O Happy Day!

Anyone else miss Happy Days?!

So wowza! This week has just been PHENOMENAL !! I just felt like I needed to blog this too because it was just that good.

These past few days astounded me:

• Got my cap, gown, and tickets all ready for graduation!
• Sparred for the first time ever and LOVED it -- and bruises to prove of it! (blog later)
• Have absolutely LOVED the crazy rain we have been getting (even though everyone else wants it to end desperately)
• Talked to my brother for a half hour today on the phone and the first 5 minutes was literally telling me about the first 20 seconds of his day..aka putting toothpaste on his toothbrush.

• Got serenaded too when I taught Zumba at a sorority and I think a group of guys singing is one of the sexiest and cutest things ever. And they were pretty darn good too! (or so I pretended like they were singing to me)

•  Then finished my internship today and got a Meijer gift card from my supervisors along with an e-mail from them saying "you have far exceeded my expectations of you as an intern". Then I got this SUPER cute outfit from our pro shop from the 2 ladies I trained and am currently wearing them right now! Completely shocked and unexpected! How did they know I love blue!?
  
  
  
  

• Then had my last Dance Troupe recitals this weekend and saw my family and one of my best friends/old roommate, Audrey whom I haven't seen in AGES! How ironic but this was our show shirt-- ! We sponsored the Rainbow Connection, which is like Make a Wish foundation except just Michigan families. I think this is the first time they've ever had a Disney quote though ;)

We also like to take crazy awesome pictures like this:

We almosttt had a 15-person pyramid!!

But then we kept getting injured and kept failing so we settled for this cute, less hurtful one.

AND I GOT THESE AWARDS!!! HAHA. I was seriously stoked to get these. They hand out only like 20 out of the 150+ dancers and I got 2 of them! How insane! Definitely made my day. 

Fierce?? Rawwwwrrrrrrrrr. (I can try anyways!)

These are also some of our dance videos! I was in 5 of them and 2 of them aren't recorded. The top 3 I was apart of and the bottom 2 were just some of my favorites.

Enjoy if you wish! ;)

And featuring one of my best friends...Allison!

This has absolutely nothing to do with Disney, however, I feel like I must share this. One of my longest and dearest friendships from childhood is shared with this girl.

After graduating at Grand Valley State with a Hospitality and Tourism degree, Ally realized that she was being tugged in a different direction. She recently became a nutritionist, personal trainer, and BeachBody Coach. She also has successfully started her own blog at A Realistic Life trying to promote and start her own business. And I was just featured as a guest blogger right here too!

I'm EXTREMELY proud of her for taking such incredible initiative after finding what her true passion is. I also truly enjoy sharing our love of health & fitness together!
Feel free to subscribe to her posts simply because she is hilarious. And... because her posts will make you smile every day ;)

So continuing on after that lovely intro- she has always LOVED Ellen and went to her show a few years ago and was lucky enough to have Ellen dance by her! BUT THEN, a few days ago, she was INCREDIBLY fortunate to have the chance to actually be on the show.

Remember how I said she loves Ellen? Well... she really loves Ellen. Like really.

Be ready to be entertained ;)

She reminds me of what a 10-year old girl would be like when meeting Justin Bieber.

How stinking precious. I just couldn't resist sharing this.

                                                                                                                                                            

But I guess I could add some Disney flare in regards to this!

Hopefully another update will come within the next week--I should know of the other positions I applied for by April 20th... fingers crossed !
 

Round Number 2!

First blog for Round #2!! YAY!

Welp, the blog is back! I had lots of positive feedback the last time I did this for Disney, so I thought I'd do it again! Feel free to leave comments throughout at the bottom (sign under as anonymous) or e-mail/message me with any questions or if you're thinking of vacationing there this year!

They say pictures are worth 1,000 words so I will use them to describe this post since it's more fun that way! I also apologize in advance for the long posts I write. I don't write them often, so when I do, it tends to be a lot of information...especially since this one is filled with pictures so it's longer than usual. (And hey, I like to ramble, okay?)

