PeopleMover (Space Mountain lights were on because they were down and that was awesome), Space Mountain, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, Carousel, Peter Pan, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Aladdin, Philharmagic, and watched both the parade and the fireworks!!! We also ran into TWO of our old circus coworkers who are now at Space Mountain and at Aladdin/Tiki Room/Treehouse.
October 1st (Sunday): HOW IS IT ALREADY OCTOBER?!?! I was off again and did nothing but cook, eat, and watch reruns of Psych. :)
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