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!

I LOVE My Job!

Monday, July 27/09

Alright today was an absolutely INSANE day. Probably one of the craziest/random days I’ve had working for Disney. It’s going to be a long post so I hope you’re in a comfortable chair!

Okay, now what did I expect? I go to bed at 4am and have to wake up at 7:15am for an 8am shift? It’s not going to happen.

And it didn’t.

I ended up waking up at 8:10am, rushed to work but was still late by 30 minutes. I had an excuse (call me or email me if you want to know what it was) for my manager but what I was really worried about was getting points. Like I said in the previous post, I haven’t done anything wrong the entire summer and now everything bad is happening to me in this last week.

So I was late. So late that my name wasn’t even on the rotation because I wasn’t there early enough to check in and get a morning job. So I was an extra for the day and was told to take a 30-minute break. Then my good friend (and coordinator) Jenn came to find me on break (I was actually in the computer lab) and asked me if I wanted to work at Wilderness Lodge (a Disney resort) for the day. A Deluxe resort? Sure! So I packed up my things, heated up my lunch (and ate it on my way to the car) and drove to Wilderness Lodge.

I didn’t drive like a mad man this time but still got there in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, they had asked me if I wanted to day off (because of my excuse) but I said no because I wanted the hours (which is definitely true). So I got to Wilderness Lodge and at this point I’m pretty excited because it’s a deluxe resort and at least I wasn’t working a value again. So I look around for a coordinators room for like 20 minutes before I finally see someone in black shorts (the coordinator’s costume) walking towards a wooden shack. I follow them and sure enough it’s the recreation building which is exactly what I was looking for.

So I check in with them and realize that in the rush that was my morning I forgot my nametag and whistle. So they say they’re going to drive me over to (?) and get me one. I didn’t hear what they said. So I hop in a golf cart with some old lady and she starts driving down a dirt road. After about 10 minutes of driving I saw a horse stable. Me being a Disney freak and knowing where I am on property, I know that’s the Fort Wilderness (another Disney resort) horse stable. So I ask her and she confirms it. I also ask her if I’m going to be working at Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wilderness today. She says Fort Wilderness.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Why? Because Fort Wilderness is the Disney Trailer Park! AHHHHH! I thought I escaped the poor vacationers?! I already worked at Pop Century…isn’t that enough punishment?! I want to lifeguard at a nice resort and watch rich people L. Then we started driving by campers and trailers and that suspense sound you hear in horror movies was going through my head:

Long story short (although I’m still going to write a long story about it) the day was fantastic! The pool was really easy to guard and I ended up only being on stand for a couple hours at the most. The rest of the time I was cleaning up the area around the pool and small marina they have and taking my break.

Oh, I need to tell you about the break! Well, because the park is basically in the middle of nowhere you get an HOUR break! Isn’t that awesome?! But what’s even cooler is that you get to take a golf cart and go wherever you want. So I took out a golf cart and headed over to the Fort Wilderness cafeteria which sucked. I was told that the Wilderness Lodge cafeteria was better so I decided to drive over there. I parked my cart at the recreation shack and met a really nice Lake Patrol Cast Member (Wilderness Lodge is on a lake) who showed me around the backstage area of the resort. While we were walking around I noticed that on his sleeve it said “Lake Patrol”. Then it hit me that my old Typhoon Lagoon trainer, Ryan, moved over to Lake Patrol. So I asked him if he knew Ryan and he definitely did and told me he was actually working today. Then he told me I could take out a Sea Raycer (a slower, more boat-like version of a Sea-Doo) on the lake and try and find him.

WHAT?!

We hadn’t even reached the cafeteria and I just told him, “Well what are going to get food for?! Lets go to the marina!!!”

So we walked quickly to the marina and within 5 minutes I was out on Bay Lake in a boat. Awesome! I was going to pass through one of the channels and go to the 7 Seas Lagoon (the lagoon that the Grand Floridian, Polynesian and Magic Kingdom surround) but I knew I wouldn’t have enough time. So I just drove around Bay Lake, found Ryan and said hello and then went back to the dock. I thanked everyone, asked if I could come back (“Of course you can!”) and then hopped in my golf cart and booked it back to the trailer park.

