It's been too long

Well it has been a very long time since I last posted. And a great many things have happened. I'll try and go through things in order and hope I don't miss too much. First my birthday came about mid october. It was a fantastic two days.

On October 20th a bunch of the canadians and I went to Mickeys Not so Scary party all dressed up in costume. I had a really great time despite a pretty serious bump on the head. I went as the joker which got alot of pointing from kids and even alot of the cast members would whisper "Why so Serious?" as I walked past. I managed to get a picture of everyone before the night was done.

Some really great costumes all around. Though I certainly stick out as the only non-disney themed costume. That's okay though I should stick out. I was the birthday boy.

The next day the amazing times continued as Heather treated me to a night out i'll never forget. She surprised me with an absolutly amazing dinner at Citricos restaurant which is in the Grand Floridian. I snapped some pictures of our amazing food.

You can see all the pictures on my facebook. From Citricos it was back to the Contemporary for the night. It was a beautiful room with a wonderful view. Heather is certainly a fantastic girlfriend.

The next big even was that my mom and sister visited. It was really wonderful to see them again. They are such wonderful people. I felt so bad that when I was visiting with them I was so tired from work that I felt like I didn't give them the love and attention they deserved. But I got to spend a day at Epcot with them and a day at Animal Kingdom. And got to be a part of mom's first time on Expedition Everest which was pretty special. That night we also had a great meal at Sanaa and my family got to meet Heather. Everyone approved of everyone so i'm a happy camper.

Not long after the families visit I had my next great event. Food and Wine came to an end! I finally got my weekends back! And even more important I did both of my service spiels and passed! Which means within the next few weeks I should begin my career as a food runner which means I start to get tips, and from there I go into service and earn the big money on my charm alone.

Sorry again for the long delay on updating and I know these are all very short synopsis but live is very busy. I will keep at it and hopefully not neglect this again (unlikely I know but keep bugging me to get back to it)

Jeremy

Food and Wine Kicks my butt

So it's been awhile since i've posted and I apologize for that. It's mostly because I am very short on time here these days. I've begun working on the food and Wine festival that's here. It run's from Sept 27th too November 8th. It's a great event to attend and explore. The way it works is that they have small little kiosks representing countries from around the world where you can buy a small sample sized portion of food from that region which is also paired with a wine or other alcoholic beverage that you can buy. It's really a great event for adults that want to spend a day trying some great exotic food and wines. Though it can empty your bank account very quickly!

Now having said how great the event itself is I can tell you working in one of those booths is far from fun. I work weekends which is the busiest time and my shifts are 11 hours atleast. The parks are so full and the booths are quite stuffy so that their is really not time to rest for even a moment. Thankfully I do work with some great people that make it easier to deal with and the massive lines mean that your so busy the time passes very quickly but at the end of the day I'm exhausted and posting too this blog is the farthest thing from my mind. So that explains my absence. Now to catch you all up on what i've been up to.

Last week I conquered my final disney attraction. I did Tower of Terror! I have to thank Melanie, Rachel and Alana for the considerable amount of peer pressure that they applied to make me go on it (They forgave me for loudly exclaiming how much I hated each of them while standing in line). And since that was the last ride I needed to do that I was scarred to do here I even bought the souvenir picture as proof. Anyone how visits me remind me to show you it. My face is truly priceless. It wasn't as bad as I had built up in my head but then these things never are. But I still am probably not going to make it one of those rides I run to go on again and again. Though I have promised Heather I will go with her soon.

I also had a wonderful Animal Kingdom with Sebastian, Callista and Xavier's good friends Belle, Boba Fett and Stitch and they asked me to take some pictures to show everyone.

Here we are heading into Animal Kingdom. Everyone is really excited to go on some rides!

Everyone is really happy to be seeing all the different animals on the safari. And we even helped stop some Poachers!

They thought the big tree of life was really cool and wanted a picture in front of it.

They also helped us find alot of the hidden mickeys that were around. In the background you can see Expedition Everest which was our next stop.

They wouldn't let us take pictures on the ride so we took a picture outside the ride where you can see the big drop we went down.

