your once upon a time... is now!

HELLO from walt disney world!!!!!!! 
okay so i'm not really on disney property right now, but i'm dang close! sorry it has taken me so long to update. and yes, i am missing my blogpost from the last day in london. and it was definitely one to remember. i did write a short draft though so i just need to organize it. i will publish it eventually!! 
so i guess i should start from the beginning! after a quick 3 days in logan i was off to orlando with my mom! i am so glad she came with me! we spent the night in the hyatt that is in the orlando airport because we got in way late tuesday night. i had early morning check in the next day! we were planning on getting there early so that i could get into the nice apartments, chatham or patterson court, but that fell through. we were so tired! but we didn't think it would be that big of a deal... so we rolled in about 15 minutes before check in was supposed to start and come to find out chatham and patterson are already full?! what the heck!? turns out people had been lining up since 11 pm the night before and the cp (cp=college program) kids weren't moved out all the way from spring yet. so yeah, i am living in the infamous vista way!! almost everyone i have talked to has said to avoid vista at all costs because it is gross. i thought this meant cleanliness, so when i first walked into my apartment i was pleasantly surprised. it's really not bad! except the shower. the shower could be better. but yeah i think they meant nasty in another way. i was talking to my roommate the other day and apparently, according to playboy, vista way is the number two easiest place in the COUNTRY to get laid. yeah sorry. that was a little blunt but i didn't really know how else to put it. hahaha. so yeah thats where i am living!! definitely not in provo anymore eh?!
speaking of not being in provo, i opted not to match up with BYU roommates so i'm not living with any members! it's definitely different from anything i've ever done but i think it will be a great experience. my roommate's name is Brittany and she is from a tiny town in texas and goes to school in san antonio! she's great! we get along really well. i think i might come home with a texas twang though! she has a pretty strong accent. my other 4 roommates are from all over the east coast. so far the only kids i have met from the west coast are other byu kids. i am also surprised how many people doing cp have never been to disney world before! but back to roomates, Cassie is from Maine, goes to school in massachusetts, and works in entertainment! she is "friends" with some familiar characters you might know! Donald, minnie, mickey... sound familiar?  she has a very fun job! her roomate, margaret is from massachusetts and works in transportation. in the other room is Taylor and Alexis. Alexis is from Pittsburgh and works quick service (counter service) food and beverage at the all-star resorts. Taylor is working slow food (sit down restaurant) at the animal kingdom lodge! and then Brittany is working front gate at Epcot. so we have a lot of variety! alexis and cassie both turn 21 while we are here and alexis was talking about how smashed she was gonna get on her birthday so that will be interesting hahaha. i live in 'wellness' housing which is for the kids under 21, so no alcohol. but there are a lot of smokers here. it is definitely different but i think it will be good for me because this is what the real world is like. the real challenge for me right now is the language. lots of swearing makes it hard not to get those words stuck in your vocabulary as well so yeah. 
okay so the first day! so i got in line here at vista to get my assignment and whatnot. they are so crazy efficient here it's nuts. in one line i probably went through like 7 stations and got so much information... i got my id, where i was gonna live, signed my life away... etc. etc. twas great. they had a little holding area for the parents so i went and met my mom over there. before i continue i need to stop and make an observation. everyone here is HUGE. fitness is not a concern. it is terrible! alright  back to where i was. i moved in a little, met the roomies, went shopping at good old wal-mart. it was grand! then i had a meeting with my ysa ward! there are quite a few people from byu and byu-i here. i met my bishop, the rs pres, the elders quorum president and some more... most of them work for disney so that is cool. sadly they got kicked out before they could really get to know us. security here are nazis. the elders got in for about ten minutes before they got kicked out. i guess the landlord said they can only be here if they are in an apartment teaching a lesson. so that was sad. then they kicked the rest of our ward out... i'm not really sure why to be honest with you. so that was sad. definitely not utah eh? after that i went and stayed with my mom at her hotel, the pop century! what a funny place. it's a value hotel. it's honestly still really nice but it had some very interesting people. and by interesting i mean white trash to the max. it's the largest hotel in the country! so of course we got lost. but in the process we found a possum!! hahahah. we had a good time chasing that around. my roommate thought it was funny we were so excited by a possum. 
i forgot we also had casting! we were all bused out to the casting building to find out what role we had. luckily for me i already knew, fantasyland merchandise! the best! but this building was nuts. the whole theme is argyle... which seems random right? it's to match walt disney's socks! yes, even in the cast member buildings disney doesn't lose any detail. oh and by the way, in disney lingo, cast member means employee! we are all part of the 'show' so we are cast members :) in the casting building we did all of our background checks and formal stuff. they had to take my fingerprints and everything! it was long and kinda boring but necessary. after that was more shopping with mom and a night at the pop century! 
okay the next day was thursday! this day we had our housing meeting at this other apartment complex called the commons. it is way nice. made me realize why people say vista is nasty. oh well, i guess. so we walk into this meeting thing and it is literally like a party! there was fog machines and super loud music and a light show! definitely had some disney magic going on. the 'teacher' was more like an emcee and he was super good. he was a recent cp grad and now words full time for the company. it is really reassuring to learn that almost every cast member started out with the college program! but yeah so we did more boring stuff there, basically were told not to drugs and don't drink if you're not 21. the basics. after that me and my mom went to downtown disney! we ate at the crab house on the big steam boat and it was super good! nom nom nom. we also shopped at the surf store i really like in there. it was a winner of a day. 
