Kouzzina and the Kitchen Sink

Last Thursday we decided to go to Cat Cora's restaurant Kouzzina on the Boardwalk because it will be closing at the end of the month and reopen as an Italian restaurant in December. We also got 40% off..... It was supposed to be Greek with a southern cooking influence. It was really good! I had a trio of feta mashed potatoes, Greek lasagna, and a lamb slider.  

After Kouzzina we decided to attempt the Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream at the Yacht and Beach Club. It is a huge ice cream sundae but between the four of us we barely ate half! It was really fun and we got to check something off our bucket list. 

Food & Wine Festival

Tuesday we visited Epcot to check out the food and wine festival. This year there are so many more marketplaces. I think there are around 34. Some of them even have little areas to eat and drink, like Puerto Rico and Germany. We tried a lot of different things including watermelon juice, lamp shank, garlic shrimp, caramel creme brule, Belgium waffle, key lime wine, and Riesling. This year they have a little passport book you can get and you can get a stamp from each marketplace. Even though we have over a month left I am not sure we could try all the places! 

Lamb Shank with Pesto

Resiling Flight

day 2 of working

Yesterday was my second day of actual work. I was the expoditor, which means I stay in the back of the store and pick the things that need to be restocked on the floor, then the floorstockers take it out to the front. I actually really liked it because you get to work sort of independently and you get to self-break which means you decide when you take your breaks. The day went really fast and I got off at 8:30, but it took me a while to get to my car because they were doing the Frozen fireworks. Since Hollywood Studios was never really set up to have fireworks they have to set them off a lot closer to the people than at Magic Kingdom or Epcot. They have to close off pretty much all of the backlands (Toy Story, Great Movie Ride, Backlot Tour, anything behind the Sorcerer's Hat), which includes the parking garage where cast must park on weekends. It took me forever to finally get to my car, but I did get to watch the fireworks from the parking garage which was kind of cool! 

My first trip to Universal Studios

My first day of work after earning my ears!

I finally finished my training yesterday so today was my first day of work without a trainer and it was so much fun! It was definitely my favorite day of work. I started out at the Main Entrance Cart. It was a little slow, but not too long after I got to go to one of the hub carts by the Sorcerer's Hat to give someone their break. Then I went to the Main Entrance Cart again. Finally I ended up at Movieland for the rest of the day. Since I was moving around so much the day went by pretty quickly. And for lunch I got to have Olive Garden because my area was celebrating being the top pin traders in Hollywood Studios and fourth top traders in all of Disney World. Everyone was excited so that made it more fun. Almost all of the guests I interacted with were happy and nice. One guest didn't speak any English so that made it hard but it turned out okay. I don't work again until Saturday but then I will be inside at Mickey's of Hollywood or Keystone. It seems like every day will be something different!

Cast Connection!

This morning Shelby, Allison and I visited Cast Connection. Cast Connection is a store that Disney employees can visit that has discounted items like plush, clothing, and even some groceries. I found a Lilly  Pulitzer dress 50% off (plus I got an additional 10% off with my ID). We also got some much needed groceries including a ten pound bag of pasta for $10, a huge loaf of bread for $1.50, and two big bags of broccoli for only $4 each. We will definitely be back to Cast Connection!
  

 

visiting my roommates at work!

After five days of training I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off! Friday morning Shelby, Allison, and I went to Hollywood Studios to see the Frozen Summer Fun before it closes at the end of the month and also visit our roommate Veronica at The Little Mermaid/Disney Junior. I also got to take some pictures of a few places where I will be working.

These first two pictures are of the main entrance cart at Hollywood Studios. This is one location I will be working at. The cart is actually outside the park after security but before you get your ticket scanned. I will wear my teal outfit at this cart.

This is another car I could be working at. There are two carts by the Sorcerer's Hat (one to the left and one to the right). Currently they have Frozen merchandise but that will probably change once Frozen Summer Fun ends. You can see in the picture the costume with the blue shirt and black shorts or pants.

