Thursday, July 31, 2014

Making Magic and saying "see ya real soon"

So, In my most recent blog I told you guys all about the family that i had met a few weeks back and all the wonderful things they said and did with me. Well last night at work during our after close meeting my leader said he had a couple of guest letter to read and hand out. While one of those was about me. 

This family has literally made the few months I have been down here so worth while, I don't think they realized the impact that they have also had on my life. It means a lot to know that I impacted them and their family to the point where they had to make sure someone else knew that I was doing something right for the company. 

So, as it is not August a lot of cast members are leaving; spring advantage and the ICPs, and it's really breaking my heart. I am not good at goodbyes so I'm not going to say it. 
These complete strangers have literally changed my life in the short course of 2 and 1/2 months and I don't know what my program would have been like so far without them! I am sad to see them go, but I know I will see them again soon! 

See you real soon guys, and have a magical life. 

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

A Magical Moment....

So, I know I already posted a blog post today...BUT I thought I would share a magical moment with you guys, Since most of my posts lately have been about the bad parts of the Disney College Program, I want you guys to know that there are good parts. 

So, about a month ago I met a family that was on vacation and they bonded with me. They came into our store every night and we talked about their adventures from that day, and all their plans for the next day as well, I loved talking to their 9 year old son, and especially when I was pin trading with him. 
They were staying with us for a week at the time, on their last night the mother came in and said: 
"Kayla, I want you to know that you have made our vacation amazing, 
being annual passholders we interact with 1,000's of Disney Cast Members a year,
and each stay I was considering not coming back more and more. But this time 
the way you bonded with my son really impacted me, it warmed my heart to meet someone like you.
You are keeping the magic alive for me, and I want you to know it means a lot. So thank you." 

Her words will stick with me for the rest of this program. So the other night at work, their were two young boys in and they asked me to look at the pin board. As I sat there and interacted with them I noticed that the younger of the two looked really familiar. So I said something to him, and he said "Oh. My. GOD. You are here!" and then he went to tell his mom. 
She came in a little bit later on that night and surprised me. 
She told me that when he came back to the pool he said "Mom, you are never going to guess who is here!" she came back to tell me they picked All Star again in a hope that they would see me. 
Do you know how magical that is? 
I can't believe I impacted someones life so much that they wanted to see me on their next vacation. 

I hope this reminds you that there are magical moments that do happen. 

Dinner at the Sci-Fi Drive-in

So today, I had dinner at a restaurant in Hollywood Studios! and I wanted to share my experience, as it was my first time eating there. 
So It's a really cool 1950's themed drive-in seating area. You literally sit in cars with a tiny table in front of you, and it's really cozy and cute. Perfect date spot. 

Our Server was really nice, although I ordered a sprite and was brought a plan water instead, he did apologize and correct the error. The food was amazing, I had the Chicken Pasta, which is similar to chicken alfredo. All in all I had a great time, everything was a tad bit pricey, but then again this is Disney World we are talking about so that is too be expected. 
I have a couple more restaurants on my list of places I am dying to try. 

So, I am broke. What they don't tell you is that you will never have any money to do anything if you also have bills you have to pay. So, on the weeks that I need to pay my phone bill I have a bank account that reads $0.00, so on those weeks I live on water and crackers basically. 

I wish I had known so many of these things before hand, like that I would never have any money ever.

Still having the time of my life though. 

Have a Magical Day. 

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Gift cards, Fanatic Cards, and Home-sickness.

Good morning! So I've been slacking on this lately, but it's been soooooooooo busy around here. I've been working out, and trying to have a social life, and maybe that's been a little hard on me lately.
So, in todays edition of "Kayla Does Disney." We are going to discuss the horror that is Disney Gift Cards.

I've worked in retail for a long time, and gift cards were noting new to me. It was just something you would deal with once or twice sometimes more a day. But never to the extent that Disney has to deal with Gift Cards.
In a single transaction I can have up to (my personal record, so far) 44 gift cards. All containing a balance of $0.33 TO $2.56, and occasionally we will get a couple that have a balance over $10. It's just so overwhelming, it doesn't help that there is a huge language gap between us and the guests trying to use said gift cards.

In the last two days I have earned two more Four Key's Fanatic Cards! I now have four total! I must be doing something right.

I've been feeling really down the last couple of days, really missing my friends and family back home, so that probably doesn't help my mood at work any.

Have a magical day!

Monday, July 21, 2014

In the coming weeks

Everything has finally gotten to the point where I am happy, almost all the time. I am content with what I am feeling, and I know how to deal with it. But a lot of the friends I have made are going to be leaving in the next two weeks as their program comes to an end. I keep seeing them giving up shifts from their last week so that they can go to the parks and say good-bye to everyone they have met. 

and I am sad. 
because I am losing some of my closest friends that I have made down here. It's heartbreaking.

So, it's had me thinking: Well whats it going to be like when I leave? am I going to have made and impact in anyone else's life like they have in mine? 



Update: 
So lately my instagram/twitter/facebook are being flooded with both my own  photos and other photos of characters lately. It's one of my favorite reasons for going to the parks! 
I have met mainly all the same characters just over and over again. So my goal now is to get out and go to Hollywood studio, animal kingdom, and EPCOT to just meet characters I have yet to meet! 