friday was a free day! so me and mom went into the parks! wee hoo! first we went into magic kingdom to spy on my costume (more disney terms, it's not a uniform, it's  a costume!) it's a so-so one. could be worse, could be better. you will see it soon enough. we explored new fantasyland, did some random rides... just walked around mostly. then we went to my favorite... epcot :) oh  i love epcot. we went straight to world showcase and ate at mexico and it was really yummy. then another night at pop century! i felt so bad i wasn't staying with my roomates but oh well. they have 6 months of me. 
saturday was traditions, the first day we get paid! i was super stoked for traditions because i heard you tour magic kingdom all day and just get stoked to work but i think they changed how it works because we were hardly in there at all. we had to watch this horrible follow along lesson for like an hour and everyone was hungry and it was no fun. but we did go into mk (magic kingdom) and that was great. we were backstage for a lot of the time and we used the famous utilidoor!!!!! short for utility corridor. it's the first floor of the magic kingdom, yes, the park is the second floor! but the utilidoor looks and operates like a tunnel. it's super intense. you can't take pictures down there because if our guests were to see it would ruin the magic, but i might just sneak one in before i leave in january. just maybe. thanks to the utilidoor guests never see trash, or cast members out of place. for instance, you'll never see a frontierland cowboy in tomorrowland. that's just unacceptable! there are cafeterias and all sorts of stuff down there. a lot of people saw some characters and started freaking out. today i saw snow white with just hair and makeup done and it was so funny. hahah definitely something you can't help but stare at. but on our tour of the mk we learned about the four keys. 1- safety 2-courtesy 3-show and 4-efficiency. now you all know the secrets of the walt disney company!! so yeah we had that pounded into our brains. but in a fun way. we learned some key things about our role- like how we are always supposed to offer to take pictures of the whole family or get on eye level with a disabled guest or child. and of course, smile!! 
after that we headed back to 'disney university' to finish up the nitty gritty stuff. during our class, we heard a knock on the door. guess who it was?! mickey!!! he had brought a big present for us! it was our nametags! he was so cute and played a little trivia with us. i answered a question and got a little plastic mickey. he said our nametags still needed a little pixie dust and said he would come back later with them. so about twenty minutes later they roll in a big glass case on a velvet tablecloth... and inside were our nametags. this is corny but it seriously was a magical moment. i wont ever forget that! and then they open up the case and they're all resting on this gold glittery fabric that obviously supposed to be pixie dust. it was so great. seeing that name tag was AMAZING. highlight of this whole thing so far. 
then traditions was over so it was the last night with my mama! :( we headed over to epcot again and ate at france. it was good! gotta love the frenchies. then we said goodbye :( bye bye mama. 
and no we are at today! today i had theme park orientation from 7-11. i had to get up dang early because the buses take so long. i was up at 530! but i was in magic kingdom all day basically and learning a lot and having lots of fun! we went to every land except frontierland. we had two leaders, claire and joseph. joseph does attractions at liberty square and trains at haunted mansion so he knows EVERYTHING about it. it was cool. for instance, the gargoyle in the cemetery is actually a gargoyle from a european castle that was being torn down that walt bought! also he works the steamboat on the river and it can get up to 160 degrees up there in the summer! another cool thing, if you notice liberty squares pavement has a brown path in the middle. it's to match the time period! in those days they'd dump their chamber pots into the street, so the brown path is supposed to look like the sewer. also there are no bathrooms in liberty square because plumbing wasn't invented in 1783! let's see what else.. the shutters are all off-center because back in the day they would have used leather as hinges, not metal, so it would've worn out. the architecture also follows the geography of the US, starting with gothic pennyslvania at haunted mansion... all the way down to st louis something or other. then there's a bridge that symbolizes the mississippi and you cross over into frontierland!! it starts with the midwest, the south, colorado, then ends in good old bryce canyon utah! which is the setting for big thunder mountain railroad. our leader was also a skipper on the jungle river boats so he was way fun to listen to.  miss claire worked in guest relations at the front of main street usa. she was an older lady but she was neat, very southern and very knowledgable. she does VIP tours. we learned lot today. i know i am forgetting a ton. we were in the utilidoors a lot.. and got these little pamphlets called tell-a-casts which we are basically supposed to memorize every week so that we can answer guests questions. its mostly information on attractions, meet n greets, park closings and openings and all that stuff. 
after theme park orientation (which was technically a class, called 'your once upon a time... is now! hence the blog title) i met one of my trainers! i thought i was gonna do something worthwhile with  him but honestly he just gave me a schedule and said see ya tomorrow. so yeah! then i had free time. me taylor and brittany went to epcot and had a lot of fun!! i went on a lot of rides in future world that i have never been on before and it was great. Captain EO, the show with michael jackson, is hilarious by the way. i would also recommend living with the land! its cool although its super environmental and shiz. of course soarin and mission space were amazing as usual. test track is closed till late fall! so that was sad. and yeah now i just spent like an hour and a half writing this dang post and i should be sleeping. thanks for reading! i wont be posting as much as i did in london but i will try to do highlights :) have a great day everyone!!