Eggstravaganza

Right around Easter there is a fun event called Egg-stravaganza which is basically an Easter egg hunt around the World Showcase at EPCOT (there is actually a version over in California, too). What you do is buy a map with stickers. It is really reasonably priced, especially for Disney! Then you go around the World Showcase to find the eggs and place the correct character egg in the country it was hidden in. Then you go back to a shop and you get a prize (you can actually get the prize without finding the eggs, but what is the fun in that?)

 I really wanted to do the event and heard that it was really popular in the past and last year they sold out of the maps. Therefore, my roommate Allie and I decided to go on the first day it was offered. So we met at EPCOT after work and the park wasn't too awful since it had been raining so a ton of people had left. 

We had a ton of fun talking and looking for the eggs. We really struggled with the first two in Mexico and Norway, but once we knew what we were looking for we found the rest pretty quickly. I stopped in America to get some food from the smokehouse (a pulled pig slider that was delicious) and Allie got some food in France. After we found all the eggs we headed to the Port of Entry shop to redeem our prize. We got to chose from a selection of eggs that had characters on them. I was looking at the Thumper, Goofy, and White Rabbit eggs, and ended up going with the Thumper one in the spirit of Easter (there was also a Tink, Pluto, and Mr. Toad to chose from). I don't think the cast did it completely right since I had read that we were supposed to participate in the "shell game," but it was the first day so perhaps didn't know exactly what to do and figured it out as the week went on (they were even tallying off which eggs people chose when I think they were supposed to be ringing into the register). 

It was a ton of fun to spend the end of the week and I totally recommend it. Here are some pictures form our adventure.

The Map

Allie and I with our maps and our prizes

A few of the eggs that we found: 

Looking at Places to Live

I have loved living in Falcon Square. It is nice not having to worry about paying rent, safety, I've had great roommates, etc. But I especially love the area of Independence. So I've been looking and it is actually pretty reasonable to rent homes in this neighborhood. All of the outdoor stuff is taken care of, cable and internet are included, still have access to the pools and gyms (which I honestly haven't used yet...). So I think that if I end up staying in Florida I would like to see if I can find roommates that would be willing to stay here. I'm open to moving elsewhere, but I just love the serenity of the neighborhood and not being in a super touristy area. Well, I guess now I just have to keep getting my name out there, cross my fingers, and hope that I can find a way to stay down here, because I love working for Disney, I love my job, and I love the people. At least now I have an idea that it could be reasonable to stay in this area. :)

Sandhill Cranes around one of many of the ponds in Independence

Fun Group, Fantastic Day Part 1: Hollywood Studios

Nick and I met up with Mike, his sister Allison, and his friend Hannah for a fun day at the parks. Nick had a long night out the night before downtown with his roommates so I ended up driving since he wasn't up for it. Hannah had never been to studios or epcot so it was fun to do things with someone seeing the parks for the first time. I also love going to the parks with people who know a lot of fun facts about the park, so hanging out with Nick and Allison was a ton of fun.

We got to studios and headed to Starbucks to get some drinks and get food for nick. It was crazy seeing the park without the sorcerer's hat. I was skeptical about the park without the without the hat, but it really was nice theming without it so I hope they don't ruin it by constructing something annoying there or else I might miss the hat again. We finished the goods and headed over to start at the great movie ride. it was a fun one. we got got the western robber scene which was fun since it is not done all the time. Then we got stuck in the final scene. Our guide showed us her favorite starts which was funny. We started to move but got stuck again partway through the doorway so the other guide started if you want the car to move clap your hands.

no hat!!!! no way! There's been a theater back there?!?!!

Then we headed over to Rockin' Roller Coaster for our fast passes. Then they had reservations for 50's prime time. I got a chicken Caesar salad. I love milkshakes but wasn't hungry enough to get one. I finished my salad so I got a clean plate sticker. Nick only got onion rings and didn't finish so he only got half a sticker. Nick treated me so we agreed I would buy dinner (but I forgot...). 

You could say that we enjoyed it

After lunch we were walking by Indiana Jones and there was a show starting soon so we decided to go. We had a few minutes before our fast passes started so we walked by the Cinderella carriage on Streets of America. There was a super long line so we didn't wait for a picture but we did run into Nick and Mikes friend Spencer who I had met at the 4th of July. Afterward we headed to our fast passes at Star Tours. To end our trip at Studios we headed over to Tower of Terror so Hannah could see how it was different from California (which was fun since she didn't realize it moved forward). 

Wait?!?! this ride moves forward AND is random!?!?!

The End of an Era

Finally returned my costume today. It only took me a couple of weeks past my last shift as a presenter, but I finally did it. (which is kinda sad since I literally drive by the DAK costuming building everyday to my new job...) I think I was partially putting it off planning on taking a last picture in my costume, especially since I never got one with the hat. Well, I still never got one with the full costume + hat, but here is a picture I took with the hat before I turned it in. 

