Disney Traditions

A fun element of Friday that I forgot to mention was our visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Mom had not seen the resort and it is one of my favorites so we went to wander around.  We both really enjoyed seeing the animals around the resort.  One thing we learned about from the cast members is how they track animals: Mom and I saw a stuffed Mickey in the bushes and wondered what was going on and then were even more perplexed when a cast member approached him with a collection of tubes fused together.  We asked what he was doing and he said that the device was for tracking Mickey - a method of interesting guests in this technology.  It worked with us!  Mom was particularly intrigued with the variety of flowers in this park.  She was very excited to find a banana tree!

Saturday I woke up early to go to Disney Traditions.  I was a bit unhappy with the clothes I had available - I accidentally had left the outfit I meant to wear in my new apartment.  I headed out in search of Disney University.  Finding the right path did not go well the first go around so I was very glad I left quite early.  I went through the Magic Kingdom gates, took the right-most path and ended up needing to circle back to the entrance.  On my second pass I took a middle route, past MK and past the Contemporary.  After driving over the "Walt Disney World Express" tracks and the warehouse which stores Holiday Decorations for all of the East Coast of Disney and Aulani Resort I came to Disney University.  The interior of the building has hanging ceiling tiles.  A few of the tiles were removed with classic Disney characters.

Disney Traditions was a four and a half hour class.  The main principles were teaching the four keys: Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency; emphasizing that "We create happiness..."; and informing each cast member that "Safe-D Begins with Me".  Part of training included a quick trip to the Magic Kingdom both in the utilizers and a few On-Stage Locations!  Another exciting element was a visit from Mickey Mouse where he brought our cast member name tags.  At one point during training I won a Minnie "critter" (small plastic character only available through Traditions) for answering a question.  Traditions was quite fun for training, but I was starving by 12:40pm and excited to get back to Mom and head to lunch.

I got back to Old Key West and right away Mom and I were back in the car and heading to Downtown Disney.  We decided to eat somewhere we both were curious about - Gloria Estafan's restaurant - Bongos.  The Cuban food was unfamiliar but a fun experience.  Then we started shopping - in addition to receiving my cast member badge I got my Disney ID which includes a discount at Disney stores.  During the holidays Cast members receive 40% off - too exciting!!  

Shopping lasted up until our dinner reservations at the California Grill in Disney's Contemporary Resort. Both of us wished we were more hungry for dinner, but we still had a great time.  Our server was excellent and actually interested me in sushi as my entree.  Mom and I split a flatbread and artisen cheese try as appetizers.  Our server enjoyed Mom's questions so much that she gave us a piece of chocolate cake to go.  Dinner lasted until about 7:50pm so we had to stay for some of the fireworks with our 13th floor few of the Magic Kingdom.  Despite the chill and wind, we stood outside for about half of the show.  Afterwards, we rode on the monorail simply because it is an important Disney experience and before we knew it we were stopping at the Grand Floridian for a little more shopping.  We found some shirts for John and one for me and then were captivated for a few songs by the band in the lobby.  The music was so much fun we had to force ourselves back on the monorail, back to our car, and the resort.  Mom hadn't seen Toy Story 3 so we borrowed and started to watch it back in the room.

Both of us started to fall asleep to the movie, so we stopped it and finished it Sunday morning while packing and getting ready for church.  There was just enough time to get a quick breakfast at Olivias before we left Old Key West.  We went to a Baptist Church near the resort.  The music was rather contemporary, but the band and choir were excellent.  The sermon was very good (Biblically based) and the people seemed very friendly.  After church, we headed towards my apartment but got distracted by the outlet mall.  We ran into the Gap Outlet and then needed to grab lunch.  McDonalds was the best option nearby so we stopped there, got some ziploc bags for Mom's liquids/gels, and then were off to the airport.  

