The Dole Whip Challenge

So, as I wrote yesterday, some of my roomies and I went to the parks to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Sam and I started our day with a really nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Abuleo's where I got this weird type of baked quesadilla with the cheese outside of the tortilla that was actually quite yummy!  It was /supposedly/ a healthier Mexican cuisine, but I don't know if that was actually the case.

Oooh, fancy!  Three types of salsa - plus a house mix and some queso!!!

LOOK THE CHEESE IS ON THE OUTSIDE YES THAT MASS OF CHEESE IS IN FACT MY QUESADILLA.

We then headed to DAK, where we met up with Sam's friend Ricky!  We headed to Expedition Everest first, which I had never ridden before.  It was GREAT!!!!  so great that we did it twice whoops   Directly after that we went on Safaris, which was lovely!  The wait wasn't too bad and we saw everything but the Bongos, which is actually really sad because there's a baby right now and it's so cute that every time I see it I want to die.  Anyway, after our safari we headed to Dino Land, where we rode Dinosaur - which is apparently the Indiana Jones ride of Disney World!  Although I enjoyed it, I sadly don't think it's as good as the Indiana Jones one out in California.

A breathtaking view of the Tree of Life, my park's icon, taken on the walkway between Africa and Asia!  

As the Animal Kingdom was closing, we left for Magic Kingdom, which would be open for another seven hours!!  After grabbing a soft pretzel (one of my favorite foods), we met up with Katrina, another one of my flatmates.  From there we embarked on a mission - to go to the Dumbo ride and squeeze all four of us into the same capsule!  One of my other friends, who works there, told me that as long as the seatbelt is buckled it's allowed - and, hark!  She was right!!!  We did it and it was the most beautiful thing that had ever happened, and then we vowed to do all of the rest of the kiddie rides.  We even did the Carousel, and I got Cinderella's horse (you can tell which one's hers because it has a gold "ribbon" tied around its tail)!

And a little later on, after we'd been running around for a while, Katrina and I wanted Dole Whips - but it was really chilly, so Sam said we ought to go to the Tiki Room and we agreed.  When we got there, the girl working the line looked at us and says, "I hate to be a downer, but…you're not allowed to have those during the show."

"In the queue or during the actual show?" I asked.

"During the show.  You're welcome to have them out here, but…"

"Well, we have six minutes," I said.  I had seen a sign outside saying when the next show was. "That's plenty of time."

She looked at Katrina and I dubiously. "Yeah, right.  If you finish those in six minutes, I'll let you guys ride the Magic Carpets twelve times.  In a row."

I personally didn't want to do this.  It was way colder than Florida should have a right to be last night, and I had no desire to ride around for over an hour on a Magic Carpet.  However, I can be quite competitive.

Apparently, so can Katrina.

"Oh, you're SO on," she said, and with that we started - and finished with a minute to spare, of course!!!  We didn't know if they would actually let us or if they were just kidding, BUT WHEN WE GOT OUT OF THE TIKI ROOM THEY WEREN'T KIDDING AND WE ACTUALLY GOT TO RIDE IT TWELVE TIMES.  LITERALLY.  

TWELVE.  TIMES.

What's that?  Pics or it didn't happen, you say?  Well, luckily for you, WE TOOK A SELFIE EACH TIME.

IT WAS GREAT.

no actually it was freezing like forget it elsa the cold always bothers me

ROUND ONE YAY LOOK I'M ON THE RIGHT SO EXCITED

wow very two such carpet so magic wow amaze

Round threeeeee yayyy!!!!

wait why am i still captioning these

like i mean they have numbers and everything

can you guys even count because if not this is six

whoops looks like we lost ricky

[insert caption here]

wait look these are our new friends idk if this is even allowed so don't tell anyone this is selfie 8.5 in case you can't count sometimes i can't

guys look at my face what am i even doing

oh my god how do we still look so excited

jk we're not actually we're dying

jk agAIN WE'RE ACTUALLY DONE GET ON OUR LEVELLLL

So in conclusion: a basically wonderful Valentine's Day!  

The best carpet is number 6, although number 15 is also good.  Even-numbered carpets tend to tilt forward and backward better, while the odd-numbered ones go up and down more easily. That being said, we didn't get a chance to try carpets 1-4.  More research to follow.

Although I meant to go get a charm for my bracelet sometime this weekend, I sadly haven't yet secured one.  I'm thinking that I need an Aladdin themed one (amiright or amiright).  On the plus side, I did all of my laundry today, I got my groceries for the week, I made banana bread because I had an excess of overly ripe bananas, and I'm currently watching Sherlock with some of my flatmates!  Tomorrow is going to be my last day of training and then on Monday - bright and early at seven a.m. - I begin my assessment!  Wish me luck!!!

I hope everyone has had an absolutely magical day!

Traditions, DAKlimation, and the Magic Kingdom

Hello again, friends!  Or should I say Jambo?

On Thursday afternoon, I had what Disney calls "Traditions" - a class meant to get new employees hyped up to work for the company by explaining their ideas on service and what it means to current employees to work for the Mouse (complete with video footage of Cast Members being interviewed/giving stories, etc.).  I don't want to spoil it for any of you who might be considering coming to work here at WDW, but let me just say this - I was nearly in tears on multiple occasions!  Disney does an amazing, amazing job of making their new hires feel incredibly special and warm and fuzzy to be helping to make the magic for their Guests.

