Once Upon A Time...

My experiences and adventures as I travel from Oregon to Orlando Florida to participate in the Disney College Program as a YSA member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (This blog is in no way affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Round 2: Day 140

I have no excuse this time... I guess I just got too caught up in life to blog for two weeks. Oops! I promise to really start trying harder from here on out. Lol. Nothing too eventful has happened since my last post though. Last week my roommates and I ate at Trails End (a buffet style restaurant at Fort Wilderness Lodge) during the same time that DCP Alumni were invited back for a reunion. We saw some girls with a popular DCP blog eating across from us and I may or may not have pretended to fan girl over them and they may or may not have thought I was serious... Lol. My bad! The food was great though and the setting made me miss home, even though winter here is like spring there.

Our apartment is almost done being set up now, three girls can have a lot of things, so pictures will be coming soon! We’ve had a lot of fun decorating and we were able to have the sister missionaries over for dinner a couple of nights ago which was a lot of fun. It’s really nice to be with two girls who share my beliefs and are down for having the missionaries over and having a big family style meal with them. The day before we fed the sisters, I was able to set up a booth with them outside of Chatham and talk with CPs about the church. I even gave away a Book of Mormon which was a pretty awesome feeling. 

Yesterday was Sunday so I got to go to morning church and see a new wave of CPs which was fun, but then I had to go to work because I’m still working on getting my days off back to what I had before.

At work I had a fireworks shift. Basically, this means I was chosen to be a sacrificial lamb during the Hollywood Studios Star Wars fireworks show. This was my third fireworks shift, so it’s nothing new, but it’s definitely not my favorite thing to do. First off, for fireworks the cast members get to work at their actual location for two hours, get a bump-out around 5pm, then go sit in the break room behind Lights, Motors, Action (LMA) for around an hour.  At 5:45pm we move to a conference room in one of the bungalows (the buildings where the manager’s offices are, which are currently in the process of being torn down) for a fireworks safety meeting. This is probably my favorite part because they show a video of what happens when a firework lands on the ground before going off and it’s pretty awesome. After the meeting, we can stay in the bungalow until we have to be in position, which is at 6:45pm.

Getting into position is my least favorite part, because I’m usually alone and cold and it’s really awful. Every fireworks cast member is assigned a position either backstage or onstage. Most onstage areas are clear of guests when the fireworks start, the rest of the onstage areas are on standby to be cleared of guests if the winds shift. So we stand there and wait for phases to be called out over the radios, which you don’t get if you’re onstage where guests can still go so you just have to wait for another cast member to tell you what’s happening.

At phase one, every cast member has to be in position and has to redirect cast traffic as backstage areas where firework fallout may land is closed. I don’t understand why the closure of backstage areas every night at the same time is still a surprise to some cast members, but apparently it is. Luckily, most cast members however upset they are, still are nice about not going backstage because if they cause issues, security can come and take their information and either give them two points (which doesn’t sound bad but kinda sucks) or fire them on the spot if they’re really causing issues. Anyway, phase one starts at 7pm, or one hour to fireworks as I suppose the show isn’t always at 8pm... At this point, the fireworks crew is out in the areas where they launch the fireworks setting things up. At 7:30pm, or half an hour to show, we enter phase two which is the same thing except more backstage areas are shut down and no exceptions can be made. At 8pm, or show start, we enter phase three, which is where you really become a sacrificial lamb.

Essentially, your job at fireworks is to promote safety, which is Disney’s number one priority. Your job is to protect cast members from entering areas where they could be hit with firework fallout. Ironically, you are a cast member, and you are standing directly in the areas where firework fallout occurs. To be totally fair though, we are all standing outside of the area where any fireworks that don’t go off in the air could land, which is really what we’re supposed to be keeping people from getting to. In phase three, you have to be in full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which includes a reflective safety vest, a hard hat, safety glasses, and ear plugs (which aren’t required, but... you’ll want them). The fireworks show lasts about nine minutes at this point. I hear that the show will get bigger and better as the show currently contains a lot of leftover fireworks from the Hallowishes show at Magic Kingdom. So after nine minutes of yelling at people to stay inside of buildings and avoiding being pelted with hot firework casings and ashes, you spend another hour or two standing around and keeping people out of the areas while the fireworks crew sweeps the property for fires and picks up any fallout that landed onstage. 

Last night, my position was on the road with a small barricade, trying to stop pargos (golf carts) from going past me. Luckily, at phase two, all roads leading to my road are shut down and I only have to worry about people exiting buildings, which there is not a lot of. Basically, I stood outside for an hour humming and pacing for warmth. I know, Florida is supposed to be warm or whatever, but humidity and cold makes for even colder. It was around thirty degrees last night. 

Where I was at, I could see the fireworks launching which was pretty cool. I kept getting distracted watching the fireworks go up and explode over my head instead of watching doors for cast members. Oops! One piece of a firework landed about twenty yards from me and was still lighting up, which was scary but also cool. After the show ended, I had to allow fireworks crew traffic to go past my barricade, and the trailer that they were launching the fireworks from came past me with all of the cannons that were still smoking. 

Around 9pm we got to go back to the LMA break room and put away all of our PPE and go home. I ate some hot soup, watched some Netflix, and went to bed only to be woken up at 7am by construction workers on the roof. :( Ah well, another day of fireworks awaits!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Round 2: Day 124

Alright folks... after my family left the holidays hit hard and I was working crazy hours and constantly on the go. As soon as the holidays ended, so did my program and I found myself busy with moving and beginning training for my new role. Long story short, here we are one month since my last post... Sorry! Anything exciting that wasn’t here was probably posted on Facebook in the form of a status or picture. So if we’re friends on Facebook, you’re all caught up, and if not... you didn’t miss anything too important so onwards and sideways we go.

