Too Tired

Alright, 3 posts should be good enough for now. It’s getting late and I shouldn’t even be doing this right now. I’ve got two essays to write.

I’ll write soon!

Magic on the High Seas: Day Two

Monday, August 3/09

After a great first day, we arrived in Nassau, Bahamas, home of Paradise Island and the Atlantis Resort!

We had a good buffet breakfast at Parrot Cay, did a little swimming at the adult’s pool, which is awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I love kids, but I don’t need them screaming two feet away from me while I am trying to relax and become black. At this pool, the chairs are padded and nobody under 18 is allowed. My kind of pool!

So we did a little swimming, got ready to go ashore, had lunch at another one of the table service restaurants, Triton’s (themed after The Little Mermaid so obviously it was my favourite restaurant!). Lunch was awesome and after that we got off the boat.

We were told that for $5 a taxi would take you from the boat to Atlantis so we did that and we was really fun. The cab ride was a bit sketchy but it was all good. We got there in once piece and started walking around this amazing resort!

A lot of the areas are for hotel guests only so we didn’t get to see a lot, but we saw a lot of the public aquariums and walked a bit outside. It’s absolutely amazing. We also stopped by the casino where I gambled for the first time (it’s legal there at 18). I put $1 in a slot machine, I won $1. I put that $2 in another machine. I lost $2. That’s the end of my gambling career!

We decided to head to the public beach since we couldn’t swim at Atlantis. It was amazing! We actually had to much fun there and the water was beautiful. Crystal clear blue. The only sketchy thing was that we had important ID on us and we didn’t want people to steal it so one person usually sat by the stuff or if we were all in the water we would just stay close to the shore so if someone decided to grab our stuff and run we could catch them. We had SO much fun at the beach, and it was free so it was even better!

After swimming for a couple hours and tanning, we took a cab back to the port and got on the boat. The girls went to shower up and I went to the pool for a bit before heading back to the room.

We lounged around for a bit, but not too long because tonight’s show, Toy Story: The Musical, was starting soon. We changed and headed to the Walt Disney Theatre for the show, which was really good! I didn’t think they could pull off TS as a musical but it was excellent.

After the show we got changed for dinner and then headed to Parrot Cay for our meal. We had a really good meal and Panda told us that it was “late night” in Nassau so we should join her at one of the clubs ashore. After dinner we got a little silly and didn’t make it off the boat until around 12am so when we were walking to the club, Bambu, Panda was already leaving. We did get a picture though! We stayed at the club for a bit but it wasn’t that great so we headed back to the boat and went to bed. Good night!

Tomorrow: Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay.

By the way, if you have any questions, just post them in the comments section and I’ll answer them asap with detail. I just didn’t want to make these posts ridiculously long considering it’s 3:30am right now.

Here are some pictures:

Our "Navigator" telling us what is happening today

Breakfast time!

In heaven with bacon

Lunch at Triton's

Another jumping picture, this time in Nassau

Kinga on a stairway in Atlantis

At the lobby aquarium

You can look, but you can't touch

Lovers

Outside in the public area

Another group shot

At the BEAUTIFUL public beach. There are like 157483 pictures from the beach, including when I was buried in the sand and made to look like a merman.

Bye bye Bahamas!

The pre-show

Dinner at Parrot Cay. There actually is a dress-up night, but we did that every night. No biggie. That's just how we roll.

Trouble makers

I couldn't resist

And neither could she

Is that Helena!? Seriously, the whole cruise we said "Hi Helena!" whenever we passed this painting. It looks just like her!

Welcome to Nassau (again)!

Models in the wind

Panda! She hated this picture but that's okay!

The really strange nightclub

Magic on the High Seas: Day One

Sunday, August 2/09

Well, after a three month working program at Walt Disney World where I had the absolute time of my life and met the most amazing people, I was going on a cruise to celebrate WITH some of those amazing people!

We booked the cruise back in July at a Space Available discount and got a great rate on it since we were Cast Members.

So, after sleeping at David’s we got up early, packed the car, said goodbye to David and we were on our way to Port/Cape Canaveral! I did the driving (obviously) and we were there a lot quicker than we expected. So quickly, that we were extremely early and had to go wait in an abandoned parking lot until 10am when they started letting people in the terminal! So we hung out in this parking lot and took probably 100 pictures of us and the ship.

One of many.

So finally 10am rolled around and we were able to go inside the terminal. Honestly, there was so much happening and while I DO remember it all, I don’t want to write it all. I say that now and I’ll probably end up writing an essay on checking in, but be prepared for a brief description of each day with some pictures to go along.

So we check in, get our keys, wait around for our number to be called to board. Finally we get on the ship and the first thing we do is go to the restaurant (Parrot Cay – pronounced Parrot “Key”) and eat with everyone else. They had corndog nuggets! WOO HOO!

After that we walk around for a bit and tour the ship. Our room was ready around 1pm so we went to the room for a bit and our luggage soon followed (they bring your luggage to your room).

We pretty much just lounged around for the afternoon and watched the Sail Away party on the top deck which was nice. Then we ended up taking a long nap because we were all so tired from our “go go go” lifestyle that we’ve had the last couple days. We also ate all the time on the boat!

