It did not just do that!!!!!!!!!

The last few weeks have gone by pretty fast. We've still been pretty busy at the Seas. It's certainly been busy enough to keep us on our toes. I now have less than a week left, and my last day is next Wednesday. I've been working pretty hard at at work, and my off time has been devoted as much time as possible with the friends I'll soon be leaving. It's hard to believe that I leave in a week. While I'm ready to come home to my family, Poppins, and good ole T-Town, I'll definitely miss the friends I've made here and the opportunity to make magic for people everyday, not to mention the pretty awesome perk of being able to go to a theme park whenever I want. It's been pretty darn hot in Florida. It hit 90 the past three days, and being outside in bright blue polyester pants doesn't help.

Last week there was a graduation celebration for those of us who are about to leave and finish our programs. I received a nice little certificate, a poster, a picture with Mickey and Minnie in graduation robes, and a nifty little pair of graduation Mickey ears.

If you watch Modern Family (and if you don't you should), you'll recognize the title of the post from an episode of the show where Phil gets an iPad for his birthday. Today, I traveled to the Florida Mall to purchase one of my own. Needless to say, I feel just like Phil Dunphy. I'm actually writing this post from my new iPad. I absolutely love it. I even bought the application that is featured in the episode where Phil blows out the candles on a cake on the iPad. Happy graduation to me!

Hello

Glad to report that I have survived the Spring Break rush with most of my sanity in tact. I feel really blessed to be a part of a truly awesome Seas Cast. They have truly made these past couple of weeks fly by. I was also blessed with a visit from Catherine to see Sheryl Crow perform at Universal Orlando as part of their Mardi Gras concert series. However, I would like to know where their seriously jilted views of Mardi Gras came from, because I'm fairly certain that the real New Orleans celebration barely resembles like the one I witnessed last Saturday. Sheryl was great, and definitely made up for the confusion caused by the Mardi Gras shenanigans presented by Universal.

This week brought the event that I have eagerly anticipated for nearly four months. Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (disappointing Universal). I'm talking about the most important pop culture event in my mind right now: the return of my favorite show, Glee. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. The first episode was amazing, and I hear that they only get better. I'm so excited for the rest of this season, as well as the Glee tour that Catherine and I are attending in Los Angeles this summer. Hooray Glee!!

I can't believe that I now have under a month left here. It's gone by so quickly. I'd say it's been one of the best experiences of my life. I'm definitely going to miss it.

Spring Breakers Assemble!

Ahh Spring Break. What can I say about this week? A 52 hour work week combined with only one day off and a wee bit of a sinus infection has sure made for an interesting week. Needless to say, I'm pretty exhausted. I will admit that I have come to enjoy busy times. It makes work go by much faster when they are people crawling out of the woodworks at the Seas. It's getting a little harder to walk about the building, and we've started employing extra positions in our rotation to help with crowd control (most of them are more fun actually). We expect to be pretty busy next week as well with all of the Easter crowds. We at the Seas are having a lot of fun playing one of my personal favorite games, "Spot the Brit." I'm pretty darn good at this particular game. I can't believe how fast this semester is going. It made me pretty sad when I realized that I leave in a month and a half. Boo....back to the real world.

Getting pretty excited about Catherine's visit next week for Sheryl Crow. Woo hoo! Now if only Universal would soft open Harry Potter...June 18th is waaaaayyy to far away, especially when they're already rehearsing (IN COSTUME no less!) and that new ride is done. I just want a Butterbeer...and a wand...and other things Harry Potter nerds like myself would want. Sneaky Universal....so mean. Please open before I leave. I've been staring at Hogwarts for far too long now. Kthanks.

Practicing my Afritude!

So I previously mentioned how much we adored our first time at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We love it so much that I think it deserves its own post, and given how I sometimes forget to blog, that's a pretty big deal in my book. In my opinion, AKL has some of the best theming of any WDW resort, and the attention to detail is extraordinary, even for a WDW resort. I might go so far as to say it's my current favorite resort. We stayed in the Kidani Village section, which holds many of the Vacation Club Villas. It truly is beautiful, and I would seriously consider moving in if possible. It's pretty heavily influenced by The Lion King, and many of the details in the room come from imagery from the Broadway musical version, which greater increased my love for the resort. Here's some pictures.

