What have I been up to over the past 2 months?

So I have been bad and haven’t posted an update in a long while…. APOLOGIES! I really told myself I wouldn't do this when I decided to start a blog but life catches up to you and almost two months later since my last blog post, here I am. I will *try* to be better in the future, but the past two months have just been so busy that I haven't really even had a minute to sit and write one of these and the upcoming month looks just as busy soooo.

Overall, I still really love it here. It has been almost three months and I am still in love with Disney. No risk of me getting sick of it yet! Work is good, for the most part. As with all jobs there are ups and downs but the prospect of making magic for guests every day really makes me fall in love with my job over and over again. I am working on getting into service soon though, so hopefully within the next two months I will be serving in the restaurant. When my arrival group started, we were told we wouldn’t be getting into service until the new year and to be honest, I’m not in any rush. Yes, the money will be way better once I become a server, but the job becomes much more stressful once you become a server and I really love my life right now.

So what have I been up to over the past month… Everything! At the end of my last blog post, I mentioned that my family was coming to visit and they did and it was wonderful. We did 5 days in the parks together and even though we have done Disney together many times before, this time was still just as magical. I also got to stay with my family at the house they were staying at and I got to sleep in a queen size bed for a week and that was magical all in its own way (the twin beds we have in our apartments kind of suck).

Two weeks after my family left, Matt came to visit! He arrived on Monday, November 14th and he stayed until the Friday. We stayed at Disney’s All-Star Sports resort, so it was my first Disney resort staycation! Even though it is one of the value resorts, it was still nice to stay at a resort for a few days. Disney does everything well, even the value resorts, so we had quite a nice time there. I had to work on the Tuesday, which kinda sucked because Matt had to hang out by himself for an evening, but I was able to get an additional day off on the Wednesday so we had three full days together! On Wednesday we went to Trails End for breakfast, went shopping at the outlet mall for a few hours, then spent the evening at Magic Kingdom. I love sharing my favourite Disney things with Matt and one of my favourite Disney things is Wishes so I loved watching that with him. We also watched the new castle show Once Upon a Time together, and it was the first time I got to see it since it replaced Celebrate the Magic. Although the projections on the castle are absolutely amazing, I can’t say it was quite as good as Celebrate. Celebrate the Magic really hit me in the feels every time I watched it, especially with the soundtrack, so I am still sad that that show is no longer. On Thursday Matt and I had a busy Disney day. We first went to Animal Kingdom because when Matt and I went to Disney last year we didn't go to AK. Then we went to Epcot for lunch at Coral Reef and it was quite amazing! The restaurant is inside of the aquarium so it was absolutely beautiful and the food too was fantastic. After lunch we headed over to Hollywood Studios to do some rides and to watch Fantasmic. Friday we hung out by the resort pool and just relaxed at my apartment, then went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory before having to go to the airport for Matts flight home. I was pretty sad to have to say goodbye to Matt, especially since I realized we wouldn't be seeing each other again until after Christmas, but I will get to see him when I come home for a few days at the beginning of January. I am so happy I got to spend the time with him that I did though and I can't wait for him to come back to visit again!

Shortly after Matt left, I got hit with a nasty nasty cold for about a week. I am actually still recovering from it. I think it maybe was because we had quite a few chilly days and the change in temperature caused a lot of illness to float around. Tons of people I know in the Canada Pavilion got really sick around the same time. I unfortunately had to call in sick for two days, so that combined with my two days off meant I literally did not leave my bed for four days. This involved a lot of Netflix watching and sleeping. But I needed those four days and when I finally went back to work I was feeling so much better. As I said, at this time I’m still not feeling 100% (I still have a bit of congestion and a cough), but I’m glad to say the worst of it if over and I’m well on the way to recovery.

Other exciting things that have happened over the past seven weeks include...