Every night on the ship there is a show. Tonight’s show was The Golden Mickey’s which is a Disney-themed award show honoring characters in Disney animated films. It’s cute and when you walk to the Walt Disney Theatre there are “paparazzi” and a red carpet awaiting you.

We had dinner at Animator’s Palet (one of three main table service restaurants on the boat) and met our waiting staff. Panda, our assistant server had actually completed an ICP program a couple years ago so we hit it off right away. She’s from France and her real name is Line (pronounced Lynne, like my mama!) but Panda is her stage name for some reason. Anyways, we all loved her and I’m pretty sure she loved us. If I ever go back to paris I’m going to visit her. She actually offered me a place to stay if/when I go.

After dinner we walked around for a bit and tried to wear off some food. We decided to go to the theatre and watch Disney Nature’s Earth (basically Planet Earth). It was really good and I love nature movies like that but I was so tired so I started dozing off and missed a bit of it. We decided to call it a night (it was after midnight at this point) and went to bed.

I’ve also decided to save time, I’m just going to post all the pictures at the end of each post. It’s easier. Deal with it.

One of many.

Meeting Mickey in the terminal

Lanyards! I had to beg them to give the girls the “repeat cruiser” lanyard – they did.

Kinga vegging out

Couch

Bed!

Safety drill

Soooo tired

We were LITERALLY homeless

Saturday, August 1/09

Alrighty, so I woke up in the Holiday Inn hotel room with my friends from Vista Way who I knew, but not really that well. I find that happens to me a lot. I’m friends with most people, if not everyone, and I know them all but I’m only really close with a couple. My closest people during this program: Jacqueline (of course. she’s my absolute #1), Kinga, Dana, Helena, Hayley and Hillary. Obviously there were a lot of others and a lot of work friends but from Vista Way those were my besties. But Jacqueline was, and still is my all time BFF.

Anyways, I wake up in this hotel room around 10am. I get everything packed up, including Kinga and Hayley’s things because they never came home. Like I said, I really wasn’t too worried. They’re 22 and 23, they can handle themselves plus they had one another, PLUS I got the whole fold out bed to myself so that was awesome. So we pack up all our stuff (Me and the two Brits), and we’re on our way. The plan was for all of us: me, Kinga, Hayley, Hannah, Ashleigh and Helena (who was leaving that afternoon) to go to iHop for breakfast. Well, we all finally met at IHOP (Helena drove Kinga and Hayley and I still don’t know the details of their night). However, IHOP had like a 45 minute wait so we said, “screw that!” and drove to Pizza Hut for the buffet. Well, Pizza Hut wasn’t having their buffet so we said, “screw that!” and drove to Cici’s Pizza down the road, but Ashleigh and Hannah were pressed for time and decided to take off (I think they had a rental car) because they needed to catch a flight to the Caribbean or wherever they were going. So me, Kinga, Hayley, and Helena went to Cici’s for our last, cheap meal. It was pretty good and definitely filled us up for what was going to be a long day of nothing. It cost us $5 each.

Packing up in the hotel room (that's Ashleigh)

Me having back problems from having so much luggage!

Nope, we didn't eat there!

Kinga and Hayley at Cici's Pizza

Helly and I

Saying goodbye

Then we said goodbye to Helena as she had to catch her flight and we parted ways. I then dropped the girls off at Holiday Inn and went off to do some errands.

First on the list: visit Vista Way to drop off my key and other things. I got denied at the entrance because apparently you aren’t allowed back to VW for 2 weeks after your program or something like that. So I gave them my key and off I went. I loved Vista Way despite what everyone said about it.

Then I went to Typhoon Lagoon to say goodbye to some other people I never saw on my last day so that was fun, and also quite emotional. My good friend Clare and I started crying. I went inside to ask Sam, my manager, for a performance review and he said he would do it and that I could pick it up later in the day.

I didn’t think I was going to cry again but as I was leaving the parking lot I just started bawling my eyes out. I don’t think people realize how emotional this is. I was literally picking up my life and leaving and I never thought it would be that hard.

Next stop was costuming to drop off a few items I still had on me and that was fine. I think I did another weigh in and was happy. I’m so used to getting on a scale and doing that “groan with a head tilt”, so it’s nice to see the number go DOWN when you get on a scale. At the end of my program, I had lost about 30lbs and I still don’t know how I did it. Looking back, I think I may have had swine flu during that time I was ridiculously sick. I also think that’s where I lost a lot of weight because, while I didn’t throw up, I had absolutely no appetite and went a couple days consuming nothing but Tylenol pills and cough syrup.

Next stop was Downtown Disney to pick up a few extra shot glasses for some friends back home. We make good use out of them back home since we’re legal. I still haven’t given Sarah hers yet. I never see her.

After that I went back to the Holiday Inn to see the girls who I found lounging by the pool. We laid by the poolfor about 4 hours. I went swimming and did some blogging and worked on my tan. Pretty basic things haha!

