Finally I can update!
Finally I get a chance to update! I would've like to do more detail and maybe I can in future posts but here is pretty much everything that I can remember about the last 3 days.
Ok the red eye flight from Calgary, I was a little tired but decided I'd try to watch the Pink Panther as my plane had little touch screen tvs in the seats where you could choose movies or music or TV shows to watch. I got about 5 minutes into the movie and decided I was going to try to sleep. I pulled out my iPod, set it to shuffle and unsuccessfully attempted to get some sleep. A few hours later I noticed it was light out and gave up on the sleep, and played some video games until I landed in Montreal.
When I arrived I followed the signs to the USA transfer baggage claim where I met Christine. Jei was also suppsoted to be there but apparently hadn't arrived yet. Christine had all of her bags and within minutes I had mine as well. While we were waiting for Jei and Brodie to show up (we had all planned the same flight to Orlando), we happened to notice some bright pink luggage on the luggage belt. Knowing Jei had bought pink luggage, we checked the tags and realising it was hers, pulled if off the belt for her. Eventually she arrived and Brodie's luggage showed up. We grabbed his luggage and waitied, and waited, and waited... eventually Christine decided to go look for him so we could go through customs, and literly no less than 30 secconds after she left Brodie walked in so we ended up having to wait for Christine.
She didn't take long to show up so we went through customs which was another adventure. Since me and Christine were replacing people on our program we had to go off into a seperate room. Christine had forgotten a bag a few minutes ago by where we had to fill out forms and the customs agent didn't seem too impressed but nothing happend which was fortunate. After a few stressful minutes we were called up (individually) and were asked questions like where we were going and why we were going there. Simple questions and we had our Visa and were off to the gate.
When we arrived in Orlando after a 3 hour flight that seemed much longer, we met our Disney person by our baggage claim, told us where we were staying (Chatham Square which is what I wanted) and he took us off to a waiting area for our bus. There was only 4 people on the bus to Chatham, me, Christine, Matt from Montreal and a guy from Brazil that I didn't meet. WHen we arrived he even requsted to be moved to Vista Way (not sure if it happened). Anyway we found out that me and Matt were in the same apartment, and Christine was in our building just under us! So that was awsome.
Now our bus driver had to drop us out on the sidewalk outside the complex, and our building was in the back corner. This wasn't much of a problem for me and Matt with our rolling suitcases, but Christine had a backpack, laptop case, duffelbag, and a hockey bag... in other words NO WHEELS. Matt took her laptop case on top of his rolling suitcase and I helped her put her hockey bag on as a backpack after she put her backpack on her front. About halfway to our apartment though she couldn't breathe so I swaped her one of my rolling suitcases for her hockey bag for the rest of the trip. At this point I desperatly needed a shower but me and Christine decided to take a quick swim in the pool first.
The Chatham pool was much nicer than I expected! I was expecting it to be cold but it was nice and warm and I plan on visiting it often! Matt came down with me and Christine but tried to take a nap in the sun on one of the lounging chairs. We didn't stay long because we didn't have suntan lotion and started getting hungry. While we were there Christine showed me her shoulder and she definatly broke some blood vessals or something with that hockey bag. We decided to check out the outlet mall for lunch so we headed back for our showers.
When I was done having my shower I checked my e-mail to find out Jei was alone in her apartment and wanted to hang out so I invited her along for food as well. Matt decided to join us and we went to get Christine. When we arrived we found out her roomate Mara had arrived. Mara was interviewed the same time as me and all of us had talked online for abit so she joined us as well and off we went on our short walk (10-15 minutes) to Jei's.
We decided to head to the outlet mall across the road for lunch but that turned into an interesting adventure as well. There was a wall up in teh way so we headed left along to wall to try to find the end, and we eventually did but then we had to walk back towards the outlet mall. After a few minutes of searching (the outdoor mall) we found the foodcourt and headed for subway.
