Week Twenty-Seven: Goodbye Spring CP's!!

Okay so for some reason we've just had the worst guests the past two weeks, and that keeps on continuing....I don't know if it's the heat or the humidity or the people, but guests have just been really nasty. Besides that though, it's been a pretty good week!!

July 24th (Monday): I went to Pike Place Market in the morning with my mom and sister in Seattle, and we ate lots of yummy food :)

Then that night I flew out of Seattle to head back to Orlando!! My flight was a red-eye and left at 9:25pm.

July 25th (Tuesday): My flight landed in Orlando around 6am. I took a shuttle back to my car, then drove home and slept from 7:15am - 1:30pm. Then I worked from 4:45pm - 11:45pm. It was a TON of people's last day, so that was a bittersweet shift. Everyone who extended from spring through summer had a July 27th end date, and July 25th last day of work. So we said goodbye to eight (I think) CP's. Our coordinators were AWESOME and let us all ride Dumbo at night then take a ton of photos, so that was really special. I'll post pictures if I remember when I upload them!

July 26th (Wednesday): I worked from 5:45pm - 1:45am for Extra Magic Hours, so I got to eat my lunch at 10pm which is super late and kind of funny. ALSO I had Dumbo automatically cut its power (if the ride detects that something is off, it will shut down or emergency stop or something like that) and we were down for like thirty minutes while maintenance tried to figure out what was wrong with it. So that was weird, I'd never had that happen before. But we got it all fixed up! Also we were down for weather from 11pm - 12:15am so we had literally NO ONE at night.

July 27th (Thursday): I HAD THE MOST RIDICULOUS GUESTS. I had one really angry Irish woman rant to me for 25 minutes about how much she hates America and Americans while I helped her figure out how to work the app. Like I get it, you're frustrated, but she never thanked me, complained the entire time, and stormed off after I fixed it up for her. So there was that, then I had a family holding a clear cup of urine because apparently it makes more sense to stay in line and have your child pee in a cup then it does to walk the 30 seconds to the bathroom. So that was pretty gross and the poor guests behind them were mortified. We also had it pour rain for five minutes, and went down for weather for all of twenty short minutes. But this man refused to leave the line and was yelling at us about the weather as if we can control that. But I had the dream shift of 10am - 6:15pm.

July 28th (Friday): I worked 3:45pm - 10:45pm. We were down for about 75 minutes and let me tell ya, the thunder was UNREAL. I like to call it gunshot thunder because it's THAT loud. Absolutely insane with crazy lightening and rain too. Also I had a woman come up to me and get mad while I was at Dumbo STANDBY greeter, because I wouldn't let her two children go up the FASTPASS entrance. Okay first of all lady, I have ZERO control over who the FP greeter lets through. Secondly, the FP greeter told me you only had two SPLASH MOUNTAIN FP's. This lady starts getting mad because now her 7-year old is going to cry and it's "not about the kids" and I'm thinking to myself, do you have any idea how many kids come through Disney?? THOUSANDS per day, and we can't just let random people go through FP just because they want to. So that was interesting.

July 29th (Saturday): We were super slow in the morning, then it rained for a little while, and all of a sudden we were SWAMPED when the rain went away. So weird start to the day. I also felt like I spent my entire shift explaining how everything worked. Like no one understood FP, no one understood how DAS (disability) worked, how the Dumbo play tent queue worked, I was explaining a lot. And that's fine and all, but it's exhausting. Also, I had a really funny child brighten my day because I was talking to him about his lightsaber he was holding, and he told me he got to fight Stormtroopers with it. So I told him I was glad he made it out in one piece and he just goes "I kind of wish I was sliced in two so I could meet my Grandpa and Uncle Chuck. Uncle Chuck was blown up in a land mine explosion! And my grandpa died from natural causes but was once shot in the arm." And I just go "oh that's too bad" because how do you talk to kids about that hahaha. And he just goes "yeah, it's a shame". So this kid was hysterical. I worked 10am - 10:45pm.