So I already completed the Disney College Program, as many of you already know, last January-May of 2012. The first time I was accepted into the program I was SO excited because I had no idea what to expect, etc. Now I know what to expect, but this time there were over 9,000 applicants!! It's also much harder to be accepted into the program the second time since they want to give other first-timers a chance, so it's a different kind of excitement this time!

I originally applied on February 5th and they notify you via e-mail of your acceptance/rejection anytime after that. So basically this is how I felt for a whole month and a half every single time I received an e-mail:

They would then "trick" us by sending informational e-mails occasionally such as this subject line, thinking it was going to be the results of the recent interview. This would then make me feel like I was going to have a heart attack every time I read a subject line that looked like this:

Followed by the following text:

 Which would make me feel:

I am not a worrywart by any means because I know that God will lead the way my life should go. I had a somewhat back-up plan of possibly working at Wellspring Camps, which is basically a weight loss camp for children -- and this is what a typical day is like there. Yoga, hiking, kayaking, zumba, bonfires .. um is that meant for me or what?!

That was only going to be a summer fling, so then I was debating possibly graduate school at either Oakland or Wayne State back home since they had fitness graduate assistant programs which pay for your tuition and give you a stipend on top of that! As of now, I still would like to partake in both activities in the future, however, you can only participate in the Disney College Program while still in college or freshly graduated. Working at a camp and graduate school will always be there for me.

Continuing, my roommate, Ashley from the last program applied with me as well when I did.

(First, look how cute she is!)

Niagara Falls!

However, she experienced a little less stress as she only got accepted about a week later. Last year, I was accepted a week after my interview as well, but not this time. My situation was known to be "pending" which either meant they didn't know whether to accept you, or they just didn't know where to place you. I obviously hoped it was the latter and thought I'd give them some slack since they were dealing with over 9,000 applicants!

We were both active in specific Disney Facebook groups and it seemed multiple waves of people on specific days were getting accepted more frequently. Ashley would tell me when she saw their posts- hoping I would be one of the accepted. Time after time I would get my hopes up to see an e-mail, but nope..

Then one day she told me again multiple applicants got accepted. On the way home from my internship (I don't advise this), I checked my e-mail and saw this subject line:

I just about flipped out and immediately turned into Speedway so I could read the rest and anxiously find out what position I got, call Ashley, etc.

I opened up the e-mail and this is what I saw:

 And this was my facial reaction:

 

 Along with:

And this is what I felt like doing in the car:

 

But that would be dangerous. And hurtful.

But when I told my zany brother Steve, who loves me oh so much, his reaction wasn't quite the same...

And then he did this to me:

And then he asked if I tried looking like a boy if they'd still take me.

  

And after he heard the positive response..

Help.

But I think he finally learned to accept it:

So basically to sum it up I received the job of "Main park operations". What does that mean? Even I don't know! Disney does a really great job of keeping the mystery until you actually arrive. I could either be in Downtown Disney, ESPN Wide World of Sports (Yes, please!), or one of the parks. Tasks could include managing tickets, selling, planning, budgeting, etc.. not even sure! Although, I do hear that I most likely will be working outside.. and everyone knows how much I LOVE the heat!!!

But no worries, I'll be a champ looking like this:

I have that water bottle.

Pshh yeah. More like..

I still applied for 3 more job positions that are more pertaining to my career of Exercise Science since this position does not, but they are super competitive. Competitive in the sense of 60+ applying for a job and only 2-3 getting it. SoO0oOoo I'm not banking on those, but would be even MORE excited if I did get one of those (obviously).

You may be thinking to yourself, "So Erica, you already were down there last year for 4 months so why go again?" Or you may not be. But regardless, I'm going to answer it anyways.

Main reasons I want to go back down to Disney/Orlando area:

• I thought I would hate being away for the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years), but then realized after seeing all the crazy awesome pictures that I was super jealous and very, very wrong. So I absolutely want to be down there for all the festivities.