I found out that I would be transferring to the Star Wars Launch Bay, which is a really awesome thing since the Launch Bay is just a temporary attraction to include the recently acquired Star Wars franchise in the park while the Imagineers come up with and begin working on creating Star Wars Land. Since the attraction only opened December first, I am technically opening team for the attraction, and being a CP on an opening team is a pretty rare thing. Not to mention that I’m one of the first three CPs to work at launch bay and we’re all training together. Another thing that’s cool about working at Launch Bay is that it will only be around for 3-4 years while Star Wars Land is being constructed so I’ll be one of the limited number of people who even get to work at this attraction. Even though I’ve only seen the Star Wars movies once or twice way back before I can really remember, I’m excited to be a part of this transition. It’s kind of amazing to be somewhat involved in this acquisition, and I can’t wait to see what’s coming.

Since starting my training at the Launch Bay, I have learned some really amazing things about Hollywood Studios (the park within Disney World where the Launch Bay is located). First, sticking with the Star Wars theming for now, Launch Bay consists of a theater which shows a short film featuring interviews with the creators of the newest Star Wars movie, a couple of gallery rooms, a Disney Infinity room (where you can play Star Wars themed levels on Disney Infinity for Xbox and Star Wars Angry Birds for Tablets), and a few character meet and greet rooms. The Launch Bay has two props that were actually used in filming of the movies and a ton of authentic replicas made by the same people who made the original props. Apparently, workers from Skywalker Ranch brought all of this from the ranch, and will come periodically to move things around as Disney World employees are not authorized to handle the items. My trainers were both working when the Launch Bay was being built and were able to speak with the workers about their jobs and the props which is kind of amazing.

Additionally, I learned that when Hollywood Studios was still MGM, three films (Mulan, Brother Bear, and Lilo and Stitch) were animated in one of the buildings that is now cast offices and a café, the building features display cases of original drawings from many different movies and large screen prints on the walls of sketches from the movies that were animated there. It’s an amazing building! I also learned that the outdoor shots of the Golden Girls were filmed where the park is along with a few other films, Bear in the Big Blue House was filmed on one of the sound stages that now houses a Disney Junior Show, and Mickey Mouse Club was filmed on a sound stage where Toy Story Midway Mania now stands. The cool part is that the building backstage where my managers are currently working used to be a dressing room/classroom area for the cast of Mickey Mouse Club. I nerded out a bit being in that room. So cool!

Now, onto my personal life... I turned 22 on the 3rd and on the 7th I moved in with my friend Staci, the one from church that I’m always hanging out with, and my friend Kelsi, also from church since all of my past roommates moved back home at the end of their programs. We live in a one bedroom, which means bunk beds again, but also means we don’t have to live with someone we don’t know so... perks and pitfalls haha. I think it will be awesome though! We got an apartment in The Commons, which means we have a small convenience store nearby and a washer and dryer in our unit. We’re on the third floor, which sucked for moving, but is nice for not having to hear people walking around above us. 

I’ve had three days of on the job training at the Launch Bay, which I love so far, and today I had my “On With The Show” which is where you tour your park and ride a ride. Basically all I do at Launch Bay is direct people to areas around the Launch Bay, Load and Spiel for the theater, line guide for meet and greets, and park strollers. It’s pretty laid back compared to the Emporium and anyone who knows me knows I like speaking into microphones and getting attention so working the theater is a ton of fun for me. My absolute favorite part about Launch Bay is getting to work alongside entertainment. The character performers are so fun to be around and it’s so fun to watch guests interact with them. Our break room is right next to the entertainment room so we get to see the characters as they walk to and from their meet and greet areas and they like to interact with us which never ceases to bring a giant, childlike smile to the faces of every cast member in the room. I love it so much, and am so looking forward to this opportunity! I definitely needed the change of scenery to remind me how amazing it is that I get to work here. I feel another successful program coming... Stay tuned! <3

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 89-95

Since my family was in town for a week and we were keeping pretty busy, I didn’t take the time to update my blog at all, so now you will get a massive blog about one week instead of a bunch of smaller blogs, because I don’t have the patience for that right now. Haha. So we’ll start with Saturday and work our way from there.

Saturday December 5th:

This morning I got up and got ready so I could catch the 11:17am bus to Wal-Mart. It was my roommate’s birthday, and I wanted to make her some brownies, but didn’t have the ingredients I needed. I got what I needed, and ended up back at the apartment around 1:20pm where I made brownies, and did my nails while they baked. I put the card I had made and the other roomies had signed with the brownies, got ready for work, finished packing, and headed out to work.

I had a stock shift today and was stuck in zone 4, which is where the majority of the Christmas stuff is sold. Everything was going smoothly, until the manager came to walk our zone (check to make sure everything is stocked and make a list of things that are out of stock) and decided to tell me a couple of the racks were stocked wrong (I had just been replenishing what was there and apparently it was wrong) and had me take all of the ornaments down and restock the racks. I got out of work at 3:30am and called my parents who were driving around trying to find the West Clock lot so they could pick me up. They found the lot and I ran out to meet them. It was so good to see my parents again after not seeing them for a couple of months! 

We hugged, and I climbed into their rental car so we could head back to the rental house. The house was pretty nice, and all of my siblings were there sleeping. I was excited to be with everyone, but I was tired and so were my parents, so we went to sleep ready for the next day’s adventures.

Sunday December 6th:

I slept until around noon, so we didn’t end up going to morning church. There wasn’t any food in the house so most of the family went to the store to do some shopping and I stayed behind to get ready for the day. My brother-in-law and dad had learned that there would be a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral so we decided to head that way to watch it. Unfortunately, the sky was very overcast so we were only able to see the rocket when it first launched and couldn’t see it as it climbed higher into the sky. 

