Seat on the Plane Booked!

Yesterday I booked my seat on the plane for heading out to Orlando :)  I can’t wait now, a lot of the Disney people have booked seats together at the back flying from Gatwick so it’ll be good sitting with everyone.. party plane! 

Also received an email from YummyJobs telling me that I should receive my welcome pack by the 22nd of March at the latest.  It said:

“Your pack will include your offer letter from Walt Disney World, Visa Documentation and a few surprises from our team at YJ.”

What are the surprises? I want to know now! Will post again when I receive it in the mail :)

EXCITEDDDDDDDDDDDDD. 

Flights Booked!

I haven’t posted in so long because I’ve been insanely busy working 24/7 and with Christmas etc I didn’t have any time to write!

Just a quick post ..since I’m actually meant to be revising for an exam tomorrow but I’m doing some serious procrastinating.. to say my flights are now officially booked! YAY.

I will be flying down to Gatwick on the 2nd June and staying overnight in the Crowne Plaza - which my mother informs me is all posh and fancy so I’m looking forward to that!

Then I’m flying out to Orlando from Gatwick at 11:15am on June 3rd on the Virgin Atlantic flight :)

I’m SO excited now it’s all booked!

A few people were saying they got their CRB forms back in the post today so I should hopefully get mine tomorrow.

Also, I’m super excited because my mum is coming over to Orlando on my last week of work so I can still get free entry to the parks with her, then we are going on a cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale on the 11th August going to Jamaica, Haiti and Mexico!

I’ve never been on a cruise before so I’m really looking forward to it :).

That’s all the exciting news for now so will update again when I have more to talk about which will probably be around the time of my visa appointment :)

Nostalgia.

Just watched videos of ‘Wishes’ and ‘Mickey’s Philharmagic’

UGH I miss watching Wishes every night so so so much! I miss reciting all the words and knowing every single firework that was away to go off and using my hands pretending I was the one firing them off. WAH.

I miss Philharmagic even though I have seen the show way too many times than is acceptably normal.

If there is anyone reading this that has the power to put me back in Fantasyland next summer, PLEASE DO IT.

Who wouldn’t miss this?

Definitely suffering from post-Disney depression right now.

Sigh.

TAKE ME HOME.

My Disney Trading Pins

As promised, I said I would do a post on my pins! (this post has turned out a lot longer than I thought it would so I apologise for how lengthy it is!)

Now before I went to DisneyWorld, I had absolutely no idea what trading pins were!  So for anyone else that doesn’t know, you can buy a lanyard and buy different pins to put on them and you can trade them with other guests within the park and also with Cast Members.

The idea is to trade for pins that you like better, or some people also collect sets that Disney release, it’s pretty fun!

This was one of my favourite things about my job when someone would come up to me and ask if I wanted to pin trade.  I had a lot of younger kids and their parents would tell me that it was their first pin trade and it would make me so happy that I was part of it!  I even had a family take a picture with their daughter as we were trading, it was adorable.

Anyway here’s a picture of my work pins that I “accidentally” forgot to hand in before I left!

If anyone can tell me what the brown moose pin is all about I would love to know because people always used to trade me it and I never knew!

So those were my work pins which I was obliged to trade if anyone asked me to, but I also bought my own pins whilst I was out there too which all mean something to me!

The bottom two obviously aren’t Disney pins - they’re Universal ones, but I saw these in the Universal shop in the airport when I was leaving and as anyone that knows me knows I love Harry Potter I had to buy them!  These are the symbols for the Gryffindor & Slytherin houses.

The Donald Duck pin I got because he is the main character in Mickey’s Philharmagic which is the attraction I worked on the majority of the time I was there this summer.

The Mickey Peter Pan pin is actually my favourite one that I have. I mentioned it in my “Last Day at Work” post but I’ll explain it anyway.  Basically, the one character that I always wanted to meet at DisneyWorld was Peter Pan.  It was my last day at work and I was gutted that I hadn’t got to meet him since I had started working.  He does his meet & greets outside the entrance to Adventureland and I knew I wouldn’t get a chance to meet him on my last day as I was working through the day and he only appears during really specific times during the day.  Anyway, I was on Castle Couture strollers which is right by the walkway of the castle, and Peter Pan happens to just casually walk right by me with a couple of people following behind him.  I couldn’t believe on my last day he just walked right by into Fantasyland where he never goes! I’m assuming he went over to the Peter Pan ride for some reason.  Anyway, I was really hoping that he would come back through the castle so I could see him again.  I was blowing bubbles for people around me who were coming into Fantasyland and Peter comes running back and starts catching and popping all the bubbles I was blowing.  It was really windy at this point and they were blowing all around him as he was frantically trying to pop them.  He said to me that they were too quick for him to pop and then he left through the castle again.  BEST MOMENT EVER to finish my last day at work, I blew bubbles for Peter Pan.. the one character I wanted to meet since day one!!  It was like Disney made its own magic for me.

