Sad

I can't believe that I'm going home in a week. I was looking forward to it for the longest time, I was so excited to be able to see my family and "friends" again but now the only thing I want to do is stay here forever. I've made friends here that have been better to me than anyone I ever knew back home. They actually care about me, which I can't say honestly about anyone back home, other than my family. It's funny because one day I realized that my roommates weren't just my roommates, or my friends, or my best friends, but my family. Leaving them is going to be so hard but I know that we will definitely stay in touch and will have to make plans to all meet up and everything.

Pretty much this post is to say thank you to Hannah and Stephanie for being there for me through everything and being great friends. I love you both and I'm sad that we don't get to spend more time together but we'll definitely see each other again, I'm sure of it! :)

Nearing the end of my journey

So as this program comes closer to being over it's becoming more bittersweet. I feel like I'm ready to go home, even though I still have four weeks left but that's okay. It's becoming more real that this program is almost over and now I'm rushing to get everything done that I've procrastinated doing for so long. Come June 1st this will be over and I'll be on the road back to my home sweet home. :)

Regardless of when I'm leaving, I still love my job, of course. It's been the greatest experience of my life and I've most certainly grown up a lot by being down here. Even if it's just being forced to take care of myself, it's been so good for me. My job has also made me absolutely love children, something I could have never said before and meant it. They're just too cute running up to go see Mickey Mouse for the first time. Yesterday while I was waiting for Pocahontas to come out because I was her photographer for a while these two little girls and their mom were waiting in line, so I started talking to them. I was just talking to them about the park and their autographs and then their mom took a picture of me with them. The mom says to her daughters "now how about we take a picture with you two and the photopass photographer because they're so nice here!" It was by far the biggest honor that's happened since I've gotten here and it's definitely something that I'll remember for the rest of my life.

As far as playing in the parks goes, I'll be making sure to go to the parks every chance I get from now up until I leave. I need to make sure I do everything on my little bucket list because I have no idea when I'll be back here again. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Hello all! It's been a while, but I have quite a bit of stories to share with all of you! :) Since the last time I wrote I've pretty much been working 35+ hours a week due to spring break and the parks just being more busy than they were before, which is great! I've been working a lot of character shifts also, and I absolutely love it still! When I'm working with characters a 9+ hour shift only feels like it's about 5 hours, and I can most certainly live with that. :D The most recent characters that I have worked with have been over in Camp Minnie-Mickey...I've worked with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald thus far. So far my favorite character to work with has been Goofy, of course! He can do whatever he wants, and it's absolutely great being able to work with him.

So on with the guest stories that I can remember from these past few weeks, or days. :) The most recent stories that I have from today start with when I was working with Goofy tonight and these two little girls are waiting for Goofy to come back because he went to go check on Max and that he would be right back. One of the girls goes "Who is Max? I don't know who he is!" So I tell her and then she starts telling me about how she already has 3 Minnie Mouse signatures from different places and how she's in a different outfit every time she sees her. So I tell her "Well, she must have to hurry up and change outfits before she gets here to make sure she makes it here before you do!" And then Goofy came back out so that was the end of that conversation. Another family had a little girl and boy later on that were waiting for Goofy to come back and they were telling me about how they went to outer space, and all of the planets that they went to while they were in Epcot! The girl was telling me how she went to "real outer space" and the boy was bursting her bubble and saying "No we didn't, that's not real outer space!" In which I replied with, "Sure it is, I wish I could go there too!" and then that was the end of our conversation because Goofy came back!

The other day while I was working with Mickey Mouse there was a family that was going up to meet him and right before they were done the mom says to her child "Now tell Mickey how you're going to go poo poo in the potty now!" I started laughing hysterically because who says that to Mickey Mouse?! But other than that I don't have many stories about Mickey Mouse other than that everyone is always so excited to meet him, as they should be. :P

I think the hardest part about my job is having Make-A-Wish families come up to meet the characters. It's great because the characters spend a lot of extra time with them and make it absolutely special for the Make-A-Wish family and the child but it's the most sad thing in the world. Every time they come up I want to cry because it makes me really sad, but I hold back of course. I admire the strength that the families have and I'm glad that I get to be a part of making the memories for them.

