Property Control and Cast Connections

These are two stores only for cast members.  Both are located near Magic Kingdom costuming in the back of the parking lot.  Property Control sells damaged merchandise from all around the Walt Disney World Resort and lost and found items that were never claimed.  Most of the time, there isn’t much wrong with the items and everything is 75% off!  You can buy a ton of nonsense and only spent a few dollars.  I love this store and so does my wallet.  Cast Connections sells merchandise that is out of season or outdated.  They also sell items for their regular price along with groceries, dishes, Christmas trees, furniture, and so much more.  This store is much bigger and offers a lot more, but is more expensive than Property Control.  You can still get some great deals and buy groceries all at the same time!  Talk about productivity.  Over the past month I’ve bought the following items…

Oh yes... I totally made the mistake of wearing that necklace when I went to the parks. I didn't wear sunscreen, so I have this lovely burn on my chest complete with a white necklace mark. It's quite fantastic if I do say so myself.

Pretty awesome, eh?  Love CM discounts. 

Otitis Media, Serous Pharyngitis

Sorry for the holdup folks.  The inevitable finally happened…. I got sick.  :(  I had the works – sore throat, achy body, fever, cough, ear aches…  It finally got to the point that I needed to go to the doctor.  But where to go when you’re in Orlando and don’t have a car?  Well luckily enough there is a place called Centra Care.  It is not too far away; right across the street from Crossroads in fact.  And they have complimentary transportation.  When I called them it only took 15 minutes for them to arrive – very speedy!  Since it is an urgent care place, they also have medicine right there.  It does cost more than purchasing it from a pharmacy, but the convenience is definitely worth it, especially if you don’t have a car.  Thankfully I’ve been feeling much better and am almost back to 100% health!  Yay for amoxicillin.   

Apartment Inspections

Once every few weeks or so, our apartments get inspected.  This means that everyone starts grabbing cleaning supplies and borrowing the vacuum from the clubhouse, which creates a bit of a frenzy.  We had our inspection on the 5th, so the majority of us cleaned on the 4th.  Both of our showers were clogged (ew), so we bought a huge thing of draino.  It was pretty funny when the draino even wouldn’t go down the drain… we let it sit there for a while and it finally started to unclog.  We scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen, then vacuumed and dusted everything.  Our apartment was very clean, but not sparkling (where is Cinderella when you need her? Haha). 

I was home when the inspectors stopped by.  They come in, walk around, spray some bug nonsense, and fill out a form.  The three of them were probably in here less than 5 minutes.  Since our apartment was in pretty good shape (our oven needed more cleaning apparently), we were given these…

Yum!  Next time I’m aiming for the chocolates though… :D  

I'm Singing in the Parks...

It was July 8th.  I had to work at 8:45 pm.  What’s there to do in the meantime?  Go to the Magic Kingdom of course!  So off to MK for opening with two of my roommates.  We went on Space Mountain, met Tiana, got some sorcerer cards, and had a waffle sandwich from Sleepy Hollow.  One roommate left for work, so the two of us then went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, Small World, Winnie the Pooh, and Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel.  Since we were in Fantasyland we decided to have some ice cream from Storybook Treats (great lunch, don’t you think?).  With a chocolate soft serve cone in hand we headed to Main Street and danced in the Move It!  Shake It!  Celebrate It!  Street Party.  Some other attractions we went on were the PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Tomorrowland Speedway, and Dumbo.  A few weeks ago the Casey Junior Splash area opened, so we decided to walk through…  Dang, you get soaked.  So smart of Disney to sell towels right nearby!  A few days ago Dumbo started using Fastpass and the inside of the tent opened up.  The play area inside is legit – I haven’t looked around too much yet, but it seems pretty awesome.  My roommate and I stopped at Cosmic Ray’s for a bite to eat before heading back to POTC to buy a few things…

We split up after this because my other roommate had to go to work.  I took the monorail back to the Grand Floridian to do some more shopping… 

I love this resort and could literally spend all day in here.  Once my credit card had been significantly abused I grabbed a bus home, got ready for work, and turned right back around to the Magic Kingdom for work until 2:45 am!  A tiring, but fantastic day.   

On the 11th my roommate and I went to the Orlando Premium Outlets nearby.  It is pretty close to our apartment; only about a 15 minute walk and it’s right across from Publix.  There are a ton of nice stores there – Nautica, Ralph Lauren, Coach, Juicy Couture, etc… Here is the link: http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=17
I went to American Eagle and bought 3 shirts for $14 – love the clearance section. 

Afterward we went to Animal Kingdom and rode Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl and watched Finding Nemo:  The Musical.  We also went on Expedition Everest twice; once in the front, once in the back… boy you can really feel that force when you’re in the back seat – such a great attraction.  By this point there was only one hour left before the park closed, so we decided to grab some food.  Luckily Yak and Yeti was still open and had plenty of available seating.  I have always wanted to eat here and was not disappointed!  The food was absolutely delicious, although the service lacked a bit; still a great experience nonetheless.  Once dinner was over we hopped on a bus to the TTC and went to MK to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade.  In the meantime we went on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Mad Tea Party, Dumbo, and the Barnstormer twice.  We each had a sundae from the Plaza and enjoyed it while watching the parade on Main Street.  What an ending to a wonderful day!