ANYWAY, back to the pin! It was the last 10 minutes of my shift and this girl came up to me and asked if I wanted to pin trade, I saw the Mickey Peter Pan pin on her lanyard and prayed that she would trade it for one of mine, and out of all the pins on her lanyard, that’s the one she gave me! I got a Peter Pan pin on the day I blew bubbles for Peter Pan on my last day at work, this actually made my entire last day totally amazing!!

The Stitch pin was the first one that I bought I think it was in Epcot, Stitch is pretty much my ultimate favourite Disney character so of course I had to have one of him!

The gold Mickey I bought in the Cast Connections shop (the store that only Cast Members can buy Disney merchandise at AMAZING prices) just because it was a Mickey Mouse.. that really doesn’t need an explanation!

Bambi is my favourite Disney film so that’s the reason behind that one :) and I bought it in the Philharmagic shop, wooo!

The Tinkerbell one I bought also in Cast Connections, it’s a limited edition pin and was only a couple of dollars.  I love Tinkerbell and it has my birth month on it so I had to buy it!

I got the purple Mickey at the Company D shop inside Disney University which is also just for Cast Members.  This pin is a Cast Member exclusive and the college programme is the name of the programme I was on :)

The Mickey pin was given to me by Shaun which I was specifically told I was not allowed to trade!  Why would I want to trade a cute little Mickey Mouse anyway?  Had to have Mickey the boss on my lanyard!

The CM pin is also obviously a Cast Member exclusive - I bought this at the Company D store at the same time as my college programme pin, I also like to pretend that the CM is my initials - Carly McIntyre :)

The grape soda pin Shaun and I both bought and traded for each other’s :) if you haven’t seen the film Up! then shame on you, but watch it and you’ll know what the pin is all about!

Shaun also gave me the Philharmagic pin, someone traded him it when he was working so he kept it for me as he’d know I would have wanted it!

And finally (you’ll be glad to know), these are the rest of my Harry Potter pins that I bought at the airport on the way home! The Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Hogwarts emblems :) I LOVE HARRY POTTER.

So, that’s the extremely long story behind my Disney Trading Pins! :)

Final Disney Interview in London

I flew down to London from Aberdeen on the 25th October for my interview on the 26th :)

I was with a girl who I had met on the programme this summer and once we arrived we got the EasyBus to Earls Court in Fulham and then went to a pub for lunch as we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3pm.  We then met the girls that I was sharing a room with later on and went to check in!

We chilled at the hotel for a while and then decided to get ready and see if we could get tickets for a musical at night.  We got the tube to Leicester Square to try and get tickets for something but there were 10 of us and we couldn’t get reasonably cheap ones for a show that we all wanted to see, so 5 of us booked tickets to go and see Shrek the following night.

We all went to M&M World for a look around then TGI Fridays instead then headed back to our hotels to get some sleep for the next day!

The following day we got up earlyish as we had to be at Disney Head Office at 9am.  We left our hotel at 8:15ish and got the tube to Hammersmith.

Once we got to the Head Office we had to sign in and get a guest pass for the day.

It was amazing inside, Disney stuff everywhere!!

I so badly want these glass doors for my room!!

Anyway, after we signed in we went upstairs into this room that was like being in a cinema where the Disney recruiters from America gave a presentation on what the programme is like with regards to working and living and then we were scheduled for our interviews!

I was in the last interview slot at 3:30pm so I went to McDonald’s with a few people I had met and got food then went to Starbucks for the rest of the wait.

I went back to Disney HQ at around 2:45 and then waited to be called for my interview.

I had Sue taking my interview and she basically focussed all the questions on my experience last summer and why I wanted to do the programme again.

After my interview was over I went back to Starbucks to meet the girls then we got the tube to Covent Gardens where we went to find the theatre where Shrek was playing then found an Italian restaurant nearby where we got some dinner.

After tea we went to a nearby Tesco to get some munchies for the bus journey home! 

We then went back to the theatre and climbed over 100 stairs up to the balcony where our seats were.. this was so difficult with a suitcase!

We were the very front row of the highest balcony so I got a booster seat so I could see over the barrier since I’m so small!

The show was amazing and really funny, Carley Stenson who plays Steph in Hollyoaks was playing Fiona!  I recommend it to anyone.

After the show was over we got the tube to Victoria station and then walked around to the bus station and waited around 45 minutes for our bus which departed at 11:45pm.

The bus journey home was so hot and stuffy, the heating was turned up full blast and the sockets didn’t even work so we couldn’t charge our phones!

I slept for the majority of the 12 hour journey so it wasn’t too bad, was so glad to get to my bed when I got home though after having such a numb bum for so long!

Anyway my next post is on my email I got from Yummyjobs earlier this evening regarding whether I got in or not!

Leaving Chatham Square, Grand Floridian & Last Day in DisneyWorld

I can’t remember exactly what time I got up on the 17th, I reckon it was around 9am.

I had breakfast and baked the last of my Nestle Toll House cookies because I wasn’t letting those go to waste instead of packing! I know, I have my priorities right.

My French roommates had already left when I woke up which was really sad as I didn’t get to say goodbye to them again.  Although I did say bye the night before it would have been good to see them one last time before they went.