It was a sad day to officially be done with my explorer gear (especially my WE slider) but also glad to be done with the extra stuff in my small closet at the same time.

Super Bowl Sunday

I slept in today since I stayed up so late. I took a shower, did some laundry, and reorganized some of my stuff since I am moving out of Megan's apartment this week and back in to Falcon Square. I was going to head to Studios again, but by the time I was motivated it wasn't going to be worth it. I also took an online assessment that I had received on Friday that I needed to have complete before Wednesday. It was only supposed to take 40 min but ended up taking about twice that. We will see if anything comes of it later this week. Megan came home during the assessment and went out again to do some errands or something. I also bought some spinach artichoke dip to eat while watching the super bowl but I can't figure out how to get the TV to work so I am just typing this while watching Malcolm in the Middle on Netflix before I fold my laundry and heat up the dip to eat. 

I guess Mike and Amber ate lunch with Nick at Studios, so this is the second weekend in a row they have hung out (last weekend they went to Universal) so I might see if they might include me in the future. Now that I am going to have normal weekends off I need to find some new friends (since most of my old ones left already :'( ) so hopefully I can become friends with my new roommates so I can have more people to do stuff with. I have been good with these restful weekends but I am ready to do some more stuff in the future.

A Saturday at Hollywood Studios

Woke up early, but decided to go back to sleep. Once I took Loki for a walk I went over to Dunkin' Donuts to get 2 donuts, a bagel, and a white chocolate latte. The latte wasn't too great. I have decided that the brownie batter was better than the cookie dough one. I got the pictures off of the Disney PhotoPass website since some where going to expire the next day. I booked some FastPasses, but then I took a nap so I headed over to Studios to hang out until close. I went on Tower of Terror where the lady behind me thought it was a real hotel and told her husband to book a room there next time. The two people in my row were behind me but were stupid so they cut in front of me in the line so I got to sit front and center which was awesome. Then I waited single rider for Rockin' Roller Coaster. The Family Holiday tickets are going to expire soon so I decided to get a pop (which was pretty much all ice) and explore the gift shops. It was really weird to think about things that are in my categories that I will be working on.

This dog is something else. lol!

I headed over to catch the next drawing class which is one of my favorite things to do. I had the same animator who I drew Pooh and Eeyore with. I thought it would have been pretty awesome to draw another character from Winnie the Pooh, but he had already picked out Grumpy. I think that it turned out pretty good. Nick tried to get a hold of me at the end of the class to let me know he got out of work so we decided to hang out in the park.

Not too shabby

We met up in front of what is left of the hat. While I waited for him I looked at the pin cart. They have some cool Star Wars pins with the characters on different attractions. I don't like Star Wars but I even considered buying them. Instead I decided to get the spiny Doug pin that I had been debating getting for a long time. I decided to go for it and get it before our 40% holiday discount expires. 

The hat looks kinda sad

Eventually I saw Nick walking down the street. We headed over to the Great Movie Ride. We were in the last row which is a pretty crappy spot, but we still had fun. Then we went over to the Muppet movie. While we waited for the next show we talked about the opportunities of staying down here in Florida after our internships end. At the end of the show there was a cute little girl asking her dad what they were going to do since the theater was destroyed with the cannon. He reassured her that they would rebuild it for the next show. It was about 20 minutes until park close and Fantasmic had just gotten out so we decided to head out instead of fighting the crowds or anything.

I was craving Jimmy Johns so I decided to find one. It was pretty close, but once I drove there I realized it was in Old Town so I basically couldn't get it since I couldn't find a parking space on a Saturday night. I decided to head over to Publix and bought some stuff to eat for the next couple of days. I stayed up pretty late watching Netflix and whatnot.

New ID and Last Day Off

Got the okay email to get my new ID so I headed over to Access Control at Disney University this morning. I had heard many people call it the Disney DMV since you have to wait a long time, but that wasn't my experience at all. I went around 11 and took a number (number 50 to be exact) and no one was waiting at all. So a man called number 49 (who wasn't there) and took me instead. I turned in my old ID, he looked up some stuff on the computer, took my picture, told me to take a seat and I had my new ID in just a handful of minutes. Now I have a new picture ID without an expiration date like my old one so I will probably wouldn't have to get a new one if I were to stay on with the company.

I also found out that I am starting on Tuesday. I am excited to start but now I am a little nervous too. Since I hadn't heard anything I was almost hoping to start on Wednesday so I could spend Tuesday with Nick since we don't have the same days off, but at least I will get the same paycheck as I did as a presenter.

I got some Chick-Fil-A for lunch and spent the rest of the day resting and watching Netflix. I was going to head over to Hollywood Studios but found out it was closing soon and decided not to. So I ended up just watching Malcolm in the Middle and taking a nap. I was supposed to hang out with Sandra, Abel, and Ashley S, but Sandra wasn't feeling well so we decided to go out to dinner tomorrow after I get off work instead.