Culinary Day - 22nd Jan

Today I had work at 4pm again. I had a much less productive morning then yesterday morning because I was tired form he days before. So I mostly just did small things around the apartment and chatted with the roommates until it was time to get ready for work. 

Culinary Day:
So because I am working at the Flagship restaurant at Disney the Grand Floridian I have some fairly extensive training and the assessment to do. And as part of that training I get to do a Culinary day which meant I had a chefs outfit and I stayed inside the kitchen and went to each section of the inside and outside kitchen and got....wait for it......to tray EVERYTHING and ANYTHING I wanted. It was fantastic!! I had the greatest time talking to all of the chefs and eating their food and learning how each section comes together to create the guests orders. It was awesome! I learnt heaps aswell.

And just as I was about to leave the dessert chef asked what dessert I wanted to try - so I was allowed to try a whole dessert just like the guests eat it. So I decided on a Chocolate and Banana Torte - it was delicious!

But that was pretty much my day really. I went home very very full but it was quite possibly the best shift I've ever worked! 

I will definitely upload some photos of my normal outfit soon!

On The Job Training Day 1 - 21st Jan

Today I had my first training day at my Restaurant; Citricos at the Grand Floridian. Which has American Cuisine with a Mediterranean spin!

But I didn't' start work until 4pm so I got up at about 9am and and then did some washing and tidied my room quite a bit as the last couple of days I have been coming and going quite a bit so there was stuff everywhere.

And then at 11am I caught the bus to Walmart. I had exactly an hour before I had to catch the next bus home. So i ran around and did everything that I needed to do.

When I got back I had to put everything away and then I cleaned the kitchen so I made the apartment look nice and clean! 

And that I started getting ready for work. I didn't start work until 4pm but I had to catch the 2:30 bus. I was feeling very nervous but it was good to keep busy around the apartment to keep my mind off of that!

I got ready for work and unfortunately none of my roommates were home so I wasn't able to get any photos or anything like that. But then I headed off to the bus.

Because of the way the bus system works I had to get to the 'Grand' an hour early otherwise I would be late. So when I found where I needed to be I waited for an hour for my trainer to turn up.

She was so lovely and very welcoming - which calmed the nervous a little bit. She took me on a tour of my location - so I finally got to see my restaurant!! It was absolutely amazing! It has the main part of the Kitchen in the restaurant as well as the dessert making area as well. And then there is a beautiful view of the lake that is between Magic Kingdom and the Grand. 

So I followed my trainer around all night learning different things about the restaurant and the way that it works. And then at 8pm I was able to stop and watch the fireworks from Magic Kingdom from outside our windows. It was beautiful - no one else really cared but I loved it! And I am able to do that every night while I'm here!

It was a very very slow night at Citricos so the night sorta dragged on a little bit - but I loved learning new things and my trainer was very helpful! 

I finished work at 10:30pm (this will be my shift every day as we are only open for dinner) but I missed the bus so I had about an hour to wait - but it gave me a chance to ring Mum and Dad and tell them about my first shift so that was good! 

Overall I love my restaurant - and I like I'm going to love working there!

**No photos unfortunately!

Workplace Orientation - 20th Jan

Mostly everyone should know that I've been placed at the Grand Floridian which is just across the lake from Magic Kingdom and Cinderella's Castle! So today I had to be at the Grand Floridian Convention Centre at 9am - which where our orientation day leaders met us and took us backstage. We learnt a lot of theory and history behind the Victorian Themed Resort. Then they took us on a 90 minute tour of the whole location - that is just a basic overview of the place so thats an indication of the size that it is. Unfortunately because we were 'On show' the whole time we were unable to take photos. But it was absolutely amazing! The Grand Floridian is set in the Victorian era and everything is done with such precision and it has such detail so basically its just beautiful and words can not describe it!

But anyways once we got back to our training room we met the front of house manager who said that we have all been picked and selected to work at the Grand and that he need to always provide the highest quality of standard! It was rather daunting! Bu then he gave us all a certificate to say that we had completed 'Welcome day' and we also got a beautifully decorated envelope that had the Mission Statement of the Grand Floridian Resort and a replicate of the first key that opened the original doors back in 1988! It was such special thing to get! And it really felt like we were being accepted into the family!

After the tour we had to go to the costuming centre to get our costumes!! So it was a bit of a hike to get there and it was massive! So I was there for about an hour and a half trying on different sizes (the sizes are all weird there) and then we had to get the bus home! 

I didn't get home until about 6pm and Hannah had promised me that we were going to see Wishes tonight! which was at 8pm. So we had a quick dinner and then although being really tired got on the bus and headed back to Magic Kingdom for the second night in a row! We didn't really do much before so we tried to find a good spot for the fireworks which was on the right hand side of the castle which was more of a view of the fireworks (so when I got back I'm going to get a good front on view) and then we waited for Celebrating the Magic (which is what we watched the night before - but we loved it so much!) and while we waited we were able to eat free Mickey Ice-Creams which was awesome! and then we watched the light show parade which was also really cool! Then we went and did a bit of shopping around at Main Street! And then we were well and truly exhausted so we jumped on the bus and headed home! 

