The Rest of March!

March 15th was the Bowl-A-Thon.  Disney organized a bowl-a-thon to benefit Young Acheivers in Orlando, and F&B Canada had 2 teams!  We were "Canada Rocks" and dressed up as rock stars.  It was so much fun.  I didn't bowl well, but it didn't matter because we danced, laughed, and had a blast... and it all benefitted a good cause!  Check out the photos!

The rest of the week was just rough.  I was tired, sick of people at work, and I really missed Rob and was feeling homesick.  So I convinced Rob, switched some of my shifts at work, and booked a trip to the Florida Keyes!

March 20th I had the day off to relax and pack and then it was Goofy's Mystery Tour!  Goofy's Mystery Tour is an after-hours event held for Cast Members every year!  You have to get a group of 4 (minimum of 2 CM's) and then register early because the event fills up fast.  The event is held at Hollywood Studios.  My team consisted of myself, Ty, Rebecca, and Rebecca's roommate Mariesela.  Everyone meets and gathers in the Beauty and the Beast theatre for the first task - 50 multiple choice Disney questions.  This is not your standard Disney trivia... it's extreme, only for the best-of-the-best Disney Geeks.  They ask questions like "What was Minnie's iguanna's name?".  I didn't even know Minnie had pet iguanna.  After the trivia, it's on to part 2... the real challenge.  You are bungey-corded in to your other teammmates so you have to move as a group.  You're given your first "clue" or "puzzle" and you have to solve it to get a letter and another clue.  When you've solved all the clues you'll have all the letters so you can rearrange them to find the answer to the riddle... sound easy?  It's not.

Our first puzzle wasn't so bad.  Match the characters name with the movie they were in.  The leftover name is someone who is celebrating their un-birthday!  Go wish them a happy un-birthday by name!  The only trick was, the movie names were changed.  Instead of The Lion King it was The Feline Ruler, etc.  Being Disney nerds we easily dominated it and moved on.  But they only got more difficult.  One involved random trivia AND math skills, another roadsigns, another involving finding specific words in a paragraph to find the clue, a word search, logic puzzle, and more!  We did fairly well, tied for the best team from Le Cellier... which still wasn't very high in the standing ;)

March 21st Rob arrived so I picked him up from the airport and we drove down to Key Largo (yes, I chose it because of the song).  You take the Florida Turnpike most of the way so it's easy driving on a toll road.  It's still a pretty long drive (about 7 hours).  When we got there we checked into our hotel where they told us that they no longer had any ocean view 1 bedrooms... so they would have to give us a complimentary upgrade to a 2 bedroom unit!  It was a very nice place!  Flat screen tv's, full kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms.  The first night we made snacks and then relaxed.  We were still full from a Cracker Barrel stop on our way down!

March 22nd we got up early for our snorkel adventure!  The hotel package included a snorkel cruise so we thought it would be fun!  Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly a snorkel cruise... it was more of a scuba tour that they let snorkelers go on.  We drove out to the middle of the ocean (or so it seemed) where they parked the boat and expected us to go snorkel in the huge waves!  Being that I'm scared of snorkeling and sharks and fish to begin with I was petrified.  I jumped in, panicked and promptly got onto the boat.  The waves combined with feeling claustraphobic in the snorkel mask was not a good combination.  So I toughed it out on the boat... and I do mean toughed it out.  With all of the waves rocking the small boat back and forth I felt sick.  In fact, I was sick, and the people running the tour said nothing.  They really took care of their snorklers.  After that adventure we went back to our resort and took advantage of our free kayak rental.  Kayaking in the wind wasn't much easier but in our 2 person kayak we managed to make it to one side of a small bay, and let the wind blow us back.  We did this a couple times before getting bored and heading back for a relaxing night with dinner and margaritas!

March 23rd, our second day in the keyes was much nicer!  We drove down towards Key West, but got sidetracked and stopped at Marathon Beach.  It was a gorgeous beach with white sand where we relaxed, swam, and I studied a little.  We definitely underestimated how south we were and got a little too much sun!  Well, I got a little too much sun, Rob got WAY too much sun!  After getting burnt we headed for dinner at the Outback... mmm... bloomin' onion.

March 24th we got up early, checked out, and drove back to Orlando so that Rob could make his flight on time.  When I got back to the Commons, I just relaxed after a wonderful vacation, ready to go into work the next day!

Click here for all of the photos from this vacation!

Re: Circle of Life 5K

Well, if you read my other post on the "Circle of Life 5K" you'll know I was considering signing up. Well, I've done it! I signed up tonight (and even ordered a commemorative pin.

I started the Couch to 5K Plan today and it went well (though, it is only day 1). Still, I figured I'd need some motivation to keep it up, and what's better motivation than signing up to run! Hopefully I'm able to keep this up and maybe find a running buddy in Florida! I gotta get ready for January!

Circle of Life 5K

A lot of people have been talking about running the Circle of Life 5K race at Disney in January. If you click on the link you'll see all of the race details. It's a family race through Animal Kingdom during Disney's marathon weekend (which also includes a full and half marathon you can run). You can see the course in detail by clicking the image below. Tracey is the person behind the idea, she decided to sign up and is encouraging all of the other CRP's to do the same! So far there are quite a few people signed up.