We headed to Burger King to grab some lunch before going to Cocoa Beach to play in the water. My family thought the water was really warm and ended up swimming for a couple of hours. We decided to try and make it to night church and started gathering up our stuff only to find out that my dad’s hearing aid was missing. I had picked up and moved all of our stuff further up the beach when the surf started coming in, and hadn’t realized that my dad’s hearing aid was in his hat. It had dropped out at some point when I moved our stuff. It was almost dark out at this point, and we all had the flashlights on our phones on scouring the beach for a tiny hearing aid. 

Amazingly enough, we ended up finding the hearing aid, said a prayer, and headed back to the house. Unfortunately, we got there right as night church was starting, so we weren’t able to make it to night church either. We had a family dinner and game night though, which was really nice. As we were heading off to bed, I realized that I didn’t have my guest passes with me, and my dad had to drive me to my apartment so I could pick them up. It was a good and eventful day, but I was glad to head to bed for the night after we got back from my apartment.

Monday December 7th:

Monday we woke up and headed to Hollywood Studios as it opened. We had to wait in the ticket line while I activated the Christmas tickets, and we headed straight to Starbucks after that to grab a couple of drinks. We hopped on The Great Movie Ride, and walked through the Star Wars Launch Bay, which had just opened last week, before heading to the Tower of Terror for our first FastPass. I was only able to set up FastPasses for my original guest passes as the Christmas passes weren’t active yet when I made the passes, but I made the same passes for later times as soon as we got into the park. Typically, the employees will let you through if everyone else in your party has the FastPasses, but the guy at tower told us no and that we would need to go to guest services to ask about the other passes. Ugh! After about twenty minutes at guest services, all of the passes were switched to match the later set, which isn’t what I had wanted, and we had to decide what to do in the meantime since we had anticipated being at Epcot that night instead of still at Hollywood Studios. 

When I got out of the guest services building, I found my brother-in-law getting free advice from some of the citizens of Hollywood. Seeing that everyone was having a good time made me cool down from being upset about the FastPass situation. We decided to just head to Epcot and get some stuff in there before our FastPasses at Hollywood started. We went to Innovations to design our own roller coasters and played a group phone game called “Psych” while we waited in line. We were also able to do Test Track, again playing games in line, before heading back to Hollywood for our Tower of Terror FastPass. 

Everyone was hungry at this point, so we all grabbed a snack with my free snacks I got from the Employee Christmas package and headed to Star Tours since the wait was short. We walked around the area near Star Tours for a bit, checked out Pizza Planet and such, and decided to do The Muppet’s 3D ride. We went over to the Pixar area afterwards to see the rest of the Toy Story stuff, and decided to use our No Strings FastPass for Rock-N-Roller Coaster so we could head back to Epcot and get some more stuff in there.

Back at Epcot, we did Spaceship Earth and Mission:Space before grabbing some dinner. Some of the group had Fish and Chips in England, and the rest just had American Food before we all headed out to find a good place to watch Illuminations from. It was a great way to end our first night in Disney. After the show ended, we had to catch a bus back to Hollywood Studios since our car was parked over there. My brother-in-law found a Disney wheelchair in the parking lot and ended up running all over pushing my sister in it. After they were through with their shenanigans, we headed back to the house to get some sleep.

Tuesday December 8th:

Today we got up to meet my roommates at Animal Kingdom so we could use one of my roommate’s guest passes to get the whole family in for free again. We were a little late, so I bought my roommates some Starbucks as a thank you and an apology before we went our separate ways for the day. I went from there to find a FastPass cast member who could match the FastPasses I had to the other guest passes. This went much smoother than it had the day before. We were able to do Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur, It’s Tough To Be A Bug, The Festival of the Lion King, Expedition Everest (multiple times), Kali River Rapids, meet Pocahontas, walk the Pangani Forest Trail, eat at Flame Tree, and go on the best Safari (as far as animal sightings go) I’ve ridden since coming here before heading to the Affection Section at Rafiki’s for a bit. It was a very full, but very fun and successful day. The park had an hour to close by the time we finished all of the rides, but we headed back to Epcot to do some of the rides we had missed the first night. We did Soarin’ and the Seas with Nemo and Friends, including looking at all of the big fish tanks afterwards. We were all pretty tired and hungry at this point, so we headed out to Taco Bell to grab some food before heading back to the house to eat, watch some tv, and head to bed.

Wednesday December 9th:

Today was a break from the parks day, and we ended up basically sleeping the day away. We headed to Daytona Beach once everyone was up and moving about to see the track and spend some more time on the beach. The water wasn’t as warm there, and we had dinner reservations to get back for, so we didn’t spend too much time there, although we did stop at a candy shop to get some saltwater taffy before heading back. We went to the house, got changed, and headed to Disney Springs to eat at Planet Hollywood. It was pretty sweet, and since I had made the reservation, I treated my family to dinner. 

After we ate, we walked around looking at shops and watching the Rainforest Cafe volcano go off. It was a good day, but we were all pretty worn out from the excitement of the week so far, so we headed back to the house to watch tv for a bit and head to bed. On our way back, we stopped at my apartment so I could get some more clothes, and I was able to bring my parents and my older sister inside and show them around the complex and my apartment which was pretty awesome.

Thursday December 10th:

Today we went to Universal and did most of the rides at Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley at Universal Studios. It was so fun to get to show my family around Universal since I love it so much. We stopped halfway through the day to get some lunch at CityWalk, and went on all of the water rides afterwards. Everyone was soaked and tired, so we hit a couple more rides and headed back to the house. 