The only downside: it was cold and rainy - like, in the fifties and RAINY.  ON MY FIRST DAY OF (TECHNICALLY) TRAINING.  And I was not prepared for it!  My advice to anyone for anything (not just Traditions, though I do think it would be more magical if I'd been properly attired): check the weather and dress accordingly.

Oh, yeah - I also GOT MY FIRST NAME TAG!!!!!

I had planned to go to the Magic Kingdom after Traditions, because we got our WDW Employee ID cards (yay!), but to be honest, I didn't get back until around 8:30 (I'd taken a bus at 1:45 to get there) and I was cold and wet and just wanted to relax, so I stayed in and went to bed early - which was a good decision, because the next morning I had "DAKlimation," the Disney's Animal Kingdom park orientation!

Again, I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who might get to work in DAK, but I had a blast!  I feel so, so blessed to be working in DAK with all of the animals and other amazing Cast Members.  We talked about the park's mission statements in a classroom and then took a tour of our park (with a little surprise - but I won't reveal anything!) and then after lunch we headed to Costuming to pick up our oh-so-cute outfits!

And by oh-so-cute, I mean oh-my-gosh-do-i-really-have-to-wear-that.

Okay, so it's not actually that awful - especially since everyone has to wear one - and the hats are actually really cute!  That being said, costuming was a disaster.  There was literally NOTHING in my size, so I had to make due with either larger sizes or articles of clothing from other rides that looked similar.  They told me to come back every so often to see if they'd gotten anything in that would fit.  So maybe not the most magical moment, but, hey - I'm still working at Disney World!  And I'll have almost a week and a half more of training, so I'm not anticipating a huge problem.

But now I feel obligated to share with you lovely people a little about what I learned not about DAK, but about life in general.

A) Disney's sizes run very, very strangely - my pants are literally twice the size I normally wear, and my shirt is two sizes smaller.  Not such a good ego boost.

B) You should ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER.  DO NOT WEAR A SKIRT AND THIN SWEATER WHEN IT IS GOING TO BE FIFTY FIVE DEGREES AND RAINING.  Also, Disney doesn't allow you to use an umbrella if it's got a logo or something on it (I made the mistake of bringing a UNC one, which is blue and white with a UNC logo and was too ostentatious for me to use while representing the company), so make sure to invest in either a Disney umbrella or one that is very plain (I'd suggest plain black) with no logo.

C) DO NOT WEAR HEELS TO ANY ORIENTATION EVER.  ESPECIALLY NOT ONE THAT REQUIRES YOUR WALKING AROUND A PARK IN THE RAIN.

I hope that some of you will learn from my mistakes so that my suffering won't have been in vain.

Anyway, all that negativity aside, I can't wait to go play in DAK on one of my days off and get to know my park a little better!  It's a really cool place!!

Finally, after I took a coworker to find the necessary brown boots for Safaris drivers when we were finally finished with Costuming, she and I headed to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with some of my other friends!  We'd been having awful luck with transportation all day - on our way to DAKlimation another bus caught on fire, so we got really delayed (I don't think anyone was hurt, though, so that's a plus!), and we'd had to take a really long bur ride back to our apartments while carrying all of our costumes - and that luck didn't seem to change.  We took a bus to the Polynesian, thinking that we could get on the monorail and avoid the hassle of having to avoid going backstage in the MK, which ended up being about a ten minute walk from the bus stop.  And when we got to the station, the monorail was closed, so we had to use the ferry - which takes twenty minutes.  Katie and I were dying - we were so excited to go play and we'd already had such bad luck with transportation that it was doubly sad to have to wait on the ferry, even if it /was/ pretty scenic.  Training technically ended at two and by the time we finally made it into the MK, it was 6:47.  Talk about a lot of travel time!!!

But I can't really complain, because then we were in the Magic Kingdom!  After grabbing a quick bite to eat at Pinocchio's in Fantasyland (I got an overpriced flatbread pizza that was okay - I'd recommend it in a pinch because it's probably less expensive than most of your other options), we had just enough time to try and catch a good spot for Celebrate the Magic and Wishes!

Our view of the castle for the shows!!!

That being said, it was too foggy for us to see the fireworks during Wishes (which is really sad, because it's been years since I've seen it - if I've seen it at all!), so we left early and headed to Space Mountain.  After that, we grabbed some famous Dole Whip floats - and, yes.  It lived up to expectations.  I mean to take a picture of it but it was SO GOOD that before I knew it, I'd finished!  Then we did a bunch of other rides - Pirates, Big Thunder Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid (which I'd never done before - it was really cool and very well put together, if a little in the uncanny valley for me), and we finished up the night with Peter Pan right as the park was closing!  We had a really, really amazing time and got a lot done, considering we were only there for four hours!

p.s. i promise to take pictures next time i go to a park sorry i was too excited to think about it

The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful, with a very long, crowded bus ride - so crowded I had to spend most of it standing and holding onto the railings for dear life - and finally getting back to my apartment around 12:15.  Yikes!  Considering I woke up around 5:30 for DAKlimation, I was pretty darn exhausted and I had a little snack before going to bed.  I was so tired I don't really even remember getting to the actual bed or under the covers - but that's the DCP for you, I guess!  I wouldn't have done anything differently (even though my outfit choices were cute but questionable), because I know that everything I've done so far an everything I'm going to do for the rest of my time here is going to be an unique, absolutely unforgettable experience <3

I hope everyone had (yesterday) and is having (today) the most wonderfully magical day!