Magic Kingdom With Lindsey

Last week I spent a day in the Magic Kingdom with my friend Lindsey! She hadn't been to Disney before that start of her program, so it's cool to get to go into the parks with someone who still hasn't ridden some of the rides and such. Walking into the park we were greeted by the Dapper Dans, who you can always hear before you can see them because they attract such a crowd. We only stopped for a moment before heading forward!

We started off the afternoon at the laugh floor! I love the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, because every single time you go it's different, and so it never gets old. This time That Guy was a little to full of himself, but they had the funniest little guy from Canada on screen for a significant amount of time, which was awesome. The lady sitting right next to me was picked for something, and I had a brief moment of panic thinking they had chosen me. I'm so not good at being put on the spot!

After that we headed over to Stitches Great Escape. I like the Stitch ride, probably because I love everything Stitch, but I know a lot of people don't like the ride. It's very loud and in your face, so it can get a bit intense. At one point, Stitch starts bouncing on your shoulders, which hurts a lot of people. The simple fix for this is to shrug your shoulders up when they start to lower the "body scanners'. Then release your shoulders once they've stopped dropping. This keeps them from resting on your shoulders to much. You can also push them up just a bit once they've settled to give yourself some relief.

After Stitch we headed to the peoplemover. I love the people mover for the amazing views, and because it gives you a chance to relax and take it all in. Recently they have been having a problem queuing people, with lines wrapping back towards Space Mountains, but since it's a ride that doesn't stop, the wait is never long. People have a hard time telling where they beginning of the line is without any real queue happening, and so I have seen more mom's scream at other parents "for trying to cut in line" here than I have anywhere else...

I have ridden every ride in Tomorrowland more than once since starting my CP, but somehow I still suck at Buzz. Maybe because it was closed fora  few weeks, or because I just don't have an affinity for video games? Whatever the reason, I consider myself lucky if I average 350,000 during the game. Whereas I have gone on with people who get to Galactic Hero halfway through the game. I guess it just gives me something to work towards? After Buzz we headed over to Main Street to watch Move It! Shake It! I love the excitement of this parade but it always gets so crazy!



We also tried to hit up Pirates to see my sister but that was a bust. So we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain to explore before trekking all the way back to Tomorrowland for Space Mountain... I always forget how big the drop on that ride are until I'm in the middle of it going "OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT I CAN'T DO THIS!!!" but that's another story. We also walked through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. It was so cool, and so pretty, but a LOT of up hill walking!

I love riding Winnie The Pooh. It's such a sweet classic throw back. I loved Christopher Robin and all of his friends in the 100 Acre Woods when I was growing up, and you really feel immersed in the story when you enter the the ride. The hard part for me is walking off and into the gift shop where there are so many soft, fluffy stuffed animals...

Lindsey had never ridden Seven Dwarfs Mine Train before, so we decided to standby it since it was only a 50 minute wait. I ended up only being 30 minutes, and then the girl in the fastpass line let us go again! Recently Mine Train has felt very blah, because I've ridden it to many times since getting here. However, we got seated in the last row (usually my least favorite seat on a coaster) and I found some thrill in this thrill ride again. I was so much fun to rock the cart from side to side while coasting through the diamond mine.

We finished the night on Main Street front and center for the second showing of Celebrate The Magic. I love Wishes, but Celebrate The Magic is where it's at for me. I can, and do, sing along to the entire thing, and it amazes me what they can do to the castle. I love the way it just celebrates the core of what Disney stands for. This is the magic I came for, and I'm so happy to be a part of this magical place.

Aloha O'e, The After, and 4 Keys Basics

Last Monday was my last full day with my Mom and Papa before they headed home to wet, cold, gross Indiana. I won't lie and say I miss it there. The people? Yes. But not the cold, or the small town narrow mindedness. However, it was hard to let my mom and papa go after having them down here for a few days.