Friday December 11th:

Our last day together we had another Universal Day and did almost all of the rides we didn’t get to the day before. We also did the Fear Factor show and Jordan was picked to blast the contestants with water as they tried to climb a ladder in the last challenge. At the end of the day, we went to get some pizza, and headed back to the house to clean and pack. I fell asleep in my parent’s bed for a little while as we were waiting for the clothes in the dryer to be done. Their flight left at 6am, so we got back up around 3:30am to pack the car and drive to my place. They unloaded all of my stuff and all of the food type items that they had bought and weren’t wanting to fly back, and we said our goodbyes. I was sad to see them go, but was so grateful for the opportunity being away brought us. If I wasn’t here working, we probably never would have had a family vacation in Florida and been able to do all we did. Best Christmas present ever!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 88

Today I got up around ten and did some laundry while cleaning the apartment and packing to stay with my family in their rental house when they get here tomorrow. I got my stuff set and folded my laundry while watching Rudolf on ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas.

Once my laundry was put away, I made myself a burrito and watched the beginning of Jack Frost before taking a shower and getting ready for work. Before heading out for work, I stopped at the clubhouse computer room to print off my Family Holiday Celebration tickets and bring them back to the apartment.

I worked from 5:15-1:15 and I spent the majority of my shift at the Magic Band registers... I am not trained on the Magic Band registers, I don't know much about Magic Bands, and I'm not authorized to log into the system to activate them. So basically, it was a mess. I told a few coordinators that I wasn't trained there, and they took my info and said they would put me into the system and never did. Everyone else had to do my job for me since the coordinators wouldn't assign me somewhere else and I couldn't do the job. For about an hour I was in Baby Care, but then I got bumped back to Magic Bands.

If nothing else, I learned something new today and was glad to go home for the night, even though I just kind of left because I didn't get my bump out. I headed home, grabbed a snack, and climbed into bed, unable to sleep due to my eager anticipation of my family's journey that started tonight with a drive from home to LaGrande. More magic tomorrow and tons of excitement to come!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 87

Today I slept until 11am, got up, had breakfast, and went back to sleep until 1pm. I guess my body decided to try and sleep away the sickness. When I woke up again my roommate offered me some of her tea called Throat Coat, and it was amazing! It made my throat feel so nice! I finished my tea, took a shower, got ready, and headed to the bus.

I went to Disney University to use my 35% off Company D coupon and pick up my free Family Holiday Celebration ornament. I got Christmas presents for my parents and a couple of cast exclusive things for myself before catching the West Clock Shuttle bus to the Magic Kingdom tunnels. I dropped my stuff off downstairs and headed up to the park to see if we still had the Baymax plush in stock. We didn't, and it was sold out everywhere. Bummer. One day I'll get it, I just have to have a quicker reaction when I see it on the shelf since it sells so quickly.

I wandered around some of the shops before heading back down to put on my costume and get to work. I had a stock shift from 5:30-2:30 and was lucky enough to get put in plush, which is super easy to stock. We got finished around 1:30 and were told to help out zone 1 and 2 but to go ahead and clock out on time rather than stay until the whole store was done. This is a new rule that I'm not sure isn't temporary, but it's really nice and seems to push people to actually finish their own zones on time.

I helped in zone two for a bit, clocked out, and caught a ride home with the girl I had been stocking with. When I got home, I had some ice cream, which I know isn't great for my throat issue, and went to bed. Two days until my family comes!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 86

This morning I woke up around nine and decided to lay in bed until 11 because I could. Eventually I got up and had some breakfast (cocoa puffs with banana… yum! Haha) while catching up on my Netflix viewing. My friend from church that I’m always with texted me asking if I wanted to go with her to the DCP graduation so I got ready and headed out.

Luckily, the celebration was right outside my building in the Chatham Square field. We got ears with tassels, graduation certificates, and BBQ which we took to Staci’s apartment to eat and chat about boys while listening to the music from the dj outside in the field.

After we finished eating, we headed back down to get our graduation present (a photo box) and take some pictures. The line for Minnie and Mickey in their graduation outfits was super long so we decided to skip it and get that picture after our second program. We did get pictures with Donald and Daisy though and we did the photo booth which was a lot of fun.

I had made plans to Skype my mom before going to work at six, so I went back to my apartment and chatted with my mom about her upcoming trip and everything I wanted her to bring for me.

After we finished talking, I got ready for work and headed out. It had started to rain and everyone who lived in Vista was trying to get on the bus to get back. The bus driver told me there wasn’t enough room on the bus and that I could take the next one. I told him that I actually had to get on this one or I would be late for work. Some girls who were also waiting for the bus started yelling at the driver when he told me again that I’d have to wait so he let me on. It was a little crowded, but most of the people got off at Vista and I was able to grab a seat then

I had a cashier shift from 6-2:30. I was on a cash register the whole night and ended up losing my voice about halfway through my shift. I had some tea with tons of honey on my break and made a button that said “I’m celebrating! Traded voice to sea witch” lol I could hardly talk.

When the store closed, I got my closing assignment, Purchase with Purchase or PWP and magic bands. We were out of the promotional Christmas bags and no one had been restocking the promotional blankets. I was alone restocking PWP and there were no stocking carts left so I had to carry boxes from the cage to whatever zone I was in and restock. It took so long! I quickly restocked magic bands and ended up getting out around 2:45am.

I headed out to the bus and a coworker told me to get in her car because she wasn’t about to let me sit there at 3am waiting for the bus. It was nice to ride home in a car, even though the three girls in the car were loudly discussing the terrible leadership at wotk and I disagreed with them but had no voice to say so. Either way, I was glad to not be on the bus and got home to have some white hot chocolate, Milano cookies, and a pear before heading off to bed. Three days left until my family comes!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 85

Today I got to sleep in since I didn't have to work until 4:45pm. So naturally I woke up at 8:30am and couldn't go back to sleep because I was hacking up a lung. I decided to pull myself out of bed and catch up on my blog.

