Polynesian photo blog

Aloha! Here are some photos from my one night stay...

Me on my bed in our hotel room
Me at the pool behind the waterfall. Remind me not to wear my bikini again until I lose 30lbs.

Me on the bridge between the Great Ceremonial House (lobby) and the volcano pool

Meagan and I at Kona Cafe after breakfast with a lush vew in the background

My enormous loaf of french toast coated in cinnamon sugar :D

Living in Luxury

For a brief moment in time, I was a guest at one of Disney's Deluxe hotels: the Polynesian. And while I did have a great time, most of that time was spent after waking up this morning and I could've easily had the same amount of fun without using a week's paycheck on one night's bed. Although truth be told, it was a very comfortable bed.

Meagan booked the room for Tuesday night at the Polynesian, one of the most expensive hotels Disney has to offer. It was neat staying there and it was nice having the 50% discount. But she worked during the day and I was unsure as to whether I was even going to stay the night because I knew I was running out of money and I need to have something left for when Mom and Corbin come to visit me on vacation. Not to mention dining, souvenirs, and the money I still owe to Mom and my bank account. Let's just say, I won't be coming home with as much as I came down here with, unfortunately. Despite getting paid all this time, this has been an expensive trip! But then, Disney always is.

Anyway, by the time I decided to pay Meagan a visit at the hotel and bussed over to the Polynesian, it was already 9pm. That's 6 hours after check-in. 6 Hours spent at my apartment that could've been spent enjoying my room, and getting the most out of the money I paid for it. It was already pitch dark so there wasn't much to do. But I met up with Meagan and she was hungry so we headed to the cafeteria for a late dinner. Then we went back to the room, got our bathing suits on and took a late night swim in the big volcano pool with a beach view. It had just stopped pouring so the pool was almost empty, it was pretty nice. But it was also pretty cold so we didn't stay for long.

We went back to the room and changed into our pajamas but a few minutes later we changed into dresses and went back down to the lobby. Meagan told me it was because she wanted to buy Halls for her cough and maybe that was partly true, but we also met up with a guy who I didn't know she'd invited. It was a guy from work named Reece who, on his last encounter with Meagan, had followed her to her apartment and done some inappropriate things. Why she invited him I don't know, but he seemed like a nice enough guy on the surface. He came back to our room and that's when things got interesting...

He didn't actually do anything but he wouldn't stop talking about sex and related topics, and he kept tickling us and making gestures that showed us he was only there for one thing. When it didn't happen he left, thankfully. Because if he hadn't, I would have.

After he was gone Meagan and I watched TV for a bit and talked, then went to sleep around 1am. We didn't get up until 10:30 the next morning. After I'd showered we went straight to Kona Cafe for breakfast because it stopped serving at 11. I ordered hot chocolate and Tonga Toast, which was kind of like french toast (except it was almost half a loaf of break thick) but it was stuffed with a layer of bananas and rolled in cinnamon sugar. It came with a strawberry compote topping and it was absolutely delicious. I ate it all. It also came with a side of fruit but it was all melon and a few grapes so I didn't eat much of it. By the end of breakfast we were both completely stuffed, but happy!

After breakfast we went to the pool and swam for a while, and took lots of pictures of course. We brought our luggage down with us so that we could stay after check out. They were doing kids games by the pooldeck, things like toy hunts in the pool, line dancing, and name that singer. The guy running the activities was really cute so I joined in. Meagan and I line danced with him and we lied in the shallow water and watched name that singer. It was really fun and we both got tanned from lying in the sun for so long!

In the afternoon the storm clouds started to roll in so we changed and went inside before we got rained on. We got the concierge at the Polynesian to hold our luggage and then we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian and walked around there for a while, again taking lots of pictures, then we walked back to the Polynesian via the beach to pick up our luggage and go home.

We weren't in for long though! We changed and then headed back out, this time to Port Orleans Riverside to go to the pasta bar for dinner. I got alfredo pasta with veggies and ate the whole thing. Meagan got the same thing with chicken. Then we took a boat across the lake to Downtown Disney, where we stopped at Ghirardelli for ice cream. I was too full for a sundae but I got chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone. It was yummy! I might get a waffle cone again next time instead of a sundae and save myself 4 bucks.