I mean seriously...who wouldn't want to see this in person!?

• There are also more events as well with the holidays such as the Food & Wine Festival (I was down there for the Flower & Garden Festival in Epcot which was gorgeous), the parades on TV, and more famous people that visit! (President and Michelle Obama were the only ones I knew of that were there when I was, along with the Superbowl MVP Eli Manning I wrote a blog on. But I heard Hansen and Neil Patrick Harris led some Christmas activities last year! If Backstreet Boys do at all.. I just might die.)
• I know it is also the last time I'll be able to do this. I could never live in Florida because of the heat and I truly do love the 4 seasons of Michigan, so this is my last real "getaway" (unless I spontaneously find another internship somewhere else which could very well happen!)
• I also will be 21 this time around, therefore I can participate in trying different spirits from around the world at Epcot !
• I was very fortunate in the short 4-month span last year to fulfill everything that I did. I went on a cruise, Seaworld twice, visited the parks frequently, saw Cirque de Soleli, went on backstage tours, etc. However, there is still a bucket list of activities that I would like to partake in (such as going to Universal and Busch Gardens since I still haven't been there!)

A model of the cruise!

• As mentioned before in previous posts from last year, I am not very advanced as far as my "Disney knowledge" goes. I hardly know the princesses, the movies, or the fairy tales. Sounds awful doesn't it?? Think what you wish, but I just love how large Disney is and the entertainment aspect of it. I loved learning behind the scenes and how Disney really operates to reach millions of people a day. There are multiple reasons to like Disney I definitely have come to find.
• Lastly, I may just want to continue to run away from the real world.
• (And speaking of running- I want to do a few Disney races while I'm down there! I was down there when the Princess Half Marathon was taking place and marathon runners from all over the world said that that's their favorite to look forward too every year! Not sure if a 1/2 is for me yet.. so I'll stick to the fun 5/10k's for now! What's better than seeing a whole bunch of smiling characters waiting at the finish line for ya??) 

And Steve has somewhat accepted the fact that his best friend will be gone for a decent amount of time..

 Because he knows he's going to be able to visit me since he craves to be like me.

But until then.. here I'll be- just be happy as a clam !

Ashley and I both did want to arrive later in June, if it was possible, so that we would have a longer summer. However, since I was accepted later, the only opening we had was May 27th because we have to pick the same date in order to live together. Sooo... May 27th here we come!



More blogs to come as time progresses or if I hear back (positively) from the other job positions! Thanks for reading!

Done-zo!

The end has finally come. No more meeting people from all around the world on a daily basis. No more going to the parks for free. No more discounts. No more organizing hundreds of pictures into albums. No more little lizards to watch out for on the sidewalks. (which are so darn cute!) No more speaking Spanish. No more crazy costumes to wear. No more gorgeous palm trees. No more having 5 roommates. No more driving around Disney property and getting paid for it. No more meeting new people daily. No more.

What did I come back to?
School, work, family, and friends.  (At least the latter isn't so bad!)

What a transition. Drove back home and stayed one night, then drove the next day to school and started working! Not exactly what I would call "magical".

So obviously being back is bittersweet. It's overwhelming to see everyone I love and getting back into the swing of things, but obviously the first question I am asked is, "How was Disney!?!?"  I anticipated this, as this is natural, however, I did not think prior to how I was going to answer this crucial question. How do I accurately portray the past 4 months without going into years of stories?  There was so much I learned and I didn't want to come off as "Oh just great! It was awesome!" as a generic response, because it deserved much more than that.