I'm still undecided on whether to sign up. Those who know me know that I do not run. When I was in shape I could swim 5K no problem, but to run it would be a challenge. Now, I'm not even in shape. So I've found this plan on the internet. It's called the "Couch to 5K Plan". It's a 9 week plan designed to get you from being an inactive couch potato to someone who can run 5K. I'm going to start the plan and see how it goes... if it goes well I might sign up!

The race is January 9th 2009, so if you're going to be in the Orlando area, whether it's to work at Disney or for a vacation consider signing up! Maybe I'll see you there!

Convocation

Yesterday was my Convocation (or graduation) from McMaster University! I know that getting my degree isn't exactly Disney related, but in the words of my friend it's "another step reached that brings [me] that much closer to Disney"! Yesterday was also the day that Casey, Kyla, and Katie arrive at Disney! (If you have time you should check out Casey's Blog, it's awesome!) I think it all made me realize how close Disney is. For over 10 years I've been dreaming about graduating University and then going to work for Disney. It was always this far off dream for "when I grow up". Sitting there it clicked that I'm graduating, my friends are at Disney, and I'm going to be joining them in 5 weeks. Needless to say, I cried. I think the guys on either side of me thought I was crazy, but it was seriously one of the most happy and proud moments of my life. There's nothing better than knowing your hard work made your dreams come true!

In more Disney news, I still haven't received my information package or my visa. After what happened to Casey (again, you should really read her blog) I want to make sure I get them early! You're supposed to get them about a month before you arrive, but Kristen (my Yummy Jobs contact) had sent an e-mail a long time ago saying that we should get them in 6-8 weeks... that time's past so I've e-mailed her to see if they've been sent, and when I should expect them. Hopefully, it will all be here soon!

Tokyo Disneyland!

Today was amazing! I spent the entire day at Disneyland in Tokyo! I'm in Japan touring around for a week after a school trip to Hiroshima to study about the Atomic Bomb... but back to Disney.

Tokyo Disneyland is a lot like it's other counterparts. It has a World Bazaar (like Main Street USA, only covered), Tomorrowland, Toontown, Fantasyland, Critter Country, Westernland, and Adventureland. These lands contain many of everyone's favourite rides such as the Mountains (Space, Splash, and Thunder) as well as It's A Small World, Pirates of the Carribean and many more!

To get to Disney I got up at 6:30am, and left the hostel at 7am. I walked to Yoyogi Station and took a train to Tokyo where I took another train to Disneyland (thank goodness it's all on the JR Rail Pass). I was there by 8:30, well before the 9am opening.

The park opening wasn't as big as I expected, but all the major characters were there to take pictures with guests as they entered. Right away I went to Space Mountain and worked my way through the lands. I made sure to grab an excellent picture of the castle on my way, though! You can see it was kind of cloudy (it was a little chilly too) but it worked in my favour since it discouraged other guests from visiting the park. Throughout the day I never waited in a line more than 25 minutes!

The rides were amazing, and many of them were very similar to those in other parks. The only difference is that they were all in Japanese! It made it difficult to understand, but fortunately I could remember their English counterparts, so I knew what they were saying. I guess it pays off to be a Disney geek!

Tokyo Disneyland is so colourful and wonderful. Everyone there loves Disney. Not that the guests in America hate Disney but the Japanese really love it. Everyone had some sort of souvenir, the big popcorn bins, or ears (they even had hair clips that were Minnie or Tigger ears!). I ended up following suit and got a very cute Winnie the Pooh, hunny pot popcorn bin.

While I was there I made sure to check out the 3pm parade. Here's a sample of what it was like. The floats were amazing and some of the parade's song was actually in English... I loved it. Even better, there was no pushing to get to the front, the people in the front four rows all sat down and I was tall enough to see over the heads of the people in front of me... so I got an excellent view!

Above is the entire parade music... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. One of my favourite parts that's not on my video is around 19:20, when they bust into High School Musical song to celebrate Tokyo Disneyland's 25th year!

The Electric Lights Parade at night was just as incredible. Lots of high-tech, colourful floats decorated with millions of lights. Afterwards I watched the fireworks and then headed out to get on tons more rides. I stayed until the closing of the park. It was great, there was almost no one around and it seemed as though the park was there for only me. I loved it!

I think the best part of today was that it was the first time I got to visit a Disney park since knowing I was hired by Disney. I was walking around the entire day not only thinking how magical it is, and how happy I am to be at Disney but thinking that I get to be a part of the magic in just 2 months! I can't believe it. I'm going to be working at Disney and for one year I can visit Disney parks as much as I want. YAY!

Monorail Quotes

"Please Stand Clear of the Doors, Por Favor Mantenganse Alejado de las Puertas."
You just gotta love it!

NEW CAR!

Ok, so this isn't totally Disney related but I picked up my car today! It is a 2009 Toyota Corolla S in "Blue Streak Metallic" and I love it to death. It is the most beautiful car I have ever seen... see for yourself!



It is going to be so much fun to drive to and around Disney!

100 Days

100 Days until I work at Disney!

Disney Radio

I'm so excited for Disney I'm doing whatever I can to get prepared... and that means listening to a lot of Disney music. A great site for this is http://www.wdwinfo.com/disradio/#. If you're in a Disney mood make sure to check it out! It plays a lot of the park's songs such as the themes from parades. I'm sitting here listening to the music from Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.

I've put the link into my links section as well... I know I'll be a frequent visitor!

A Whole New World

I like this video... post your comments!

Canadians Dancing

A video made by the Canadians working in EPCOT!