All right that's all I can think of at this very moment so thanks for reading, I really do appreciate it! :)

I'm baaack!

Well hello there! Since the last time I updated so much has happened that it's crazy! I've been so busy with work, friends, and roommate bonding amongst other things that I haven't had any time to write! But now that I have a moment to myself I'll fill all of you wonderful readers in. ;)

Well you all know that I've been character trained, and it has been GREAT! Every time I get a character shift time goes by so fast and it's just so incredibly fun, I can't even do it justice by trying to describe how incredible it is on here. On an almost daily basis I get to work with characters such as Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Minnie, and the BIG CHEESE HIMSELF Mickey Mouse! The most fun character that I have worked with so far has been Goofy though, he is just so silly! Today I worked with Mickey Mouse for the first time and it was wonderful as well. :)

The only downside to being character trained is that now when I work at icon locations (such as the Tree of Life, Everest) time doesn't go by as quickly anymore because I'm not constantly moving around and having fun taking pictures of the families with the characters. Don't get me wrong, I still love working icons as well but it's a different experience to be working with characters.

Oh! Before I forget, my family came down here to visit me last Thursday and stayed until Tuesday night. We had a BLAST visiting all of the parks even though it was absolutely exhausting! I can't wait until June when I see them again. :)

And on another note, my program is supposed to end on June 1st but I put in for an extension which means I'll be here through August 3rd. I'm really hoping that it goes through, so cross your fingers for me! :) I am a bit afraid of what the summer is going to bring between the large crowds and the heat/humidity but I'm sure I'll be just fine. :P

Unfortunately I don't have any guest stories more so because I can't remember anything that happened than any other reason. :( But I'm sure that next time I post I'll definitely have some! Well, I think that's all I have to say for now, so thanks for reading!

Character fun and a GSF card! :o

So I know I haven't posted in a while, sorry those who actually read this blog. :( I've been super busy with work and just being out pretty much all the time, which has been great! So now that I have a little bit of time to spare I'll let you all in on what's been going on in the life of Danielle. Since I last posted I've pretty much been out every night either at the parks or out at House of Blues having a good time with friends or even playing softball with some of my fellow cast members! By the way, I'm awful at softball and should never be allowed to play it again! :) Work has been great as usual and I never want to leave this place. I have a few stories to share as well!

So the most recent things that I remember are from the past couple of days. Yesterday was the first time I got to work with the characters since being character trained. The first character I got to work with was Winnie the Pooh, which was awesome! It was a bit nerve-wracking at first just because I didn't know exactly what to do in that particular location, but after about ten minutes I was good to go. I worked with Pooh for about two hours and then after my break I got to go work with Eeyore! This was also a lot of fun and being able to see all of the kids (and sometimes adults) faces when they first get to meet Pooh and Eeyore was just priceless and makes the day that much more magical. :) Also, working with characters makes the day go by so incredibly fast, and I know I say it all the time but now I don't know how time went by fast when I was taking photos in front of the Tree of Life! Especially since when you're working with characters you're constantly moving around to get the picture of the little girl or boys face as they walk up to the character for the first time or when you're trying to get that photo of the character hugging the guest. It's so much fun to capture those memories for every guest that comes by!

My first GSF card! :D1

So today I earned my first Great Service Fanatic card! :D For those of you who don't know, it's a card that someone fills out for you when they see you doing something good for a guest or with a guest. Mine was for getting down to a little princess' level and talking to her about the park, it was also her birthday so I was telling her Happy Birthday! So when I saw that I had a GSF card I was really excited and happy about it, because that's something that can help me out as well! Later on in the day I got to work with Goofy for about an hour and a half and it was SO FUN. Goofy can do whatever he wants, it's so funny! He decided he was going to hang out with the cast member over at the ice cream cart instead of coming and taking photos with the guests at first, the attendant had to tell him "Ok Goofy come on!" and from there he was just so hysterical the entire time! And as per usual it was time to go home before I even realized it! Well I'll end this here since I have to work at 8:30 tomorrow morning, which I'm not exactly looking forward to, haha. Thanks for reading and I hope to have more stories soon! :)

No longer Earning my Ears!