July 30th (Sunday): I worked 11am - 10:45pm and we had the WEIRDEST weather. It rained all day long, but like misty rain. So Seattle weather. Which is so uncharacteristic of Florida. But it was nice because it was cooler, and less people were riding our rides! So chill day. I did have this woman on the Barnstormer taking forever to stow her backpack and everyone else is ready to go, I'm just standing there waiting to check her lap bar and her kids behind her go "mom you're holding up the whole line!" and this mom just looks at me and says "oh, this is Disney, she doesn't care, she has to smile no matter what". OKAY woman. Also when I was at Dumbo FP I stepped on a snail on accident and squished it and it was disgusting. OH and I got an ER for 10:15pm even though I didn't ask for one, and went to Buffalo Wild Wings with my coworkers! I had been craving fried pickles for like three weeks so I was very happy to get those and some mini corndogs. Yum! And great company of course.

That was the week!! Hopefully it starts turning around with guest attitudes, it's much more fun when people are happy :)

Week Twenty-Six: A WEIRD Week and Long Weekend Trip Home!

A little late this week, but I was able to go home for a long weekend so I just got back to Orlando yesterday morning!

July 17th (Monday): I went grocery shopping in the morning before work, then worked from 3:45pm - 10:45pm. At work I didn't get a break for 3.5 hours so that was a long way to start work off. It was an absolutely insane day, in the span of one hour we had to E-stop Dumbo once, operate the ride with this CRAZY lightening going on (apparently it was reflecting off clouds, so it was further away than it looked), and our Dumbos were landing WAY off from where they were supposed to. So basically our coordinator is just running back and forth trying to deal with all the craziness that was going on. But on the bright side, we had a really beautiful double rainbow.

July 18th (Tuesday): It was another weird day. I had one guest call her daughter (about six years old) a "shit head" for trying to hop in an elephant before a little boy. We see all kinds of parenting styles here... I also had a guest get in my face when I was at Barnstormer merge, asking me to send fewer FastPass parties because "this had been happening to him all day long and he was tired of being slighted" and I told him we had a set ratio that we follow to merge our standby and FastPass parties and then he gets REALLY close to me (to the point where I'm literally backing up) and said something like "just remember that our grandparents died to protect what we have today" and it was extremely uncomfortable. Later in the shift we went down for weather for about two hours, but when I was at Barn FastPass I bent down to rub in some bug spray, then smacked my head on the greeter booth when I stood up. So I had to fill out an incident report with my manager, and sit with ice for like thirty minutes. I had a lump on my head and they almost called for an ambulance! ALSO I had a blister pop and get blood on my costume so I had to run to costuming to get a new one. So QUITE the shift. I worked from 10:15am - 9:15pm.

July 19th (Wednesday): I worked a dream shift from 3:45pm - 9:45pm. We went down for weather for about an hour, but there wasn't much rain or lightening so guests were really annoyed. After we came back up though, we had these weirdly long wait times. Like Barn was a 30-minute wait at 8:30pm. Why? I don't know.

July 20th (Thursday): We had one guest pass out in line that we had to call an ambulance for, and actually shut down for a bit because we couldn't get guests past her in line without like stepping over her which is definitely not okay. So that was crazy. Then right after that we went down at Dumbo A for an unusual noise, so our coordinators had a BUSY morning. Also I asked for my breaks to get pushed back and one actually got deleted, so I went almost four hours without a break, then ended up taking a 45 minute lunch instead. Odd. The shift ended great though, because we had a THREE HOUR weather downtime!! It was INSANE, pouring down rain and extremely close lightening and thunder. Super awesome but also slightly terrifying. My shift was 11:15am - 9:15pm.

July 21st (Friday): I got up at 4am and drove to the airport, getting into Seattle at 10am and I got to surprise my little sister which was awesome!! Also one of my good friends from high school whom I hadn't seen in over TWO YEARS picked me up which was fantastic.

I also hung out with my parents and had my best friend from high school stay over, which was WONDERFUL. AND I ATE SO MANY FRESH BERRIES.

July 22nd (Saturday): We celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday, so we ate lots of good food and went on a hike! Also we got to go crabbing to catch our dinner, so that's always fun.

July 23rd (Sunday): We ate breakfast in the morning (a really delicious and homemade breakfast) then my sister and I picked up a friend of mine and we went for a nice hike! We failed at jumping photos, but had a really fun time attempting them hahaha.

After our hike we headed home, had dinner, and I had a couple friends come over and I got to catch up with them which was really nice. Then off to bed! SO nice to sleep in my big bed back home.