Frozen Summer Fun

Hollywood Studios has so much going on for Frozen Summer Fun. There is a processional (smaller version of a parade), "snow" throughout the day, Anna & Elsa's sing-a-long, a nightly dance party, nightly fireworks, and in the back near Pixar Place they have Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. 

Wandering Oaken's has a gift shop full of everything Frozen, tons of Frozen snacks like cupcakes, cake pops, churros, and hot chocolate, an area to build a snowman, and an ice skating rink where you can skate around. This is all ending at the end of September but they will definitely be doing some sort of Frozen events for the holidays! They are also turning the Malestrom in Norway into a Frozen themed ride in the near future. 

Flying Fish Cafe

Friday night Veronica, Shelby and I went to Epcot and then had dinner at Flying Fish Cafe on the Boardwalk where Allison is a hostess. I had never been here before but everything we got was so good! It was fun to see where Allison worked. Since September is "off-season" it is easy to get into almost any restaurant and in the parks the lines for most of the rides are relatively short.  

Busy Days

The last few days have been very busy but very fun! I have finally started actually training in the area that I will be working in and I am still exploring out in the different parks in my time off. Luckily my training has been mostly early in the day so that I have the evenings to do fun things. I have so much to talk about so I will just do categories for this post to make things easier to follow! From now on, when I have a new post on this blog I will add pictures to my Disney Life album on Facebook so that might be a good way to tell if I have new stories to share!

Blizzard Beach

After training one day we decided to go to Blizzard Beach. I have never been to a Disney water park before and I don't love water parks in general, but I thought it would interesting to see. It was actually really fun! It was not very crowded (maybe because we got there around 3) so we got a chance to ride anything and everything we wanted. The lazy river there is huge! And the theming of park was pretty unique and fun. Disney loves to tell stories and the story of this water park is that the park is a ski resort and all the snow is melting so that is where all the water is coming from. Only Shelby was brave enough to do Summit Plummet (the HUGE water slide that is almost a straight drop) but we did get some hilarious photos thanks to Allison! I am so lucky to have her as a roommate because she always gets the best pictures!  

 

Training Days

Training has been keeping me very busy! Monday I got to tour Hollywood Studios, see "backstage", see where I will be working, and get my costumes. I have three costumes so depending on where I am working that day I could be wearing the main gate costume (which is the only one I have a picture of right now), high end costume (my personal favorite - it is a 1920s - 1930s style outfit with a red and white polka dotted top and green skirt), or the hub carts costume (black pants or shorts and a blue shirt with a yellow tie thing and "Gatsby hat"). I have had some really awesome trainers and learned so much about Hollywood Studios. I also finally (sort of) got an answer to a question I have had for a long time about the Backlot Tour! One of the first times I remember riding the Backlot Tour, the tour included a street that looked like a little neighborhood and had houses that studios used as exterior shots. One of the houses was used as the exterior shot for Golden Girls. But ever since Hollywood Studios added the Lights, Motors, Action show the Backlot Tour has not included a stop at this neighborhood. My trainer said the neighborhood was torn down to make room for the huge stadium for the show. I was kind of sad to find this out because I loved seeing that house, but Walt Disney wanted the parks to be always changing and evolving and this is a great example of that! Today was my first day actually at a register helping guests and pin trading. It was a little long and I didn't wear the best shoes. My favorite moments were interacting with the guests and my least favorite moments were going over and over the tedious training. Next week I have a few more days of training and then I will be on my own (with better shoes...).  

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

In addition to checking out Blizzard Beach, I got to do another Disney first this week! My roommates and I bought tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. On these nights Magic Kingdom closes to regular guests at 7pm and the park switches into party mode. There is a special fireworks show, special parade, tons of extra characters out, and at least on the night we were there the lines for rides were extremely short! We didn't have to wait for the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride (the wait is normally at least an hour)! Many of the guests dress up in fun costumes. I even met Bob and Linda from Bob's Burgers! It was a little raining on the night that we went but it was still a fun night! I might even try to go back another night before Halloween.

