Day 64 & 65: Back to Work

March 30th & 31st

Day 64: Morning Shift

Let me just say, I am writing this more than a month in retrospect, so honestly, I don't remember really any details from these work days. But luckily March Laurel wrote down her schedule, so I at least remember when my shifts were. Also, I was probably lobby on this day, because it is highly unlikely I would've been lakeside at dawn if I was working any other location. 

Now, I have a confession. I usually figure out what I did each day when I post this late by looking through Facebook, old text messages, and most often, my photos. Sometimes I'll have photos and no information, sometimes I'll have lots of stories but no photos. It is what it is.

Day 65: Night Shift

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Day 63: The Earl

March 29th, 2015

Day 63

I was actually scheduled to work on this day, so the night before I crawled into bed, and at 5:30 I dragged myself out and into my costume, and to the bus stop. At this point I was exhausted, I had forgotten my lunch, I was still fighting one of the most vicious chest colds of my life, and then I get to the bus stop right as the K bus is pulling away. At that point I had to turn around and make a very tough decision for myself. The way I saw it, I had three options: Option 1: Wake up one of my roommates to drive me to work; Option 2: Call in late and take the next bus; Option 3: Call in sick. Now part of the reason it was such a struggle for me is because not only did I need the money, but I felt guilty for calling in sick when I had originally been on my way there. Ultimately I decided, after sitting on our couch practically punching myself trying to decide, that staying home would be the best option for me. I was so severely sleep deprived and fatigued, and I hadn't given my cough and my chest cold even a moment to get better, so they were really only getting worse. I crawled back in bed and stayed there until approximately noon.

Then that afternoon my grandparents picked me up for a luncheon at Downtown Disney at one of my new favorite dining locations, Earl of Sandwich.

The three of us got our sandwiches, ran into my coworker and fellow CP Daisy, and then made our way to Ghirardelli for dessert before meandering back through DTD to our parking spot. We made a quick trip to Publix before Grammy and Pa dropped me off at my apartment and made their way to the airport.

It was such an absolutely fantastic visit and I cannot express enough how grateful I am to have family members who would fly across the country just to visit me. Well, me and the mouse.

Thank you for a wonderful week!

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Day 62: Gringotts & Goodbyes

March 28th

Day 62

So as much as I'd love to give copious amounts of detail for this particular post, I'm writing it exactly one month in retrospect. To say I have a bit of catching up to do would be an understatement, but I'll do my best. Day 62 was the last day of Aunt Stephanie's visit, but her flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we got to spend the morning back at Universal Studios with her! My roommate Lisa also had the day off, and she splurged on the Preferred Annual Pass like I did, so she didn't have to deal with blackout dates and was able to join us around noon! The four of us spend a little time in Hogsmead before catching the express over to King's Cross Station. Once we got there, we squeezed in a ride at Gringotts before going to Florean Fortescue's for Aunt Stephanie's last ice cream cone.

I believe this was when I finally got to the try the clotted cream ice cream with meringue bits, and while it was quite good, it mostly tasted like sweet sour cream. After taking a few bites, Aunt Steph had to make her escape. It was so wonderful having her there to visit, and so bittersweet to say goodbye in the middle of Diagon Alley, where we had just been having the most magical day together about four days before that. Whenever you read this, thank you for visiting! It was everything I ever could've hoped for.

While we finished our ice cream, we decided to sit on some steps under the big covered area, and came to find it was actually a stage. An acting troupe came up and played out a story about three witches and a knight who went on a quest to find a magical well. They told the story with marionettes that reminded me so much of the animated telling of the Deathly Hallows, and although the photos didn't turn out exactly perfect, we had a great view!

Then we came back an hour later and saw Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees performing! Their show is so well done, and toward the end Celestina always picks a gentleman to sing a love song to and to join her kickline. This guy was so funny, getting so into the performance and throwing the boa over his shoulders.

After a photo opportunity with Hagrid's bike, we caught the train back over to Hogsmeade. 

We got in more rides on the dragon, in the castle, in Gringotts, and on pretty much all of our other favorite rides. We drank copious amounts of butterbeer, feasted at The Three Broomsticks, and grabbed a very pink cupcake at the candy shop in Hogsmeade.

When the evening had come to a close, Lisa drove me and Caitlin back to their resort where I was forced to say another very unwilling goodbye, as Caitlin's flight was leaving in the wee hours of the morning. Caitlin, thank you for one of the best birthday presents I have ever received. I for one will be forever grateful you came.