Week Twenty-Five: Roaring Lions and Blue Spring State Park

July 10th (Monday): Monday morning I practically woke up to housing inspections! It was the first day of inspections, so we were clean but not very prepared for an inspection! Luckily we passed everything, so yay :) At work we had a one hour weather downtime, which was a pleasant surprise because the weather wasn't supposed to be that bad! I worked 4pm - 10:45pm. Then at night my leader basically told me that there's a giant batch of ICP's (the international college kids) coming into Mermaid, so I probably won't get that for cross-training.

July 11th (Tuesday): So on Tuesday there was a 5% chance of rain, then it decided to DOWNPOUR. Naturally I was stuck at FastPass without my rain gear, so I got SOAKED. Also we went down for weather, but no one called us at greeter to tell us so we were letting guests in for a good five minutes before we realized the ride was down. Oops. My shift was 4:45pm - 10:45pm.

July 12th (Wednesday): I put in for an ER and got declined, like always. I worked a nice 10am - 11:15pm so you can see why I'd want an ER ;) It was a pretty average day, we had another one hour weather downtime, and it rained pretty much all day long so crowds were pretty low!

July 13th (Thursday): I did laundry in the morning, then went to Magic Kingdom with my roommate Erika before work. We wanted to catch the Festival of Fantasy parade, but it was raining so hard that it ended up getting delayed. So we got waffles from Sleepy Hollow and rode Mine Train instead! I worked from 4pm - 10:45pm and the shift started rough but ended good. I had a bug fall onto my head and when I reached my hand up to get it out, I got stung, so I think it was a bee. I had to go out of rotation for like thirty minutes to get the stinger out haha. I also had two grown men fight over a Dumbo, so that was interesting. At night though I had some REALLY great guests; it is so refreshing when you have guests that genuinely appreciate you and the effort you put in to making their night magical. ALSO I had the cutest little boy and his grandpa wearing matching shirts that had a photo of them together and said something like "best friends" which was super adorable. They rode Barnstormer together :')

July 14th (Friday): Day off! I woke up early (got Starbucks, and this really cute strawberry cake pop shown below) and went to Blue Spring State Park with four of my coworkers, which was a blast.

The park is a spring with really clear water, and is a manatee migration area in the winter time! We started off the morning by kayaking and canoeing, Michaelene and I took a tandem kayak and the other three took the canoe. They were horrible at paddling the canoe and it was hysterical. We saw a bunch of pretty big fish, a couple turtles, plenty of birds, and Michaelene and I think we saw a manatee! We saw a large grey blog dive under water anyway and we're pretty sure it was a manatee.

After kayaking and canoeing we walked down the boardwalk and found the swimming spot! It was AMAZING with super clear water and was perfect for swimming. Naturally we took 285619827364 mermaid pics.

After the park we went to McAllister's Deli for lunch, SnoTea (I think that was the name?) for bubble tea, and Valkyrie Doughnuts for dessert! It was all in the same lot, super close to the UCF campus.

It was all super tasty. Then we headed back home and had a chill night!

July 15th (Saturday): I spent the afternoon in Epcot with my coworker Tamara, and her girlfriend Luz and we drank around the world! Mostly. Let's see we (collectively, not individually) got a sangria from Mexico, hard cider from Germany, a mango ginger drink from China, alcoholic shave ice from Japan (half blackberry and half coconut/pineapple), limoncello from Italy, some unfrozen pina colada thing from Morocco...and I think I got it all. The best was for sure China and Japan, my picks naturally. We also got wraps from Morocco for lunch, and strawberry ice cream macaroons from France for dessert. Then we rode the Frozen ride, Test Track, and Soarin'. After Epcot they went to Hollywood Studios and I went to Animal Kingdom. Walking in it started like monsoon-ing and I casually walk up through security while everyone else is taking cover and the security officer is like "are you a surfer or something? This isn't phasing you at all" and I was like "no, I just live here and expect this" hahaha #florida. I went and saw Festival of the Lion King (like always), and rode Kilimanjaro Safari (like always). It was SO COOL because I rode the safari around sunset which is when the lions are active, and THEY WERE ROARING AND IT WAS SO COOL. Then I went home and had a relaxing night!