I say this for a few reasons. First of all, as mentioned in previous blogs, I had tons of opportunities not even my roommates had.  Even cast members I worked with who have been at Disney for 20+ years were asking me questions about what I saw and did. To me, that says something. To give me, a temporary worker, those jobs over people who have been there for years, said a lot to me. I still can't exactly formulate a response to how Disney was, because as everyone knows, I loved it. It was more than I imagined. Yes, some people hate it, but it's mostly because they are selling funnel cakes or are cleaning rooms and that's not their cup of tea.  Mind you, you also get a say in where you'd like to work, so that's their choice. But it's incredibly hard to explain because obviously, I was the only one who witnessed it all. It is just amazing to know that I was one of seventy thousand cast members who work for Disney that only nine did the job I did, including being in charge of packages for twenty-seven resorts.  If you look at it in that sense, now that speaks volumes!

I never would cry over seeing Mickey or the Castle. I never got sucked into the "magical" aspects as much as others did, or had 14 different Disney princess pillows on my bed. I hardly even knew who the princesses were before I got there. (and still kinda don't..) But I will say that I did fall in love with the history, guest service, and creation of Disney itself. To be able to see all that I did on a daily basis boggled my mind. The last thing I want others to think is that Disney is exclusive to kids and too "childish" for them. Because as I have seen first-hand, there's so much more than that. I would say probably 95% of career paths could be an employee under Disney, so it's not just all about princes and princesses.

Disney is the largest entertainment company in the world and also has 4 cruise ships. Just by this simple fact alone, you know Disney is doing something right to keep people coming back for more. I love the way that they treat others as individuals and they continue to remind cast members of how important that is. They continue to have training for cast members who have been there 30+ years. This is still to keep reminding them that it may just be another day at work to you, but to the kids you come into contact with, they may just remember you for the rest of their life.  Evidently, Disney isn't cheap. Some families go every year, whereas some save for 10+ years to have the opportunity to go. It's extremely easy to forget that if that's where you work every day.


I can see why having Disney on a resume is extremely eye-catching to employers simply because of the way we are treated and treat others. Of course not every cast member is perfect and Disney is still a money-making business. But overall, if local companies were to treat their customers with the same values as Disney did, I can guarantee their businesses would change drastically.


I still learned a lot from being there and it is comforting to have future job opportunities. They do have fitness internships from June-January at their gym doing fitness testing and running some classes. I'm very interested in that, although I heard the spots are extremely limited.  My roommate is also interested and going into Education. She saw that she could teach children about birds at Animal Kingdom, or take them on field trips and teach them about inertia and outer space while going on Space Mountain! Sounds like fun, aye?


So we will see where God takes me. I would love to go back to witness the "Florida winter", but also because of all the insanely large parades they have and Christmas lights! I've seen pictures of all the lights and it looks gorgeous. Just to give you an idea..




Next year would be the only time I could do a professional internship because you have to be in college when you apply.  As of now, I will be graduating next May, therefore will be completely free and open to pursue this in June. It's an added bonus that it's towards my career path and will give me more experience.


So until next time!  If I do end up going back next year (which everyone wants me to so I can get them discounts!), then I will definitely blog again.  But since my life isn't as exciting as seeing floats and parades every day, I'm not too sure this blog will be either!
Thanks to those who took an interest and read.  I know a few more people doing the internship and if any one has any questions, please don't hesitate.  There is still SO much more information and videos I have that I didn't go into details on that I would love to share.  You can e-mail me at swaner@mail.gvsu.edu for anything.


Take care and have a "magical" summer ! ;)

Behind the Scenes, Part 2

Well after being on that buddy ^^, it sure is hard to come back to reality!  And even more reality knowing I'm coming back to work my last day possibly ever working for Disney, pack, and go home to take a class.  Why does the fun have to end?!

Hopefully you all enjoyed the snip-its from the last blog of the different rides and a little bit of how they operate. The rest of this information are just random facts because I just wrote down what I wanted.  It's going to be a longer post, so bare with me if you want to know the inside scoop. I put myself in your shoes, and I think that this would be very interesting so I wanted to include a lot.