I got distracted by hot chocolate, pop tarts, and The Office for an hour, then talked to a friend on the phone for a couple hours, which was awesome for my throat haha. Finally, I got off the phone and caught up my blog before dragging myself off of the couch to get some more food. I had some soup and toast and watched a few more episodes of The Office before making myself get up again and get ready for work.

I got to work about 20 minutes before I had to start, pumped myself with cold meds, and headed upstairs. I cashiered all day and lost my voice, but it was a Christmas Party and I had a lot of awesome guests! I had a really fun day even though I was dying.

Towards the end of day I ran out of throat drops, so I grabbed some of the ones we sell to guests from the closet and brought them backstage to one of the coordinators to ask if I could buy them because I was dying. He smiled at me, and said of course he would buy them for me. It was great! I got off about 20 minutes afterwards, but it was worth it. Haha.

A few coworkers got off at the same time as I did so we chatted while we waited for the bus to come. At almost 2am (I got off at 1:15am) a bus finally came, and I was able to go home, grab some food, and go to sleep.

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 84

Today I woke up somewhat early to go to Magic Kingdom with some friends from church, the same friends I had gone to Universal with a while back. My friend that I’m always with had paper Fast Passes for Magic Kingdom that expired today so we went intent to use them up. As soon as I got in the car to leave with a bag full of pills, tissues, and a water bottle full of hot tea and honey that I probably shouldn’t be going.

We took the Ferry from the TTC to the main entrance. I sat on the floor of the boat eating a granola bar because I felt like I was going to pass out. We got the the park, took some pictures in front of the castle, and hopped on 7 Dwarves Mine Train. After we got off the ride, we headed to Gaston’s Tavern to get some food. I just refilled my water bottle and drank the broth from the bottom of a friend’s stew when she was done with it. The broth really hit the spot though.

We headed over to Big Thunder Mountain when we finished eating, only to find out that the ride had been down that morning and all of the old Fast Passes were being honored. We decided to skip it and head to the Haunted Mansion instead. This was my first time going on the ride since Traditions, so it was fun to be able to do it again. After the mansion, we headed to Space Mountain, which was really brutal on my head... Oh well.

After we finished Space Mountain, we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios to try and meet up with some friends from the ward who had gone there for the day. On our way out of Magic Kingdom, we stopped by the Emporium to pick up a stuffed Pluto for a coordinator one of my friends knew at Hollywood studios who just had to let his dog go.

We took the monorail back to the TTC, hopped in the car, and drove to Hollywood Studios. We went to Toy Story Midway Mania to give the coordinator his gift, and snapped some pictures with a toy soldier before heading to Pizza Planet to get some lunch. I hadn’t been to Pizza Planet yet, but was very disappointed that there was no claw. Opportunity missed! Apparently Pizza Planet is expanding with all the renovations going on at Hollywood Studios, so I’m hoping for the addition. Our friend who knew the coordinator also used to work at Pizza Planet so she said hi to all her old coworkers while we were there and they gave us a free pumpkin cupcake, which was delicious!

Our friends from the ward were supposed to meet up with us a Pizza Planet, but they never came so we headed to Star Tours to do the ride with the additions from the new movie. It was pretty awesome! Once we got off the ride, we finally found our friends from the ward and headed out to get ready for the roadshow. When I got home, my package from Bath and Bodyworks was on the counter, so I got distracted from getting ready in opening up my gifts to myself.

My friend came over so we could do our hair together. I had worn my hair in braids all day so I could rat it a bit and let it be wavy like Hermione’s for the show. It turned out pretty good. My friend was playing Dorothy and wanted me to french braid her hair for her. Mind you, I have never successfully french braided before, but told her I would give it a try. It actually turned out pretty well! I was very proud. 

We headed over to the stake center where we watched College Park ward rehearse their skit, it was really cute, and were supposed to practice our skit, but didn’t have the time. The roadshow went really well though! More people showed up than anticipated, so the missionaries had to serve us to portion out the food, and more dessert had to be bough while we were eating dinner. We had dinner, the MCs did a few cute skits, College Park did their show, dessert came out, and we got ready for our show. We had a couple of mistakes, but it was awesome overall. A couple of people filmed it, so hopefully it will be on Facebook or Youtube soon for me to share with everyone! After the show, we went over to “the guy’s house” to watch the recording and laugh at ourselves. It was a really fun night, even though I was super sick the whole time. It was totally worth it!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 83

I woke up this morning in zombie mode and got ready for church. There were people outside having a very loud conversation in another language, which I thought was a little rude as it sounded as if they were right outside our door. I decided to ignore it as I got ready for the day. I had asked a friend to pick me up and she was supposed to meet me at 8:30am. I headed out my door around 8:30am and there was a girl sitting outside the door crying. I asked her if she was okay, and if I could get her anything. She smiled, thanked me, but said she was fine. I felt bad for her, but let her be anyway.

I got out to the parking lot as another friend from church was pulling up to pick up some CPs. They told me to hop in, and I explained that someone else was already coming to get me. They insisted I get in and call the person who was supposed to pick me up on the way. I got in and called, only to find out that she had overslept and just woken up so it worked out just fine. We got to church a couple of minutes late, but we were there. 

I made it through all three hours, just barely before coming home and sleeping for a few hours. I headed back to church with my friend that I’m always with for evening sacrament and roadshow rehearsal afterwards. We had planned on having a game night after, but rehearsal ran really late and the guys who had offered to host decided to go to bed instead. Luckily, another group who lives just a few doors down in “the girl’s house” said we could go there instead.