July 16th (Sunday): I worked from 10am - 9:15pm and it was a pretty good day. I really wanted an ER because I didn't feel so hot in the morning (like always, it got denied), but it ended up being okay. The guests were all fine/good with some great ones, so no complaints there! Our wait times were pretty short too which is always nice and relatively stress-free. I got to meet a family from Everett, WA which is like 20 minutes from where I live so that was a fun small world moment. ALSO I had the cutest little girl come through Dumbo and she says to her mom "I can't believe we're going to FLY" and I wanted to melt it was so adorable. But for the first time in FOREVER....it didn't rain even a drop! Oh, and I randomly got scheduled a four day weekend, so I spontaneously bought a flight home for five days from now hahaha. Super pumped about that.

Week Twenty-Four: Happy 4th of July!

WHAT A WEEK. My shortest shift this week was just under eleven hours, so it was a long long week. Pretty good though!! July 3rd and 4th there were special fireworks (360 degree and classic American songs/anthems) so those days brought in tons of people.

July 3rd (Monday): I worked from 10:15am - 10:15pm and it was a pretty busy day!! We did go down for weather for about two hours, which was a really nice break. The fireworks were ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I was at grouper and main for the fireworks at Barn so I WAS outside, but the fireworks were mostly blocked by the station walls. They were super cool because the fireworks were being shot off from all angles, a change up from our usual fireworks! With all the people though, we had a 30-minute wait at Barnstormer even at 10pm which is unheard of. Yay busy days....funny story though, I had a kid (like young adult) come up to me and say "I never thought I'd meet the girl of my dreams in Fantasyland" so that was kind of incredibly awkward and funny.

July 4th (Tuesday): I met yet another Marin this day! Always fun to meet a little name twin. The 4th was nuts, I don't believe the park hit capacity, but it was pretty close. Naturally, FastPass was awful as always when you have a busy day. People always trying to get through FP when they don't have one, just because they don't want to wait in line. Unfortunately, I was at Dumbo merge (inside the tent) for over two hours, so I missed all the fireworks. That was a big bummer, because I should have been at greeter with awesome views, but rotation was like an HOUR late. I worked from 3pm - 1:45am so I didn't get to be until like 2:45am.

July 5th (Wednesday): I was SUPPOSED to work 9:15am - 10:15pm, which would put me into double time (getting paid extra for working two shifts with less than eight hour turnaround) BUT MY ALARM DIDN'T GO OFF. I'm still so mad about it. I woke up at 9:22am and starting freaking out because I was supposed to be at work, but my alarm literally just didn't go off. When I checked it, it was STILL set for 8am!! So maddening. Well somehow I still made it to work and clocked in at 9:55am, with no makeup and wearing my glasses and not eating breakfast. I also extended so I was out at 11:15pm instead of 10:15pm, and still worked a 13-hour shift. So BAD luck day.

July 6th (Thursday): Day off! Yay! I went to Universal with some coworkers, and we rode Mummy, E.T., the Harry Potter castle ride, the Hulk, Ripsaw Falls, and obviously got butterbeer. We also got Moe's for lunch at CityWalk!

After Universal we went to Disney Springs and got dinner at Homecomin' Kitchen which was SO GOOD. It's southern comfort food, but done really well. So I got these cheddar cheese drop biscuits with chicken and hot honey, and a side of mashed potatoes with gravy. To drink I got an AMAZING berry, rosemary, and lavender cocktail that was one of the best drinks I've ever had. This restaurant is cool because they have a bunch of local foods/ingredients, and local craftsmanship for the interior decorating! WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND. We all really enjoyed our meals.

July 7th (Friday): I was the only one off this day, so I went to Animal Kingdom by myself and brought my nice camera with me! It was super fun, I rode Kilimanjaro Safari twice, walked Gorilla Falls/Pangani Forest Trail or whatever they call it now, and watched Festival of the Lion King! And also got some delicious red raspberry iced tea.

After DAK I went home and did laundry then went grocery shopping!