We started off in the only place you can really start off in the Magic Kingdom - Main Street USA! I love Main Street. I love performances that go on through out the day. My grandparents started bringing their kids to Disney World in 1972, the year after it opened, and brought them every other year as they were growing up. I guess you could say the Disney craze runs in the family. These street shows are a sort of throw back to how Magic Kingdom use to be, so it was awesome to hang out watching them with my family. We settled our butts up close to the castle with Starbucks to watch Dream Along With Mickey and were just about to leave for Adventureland when I realized I could hear the Trolley Show behind us. SO we raced back down Main Street to watch. I love the Trolley Show, I love the songs they play, and my family and never seen them before, which was a plus!





After that, we headed to the Skipper Canteen for lunch. Oh. My. GOD. If you like the Jungle Cruise, you'll love this restaurant. If you don't like the Jungle Cruise, you will STILL love this restaurant. OUR hostess and our waiter were both absolutely hysterical, and our waiter never turned off. Even when the wrong order was brought out to me (which is a big no-no for Disney when you have a food allergy) he never stopped cracking jokes and making bad puns. The best part though is that, unlike the Jungle Cruise, however, all of these jokes are brand new. He went through the menu with us, pointing out certain items and making really bad puns that had us in stitches. Jared was fantastic.

The food was really, really good (minus the gluten free rolls, just stay away) BUT it was way, way over priced. Relatively small portions at full portion Disney prices. I got a rice noodle bowl with chicken that was fantastic,while my mom went with the pork chop, which was also wonderful. My water came "straight from the Amazon" and the meal that was accidentally brought to me was aptly named "It Tastes Like Chicken Because It Is". I just want to say, before anyone who has a food allergy starts getting leery, our waiter Jared handled it wonderfully, he took the food away, and had the right food out to me in minutes. He let me know that he completely and totally trusted the chef they had in the kitchen that day when he said it was prepared so quickly safely.

The backside of water!

After that, Papa went back to the hotel for a while, so we headed to Pirates, which was, SHOCKER, down. (Pirates goes down a lot.) So we raided the gift shop and headed towards Haunted Mansion! Yay! A trip through the jungle on Jungle Cruise was in order before we made our way back towards pirates, which was finally back up! Of course, no trip to Magic Kingdom with my family would be complete without going on the Carousel of Progress!






After that we headed back to the resort to eat dole whip floats, Wishes, and just spending our last little bit together. We were originally going to go to the campfire on the beach (yeah recreation!) but time got away from us and that didn't happen. One day! We had a magnificent view of the fireworks from our patio, and I miss seeing and hearing Wishes every night. We get used to things so easy, hmm?

It was hard to say good bye to my mom and Papa. My mom and I are so close, and she taught me how to be comfortable in new places, and how to find home wherever I go, but there is still a piece of me that will always miss her. Still, Tuesday morning bright and early I headed off to work (for an AM shift... have I mentioned I'm not a morning person) and so I had to say goodbye to my family.

Life has been pretty calm since then. I've been working like crazy, and I've been exhausted from a crazy sleep schedule. I've had to jump in a few times for kids. The pools have been a lot busier, as spring break really kicks into full swing. Little kids whose parents swear are the best swimmers they've ever seen, but who have never had to deal with a current as strong as the ones at the bottom of our slides. Very, very drunk college kids and adults who think they're still college students, and then parents complaining about  the language being thrown about the pool. The cheerleaders. Oh Lord, the cheerleaders. I thought we were done with them? All perfectly friendly on their own, but egging each other on in groups, and trying to stunt in the pool or on the wet pool deck for hours. And then their mothers. "They're cheerleaders you know. They'll be fine."

