ELECTRICAL PARADE :-)

Well after two days of training to be a Page Fairy (the rehearsal kicked my butt), I'm officially approved to be in Disney's Electrical Parade! What this means is it will soon show up on my schedule, but until then I can try to pick shifts up so I can get started sooner. Because I was approved in Hoedown and DEP (Disney's Electrical Parade), I will most likely be scheduled 3:30pm-12:30am being scheduled in both. Photos to come asap!!

Page Fairies are the 4 fairies that begin the entire parade in front of Tinkerbell's float. A lot of pressure is held on us because the entire pace of the parade is in our hands! We wear bright colored unitards, elf like boots, a bright colored matching pixie cut wig, a cute hat, and of course are bedazzled in lights. We also hold a lantern which does wonders for the biceps in that 37 minute parade route haha (photo below is what the costume will look like)

The training was a ton of fun and I can't tell you how fabulous it was to be acting girly since all of my other "friends" are boys. The choreography is adorable and dainty and I had a huge smile plastered to my face that I was actually learning a parade! The second day of training was the approval day, where a staging manager comes to approve the girls to be scheduled DEP. He was extreeeeemely intimidating and pointed out what each one of us were doing wrong (at this point we had all been up since 5am and done about 4 parades around the parade building... we were very much so exhausted) We hammed up our faces and used every last bit of energy to be as perfect as possible for this man that was making me feel certain I wouldn't get approved. But sure enough the staging specialist reinforced how wonderful we all were doing and we all got approved :-) All the hard work paid off. I definitely didn't think the choreography would be that strenuous, but after 37 minutes of doing it, (for about 5 hours) it's definitely more challenging than I thought it would be.

starwars weekend blew my mind

Well for the final starwars weekend, I finally had the time to go check out the shenanigans. It was actually so so impressive and I had a ton of fun! I've only seen the first two movies and would say that I enjoyed them... but I'm by no means a starwars freak like many of the people I witnessed this weekend! I met darth maul and was actually very very intimidated. He had striking orange eyes, and was making creepy noises in my face. The fact that I was affected by his creepiness says something!! We then went to the "hyberspace hoopla" which was a dance party with all of the starwars characters. It was actually hilarious seeing "the good guys" dance off vs. "the bad guys" to the billboard hits.

My family came to visit again! This time just Dad, Jeff and Sammi came to Disney and we had such a great time in the sweltering heat. We spent the day at Islands of Adventure so Dad could experience the Harry Potter park and it definitely "pushed his limits" in ride intensity. He was still blown away though, as everyone is by the insanely advanced technology on that ride! The next day we park hopped in all of the parks, of course checked out starwars weekend, and ended the day with center view seats of Fantasmic! I was blown away that C3PO actually spoke to us, he was rather conversational actually. So so so cool. I actually happened to move apartments, to a different, bigger and cleaner apartment, so it was really beneficial and helpful to have my Dad there to help us move. Thanks dad :-) On Sunday, they came to the Animal Kingdom to see me perform as a Dino Mite Girl! Struggling to withstand the heat, they were all such troopers letting the DJ pick on them, as well as dance and jump around in the FL humidity! It was a ton of fun to be a party motivator to get my own family to join in! Next time they come to disney i'll be in the electrical parade and hoedown!!

I AM OFFICIALLY A WALT DISNEY WORLD DANCER! I got approved in "Hoedown Happening" after a 4:30am rehearsal in the park so we can practice formations without guests there. It's a  flashmob in frontierland in the magic kingdom that spontaneously happens unannounced during the day. I've literally never been up for the day that early in my entire life. It was not fun on my body to be working that hard at 5:30 in the morning. It was a really awesome experience to get to practice in the park as the sun was rising and the third shift cast members were working through the night. There was no water in splash mountain which was a really strange sight and made the plunge down the mountain look way less intense than it truly is. It was also so interesting to see numerous trucks and vans parked along the streets of frontierland getting the park ready for guests that morning. 