July 8th (Saturday): I worked from 11am - 10:45pm and we had SUPER short wait times, which was such a nice change. Dumbo was 10-20 minutes all day long. At Dumbo merge (inside the play tent), I had one dad come up to me and say "my son thinks you're hot" and then his poor son got super embarrassed and everything was awkward. But kind of funny. I also had a family when I was grouping at Barn come up with a tiny child who was CLEARLY too short to ride. So I sent them back down but the dad kept saying stuff like "oh, it's fine, he's with me, he'll sit on my lap" and "he can ride between my wife and I" and I'm over here like FIRST OF ALL, neither of those things are allowed. It's two per row with no lap sitting. AND SECOND OF ALL, there are height requirements for a reason, and I don't want your baby to fly out. Ugh people. But the wife finally exited with the child. Also right before that I had THREE wheelchair parties in a row come through Barn so I had a very hectic grouping rotation. On the bright side though, we had free chips and dip in our break room because we've been doing so well on rotating quickly! So yay free food.

July 9th (Sunday): I worked from 11:30am - 10:45pm and it was pretty uneventful. We did have two lost kids we had to call security for, but as always, the parents were nearby. Our rides were pretty chill, it wasn't too busy, so that was good. And the end the day we got free cookies from Big Top Souvenirs so that was the cherry on top!

Overall it was an exhausting week, but nothing too crazy happened. OH I also put in housing preferences for my fall extension. I went for random roomies, and apartment choice in this order:

1. Commons 4-bed, 8 person
2. Commons 3-bed, 6 person
3. Chatham 4-bed. 8 person
4. Patterson 3-bed, 6 person
5. Commons 2-bed, 5 person
6. Chatham 3-bed, 6 person
7. Commons 2-bed, 4 person
8. Patterson 2-bed, 5 person
9. Chatham 2-bed, 6 person
10. Vista 3-bed, 6 person
11. Vista 2-bed, 4 person
12. Chatham 1-bed, 3 person
13. Patterson 1-bed, 3 person
14. Commons 1-bed, 3 person
15. Chatham 1-bed, 2 person
16. Patterson 1-bed, 2 person
17. Commons 1-bed, 2 person

And that's it! My move date is July 31st.

Week Twenty-Three: FLORIDA KEYS!!!!!

WHAT A WEEK!

June 26th (Monday): I had the cutest little girl ask to take a picture with me because it was her 4th birthday and she was wearing a Dumbo shirt, and liked my ringmaster costume. SO CUTE OMG. So I took a picture and felt famous :') Also we had FIVE people call out and had a pretty busy day (especially compared to the past few weeks) and had a 55-minute wait for a while at Dumb. I worked 4pm - 11:45pm.

June 27th (Tuesday): I worked from 3:45pm - 11:45pm and we were lucky enough to be down for weather from 3:50pm - 7pm. The storm was circling us, so it wouldn't leave the area! After we came back up though it started pouring, so we were super slow the rest of the night. Not mad about it. We also had Dumbo A go down for a while because it was landing in the wrong position, and had a child poop in the play tent, so an interesting day as well.

June 28th (Wednesday): Before work I went to Animal Kingdom with Michaelene and we saw Festival of the Lion King (duh), did Kilimanjaro Safari, rode Expedition Everest, rode Flight of Passage, rode Primeval Whirl, and ate at Satul'i Canteen for lunch! 

I worked 4:30pm - 1:45am and I actually had a surprisingly awesome night for EMH! Normally when you work until 1:45am you get pretty tired the last hour or so, but I had some really awesome guests at the end of the night. We had two different groups who kept re-riding, and they were just so NICE and thankful! I actually had one group take a picture with me and tell me I made their vacation end on such a high note, and that was really wonderful. I also told a little girl she could re-ride and on her way out on her second ride she turns around and looks at me and says "I love you!!" and I almost died it was so cute. 

June 29th (Thursday): So we were doing weather warning spiels because some grey clouds were rolling in, and I accidentally pushed the weather evacuation button instead, so everyone started to exit the queue. You better believe I got on that PA system REAL quick..."HI GUYS THAT WAS A MISTAKE, WE ARE NOT EVACUATING, I REPEAT, WE ARE NOT EVACUATING" hahaha it was so embarrassing. But my coordinator gave me an ER so I could get off at the same time as my two friends, Jenna and Cassie, who were my Florida Keys buddies!! I was scheduled 4:45pm - 10:45pm and ended up working 4:45pm - 9:15pm. We got Cassie's car all packed, then drove through the night (in 2.5 hour shifts) down to Key West. Of course we stopped for food on the way, but we got into Key West around 6:30am.