We did a little bit of printing at the hotel’s computer lab and then we all got in the extremely packed car and drove to Typhoon Lagoon so I could pick up my review. WOW! Guys, I have never received such an amazing review in my life! Not only did I receive the highest marking in every category, here are a couple sentences from the final note written by my manager:

“Kurt is a perfect example of an outstanding Disney Cast Member……We would be more than happy for him to seek future employment with our company.“

I don’t want to gloat, but that is AMAZING! I was completely shocked and extremely happy with that. All my hard work (well, sometimes) really paid off. After that, I drove Kinga and Hayley, who are both of legal US drinking age, to the Walgreen Liquor Store so they could buy booze for THEM for the cruise. I completely forgot until just now when I was looking at my pictures but apparently we went to the Magic Kingdom. We went on a couple rides and watched the fireworks. I cried again – big surprise there!

Last night at the Magic Kingdom for a while

Then we drove 40 minutes to Kinga’s friend, David’s, house, unpacked a little bit, repacked our stuff for the cruise, planned out our day for tomorrow and slept. There were three couches. I got the biggest one. It was leather. It was comfy. I was happy (even if I was homeless and sleeping in a stranger’s house.)

Kinga actually sleeping

Me pretending to sleep

But to be honest, David was extremely nice and I’m really grateful he opened up his house to us.

Liar Liar

Okay, I lied again. It’s 2am right now and I just stumbled upon my own blog and realized that I never gave a goodbye. I think I want to finish this bad boy up. Let’s see how far I get….

Remember Me?

…because I still remember all of you!

 

Don’t worry. I know it’s been a while but school is kicking my butt. Tests, presentations, and performances every SINGLE week! AHHH! But don’t worry, once all that’s over and December arrives I am HOME FREE and I will be able to fill you in on everything that happened after my program.

 

Highlights include:

 

• A 4-night Disney Cruise!

- Did I stuff my face?

- Did someone fall over-board (no, they didn’t I’ll tell you that right now)

- Did I get red as a lobster on the last day?

- Did we (me, Kinga, Hayley) make friends?

- and so much more!

 

• The drive home!

- how long did it take us?

- did we fight?

- did we get pulled over?

- did I hit a sasquatch? (no, we didn’t I’ll tell you that right now)

 

• Life after Disney

- does it suck (yes, it truly does!)

- am I happy to be home?

- what’s happening in school?

- have a returned to The Happiest Place on Earth?

 

 

All these things and more coming up next month! OMG can you believe it’s already November? Ugh, it makes me sick! (in Winnifred Sanderson voice from Hocus Pocus).

 

Well, I’m off to write a journal about my voice. Talk to you next month!

“I’m really going to miss you.”

Friday, July 31/09

Well, it’s arrived. That horrible day that I never thought would get here has arrived faster than I ever thought possible. After 3 solid months of the best job in the world, tons of Disney magic, partying with my best friends and spending money like it’s grows on trees (okay, maybe I should have done less of that last one), my Walt Disney World International College Program for Summer 2009 is officially over.

After going to bed at 2:30am, I didn’t get much sleep because I wanted to wake up early and say goodbye to Alex since he had to catch his ride (from a co-worker) at 6am. Within 15 minutes of waking up I was already crying. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see such a great guy, who I’ve spent the last 3 months with, just hop into a car and drive off with me not knowing if I’ll ever see him again.

I think that’s the biggest hurdle I’m facing and what’s making it so hard to say goodbye. I truly don’t know if I’ll never see 95% of these people ever again. Everyone was so amazing and so truly unique and that makes it even more difficult.

Another bad part? It was like one by one all my best friends were disappearing out of my life and going back to their own worlds. Next on the list? Jacqueline:

After her it was Hillary, Victoria and Dana. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad when those girls left because I knew out of everyone I met I had the best chances of seeing them again. We all live in the same province! That’s one thing I’m really thankful for. I met Jacqueline and she’s now one of (if not my #1) best friend and if she were to live in a different country I would be an even bigger mess than I already am.

One thing that sucked, though, is all the people I didn’t get to say goodbye to. I never said bye to countless people at work and tons of people at different apartment complexes who I’m pretty sure I’ll never see again. I was lucky last night, though, when I saw Karen getting into a Mears Shuttle Bus when we arrived back at Vista Way after Wishes. I literally just stopped the car at the front gates, jumped out of the car and ran to Karen to give her a big hug goodbye all while crying my eyes out.

One of the reasons I was having such a difficult time saying goodbye to all these people was because I was the last one staying at Vista Way. By 10am almost everyone I knew (except for Kinga and Hayley) had left Vista Way. In fact, and I haven’t told anyone this…that was the only time I actually felt homesick.

There were numerous reasons but the biggest was that I just kept seeing everyone going back home and I knew I wouldn’t be going home for another week. Sure, I was going on a cruise, but that was in two nights and we still didn’t have a place to sleep for those two nights. That’s the other reason. I literally felt sick to my stomach about not having a place to sleep. I don’t know what I was thinking when I felt homesick, though. Now that I’m home there’s literally NO reason I should have felt the least bit homesick. I really don’t like it here. But I’ll explain that later.

So now it’s about 11am and we’re all packed up and ready to go (Me, Kinga, and Hayley) but I see Hannah P. (the one from last night) and her old housemate Ashleigh walking down the stairs. I go out on a limb (knowing she’s staying in a hotel room with Ashleigh that night) and ask her if we (Me, Kinga and Hayley) would be able to spend the night. Thankfully she said yes and now we had a place to sleep! THANK GOD! It was such a relief and that nervous feeling immediately went away. We would meet them at the Holiday Inn across the street that night.