It was great to finally get to see Wishes but it was also good to have an earlier night then the night before - as we were all pretty tired! 

**Photos to come!

Florida Mall - 19th Jan

Today Hannah, Rayzhaan (2 of my roommates) and I had a well needed shopping day! How sad I have been in America for almost a week and I hadn't had a chance to go shopping yet. But anyways, the bus does trips to the mall all day, 2 days a week - so luckily we all had the day off. 

This shopping centre was awesome - it was massive and I am very surprised that we didn't get lost! But we had too much fun wondering around and looking in the shops! 

Of course we had to go in and look! Definitely will be going back for some stuff at a later date! 

They had this shop that had the greatest tasting Tea - and I'm not even a tea drinker! But we enjoyed tasting all the different types that they had on offer!

There was this very very long line outside Apple and we couldn't work out what it was for- so  of course we asked! And the lady told us like we were children that it was the line for the iPhone 6! These people were waiting inline for a phone that came out in September! Crazy!

Anyways, then we found:

And after way too long and even more money we walked out 3 very happy chappies! Haha. I love my new stuff and I will definitely definitely be back. I think having Sephora about a half an hour trip from me is a dangerous thing!

We then went to Forever 21! And this store was SO big that Hannah and I actually lost, yes lost - Rayzhaan! We asked if they could use the stores speakers to call her to the desk but they couldn't. So we had to do laps and laps around the store yelling her name! We did eventually find her! 

And then after all that excitement we needed some lunch! This is like the American version of Chinese food! Nonetheless it was delicious!

AND I FINALLY BOUGHT MY SELFIE STICK (please don't judge it is a very practical piece of equipment when I am travelling or visiting the parks by myself!)

After the Florida Mall we went to the Outlets Mall that is literally about a 20 minutes bus and walk from our afpatment. We spent some more money on a few items (our wallets were still recovering from Sephora) We were there until about 6.30 and then finally headed home! 

As much as we wanted to stay in the apartment tonight we had already planned to go into Magic Kingdom to see Wishes (Firework display to music at Cinderella's Castle). So we literally just got changed and headed back out. We had met a friend today at the shops and she came with us! 

This is Main Street Magic Kingdom:

We had dinner at Cosmic Rays (I think) which is the 3rd busiest quick service restauart in Florida!! Luckily it wasn't busy when we were there. The food was awful aswell so we probably won't be back. 

After dinner we went on the tea cups!

At about 9:30pm we discovered that Space Mountain (a ride) had only a 35 minute wait time, which well never happens so of course we got in line thinking that we should be out well before Wishes at 10pm. Hannah promised me that we would be out in time. She promised!! But the line was definitely longer then we first thought so after the ride we got out and the fireworks had already started. So we watched a little bit but didn't't get the whole spectacular experience. I was most upset. However we took our time to walk around to have a good look at the castle,

And then as we were all taking photos in front of the castle:

Antoher performance/entertainment started (which we later found out was called Celebrating the Magic) basically they projecting scences from the old and the new films and cartoons (like Mickey) on the the castle and then blasted music to go along with it. It was absolutely amazing! We loved it SOO much! I have some photos of it below:

Like how amazing is that?! 

Amazing! I shall put some videos up later as you can really see the projection a lot better in the videos! So although we missed Wishes we still had a fantastic night! We loved the Celebrating the Magic so much that we said that we will go back all the time just to watch that. But as you can imagine it was a massive day (we definitely utilised our day off well I think) But when we got home we were exhausted! But well worth it after the day we had! :)

Training Day 1 - 18th Jan

Today was a very VERY early start - my alarm went off at 4.45am and there was definitely not enough coffee in the world that would have woken me up this morning! I had to be at the bus by 6.15am and be at Disney University by 7:30am as I had 2 classes to take today. One was Operations and the second one was Welcome to Food and Beverage. They were both 4 hours long with a half hour break in the middle. 

It was not fun at all.

I understand that it is a serious part of employment but seriously I was falling asleep and I can't sleep easily! We learnt a lot about safety in the workplace and some more Disney rules and regulations. And unfortunately because my official role here at DisneyWorld is 'Full Service Food and Beverage I had to do a course on food cooling and heating and I don't have anything to do with food in my duties. So that was a bit annoying. 

They do supply us with shoes for work which is great! They are so comfy and very supportive! 

But unfortunately that was really all my day consisted of. Once I got home it was almost 5:30pm. Laura and I made Tacos for dinner and just chilled out afterwards. I will be going to bed super early and having a great sleep in tomorrow - as it is my day off and we are planning to go Outlet Shopping - YAY!!