The girls cooked chicken and dumplings for everyone, which really hit the spot for my sickness, and everyone played Just Dance. I sat out since I was dying, but it was still a lot of fun! We headed back to housing around midnight with big plans for tomorrow in mind. Another awesome day in the books! 

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 82

My last day of work before my two days off! Today was a rough day though... I had a floorstock shift at 12:15pm, which was okay because I actually got to sleep the night before this time. It wasn’t great though because I was not feeling well at all! I stayed in bed for as long as possible before I had to get ready for work. My head felt really swimmy all day! When I first got to work I was holding up okay. I was stocking in zone 2, which is right outside the main stock room and most of the merchandise for that zone is in that stock room. I was stocking alone, but was supposed to get an expeditor (someone to pull the items for you and just have them in a cart for you to push to the floor) at 3pm. 

I stocked my area for a couple of hours, and was trying to convince myself to wait until four hours into my shift to take my 45 minute break so the rest of the shift would go by faster. The more I tried to convince myself to wait, the worse I started to feel. There was a meeting at the front desk, so I went backstage for that, and started to feel like I was going to faint. I got some water, sat down, and tried to stay awake, but decided I couldn’t do it. I punched out for my break and went downstairs.

I heated up my lunch, ate quickly, then napped at a table until I had to go back upstairs. I felt less fainty, thankfully because I definitely thought I was going down earlier. I decided to just hangout in the back room for a little bit and sat making awards (we sell Mickey statues with things like “best mom” and such on them, but the statues come without the plaques attached. So workers have to put them together before putting them onstage) the shelf was really low so it was a nice way to be productive, but all keep it low key. My expeditor came after I put the statues out onstage, which made things quite a bit easier and made the second part of my shift go by quickly.

A second person was coming to stock in the same zone an hour and a half before my shift ended, so I took my second, 15 minute, break before he showed up. He got there and we got the zone all stocked and looking good before I headed home at 8:45pm. I felt so awful! I laid in bed and tried to watch some Netflix, but ended up passing out. It was okay though since I was planning on being up early for church tomorrow... Hopefully!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 81

I had to head back into work today at noon... which meant leaving for work around 10:30 which meant getting up at nine. Which would be fine aside from the fact that I didn’t get home until 3am... that CP life. I know, I still could have had sixish hours of sleep... but I need a solid eight to function properly. If nothing else, I was grateful to not be working any form of Black Friday sale this year. Still in retail for the third Black Friday in a row, but moving up in the world and dreaming of a day when Black Friday is no longer a thing.

When I first got to work I was tasking (meaning that they typically schedule too many people assuming they will call out, and when more people show up than anticipated, people have to do silly little things to pass the time) and was assigned to restock buttons for an hour. The buttons are just the “Happy Birthday,” “First Visit,” etc. buttons that people ask for at the cash registers. It took me about 20 minutes to restock the buttons, and I spent a lot of time chatting with coworkers along the way. So I spent some more time chatting, and finally went back to ask to be reassigned since I obviously wouldn’t need the additional half hour to stock buttons.

I was reassigned to take over baby care, where I stayed until my first break. My break was nice though because there was leftover turkey in the conference room upstairs and all the fixings to make a turkey sandwich. So I sat in the conference room eating a sandwich and talking to coworkers until I had to go back to work. I was sent to cashier in zone 4, which is where the majority of the Christmas merchandise and ornaments are... so that meant lots of wrapping and boxing ornaments. One lady came to my register and was telling me about this bag she got as a purchase with purchase item the year before, and I was nodding along while trying to wrap up her things when she asked, “You don’t care, do you?” It was really loud in the store though and I heard, “You don’t carry it, do you?” so I said no. She looked taken aback and smiled a little, “You don’t care?” I felt so bad! I apologized a billion times and explained that I had misheard her. She thought it was funny, but I felt like a jerk. Oops!

I had my second break not too long after that where I went downstairs and tried to eat some soup. I wasn’t feeling very well though so I didn’t get much down. I really just wanted to lay in bed... I went back upstairs and was assigned to the timeout registers for the end of my shift, so I didn’t have to do too much work. One of my friends was in that zone too, but he was stocking so we chatted a bit whenever he came over by the registers. A guest asked me to get something for them, so I went to the back room to look for it. My friend was back there and we spent a couple of seconds complaining about how rude people can be sometimes as we grabbed the items we needed. I thought the conversation was over, and I needed to bring the item I had found to the guest so I opened the door into the store right as my friend loudly said, “Jesus Christ!” A couple of guests heard him and looked into the stock room so my friend quickly said, “Is the reason for the season!” I agreed and we both left the room holding back our laughter.

I got off work at 8:15pm, took the bus home, changed my clothes, and took another bus to Wal-Mart. I needed to buy some cold medicine and a few things for the apartment. I had forgotten that it was Black Friday though... I got to Wal-Mart and the store was totally trashed! I felt so bad for the workers. I grabbed the things I needed, along with a couple of shirts that were on sale, and headed to the registers. The lady at the register carded me for the cold medicine, and her manager took my driver’s license and they spent a good minute looking at my ID. Afterwards they told me that I looked 15 or 16, not 21. Thanks... Lol. Finally I headed home for the night where I took some medicine and passed out... All that Disney Magic!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 80

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!! Today, I woke up in time to watch the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and hang out with my roomies for a bit before they started heading off for work. Since it is Thanksgiving, I tried to Skype my family briefly. I couldn’t see them since a few of my roomies were also trying to Skype their families at the same time and our internet isn’t the greatest so I ended up just calling them and chatting with them on speaker phone. It was still really nice to chat with my parents, brother, and younger sister though before they headed to my aunt’s for Thanksgiving feasting. 