I finished up the day and I actually had clean up duties before the end of my shift. Well, all the boats were put away and everything was cleaned up so I decided to go for a little walk around the resort. I went to the little store they have and looked around and then decided to check out a cool tower near the pool. At this resort, every night they project movies onto a big screen around a campfire from a big projection tower. I went to the tower and nobody was around so I decided to go inside. It was unlocked which I found a little strange but I went inside anyways. Hey, why not? It said Cast Members only and I AM a Cast Member! Besides, when am I going to have a chance to do this again?

So I went inside and it was pitch black – nobody was there. I turned on a light and saw that there were two closed doors on my right and a set of stairs. I went upstairs and saw that’s where the projector is. Nothing too special. Then I went back downstairs and checked out the two rooms. The first one was just a fridge and freezer. Nothing special.

Now this is the crazy part. I moved onto the second door and saw that there was a big yellow sign on it that said something along the lines of, “Absolutely NO cameras or video allowed in this room”. So I opened the door and it was just dark enough to see what was in front of me. I look forward and there on the shelf in front of me I see a Chip head and a Dale head staring at me on a shelf. I basically screamed it freaked me out so much. Keep in mind I’m already scared because I’m the only one in this dark, scary tower and then I see two big ass chipmunk heads staring at me! Then I look to my left and on the wall are two costume bags that say “Chip” and “Dale”. So freaky!

After that I basically ran out of there. I went back to the lifeguard base and it was the end of my shift so i started to gather my things. Then I hear one of the coordinators talking to a security lady and she says that someone set off a “silent alarm” at the video tower. OOPS! I fessed up and told her it was me. They didn’t really care and they were more happy that it was me than a guest.

So I got a drive back to Wilderness Lodge at 3pm and that was the end of my day at Fort Wilderness. It was really fun! I wasn’t planning on taking a Sea Raycer out again but it was sunny and I decided, “Why not?!” So I took one out and went all around Bay Lake and 7 Seas Lagoon soaking in all the Disney Magic I could. I LOVE being a lifeguard!

After work I went to the Mall at Millenia with Helena and our friend (and Helena’s old housemate – long story – Hannah P.). I didn’t buy anything and I don’t think they did either but we got something to eat in the food court.

After the mall we just went back to Vista Way. Not staying true to my plan of keeping busy, I took a nap. When I woke up I cleaned my room and half way through it I just started crying. This was the first of many random cries. Knowing I had to leave Disney so soon really took its toll on me and I cried every single day of my last week.

After my cry fest, I went to visit Jacqueline and we exchanged a few pictures so we wouldn’t have to do everything all at once at the end of the week.

I went to bed at 1:30am.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures today but I’ve got a lot for tomorrows post. Hopefully my very long, descriptive post will give you a good enough visual of what my day was like.

Oh, and just to let you know I didn’t get a point for being late this morning. Everything worked out purrrrrrfectly:

It’s WHAT time?!

Sunday, July 26/09

Okay so normally I NEVER have morning shifts which means I never wake up early. Well today I had a morning shift that started at 8am. What time did I wake up? 7:46am. CRAP! So when I realized what time it was I basically jumped into my costume, brushed my teeth and drove like a mad man to work. I ended up clocking in at 8:00:15am. Yes….15 seconds! Nothing showed up on my record card, THANK GOD! Of course it happens to me in my last week, though, huh? I’ve never done anything wrong in the past 3 months and now this happens.

I ended up getting a pretty easy morning jobs of sweeping the stairs of attraction ques. I also got on deep rotation and got to start at Shark Reef because I switched with one of the other lifeguards! The day was really easy and included a storm closing. At 3pm I headed home to eat something and then went out to do some errands. First I went to Target to do some quick/frugal grocery shopping (keep in mind I have NO money at this point) and then I headed back to Typhoon Lagoon because I forgot my cell phone. After that I went to the Prime Outlets to see if there was anything worth buying (there wasn’t ).

Later I went back home, got ready for House of Blues (it IS Sunday, after all!) and arrived there at 12:30am. It was really sad because it was my LAST HOB this summer . It was such a fun time, though! I met up with work friends before I went out and then I went back to my apartment and drove to the club with Kinga, Karen, Helena and Hannah. We were all just in such a great mood and we were all really happy. It was probably the best House of Blues night ever.

We stayed for about 2 hours and left at 2:30am and I went to bed at 4am.

Crap.