Animal Kingdom - 17th Jan

Today we got up super early (like 8am - I know not really early but we didn't get to bed until about 2:30am) because we were excited becauseeeeeee...... today we were going to our first park at Disney World - Animal Kingdom! Now personally I would have loved to have gone to Magic Kingdom however here in America it is Mutrin Luther King Public holiday long weekend so it would have been so busy today! So we decided to go to the next best thing! And we are so glad we di - it was a fantastic day! 

After a few bus rides we were finally up and out at Animal Kingdom all 'bright eyed and bushy tailed', as they say! By the time we got into the park it was about 12pm - so naturally it was lunch time! Haha. I got a sandwich and it either came with a packet of chips or a packet of carrots. Because I was trying to be healthy I went with the carrots as 

After lunch we went on a ride in Dinoland and then WE GOT TO MEET PLUTO AND GOOFY!! It was my first time meeting a character and I could not have been more thrilled! 

Me, Laura and Hannah (my Roomates!)

It was the greatest - we all had a blast! And then after that we waited in line for Expedition Everest!

Yep thats right - Disney has re-created Mt. Everest and when your waiting in line it feels like you're actually in Nepal. It is great, Disney knows how to make even a boring wait time interesting! Considering its one of the biggest rides at AK we only had to wait about half an hour! We absolutely loved it and had a ball so we jumped back into a single rider line (for about 10 minutes) and rode it separately again! 

After Everest we wanted to ride the River Rapids not thinking  anything of it until we were on the ride. YOU ACTUALLY GET DRENCHED! We were all in jeans and jumpers and we got so wet it was hilarious! 

Probably the next most exciting thing for me that day was the fact that I bought Animal Kingdom Mickey Ears!!

I love them so much! I bought them so that every time I go back to Animal Kingdom (will definitely be a regular occurrence as I loved it!) I can wear my Giraffe Ears! Yippee!

When we got home we all made dinner and for the first time since arriving here in the U.S I was able to Skype my family! It was a great way to end a great day at Animal Kingdom!

Traditions - 16th Jan

SORRY FOR THE DELAY - HAD A VERY BUSY BUT FANTASTIC 24 HOURS!

So this morning was quite a chill one. The most exciting thing that me and one of my roommates did was we went and bought a second-hand Clothes Air-dryer. As stupid and ridiculous as it sounds but Americans do not know/use air dryers or at least not down in Florida!! We asked multiple times at Walmart and no one could help us! There is a Trading Post Facebook page for DCP (Disney College Program) people to join and sell things amongst each other which is where we found this clothes hanger. The roommates and I were more then happy to get it - it was hilarious how happy we were! Apparently American's machine dry everything! ANYWAYS, so we headed off at about 9am to the bus to Chatham (another housing complex). A we didn't really think about it but once we go the air dryer we would have to carry it on to the bus - and of course I was nominated by my roomie to carry it: 

I was freezing in this photo!

So once we got it home we had a few hour to kill before our next Orientation session! This session is called 'Traditions' it is a right of passage for every Cast Member at Disney! So I made some lunch (chicken breast and salad) and then I got ready. We had to wear business Attire. 

Traditions:

So we were already for Traditions at 1:30 for it to start at 3pm. To get to where the Traditions was being held we had to go on to Disney property!!

 Traditions was held at Disney University:

Traditions went for about 6 hours in total! It had it's "boring parts" where they talked about the necessary safety and workplace procedures but there was also a lot of fun things! 

1. We got our first set of Mickey ears!:

2. We left Disney University and had a tour of Magic Kingdom and the backstage areas aswell! 

AND WE GOT TO SEE THE CASTLE!

3. Then we came back and we got to meet the Boss!

I don't know about you guys but he is going to be the best boss EVER!

4. And then last but certainly not least - we got out name badges!

I love it! Even if it does say "South Brisbane" on it! And I can't wait to wear it proerly as an Official Cast Member of Walt Disney World Orlando!

After Traditions finished we rushed home (had about 10 minutes at home) and then ran back tot he bus and caught it to Downtown Disney!

We met the other Roomates there and went to:

It is like a food place that is also a Bowling Alley! It was a lot of fun! We all bought cups that you can take to machines that look like this: 

It has HEAPS of different flavours of soft drink that you can choose from a nd fill up as much as you want as many times as you want! It was great!

Laura and I shared a BBQ Chicken pizza! It was massive but delicious! 

And then we shared a equally yummy dessert - Browny with Ice-cream!

It's gonna be so hard not to get fat in America! But the food is so good and SOO cheap its ridiculous! Overall it was a great day!! And a great night out with the Roommates! It was the first time we had sat down and ate a meal together! We are gonna have a great 6 months together, I think!