The Happiest Place On Earth

I have been at Disney for 10 days now and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It feels like yesterday that I was leaving Pennsylvania behind and starting my journey down to North Carolina and then to Florida. Because I have been gone for so long let me give a recap of my travels, or at least what I can remember.

1/21-22: Mom and I loaded up the van on the 21st of January, and everything fit with room to spare :) The next morning bright and early I said goodbye to my roomie (Grandma Thompson) and Mom and I headed out, stopping in Ohio to get the rental car. Our drive to Aunt Mags in North Carolina was not bad at all. We got to hear "Grenade" more than enough on the radio. Finally that night we made it to the snow free Charlotte, NC where we stayed the night at Aunt Mag and Uncle Micks.

1/23: The next morning we left bright and early once again to head to New Smyrna Beach to stay with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Allen for a few days. We made it to Florida that night with plenty of time before the Steelers game, which of course we won!

1/24-25: The next few days were spent relaxing, eating out, shopping and driving over jellyfish on the beach. It was a nice relaxing few days before the chaos that was about to begin. The night of the 25th Mom and I packed up Grandma's car, and yes, once again everything fit! I didn't get much sleep this night though.

1/26: THE BIG DAY! Another early morning. This day damp day was the day that I arrived at Disney. Mom, Grandma and I arrived at about 9 at Vista Way Apartments (an apartment complex for College Program cast members). Mom and Grandma dropped me off and went shopping while I went through the checkout process. I got my room assignment and got my background check completed along with receiving my training schedule and job location; which took about 4 hours. We then unloaded all of my belongings into my new room. I met the girl that I would be sharing my room with, Heather, who is from IUP of all places! Then we got something to eat and did some final shopping. Mom and Grandma then got back on the road :' (  I which I would have gotten more time to actually spend with them that day though. The rest of the night included me unpacking and meeting all of my 7 roommates and sleeping on my uncomfortable bed.

1/27:  We had a 4 hour housing meeting where we learned we cant have light sabers in our rooms or we could get kicked out. I unpacked some more.

1/28: Friday was our Traditions class where we learned about the history of Disney. We took a look at the backstage (the stuff no one sees) of Magic Kingdom and got to watch a bunch of movies that made me tear up every time. Later in the day MICKEY MOUSE came to visit and bring us our official Disney name tags. It was a really enjoyable day.

1/29-30: I was lucky enough to have the weekend off I went to Magic Kingdom for a few hours with my new friend Elizabeth where we rode a few rides and met the Princesses and Faries. Sunday I hung around the apartment until Heather got off work and we went to Magic Kingdom to watch the firworks show which was SOOOOOOO good. The show that was 10 minutes before the fireworks was the coolest thing that I think I have ever seen in my life. Images were perjected on to the castle that made it look like it was being out and character scenes were on it as well as photopass pictures from that day.

1/31: Welcome to Entertainment Training - Photopass is considered to apart of the Entertainment section of the company. We had a training/welcoming day specific for Entertainment Cast members (we are called cast members not employees). We learned about safety and about the main principals of Disney. We watched more touching videos that made me cry. We also took another trip to Magic Kingdom where we were able to watch an actual show at Cinderella's Castle. It was soooo good. It was about having dreams.

2/1: I had Tuesday off. However, I needed to go to costuming to get my costumes, uniforms, for the next week. unfortunately there was only one costuming place out of three that have my costume that had my pant size in, and there was only two pairs of it. It was pretty frustrating having to travel all over the property trying to find a pair of pants haha. That night Heather and Aimee, two of my roomates and I went to Downtown Disney to explore and do a little shopping.

2/2-3: These were my first days of Photopass training. I was so excited. There were 4 other people in the group: Miranda, who is working at Hollywood Studios, Brittney, who is working at Animal Kingdom, Cody and Kelsey, who both are working at Epcot with me. We learned what settings the cameras need to be on and what shots to take and all the important things we needed to know for our job. It was actually a lot of fun. The building we were in had brightly painted walls and the managers were able to decorate their offices however they wanted to. There were artifacts hanging from the ceiling too. They also had a free coffee, cappuccino and hot chocolate machine too! On the second day we were able to go to Hollywood Studios to practice shooting the icon, The Tower Of Terror. It was a lot of fun.

1/4: This was my first day of training at Epcot. Our trainer was...entertaining haha. He was able to do the Mickey Mouse voice perfectly though! We walked around the World Showcase and practiced some of our shots. We learned how to add images to some of our "Magic Shots". I can put Tinker Bell in your hand!!! BUT the most exciting part so far happened this morning! - - - I took my first photo for real guests! It was soooo neat. They were a cute couple celebrating either their engagement or their anniversary, I can't remember which. I took their picture overlooking Paris. They were easy to work with. They were kissing and looking into each others eyes. It couldn't have been better. Through the rest of the day we ended up taking pictures on our own for guests. I really enjoyed it. It is so much fun being able to interact with the guests. I don't have a planned script like other roles have and I am able to be creative all day. I absolutely love it so far.

1/5: This day was Epcot Discovery Day. All new hires at Epcot got a tour of some places backstage as well as onstage. We were able to ride Spaceship Earth, which was a lot of fun. We also got to ride Finding Nemo and we went to the Coke place where we sampled sodas from all over the world. We then took a boat tour of the World Showcase. It was a fun day...and it was nice to be able to get done at noon. I came home and did some homework and then went to Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney with Heather for dinner. It was really something in there!! The music was good too!


SO...now  you are all up to date. Sorry this was so long. I promise this will be my longest entry. But, things are going good so far. I am trying to adjust to my roommates different styles of cleaning and communicating, but I have been able to become pretty close with two of my roommates: Heather and Chenee.

*Tomorrow is my first day of real work. I will be on my own in this big ole place. Wish me luck!!!