Hi Mom!

I had visitors! Yay! What a blessing to have my mom, Loren, and Janie come visit me for a week just when home was starting to feel a little too far away :) I was able to get quite a few days off to spend some quality time with them, and we had a blast! After meeting up for dinner upon their arrival, the next day we wandered through Disney's Hollywood Studios park and then got all dressed up for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was really fun for me to go as a guest to this party after experiencing so many parties as a cast member.

These parties are held in the Magic Kingdom park and are their own ticketed event with a special parade and fireworks display as well as awesome decorations, exclusive merchandise, and characters that you don't normally see in the parks are available for meet and greets! We took a lot of our time with walking around the entire park trying to hit up all of the trick-or-treat locations, and we ended up very very successful! On my other full day off, we attended EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival which is a seasonal event that takes place in EPCOT daily. There are about 25 stands representing different countries, and you get to devour all of the different foods of the world! We had a lot of fun taste testing and filling out our little passports that they give you at the park entrance. 

To conclude their stay, we had dinner in Disney Springs at the T-Rex Restaurant because Loren and I are actually 12 year olds and our moms really love us. If you've ever been to a Rainforest Cafe, it was very similar to that except everything was dinosaur themed! We ate in the jungle which was of course next to the ice age and behind the giant blow up octopus in the prehistoric ocean!

I am so thankful for their visit and was so happy to share my temporary home with them :)

Since I last posted, I've completed my first Disney Seminar Class, Disney Heritage. This was a really fun class to take as it was basically a history lesson on Walt and Roy Disney, the early animated movies, Disneyland, and the Florida project which has come to be Walt Disney World. This week, I began my second seminar class, Leadership 101, where we're discussing Disney's structure of management that has ultimately led to the company's great success! I'm finding that this is intriguing to learn about from both a guest and a cast member perspective. In the next classes, we're going to be learning about what it means to be a good leader/manager and we will eventually be having a class where Disney Leaders and Executives will come meet with us for some Q&A.

Yesterday, our apartment celebrated another birthday - yay for Luci! We had brunch (with Mickey waffles, of course), I had class, then met back up with everyone at Hollywood Studios where Luci and I rode Tower of Terror twice in a row because it's our favorite! We all then took aim at Toy Story Midway Mania (another favorite)! When we came home, the house was decorated for Luci, and there was cake and candles and singing in the dark (because ambiance is important in all scenarios) and just overall awesomeness filled our apartment before she met up with other friends of hers for most birthday festivities.

This week, my schedule worked out where I have three days off in a row; it's been nice to be able to take care of errands and laundry without rush :) I'm still loving my work location and my coworkers. I now feel fairly confident in the tasks of the cone shop which is comforting. One thing that has really stood out to me while at work is the simple blessing of the physical location of the cone shop; I look out the west windows and can see Main Street USA and any entertainment that passes by, and then I can look out the north windows and there's the freakin' castle!!!

These past two months have gone by so fast, and I know the next two are gonna go by even faster! Getting excited for Christmas time!!

All love,

Carlie

dinner with our mamas at chef art smith's homecoming florida kitchen!

so excited!

the two witches, woody, and buzz off to mickey's not so scary halloween party

left: mama and me hallo-ready!

right: lolo and me on main street!

we haaaaad to meet buzz of course!! he tried to leave us in charge

mid-way through our evening

hollywood studio's rockin' roller coaster and EPCOT's United Kingdom pavilion

been very into sweet potatoes and avocados for my breakfasts and green giant's individual frozen veggie boxes for dinner!

here's a cat

and here's my chip tea cup

we were very excited for luci's birthday, so we wore luci's birthday hats that her mom sent us a day early 

 obligatory random picture of tower of terror just to commemorate the fact that we rode it twice

roomie-selfie waiting in line for toy story

rebecca, muah, luci, lasha, and tiffani

aaaaaand surprise! at the workout room today, i had some visitors! hello turkeys.