I have another morning shift tomorrow!

The good news? I took a LOT of pictures! Here are a couple from the night (I’ve probably got over 200 haha!):

Hanging out with Stacey and work friends.

One the way to the club. What are listening to? Probably what we always listen to....either Britney, Madonna, or Spice Girls! Oh, and my tongue is that weird color because we were all hopped up on freezies

Karen and Hannah are too famous for pictures...

Me and my work friends who were all at HOB. Oh, and a random foot, too.

Dancing out hearts out upstairs in the club

Hannah posing with Princess Diana. "She's MY Princess, Kurt. MY Princess!"

Oh, yeah. After the club obviously I didn’t just go straight to bed. We got some Wendy’s and headed over to Karen/Hannah/Kinga’s apartment for some quality bonding time where Karen was an old lady and I was a dead witch that got crushed by a table.

Back at the apartment Karen is a grandma...

HAHAHA!

Wicked Witch of Orlando

“BOOOO! WE WANT WAVES!!”

Saturday, July 25/09

Alright so today is the start of my final week. I’ve officially got less than 7 days until the end of the program so I’ve decided no matter HOW tired I am, I’m going to do everything I possibly can.

It didn’t start out too well because I only got up around noon, but I quickly got ready and headed out for the day.

First I went to Downtown Disney to get some gifts to bring back home. Now I can tell since I’ve already handed out the gifts, but I ended up getting Tinkerbell shot glasses with my friends names engraved on them (one for each member of the family). Sam’s is a Mexican Donald Duck one though and mine is a Mickey Mouse one. They’re really cute! I also got my Dad a set of tea (he loves his tea!) and a few other things. The shot glasses take a while to get engraved, though, so I had to pick them up after work.

After Downtown Disney I drove over to Costuming to turn in some dirty costumes, changed there and then headed right to work.

I ended up getting on the deep rotation and guess what? I did an actual save today! Not that it’s a huge deal but it’s a funny story (and NO I did NOT hit someone in the head again ahah!)…

So I was sitting on the Wave Wall watching this large black man clearly pushing himself to reach the end of the wave pool. I asked him if he was alright and he clearly said, “No, I’m fine.” I kept watching him though and then he started holding onto the rope (which we all know is a big no no). I yelled at him to let go but he wouldn’t and then a wave came and he STILL held on. Then I told him to let go again and he started swimming towards the stairs which is ANOTHER big no. This is always the problem with lifeguarding. People are too proud to tell you they need help and even though you ask them numerous times they still refuse basically until they are underwater drowning. So I motion to the other lifeguard whether or not I should go in and he says to go so I immediately hit my alarm which shuts off the waves and I jump in and get the guy. Well by the time I got to him he had already reached the stairs so I just walked him up.

Large black man? Saved.

Okay now you may be asking what the funny part of this story is? Well after I saved him the waves took an extremely long time to come back on and as a joke the lifeguard across from me pointed at ME while the crowd was booing. So basically for 10 minutes straight I had an entire wave pool booing me because I saved someone.

So that was pretty much my shift. Nothing else really interesting happened. At 9pm when we were supposed to be doing closing jobs, most of the people were goofing around but for some reason I actually did my job and it turns out that one of the coordinators saw me and after closing jobs she pulled me (and two others who were also working: CJ and Stacie) aside and gave us Great Service Fanatic cards! Yahooooo!!

Alright now after work I had something extra special planned. One of the theme parks, Disney’s Hollywood Studios was having a special after hours event JUST for WDW Cast Members where they had Tower of Terror and Rock n’ Roller Coaster (sp?) open…WITH THE LIGHTS ON! So obviously I had to check that out and right after work I headed over to the Studios and rode both rides. Tower of Terror wasn’t that special with the lights on but Aerosmith was really cool! It really surprised me how small the actually ride building is!

After going on both rides I went back to Downtown Disney to pick up my gifts and then headed home and ended up going to bed around 1am.

So broke…

I forgot to add this picture to the Friday, July 24/09 post.

I’m so broke I can’t afford ketchup. Well I’m, actually not THAT broke but I refuse to buy more food because I know I won’t finish it. Here’s the picture (not a very good one) of all the ketchup I got from Wendy’s that night:

One more thing…

I think writing a message of that length on a cell phone deserves an award.

I’m just sayin’.