Now it was time to say goodbye to Vista Way and my apartment and get on the road. This was especially hard to deal with:

That killed me. Seeing my apartment so empty and being the last one left (Attila had left a couple hours earlier) in an apartment that housed not only the best roommate ever but so many memories.

But I had to say goodbye and I did.

Now, packing a car with my luggage, Kinga’s luggage and Hayley’s luggage was no easy task. It was definitely a tight squeeze and although it felt like we were playing Tetris, we managed to pack the car and have enough room to sit in it, too! Hilarity ensues:

Kinga and I sat in the front and Hayley had a small seat right behind Kinga:

I’m actually amazed at how much we managed to squeeze into that car!

The trunk.

Back seat.

Now that we said out goodbyes to Vista Way in a proper fashion, Kinga had just one more thing to do. Apparently it’s tradition for Lifeguards to throw their black Crocs into the Vista Way lake at the end of their program. I personally think Kinga made this up and there was NO way I was throwing my shoes away but Kinga insisted on throwing hers in the water:

Once we left Vista Way, the girls wanted to go to Blizzard Beach. Having already been, I took a pass but I still dropped them off in true soccer mom fashion (“Bye kids!”). Once I dropped the kids off I went to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with K-M and Hannah who were spending some time there before their flights (actually, K-M was staying for a few more days with her family so they were in the park, too). We had some lunch at the Magic Kingdom and then I walked Hannah to the front of the park to say goodbye. That was really hard seeing another one of my best friends go. Honestly, Hannah was one of the happiest, funniest people I’ve ever met and I have every intention of flying out to see her in the UK and when I arrive at the airport she better have Britney Spears playing in the car! Love you, Hannah!

I spent a little more time at the Magic Kingdom but then it was time for me to go pick up the girls from Blizzard Beach (it had closed due to thunderstorms). Once I picked them up we were all really hungry but didn’t know where to go. At this point we were truly homeless. I made an executive decision and we drove to Animal Kingdom Lodge to have some dinner at their quick service restaurant. Dinner was nice (really good) and we took our time just talking about anything and everything. We also signed some of the cruise documents that had come in the mail a few weeks earlier.

After dinner we didn’t know where to go (we couldn’t get a hold of Hannah P.) so we went upstairs to the main lobby and just plopped ourselves down right in front of the kids TV area. There were no kids there at the time but 45 minutes after we woke up we felt like every child and parent were staring at us (the 3 very large kids).

Finally we decided it was time to go to the Holiday Inn and settle in so we left Disney, snuck past security at the hotel and went up to the room number Hannah P. gave us. The girls were in the room so we brought our luggage up and settled it. It was about 9pm at this point. I was really tired and didn’t want to go out but the girls did. So while I slept on the fold-out couch (and apparently snored – “but just a little bit!”) the girls partied and slept at someone else’s house. I don’t know where or with who, and quite frankly I didn’t care. I was extremely tired after waking up at 5am with 2.5 hours of sleep.

Oh, one more thing I did that night was go back to Vista Way. I forgot to hand in my key to security and decided I would take one last look at my apartment. Why? I don’t know. I was basically just asking for another cry fest and that’s what happened. How can you NOT become upset when you see these photos?

This one was especially upsetting.

I’ve decided to report on the entire time between the end of the program and my arrival back to Canada but give me some time to write all of that. I’ve got a TON of pictures and for the first time I’d like to think about what I’m going to write before I post it on the blog. I’m planning on writing a full reflection piece on the program and want to make sure I talk about everything.

Why? Not only to let you guys know what I really thought about the program but also to let those out there applying for the program know exactly what they’re getting themselves into (trust me, it’s going to be a positive piece!).

So keep checking back for more updates because there’s definitely more to talk about! Thanks again for following the blog!

The End….for now.

Thursday, July 30/09

Now even though the program is officially over on July 31st, today is the last full day with everyone together so obviously it was a very hard day to deal with but I wanted to make the most of it. Here it goes….

Now i went to bed very late last night which was stupid because i had to get up really early so Jacqueline and I could start our full day together doing anything and everything. It sucks because I made Jacqueline promise me that she would be up and ready by a certain time (she’s always the last one out the door) and apparently she WAS ready but I slept in about 45 minutes longer than I should have so we got off to a late start.

So I got up at 8am after Jackal knocked at my door and I got ready as quickly as humanly possible. After about 20 minutes we left Vista and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We hadn’t even gotten to the Magic Kingdom and I was already crying in the car. That’s going to be a recurring theme in this post. I think I cried like 58493 times today!

Finally we arrived at what is my favourite theme park, the Magic Kingdom!

The theme of today (besides the crying theme). We had to celebrate our last day together!

After walking around the Magic Kingdom for a bit, going on a couple of rides including:

Astro Orbiter…

…Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin…

I always thought I was pretty good (my score is on the left), but Jacqueline is AMAZING at this game!