I'm actually home for the weekend for fathers day and it's incredible to have home cooked meals, my own comfy bed and my two puppies :-) I'll be back soon Mickey, and I have training for the electrical parade this friday! Here are some extra magical moments that were captured of my good friend Pooh bear :)

Dino Mite Girl

Well I'm back with some dino mite updates!! I had my first 3 days as part of the dino mite crew and it was so incredibly fun. Essentially we act as party motivators (I compare it to bat mitzvah dancers on crack because it's disney... although no one has even heard of a bat mitzvah here because I'm the only jew in walt disney world...) but it's a ton of fun. There are 2 girls a day and we're on set for 30 minutes at a time. It definitely gets insanely hot jumping around for 30 minutes, but it's so so nice to not have any "friends" a couple days of the week in the summer sun. Pictured below is our lovely DJ dino mite truck and some of the crowds dancing with the dino mite girls!

Last night I was hanging out with Pooh Bear in crystal palace and Pooh was asked to take part in a proposal!! I was supposed to be his friend when this happened, but unfortunately he missed it by about 3 minutes... Pooh Bear was so excited because he was asked specifically to be standing right there when he popped the question, but he got cold feet and unfortunately pooh bear had to have a 'smackeral' of honey before he asked her to marry him.

Kristen and Lee Bollert came to visit this weekend!! It was fabulous to see them and be a guest for the weekend at disney! We started our morning eating at 1900 Park Fare in the grand floridian, and got to meet Alice and the Madhatter, Pooh and Tigger, and Mary Poppins! So proud of kristen that she almost gave the characters a hug... 21 years old and still a little frightened by them. We spent the morning after breakfast at animal kingdom, took a quick break for a shower then off to epcot to have dinner in France! The food and dessert were so yummy, "as was our waiter." The next day we spent in magic kingdom and got there early enough in the morning to see the welcome show where the characters open the park! It was so incredible to have a touch of home and see them, thanks for coming guys :-)

I GOT MY SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT WEEK AND I HAVE HOEDOWN TRAINING YAYYYY! The only catch is it's at 4:30am... this way we can practice in the park when there aren't guests there.. dear godddd so early.

I auditioned to be a face character for HongKong Disneyland today. Thank goodness for mom and dad's sake I wasn't pulled! it was definitely fun to pretend to be the different princesses at the audition though :-)

Summer Music Enhancement training and MORE :-)

This past monday I had my first day and only training for "Summer Music Enhancement." Essentially, I'm 1 of the 10 girls that are being trained for this event. It's a DJ'd summer event in animal kingdom, specifically dinoland, USA. I'm a "Dino Mite Girl." Each day, 2 of the 10 girls act as "party motivators" to the crowds, and assisting to the DJ. I feel sooo lucky to be one of the ten girls, and I get to be me!!! (I don't have to be "friends" with people in the HOT summer humid weather)

Our training consisted of how the dance party will run, in addition to learning numerous line dances like the cha cha slide, electric slide, and of course since this is Disney we're talking about... Hannah Montana's Hoedown Throwdown and the Ice Cream Freeze. Our DJ is set up on his adventure truck which we lead into Dinoland on route 498 (the road in dinoland... named after the opening month and year that animal kingdom was opened.. april 1998). We had our rehearsal backstage of the park in the 94 degree weather for 5 hours... chuggin my infamous wisconsin water bottle is an enormous understatement.

Our costumes are a lot better than expected actually!! No heinous short sleeve (actual length to your elbow..) button down, animal printed shirt like we had all anticipated. We're lucky enough to be wearing TANK TOPS! I repeat... TANK TOPS! Disney is allowing us to wear 3 inch spandex blue and red tank tops, high top white sneakers, and printed shorts. We can't forget our jungle hat! We are in animal kingdom after all! So I should be doing this two to three times a week for the entire summer!

I also received a veryyyy surprising phone call this morning. A woman called me who's in charge of training and rehearsals inquiring why I had requested off for June 24th and 25th. (I was originally going home to CT for the weekend) She was wondering because they are planning on training me in Disney's Electrical Parade!!!! as a dancer!!! with real choreography!! I was absolutely ecstatic as I've been waiting for this since January. And as excited as I was for the summer music enhancement Dino mite girl, I was still hoping for training in a show or parade. I'm going to be trained to be a "Page Fairy" which are the girls who begin the parade in front of tinkerbelle's float. In addition, the cast of the electrical parade also are in a show called "Hoedown." This is essentially a flash mob that takes place in Frontierland. Both actual dancer positions which im SOOOO excited about I cant even express it in words.

Just a constant smile thats all I can say! FINALLYYYYY! :-)

Pixar and Star Wars Weekend

This past weekend was Pixar's 25th anniversary so there was a special event at Epcot to represent all of the pixar movies. I was asked to hang out with my new friend Emile from Ratatouie, but we were only friends for this one weekend. He was so so cute and fat and I really loved the change, and to get to hang out with him!