I got scheduled for my four keys basics class this week! It's a class specifically designed for CP's, set a month or two into your program. It's a networking event and a giant scavenger hunt to see how well you know your location. Ours was at Coronado, which was cool, but I want one at the Lodge to, because we never get to explore! The class was at least half filled with lifeguards, to the extent that one of the facilitators asked if there were any lifeguards left, or if we had closed the pools. We started the 2 hour meeting with several leaders from across our resort and property. Reggie, the recreation proprietor was there, as well as one of the Disney ambassadors. It was cool to listen to them speak, and then to place an ice breaker (I love ice breakers). After that we got split into teams and sent out into the resort to see who knew it the best.

The me tell you one thing. Lifeguards never, ever leave the pool. We have out break room back there, our leaders are all back there, and we are nowhere near where everyone else congregates, due to the placement of the pool. We just don't have the time. So then, you can imagine that this was very hard for us to know where exactly in the Casitas to go, or which convention center is which. That being said, I had a really well balanced group, and while they were really driven and didn't really let us stop and network like we were supposed to, we did win. By about 20 minutes...

Each of our pools has a pool bar, which also serves a limited menu of food. The pool bar at Coronado, The Siesta Pool Bar, either smells like Chinese food or french fries all the time. On days it smells like french fries, inevitably I end up craving Wendy's french fries and s frosty, which I can conveniently get right nest to Vista... Thankfully I have friends who are good about indulging me in my odd habits!

There's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of ever day!

Maholo

Food, food, food, food, food. There, a quick summary of my blog. Or at least a quick summary of my last several days. I am so stuffed from eating the last few days I don't think I will ever be able to eat again.

Saturday was our Animal Kingdom day! I consider DAK to be my home park, even though I work at the Lodge. I love how you always leave the park feeling connected to the Earth, with a renewed sense of wanting to take care of it. Festival of the Lion King is my favorite show, and I could easily sit and watch it all day.





However, I'm not sure it would be one of my blog posts if we didn't start it off with... FOOD! We got to DAK and my Papa was ready to eat right away. As we walked in, we just so happened to see that Rainforest Cafe was seating right away. We eat at Rainforest Cafe in Chicago, which has a bigger menu, but isn't nearly as fun. The Rainforest at DAK is the largest in the world, and it has 4 separate dining rooms. Vines hang from the ceiling and it's always raining somewhere. Our server, Kelly, was so absolutely fabulous and wonderful. She knew how to have fun, she made great recommendations, and she was so willing to go above and beyond to help us. Papa was on a Bloody Mary kick, but they don't come with celery, so she went back into the kitchen and cut it up for him herself. I had the best barbecue bacon cheeseburger on a (not stale and disgusting) gluten free bun. It's been a long time since I had a burger that good, and I would get it again in a heart beat.

After Rainforest we headed to Africa to watch Festival of the Lion King! We sat right up front in the giraffe section, which is where I always seem to end up. This was the first time I had ever seen the show without one of their singers, and I'll admit to being shocked and worried at first. However, they pulled it off beautifully, and the show was as wonderful as it always is. I love watching the joy in the performers faces, seeing how much they genuinely seem to love doing what they do. I would love to be a parade preformer or be in one of the shows, but I think I'm going to have to lose a bit of weight before I could ever hope for that, yeah?







After the show we headed over to Kilimanjaro Safari's, where we had a fantastic Safari guide named Brooke, who had only been at Safari's for a week or so but who seemed to have already mastered the many different animals. A lot of the animals seemed to be in hiding, but the closer you looked the easier they were to spot. We saw elephants, okapi, giraffes, hippos, lions, and more. Of course, five minutes into the safari my phone decided it was a good time to become full and refuse to allow me to take any more photos, but that's besides the point.

After Kilimanjaro, we walked around for a bit, just enjoying the beautiful park, before heading to my home - Animal Kingdom Lodge! Papa wanted to check out my pool(s) and I figured we'd be able to talk to one of the Safari Guides that hang out at the over looks, so we hopped on a bus and off we went to Jambo House!