After we ate I had the BRILLANT idea to try going around the other side of the outlet mall since we were going back to Chatham. It made sence in principal since chatham is about half a block farther down then the Commons (where Jei lives and we originally started our trek to the outlet mall). Anyway to make a long story short we had to walk way far out of the way and would up a block further... not sure if anyone was impressed with the suggestion but noone let me know if they were upset.
We then got to show Jei Chatham, and she seemed to enjoy it much more than the Commons. We all headed off to Wal Mart to grab some nessicities like towels and sheets and things like that. I didn't get much food since we decided we'd go Wednesday again so I grabbed a few small things for breakfast.
When we got back I started to finish unpacking (still not done now though) and put away my wal mart items before calling it a night.
Wednesday
Today wound up to be a long day but our elaborate plans didn't work out. Originally we all thought we'd be done early and would be going to Downtown Disney to see Cars, have supper, and I'd get my cell phone as well as our Wal Mart Trip... Turns out that Me, Matt, Christine and Mara had a full day of paper work to do and didn't manage to get home until around 4ish. While we were spending our 3 hours on the bus outside of the Social Security we realised one of my roomates was a good friend of Jeis that she was trying to locate the day before so I suggested instead of taking the bus back to Chatham we'd instead go to the commons and surprise her... well it turns out we were so late she went off to Wal Mart without us so we got to go back to the commons... shortly after we got back she got home and I let Jared (her friend) use my computer to talk to her and she came over. We basically tried to keep up the illusion we didn't know each other until she got here but I'm sure she knew when his room was the same as my room.
Also while this was going on John finally surfaced out of no where and needed to make a trip to Wal Mart as well, since he had teh night off I invited him to join us and he was in Chatham before Jei was.
Anyway since Jei didn't have to go to Wal Mart but a bunch of us still needed food, we left her in the apartment with Jared and made our quick trip to Wal Mart. In an hour I got about 90 dollars worth of food and a few other things I had missed the night before... man it was heavy! Me and Matt both filled our own carts and thats a lot to haul across Chatham. They do have cool food down here though I got Reese's brand peanut butter for example! By this time it was too late to see Cars, and when we got back I noticed we only had about 5 minutes to get to downtown disney if we wanted to eat and get me my cell phone. Me, John, Chritine and Mara all made that bus, and Jei and Jared said they'd come by on the next bus meeting us at Planet Holleywood.
So we all ran to the bus and made it with time to spare and were off to Downtown Disney! When we arrived we went straight to Virgin Records to get me my Virgin mobile phone. It didn't take me long to find the $50 flip phone I was told about so I grabbed it and a $20 phone card paid and we were off to Planet Hollywood. When we arrived we found out they wouldn't seat us until everyone arrived so we had about 30 minutes to kill.
Me and John began to try to open my phone so I could set it up... it took most of our half hour which was good but then I found out I had to basically set it up online so it was pretty worthless. Christine had a hunch that Jei and Jared wern't coming so John phoned Jei's place and we were told she had left for Downtown Disney so that was great news... at about midnight (10 minutes after they should have arrived) I phoned my place and got ahold of Jared, because Jei started training today at 6 something they decided not to come and since they didn't have Johns cell they couldn't get ahold of us... so we just went and got our table.
We all had a pretty good meal, Mara and Christine shared a appatiser, while me and John each got a burger. When we were done we did some exploring of the movie memorebilia around the restaurant before we caught the 1:30 am bus back to the residences... it was a LONG ride with me and Christine not getting home until 2:20... I felt bad and tried not to wake up any of my roomates, fortunatly I only work up one but thankfully he had just gotten to bed so he wasn't really sleeping yet.
Thursday
Today seemed innocent enough from our itinnary. We had to board a bus at 9. Get our training schedules at 9:30, board another bus at 10:30 and sign in with international recruting at 11. So it was pretty natural we planned on going to Cars tonight since last night didn't pan out... well we still haven't seen it!
Matt's alarm went off early enough that after I showerd I managed to activate my cell phone so it was officially good to go at this point (came in handy today!)
