"We Go On"

Goodbyes are never easy, especially after spending four wonderful months with someone and always having them there to lean on, but unfortunately goodbyes are part of life. Telling my friends from work goodbye was hard but no where near as hard as telling my 7104 roommates goodbye.

Our last week together we brought our beds out into the living room squished them next to each other and kept it that way until the day we moved out. It gave us more time together and extra packing space which we all were in dire need of. We spent every waking minute together that wasn't spent at work and I will never forget those precious moments.

My last night Illuminations show was spent with Christy and Amanda sitting in Norway balling our eyes out the whole time but smiling none the less. Epcot was our second home, we always ended up meeting there and pigging out on delicious pastries or ice cream from France and then running to Norway just in time to see the fireworks. One time we even went to Beaches and Cream after and conquered the Kitchen Sink, 8 scoops of ice cream with every topping they have plus a whole can of whipped cream. And one of our first nights as roommates, we went to Epcot to eat dinner and watch the show, so naturally watching Illuminations for the last time with these wonderful girls was very emotional for all of us. We ended up sitting until we could compose ourselves and more than half the crowd had left and we slowly made our way out of the park which holds so many memories for us.

On our last day together, we woke up early and hit the road to the Magic Kingdom to say our last goodbye. We took pictures, watched the parade, danced a lot, and lifted the Sword out of the Stone. We were also waved to by the Princess at the Castle Show and on our way back to the TTC we had a section of the Monorail all to ourselves. We ate at Rainforest Cafe since that was our first meal together and it seemed fitting for it to be our last. We devoured the Volcano and unfortunately realized it was time to say our goodbyes.

These girls made my Disney experience what it was. Without them, it would not have been half as fun or worthwhile. Yes it was amazing to make guests happy everyday and to be a guest on my days off, but these girls became my family. We had our fights and shed many tears together and had our off days where all we wanted to do was be at home with our true families, but in the end we created a bond just as strong the bond that I have with my best friends that I've known for years. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but it did. They kept me going these past four months and I cannot wait to be with them again. They have taught me so much and have given me the experience of a lifetime. And the only thing I can tell them is thank you. Thank you for everything. I love you my 7104 ladies and we will be together in Disney World soon and remember:

"We go on To the joy and through the tears We go on To discover new frontiers Moving on With the current of the years.  We go on Moving forward, now as one Moving on With a spirit born to run Ever on With each rising sun.  To a new day We go on"

-Kelley Coffey, Illuminations "We Go On"

Potter Trivia

Life is good. I have less than a month left and I cannot wait to be home! Don't get me wrong, I have loved this experience but I don't think I was meant to live away from my family and friends.

The parks are emptying out from Spring Break which means happier guests and happier managers and happier cast members. A few weeks ago though, I had an eleven hour shift at our most boring shop and there was practically no one in the store, and I was selling watches,which basically means I was shunned into the corner of the store by myself. That day one of our artists was in the same area drawing and talking to guests. A British family went over to his desk and started talking to him about his drawings and how their son loves to draw. I looked over a few minutes later and saw that he was drawing a Harry Potter Mickey Mouse complete with lightening bolt scar and all. I slowly walked over when another cast member commented on why he was drawing Harry Potter when it wasn't Disney. Apparently the little boy had asked the artist to draw and as he said that he draws what the guests ask for. I asked the family if they were big Potter fans they said they were and of course I told them I was too and we started discussing JK Rowling's life. The artist was impressed with our knowledge and challenged us to a little bit of HP trivia to see who really knows their stuff. I asked them three questions which they only answered one right and they asked two and I got them right, but in the end we decided it was a tie. I clearly won because the looks on their face when I asked them some questions was priceless but considering I was in costume I had to be nice and let them win. But if you looked at the score board, I won:) So needless to say, my day turned right around after that.

"Life is the Bubbles"-The Little Mermaid

It has been nonstop for the past few weeks. I haven't had any 40 hours weeks yet, but I've only had one day off and it's just not enough to unwind from a very busy week. Guests are getting cranky now because lines are getting longer and they are fitting in less rides but why should they take it out on me? One guest told me I needed to grow up and stop playing with the bubbles. I'm in Disney World I don't need to grow up! This is my time to be as childish as I want and no one can tell me anything. I don't understand who he thought he was but I did not appreciate it one bit. I shot out a few extra bubbles from my bubble gun when he turned his back to me. I hope someone brought some sunshine in on his cloudy disposition because I had absolutely no idea how to react to him.

Promise me next time you go to Disney or even walk into a Disney Store you won't tell the cast members to grow up. They are clearly working for Disney for a reason and it just might be because they aren't ready to grow up yet.