…and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad…

One of Jacqueline's favourite photos from today

…it was time for a big breakfast! Last night I pitched going to a buffet this morning to Jacqueline and as usual she said yes so I made reservations and after touring the Magic Kingdom, we hopped on the monorail and went to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa where we had a Supercalifragilistic breakfast at 1900 Park Fare which is a buffet character meal with all the British Characters (Mary Poppins, Alice, Mad Hatter, Pooh, Tigger, etc.).

Breakfast was really good and we met all the characters which is always fun. After breakfast we weren’t really sure what to do, but I remembered that the Grand Floridian had a marina with Sea Raycers (the same ones I took out at Wilderness Lodge) so I told Jacqueline we should go to the marina, tell them I’m a lifeguard and ask if we could take one out.

So that’s what we did! It was really funny because when I went to the marina, one of the Cast Members turned around and it turns out we had met at a party so it was a bit easier to convince them into letting us have a boat for free. They asked us if we wanted to take out two but we wanted to have pictures together so we just took one (there’s more than enough room for two people in one Sea Raycer). We weren’t sure if they were going to charge us or not (they gave us a payment slip) but in the end they just threw it out so we got 30 minutes on a Sea Raycer for free. It was REALLY fun! We went all the way around the 7 Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake and snapped pictures throughout the entire ride (even though you’re not allowed….I don’t know…something about safety?). I have over 200 pics from just that event, but here are a couple good ones:

You can see the monorail track behind us.

Somehow we went through a small wave but I ended up getting completely soaked!

The Sea Raycers were super fun and it was a great way to spend part of our last day together.

Here's Jacqueline at the Marina

This is the amazing Grand Floridian (well, part of it).

After breakfast and the Sea Raycers, we took the monorail back to Disney’s Contemporary Resort (where we parked), hopped in the car and drove to The Commons apartment complex to pick up our last pay cheques and hand in our Vista Way IDs. We met Hannah and K-M there and gave them a ride back to Vista Way.

Once at Vista Way, I went to my room to pack some stuff and do some laundry (don’t forget, I’m going on a cruise!). Once the laundry was finished, I had a couple more things to do back on Disney property. First I went to Costuming to return all my costumes and after that I went to Disney University where the Cast Member’s bank, Partners Federal Credit Union, is located because I needed to deposit my final pay cheques onto my credit card (I didn’t want to have cash with me while I was on the cruise and traveling). Well APPARENTLY you needed to have your passport with you so I went all the way to the furthest point on Disney property to do nothing. I also couldn’t just go home and come back with my passport because they were closing in 30 minutes and I wouldn’t have enough time to get to Vista and back. That really sucked.  It also really sucked that there was a huge storm outside on our last night. You can guarantee there were quite a few cries during those couple hours. Pretty much every hour.

Now it’s getting late (after 5pm) so I went back to Vista after a fairly uneventful outing. I’m also in a very sad mood because I know this is it. Every minute that passes by brings me closer and closer to what I’ve been trying not to think about. Cue the tears.

Jacqueline’s apartment (Hillary, Jac, Victoria, Dana and Joanie)….oh! I never reported on a couple things! Just to bring you up to speed….two people I’ve known from the beginning of the program are no longer with us at this point (no, they didn’t die!).

Since Lighthouse is on a longer program, a space became available for him at another apartment so he moved out about a week ago and I haven’t seen him since. I’m not even sure what apartment he’s living in.

Also, Kristen (one of Jacqueline’s roommates) said she thought she had asthma and was finding it hard to work at The Great Movie Ride so she left with only two weeks left in the program.

Anyways, the girls in Jacqueline’s apartment were planning a last meal together at (GAH!) Bennigan’s (sooo gross!) but since it was the last night I decided to join them. I was also realllllly hungry at this point so I ordered some food. Never again. I ordered (you guessed it!) chicken fingers and fries and I don’t think I was eating chicken. I’m not sure what I was eating but it was very rubbery and crunchy. Like I said, never again. But it was nice just hanging out with the girls.

Now it’s about 7pm and it’s time for our Graduation Ceremony (if you can call it that) at Mickey’s Retreat (where I did my lifeguard training). It wasn’t really a ceremony. We got some snacks, Mickey Mouse Graduation Hats, and our final papers/diplomas. Mickey and Minnie were also on hand for pictures and autographs. What was the worst part? The girls didn’t want to separate the group so instead of me driving 4 people, they wanted to take the bus. Well I could see their point so for the second time in the entire program I took the bus. It was HORRIBLE! I had to stand. What was even worse was knowing I had to take it back home!! Anyways, all the program kids were at the ceremony and it was nice to see everyone before we all went our separate ways (although everyone was supposedly going to Callie’s later that night for a party).

Here are some pictures of the Graduation “Ceremony”:

Entrance to Mickey's Retreat. It really sucked that it was raining especially here because it was very muddy and it certainly didn't help improve our spirits! It's hard to be happy when you're soaking wet and hot from the humidity!

Group shot with our hats

MY idea.

