Saturday, December 28, 2013

Twas the Night Before Christmas...in Walt Disney World

My Christmas traditions have been the same for 21 years. A big all day Christmas party with family and friends on Christmas Eve, church at midnight, early morning travel on Christmas Day to my family in NY, watching the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade with my cousins, and a huge family feast with cookies for breakfast the next day. It's a routine I could do in my sleep. This year was not so routine. I worked with the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella during the day on Christmas Eve, then met up with my four closest friends here to exchange presents and feast at the classiest restaurant...Denny's (yes, that is sarcasm but it was delicious), watched the parade on Christmas morning and knew many people in it, and then went to work with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in Epcot that evening.
Gifts for the Fab 5 (my 4 best friends on the program and myself)

Even though I didn't get to celebrate my traditions, I was able to help so many families celebrate their own holiday traditions. Mickey and friends have the tradition of course of welcoming everyone to the parks with the Christmas Day parade. They all get dressed up in their best holiday apparel and saunter down Main Street USA giving out happy holiday greetings. Even Santa came around for the big day! It was truly magical. Everyone working was in high spirits too because even though we couldn't be with our families on the holiday, we were with our Disney family. Even some of the other College Program participants in my apartment complex were able to keep their spirits high by caroling throughout the complex. But they were not singing traditional holiday tunes, but rather in true Disney fashion, they were singing verses from one of the new songs from Frozen "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman". It was absolutely adorable and appreciated by all.

I was told by all my friends and family back home that it snowed for the holidays. Well it snowed here too! During Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Main Street USA was filled with big snowflakes that looked perfect for everyone's holiday Christmas card pictures and every night in Hollywood Studios during the Spectacle of Dancing Lights snow would descend from the tops of the buildings as Christmas lights danced to the classic holiday tunes. I was lucky enough to work during one of the evenings. Goofy, dressed up as Santa would turn on the lights each night and meet and greet with guests during the evening. And one of the funniest things I have ever seen is Goofy dancing to songs from the Nutcracker while dressed as Santa. If you hang around long enough you never know what you'll find in Walt Disney World!

Hope you're having a magical day, I know I am!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Final Countdown

As December encroaches, my program comes closer and closer to an end. That means the first of many "lasts." I had my last class this week. Which consisted of all the groups presenting their final projects. The assignment, generally speaking, was to create a product and sell it to a specific audience. The entire presentation was the pitch to that audience. So with each project, we had to pretend to be a different audience. There were pitches of organic stores to young activists, new concepts for a reimagined Hollywood Studios to Disney executives, and a new pair of eye glasses that also make coffee to a room of college sophomores.

Usually group projects are the vain of my existence. But I had been working well with the other people in my group since the beginning of the class. We all worked well and balanced each other out which is why we decided to do the final project together. Our teacher gave us three weeks to work on this because one week was Thanksgiving and she knew we would all be working too many hours to devote a decent amount of time and energy to her class.

So we immediately got an idea into our heads so we had plenty of time to come up with a fully formed product and work out every little detail. We decided to sell a small cupcake shop to Starbucks executives to create a business partnership. We met a few times throughout the three week time period, divided up the work evenly, put together the presentation, researched the Starbucks company, and each baked a dozen cupcakes to share with the class.

When we walked into the classroom we immediately won everyone over because we brought free food but then we got up there and began our presentation. Everyone in the class took their audience role to heart and asked us some really tough questions while in character about our proposal. It was challenging and fun all at the same time because it was something that we had invested a lot of time and thought into and we had an answer for everything.

After the presentation was over the class broke character to give us feedback and they said we were very professional and we had really thought of everything. One of our classmates told us that he used to work at Starbucks and he was really impressed that we had researched that company in order to convince them the partnership was a good idea. And then of course, we got to eat the left over cupcakes. It was a great way to end an awesome class!

I learned so many skills I can use in the real world in that class and I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to take it. It was absolutely worth my time and it was nice to just be able to think creatively with a group of new people that I had never even thought to talk to before that. I have heard nothing but good things about all the Disney offered classes on the College Program and would definitely recommend them to anyone considering whether or not to take them.

Hope you're having a magical day, I know I am!

Traveling the World in Search of Friends!

One great thing about working in entertainment is the fact that I get to know those famous Disney characters very well. I love getting to spend the day with them and hang out with them. Of course, I have to visit them on my days off! So there were still a few I had not met yet that I needed to check off my bucket list. I enlisted the help of one of my other attendant friends and we made our way through World Showcase meeting just a few of our friends before my shift that night.

It is still a magical moment every time I meet a character and they reach out for a hug! No matter how bad my day was or how many times I've met them it never fails to make me happy. Our first stop of the day was right at the front of World Showcase, Duffy! Duffy is possibly the most adorable teddy bear anyone could ever have. Kudos to Minnie for making him that way. I still need to buy a Duffy to take with me on my travels just like Mickey does. But when Duffy came out to meet us, he was dressed for Christmas in his little Santa coat and hat. Sorry Goofy, Duffy makes a better Santa than you! He was so cute we just HAD to give him kisses!


Then we went over to the United Kingdom to meet with our friends Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. I've met them before but I have yet to work with them. I have had many encounters with them in the parks though so I had to go say hello. Pooh was so adorable asking us if we brought him any honey but we told him we were sorry and our honey was all gone and then Tigger bounced right over to us for big hugs and all honey-less thoughts disappeared. We are bigger Tigger fans than Pooh so we had to get a picture with just our bouncy buddy and he insisted on kisses as well. It was so heartwarming to be loved by such memorable characters!


We eventually made our way over to Norway to meet some new members of the Disney family. Anna and Elsa, the new royal sisters from the movie Frozen. Of course, they wouldn't reveal any secrets about their story but just their personalities were enough to make me glad to have them as part of our ever growing family. Anna's dress is so detailed and as practical as a dress can be. Elsa's resembles ice in so many ways, it reflects the light and just glistens with every movement. They were sweet enough to autograph my bag and we had a great time meeting them for the first time.

Our last stop was a surprise visit by Flynn Rider! He was searching Epcot for Maximus. It was great to be able to visit with Flynn without Rapunzel there. I love Rapunzel but Flynn is just so much fun when he's not acting like a proper prince. We asked him if he was keeping Rapunzel's crown safe and he said that he always keeps it with him and then he showed it to us. It was absolutely beautiful! He also had apples in his satchel to help get Maximus to his duties as head of security.


We stopped in France for lunch and to get some goodies to take home for later. I love French food! I would eat there every day if I could! It was a great morning in Epcot. I love being able to go into the parks without a strict agenda or small time frame. I like not being rushed to get everything in the parks completed.

Have a magical day, I know I am!

The Last Limited Time Magic

All year Disney has been doing special Limited Time Magic events. I have had the privilege of seeing a few of them but I had yet to be a part of one of them. Today I finally got my chance!

This week the Magic Kingdom has a Secret Santa. We have welcomed Duffy to Main Street USA as our Secret Santa and he has provided all the characters in the park with holiday autograph cards to give out to their guests.



I was able to help Duffy with his holiday surprise on the first day with the Tremaines (aka the Step Family from Cinderella) and the Fairy Godmother. Duffy made sure each card had a theme that matched the characters' personalities which made them super cute and the fact that our secret Santa is Duffy just makes it adorable!

I've already had the pleasure of meeting Duffy in his Santa outfit and he wins Cutest Teddy Bear by a million points! The cards are such a cute idea to do around the holidays. It keeps up the holiday cheer every day and not just during the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

Holiday cheer is reaching each park and resort slowly but surely and is getting everyone ready and excited for the holidays.

Hope you're having a magical day, I know I am!