We had to leave right after our ice cream because Meagan's friend was driving down from St. Augustine to take her to his house for the night. So we took the F bus home and guess who we saw on the way? The cute line dancing guy from the Polynesian! I swear the majority of Disney's employees are college program... Anyway we got to talk to him for a bit and then it was time to get off and go home. Since then all I've done is laundry and write this blog! Speaking of laundry, I have to go pick mine up. I'll post a photo blog when I get back so you can see what my Polynesian adventure was like.

The fun and the food never ends....

...Here at Play-n-Dine!

Ah, Play-n-Dine. My home away from home. My nest. My prison. I have been trapped there day after day for a month and a half now, and I'm pleading that the new schedule (which comes out today!) will add a little spice to my Playhouse Disney life. And by that I mean a step out of routine, AWAY from my Playhouse Disney life.

It's not that I mind Play-n-Dine. I never watch the shows but the location is easy and the day gets off early, leaving each evening free. Plus the kitchen often brings treats for us to enjoy backstage. In fact of all the places I've worked, if I had to choose one place to be stuck for half my program every single day, Play-n-Dine would probably make the list. It's just that I don't WANT to be stuck in one place every single day for half my program. I liked it when I moved around to different parks or at least different locations on a weekly (or daily) basis. While it can be nice getting to know the people I work with, 3 months is a very short time and I'd rather experience more locations and be less acquainted with my coworkers than the other way around. Still, I have had some good times at old Hollywood and Vine.

Anyway, that has been my life for the past few weeks. There's really not much else to tell. Over the past few days I've done a bit of shopping after work at Downtown Disney and the Premium Outlets, and I also went to Magic Kingdom one day with John and Steffie and we saw a few shows and rode a few rides. The standard. It never gets old though, never.

I was a little upset about a few things at work the past few days but I'm over it now. The first is that I'd signed up for a workshop on the 8th of July hoping against hope that I could give my Play-n-Dine shift away. It was a workshop I really wanted to go to and the alternative was the daily routine, filling my least favourite shoes--the largest of them all. But Playhouse shifts are hard to give away (that's why I've been force bid here for the past month and a half) and I received no interest whatsoever. At least Meagan got to go since she had the day off, so she could tell me about it. After hearing about it from her, it did sound really cool, but I'm glad I didn't call in to work just to go.

The second thing was that I'd hoped to be remeasured and put into a different height category. I'd heard it was really easy to do and only took a few minutes. So I was surprised when I got a negative response. They basically told me that remeasurements only happen every 6 months, so there was no point in remeasuring me and that I'd just have to wait and see what height range I get into next time if I ever come back. Oh well. With only 3 weeks to go, I wasn't expecting much of a change in my schedule anyway.

Speaking of three weeks to go, there are only 20 days left in July! Or at least, to me there are. The 31st doesn't count because the 30th is the final day of my program. This trip is rapidly coming to a close so I need to make the most of it while I'm here. That's all I can do. The time that has passed has passed much too quickly, but I have had a lot of fun and hundreds of memories have been made. Hopefully I will hold onto most of them forever, and I know that even once the details fade, the Disney spirit will remain in my heart as long as I live.

Ok, enough with the corny. I really didn't have anything to report but what I did have was spare time so I figured I'd give you guys something to chew on to keep you happy :) (I managed to beef it up pretty well considering!) So I guess I'll leave you with that for now and I'll go get myself some dessert. Then hopefully I will get to bed early tonight-- another early breakfast date tomorrow with June, Leo, Handy Manny and Jojo!

The White Glove Award

July 5th was my day off but July 6th was the housing inspection for our building, meaning a Price Management inspection team would be coming into our apartment to assess its cleanliness. Now there are three levels you can get: Pass, meaning it's clean enough to pass and you go on with your business. Fail, meaning they take pictures of your apartment that get sent to your boss and you have to pay to have maids come in and clean it for you. And then there's the prestigious White Glove Award for an apartment that exceeds expectations, for which you get a box of ferrero rochers (sp?).

