Actually...Hello from Starbucks!
Ah yes, I figured it was time ti venture down to the outlets and the Starbucks here in order to immerse myself in a place of prior blogging comfort and familiarity and dare I say, creativity. It feels good to be back and blogging.
Also, as you may have noticed, Disney has wonderful quotes but these quotes tend to be very long for blog titles so I'll take the liberty of dividing the quotes up between the title and the end of the blog - in the hopes that the blog post can be all tied together.
So to pick up where we left off...
Saturday: Saturday was my last day of training. I awoke before sunrise to get ready and catch the bus. Waking up this early was actually really nice because it allowed me to watch the sunrise on my way to work, as I went through the famous Walt Disney World archway...it was as lovely as it sounds.
My trainer for my last day of training was Luica and she was very, very nice, helpful, and quite hilarious. Getting to work in the early morning, before the park opens, meant I got to join my fellow Cast Members in "the wave". The wave is when we all stand outside the Emporium and greet the guests as the enter the park. From what I had been told it sounded exciting and I was not disappointed.
From inside the store we could here the countdown starting, "10...9...8...7..." and quickly we hurried to the sidewalk outside.
Now for those of you who have been to Walt Disney World and/or have experience this yourselves - picture this: Main Street, quite, empty, with the just the morning sunlight shinning gently through. But as the countdown dwindles the excitement builds and the sunlight grows stronger. Main Street ready, the castle waiting....
"3...2..1..." The crowd roared and massive amounts of people started through the gates toward down town Main Street. Hundreds upon hundreds of people made there way toward us. I took a quick looked back at the Cinderella's Castle and it seemed to be glowing, almost sparkling with glory and I thought, "yes here is the magic...right here."
Parents came with their children, friends came (young and old), grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, first time visitors and season pass holders. There were many birthdays in the crowd. It was so much fun waving my Mickey hand and greeting everyone. "Good Mornings" and high fives all around. The little princesses were darling and little super heroes came too. A moment that really stood out to me was as I watched a family from the time they walked through the gates, around the bend, to the top of Main Street...the little girl pulling her father a long...and as she got to just that right place where she could see it she screamed..."Cinderella's Castle! Look,"...she turned to her father, smiling with an outstretched figure. He smiled and they both walked hand in hand down Main Street. It was a Magical Moment for me.
After the wave we about the day as normal. Mingling with guests and making sure everyone got their souvenirs. The Emporium is quite a different store in the morning and day time as it is not nearly as busy at those times. The store seriously looked/felt like a ghost town at times. Yet this allowed for a lot of guest interactions for longer periods of time so that was nice. Towards the end of our day Luica and I almost managed to achieve watching the parade as a means of working (aka being door greeters) yet sadly there was a storm (typical) and the parade was cancelled. But all was not in vain because a woman asked to take her picture with us. The woman spoke Spanish and I was thankful Luica was there to translate. Another Spanish woman asked me (with Luica's help) what my nationality was...I guess she had never seen my name before...and Luica told her I was Irish.
My last day of training was probably the easiest day I've had at The Emporium and probably will have this entire time.
P.S. - When I told Luica how I was working 8-3am on Sunday all she replied with, "oh. I'm sorry."
Sunday: Sunday was the day I wasn't quite sure how to prepare for because I knew I'd be working from 8pm-3am. As we ate breakfast Katie, Lauren, and I talked about what we thought the VMAs and *NSYNC performance would be like. (I was upset that I'd be missing it). This turned into a proper BSB vs. *NSYNC 1999 standoff. Me and BSB on one side Katie, Lauren and Nsync on the other. Later on in the day time Katie, Lauren, and I went to Downtown Disney to look around World of Disney and have lunch at the famous "Earl of Sandwich." I was really good, definitely worth all the hype.
Delicious :)
We also went into the Christmas store which made me really excited for my family's trip in December. :) While shopping I bought a wonderful Mickey and Union Jack bag :)
Before I knew it it was time to head to work. The good part was the store was so busy 2 am came quickly. The not so good part was, because of the confusion with now having two MaryKates that work at the Emporium, I was stuck doing trash at the end of the night. Trash duty at Cornerstone in like throwing a penny in the back that is the Emporium. It was a lot of work actually. Thankfully my co-worker Andrew, who worked trash duty with me, was really nice and made it less painful. We did wind up clocking out after 3 am because we wanted to make sure we got the job done right - go us. Andrew did a lot of the more manual labor of trash duty and added in some Dick Van Dyke-Mary Poppins-chimney sweeping inspired dance routines.
Andrew was nice enough to drive me and two of my co workers, Gina and Kate, back to the DCP housing complexes. I got home close to 4 am and practically fell into my bed and went right to sleep.
Monday: To my roommates surprise I was up and moving by 9:30 am. I was able to get a work out in before returning to work. Soon enough it was time to head back to work. A bright spot was Monday was really like my Friday because I had Tuesday and Wednesday off. My Monday shift was good and went by kinda fast. At the end of the night I was able to go out and take some pictures on Main Street and go to Starbucks (duh). I also saw all the things I missed at the VMAs --- Nsync and JT were great :)
Working at night allows me to hear Wishes (the fireworks show) and see bits and the Electrical Parade --- I hope to see both soon.
