9.01.2010
Hollywood Studios
Today was probably the best day I've had here so far. :)

My friend Richard and I went to Hollywood Studios. FINALLY. After today, I finally have gone to every park. So much happened...where to start...

My outfit. Lets start there. I was getting dressed and I changed shirts at the last second. First it was this black t-shirt, then it switched to my Heartless shirt. I told myself "Lets see how many people recognize it!". I really didn't think THAT many people would!

The first ride we went on was Tower of Terror. It is SO MUCH cooler than the one at Disneyland! There is a lot more story to it, and cooler special effects...and aaahhh it was so cool :) Only thing, the one at Disneyland, you dont know when it's about to drop you the first time. That makes it much scarier in my opinion. The one here, it leads you up to it and you don't have the anticipation...still fun though!

Rockin Roller Coaster feat. Aerosmith. AWESOME. Neon lights, 0-60 in 2 seconds, takes you upside down, twists you...Aerosmith music while you're riding...dude!

We had about an hour to kill before the next Beauty and the Beast show, and we walked through Pixar. Midway Mania was an hour wait, but we didn't want to bother...instead we bee lined towards the Woody and Buzz meet and greet. We entered a building that had cute photo-op opportunities (we took em!). We got to Woody and Buzz and instantly, Woody comes forward points at my shirt, and gives me a high five. xD
We got our picture taken, and Woody gets my attention again and asks me through gestures if I play the video game. I tell him yes and that I've played it 4 times. He pointed at himself and holds up the number 7. Soooo Woody plays Kingdom Hearts. Awesome. xD

Then we went to the Beauty and the Beast show. It was cute but cheesy. I felt a little robbed with how fast they went through the story though.

The Great Movie Ride was...okay. Not great. I have a feeling we could have had better "tour guides". *coughMichelleDudaIWantToRideYourCarcough* Also...No mention of Titanic anywhere. What's with that?!

We were then on our way to Studio Backlot Tour when out of the corner of my eye I see a person veering towards me and I try to move over to miss him but WHAM! Keri and his friend Hy...Hyme? She has a very pretty name, but I don't know how to spell it or her nickname. Anyway...we all went to the Backlot Tour and that was pretty neat!

We saw that we had about 10 minutes to head over to the next Lights, Motors, Action! stunt show. Luckily it was right next door to Backlot. It was okay...the beginning was awesome with the stunt cars driving every whichaway. But it got old quick. And I started to get a headache from the burning rubber smell...

We then ran into another one of Keri's friends and she had a whole bunch of her friends with her...so our little group of 2 turned into a group of 11. We went back to Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster to ride those again.

We ran into a Block Party Bash with Pixar characters on the way to Toy Story Midway Mania (we were going to tackle however long the wait time was...) We waited for over an HOUR for this ride. Sure, it's actually not as bad as it could have been, but all day we've been going on rides that literally we just walk onto. (The parks are DEAD due to school starting back up) Why it still takes forfreakinever to get on Midway Mania...you've got me. :/ ANYWAY...the entire time we waited all of us were reminiscing about different board and card games we all played when we were younger. "Pop goes Perfection!" xD

The ride...SO WORTH the wait. Thankfully.

Magic Moments in the waiting queue: I saw a little girl had a birthday pin and I told her happy birthday. She shyed away while thanking me with a smile..I turn to the group and told them it was her birthday and without hesitiation everyone shouted "Happy Birthday" to her.
Then, we get to the halfway point in the queue when we meet the first cast member that asks how many we had to our party. She was nice enough to take a group picture of us, then she asks US to do something for her. One of her fellow Cast Members was celebrating his birthday and she wanted us to start singing to him. We, of course, agreed. "Come here! A guest has a question!" Keri: "I am not satisfied with my stay!" lol. The Cast Member comes over and we all started singing. His face was priceless. <3


We then split up from the group with just Keri, Hyme, Richard and I again to go to Star Tours while everyone else wanted to see Beauty and the Beast. I'm going to really miss Star Tours. Yes, it's coming back...but *sigh* It's not going to be the same...

We lost Keri and Hyme after that and headed towards the next Indiana Jones show. Richard and I had high expectations for this show since Disney World doesnt have the ride (which is basically amazing.) We reach the entrance with minutes to spare and the Cast Member stops us. "Oh. My. God! THAT is an awesome shirt!!" I thank him while laughing and we try to go forward. He stops us again "Awesome shirt equals awesome seats." He picks up the phone next to him, "Get me 2 VIP seats! Please! It's the girl with the Heartless shirt and her friend. I want them in the VIP section!"
Yep. He got us in the front row in a already full stadium all because of my last minute wardrobe change. xD

Oh, but it gets better...

I barely sat down before the "casting director" said "Alrighty! We need some extras from the Audience! How about you sir with the blue shirt, and this young lady in a black shirt with a heart on the front! Come on down!" WHAT?!
I was an extra in the Indiana Jones stunt show! I had to giggle like an idiot (that was my "part") then was taken to a spot to get my "costume". I get this weird robe thing and veil. I also had to sign a waiver. After I signed, I look down and see Richard on the stage now. He was picked too! He soon joined us as an extra and we waited to head back on the stage and we were right in the middle of the action. It was amazing! Swords flew by our heads, a truck exploded behind me...we yelled and screamed for Indy to "Jump!" "Look out!" "Get him!" (met him too ;D)

Best thing ever. :) After the show, the park was set to close in about half an hour. We had just enough time to go over the Voyage of the Little Mermaid for it's last show. We get there and were told that we had to wait another 25 minutes. We didn't want to just sit there waiting, so we walked around and ended up being led into this one building...we had no idea what was in it...we sorta...happened upon it. We see concept art for the new Rapunzel (Tangled, for those "technical" people out there..) movie and I fell in love. I am so much more excited for the movie now! Anyway...we were waiting in a line (for what? no idea.) and we round a corner and there they are....