We found Lilo and Stitch and Xaviers little stitch got to pose on top of his head!

Then we went and ate at Sanaa. They were mostly happy to see all the animals outside.

Though they certainly enjoyed the food too! Especially the Naan bread.

La Nouba

So one of the great perks of working at Disney is that they always have wonderful shows and events going on that cast members get discounts for and sometimes can even experience completely free of charge. This wednesday the 16th was one of those opportunities. Disney gave us free Tickets to La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil. Now at first I was working the only days available for me to attend. But thankfully the Canadians here are all very friendly and helpful and someone was able to take my shift that night. So off to Downtown Disney we go!

So me Dan, Heather and Craig drive on over early so we can grab some dinner at the earl of sandwich. And if you love a well made sandwich like I do then it's a great affordable place to eat. We then headed into the show and met up with some other Canadians that were their that night and the show began. I'll describe it briefly but truly words can't do it any justice. It was truly incredible. The show began with some audience interaction from a couple of classic clowns. Their were so many acts that I can't list them all but their were definetly some highlights. The 4 little asian girls were definetly my favorite. They can't have been more than 6 years old and already are performing amazing acrobatics and tricks all in sync. Their were also a couple of bike performers which were unbelievable nimble on two wheels.

I should also mention the highlight for the women in the audience. One of the acts featured a bare chested muscular blonde man flying through the air trailing red silk. I have it on good authority that he was incredibly dreamy.

After the show we went for dessert at Ghiardilli's (probably not spelling that right) I had peanut butter milkshake. Which was very good but I think a bit too much dairy for me. And to top it all over Heather stopped over to watch the classic movie The Princess Bride. One of the movie greats. All in all a wonderful night. Certainly one of the best since i've arrived here.

The Four Park Challenge

So yesterday I woke up at 7am (way too early) and joined Dan, Craig, David and Kim at Boma's for a breakfast buffet. Which was pretty disappointing as it claimed to be African inspired cuisine and yet it seemed pretty darn American to me. Belle, Stitch and Boba Fett joined for the meal and they seemed to enjoy it just fine.

They wanted to get a picture with their new friends too. Kim is a beautiful princess herself so Belle made sure to get a picture with her. David loves star wars as much as Matt does so they hung out and Craig is kind of a crazy little monster so clearly him and stitch got along. Here they are with their new friends at Breakfast.

After we ate I went home and the others went to animal Kingdom to start the four park challenge. I was supposed to spend the day with some other people but they cancelled so I quickly got back on a bus to meet back up with them but that took some time so I'll explain their far more interesting adventures until I catch up.

So for the four park challenge you must do 3 rides in each park, get a picture with 1 character in each park and make use of each form of inter park transportation. So they began after breakfast by driving over to Animal Kingdom to start. They decided to go above and beyond and do 4 rides and 2 characters in each park! While I travelled home they did the safari, kali river rapids, everest and dinosaur and got pictures with Baloo and Louie from the Jungle Book. At this point I was home and had learned that my day was shot so I texted dan and found out they were on their way to Epcot so I grabbed the next bus. Meanwhile they drove to the ticket and tranportation center and took the Monorail to Epcot. That's the first park and form of transportation down.

They arrive at Epcot and start by doing soarin, and tryed to go on Spaceship earth but it was closed so they did Mission Space instead. Just as they did that I arrived but was on the other side of the park so I went ahead and did Soarin myself while they did Test Track. We finally met up at Norway for their ride and I began my 2 and a half park challenge while they continued their 4 park challenge. From there we met with Mulan and Snow white for our character pictures. From there it was the ferry over to Hollywood Studios and thus park two and the second form of transportation was complete.

