Celebrating our 240th Independence

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays of the year and of course is especially made better with a 3 day weekend! After a week of not sleeping very well I enjoyed some extra time of relaxation, but also had a great time celebrating in the parks!

Saturday 2nd

My roommate rented a room at the Hard Rock Hotel so we had a ball at Universal! I'd been inside to go to the Velvet lounge during Mardi Gras (Thank you Mardi Gras Universal app for free drinks! What what?!?!) The rooms were even more amazing and we could even see CityWalk and the parks from our room! We had planned to spend the afternoon at the pool but when we first checked in it was pouring rain so we headed to CityWalk to go to one of the best places ever: Red Oven Pizza! It is seriously soooo good. Instead of heading back to the pool we decided to just hang out at the parks. We saw so of the cars cycling at the Hulk so hopefully it means that it will be back up and smoother than ever! I even got to watch part of the 100 years of movies nighttime show that I've never seen before. I'll definitely have to go back and see the whole thing. Before heading in for a relatively early night in we headed back to CityWalk to grab a bite to eat at Hot Dog Hall of Fame (where I of course got the Detroit option!)

Sunday 3rd 

We had such a great night sleep. Those beds at Hard Rock are COMFY! Today is the day that the holiday celebrations really began. Disney knows how to do fireworks so of course they do special ones for the holiday where they come hand and hand at both EPCOT and MK. This might seem to be a torn decision on what to attend, but luckily Magic Kingdom perimeter ones are on the 3rd and 4th, so I of course wanted to get the best of both worlds. My roommates and I met up with my roommate Sam's friends from out of town right before the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, which were amazing. I do have to say the best spot to see them is in the Hub. Afterwards we decided to go show our visitors Animal Kingdom at night. We were only there for about an hour, but we got a ton done including dinosaur twice, Everest, and a great safari where we saw the Hyenas!!!! I was pretty much jumping up and down because I've been waiting forever to see them! After a great night, Sam and her friends went back to MK for extra magic hours until 3am, but Corey, Scott, and I headed over to the new Applebees for some half price apps.

Monday 4th

Finally was the actual holiday! I celebrated by the all american decisions to go to Starbucks for their frappuccino deal and Five Guys for a great American cheeseburger. Then Corey, Scott, and I met up with Sam and her friends again for an evening of fun at EPCOT. We were lucky enough to be able to go on Test Track and the new Soarin', which I do think it is an improvement over the old one. Then we made our way around the world showcase before playing some Heads Up waiting for the fireworks. 

Overall, while we definitely know that summer has hit us with some crazy heat and humidity, it was a fantastic weekend with a good balance of relaxation, friends, parks, and celebrations. I have to say if you are ever in town for the Independence Day fireworks they are totally worth the crowds to watch! Like I said, Disney knows how to do fireworks. :) After such a great weekend, it was definitely hard to get up to go to work on Tuesday! lol

Guest Relations Numbers

One of the most popular Alumni Only Professional Internships is the Guest Relations Internship. For Alumni Only you have to have done a CP or PI to be eligible to apply (or currently doing one). Guest relations cast members are very highly regarded in the parks and is perhaps the most coveted front line position. Since this is an internship with such high interest and acceptance should be rolling out in a matter of weeks/days, I decided to look up how many current Guest Relations PIs there are. Note that this is one of those internships that is very likely to vary the numbers by semester. For example, I have heard that while My Disney Experience with the new FP+ system  and magic bands rolled out a lot more interns were accepted than normal to help with what was anticipated to be an extra crazy time in the parks. 

Right now there are currently a total of 32 Guest Relations Professional Interns and here is how they break down by park:
15 Magic Kingdom
7 EPCOT
2 Animal Kingdom
4 Hollywood Studios
4 Disney Springs

It seems to change each semester when Guest Relations PIs find out which park they are in. I remember a semester when the recruiter used to tell you when they were giving the offer. There have also been semesters where your future leaders will reach out a few weeks after your acceptance (similar to how MIs find their placement). I think there have been a few different scenarios as well so who knows how this semester/future semesters will play out. I guess we will all just have to wait a little longer to see! Good luck to all who have applied!

Here is a link if you want to see a similar post about MIs: Management Internship Numbers