Maria and I didn’t actually leave the apartment until around 12pm because we were both so unorganised and hadn’t finished packing!  Whilst we were still in the apartment someone came and changed the lock on our front door so both of us couldn’t leave the apartment at the same time.  I had to wait for Maria to come back from the front desk as she had to ship a lot of her things home because she didn’t have room in her suitcase.

Once she got back, we said goodbye to our apartment and headed to the front of the complex to hand in our apartment keys and also our housing ID’s.  It was so sad!

We then got a taxi and headed off to the Grand Floridian where we were staying for my last night (the other girls were staying for longer).  We got there and it was like heaven.  It’s the most expensive Disney resort but with our cast member discount between the 5 of us, we all only had to pay $62 which works out to be £38.. £38 for one night in the most expensive Disney resort on my last night.. amaaaazing!

This is the lobby when you walk into the main building :)

Panoramic view of our room! Tv, two double beds and a balcony on the right hand side.

This is the sink area bit then theres the bathroom directly opposite it!  The wallpaper is so cool, it’s all the classic Disney characters!

The view from our balcony at night :)

Anyway moving on from pictures of our fancy hotel!  We got into our room and chilled for a while then went to get lunch at the cafe in the resort.  We went back to the room (I think) then had a look around the shops in the resort.  I finally got to try on a princess dress which was aged 13-14 and it was too big haha, was so funny!

After shopping we went back to the room again to chill out!  The four girls I was sharing with had dinner booked at Akershaus which I had already done, so they left in the evening to do that and I stayed in the room and did a few Skype calls.

I said I would meet them at Hollywood Studios and we would all watch Fantasmic together.  I arrived at around 10pm and the showing was at 10:30.  They were running late from their dinner so I decided just to head in and try and get the best seats that I could.  Since it was my last night I didn’t want to hang around for them and get crappy seats!

So I went in and got seats right in the middle near the front of the stage.  I almost cried watching it and I’m so glad I went to see that instead of Wishes for my last night since I had seen Wishes so many times already. 

I took quite a few videos of the show so I’ll have to get round to uploading them at some point :)

I met up with the girls after the show was over then we got the bus to Magic Kingdom since we had our room keys for extra magic hours!

We got into Magic Kingdom and I still had my Mickey balloon from the other night.  I said that I was going to give it away to someone as a final magical moment but wasn’t too sure how I was going to pick someone to give it to.  Then this girl and her dad come up to me and say “Excuse me, but where did you get your balloon from?”  I was like OH. MY. GOD. it was fate that I was going to give it to her!  So I told them that they sell them on Main Street during the day but they stop selling them after the park closes at the regular time, however they could have my balloon as I was going home tomorrow and couldn’t take it with me.  I felt so good about myself and the little girl was so chuffed :)

We went up to Fantasyland and said a few final goodbyes to some people we worked with and then tried to pull the sword out of the stone.. even though we knew how it worked and it wouldn’t come out.. we still felt the need to do it!

We then headed back down Main Street and I had my final picture taken in front of the castle. I almost cried!

We then got the boat back to our hotel and went back to our room and went to bed not long afterwards as we were all pretty tired.

In the morning we ordered breakfast in bed where we got a little pastry tray with orange juice and tea which was adorable!

The butter even had Mickey Mouse faces on it.. how adorable!

After breakfast we decided to go down to the pool before it started raining as it was horrible weather but we got down just as they were closing it off!  So we didn’t get to use the pool.. just get our picture in front of it with the horrid grey clouds in the background!

I then got dressed and Shaun came round to say goodbye to me!  We went to the cute little soap shop in the resort and I bought some fancy little soaps and bath salts which were really sweet.  Then I rushed back to my room, packed up all my stuff, said my goodbyes then got in a taxi to the airport. (Extremely emotional times!)

It was so depressing driving through the Walt Disney World sign for the final time..

I definitely teared up when we were driving away!

I got to the airport, checked in and then had a wander around the shops.  Somehow I found myself in the Universal store and ended up buying more Harry Potter stuff!

Also went into the Disney Store and there was this sign above the door as you walk out..

I smiled to myself and got a bit teary again when I read it.. hopefully I will be back again soon!

I then sat myself down in front of this giant Disney World sign before going through security and into the departures lounge.

I got myself a Starbucks then sat on my laptop before getting on the plane.

It was a completely surreal experience getting on the plane and actually leaving Orlando.. it felt like I had just arrived!

Before I knew it I was in London waiting for my next flight back to Aberdeen.

When I got to Aberdeen my bestie was there waiting to pick me up and she brought me some presents!  The first thing was a flask of BRITISH TEA.  How exciting!!  The next thing was a WKD since I had been unable to drink for 3 months haha, then the other thing was a giant 1kg bar of Dairy Milk since I had been deprived of British chocolate too!

I was so happy to be home but I was gutted to leave.  Was amazing to see my friends and family again and I just hope that I manage to do well enough in my next interview to be back again next summer.

See ya real soon Disney World (hopefully) :)