Expedition Everest Experts

Yesterday after training, my roommate Allison and I went to Animal Kingdom. The park was nearly empty so we rode Expedition Everest five times in a row. We also rode the Dinosaur ride and the water rapids ride. It was nice to go when it was so empty!

An Evening at Magic Kingdom

Just some photos from a night at Magic Kingdom. We got to meet Elsa and Anna (usually the line is over an hour long)! 

First Day of Fun in the Parks!

When we first walked into the Magic Kingdom we got our picture with Marie from Aristocats. She is one of my favorite characters! Very magical.

We had lunch at Pecos Bill in Frontier Land

It has been pretty rainy all week. It usually rains in the afternoon and lasts for a few hours. Hopefully the weather is nicer this week! 

A rainbow appeared during a break in the rain! It is hard to see in this picture but it is brightest above the tree a little to the right.

You can see the start of the new villas right on the water at the Polynesian. They have the perfect view of the castle!

Traditions!

Friday was my first day here where I did something that will actually result in a paycheck! I was scheduled for Traditions, which is what Disney calls the first day of orientation. My day started at 1:30 when we caught the bus to Disney University to make it there by 2:30. During this class they talked about the company and we learned some Disney history. It was not the most exciting class ever and we didn't get to take the usual Magic Kingdom tour because of the rain, but my trainers tried to make it fun. We got our Mickey ears and name tags which was very, very exciting! My boss, Mickey Mouse, brought us our name tags in a big box and our trainers called out our names to come up and get them. Mine was the first one out of the box which was pretty magical! 

After we finally got back from traditions, around 8pm, my roommates and I decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner. Right now Downtown Disney is under a lot of construction, but it should be awesome when it is all finished! They are adding a parking garage and expanding World of Disney so that it is the largest Disney store in the world! 

We ate at the T-Rex Cafe which was so good!  I like it a lot better than Rainforest Cafe (even though both are owned by the same company haha). This was the first time we got to use our Cast Member discount so we got 20% off our meal. I don't think there is actually a set list of places where we get a discount or they change it often so you just have to ask every where you go (even in the parks at food places). Since we got a discount we decided to splurge and get this awesome dessert! 

Day 2

Wednesday my roommates and I decided to explore some of the resorts after we had our housing meeting since we don't have our pass to get into the parks yet. We started at Art of Animation which I had never been to before. It was so cool! There are four sections, Finding Nemo, Cars, Little Mermaid, and Lion King. The Finding Nemo section was my favorite! The plants were supposed to look like seaweed and underwater plants. 

 

After walking through Pop Century we headed to the Polynesian for Pina Coladas! The Tambu Lounge is one of my favorite Disney bars. Right now Disney is renovating the Polynesian and it should be really cool when it is done! Next we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom (with a stop to visit the Grand Floridian) and then took a bus to the Boardwalk. We explored the Boardwalk and Yacht & Beach Club and ate dinner and Big River Brewing Company outside on the Boardwalk. As we headed back to the bus we caught a glimpse of Illuminations (Epcot's firework show) and then when we were leaving the Polynesian we got to see the Magic Kingdom's fireworks! 

My roommates are all super cool! Shelby is from Massachusetts and she will be working at Magic Kingdom East doing Quick Service food stands. Veronica is from North Carolina and she will be doing Attractions at Hollywood Studios. And Allison is from outside of Los Angeles and she will be working at the Flying Fish Cafe on the Boardwalk. Allison has a go pro so we were able to take some awesome pictures yesterday!   

We have to wait until we get our Disney IDs to get our Universal annual passes so we couldn't do that today, but Allison and Veronica and I went to a really cool outlet mall about 15 minutes away. We also took our third trip to Walmart in three days and had lunch a Panera Bread. Tomorrow is finally Traditions! I will get my Disney ID and my nametag and we get to go on a tour of Magic Kingdom! Since it is my first day of training I will actually get paid for it so it is kind of like my first day of work!