Friday, January 27, 2012

Glamorous life of a Character Attendent

It's been a long while since my last post! I've wanted to write an update the last several days but have been too tired when I finally have a free moment. In my last post I promised pictures of my fantastic costume so, here we go!
Glamorous life of a CA

Stylish, right? Compared to other Disney costumes, we actually are pretty lucky!
















This week I completed my core CA (Character Attendent) training, welcome to Magic Kingdom, and as of this evening, my first solo shift. I've had the pleasure of working with Jafar, Stitch, Chip & Dale, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Shaker bear, Baloo & King Louie, Tinkerbell, Terrence, and Rosetta!

   
Amazing training family, Tink, & Rosetta

It's been a long week, and lot of work, but an absurd amount of fun. I am convinced I have the best role one can have at Disney. I finally have a day off tomorrow. I'm hoping to spend it doing a little housekeeping- organizing my room and doing some laundry mostly. I try to keep things exciting!

Shorter post than normal, but hopefully the pictures made up for it! I'm sleepy and this is the most I can put out right now.

Until next time,
Amy

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Traditions, Training, and Then Some

I feel like so much has happened since I last updated here. I'll try to back up a bit and write things in order.
Our drive down here was rather uneventful, with the exception of my favorite event: picking cotton in Alabama! 
I can't explain why I wanted to do this so badly, but now I can say I have.
Our first night on the road took us all the way to po-dunk Grove Hill. We stayed at their 'finest' #1 hotel, Windy something-er-rather. At first I was charmed by the kittens greeting us on the front porch, then when a barefoot man came out from around the door to give us our key, things started going downhill. The worst part of the experience was the sleeping accommodations. Our pillows were literally made of plastic, and the pillowcases kept sliding off throughout the night. By the time we woke up in the morning, we had all shoved our worthless pillows onto the floor.

Now back to Disney! Yesterday I had my Traditions class the majority of the day. I got to learn a lot about Disney history and see some previews of what I have to look forward to working with the company. It was a long day in the classroom, but when MICKEY arrived to deliver our name tags, it was all worth it! It was so exciting to have him surprise us at the door; the magic was very much alive!
After Traditions, I rushed home to my apartment to quickly change, then headed over to Epcot.

My amazing parents spent 2 long days in the car to bring me down to Florida, then enjoyed 2 days exploring Magic Kingdom & Epcot. Since they had an early flight today, and I had early training, we had to say our goodbyes last night. I met up with them and we visited Nemo and saw Talk with Crush before watching IllumiNation's firework show. It was so beautiful! The three of us went to ride Soarin' for the first time ever and it was SO COOL. Dad then took me to ride his two favorites, Test Track and Mission:Space. Mission:Space was insane. I felt like a dog with my head out the window, whose face is flapping back in the wind. There's a pretty image, right? I also took note never to ride that soon after eating.
These last few days have been a reminder of just how blessed I am to have the parents I do. They have been so supportive and encouraging. It was very hard to leave last night, knowing it'll be a few months before I see them again. But they prepared me well and I know time will begin to fly by. I thank God daily for my mom and dad. I pray one day to be as good of a parent to my children as they have been to me. 

Last family dinner before Jeff's sendoff to Hawaii

Today I had a training session for all Entertainment cast. A lot of today was spent backstage, and while I can't share what all went on, just know it was phenomenal! We got to watch Dream Along with Mickey on the Castle Stage. I'm not going to lie, I got goosebumps.  I also got my costume today! But, in order to keep the suspense alive, and also to get myself to bed sooner, I'll save that for next time! I promise to include pictures as well.
Last of all, I recorded a video tour of my apartment and uploaded it so, if you're wondering about my new humble abode, you can view it here! http://youtu.be/hlNrYMguSYs
I filmed it on my cell phone, so forgive me for the poor quality.