That's right, they're all grown in! After a month of waiting I was finally character trained today and can say that I'm done with training one-hundred percent! It's an exhilarating feeling but terrifying at the same time. Now that I don't have that silly red flag on my name tag anymore I can't get away with not knowing things such as "Where is the popcorn stand?" or "Where is Rafiki's Planet Watch?" I know that these are silly little things but working in Disney I feel the need to know where absolutely everything is and what time all of the shows are going on, etc. I know that I'll be just fine but as of right now it's a bit overwhelming!

Anyway, on with my day of character training! We were in Epcot and started at 8:30 this morning. By 10:30 we were out with our first character of the day, Pluto! It was very nerve wracking but time went by so incredibly fast while out there with the guests. The next character that was up for us to take photos of were Stitch and Daisy. I did end up with Stitch and there wasn't much of a line so there was a lot of waiting around for guests to come up. It was pretty laid back though. Next up was Mexican Donald over in the Mexico Pavilion at World Showcase (duh! :p). By this point I was almost at the point of not being nervous, but not quite there yet. This one lasted for ten minutes and there was a constant line so it felt like it was only two minutes, I didn't believe it had already been ten minutes. After Donald we went over to Mulan which was AWESOME and I can't wait to pick up shifts in other parks and hopefully be able to take photos of all of the different princesses! After Mulan it was almost time to clock out and go home for the day, the 9 hours that I was there felt like 3, it was so much fun! I'm still not 100% confident yet but I'm pretty close. I think once I'm in my home park working with the characters I'll feel a lot better and a lot less nervous. :)

So, now that I've been character trained I'll probably be posting a LOT more, because there are the most adorable little kids that RUN up to the characters to hug them with HUGE smiles on their faces. It's really the most precious thing I've ever encountered in my life. :D

Well that's all I have for today, thanks so much for reading!

Almost done "training!"

Aw man, I've been seriously slacking lately on keeping up with this blog, sorry guys! I do have to say that everything has still been great and that I'm still loving it down here though! :) I've been in the view center at work quite a bit recently and when I do get to go out and take photos I can't remember all of the stories that I tell myself I'll remember. I do remember though the last shift I worked on Monday where I got to work in one of my favorite spots, behind the Tree of Life and although the park wasn't very busy I had a lot of guests the entire time I was over there. I was there for about three hours and then after my break I was able to go take photos of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade for the first time by myself, and let me tell you it was SO MUCH FUN! Hopefully I get to do that more often because it was an absolute blast. :)

Tomorrow I work from 8:30-5:30 because I'm FINALLY getting character trained! YIPPEE! For those of you who don't know, that means I'll be able to go take photos of guests with the different characters around the park, which is so exciting! Everyone I've talked to says that it's so much fun and that time flies by (even more) when you work with the characters. Also, once I'm character trained I get to take off the "Earning my Ears" tag that's been on my name tag for the past month. :D So that makes it even more exciting! So I'll be sure to post tomorrow about how character training went! Thanks for reading my very short post!

Happiness :)

Hi there! So the past two days have been really good and I made sure to remember everything that happened so as not to have a post like the last one! :) Sooo here goes:

On Monday I worked from 3:00-9:00 and when I got there I was stationed over at Everest Corner for about 45 minutes and then moved over to the View Center for a bit after that. I was in the View Center for about an hour and a half and it was a little slow so I don't have anything to say about it. Then after break I was stationed over at the Entrance where I would be up until 9:00. While I was over at Entrance I had these two little boys who were taking pictures with their new bubble gun toys and when they were done they were "attacking" me with them. Of course I played along and fell to the ground which made both of them laugh hysterically! The next guests that I remember were these two little girls who ran up to me and gave me hugs after I was done taking their picture, it melted my heart a little bit and made me so happy. :) There were also these other two little girls who were working on their "ROARS" so they came up to me and roared at me as loud as they could and I ran away from them and told them it was the scariest roar I had ever heard in my life! The last guest that I remember while I was over here was a little boy who couldn't have been more than a year old who was on the verge of crying so I got down and started making silly faces/playing peekaboo with him and got him to start laughing instead. :D There were so many great guests tonight I absolutely loved it.