Now I'm all for chocolate. But the real reason I wanted the award is because I'm a perfectionist and I love to see my efforts go awarded. So we got some cleaning supplies, we rented a vacuum, and we spent the day cleaning. I went all out. We took the top of the stove, we did an oven self-clean, I cleaned out the fridge and even moved the furniture to vacuum underneath. It was a full day's effort.

In the evening I went out for dinner. The plan was to go to Sweet Tomatoes, a vegetarian friendly pasta bar, with Meagan. But we invited John to come along and he already had plans to go to Whispering Canyon with Lorin and another friend Thomas. So we all ended up at Whispering Canyon at 7pm. I'm not going to put pictures up because I look disgustingly obese--and these pictures were taken BEFORE we ate! Ew I'm disgusting I need to go on a diet stat. Ok So Whispering Canyon. Now this is another Wilderness Lodge restaurant, so naturally it's all meat. But they bring complimentary cornbread and I managed to order a salad and an all-you-can-drink milkshake. Now THAT may have been a mistake. I drank an orange, a caramel, and part of a chocolate strawberry milkshake, and by the end I felt like puking. I don't know if it was too much lactose or just too much of a good thing or what. After an hour of sitting at home then another couple hours of heavy cleaning I felt better though.

I got up at 5:30 the next morning (this morning) so that I could clean up after myself before going to work, to make sure everything would be perfect for our inspection. After work I went straight to Vista and picked up my social security card, then to Walmart with John to pick up bread but mostly to kill time because I didn't want to go home until the inspection was definitely over.

After Walmart, though, I didn't have much choice. So I headed home and guess what I found? A huge box of Ferrero Rocher's and a note saying we'd won the White Glove Award! I was so proud of us! So now I've been enjoying rich creamy chocolates all night and making myself sick again. Ugh. But it was worth it.....right?

Happy America Day!

Ok so that last post kind of turned into a novel, so I decided to separate this week into a couple of posts. Let's talk about the fourth of July!

I did work on the fourth of July. In fact, I was up at 4am to get to work on time. The good news, though, was that I was off very early in the afternoon and got to go straight up to Magic Kingdom to play in the park. Of course, everyone else was working too so I was all alone for a while. I went to the Hall of Presidents to be a good little honourary American, even wearing my red white and blue plaid dress. I fit right in with the sea of starry and stripy American patriots around me. Well, the Hall of Presidents was spectacularly dull but it was educational and very impressive technology. It was also air conditioned and a great time killer.

I spent a lot of the day just walking around in the crowd, checking lines for various attractions and texting people to come join me. I went on a few rides and saw the 3:00 parade from the castle hub.

It kinda stopped being fun around 3:30, when I was stuck in a huge post parade crowd alone and it was hot and rainy and I'd been up nearly 12 hours already and everything had a mile long line. But then I got on the train in Frontierland and rested my feet and I felt a lot better. By the time I did one full loop on the train, Meagan had arrived, so we spent the evening together. We only got on a couple of rides because of the ridiculous wait times and we also stopped for dinner at Cosmic Rays. Around 8:30 we found ourselves a spot on Main Street to watch the 9pm 4th of July concert in the sky. Believe me, it wasn't easy. We probably should've staked out a spot sooner but hey, why come 2 hours early when you can come 20minutes early and get a better spot?

The fireworks were beautiful and very red, white, and blue. The finale was spectacular- it lit up the whole park. The camera doesn't do it justice:
After the fireworks we were all ready to go home. In fact, we got as far as the line for the monorail. Then we started wondering whether Dave was going to be in the Electric Light Parade that night. Well, we just had to check, as you can imagine. So we fought our way back into the park, bought ice cream on main street, and walked all the way back to Frontierland just to get a spot. It turns out Dave wasn't even in the parade but our other friend David was, so it wasn't a total loss. Plus it was fun.