-Won a backstage tour at The Great Movie Ride - occasionally there are backstage tour opportunities offered by Le Cellier that we can sign up for and then they have a draw to select a certain number of people to participate. A few weeks ago I got selected to participate in a backstage tour of The Great Movie Ride and it was so so awesome! We had to go so early because obviously it had to be done before the park opened (6:30am yuck) but I felt truly privileged to be able to go backstage on the ride and experience it in a way that I never would have been able to as a guest. I also learned so much about the ride and “backstage secrets” that I will treasure forever. The next backstage tour I get to go on is of Fantasmic which I am SO AMPED FOR because Fantasmic is my all time favourite show, and that is taking place next week.

-Food & Wine Festival ended - The Epcot International Food & Wine festival is a massive festival each year that takes place for roughly two months and draws in tons of people from all over the country. Working the popcorn cart during this festival was absolutely crazy because some days the crowds were WILD. There were a few days that Epcot was so busy that the parking lot at Epcot was full and people had to park at Magic Kingdom then monorail over. The festival ended November 14th, and Epcot is such a different park now without the food and wine booths everywhere. Although I did really enjoy the festival while it was on (some of the food, like the chicken pot stickers from China, garlic shrimp from Japan, and Belgian waffle from Belgium, were AMAZING), I definitely don't miss the crowds.

-Christmas decorations - Christmas decorations are up at the parks! Almost overnight, Halloween decorations at Magic Kingdom came down and Christmas decorations were up. Christmas at Disney is so amazing and if you have never seen it in person, you need to. The castle all lit up at nighttime is so beautiful I can't even describe it in words. When I am at MK at night I literally cannot stop staring st the castle. The Christmas trees up in the parks are so big I didn't even know they could be so big. The gingerbread houses built in the resort hotels, like the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary, are so elaborate and made of real gingerbread, it’s jaw dropping! Disney does not cut any corners for Christmas, the detail they put into everything is truly awe-inspiring. Legit tho, if you have the chance, go to Disney at Christmas time.

-Saw Gavin DeGraw, Julianne Hough and Kelly Clarkson perform in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom for the Christmas special - as a cast member we were given access to the schedule of holiday special tapings at all of the parks for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I was able to go to the Magic Kingdom on the day Gavin DeGraw, Julianne Hough and Kelly Clarkson were performing. It was so cool to see what goes into a tv production, and it was even cooler to be a part of the holiday taping. Kelly Clarkson and Julianne Hough are also flawless human beings and it was amazing to watch them perform live. So if you watch the holiday special on Christmas, keep an eye out for me in the crowd!

-Had breakfast at Ohana - just this week I went to Ohana for breakfast with Eileen, Darien and Sam. Ohana is a restaurant in the Polynesian resort that offers all you can eat family style breakfast. It is also character dining! While we had breakfast, Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto each came to our table to visit. It was so cute and the food was quite amazing! Typically character dining experiences are quite expensive but Ohana breakfast is a fair price, especially with our cast discount. It was such a lovely morning with friends, and I finally got to meet my boss (Mickey) because I have been bad and haven’t done that yet (oopsie). Eating at this restaurant was also on my bucket list so that's another thing scratched off (also apologies, I haven't updated that in a while since I’m not often on a computer).

The next exciting thing that's happening is Christina is here to visit! She arrived today and is staying for five nights. I was fortunate enough to get all 5 days off when she is here (with the exception of two hours for a class on Wednesday), and we are going to have the best time together! We started our vacation off today at Hollywood Studios during the day then checking out Disney Springs at night. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get a hotel reservation on an official Disney resort but we did get a room at the Wyndham which is in the Disney Springs resort area, so we still have free busses to the Disney parks and it's a five minute walk from Disney Springs! I am so happy to have her here and the next four days are going to be a blast!

Next week I also have some friends from Canada coming to visit, and it is also my friend Darien’s birthday! It’s going to be a busy week but it’s going to be amazing! Will write all about it on my next blog post (who knows when that'll be...)! Until next time xoxo