Saturday, July 19, 2014

This is the story of my second month.

It's crazy to think that as of today, I have been at Disney for 2 months exactly. Time is just flying by...so this is going to be a very short blog, running through all the main points of my first 2 months here at Disney in the DCP. 

My first few days were AMAZING, 100% wonderful. I love my job, I love my fellow cast members(most of them), and I love (most) of my roommates. It's been an up and down roller coaster of emotions so far, which you probably already know from reading these blog posts. But I wouldn't change the world. I've been yelled at (by Guests and roommates), I've had fights, there's been drama, there's been lots of laughing, lots of tears, lots of photos. A million memories I will never forget, and a million stories I have yet to share. I've made so many new friends, some of which leave in two weeks and I feel like I haven't had enough time with. I've made life long friends here in just the two months that I have been here, and you wanna know something? All the new arrivals start coming in just three weeks...and I will probably love so many of them. 
I've started pin trading and collecting. I've lost weight. I lost my phone(multiple times), I've gone clubbing, been to the four parks dozens of times. 
I've stayed out till 5am, and not come home at all. I've gone exploring, I've seen an Alligator (in the wild.). 
I've had blisters, and some of the worst sun burns of my life. I've had aches and pains, and dehydration, been sick, forgotten and ditched. I've had many a transtar bus just drive right by me. I've missed buses, been late, left early, called out. I've had sing-a-longs at work and at home. I've made messes, cleaned messes, killed bugs, and run from bugs. I've lost sleep, not eating, been stressed, gone to work right out of bed. 

It's been a whirl wind so far, and it scares me to think of how fast the next 7 months are going to go by... I can't wait to make sooooo many more memories, post all my amazing stories for you guys, and experience everything this place has to offer. 

Tonight we are going to the AMC movie theater in Downton Disney, for the first time, in the dine-in section which is like a restaurant. They take that whole "dinner and a movie" to the next level. 
We are going to purge: anarchy. Let you know how it was!


Have a Magical day. 

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Pin Trading Problems.

When I first learned what "pin trading" was I scoffed it off as stupid and childish. But honestly, it's a real collectors sport. 
And since I have to trade pins daily at work, I have grown to love it. I actually ordered 75 pins offline on Amazon.com for like $41.54, which I rationalized by telling myself that 4 pins from any Disney location on property would cost around $40.00 so I got myself quite the deal. Although, some of them are probably fake. 

But everyone here pretty much traders fake pins here lately anyways. 

So that's my latest Disney life, pin trading for beginners because I don't even want sets...I just want all the cute ones. Which granted some of the sets are really cute, like pascal from Tangled. It's so cute. 


Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Happy Mondays and Animal Kingdom fun.

"You don't always need a plan.
Sometimes you just need to 
breathe. Trust. Let go.
And see what happens."

So, just a heads up if you hadn't heard 'Happy Mondays' is like the place to be on Monday nights. It's a chain of 5 clubs, located all over Orlando. You pay to get in, if you are over 21 you can drink, under 21 you can still dance and have a lot of fun. I've only been to Glitz and Sun on the Beach. 
Glitz is $10 for general admission && $15 for unlimited bar. 
Sun on the Beach was a free admission the night I went, and my roommates drink cost around $9.00 a piece. So it's slightly more expensive. 

Today: I went to Animal Kingdom with a group of fellow All-Star cast members, and some of my roommates! We had a blast, for the short time we were actually there, and when the rides were all operational, due to weather. 
But! I saw the Festival of the Lion King for the first time EVER! and let me tell you I would wait in a hundred rain storms just to see it, it was absolutely amazing. I loved it. 









We took a lot of photos and had a lot of fun out at Happy Mondays!


And then today at Animal Kingdom I took a bunch of selfies with stuffed animals!
It's casual. 


We also met some really cute Animals! 


^^We also met this guy, who looks like
he crawled right out of my latest 
nightmare. No joke. 










I know this post is a photo over-load, but we also took more photos..trying to condense them as much as I can!









SO ... that was a massive amount of photos and I am sorry for that. But I like to show the goo side of the DCP as well as tell the truth about a lot of the emotions's that fill everyone head down here. 

Have a magical night! 
Kayla.

Monday, July 14, 2014

The death of me.

Let me just start off with this: Brazilian tour groups and Disney gift card will be the death of me. 

It's totally insane the amount of gift cards a single person will hand you. Last night I had one girl hand me 32 gift cards, all of the containing like $0.33 OR $0.67 OR $1.02 Nothing more than $2.00. And on the off chance it had more than $2.00 on it, it would probably only have up to $6.00. 

It just makes me so mad. Like why wouldn't you use the entirety of a gift card before starting another gift card, and so on and so forth. It's not only a huge pain in the ass but it's also super inconvenient. 
It takes like 2-3 minutes per gift card to check the balance (which is the most frequently asked question: ehhh...much?) and then crazy lines form and it by the end of the night your right shoulder has separated from your body due to over use. 