Bye Hurricane

Hey y'all, so a hurricane just went by Florida - that was interesting! We had been tracking the storm, had been prepared days in advance, and planned to stay in our apartment for 36 hours, though we ended up just getting showers and a blustery night. In short, they were expecting the eye of the storm to make contact with land around Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, but the storm kept wobbling east, so it only ever paralleled land. There's still lots of damage to the coast, but this kept from things getting rough further inland.

For the 3rd and 4th time ever, Walt Disney World closed! They never do that - proof to a lot of college program participants just how powerful this storm was expected to be! I was glad to not have to go into work on Thursday.

Though we weren't directly affected by the hurricane's wind, the preparation beforehand was interesting. It was pretty weird to see Walmart with empty shelves where water, radios, and flashlights once were, and the checkout lines were something like the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving. Definitely quite a learning experience in terms of emergency preparedness; we're feeling very blessed and ready to get back to a regular work schedule!

Fun fact: "wobble" is an official meteorologist term

left: first of two trips to walmart   right: check out lines at walmart on tuesday

these storms consistently produce some beautiful colors in the sky 

top: pre-storm view from our balcony
bottom: the only debris we got 

that was real fun to see coming. we only experienced what's in the green; the yellow stayed away from us (don't mind my scientific meteorologist terms)

the essentials were prepped

 we had a slumber party with the news (i'm realizing that i've been watching the same channel for 24 hours and i still don't know any of the newscasters' names - how sad)

Hi October

I don't know how it got to be October so soon, but "fall" is in full swing at the Magic Kingdom!

September flew by with some fun happenings; my birthday came around like it tends to every year! My 21st birthday was very special; my roommates were so sweet and filled my room with balloons and streamers, I got to go to the Magic Kingdom, and had yummy drinks with every meal throughout the day :) The next day, my awesome Mama had a huge cake and balloons delivered to my apartment! Enormously blessed :)

Also in September, my first Disney seminar class started which is two hours every week for four weeks. This seminar class is called Disney Heritage and is basically a crash course on the history of the Disney company, the Disney brothers, and the mission/vision behind the company. It's a fun couple of hours - very engaging! After this class, I will have another titled Leadership 101 which I'm looking forward to!

At work, I have primarily worked closing shifts. There's a joke saying that CP (College Program) really stands for Closing Person; this is more of a reality than a joke though :) I have always been a night-owl, so I don't mind! I've just adjusted my daily schedule as I tend to be going to bed around 3am.

Just a couple days ago, Magic Kingdom celebrated the park's 45th anniversary! It was very exciting! In the utilidors (the pathways for cast members underneath the park) there was a DJ and free cupcakes for cast members, and all of the park guests that day and cast members received an exclusive 45th anniversary button! It was a really fun day!


Sending love from Florida!

Carlie

here I am, in action, cashiering at the ice cream shop

even though I got home at 3am, my roommates surprised me with a princess crown on my birthday

felt very adult-y with my mimosa and crab cake eggs benedict for my 21st bday breakfast

exceedingly spoiled by my roommates when i returned from breakfast - very sweet of them

fitting pins/buttons to go into magic kingdom for the day

my roommates have designated me as the "mom" out of the eight of us, so they got me a World's Best Mom pin

by far the biggest accomplishment of the day was defeating Emperor Zurg and becoming Galactic Heroes 

couldn't leave without ice cream from work and a picture at my home away from home - main street usa

main street is as you see here decorated for fall/halloween

all of my roommates came to dinner with me at disney springs :) on the right is a screenshot from our roommate group text - making very serious life decisions.

the day after, my mom had a cake and balloons delivered! thanks mom!!

headed off to my first seminar class!

had my first steak 'n' shake experience and it was wonderful :)

here's fred the lizard, he greets me when i get home every night

major perks of working next to starbucks and the confectionary during closing

the entrance to team disney where one of the cast member discount stores is located

adorable 45th anniversary cupcake