When In Africa...

This is one of the reasons why Disney can be so awesome sometimes. We were just minding our own business, eating some lunch in Animal Kingdom, and out of nowhere these performers show up. They started singing, playing instruments, and dancing and we were randomly front and center for the performance. The theme makes sense because we were in Africa and it was very authentic. The men even invited a few people up to show them how to dance. Fun to watch.

P.S. Make sure to turn the sound on.

Happy Anniversary

It's been 28 years for these hooligans. That's got to mean something right? Because, it's their 28th anniversary, and they were married on 8-28-82. And I don't have any pictures uploaded from their wedding day, so please do your best to reflect back on the handlebar mustache that my dad used to rock.

Where The Wild Things Are

There are so many cool animals at Animal Kingdom. It's my favorite park because I get to see oodles of things that I don't get to see on a regular basis. The safari was a winner in everyone's eyes and so were the walk through forest trails and jungle treks. We have so many fun/cute/silly/awesome/wow pictures that I am making this mostly a picture post.

There were lots more, but I chose my favorites, and you've already seen the safari before :)

A Day In The Life

Because Jenna has essentially been begging me for a picture of my Disney "costume", I finally have one to show her. My mom took several when I was on manatee duty (and none of the manatees). It consists primarily of all white shoes, white socks that cover the ankle, a blue polo, and blue drawstring shorts. It is still claimed that our costume is better than any other outfit in the rest of Disney. You should see what other people have to wear.

I thought that I might be in the large tank later in the day and I texted Eric to let everyone know. They found me, but I didn't find them. My wetsuit is my other outfit. I spend about a quarter of my day in it.

Say Cheese

For a nominal fee I will loan out my mother for your vacations. Not only does she not tire, but she is limited on roller coasters (not a bad thing!). While you wait in line for your anticipated ride, she will be happy to hide in the bushes and take photos of you. Also, she will find you on the roller coaster. It's a given.

We are waving in this one

It's A Fine Process

The deal is: I can let up to 3 people into the parks for 6 days for free. BUT, I can't wear my "costume" when I let them in, I have to be present at the gate, get my fingerprint scanned, I need my I.D., my cast member I.D., and this special card that I got in the mail with my name on it. Then, and only then, can everyone get their park hopper tickets for the day - which they have to sign in front of the person at the gate. I was working for 4 of those days, so my family had to time their resort bus ride correctly to meet me out front while I'm wearing a random outfit at a specific time because I am taking half of my lunch break to do this. It became an art.

Sometimes, the manatees were not cooperative and would not go into the back pool for me to clean the front. I would have to bump back the meeting time by a half hour and hope that everyone hadn't caught the bus yet. When they would get there earlier than me, they entertained themselves by taking pictures while waiting.

Our first day was spent at Magic Kingdom because it was one of my days off. Since my mom made Eric and I pose for a million pictures, we made my parents pose for their fare share too.

Near the end of the day we went to EPCOT because I like the fireworks show the best and we could only see one during the vacation. My brother and my dad make the rest of us look really short.

Day 2 and 3 don't have many pictures because I was working, but I set up everyone with FREE AquaTours. It's one of The Seas' guest programs where you get to snorkel up in the main environment and stalk marine life from the surface. Eric tried to follow one of the turtles - they are 500 pounds - and it swam under a dock...and he was stuck on the surface in his inflated jacket...smart turtle. They did spend a full day at EPCOT looking around the World Showcase and taking pictures of good architecture replicas. My dad had a fantastic stop in Norway.

That's a great picture to end on, so more to come later.

Massive Character Watch

One of the perks of being a Disney employee is that I can get my family into the parks free for 6 days. And because my mom is a tireless robot, she brought everyone for a 6 day Disney World palooza vacation. We saw a lot of characters over that time, so I'm starting with a big character watch. It was so much fun, but I really don't know how my mom does it. At the end of the day we all look like starved zombies (granted I did work a 40 hour week) and she wants to go swimming, and hang out in the room, and watch fireworks...........

Frontier Donald was a little intimidated by Eric's size

Stitch

A buffalo at the hotel - we weren't being very cooperative

We got a last minute reservation at the restaurant inside The Land. There are a few characters who stop by the tables throughout dinner. Chip was deciding what to order. Also, this was a day when I opened, so I do have a tired left eye. It's genetic for it to droop when I'm tired. Thanks grammie :)

Pluto

Mickey

Dale being a huge creeper

Flik

Pooh (!) I've wanted pictures with Pooh and friends since I got here. Easily my favorite characters.

Dad took a picture with the Disney character he most resembles.

Eeyore

Tigger

King Louie and Baloo

Terk

More To Come

My family was in town for the past week and they left this morning. I am so tired. It's been about two weeks since I slept past 6 am so instead of blogging, I'll be sleeping. This is a promise of more to come soon.

Winter Summerland

Lauren's car was in the shop for a month because the dealership ruined her life, so one day she came home with a complimentary car rental. All they had left for her was a blue convertible. Too bad. We wanted to take the car for a drive and randomly decided that a trip to Disney mini golf was necessary.

What you don't know is how popular mini golf is here. I must drive by three courses on my way to work every day. If I were to drive in the other direction, I would find at least three more. They are everywhere: Congo River Golf, Pirate Golf - this is a chain, Mini Golf, Blue River Golf. Disney also has two courses: Winter Summerland, and Fantasia. Winter Summerland is closer, so the decision was made. There are two parts to the course. You can either choose to do the Winter half or the Summer half. We were sick of Florida heat and Winter won out.

It was a really well done course and took us a while to finish. At 9 pm it was packed with people. There was a sign at the start of each hole that told us about the obstacles. Squirty the Snowman tricked us and ended up spraying us with water.

One of my favorites was an ice castle with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto.

As you leave, you get a free Chip and Dale golf ball and pass by a sleigh attached to an Airstream (classy). Everyone surprisingly shot under par. We were horrible.