Your Land

There is something truly spectacular about walking through a completely empty park. The music plays in the background while the lights twinkle and seem to wink at you through the dark. Its a rare and special moment and makes you realize that this was all created for you. You are the person Walt had in mind when he created the oh so lovable Mickey Mouse. You are the reason he created this magical place where dreams come true. You are the reason.

Walt wanted each and every one of us to feel special from the moment you walked into the park or saw a Disney character on tv. He wanted the world to let go of the stress of living and forget about it even for just a moment. He created everything for you. When your waiting 54 minutes just to ride Peter Pan you sometimes miss the magic that Walt has given you, but I promise you its there. Where else can people from all over the world come and put their coins on the table and trust strangers to take the correct change and not worry that they are taking more money than needed?

Not only has Walt created this spectacular place for you, he has proven to the world that dreams can become reality. Disney World and Disneyland did not always exist, at one point it was just an idea in Walt's mind. He made his dream a reality. Everyone has one dream that they wish they could fulfill but they never give it a chance. If Walt can do it, why can't you? Walt didn't always have it easy either. When his cartoon character Oswald was taken from him he didn't just give up, he started brainstorming again until something better came along. When he was struggling to make ends meet while Disney Land was in creation, he didn't just sigh and stop, he kept on pushing. The day Disneyland opened Walt realized they were many things that needed improving and he fixed them as soon as he could. Not once did he say that this was nonsense and give up on the thing he loved the most. He took chances and constantly put his career and reputation on the line not for just anybody, but for you. So you can experience just one inkling of magic. Next time you walk into a Disney park just take a look around for one minute, I know you want to go race to Toy Story Midway Mania but just look at what was created with you in mind. Everything and everyone there has a meaning and purpose, and that purpose is for you, the child at heart.

"You don't build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them." —Walt Disney

"To all that come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America... with hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world."- Walt Disney

Valentine's Day:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I worked in Sweet Spells today and it was just nonstop until the moment I ran out of there. It is the most fast paced place that I work in, and days seem to fly by there, but today was the busiest I have ever experienced. We could not even keep up with the food. My friend Santiago was making caramel apples for four hours straight without a break and every single time one row would be done, they were quickly taken away and distributed among our sweet toothed guests. The line was out of the door for most of the night and we completely ran out of candy apples and even cookies. But my fellow cast members and I beasted it up and worked together to get everything done. I got off an hour earlier than the "closing" people did so I'm not entirely sure how that part of the night went but I pitched in and cleaned counters and washed all the dishes that we are allowed to clean during open hours.

Christy and I had a nice romantic dinner together because we got off at the same time and our boyfriends are not with us so we became each others Valentine for the night. We warmed up pizza and veggies. Very yummy. My family spent the day in Magic Kingdom I believe, tuesday and wednesday are my days off this week so I get to hang with them!

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and have a Magical Day tomorrow:)

You're an official Pin Trader! How does it feel?

Hello again my friends. Sorry its been a while, but life seems to be crazy or a least very tiring. Most of my work days this past week have me starting at 7:30 or 8 which means I have to get up around 5:30 or 6 each morning. And I'm not sure if you know this but I'm not much of a morning person, especially when I watch the sun rise on bus ride to Hollywood Studios. But the benefit is that I get off around 2 if I only have a six hour shift. But these past few days the weather has been freaking out on me so all I have done is hang out with my roommates and watch Princess movies. Some of these girls need a little refreshing on their Disney Princess knowledge. Especially Kelley, she had no clue what happened in Beauty and the Beast other than Belle falling in love with the Beast and changing him into a human. But I got to give her the run down so it was all okay in the end.

The other day I worked in the Toy Story Midway Mania gift shop, which may be my favorite area to work because the children and parents alike are so excited when they get off the ride that I just want to jump in and know all about their experience. Anyway, I got three Beauty and the Beast pins! The first is a Gaston pin from an older man who wanted a hidden Mickey pin. The second was from a fellow College Programer who wanted one of my Pluto pins. And the last was from a little girl. She traded a pin with Belle and the Beast holding hands in their ball attire:) I have been eyeing this pin on other traders for about two weeks now but no one has given it to me, so when I saw her unpinning it I had to try with all my might not to hyperventilate. So I told her thank you and good luck with her pin trading just like I tell other pin traders, but instead of pinning it on my lanyard I pretended to and as soon as she walked away, I thrust it into my pocket before another trader could take my precious prize away from me.

Yesterday I was in the Villain shop and a little girl and her mom came up to me and asked me how they could start pin trading. I explained all the rules to them: 1. Guest can trade up to two pins per Cast member, per day. 2. Pins should be in good, undamaged condition. 3. Guests should offer a pin that is not already displayed on the Cast Member's lanyard. 4. Cast lanyards should display a minimum of 12 pins. After describing these oh so important rules, I got to trade with her! Her smile was so big when she was looking through all my pins. She choose her favorite and was on her way to becoming a professional Disney Pin Trader. Probably one of my favorite moments so far.