It was strange leaving Mom at the airport and staying in Orlando.  I drove back to my apartment and faced my first challenge alone - getting into the gate.  Thankfully, I found the one sheet with the entrance code and got to my apartment.  Although the tv was on, none of my roommates were present so I started to organizing, washing, and ironing my things.  Eventually I ran out of hangers so took a quick trip to Publix (my new grocery store).  When I came back my roommate (Candy) was home and Callie soon arrived too.  They had spent most of the day in Animal Kingdom and had plans to go to EPCOT on Monday.  I kept organizing while they went to some guys' room to watch a movie.  By the time they returned I was pretty put together and finishing knitting my fifth guy-hat.  I went to sleep excited to go to my first park as a Cast Member.

Road Trip Leads to Vacation!

On Wednesday, Mom and I got back on the road.  Miss Sue had gotten salmon for us so we had bagels and locks - a tradition for us.  She gave us Kelly's E-Pass for the toll roads and we started on the trek to Orlando.  We were thrilled to arrive at Old Key West even though it was the shortest road day of our trip to date.

We checked in and Mom asked for her very first flower balloon:

She was so excited!  We then made reservations for dinner at the California Grill for Saturday night.  After moving our suitcases into the room, calling John, and calling grandma we drove up to the main house for dinner at Olivias!  We were both thrilled that the special was buttermilk chicken.  We had crab cakes as an appetizer, buttermilk chicken, and chocolate cake to go.  The hot tub and watching "The Game Plan" ended the night :)

On Thursday, January 12th we got up and drove to Cumberland Park Apartments to check in to my housing at 9am.  I got an intern t-shirt, Mickey hand pen, and a key to my apartment!  Mom and I moved a couple things in and then quickly went back to Old Key West to check on the movies we rented.  Right away we went to Downtown Disney to grab lunch and I changed for casting check in.  Casting was a collection of line hopping.  After an hour of filing paperwork, getting finger printed, and going through a background check - I was officially in the system!

I walked across the street to meet Mom at Downtown Disney.  Then we moved most of my stuff to my apartment and met the fourth person  in my room.  My roommate is Candy who will be working in HR and our suitemates are both engineers - Callie and Stephanie.

Friday was a day off.  Mom and I slept in and then went to Olivia's for breakfast.  Afterwards, we went to Target to get some groceries and other apartment supplies.  We then got lunch at Pizzeria Uno and shopped at bit at the outlet stores.  It was amazing how many people go to the outlet stores!  Most of the patrons spoke Portuguese - apparently a lot of Brazilians come here and shop.  We found a few great shirts at the Banana Republic outlet.  The end to our evening was going to the Downtown Disney AMC theater to watch "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  It was graphic, unfortunately, but a captivating and surprising story.  When mom and I got back to the room we watched Alyssa's favorite movie - The Newsies and I worked on knitting my final of five hats.

Road Trip

I am not certain how much I will actually blog, but at least at the beginning this should be a fun place to keep my memories of this latest adventure!  My Disney internship requires having a car, so Mom managed to get a week off from work to cross the country with me.

Saturday, January 7th, we left from Mason City and drove down to St. Louis.  We arrived around 8pm and stopped at my favorite Indian restaurant for dinner.  Mom had her first samosa and we split chicken tikka masala!  When we got back to the apartment, we checked for bugs (none!) and headed to bed.

Sunday, January 8th, we went to church at 9am.  Afterwards, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for brunch and ended up doing some fun shopping at Galleria.  Then it was time for cleaning the apartment.  After about 3 hours of cleaning, I was ready to leave the apartment so we went returned my library books and went to Dewey's for pizza.  The evening ended with watching Tangled and some knitting.  It was really good to have a break day before our longest driving day.

Monday we drove to Atlanta.  Mom was at the wheel for all but one hour of the very long day.  It felt like we truly became a part of the Honda, so we were thrilled when we got to the Gronka's home.  Dr. Ed had brought some home-made peroges (sp) which were really tasty.

Tuesday was mostly a girls day.  We took John G.  to the airport and then stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch.  Next we explored Miss Sue's yarn shop and the Fresh Market grocery store.  Then we went to the nail salon before heading back to the house.  Dinner was a collection of many fun things and in the evening Miss Sue and I were knitting!

Speaking of knitting....I would like to get back to my current project so will continue this tomorrow.