Until next time!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Let the Magic Begin

Well our plan to get in line at 6 am didn't work quite as well as we hoped... one roommate, (Miss Nicolina!) heard at 4:30 a line had already formed, so we rushed to get ready and she & I got were in line by 5:15. We heard later on that the first girl arrived at 1 am. Overachiever! Our 6 other lovely roommates, Emily, Caitlin, Elyse, Cortney, Cheyenne, and Heather, joined us soon after. Elyse's mom was gracious enough to bring us coffee and donuts! What a life saver that was.
We got through check-in relatively easy, without any major hiccups! Luckily we were able to get the apartment we wanted and were the first group to go to Casting, so we didn't have to wait in many long lines. Casting took about another 2 hours and we finished around 11. We got our first taste of waiting a good while for the disney buses. We then had a few hours move into our new 4 bedroom apartment in Chatham Square. After attending another 2 hour meeting, this time over housing rules, we got to finally relax(ish) and finish moving into our new home.
I'm so thankful to have tomorrow off. We have a welcome party tomorrow night at one of the apartment pools as a meet & greet for everyone who has arrived so far. My Traditions class will be Friday afternoon, then I will get to spend the evening at Epcot with my parents, watching the Illumination firework show before saying goodbye. They will fly home early Saturday morning- I'm sure they'll be ready by then to get back and see all our sweet animals!  My first training will be all day Saturday, hopefully I'll still have energy to explore the parks sometime this weekend!
That's all the news I have for now, and I know there was no shortage of it. Maybe when things slow down, (ha!), and I'm not so exhausted, I can write about all the adventures we had on the drive here. From cotton-picking, to plastic pillows, it was quite an experience.

Until next time <3

Monday, January 16, 2012

On the Road to Dreams

Well we are 4 hours into our 19 hour trip! So far the trip has been uneventful luckily. I've spent the majority passed out in the cramped back seat. Poppa is our dutiful chauffeur, but he will have to hand over the reins eventually! I'm anxious to see Cinderella's castle against the skyline, the sooner we get there the better.
On another note, my brother Jeff's new blog is up and running: http://howzithaole.blogspot.com/
It'll be full of updates from his new life in Hawaii. Within one week of each other, we are both heading to opposite sides(ish) of the USA. What will my poor parents do without our entertaining antics?! Maybe they should start a blog on what a real empty nest feels like, with guests posts from Lucy! Mrow mrow mrow.
It's too early to have cabin fever in the car, but at least I'm able to entertain myself with writing this entry. We just passed BoomTown casino, with a huge river paddle boat out front. I'm going to end this post before I start narrating each and every car that passes.
Toodles loves!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

One Week til Take-off!

Well, we went from 120+ days of waiting down to just 7. One week from tomorrow, my mom, dad, and I will squeeze into my tightly packed car, full of clothing, shoes, and pictures, and begin our journey to Florida. We plan to drive 10 hours the first day, (Monday), then the remaining 9 on Tuesday. We will be staying at the same hotel as my 7 new, wonderful Disney roommates! On Wednesday the girls and I plan to wake at an ungodly hour, fuel up on coffee and then get in the check-in line. We turn in all our paperwork, get our housing assignment, and then we go to casting! From what I've heard and read on other blogs, casting is where we learn which park we will be at, get fitted for our 'costumes' (not uniforms!) and take our Disney ID photo. Hopefully we will then get some time to unpack and see our new home before our housing meeting. Then either Thursday or Friday we will all go through the Traditions class, where we learn all the history of Disney and then take a short park tour. Underground tunnels, here we come!

The fact that I'm leaving Texas is starting to become realer and realer to me. That last sentence hurts me in that it sounds like awful English, but I can't think of a better way to describe it. I've finally made a lot of headway on packing up my Denton apartment. And praise God, my mom is on her way to Denton right now to help me finish packing. I'm sad to leave this apartment. It really has become home to me and Lucy. She is next to me, peering out 'her' window at this very moment!

I've already said several goodbyes, and absolutely dread all the ones remaining. I wish I could pack everybody up and just take them with me! Who doesn't want to move to Disney World, right? But as much as I know I'll miss everybody, (and Lucy, let's be real), I know that God has me. He is leading me and will use every experience for His glory. So while I'm sad to leave, I am not afraid.

Disney, here we come.