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Day 61: Safaris and Steven Tyler

March 27th

Part 1: Animal Kingdom

Because we hadn't been able to go to Animal Kingdom the previous day, we decided to split Friday between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We did get fastpasses on our way there, but because I reserved them so last minute, they were all pretty late in the day. There's a bit of a trick to online fastpass reservation, where when they give you your selections, you can just go back a page and proceed with the same selections and it'll give you different time options. Then once you make the reservations, you can go in to edit one and possibly make it even earlier. Pa really wanted to see Festival of the Lion King, which was entirely acceptable to me as it's the number one show on property. I managed to get us fastpasses for the 2 o'clock show, so before that we waited in line for Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was relatively early when we got there, so the wait said about 40 minutes. It ended up being closer to an hour, but luckily we had a REALLY good safari. All the animals were out and the elephants were close up and adorable.

After our safari we were looking at the map and I saw Rafiki's Planet Watch. I had never been to this attraction before, to my knowledge, but it said there was a train, so it seemed like a good idea. The train ride was wonderful, and you get to see backstage areas of Animal Kingdom, which for us included seeing a baby rhino. Once there we went to the petting zoo, found some hidden Mickeys, and met Rafiki!

After returning from Rafiki's Planet Watch, we got quick snacks/lunches and booked it over to Festival of the Lion King. We had seats right on the floor, up in the fog and everything. It is always an amazing show, but it was so much more excellent up close! Those stilt walkers really make me nervous though. They run and jump and dance on those stilts and it is terrifying. Then Aunt Stephanie and Caitlin and I went on Expedition Everest in the single rider line. The single rider line goes much faster than the regular stand-by line, but obviously you get split from your party. In this case we didn't mind, we just wanted to ride it. Here's a picture of Aunt Stephanie's first Expedition!

It wasn't Caitlin's first ride, but here she is too!

After that we started to make our way out, but Aunt Steph really wanted to see It's Tough to be a Bug, so we ducked into the Tree of Life right as it started to torrentially rain. When it ended we waded through the park exit, did a little drying off in the car, and made our way to Hollywood Studios.

Part 2: Hollywood Studios

Once we got to HS, we needed to kill a tiny bit of time before the last showing of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. We watched the Cinderella preview, which is always and will always be magical. Then we watched the stunt show, which was important to me that they see because it won't be around much longer. After the stunt show, we got in line for the Great Movie Ride, then met up with my roommate Laura and went to Pizza Planet to see Nicole and have dinner. Then Caitlin went to see Muppets, and Laura, Steph and I went to Star Tours before Laura took off for home.

At this point it was getting pretty late, so wait times were pretty short. We rode Rockin' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

When we were walking into Voyage of the Little Mermaid, we could hear some of the cast members chatting excitedly about something. Turns out Steven Tyler was in Hollywood Studios that evening, and he had just been on Tower!

We caught the late showing of Fantasmic and had seats right in the front. It was amazing and wonderful as always! I won't write any spoilers here, because I want everything to be a surprise for my soon to be visiting family, and I hope so very much that they'll get to see it. 

Oh, and then I came home to Ed Sheeran in my bed. Thanks Lisa.

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Day 60: EPCOT & Alice

March 26th

Day 60: EPCOT

Originally our plan was to split this day between Animal Kingdom in the morning and EPCOT during the evening, but when we got to Animal Kingdom there had been an awful accident right at the gate. There were ambulances and trucks and a helicopter and no one was being let into the park. We said a quick prayer and decided to detour to Coronado Springs so I could show everyone the resort. We did a quick walk of the lobby areas and decided to have lunch at the Pepper Market, our quick service location.

After that we were ready to go to EPCOT. We decided to just spend the day there instead of trying to split it. We're a big EPCOT family, and we could honestly spend a whole week there and not get bored, so it was nice to have a whole day to dedicate to it.

We started off at Living with the Land, and after that we split up so Pa could go watch the drummers in Japan. Caitlin, Aunt Steph, Grammy, and myself all went toward Canada to start making our way around the showcase. Caitlin and I went to see O, Canada! while Grammy and Aunt Steph did some merchandise browsing. Then Caitlin and I stopped in England to meet my dear friend Alice. She was so sweet and she complimented Caitlin's flowered headband, and asked us if it rains a lot where we're from.

Then Caitlin and I decided it was time for a drink to go with the rain. She had a Stella and I had a peach cider, and things got very British.

Then we started mixing drinking around the world with desserting around the world, because that's how I prefer it.