Once inside Hollywood Studios we jumped onto Rockin Rollercoaster, and they did Tower of Terror (including Dan. Go Dano!!), then it was off to Toystory Mania where things almost hit a road block. The wait there was 60 minutes! Luckily I earned my worth by explaining to the cast member at the fast pass line our predicament and he let us go on and cheered us on while we tried to complete the challenge. Once done Toystory we went on Star Tours to finish our rides. From there we met one of the characters from Baby Einstein and Handy Manny as well! So finally we grab the bus and head back to the ttc finishing up both park and transportation method number 3 (the last of the tranportations)

Once we get off the monorail and into the Magic Kingdom we jump onto the Haunted Mansion ride, then quickly do Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, then finished off with Pirates of the Carribean. Then we decided we needed the final characters to be the big man himself with his best girl. So we headed to Mickey and Minnies House and they were nice enough to take a picture with us. And so ended the four Park Challenge. It was truly exhausting (and I was only there for 2/3rds of it so imagine how the others felt) but really an amazingly fun day. Thanks to Dan, Craig, David and Kim for being such great company!

Final Day of Training, Throw in tommorrow

So today is my final day of training in Le Cellier! Very exciting. I'm certainly enjoying being inside the restaurant where it's air conditioned. Yesterday was another great night of Games. This time I brought things in a box so much hilarity ensued.

The new arrivals show up today so i'm no longer the Newbie! It's amazing how fast time has past. I can't believe that i've already been here for about 3 weeks. Something tells me this is all going to be over way too fast. And I get to participate in the throw in from the other side which should be really interesting.

Currently i'm without a roomate as mine self-terminated to go travelling with his girlfriend. To late for this arrival group so I should have 3 weeks of an entire room to myself which is very exciting!

Finally I want to say sorry to Sebastian, Callista and Xavier for not sharing pictures with Belle, Stitch and Boba Fett. They've been hanging out beside me bed watching over me while I sleep but they have been a bit camera shy. I'll be taking them out to see the sites soon!

Training Complete

Well I'm no longer earning my ears as far as working the popcorn cart in front of Canada is concerned. And Starting this saturday I begin training inside the restaurant as a seater yay! Can't wait to be inside because even though I really enjoy the guest interactions you get while outside on the cart the heat is really getting to me (though i'm told it will start cooling off pretty soon). Since were in hurricane season it seems to rain every night so I actually spend quite a bit of my shift hiding inside waiting for the rain to stop so we can reopen the cart. Which isn't something i'm going to complain about.

Every monday is the party night here with the canadians. With three options available. No Maam is the mens drinking team which i've promised to go eventually. Was going to go last night but I was warned that they were getting together with the Norwegians and that it would be a very intense night because of it. And well i'm just not enough of a drinker to keep up with that so I went to games instead. Games is for those underage or not in the mood for booze. It was a great time we all play some board games with some great people!

Finally is Girls, the female drinking team. As the name implies i'm not welcome to that team. Though really I'd much rather spend the night with a group of girls. Oh well.

First Day on the Job

Well yesterday I finished up my orientation with a tour of the Canada Pavilions backstage workings and stopped off at costuming to get fitted for my lumberjack outfit and my Le Cellier uniform. Kind of a little kid thing but I've always loved dressing up so even if it is a bit silly I had a bit of a strut in my step as I walked to the bus this morning. Decked out in my red and black plaid shirt and my khaki shorts.

So my first day working at the popcorn/beer cart outside of the Canada Pavillion is underway. Now unfortunately it is summer here in Florida. That means it's HOT! And very humid. Not too mention i've had a head cold for the last week. So I'm a large man coming from a cold country to a hot one, who is only getting about %40 of his oxygen with each breath. Needless to say I was a sweaty mess in seconds. To which I apologize greatly to my co-workers and am very thankful that they were all courteous enough to pretend I had some dignity.

However, given enough time I did adjust and was able to relax and spend time interacting with the guests which I quickly realized just how much I missed. It reminds me of being on stage back in High School. The thrill of being and attraction all by yourself. I was so pleased when people asked about Canada or my hometown, or even had stories of their own about a visit to Guelph or their favourite Canadian beers. The highlight is of course the group of tourists who wanted to get their picture taken with a real live Canadian.

So yes i'm tired, sweaty, and my feet are blistered and sore (don't have the proper footwear yet so am wearing my dress shoes which are not made for extended standing) but I think Disney is going to be alot of fun.