By this time we really did have to leave since Meagan had to work in the morning. So we headed back to TTC by ferry (which took FORever, causing us to miss our first bus). The second bus never came so we ended up on the third bus. This seems to be a common theme when trying to get home from Magic Kingdom...

Anyway eventually we got home, and straight to bed we went! It was a work day for Meagan and a cleaning day for me lying ahead...

Canada Day...A week later...

I have been trying to publish this post for a week. That's how busy I've been! Seriously, on Canada day I started it and every day since then I've been trying to work on it but something always comes up. So tonight, a week after Canada day, while my roommates are at a house party and I'm home alone, I finally have the chance to talk about the first week of July.

Canada day was pretty exciting. It started off slow but in the early afternoon a bunch of us Canadians headed to Epcot to show our spirit in our home country...or at least, our home pavillion. A little bit of Canada right here in Orlando! It even poured with rain, just like Vancouver! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When we arrived at Epcot and the sun was still a-shining, we headed straight to Canada. We figured it was a long shot and that they'd laugh in our faces for trying but we decided to ask about openings at Le Cellier. I know, it's a Steakhouse. But I heard good things about the sides from my vegetarian roommate. Well, we checked in and the wait was only 25minutes! Now that only happens once in a blue moon and I certainly wasn't expecting it on Canada Day, so naturally we snatched it up.

I was a bit worried but needlessly so. The atmosphere was lovely, the service was great and the food was heavenly. Tip: If you ever go to Le Cellier, order the mushroom risotto. It feels like your tastebuds died and went to heaven. And PS, they will try to tell you that one side dish is not enough. Trust me, it is! I ordered two and I only got through about half of each. You also get endless bread sticks and drink refills.

So after lunch we went to see O Canada in circle vision. It was beautiful! I nearly cried! It's not really a moving film unless you're a Canadian who's been away from home for months, but Vancouver is featured, and there's some beautiful views and corny music. It's touching. So right around when that ended it began to pour. A lot. We watched circle vision again and did a quiz on Canada in Kidcot (which won us pins! Yay!) and it still showed no signs of stopping so we all went into the Canada store and bought ponchos! I know, it goes against everything I believe in. But, it's better than losing another phone to the Florida torrential rain.
That's us in our ponchos in the Canada store, with the CRP who sold us our $6 plastic bags. Also note the patriotic flag and temporary tattoos.

Oh, so by the way they brought Captain EO back to Epcot. For those of you who don't know, it's a 4D Michael Jackson music video, so naturally it is very strange but somewhat entertaining. Anyway, we went to see that. At least it's a change from Honey I Shrunk the Audience!

By then we'd pretty much gotten our fill of Epcot Canada pavillion (there's really not much to do there) so we went to Hollywood Studios and rode Rock-n-roller coaster and Tower of Terror, got desserts on Hollywood Blvd, and headed home for the night. After all, it was off to work the next morning...

All in all a very Canadian day, probably the most patriotic Canada Day I've ever had- and I didn't even spend it in Canada!

Harry Potter-iffic day

This is only my fifth post in June?!?! Wow I can see why you guys are getting restless for more posts... The truth is June has been even busier than May and my journal is almost as behind as my blog, so I guess there are some days that will exist only in my memory and never on paper...or computer... because the more I try to catch up, the more new stuff I begin to forget.

Let's talk about yesterday. I got to experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!! Other than being in 30 degree Florida weather and surrounded by muggle tourists, it was like I was actually there in Hogsmeade! Ok, maybe not. But it was really cool nonetheless.

I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. But butterbeer is really good, especially frozen. Chocolate frogs are expensive. And the new ride? Well I was so excited that I cried when it started. No joke. I can't wait to share it with fellow Potter fans...ahem, Arielle...
Me being an evil hatless Slytherin... I have photos of my being a not-so-evil hatful Slytherin, as well...
Me playing Quidditch! Ok, maybe not, but I am mounting a broom...
Me chillin' outside HOGWARTS!!!!! I know I have bad hair. I blame Popeye.

So that's all I will give away right now. Also I have to go to Downtown Disney soon, I'm going to see Toy Story 3 again! Love you all and I'll try to post again soon. <3