Hannah and I

Kendra and I

Karen and I

Ann-Marie and I

So that was our little ceremony. Now it was time to take the bus back to Vista and then go to the Magic Kingdom for one last visit (and for the Wishes fireworks!). Well, after the arrival bus trip, I told the girls that they could take the bus to the Magic Kingdom if they wanted but I would be driving. Since two of the girls decided to stay at the “ceremony” that meant it was just Me, Jac, Hilly, Dana and Michelle Kwan so they all happily hopped in the Focus once we got back to Vista Way. But don’t forget, we had to take the bus BACK to Vista. Here are pictures from that event:

Me flipping off the bus (which I NEVER do) because I just HATE IT SOOOOO MUCH!!!

I was NOT happy to be on another bus. Dana, on the other hand, apparently looooves public transportation!

Then we posed with some random girl who was sitting beside us. I'm going to call her "Cookie".

Sooooo sad

Once we all got in the car and parked at the Contemporary Resort, it FINALLY stopped raining! Yay! Now if all the water would just evaporate from the ground and our clothes!

Now there’s a cute little story I’d like to tell about what happened at the gates of the Magic Kingdom. While walking up to the gates with my friends, I saw Helena and her group of housemates. One of them was Hannah P. who had left the program early because her Grandpa had dies back in England. Long story short, she couldn’t fly there, and come back so she had to self terminate. However, her family had been planning on coming to visit her at this time anyways so she was back for a visit and was spending the night with her old housemates. The only problem was that Hannah couldn’t get in the parks. The guest passes we got as Cast Members were blocked out since it was busy season and Hannah had no way to get in the park. I saw the girls and asked what was wrong and they explained the situation.

Being an Annual Passholder, I offered Hannah my pass. We weren’t sure if it was going to work because each ticket is tied to individual finger prints. Hannah really didn’t want to do it but I insisted. What did she have to lose? The worst they could say was “no”! So she took the ticket, went in between her friends who all had valid tickets and she got in! She was so thankful and it really made me happy that I could help her out. I just kept saying to her, “You didn’t think I was going to let you spend your last night in your hotel room, did you?!” She was so thrilled.

After that, we entered the park. First stop at the Magic Kingdom? The Chapeau hat store to get our Mickey hats embroidered with our names.

Hillary and Victoria decided to (I think they did at least) get some ice cream and stake out a spot for the upcoming fireworks show. Jacqueline’s camera had just broken down and she was dealing with a few other problems back home involving her friends so she was kind of in a bad mood (she said so herself!) and didn’t want to do anything in the park so she just stayed with Hillary and Victoria but I really wanted to go on Peter Pan’s Flight and Dana had NEVER been on it so we went together. I had a special pass that got us to the front of the line and within 10 minutes we bypassed the 60 minute line and we were on our pirate ship to Neverland!

Right after Peter Pan it was about time for the fireworks so we rushed over to meet the others in front of the castle. I also saw some other familiar faces enjoying their last night…

Val, Kathy and I waiting for Wishes

The fireworks were amazing as usual and I cried like a baby. Hillary and Victoria didn’t cry, and Jacqueline went to the bathroom half way through the show (she wasn’t feeling well) but Dana and I were bawling our eyes out.

After Wishes we went back to the car and drove back to Vista Way. I was bawling my eyes out the entire car ride home and even when we got back to the apartment I just stayed in the car sobbing because it really was the end.

I went back up to my apartment and saw that Alex had packed most of his things and then I looked in the closet and bathroom and there was nothing there and I just bawled my eyes out for a good 15 minutes. I never thought it would be this hard.

After I pulled myself together I went down to see Jacqueline and said good night. She had to get up early the next morning to catch her 7am flight and needed some sleep. Then I headed over to Callie’s apartment where everyone had brought stuff to sign and write messages on. King of like a yearbook signing session. So I ran back to my apartment and grabbed the photo album I bought at Property Control and had everyone sign it. I really love it. I’m always looking back on it now and just remembering all the good times I had with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Here are some pictures from the signing party:

Hannah and I (after cried....again)

My precious photo album (and a very unflattering photo of Kendra haha!)

After the party I went back to my apartment where Alex was packing up. Seeing that got me started crying again. I went to bed at 2:30am.

It’s not officially the end though – there’s still one day left of the program.

Last Shift :(

Wednesday, July 28/09

The end is now closer than I ever thought it would be and it’s actually so depressing!

Although I’m not going to be working at Typhoon Lagoon next month I still needed to get my in-service to remain in good standing with the company and not have any points on my record card. So, I got up at 7am so I could be at Typhoon Lagoon at 8am for in-service.

It was actually pretty cool today because we got to do it in the Wave Pool which means jumping off the wall numerous times which is always fun .

After in-service I knew it was my last morning at Typhoon Lagoon so I bought my underwater camera and started taking pictures of anything and everything. I got pictures with my coordinators, other guards and slide-ops and had people take pictures of me. Here they are:

The road from the parking lot to backstage

Fellow lifeguards doing footbaths with me. Oh and that's James who I convinced to switch rotations with me yesterday.

Me and the lovely Clare

Me with some of my lovely Coordinators: Jenn, Ana, and Brenda

Super Lifeguard Kurt!

The break room (if you can call it that). It's more of an outdoor box with screen walls

The door that puts you onstage. I actually have two of these photos. First I was just taking a picture of the door then Uby, my manager, came through the door and I really caught him off guard ahah. But he just laughed and offered to take my picture. Thanks Uby!