• When Disneyland opened in California, it was a mess. You would think since it's Disney it would be perfect, but this was definitely not the case. Since this was the first park ever opened, they obviously had a lot of trials-and-errors. They often called it "Black Sunday" because of how horrible the day went.  First, they were planning on an exclusive 30,000 guests coming by invite-only.  They ended up with twice as many people with over 60,000.  Because of this, they ran out of every food and drink they had since they weren't expecting this great turnout.  The rides weren't tested properly, so lots of them were breaking down.  On top of that, they planned the opening day too soon.  Incredibly too soon.  Too soon that the asphalt that they put down the night before hadn't dried and women that were walking in their heels (heels to a park?! yeah right.) left and permanently imprinted their heel-print!!! Imagine that! That would never happen nowadays, but it's funny to look back to compare.
   
• Everything is a "show" as I have mentioned in the beginning of my blogging. It's part of the show by having the train in front of the castle so that there is no possible way to see the castle before entering the park. As they describe it, you don't want to see your best act first! They also scaled down the buildings in mainstreet. Some buildings are full scale, then 2nd story is 60%, and 3rd story is 40%. This was really neat because if they would have made them all to full-scale, then the castle would have looked incredibly smaller and that would have made it look less significant. The Contemporary (resort) was also built specifically to block mainstreet. The castle was also extremely hard to build since there are different building codes for Osceola/Orange county but now WDW has their own.
   
• There is a reason for everything, which is another fact I love. The different "lands" (Adventureland, Fantasyland, etc.), are all well surrounded by their themes. For example, you would not find palm trees in Liberty Square because that just doesn't make sense. However, we were shown how landscape was intricately placed to make you really feel like you were going into another land. Every land has their "landmark" they see from afar.  Tomorrowland you see Astro Orbiter, etc. Adventureland, however, does not have one. Why? Because it's an adventure and you don't know what to expect until you get there!
• Liberty Square I had a special interest in. The Liberty Tree is the main focus. It weighs 35 tons and there are 13 lanterns on it for the 13 colonies for way back when. The building right in front of it is the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. The shutters on it are crooked. This is because in the olden days, they had leather straps for their shutters and because leather stretches, their shutters would be crooked! Again, you'd never notice this unless you literally looked for it and who stands around and just wanders in Magic Kingdom?
• There are also no public restrooms you will find in Liberty Square. They are in both lands surrounding it, but not actually in Liberty Square. This is because there were no public restrooms back then! Our tour guide explained that after they finished their "business", the person would take their bucket and scream "guardy-loo" out the window, which meant you are to watch out because if not their poo would go right on you! (that rhymed). In addition, the pathway right outside the window has a different colored cobblestone pathway, which is supposed to represent the person throwing away their poo! Again, you would never notice that.

• Magic Kingdom goes through 80,000 lbs of trash PER DAY.  Although, there is a misconception. I also thought that every trash can you placed something in automatically sucked it into a huge pit where all the trash goes.  This is thankfully incorrect. The trash bins are all regular trash cans--but not THIS one!!..  

Ha. Anyways, the custodial team takes all the regular bins and empties them into a special bin which then sucks it all down underneath where the "tunnel" is. (I'd post pictures of the tunnel because I know everyone is curious, but I'm pretty sure I'd get fired ASAP!)  But good thing not every trash can automatically does travels to a huge dumpster because if you drop something by accident, such as a guest's wedding ring we retrieved! (don't know how that happened), then it'd be gone forever!

• Epcot was originally supposed to be a city, not a park.
   
• They paint most buildings that are offstage or just for cast members by a paint called "Go away green".  This is because it blends in with mostly everything.  That way, since you're not supposed to see it, it'll blend in and you won't think it's not supposed to be there.
  
• The electrical parade has 8 miles of cable in length. Every 7th bulb belongs to one strand.  This way if a bulb goes out, it will be hard to notice as your eyes are attracted to the light.  If a strand goes out, you won't see an entire patch of lights out. Pretty smart!
  