My last day off for this week was the 12th.  This was a very special day because we had lunch reservations for Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco; there were 6 of us total; me and three roommates and a girl from France who works with one of my roommates, along with her friend.  The girl from France is also part Moroccan, so she speaks fluent Arabic and could talk right along with our servers.  As the 6 of us walked into Epcot it began to pour… thank goodness none of us brought ponchos and were too cheap to buy some.  So we decided to walk all the way there in the pouring rain so we wouldn’t miss our reservation.  Let’s just say we were a little bit wet by the time we got to Morocco… we tried to dry off as best we could and made ourselves presentable before checking in.  We were seated in a nearly empty restaurant, close to the stage where the belly dancer performs – she was insane!  I have no clue how anyone can move like that.  Anyway, the reason we came to Marrakesh… the food.  I had the chef’s lunch special and it was delicious!  I would definitely come back here because the food was divine and the service was fantastic.      

We had finally just started to dry off, until it began raining again.  We stopped at the store in Japan (no purchases for me!), where my roommates and I split up from our other two friends.  We then proceeded to create our own rollercoaster at the Sum of all Thrills and ride Spaceship Earth.  On the way out we made the spontaneous decision to go to the Magic Kingdom.  We got off at the TTC, decided we were getting very tired, and went to Property Control instead.  I spent a whopping 1 dollar and 34 cents!  Once we were back home, I heated up leftovers from Yak and Yeti, made potato soup, picked up my room, and entered all the money I’ve spent into my budget. 

And that brings us to the 13th…  Since I didn’t work until 5:45 I decided to go to the Magic Kingdom!  I went and got my sorcerer cards for the day and defeated Cruella on Main Street.  Luckily I also ran into the Dapper Dans and Citizens of Main Street!  Some of my favorites were working, so I was really excited to see them.  How I love knowing Dapper Dans….  I then went to Adventureland and watched Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial.  At the end when everyone is singing he totally came over to the side where I was standing and propped his foot up on the barrel next to me.  He starred into my eyes and sang, while I about passed out….

I then had lunch at Pecos Bill (yay for kid’s meals), walked through Swiss Family Treehouse, and then got chocolate cake from the Main Street Bakery.  As I was eating my cake in the alley way on Main Street, the Philharmonic came out and decided to play Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah (quite fitting, if I do say so myself). 

I then hopped on a bus from the Grand Floridian to costuming.  I went and got milk and bananas from Cast Connections, returned a costume and got two new ones, and made it just in time for the bus back home.  The bus came at 4:20, so I still had plenty of time before I had to leave for work.

Speaking of work, I’m working straight through until next Wednesday… yay for working 45 hours – can’t wait for that paycheck!  Hope you all have a magical night and enjoyed reading about my days at the parks.  :)

The King Has Returned

Sorry for the lack of updates!  I’ve been working quite a bit lately and yesterday I had my first 12 hour shift.  Luckily it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.  Work goes by very quickly, especially when you are in rotation.  Over the past week I’ve gotten to talk to some very nice folks.  I met a family while I was standing at the exit; the grandparents had brought their granddaughter for her first time (well technically it was her second time, but she was very little when she first visited so it doesn’t really count)!  She just finished her freshman year at college, so I told her about the college program and that she should look into it.  The grandmother was SO excited and definitely wants her granddaughter to do it.  Their whole family are Disney fanatics, so they were so happy to learn more about the program.  I have also had the pleasure of talking to families from England and Ireland.  I just love their accents and could listen to them all day!

I had the 4th and 5th of July off this past week.  Definitely a much needed break!  My roommates and I spent the majority of the 4th cleaning because inspections were the following day (I’ll let you know about that in another post).  I made a cake for us and four of us ordered pizza and had a “family” dinner in the living room. 

Later that night, three of us went to the Magic Kingdom!  Kind of a poor decision because it was PACKED.  You literally couldn’t walk through Fantasyland right before the fireworks.  And speaking of fireworks… they were amazing!  I was lucky enough to watch them on the 3rd from Splash Mountain; 360 degree fireworks… absolutely stunning.  We also went to a Pirate Tutorial because they were having them in the evening.  So in love… 

Afterward we tried to leave and go to Epcot to see their fireworks.  Since the park was packed, everyone decided to leave at the same time.  We were going to take the monorail or ferry over to the TTC, but the lines were insane.  Instead we took a bus to the Boardwalk, but didn’t arrive until 10:15.  No worries though, we ended up getting ice cream so it was worth it.  Worth it until the bus never arrived to take us home… there were four buses that passed us, so we ended up waiting almost two hours to get home.  Gotta love the bus system.

On the 5th I went to the Magic Kingdom with a roommate. 

We watched the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, played the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game (I got some ridiculous cards… Flynn Rider’s frying pans, Tiana’s hot sauce, Pocahontas’ colors of the wind, Aladdin’s magic lamp – so awesome), saw the Dapper Dans (love them),

watched Philarmagic and went on Jungle Cruise, and had an ice cream cookie sandwich.  We then caught a bus from the Contemporary, dropped off some costumes at Costuming, and went to Property Control (but that’s another post folks).  Once we were back home we went to Walmart and made a fabulous dinner of pork chops, baked potatoes with bacon, scallions, and cheddar cheese, and spinach dip with Italian bread.     

Yup, so those were my days off.  They were a lot of fun and surprisingly productive.  I’m working today from 4:45 – 10:45 (love it when MK closes early), so I’m going to sign off, fold laundry, and get ready for work.  Have a magical day everyone!