Of course, none of the safari guides were by either of the main over looks we tried, but I was still able to point out more animals than they could see by themselves. We went down and looked at the pool, which is my favorite of my pools. Then we headed over to check out the flamingos, who are very loud and very smelly. I can hear them clearly from the pool at Jambo, and they fight all day long. From the overlook by the pool we could see several gazelles, giraffes, red rivers hogs, and other animals (whose names I forgot, and whose names I bs'd to my family).







We headed over to the overlook by the lobby, where the animals tend to get a lot closer. There were several giraffes right up front, but most of the animals had been scared away by the safari truck rumbling around the savanna. The animals at DAKL aren't as used to the trucks as the one's at DAK, as they run much less frequently. Of course, no trip to DAKL outside of work hours is complete without a trip to The Mara for zebra domes. If you've never had zebra domes and you're a CP, drop everything you're doing and try one now. They are so incredibly decadent and delicious, and they make them gluten free for those of us who can't have the sponge cake.

Sunday was our hotel day, so of course bright and early Papa wanted to know where we were going , what we were doing, and why we didn't have plans. We had rented him an electric wheelchair (not an ECV, one that's more of a wheelchair) like the one he has at home, but it was going haywire, so we had to get that replaced. We hung out at the pool for a good bit, walked around the resort, and just generally took our time enjoying things.

We headed over to Disney Springs to do some shopping and eating. Somehow, the embroidery store was completely out of adult sized mouse ears, so a trip to World of Disney was in order. I wont lie, I go out of my way to avoid World of Disney at any cost. It's crowded and chaotic and generally (but certainly not always) the cast members are miserable because it's not a fabulous place to work. We found the mouse ears, along with several Mickey mugs for Papa's nurses. I love staying in a resort, so that things can be shipped back and we don't have to carry them with us. The Poly even delivers them to your room so that you don't have to remember to pick them up later.

After that we headed to Raglan Road, where we checked in ridiculously early so that we could make sure to get a table in the main room. While we were waiting, since we were ridiculously hungry, we munched on some Garlic Parmesan Chips from Cookes of Dublin. They are so addicting and good, I'm bound and determined to find a way to make them at home. While we were sitting there, I realized that St. Patrick's Day is coming up, which means that this Irish girl needs to find her Irish Soda Bread fix. So I ran over to Erin McKenna's to ask if they're going to have it, or if I need to make it myself. The girl behind the counter had never heard of it, but the guy was so much fun and joking around with me, asking me to bring some in if I make some. However, I don't particularly want to make it, so I need everyone to call/ask them about it next time they go in so demand gets high and they make it, kay?

Once we finally got into Raglan Road, we got seated right in front of the stage, which was fantastic and really loud. The band they have in there right now, Jigjam, is fantastic, and hopefully my friends and I will be back to see them for the St. Patrick's Day festival. The River Dancers are always so much fun to see, but the best part is when they bring the little kids up on the stage and teach them to "Irish Dance". The looks of joy on their faces are so contagious, you find yourself smiling and laughing the whole time.

We had another fantastic waitress, Kaitlyn, who gave really good recommendations. I can't help but have fish and chips every time I go there, just because they make them gluten free safely. I love talking to people who started out as CP's who either stayed with the company or who stayed local because they loved their CP so much. That's what I want to do eventually, so I'm always happy to see it working out for other people.

I'm so grateful for the place I am in my life right now. I had a hard few weeks, but things are finally looking up. I have great friends, great roommates, and I love my job. I'm finally starting to really settle in and get comfortable in a way I didn't realize I wasn't before. My life doesn't have to revolve around trying to make other people like me, because the people I choose to surround myself with like me for me. Awkward, dorky, hippie me. I hug trees, and get my feet dirty climbing things, and sing to loudly and a bit off key, and that's okay. It okay that I wear flower crowns and take pictures of things twelve million times just to be sure I got one that turned out. In fact, it's great that I dance along to Move It Shake It every day, making an absolute fool out of myself while my friends do the same next to me. Because that's who I am, and it's who I want to be. So Mahalo to everyone who makes it easier to be me, I love you all.