I love how the cups say "Disney Parks" and have stars on them :)
Cinderella's Castle at night :)
Tuesday: Tuesday was my first of two days off and I FINALLY got to enjoy Magic Kingdom as a guest. Alexis and Allie went with me. Before we headed to Magic Kingdom (MK) we stopped one of the housing offices to pick up a "special gift" for each of us that we had gotten an email about. It turned out to be notes from our families wishing us well. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Eddie! Then in was off to the Magic Kingdom!!!
Allie had work so she parked in a cast member parking lot and Alexis and I decided to be jumped off near the front entrance so we could enter with all the other guests. As we walked up we noticed that Halloween/Fall arrived in Magic Kingdom. Overnight I might add...literally when I left at 10:30 pm the night there wasn't a single decoration yet when we arrived at noon all of Main Street was orange and red with pumpkins and leaves.
So there was this time that Disney decided we needed new passes to get in the park thereby deactivating our current cards causing us to stand in line at guest relations to get a complimentary ticket for the day - fun times, great souvenir. (Hopefully I will get the new pass by Wednesday). Once we finally entered Magic Kingdom we saw one of the morning parades at it was all very exciting. We also saw Lauren and work before we went to fast pass Space Mountain. We decided to grab lunch at Cosmic Ray's. After lunch, We still had a little bit of time to kill so we went to Floor of Laughs featuring the Monster's Inc. characters. Alexis wasn't feeling that well so she decided to sit outside in the air while Allie and I went into the show. When we found Alexis afterwards she still wasn't feeling well so she went home to rest and get medicine. Allie and I made our way to Space Mountain. It was so much fun but a lot more rocky than I remember. The whole in the dark thing is crazy and times I heard you can ride Space Mountain with the lights on but that is actually scarier because you see how close the tracks really are. Still...can't wait to ride it again. Allie and I then went on the iconic "It's a Small World" and that ride was not as obnoxious (in terms of the song getting stuck in your head) as I remembered. Finally, before Allie had to go to work we stopped Gaston's and got some of the Brew (aka frozen apple juice). It was so refreshing. After Allie I decided to get some touristy pictures and shop for a few souvenirs...at the Emporium of course :). It was quite interesting being in the store when not working.
After taking in some of the parade I jumped on the Monorail, wound up going the wrong way, jumped back on, went to the Contemporary, caught the bus, and made it back to Patterson after a wonderful day in the Magic Kingdom. :)
Finally a great picture of the archway!
Main Street USA! Fall in Magic Kingdom :)
Walt Disney and Mickey
MK in MK :)
Tuesday night I spent time relaxing with my room mates. We watched "The Lucky One" :)
Wednesday: Wednesday was my second day off. One of the highlights of this day was being able to introduce Allie to Wawa. We went and got sandwiches for lunch. This Wawa sells alcohol...best idea ever (hint hint PA).
Life can't get any better.
I spent some of the afternoon watching the coverage for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington/MLK Jr. "I have a dream" Speech. ....and the history major comes out. I enjoyed all the speeches and the significance of the occasion.
Brittany came home a little bit later and had bought "The Great Gatsby" with Leo and Toby. We watched it and both really enjoyed it. Brittany writes and draws and I write so we decided we wanted to get back in the swing of doing some serious writing again a routine basis. Yay passion and creativity...hence why we're at Disney.
At night, all the roomies and I were able to go to the "Monstrous Welcome Event" hosted by Disney Housing. We got to represent our schools. SJU! #THWND. Mike and Sully were there. Katie, Lauren, Britt and I participated in a serious dance party.
The ladies of 4201 and Sully. (Photo credit: Allie)
We all came back and had some drinks and bonded. :)
Thursday: I was able to get a work out in. I was back at work from 2-11. I had a training class for the first two hours of my shift entitled "Safety in Motion" which taught us how to preform tasks on the job safely as to not hurt ourselves. Some people were having a hard time staying awake and the proctors had no problem calling them out on it. haha. I thought the rest of the day would be somewhat quite and uneventful until I saw my bigX3, Deanna, racing towards me in the Emporium. She is on vacation with a few of her family members and stopped by to see me. It pretty much made my life :) Alpha love <3
Friday: I worked yesterday from 1-10 so it was a somewhat tiring day. I came home though and had a surge of energy so I went to the gym and did some laundry. When working nine hours and the whole trip to and from work takes up 12 hours of your day it is a looong day and after yesterday I feel as though I can definitely say I earned my ears.
Saturday: Today I woke up and headed to Starbucks. I'm currently in my room where I'm finishing up this blog post. Alexis was nice enough to drive me to Walgreens to pick up my medicine. In the next hour I'll be getting ready and leaving for work. Late shift tomorrow night but I'm ready for it.
Please see facebook for more pictures.
A final note on the week...I met so many people from the UK this week, particularly England and proceeded to tell every single one of them how I studied abroad in London and how much I missed it! I really do miss London. It was great to say "Cheers" a lot as well. I also had a dream that Disney decided to add Ireland to the parade of nations and asked me to be in charge of the Irish dancing....then I woke up. :( Maybe one day....sigh....
In the next week I hope to clean up my resume and apply for some of Disney's Professional Internships as well as reach out to my professor who will be teaching my "Exploring Disney Heritage Class." All about networking and taking steps forward.
Keep Dreaming,
Mary-Kate
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