The master bed. The carvings above the bed show Simba and Nala.

The back of the kitchen table chairs, which show Mufasa's face from the logo of the musical.

The carvings on the armoire that held the TV. Amazing detail.

How many other places in the world will you have a Lion King mural above the bathtub?

Most rooms at Kidani have a balcony from which you can see the savannah that is in the middle of AKL. There are many different types of animals living in the savannah. Here's some more pictures.

The view from our room.

How we spent a majority of our time in the room.

Oh hey Mr. Giraffe. And an ostrich.

Zebras. NBD.

A cute little animal whose name I cannot recall.

We absolutely adored AKL. I would definitely put it near the top of my wish list of resorts when visiting WDW. We loved the animals, the accommodations, and of course, the Afritude (their word, not ours). Hooray for the Animal Kingdom Lodge!

Leaving my teenage years behind

So now I know I'm a terrible blogger. I didn't realize it's been a month since I've sat down at my computer to do this...this is actually the first time I've turned on my computer in about a week (no lie). Things have been pretty busy here at WDW as spring breaks have made our numbers skyrocket in the past weeks. To put it into perspective, the Nemo ride had a 45 minute wait yesterday. Our average wait in past weeks has been 5 to 15 minutes tops. Needless to say we've been working pretty hard over at the Seas. That little fish is pretty stinkin' popular.

Nothing too terribly exciting has happened outside of the everyday magic we make at WDW. With ESPN the Weekend came visits from some ESPN personalities and athletes who came through with their families. I recognized a few of them, but the boys at the Seas were much more excited than the girls.

Two weekends ago, I was paid a visit by Catherine and the parental units to celebrate my 20th birthday. We had a pretty stellar time playing in the parks. I'm pretty sure it was the first time we've ever been in the parks on a family member's actual birthday, and we got to stay at a new resort with our inaugural stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I've definitely got a new addition to my favorite WDW resorts list. Here's some pictures from our trip.

Cupcake for breakfast. Best was to start a birthday, no?

Tusker House Daisy. Best character interaction ever. Period. I'm serious. Plus, it's not very often that you get to see Daisy in an area specific costume, let alone at a breakfast buffet.

The cake that my wonderful family ordered for me for birthday dinner at the Brown Derby. The cake was delicious, and even better was the company that designed it. Thanks so much for everything family. Wouldn't be here without you. Love you all from the bottom of my heart.

What do ya say to taking chances?

YAY! Mission Celine is a success! Hooray for a fun birthday....next year. Thought I'd let you know.

Anyways, work has been pretty crazy this week. What with the Super Bowl in Miami (Go Saints!), President's Week, and the whole state of Louisiana being in town for their Mardi Gras holiday, we've been pretty busy. We actually had to turn people away from Turtle Talk, which makes people fairly unhappy. Nemo actually had a 30ish minute wait, which is huge when you average 5 minutes at peak hours.

I would also like to announce my first famous(ish) person sighting at the Nemo ride. I put Johan Santana and his family on the ride. For those of you who don't know, he's considered one of the top five pitchers by most baseball experts, even if he does play for the Mets (boo). He was very nice, and I guess I can forgive him for playing for the Mets as long as he doesn't beat the Braves.

Yesterday I had a day off, so I ventured over to Universal with my coworkers Kelsey and Scott and Scott's fellow Aussie Kate. All of us are Annual Passholders, and we had a pretty great time. We arrived before the park opened to allow time for ticket pickup, and we were shocked when we were let through the gates and allowed to walk right up to the first attraction without being held back by Universal workers like we cast members have to walk in front of Guests at rope drop. We were able to do all the attractions at both parks that we wanted to do, and we even had time to stop and take touristy pictures. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

Here's a group shot: me, Kelsey, Scott, and Kate.

In front of Hogwarts Castle. Clearly I am very excited about this, and so were my fellow Universal explorers. We took a lot of pictures of the site, and I am pleased to report that they seem to be progressing very well. Word on the street is that Dueling Dragons, which they're retheming to be Harry Potter related, is closing for three weeks at the end of this month. Good sign, yes? I say yes.