June 30th (Friday): We drove straight to White Street Pier in Key West to watch the 6:30am sunrise, then drove to get breakfast at this delicious crepe place (Key West Creperie I believe) afterwards, around 7:15am. Cass and I both got a crepe with nutella, banana, and strawberry, and Jenna got a chicken crepe! They got fresh orange juice and I got a chai, and it was all super tasty. 

After breakfast we went to the Key West Aquarium and got to see some sharks, turtles, stingrays, fish, and a giant snake!! We got to touch some stuff, and feed the fish. So that was fun! After the aquarium we also drove to the southermost point in the U.S. which is in Key West!

Then we drove about an hour north to Bahia Honda State Park and spent the afternoon at the beach. The beach was GORGEOUS and you can walk out super far because it stays fairly shallow (up to chest then down to waist then up to chest, etc. for quite some time).

After the beach we checked into our hotel, Captain Pip's, which was really nice and a great value. We got dinner right across the street at Sunset Grille, which was very hit or miss. Our waitress was really slow and inattentive, but our appetizers and dessert (key lime pie of course) was great!! Jenna's entree was pretty bad, and Cassie and I's entrees were pretty average. So a very up and down spot for us, but it had a great atmosphere and location!

After dinner we went back to the hotel to shower and watch the sunset, then fall asleep at 9pm to Easy A!

July 1st (Saturday): We checked out at 10am, then stopped by this AWESOME bagel place we stumbled across by accident for breakfast. Cassie and I both got plain bagels toasted with nutella cream cheese, and Jenna got a sandwich! The bagels were REALLY good. We would all definitely go back!! It was called Marathon Bagel I believe. Next to Walgreens where we reloaded on sunscreen. After breakfast we went to the Dolphin Research Center (continuing up the keys to Grassy Key) and that was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Would definitely recommend to anyone doing the keys. They had a bunch of different areas for different dolphins (so one for the adult males, one for adult females, and one for the teenagers/babies and moms) plus some sea lions. They have presentations/shows every 45 minutes or so and we watched a few of those. One was two adult dolphins and a trainer showing us different training techniques and physical attributes, so an educational talk with the dolphins as examples! Another one was a new training class with the young dolphins, so we got to watch them work with the little ones on teaching them to jump onto the scale to get weighed and stuff like that. I could have stayed there all day.

After the Dolphin Research Center we made a quick stop for shave ice by Robbie's, which is known for feeding giant tarpon (a type of fish). Finally our last stop in the keys, John Pennekamp for snorkeling!! We booked a tour thing for like $30/person where a boat takes you out to the coral reefs, and you get to snorkel for 1-1.5 hours. We saw angelfish, barracuda, a bunch of coral and little fishies, and some grouper! Other groups also saw stingrays, but we didn't. So that was a really nice excursion, BEAUTIFUL blue water!! 

And that was it!! We left straight from the park in Key Largo (northern part of the Keys) and drove the five hours home. We ended up getting home around 12:30am. SUCH AN AMAZING TRIP WOW. It cost about $140/person for hotel/gas/excursions for the weekend. Food and merch was an additional cost to that, but we feel pretty good about how we did it. I bought a long-sleeved shirt from Ron Jon and a Dakine fanny pack. Cassie bought a bunch of stuff, and Jenna got a shirt from the Dolphin Research Center! 

July 2nd (Sunday): I called in today because I was so dead tired and needed to get my laptop fixed (a FOUR hour trip ugh). I was supposed to work 9:15am - 9:15pm. Well I got to Apple at noon, when they opened, and there was already a 1.5 hour line for the genius bar (repairs). So I got my name down and walked around the mall to kill time. I went to Yankee Candle and got some wax melts for the apartment (no open flames allowed, but wax melts are fine!) and Sephora for new foundation. My laptop ended up having a somewhat dead trackpad, but Apple doesn't do repairs on laptops older than five year because they don't carry the parts (mine is a 2010), but the lady told me to just buy a mouse and disable my trackpad. So that's what I did, it worked like a charm and only cost me $13! SCORE. 

That's it for the week!! Overall an awesome week. Wish me luck this week on our 4th of July madness!