Creme brûlée in France

When I went to throw this away, I had my back to the street and was facing Caitlin. Suddenly she was staring behind me and yelling. I turned around to Belle strolling about three feet behind me in her blue country dress, and in my utter starstruck shock I managed to spit out a "hello," to which she so perfectly smiled and replied, "Bonjour!"

White sangria in Morocco

Drum show in Japan

Spumoni gelato in Italy. We also had the limoncello in Italy. That was interesting.

We finished it all off at my favorite shop for a caramel roll and a caramel apple!

Around this time, we ducked over to the Seas to find my roommate Maddie, and then pop into a showing of Turtle Talk. This was my third time seeing Turtle Talk, and I'd started to become discouraged. My first one just was not good, and while the second was better, I just wasn't getting the "roaring laughter" that all my roommates had experienced there. This time was totally different! The whole show was so funny! The best part was when Crush opened the floor up for questions and one little girl pointed her hand straight in the air and asked "What is the safest way to make turtle soup?" Crush was visibly stunned, and the little girl added, "My daddy told me to ask that," so Crush asked if he had told her to include the part about him feeding her the question, to which she replied, "Yes, he said I would get one dollar!" It was the most adorable and precious and hilarious moment, and Crush had the dad raise his hand, who had been recording the whole thing. There were so many quick little moments in the show that I just loved, and I can't wait to repeat it.

After the show, Caitlin and I booked it back to Mexico to watch Reflections of Earth with Grammy & Pa & Steph. We had such a great view, and we were right next to one of the fireworks launchers, so that was an exciting surprise.

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Day 59: Laugh Floors & Lovelies

March 25th

Day 59

On Wednesday we had a nice easy morning moseying over to Magic Kingdom via car and ferry. 

Right away we needed a snack, so we went over to Aloha Isle for Dole Whips. To my surprise, Aloha Isle and Sunshine Tree Terrace actually swapped locations, as Aloha Isle gets so much more traffic for the whips. We all got one and spent a few minutes sitting by the Magic Carpet ride enjoying them in the shade.

I forget the order we did everything in, so I'll just kind of list it all hodge-podge, but at one point I got to expose Caitlin and Stephanie to the greatness that is Storytime with Belle. Here's a picture of Aunt Steph right outside Belle's cottage, and you can see her castle in the background.

We met up with Grammy & Pa to go to the Laugh Floor, which is something that was very important to me that we all do together. In case it hasn't been apparent thus far, the Laugh Floor is probably my favorite attraction in all of the Magic Kingdom. I've been twice and both times they've told the joke I sent in, but this time we got there right as the line was emptying into the waiting room, so I didn't even have time to text a joke in. We were watching the show, and everything was hilarious as per usual, when one of my favorite monsters came on stage, Buddy Boyle. Buddy usually does a hypnosis type act, and not to give out too many spoilers, but the whole show, including his act, operates primarily on audience interaction. Well Buddy always chooses someone to help him with his act, and lo and behold the light shines down on Caitlin! He asked her to choose a number and tell the audience, and they bantered back and forth as only Caitlin knows how, with her whispering into the microphone and him yelling out her name because he couldn't "hear" her, and the whole time I was trying to get a picture of her up on the screen. So they banter and laugh, and the whole audience is really enjoying it, and I'm trying to take a picture, when Buddy says "Okay, I'll guess your number in just a moment, but first... SELFIE!" and the camera moves quickly to the person sitting next to Caitlin. Me. I was holding my phone up taking pictures of her and had not anticipated that at all, and I was so frazzled my mouse ears fell off.

Then Buddy had Caitlin make herself some antennae, to which the camera flipped back to me so he could ask if I got pictures of it all.

It was all so hilarious and unexpected, and I was so happy to not only have Caitlin be part of the show, but to get to experience it with her.

Then Caitlin and I explored Tom Sawyer Island, which was 100 times more magical than I remember it being.

We met up with the others for lunch at none other than Pecos Bill, the best restaurant ever of all time and watched the 3 o'clock parade from a prime spot in Frontierland. 

We rode Space Mountain and met Cinderella and Rapunzel in Princess Fairytale Hall, 

and Ariel in her Grotto,

rode Peter Pan's Flight, drove the Tomorrowland Speedway, became Space Rangers,

had dinner at Cosmic Ray's, watched Wishes from right in front of Walt & Mickey, and rode Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain right as the park was closing.

It was busy and magical and beautiful, and I'm so glad to have spent it with my lovely family members!

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