Yesterday I picked up a shift in Epcot from 4:45-10:45 and when I got there I was placed in the View Center for my entire shift. It was a little disappointing because I was really hoping to go out and take photos but it's okay, I don't mind the View Center. When I got there the first guest I helped had a voucher for a free photo so I went and helped her pick out the photo she wanted and put a border on it to make it pretty and everything. We were also talking about how she's a magician and was looking for the most creative way to show off her magician t-shirt and she said "What a better way to do that than in Disney?" So I was telling her about how she'll definitely win the contest and everything. So after I printed out her photo she starts writing my name down on a piece of paper and where I'm from and everything and she says "I want to make sure I get your name right when I go over to Guest Relations and tell them how sweet you are and what a great job you did with helping me out today." I was completely caught off guard and wasn't expecting it at all, so what do I do? I start crying. In my head I'm going "seriously Danielle, you're really crying right now?" but I couldn't help it! She was so nice and I never thought that someone would take the time to go and give me the biggest compliment that they can! So after that the rest of the day was even better than when it started and I was very happy all night. :)

Today I'm off to Blizzard Beach with my lovely roommates since we all have the day off! Thanks for reading!

Memory Loss?

So it's only been three days since I last posted but I can't remember a lot from the past few days. I'll do my best to recap though!

On Friday I worked from 12:45-6:45 and for some reason the day is a complete blur right now so I don't have much to say, unfortunately. :( I do remember going to Magic Kingdom after work though, and that's about it from this day.

Saturday I worked from 9:30-3:30 and for the first few hours was stationed over at Everest Corner. That is by far my favorite spot to work so far, it's so much fun being over there! I met two families from Massachusetts while I was over there as well, so that was pretty cool. After break I was stationed over at the back of the Tree of Life which is another one of my favorite spots so far. I lucked out today on where I was placed. It was also really busy all day so the time flew by even faster than it usually does!

Today I worked from 8:00-3:00 and for the first couple of hours I was over in the View Center. It was a long couple of hours just because no one was in there to look at their photos first thing in the morning. After break I was over in Tree Plaza which is in between the Bridge and Tree Alcove for about half an hour and then I was put over on the Bridge.  It didn't seem as busy today as yesterday but time went by fast of course and then it was time to come home.

I'm having serious memory issues right now and can't recall anything specific from the past few days, I'll have to make sure to remember everything for next time! Anyway, thanks for reading!

To Everest!

Hi there! Sorry I've taken so long to write again, I've just been too exhausted to think about it! My two days off were wonderful although I should have been resting a little bit instead of park hopping but that's okay. :p On Tuesday I went to Animal Kingdom Lodge for lunch with a friend and it was a lot of fun. While you're eating you can look out the window and see all kinds of animals such as zebras, giraffes, and I think antelopes. After lunch we went to Epcot and did some shopping and went on a couple of the attractions.  Later on that night Kaitlin and I had an anti-valentines girls night and watched 500 days of Summer. :) 

Watching a giraffe while you eat, yeah that's a good day!

On Wednesday Kaitlin and I went to Animal Kingdom in the morning for a couple of hours and she went on Expedition Everest for the first time! She was really afraid the first time but the second time I think she had a lot more fun. :P She also had her first ever turkey leg! I'm so proud. :) At about 2:00 we decided to head over to Epcot and walked around for a couple of hours. After that we were going to go to Hollywood Studios but we were both so exhausted from walking around that we ended up just going back to the apartment to sit by the pool. Then for the rest of the night we watched movies and just relaxed. 

We made it to the top of Everest!

Spaceship Earth across the Lagoon

Yesterday I worked from 8:30-4:15 and as usual my shift flew by. For the first three hours I was stationed at the middle of the bridge and every time I had a family come up I went all out with their photos. I would have them do magic shots, have just the princes/princesses, and have just the parents. I had so many people compliment me about it and it just made my day. :) At one point later in the day I actually had a guest say to me "We don't have a picture of just Mom and Dad, I think we just made another purchase!" I'm so glad that the guests are willing to let me take the time with their families to get as many photos as I can. I also had a constant line for the first three hours of my shift and it made time go by so much faster than I had expected it to. 

Today I'm working from 12:45-6:45 and I'm hoping that it's like yesterday again because I was having so much fun with all of the different families. Hopefully some good stories come of it as well. :)