Base

The lockers. The building on the left is the break room and the one on the right is the Computer Lab/Cast Services building

The break room. If this picture was bigger, you would see the backside of the Base building on the left

Hopefully that gave you some perspective about what I’ve been writing about all these months!

Once I took over 100 photos I went home to shower/change and then it was time for another day of fullness.

I started out by going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to do some shopping. I don’t think I bought much but while I was there I went around backstage a LOT. I saw the entire High School Musical parade cast (no, NOT Efron and Tisdale!) backstage as well as come cool props, etc. I also saw Dana at 50’s Prime Time Café, and hung out with her for a bit backstage. Jacqueline was working today but I couldn’t find her anywhere.

After the Studios, I moved over to Epcot where I spent 685493 hours looking for a parking spot in the Cast Lot. Once I found a spot (which was 578493 miles away) I walked through the Cast Services building and went right through to the backstage part of the park.

Epcot's Cast Services

Since Epcot is so big, they have busses that service the back of the park and take Cast Members from the main building to the other side of the park. For those of you who have been to Epcot, the Cast Services building is basically right behind the Mexico pavilion. Anyways, when I walked out of the Cast Services building there was a bus waiting right there to take Cast Members to the other side of the park. So I got on. I probably wasn’t supposed to but I did and it was really cool to see all of the backstage parts of each country because we basically did a full trip around the World Showcase Lagoon.

I hopped off at the Canada stop and since I was the only one I was pretty much screwed because I had NO idea how to get into the guest area. I walked around backstage for a bit looking at things and how it’s all set up then I made my way to what I thought would be a guest area. After climbing through some trees and a little forest patch, I basically popped out of nowhere into Epcot. I’m sure if someone was watching me they were probably wondering where the heck I came from (I was wondering the same thing!).

Once I was in the guest area I decided to stop by the Canada pavilion to visit my friend Corey who works the merchandise section of the pavilion.

Kurt & Corey in their native Canada

After my quick visit, I went to the UK pavilion to get some lunch (fish & chips = yum!). After lunch I toured around the World Showcase some more, stopping in every pavilion and going into every shop for gifts. While I was walking around the “world” I saw Belle in France. She literally had NOBODY around her so I just stopped by for a quick picture:

I ended up back at Canada (the World Showcase is a big circle) so I decided to stop by once more and take a closer look at their merchandise. Jacqueline and I had been searching for an appropriate matching gift for one another to remind us of each other back home. Well, I found the gift! It was a little leather keychain in the shape of a heart which had Minnie and Mickey on it and you could get it engraved with any name you want. So I got Jacqueline a pink one and for “Kurt” engraved on it and I got myself a blue one that says “Jac” on it (Jacqueline was too long to fit). I gave it to her that night and she freaked! I have it on my keys right now and I think of her every day J. Jackal, if you’re reading this I love and miss you soooo much! You are basically my soul mate!

After Epcot it was time for work, so I drove to Typhoon Lagoon…

Typhoon Lagoon entrance

…changed quickly and clocked in. Since it was my last shift I worked my magic once again and was able to convince the coordinators to not only put e on the deep rotation but also to start me on Shark Reef which was even MORE amazing! It’s the hair, I’m telling you! It works like magic!

So I had the best rotation ever, I got tons of pictures (I had one of my lifeguard friends who was also at the reef take pictures of me while I was in the water), I had my break with some of my best work friends, and since I started on break it meant I would be ending my shift with closing jobs but guess what!? There was a storm closing so I just went backstage and had another 30 minute break! It was awesome! The storm was really intense though and it was REALLY close so it would have been dangerous for us to be outside or near the water.

During the closing jobs I took some more pictures and at 9:30pm I clocked out at Typhoon Lagoon for the last time this summer

Here are some pictures from work:

I asked a lady working the cast services building if I could have some popcorn, but I said it in an Oliver Twist voice like, "Please, may I have some moh?". She looked at me and said in a really black voice, "I don't undahstand wat yo sayin'!" It was pretty hilarious!

Just working the Reef!

Just helping some kids

Break time! Zac, Kurt, and Clare

Brittany and I are just sooo upset I have to leave!

Raping the vending machine

Brittany writing me a Great Service Fanatic Card while I write her one

"Severe Weather Alert"

Typhoon Lagoon at night. This picture doesn't really do it justice. It's actually so beautiful at night.

Bye Typhoon Lagoon! I'll miss you!!

After work a lot of people were going to Buffalo Wild Wings (remember, it’s Wednesday night!) so I went home, changed, grabbed Kinga, Helena and Tim, drove to Patterson Court to get Zac and Liam, and then met up with some friends. It was karaoke night and this really embarrassing but during a slow song (Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing) I started crying. And I mean REALLY crying. Thank God  had my sunglasses on me! Not only was it a sad song but just knowing that I’m never going to see half of these people again really killed me because they’ve been my best friends for 3 months and they’ve all made my summer so fantastic.

Here are some pictures of Buffalo’s:

Kinga and Tim waiting for me to get ready

The group: Kinga (Canada), Liam (Ireland), Zac (Australia), Helena (England), Tim (England). Oh, and Liam and Zac are Slide Ops at Typhoon Lagoon.