Today I got my first piece of mail from my dear Linny. It brought so much joy to my life, she made her own stationary and everything. Keep the mail coming people, my roommate Kelley gets five packages a week! And you think I'm lying, but I'm not.

Good news: I get to sleep in tomorrow. No work until 3:)

The Disney Point

When you work at Disney, there are several rules that must be followed. We must never refer to the guests as customers, we must never put our hands in our pockets or fold are arms across our chest, and we must never ever point with one finger. Always use two fingers or your whole hand to point at an object or when giving directions, this way another guest does not feel as if you are pointing at them in a rude manner. After 37 hours of pointing this way, you start to point at everything that way. At Target you see that Coke is on sale on the other aisle and you Disney Point to them in order for your roommates to see. While shopping at Downtown Disney you Disney Point to clothing that you think is cute. And even at home, you end up pointing to the TV when your favorite commercial comes on. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I am convinced that until the day I die I will be using the Disney Point. And that makes me smile.

Work was pretty boring because the store I was in is very slow and customers weren't very chatty. But I did get to pin trade with several people through the two days and on monday two little children talked to me for 15 minutes about their Disney experience. It was magical.

Today Christy and I ran some errands and got lost a few times but we did eventually find our way. Then we ventured over to Downtown Disney for some window shopping and dinner with Connie and Amanda. During our window shopping adventure Christy introduced me to this magnificent shop called Little Mismatched where you can buy three unmatching socks and even the boots and flip flops they sell have different designs on them. The store was basically made for me.

Princess Aurora

Finally everything is starting to slow down, or at least my head isn't pounding because of all the information being crammed into it. My first day of work went pretty well. I traded many many pins and was even the star of some photos. One guest asked if he could take pictures of me while I pretended to trade pins, and of course I was more than happy to oblige. I was petrified of closing by myself but one of my managers, Melissa, came over and taught me how to do everything correctly. So all in all, my first day of work was a good one minus some cranky guests.

Today, I worked in Animation Courtyard which is where In Character, Studio Store, and the Bear Cart is. My first few hours I was assigned to In Character, which is the Princess store outside of The Little Mermaid show. Pretty boring at first because most guests go straight to the rides before they even think of entering the area I was in. But, I got to watch as they ran to Toy Story Midway Mania and some even tried to cut the crowd by running through Animation Courtyard. Unfortunately for them, it is a dead end and they can't get to Toy Story that way but it still made me chuckle inside.

Later on in the day during my last hour in the princess store, two little girls dressed in Aurora costumes entered the store and saw the other wearing the exact same dress. They ran to each other and started twirling around and comparing dresses. Most definitely one of the cutest things ever.

I later had to stock the Studio Store until my last ten minutes where I relived someone from the Bear Cart and sold a few water bottles and crayon sets.

After the long bus ride home, I took a quick nap and was on the bus headed to Magic Kingdom. Did some shopping and ate at the Pinocchio Quick Service Restaurant. It must have been my lucky day because there was one table open next the window and it was calling my name. So, I had a nice relaxing dinner watching the boats from It's a Small World pass by. All in all, a great day even though I did have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning.

Sweet Shop Disaster

Today was a great day until the last hour and half of work, then it got messy. It was the same three people with me today that I have been training with for the past two days, so we are all really close now and basically are bffs (one is my roomie Christy). Anyway, we had three trainers today and we all had a blast until we had to go to Sweet Spells to learn closing procedures. Apparently the workers before us had not done their job correctly and missed a few key tasks that set two of our trainees into a tizzy. They started barking orders at us and weren't really the nicest to our guests either. So basically at the end of our shift we had had enough and all four of us are hoping to close with them as little as we can. But I did get to help guests today on the sales floor and ring up their purchases which was pretty cool, not to mention the fact that I got to trade several pins today! Unfortunately, no one gave me any Belle pins...

One more day of training then I will have officially earned my ears!

What do you mean you don't like High School Musical?!

This morning I was at work before the park opened and was allowed to greet our guests as they walked/ran to the Rockin' Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror. Can I just tell you how amazing that was? I got to wave at guests and tell them good morning and they did the same to me! Instead of being the guest waving to the Cast Member, I was the Cast Member waving to the guest! I just wish you could have experienced this moment with me. It started the day off perfectly!