And speaking of good signs, Universal has pretty funny rider warning signs. Here's my favorite. It's outside of Dueling Dragons, and it's my favorite sign that I've ever seen in a theme park. Ever. Please forgive my odd, and apparently somewhat twisted, sense of humor.

This picture fully conveys my feelings after riding Dudley Doright's Ripsaw Falls, the log flume ride at Islands of Adventure. I was wearing a rain jacket, yet water somehow seeped under it onto my shirt. My jeans took four hours to dry.

So all in all, a pretty good week. I'm just enjoying a pretty mellow day before work tomorrow. Thought I'd fill you in. Currently listening to Celine Dion to prepare for the awesomeness to come in March 2011. Can't wait. Also listening to Sheryl Crow lately as I'll be seeing her in April as part of Universal's Mardi Gras concert series. I love living in a place where I can spend one day at one great theme park and the next at another across town. You should all come see me, and we'll do it together. I'll be here.

"Tu habla espanol?" "Sorry, no"

So I figured it was time for another blog post, mostly to prove that I can in fact be a better blogger. I've been working a good bit, which I guess is good since that is the reason I came down here in the first place. Sometimes I do get pretty tired, but rest puts me right back in fighting shape for the next work day. My days have been pretty standard, but they always prove to be pretty interesting. About a week ago, a father and his daughter rode the Nemo ride for a solid hour. That's about 12 times in a row. Needless to say we were pretty impressed, especially when they returned the following (they only rode once the next day I believe).

Turtle Talk always provides with pretty memorable moments. With different audiences, each show is a different and new experience. Some questions are common and tend to get asked at most shows (ie what Crush likes to eat), but once in a while I've heard some pretty funny ones. My favorite question I've heard was when a kid asked if Crush was a Democrat or a Republican. Crush said he was a member of the Turtle Party upon the kid's clarification that the difference between the two was that one was a donkey and the other was an elephant. Crush also provided a moment that made me cry. He saw a special needs Guest who wasn't able to ask a question, so after the theatre cleared, Crush came back out just to talk to the girl and her family. I was standing outside the door practically weeping. Just another example of the difference we can make as Cast Members, which is something I wish to be able to do one day.

Since we get into the parks for free, my roommates and I frequently visit the parks on our days off. I would like to share with you a particular experience we had on the Jungle Cruise. Our guide's name was Lisandro, and he was one of the best skippers I've ever had. One joke in particular made me snort with laughter. When we came to the part with the plane crash, Lisandro spit out this beauty (imagine it with a Hispanic accent): "Oh no, a plane crash! That can only mean one thing...Lost! Tonight at 9 on ABC! Oohhhh. Dun dun dun..."

I also got a surprise visit from Catherine and a couple of her moot court team members last week. They drove up from Tampa after their competition, and I used my Main Entrance Pass to help them get into The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It made for a quite pleasurable day, and I'm always happy to enter the parks with friends and family. So thanks for the visit Catherine, Gretchen, and Jennifer.

This time a year is apparently a time in which lots of tour groups visit, so they've been pretty interesting. They range from school groups to foreign groups (mostly Brazilian). They sure do keep you on your toes, especially the ones who don't speak English. This week is the National Cheerleading Competition at Wide World of Sports, so WDW has been blessed with the presence of 8500-ish cheerleaders (and their just as entertaining stage moms). Wish me luck for the rest of their stay. Please.

And on a completely Disney-unrelated, but equally exciting, note, I came across an announcement yesterday while eating my Barbeque Chicken Salad at Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney that stopped me dead in my tracks, and also heavily imacted my music listening habits for the last few days. Some of you probably won't care at all, some might make fun of me for caring this much, and some of you (ie Catherine Bridgers) will share my enthusiasm for this announcement: Celine Dion is returning to Casear's Palace in Las Vegas! And just in time for my birthday in 2011! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Here's a not-so-subtle hint for a 21st birthday present for me parental units.....a weekend with Celine!!!! That is all.)