Apparently this girl got terminated for driving two people home who stole the red lifeguard rescue tubes. Oops!

Right after my cry fest

Hanging with Nat and Clare

Hayley also joined us later on

After Buffalo’s, we went to McDonald’s for a bit (it’s in the same plaza – Crossroads), I dropped a few people off and ended up going to bed at 4am.

I have a full, early day planned with Jacqueline tomorrow.

CRAP!

Let The “Day of Fullness” Begin!!

Tuesday, July 28/09

Today it begins. I said before I was going to make the most of every day but until now I didn’t know what that meant. All this week while I was on stand I was going through my head making a plan of all the things I needed to do and today I started knocking things off that list.

First, I woke up at 6am and got ready for a full day. At about 6:30am I headed over to the Polynesian for breakfast at Captain Cooks where I got a big ‘ol Tonga Toast with bacon and potatoes:

I ate it all (except for 3 potatoes), and it was AMAZING!

After taking some pictures of the resort (which I think is the most beautiful)…

Cinderella's Castle across the 7 Seas Lagoon

…I  left the Polynesian and drove behind the Magic Kingdom to Company D (at Disney University)…

…I got a couple of things including a few pins and a t-shirt. Since I was in the area I went to Property Control and Cast Connection…

The very plain outside of Property Control

….which both had nothing to offer. In fact, they sucked.

Continuing with my day of fullness, I went over to Epcot to go to their Company D store where I bought a luggage tag and window sticker (which reminds me, I still have to put that on my car!). I also explored a bit backstage which was really cool! I didn’t go too far or take any busses (that’s a story for tomorrow’s post!) but a nice Canadian who worked in (you guessed it!) the Canada Pavillion showed me around and took me through the cast entrance even though I was dressed in regular guest clothes. I didn’t go on any rides. I just looked around in the main shop for a bit and got some free Coca-Cola testers at Club Cool. And that’s perfectly fine with me. I know I’ve told you all before but I am more than happy just walking around the Disney theme parks and not doing ANY rides. Sure, I love Space Mountain and Peter Pan’s Flight but if I just got to walk around the park looking at things and taking pictures I’m just as happy!

Enjoying the sights at Epcot.

It was getting close to 10:30am which was when my hair appointment was so I left Epcot and went over to the Crossroads Plaza to The Cut and Color Room where Matthew (you guessed it!) cut and colored my hair. It looked amazing! Honestly, I cannot recommend Matthew enough. We’re besties and whenever I go to Orlando, my first stop will be his chair at The Cut and Color Room. Here’s a picture of the salon (they’re moving) and a picture of Matthew and I after my haircut:

Kurt and Matthew

After getting my hair done and saying goodbye to Matthew I went back to Disney Property to continue with my plans. First stop? Team Disney!

I went to the Company D store inside Team Disney and bought a couple Cast Member items and then it was time for my next stop – Animal Kingdom Lodge for lunch. I had my regular chicken nuggets and fries and then, sadly, it was time for work.

I got there on time and was able to convince the coordinators to put me on the deep rotation because it was my 2nd last shift. Sure enough, I was able to work my magic and I ended up starting on break, but I wasn’t working the entire Shark Reef area which I wanted. So I found the guy who was, James, and after convincing him for 10 minutes that it was in his best interest to switch rotations with me, he reluctantly switched rotations with me so I could work the reef. Thanks James! After work I had a dry-inservice which was nice because I didn’t have to get wet before going home. All we did were choking situations and then it was time to go home.

But I wasn’t going home – I still had things to do! After I clocked out, I quickly changed and drove over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios where I planned to visit Dana, find Jacqueline, and watch Fantasmic!. Before I went into the park, (since I parked my car in the cast lot) I went through the Cast Member entrance and walked around backstage for a bit. I ended up popping out of a Star Tours CM entrance but backstage was pretty cool. Not too interesting but it was neat to see the back of the Indiana Jones set and some old/seasonal props, etc.

Well, I found Dana at 50’s Prime Time Cafe and surprised her with some invasive photo taking which she didn’t appreciate Then I told Dana I was looking for Jacqueline and couldn’t find her because her phone was off and Dana told me Jacqueline JUST left the restaurant. So I ran outside and sure enough Jacqueline was walking down the street. Being a good friend, Jacqueline ditched her work friends she was hanging out with so she could hang with me. We went to Voyage of the Little Mermaid’s last show of the evening and then we booked it over to Fantasmic! where we were able to get really good seats because we knew the usher. Obviously we cried at the end of the show. Actually bawled is more like it!

After Jacqueline said goodbye to a few of her friends, we shopped for a bit and then went back to Vista Way. I dropped her off and went right to the Ale House where some work friends were hanging out. I hung out there for a bit and went home at 2am.

Then my work friend, Laura, texted me and asked is she could come over because she was in a fight with her boyfriend and needed a place to sleep. I didn’t have a problem with it so she came over, we talked for a bit, I gave her one of my pillows, a sweater and she slept on the couch. I didn’t hear her, but she ended up leaving at like 3am or 4am.

And that’s Tuesday!