Now on to happier stories! 
"If you keep on believing, the dream that you
wish will come true." 
So, we took some photos recently, in the happiest place on earth. It reminds me of all the reasons I love this place, even on the days that I say I hate it.

"I wonder how many wishes a star can give..."
-Whinne the Pooh. 


The above two photos sum up my personality fairly well. 



I met some very wonderful princesses and a queen as well. 

Then of course, I met a very special mouse. 
Mickey! 



So even after a long stressful few days at work, I always have these wonderful memories of the days that are perfect and wonderful. 

Saturday, July 12, 2014

What they don't tell you...

Disney tells you a lot of things before you head down here. Some of what they don't is: 

1.) You will rarely have time to sleep. 
       -This is truer than true. You could sleep on your days off if you really wanted too.

2.) After a while you will never want to go to the park on days that you also have to work.
       -That's a waste of valuable energy you are already lacking

3.) You will rarely have any extra money to go and do anything with, especially if you call in.
       -Food becomes something you need the most, and when that happens you can say bye to all the fun things you could have done with that pay check. Also, don't call in unless you wanna be extra broke that week, UNLESS you are actually sick, then call in! But it really does effect your paycheck a lot! 

4.) You may not get along with your roommate or all your roommates. 
       -Especially considering you've probably never met these people until being forced into a small apartment with up to 8 strangers. You might be one of the lucky few that gets along with every single one of your roommates and the neighbors across the hall. If so: you go Glenn Coco. 

5.) Brazilian Tour Groups will ruin your life.
       -Accept it now! Because if you are here throughout the summer it is going to become a daily struggle. 

6.) You are going to miss your family & friends more than you could ever imagine. 
        -Seriously though, there are some days that I just wanna come home from work and hug my mom or best friend and sob...But sadly that can't happen. 

7.) That you will have to fight to do your laundry. They give you three washers & three dryers. per building. My building has four apartments per floor, and three floors. Each apartment has 6 people in it. 
        -I have to do my laundry between the hours of 1am and 3am because that's the only time I can ever find a free washer or dryer. Also, the card reader on these washers and dryers is the WORST. You will swipe your cards OVER and OVER again just to get it too read. It also takes Quarters. 

8.) If anything in your apartment stops working or breaks you need to tell the service center as soon as possible. If you don't it could be something you end up paying for in the end. 
         -Our air conditioner, broke twice. One of our pots, had the handle snap off. The closet door in my room no longer shuts (someone is coming to fix that). Our kitchen light blew out. The list of problems we have had just gets longer. Report it. 

9.) It's also not going to be all rainbows and sunshine at your assigned job. You may love it or you may hate it. There will be magical moments, and moments right out of horror stories. 
         -Someday's you will create so much magic for so many people. And others they will ruin any chance of a good day/night that you thought you had. 

10.) If you get in a fight with your roommates you have no where to go to get space. So try and work it out as soon as possible because it becomes really hard to live in tiny apartments with a cold war going on. 


So those are the ten things so far that I kind of wished I had known going into this program, and if you aren't here some of them seem really minor. But when you are here...it's not. 

We said goodbye to two of our ICPs that have been working with my at All-Star. It was a sad night! Although, they are both on to bigger and better things! 
I was supposed to have some family coming down next month, but that fell through, which is okay. I can't blame them. Coming here is expensive especially with children.

I guess that's all I have for today! 
Have a Magical Day! 

Thursday, July 3, 2014

A day in the life.

"You know that place between sleep and awake
that place where you can still remember dreaming? 
That's where I will always love you,
that's where I will be waiting."
-Peter Pan

I literally feel like I am dying. Who moves to Florida and catches the worst cold/flu of their lives? This girl. On top of that, who also gets a two-degree sun burn...Also this girl. 
Like seriously. 
I cannot. 

But I am just really feeling crappy today. But my roommates are being here for me, which makes it a little bit easier, because I am so fat away from home. I just wanted my mom to make me soup and take care of me today...well she can't because she's home...in New York.


But I am doing okay. 

and that's all the matters. 


Have a magical day. 

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Update, more videos, and life.

Living here in Florida, and working for Disney is nothing like I actually expected. I had soooo many expectations for this program, and honestly none of them have actually been lived up too.
Don't get me wrong, I am still having the time of my life....but it's not anywhere near what I expected.

"Growing old is mandatory,
 but growing up is optional." 
-Walt Disney

So, my previous blog was really short, and did include a youtube video of all my photos taken so far. Well, not all of them. Because also in this blog I will be including the link to my; 




So there you have it, obviously I have been having my fair share of fun since I got here. But it's not like I also haven't been working my ass off. 
Because I have. 
I literally work all the time. All the time. 


Tuesday, July 1, 2014

My journey so far.

So I upload a lot of photos to my personal Facebook Account, and to my personal instagram, but I rarely ever include any of them in my blog. Well...I decided to make an I-movie of all of my collective photos since day one. It's kind of a longer video, with no narration, and it's all still photos of my and my roommates and my friends. 

I plan to also do two more videos of a couple of the parades we have seen, and possibly my Fantasmic photos as well. I think it works out for me better than trying to film myself. 

Let me know if you like this first one and I will keep them coming.