I met with the sister missionaries after I got off the phone with my family so they could give me some Thanksgiving cookies. They are so sweet! They made cookies for all the CPs from the ward that they could get in contact with to try and make being away for the holidays a little easier. They shared a scripture with me, then took turns telling me things they were thankful for about me. It was so sweet, I almost cried! 

After meeting with the sisters, I headed over to Magic Kingdom to buy a few things and ship them back to Oregon (a Christmas present for my brother-in-law and some pins that my cousin asked me to get for her). It was nice to have some time in the park before work, even if I was just on a mission to buy things. 

I got my shopping done quicker than I had thought that I would so I headed to the Emporium where there was a Thanksgiving dinner in the conference room upstairs. The management team supplied turkey and everyone signed up to bring things to share so there were lots of yummy Thanksgiving classics, and some desserts from all different cultures that were really awesome to try. Monster’s Inc. was on ABC Family, which is what was playing in the conference room. So I ate some food, chatted with my work friends, and enjoyed the movie before heading downstairs to get dressed for work. 

I worked from 6pm-2:15am. The park was open until 2am so I didn’t have to stay and close the store, which was nice. My last guest of the night was having trouble finding what she needed so a coordinator came over to help us look in the computer. The lady was being kind of rude at first, but then she started telling us that is was her 15-year-old daughter’s birthday and that the girl had gotten a text that morning from her boyfriend breaking up with her. The girl had been crying all day and wasn’t having a good time, but it was their last day at Disney. We helped the woman find what she was looking for, got her all checked out and sent her on her way. My coordinator looked at me as the woman and her daughter were leaving (the daughter had been outside when the mom was telling us what happened) and said, “we should give her something...” and spotting the consumables wall exclaimed, “chocolate!” She passed me a box of chocolates from off the wall and had me run after them and give them to the girl “from her friends at the Emporium.” She got a huge smile on her face and thanked us (my coordinator and some coworkers were waving at them from the door) and said she would eat them on the bus ride back to her hotel. It was nice to get to create a little bit of magic for someone who wasn’t having the best Thanksgiving/birthday.

Right after I gave her the chocolates, I got my bump-out and headed out to the bus stop. I got home around 3am where I fell asleep with a smile in my heart even though I had just spent my first Thanksgiving away from my biological family. God has blessed me with some great people here in Florida to call my home away from home. <3

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 78/79

My days are starting to blend together... I need to do my blogs on time so this doesn’t happen. Haha. I can’t really remember what I did on Tuesday. I feel like I just took the day off to lay in bed and be lazy until I had to get up and get ready to work at 5:30pm. I got off at 11:30pm though so I had some more time to lazily watch Netflix before bed. 

Today, Wednesday, I folded my laundry and cleaned my room while watching Netflix before getting ready and heading into work at 3:45pm. I door greeted for two hours in zone 3 (the toys) when I first got there, then got reassigned to door greet in zone 1 (the kitchen stuff) for 15 minutes. There were already five people door greeting in zone 1 when I got there... talk about overstaffed. After my 15 minutes were up I got my first break. A bunch of my work friends were there at the same time so we hung out and chatted for half an hour before heading back up.

When I got back upstairs I was assigned to door greet for 15 minutes in zone 1 again, where the same five people were still greeting. Finally, I got assigned to baby care, where I was until my next break. After my second break, and some more chatting with my friends, I was sent back up to baby care. With less than two hours left of my “register” shift, I was finally sent to a register in zone 2 where I finished out my shift cashiering next to one of my favorite people in the Emporium. Overall, it was a pretty awesome shift.

Since a bunch of us were working a similar shift, one of my friends offered us all a ride in her car, which was so much nicer than the bus. I got home around midnight, checked the mail, found Bath and Body Works coupons, and spent the next hour online shopping for things I really didn’t need... haha. Dumb Bath and Body Works is my weakness though. Finally, I crawled into bed and slept off the day, in preparation for the madness of working Thanksgiving tomorrow!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 77

Today I got up, ate some breakfast, got ready, and headed to Animal Kingdom with my roommates. We had so much fun! We got pictures with Turk, grabbed some Starbucks, and got to go to the front of the Safari ride! We didn’t have Fastpasses for the Safari, but my friend from church works there and we asked at the front of the line where we show request (which is when you ask for a specific safari driver that you know) and the guy said to go ahead through the Fastpass line. The ride wait time was 80 minutes, and we only waited 15! We waited because my friend went on break right when we got there so we had to wait for her to get back. It was awesome to go on her safari though. She told tons of cute animal jokes and even gave some animal facts that I hadn’t heard before. 

After we finished our safari, we went on Primeval Whirl, which is kind of a really dark ride as it has tons of images of dinosaurs being hit by meteors. It was a pretty fun but bumpy ride. We had Fastpasses for Dinosaur, and a plan for the picture, but when we got to the ride it was broken. We waited for about 20 minutes then gave up and decided to come back another day. It was still a blast to spend some time at the park with three of my roommates.

We headed back to the apartments on the bus and I realized I wasn’t going to make it back in time to get a ride to FHE, so I got an Uber from the apartments. FHE was awesome! We had a Thanksgiving dinner that was super delicious! Afterwards we cleaned the church and started roadshow rehearsal. A lot of people stayed after to watch and it was super fun performing in front of an audience. We ended up rehearsing for much longer than anticipated, which was kind of a bummer because my safari driving friend, that I spend all of my time with, and I had made plans to hang out with a couple of guys from the ward. We wanted to go bowling or see a movie or something, but it was 10pm when we got finished and one of the guys had to work in the morning. He suggested just going to Disney Springs and getting hot chocolate instead. It was a good suggestion. 