  
• Pirates of the carribean we actually heard a lot more about.  It originally was supposed to be a museum, but then guests actually asked why WDW didn't have anything pirate-like.  WDW first thought that Florida had too many things that were pirate-like so they did not include anything. However, when guests continuously asked, they listened and put this ride in. It was Walt's last ride he ever got to work on before he passed.

• The most intriguing aspect about Pirates of the Carribean ride is the room of the skeletons playing chess. There are 2 lines to get into the stand-by line of Pirates. Only one side views this picture. The story behind this is pretty humorous.  Being the non-avid chess player that I am, I never paid attention to where the pieces were placed. 

                 Apparently the pirates are in a "stalemate".  This means that neither of them can make a move without losing.  They are both in a lose-lose situation.  Because pirates are so stubborn, this picture shows the stubbornness of pirates.  They played to their death since neither would make a move, leaving them as skeletons! Pretty funny, aye?




Quite a lot of information, but I know people were asking me about it, so here ya go!

Mostly one more bloggy after this, then I'm outta hereee!

Behind the Scenes, Part 1

As I mentioned in my last entry, I went on a 5-hour "Keys of the Kingdom" tour of Magic Kingdom.  I learned lots of history and in depth of how Magic Kingdom really came about.

We went on 2 attractions: The Haunted Mansion and The Jungle Cruise.  Our tour guide has worked at Disney practically his whole life and he worked these 2 attractions.  Because of this, we were given even more of an insight!  I'll share with you what I thought was most intriguing.  Don't read if you don't want the secrets revealed!

The Haunted Mansion

-They cut the grass literally with scissors to make it more uneven.
(Think how timely that is!)

-It is the most maintained and *clean* ride in the park, even though it's appearance is supposed to look just the opposite.

-When they first started making the ride there were 2 producers.  The first producer wanted the ride to be scary like it was actually haunted. The second producer wanted the complete opposite and wanted it to be corny and funny.  Because they were fighting over this, they came to a compromise--the first half of the ride is funny and then second part is scary.  This makes complete sense when going through the ride since the ending is the cemetery!

-Guess if the room really stretches or if it's just an elevator when you are in the room getting ready for the ride?  Trick question. It's both.  Disneyland in California has an elevator, and here in Disney World the room actually stretches.


-It's the only Disney attraction around the world that is in every single Disney park and in a different land also. 
(I think in Tokyo he said it is in Fantasyland?? I don't think I would fantasize about that..)


-Tony the Tiger from the Frosted Flakes is in the cemetery!


-Last but not least: the big secret! How do they do the ballroom with all those "holograms" ??
When the ride was first being created, they realized they wanted to do this scene.  So, before they went any further, they had to have a helicopter fly in with a piece of glass the length of the entire scene and place it 8 feet in front of you.  Without realizing it, behind your buggy there is a reflector that projects the images above and below you onto the glass in front of you. It is timed perfectly so that each buggy sees the same thing at the same time.  After he told us this, we looked below us and we actually could see a few "ghosts" before they were projected.  Crazy, right??

The Jungle Cruise

-Walt originally got this idea when he was in Africa. He actually wanted live animals from Africa.  After the realization of the costs and maintenance of the animals, they set out to make look-a-likes.

-There are over 300 plants on this attraction.

-They dye the water green because it's only 3 feet deep so they want to make it look more realistic and so that you do not see the bottom.

-Every single morning the skippers check the (fake) animals to make sure there is no mold on them and they wash them before the day begins.

-There is no steering at all.  The skippers pretend like they are driving the boat, when in actuality, they do it just for the show.  The boats are on a track.

-There is a part that you see mid-way through the attraction on your left side where it looks as if you are going to be ambushed.  There are 3 Indians and all sound like they are saying gibberish and yelling, however, the last one is not.  The last one says "I love disco!" but you will only be able to notice if you listen for it.  The producers of the ride put that in there as a surprise, since it was during the 70's, without Disney actually knowing.

Next blog will be on the rest of the tour.

R.I.P. Wings, until next time.