So, before I begin to describe what today's happenings were, I first must tell you that I will be working in 10 different stores and I will have about 5 different costumes:) I have a store called Once Upon a Time which is built to look like a fancy store and does carry some of our more expensive items in it, along with an area they call the Ranch. It is directly across from Beauty and the Beast:) I'll also be working in the Villain Store/Sweet Spells which is candy and sweet treats along with Villain merchandise. And another store which is on the corner of the street and I can't think of the name off the top of my head. I am also working in the store right across from the Toy Story Midway Mania, which sells every Toy Story toy you can possibly think of along with 3 stores in Animation Courtyard. There is a Princess Store, which I'm pretty certain will by my favorite, along with a cart and the store right outside of One Man's Dream.

After waving to the guests, we went back inside Sweet Spells and we learned how to make the Famous Chocolate Covered Strawberries. I made cotton candy, candy apples, chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate covered marsh mellows:) YUM! My roomie Christy and I basically entertained everyone all day because of how excited we were about making all the fun candies and being able to see the High School Musical Parade pass every hour (one of the other trainees did not like High School Musical and Christy and I did our best to convert him, we failed. For now). And they were pretty impressed by the amount of love I had for Disney. They tried to find something Disney that I did not like, I won.

My work schedule next week is 39 hours. Seems like a lot but if the time disappears like it has this week, it will be a breeze.

Mickey Mouse is doing the "Cupid Shuffle"

So I won't write to much today although a lot happened because I'm pretty tired and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. But overall today was good, even though Christy and I almost had a panic attack trying to find our Grandmaw Mary Poppins shoes, as we called them. But we had to settle for shoes that will hopefully pass inspection, if not we shall be out and about tomorrow night scouring the town some more to try to find the right ones.

Today was pretty fun, we got to go backstage of Hollywood Studios, my new home, and learned the basics about the park and some fun little tidbits of information. Later on in the day we got our costumes:) Although they are not our official work costumes, it was still pretty cool. And today was my first day that I was allowed to clock in! Super cool.

After work, they hosted a party for all College Program Cast Members at our Apartment Complex. The theme was "It's a Bug's Life" and we got to meet the two main characters from that along with everyone's beloved mouse, MICKEY! When we walked in Mickey was dancing to the "Cupid Shuffle" and it was super cool splendid to see him dancing with everyone, something I'll probably never forget. He was truly a celebrity everywhere he went people followed him.

Well, its about that time, so goodnight everyone:)

Super Secret Passageways!

Hello again my friends,

Day three was a mix of everything from very boring to absolutely amazing! I had Traditions today, which is a class you must take in order to become an official Cast Member. We learned about Walt and how the Disney Company was created and how it expanded into the Company we know today. We were also taught the core values that Walt created to give his guests the best possible experience. We were also taken on a tour of underground Disney and I must say that it was such an adventure. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal the secrets, but trust me when I say that it was super fabo and I will never forget what I was introduced to today. Toward the end of our four and a half hour Traditions class we watched a video of Walt describing his dreams and hopes for his company, guests, and employees and we were reminded that we are now a part of Walt's dream. Can you believe that? I, Kayla Ann, am fulfilling Walt Disney's dream! So basically what it comes down to in my mind is that Walt and I are now BFF, because BFFs help each other reach their dreams. And seeing as this has been a dream of mine for a long time, his company has allowed me to fulfill my dream of working in the most magical place on earth, and now I am fulfilling Walt's dream by treating his guests and parks the way he always wanted them to be treated. It was a wonderful moment for me to say the least.

Well, after going to Traditions two of my roomies (Christy & Kelley) and I went to Epcot to meet up with the rest of our household to eat and watch Illuminations, which in my opinion is the best fireworks show in the world. In order to get there we had to use the super secret passageway in Epcot and it was so cool because you just walk out into the magic of Disney (another highlight of the night)! Anyway, My roommate Christy has never seen it and just watching her watch this amazing show truly showed me what Disney World is all about. She was squealing like a little girl the whole time and was completely amazed by the fireworks and the globe. And oh boy when that globe started to open she could hardly contain herself!

Later on the bus I had a discussion with Kelley about Princess and the Frog and she was asking me a whole slew of questions about New Orleans and whether or not the movie was true to real life in the city. And I loved talking to her about our food and she is so excited about trying gumbo and red beans, so it looks like I'll be cooking sometime soon. Pray for me and the kitchen. haha.

So all in all, a wonderful day in the life of Kayla:)

Hello Friends:)

So, I'm sure many of you are reading this because you know me personally and just want to stalk me and seeing as Facebook wasn't adequate enough, you have come here. But, no worries I hope this meets your expectations.

Today was my second day of the Disney College Program, my seven other roomies and I basically took the day to shop, chill out, and get to know each other a little better. And I have some pretty cool roomies if I may say so. Connie and I are the only southerners in our apartments, so when the others were discussing how much they wanted to see an armadillo, we kind of chuckled. But then again, I've never seen a moose before either so I can't judge.

Tomorrow I get my ID and will be able to go into the parks so thats when the real fun can begin!