We grabbed some hot cocoa at Starbucks, and played with their super cool electronic chalkboard that lets you draw on a shot of the room and also see the view from the chalkboard in Anaheim. After a bit we decided to walk around and drink our hot chocolates. It was fun to chat and see all the pretty Christmas decorations around Disney Springs. We didn’t hang out for too long because it was a bit chilly and late, but it was an awesome time nonetheless. I was sad to say goodbye to my friends, but happy to go to my bed and sleep haha. Always an adventure with me and Disney!

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 76

This morning I caught a ride with a group of friends to church, and caught a ride back afterwards. When I got back to the apartment, my roommates and I made a christmas tree and ornaments out of construction paper. We had a lot of fun! I also did laundry and made some brownies with crushed Reese’s inside while we worked on our tree. It turned out goofy and cute, just like the six of us. Haha.

I had rehearsal for the road show that my ward is putting on next week at 5:30pm, so I caught a bus to West Clock where one of my fellow stars (Harry Potter in the roadshow) picked me up. Our director had us do an improvisation warm-up where she set up a scene and just let us play for about 15 minutes. It was pretty fun pretending we were the cast of Harry Potter just hanging out in the great hall. After the improvisation, we took some time to add in fun little details to our scene and ran through it a few times. After we were done rehearsing our scene, the lead roles ran through their song and final scene, where we added in another bit for the cast of Harry Potter. The play is kind of a mash-up of Princess Bride, Into The Woods, Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, The Avengers, and The Wizard of Oz. Sound crazy? It is, but it’s also a ton of fun. I’m hoping I can get someone to record the whole thing when we do it for real so I can put it on Facebook for you to see.

Typically, I don’t work on Sundays, but as it is Thanksgiving week and tons of people are spending their time off from school in the parks, everyone in the Emporium was switched from 2 days off to 1. Unfortunately, they decided to take away my Sunday instead of my Monday and I couldn’t find anyone to take or trade my shift. Fortunately, the shift didn’t start until 9:15pm so I was able to hang out at church and work on the roadshow until 8pm. I could have stayed longer, but then someone would have had to leave night church early to bring me to West Clock. Instead, I had another fellow actor (Malfoy) take me back to West Clock and hung out in the break room for a bit with some coworkers before clocking in.

I was stocking plush for the night, which is actually a really easy zone to close so I wasn’t too upset to be there. Although I was a little upset to be working until 3:15 Monday morning, meaning I technically didn’t have a day off for the whole week. Everyone surprisingly got their areas done really quickly tonight though, and we were able to clock out at 2:30am instead. I headed back to the apartment, crawled into bed, and fell asleep to the thought of tomorrow’s adventures. 

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 75

So I traded the shift I had originally been scheduled with today so that I wouldn’t be exhausted come Sunday morning as I wouldn’t have been getting off of work until 2am. The shift I traded for was 10:30am-7pm, which was fine until I found out there was a Colbie Caillat concert at Universal that I could attend for free as an annual pass holder.

I tried all week to get rid of the shift, but to no avail. When I got to work this morning, I immediately put in for an ER (early release) for 5pm so I might have time to go to the apartment, get ready, and make it to the concert, which started at 7pm. I worked a cash register for a bit, had my first break, came back, and was sent to baby care. I was in baby care for close to three hours... which normally I would be fine with, but I had a lost child call to deal with and a code V (puke). 

A man, his wife, their baby, and little girl all came into baby care. The father asked if he could take the little girl into the bathroom, which is only a women’s room. I told him that I wasn’t allowed to let him in there as there was already someone in the bathroom, but that there was a bathroom outside around the corner. He looked at me... back at his wife... and asked if he really couldn’t take his daughter into that bathroom. I responded that unfortunately I couldn’t allow him to do that. At this point his daughter looked up at him, and leaned forward. He proceeded to hold her hair back as she vomited on the floor four times, and looked at me like I was a terrible person. I calmly walked into the kitchen, called custodial, grabbed the bark chips from under the sink, and covered the vomit in them. Inside I was furious that he didn’t just freaking take his daughter outside, or tell me that she was sick so I could grab her a bag to puke into or something... 

Eventually I got bumped out for my break, only to find out that I should have had my break half an hour earlier and the person who was supposed to take over baby care got stuck doing something else instead. I had to get my break restarted, and at this point it was 4:30pm. I figured I wouldn’t get the ER, but when I came back from my break, I put in another ER request for 5:30pm and went to cashier. After cashier for about 15 minutes, a coworker brought me a slip that said I was bumped out for my shift! I got so excited and yelled that I got to go see Colbie Caillat. It was beautiful! 

I went back to my apartment, changed my clothes, and met with my friend from church to head to Universal. We got there with about ten minutes to spare before the concert started so we half ran all the way to the stage where a couple of our other friends from church were saving  us a spot. The concert was amazing! I’m so glad that I was able to go! I love Colbie Caillat and it was so awesome to see her in person!

After the concert, everyone went to Cinnabon, but I went to Coldstone instead. Someone tipped them and they sang a couple of their Coldstone songs. Overall... it was probably one of my favorite nights here so far, with more adventures just around the bend. 

[kailigoesdisney]

Disney Day 74

Today I was lazy... I laid in bed watching Netflix per usual until I had to work at 4pm. When I got to work they were handing out free rice krispie treats to reward cast members for good show. The treats were way too sweet though and I felt sick my entire shift. Luckily I was just registers, unluckily I was there until 12:45am and had to be back at 10:30am. But that was my own fault so I shouldn’t really complain. After what felt like a long day of cashiering, I was glad to go home and rest up for the next day’s adventures.