Star Wars weekend starts this Friday May 20th for continuous weekends throughout June. The premier of the new star tours ride is this Friday and rumor has it that George Lucas is coming to open the ride, and reveal himself because he'll be in disguise as a Storm Trooper. The new star tours ride was redone to have 56 different variation endings, with different characters and journeys. The ride is a 4D simulation and it was actually awesome. A real star wars fan would appreciate it much more than I do... but nonetheless it was still a really cool new ride.

BIG NEWS BIG NEWS!!!!!!! I finnnnnally got training/rehearsal on my schedule for something called "Summer Music Enhancement." I have a 6 hour rehearsal next Monday and am absolutely ecstatic. I've been waiting anxiously each saturday for the schedules to come out since January and it finally showed up! I've asked the Magic Kingdom duty base and managers what Summer Music Enhancement is, but since it's a summer event taking place at Animal Kingdom no one knows many details about it. I've heard it's a DJ'd event with choreography and I'll be a "mover" dancing as myself (thank goddd with the summer heat). I'll post when I know more about it! For now, I'm too too excited :-)

Everyone who was here just for the Spring semester is leaving! It'll be interesting to have new college program interns training and starting their first few days on the program. It's crazy to think that the semester flew by so quickly and that my program originally was supposed to end this past Friday before they asked me to extend! I've met some awesome people since i've been down here and it has definitely been sad to say goodbye :-(

A touch of home :)

This past week Laura and Jenn Murchie came to visit the happiest place on earth. It was absolutely phenomenal having them here, and of course they brought the touch of home I've missed! We spent the week celebrating laura's birthday (3 months late) at hollywood studios, magic kingdom, epcot and animal kingdom and they got to experience hogwarts!

We got to eat and play in a very familiar spot, Crystal Palace. It was so much fun to have dinner with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet and actually experience the other side of the magic as a Guest! Eeyore recognized me which actually made my night :-) They got some special pictures with pooh bear when they went to go meet him in animal kingdom.We ended the week leaving the Murchie's in awe over the attention to detail and Disney magic in every park.

In other news, I have a new friend! His name is Handy Manny and he's a construction worker who has his own show on Disney Jr. He has an awesome outfit he wears and a very intricate signature. I really loved hanging out with him!

Healy Family visits! :)

Hello all!! I'm so sorry i've been so bad... it's been a long month of early early early wake up calls, (idk how people can get up before the sun rises once we're real people out of college...) 

Anyway, since it's been so long I have a bunch to report! I was in my first paradeee! wooooo. I was a spare at animal kingdom which means i can be pulled for anything they need me to do. This day I hung out with some friends chip and dale (was sooo excited to hang out with them because i've only been hanging around pooh bear recently and I miss my chipmunk friends). I was pulled to hold the banner at the end of Mickey's jammin' jungle expedition parade at 3:45pm. Although I'm probably the lamest aspect of being in a parade I was ecstatic to even be walking in one. I wore the most HEINOUS outfit to look like a jungle explorer, all in the theming of course! I stood at the end of the parade with another banner holder right behind Mickey Mouse's float. It was 90 degrees and a 37 minute parade, it definitely takes a lot out of you and I was just walking and waving. It's so weird to think that I'm in a ton of random tourist's photo albums and video coverage from their trip to disney. I love that the entire time I was beaming and am still star struck by Mickey's float in front of me, I honestly couldn't be happier. I can't even imagine how happy I am when I finally do get trained... (cough disney... i've been waiting patiently now for a good 3 months...)

The family I babysit (practically my own family) came down for a visit over their spring break (oh. my. god. crowded. cranky. sweaty. complaining. guests. EVERYWHERE!) It was incredible to see the Healy's and a nice touch of home! I found them at the crystal palace where they had lunch with pooh bear and his friends. The girls had quite the special experience with Pooh bear that day, it seemed like Pooh was enjoying himself as well! We spent the next day at animal kingdom and watched the wishes fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian to get around $80 park admission just to see the fireworks.

I've had a tonnnn of early morning shifts at the grand floridian breakfast which has been causing me to get up daily at 5am.. its definitely brutal but somewhat nice that I get to have the rest of my day. 

I have my last Disney marketing class tomorrow until I get to graduate from this course. More to come tomorrow!