Characters EVERYWHERE. In front of us was Capt. Hook and Smee, the room next to us was Mr. Incredible and Frozone, downstairs there was Sorcerer Mickey, Mulan, Pinocchio and Gepetto, Mary Poppins and a Penguin, and Chip and Dale. Holy moly! We didn't care if we would miss the Mermaid show, we wanted to meet everyone!
Unfortunately, since the park was sooo close to closing we only got Hook/Smee, Frozone/Incredible, Pinocchio/Father and Mickey. Fine by me. :) Mickey was the only one that was Photopassed...but I got some awesome Photopass pictures with him.

Magic moment I witnessed: Since it was so slow, Mickey didn't have a line of people to meet. He walked over to a little girl playing on a computer where you can color in a character. He joined in and colored a picture of Iago with her. It was one of the cutest things I've seen. <3 <3

Turns out we had enough time to watch the Little Mermaid thing after all the characters left, and that was SO COOL. I thought it was going to be totally cheesy, but the effects really made the whole thing fun to watch. The live actors were pretty good too.

PHEW! That's about it for Hollywood Studios! We did head over to Magic Kingdom after though, but nothing much to report there. They added a new soundtrack to Space Mountain, though! Loved that.

Sorry this was soooo long! I should have probably broke it up, but if I didn't write it all out now, I would have forgotten something! :)

I work at Disney Days of Christmas tomorrow! Kinda nervous and definitely excited! Night, ya'll!
8.30.2010
About my day off :)
Helllloooo :)

Nothing much to update about, but I'm bored. So I'll tell you stuff anyway! :D

Lets see...Work at AoD is going well. I know how to do shipments! Resort, home address, and post-sale! Wooo! Now, I'm still slowly learning more and more about the art in my store. There's TONS and each artist is so different from the other...it's overwhelming. Thomas Kinkade is probably my favorite, for obvious reasons. Too bad his art is over-priced and not available in prints...

We had a visiting artist last week! Randy Noble. His art is pretty good! I bought a couple of his prints :) He was also the guy that started the Vinylmation...yeeeaaah I blame him for my obsession. I only have 2 (and one keychain), but gaaaah I want mooooreeeee!

Today was my day off and my roomie Melina and I went to Animal Kingdom. It was TONS of fun! We went on the Dinosaur ride first. I remember loving it when I came to Disney World a while back....and I loooved it again! We then went on another Dinoland ride, I forgot the name...but it spun us around and jerked us every whichaway...and it was pretty much amazing.
All day the rides were basically us walking onto the ride. Yeah, it was awesome. So, we thought after doing Dinosaur and the other Dino ride, we would kill enough time until the next Finding Nemo Musical...but we got on them both so quickly we had an HOUR to kill...sooooo we went to Asia to go on Expedition Everest! Everest was being built last time I was here, so this one was completely new for me. It's probably close to my favorite ride at Disney, EVER. I don't want to give away what happens (yes, it goes backwards...but what happens while you're going backwards... ;)  )...but maaaan! Lets just say, Melina and I had to stop for a minute after getting off the ride to regain our footing...soooo dizzy...

The Nemo Musical was amazing. The girl that played Nemo was a fantastic singer. All of the singers were, but Nemo had a lot of singin to do...haha
I still wish the Tarzan Rocks! show was still there though... :(

After Nemo, we went to the Safari. It was about 3pm when we went on it, so I was hopin the animals were done napping...most were! The lions though...those lazy kitties...always sleepin. Simba was in the same place napping when we saw him last time though! Thought that was funny. :)

We were about to head over to the last Festival of the Lion King show at 4 30, but we got side-tracked by the forest walkthrough thing....that was probably one of my favorite parts of today. There was a room with small mammals (pigmy mice are the CUTEST things I've ever seen!) then we walked through the Aviary (barely any birds around though) we saw some monkeys...

OH! STORY! We found the Gorillas and the Silverback was really close to the glass. I got a cool picture of him on my phone, but after taking it, I realized he was..uh...taking care of some business. He finished up and scooped up his work and started walking closer to the glass in one of the corners of his enclosement. Everyone (including me) who saw this happening were in unison yelling "no...No! NO NO NO! AAAHHH!!" Gorilla mows down. Yep. Disgusting...all the while everyone else on the other side of the room were cooing at the mother gorilla and her 6 month old baby being super cute. *sigh*

...then....my favorite part of this walk...the Hippos. There was this GIANT tank where you can look in at the hippos and they were super friendly! Two of them walked right up to us and let us take pictures with them :) There was another hippo across the way not near the tank, but he surfaced and yawned! Holy moly was that a yawn! Coolest thing to watch

Then, Festival of the Lion King...of course it was awesome, spectacular...etc. :)

Yep...that's about it! Now, I work tomorrow, then another day off on Wednesday in Hollywood Studios (finally! my favorite park and I haven't gone there yet?! Saving the best for last...I guess.)  I'll update about my fun there :)


Also! I have a few shifts NOT in the AoD next week! I'll be working at Disney Days of Christmas (DDC) and I am excited! I know about Christmas merchandise more than I do about my own! Also...the costume is suuuperrrrr cute. Haha

See ya! <3