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!