One of my roomates had managed to get himself into the magic kingdom Wednesday night without his Disney ID (which we get on Friday). So we decided that when we were done we'd hit up Property Control (massive discoutns on merch... kinda like Winners) and then try to get into MGM. When we got to where we picked up our trainingh scheduels I was one of the first people through and got a picture of my uniform which thankfully isn't TOOOO bad. The worst part has to be the white shoes I get to wear. Other than that I wear either Khakies or khakie shorts with a black belt, and what is essentially a red polo shirt. I also have the option of a white visor or straw hat.
The weirdest thing on my schedule was my Discovery Day (orientation basically) is a whole WEEK after I start work. I wasn't too thrilled with that. Very fortunatly for me I have Sunday off and John (who has been working in Epcot since March) also has Sunday off. I have since cashed in on a promised tour so I will know where everything is come Monday morning.
Anyway our bus left early for The Commons so we got to sit around for a half hour while we waited. Thankfully after maybe 10 or 15 minutes they let us into an air conditioned room, but they didn't start until everyone else arrived almost 30 minutes later. Signing in turned out to be paper work... we had to sign a bunch of stuff and that took about an hour... we finished around noon.
At this point we had set up with John that I'd call him and we'd go to property control before heading off to MGM. First I called Jei to see if she was free and wanted to join us. She did want to join us but unfortunatly had some training stuff at 2. We figured a few hours would be nice so we agreed to go at 4 instead so she could join us. While John started getting ready I went and met Jeis roomate who seemed quite nice. While I was there Jei got a phone call and made other plans for the night so at about a quater to two I left for Johns, and we got everyone together and went to property control early. Before we left I finally got a chance to talk to Matt Chan (from Alberta) and he met us on the bus when it arrived at Vista Way.
I was a little dissapointed because all of the 75% off stuff was visably damamged in some way, but I got a cool Pirates of the Caribian plastic gun for 50 cents and an epcot passport (with just a damaged box) for 2.50. We then went to a location that was basically discontinued merch at 20% off so I got a WDW International Programs day planner, a notebook, and two books which totaled around $25. Since the bus only went to Vista and Chatham, Matt took his stuff home and me, John, Matt (my roomate) and Christine all brought our stuff back to Chatham.
we had about 45 minutes before the bus to MGM Studios, so we checked out our swag for a bit and then went out to the bus. Just like for Property control Matt joined us as well. When we got to MGM, my roomate who got in the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday was there as well ready to attempt MGM admission. We let him do the talking for us and within 5 minutes we were all in MGM.
First stop was the Rockin Rollercoaster which shockingly had maybe a 20 minute wait. Our first ride has some kind of malfunction and we didn't have the Aerosmith music playing so we were alloud thorugh a hallway to ride it again. It was a great ride. A dark rollercoaster with a boosted/quick start. After our two rides of that we set off across the park to dake the backlot tour. Unfortunatly when we arrived it was closed so we went back and rode Star Tours instead. After a snack stop, John, Matt C, and Christine all then went on the tower of terror while me and Matt waitied outside. When that was done we all went on the Rockin Rollercoaster a 3rd time, since Fantasmic was on neither ride had a long line and everyone else went on the Tower of Terror again leaving me and Matt to wander arround so we checked a few shops before meeting up with the ToT Trio again. We then headed off to watch the 10:30 Fantasmic show.
Fantasmic at MGM is in my opinion better than the Disneyland version. It's longer, has bleachers, and has it's own set (thus not taking over a good chunk of the park). I plan on seeing it again a few more times as it's just that good!
After that we took our busses back to our residences and I've spent almost 2 hours chatting on MSN and trying to get these 3 days updated. I'll hopefully be a little more regular and detailed with future entries so we shall see.
Ok the red eye flight from Calgary, I was a little tired but decided I'd try to watch the Pink Panther as my plane had little touch screen tvs in the seats where you could choose movies or music or TV shows to watch. I got about 5 minutes into the movie and decided I was going to try to sleep. I pulled out my iPod, set it to shuffle and unsuccessfully attempted to get some sleep. A few hours later I noticed it was light out and gave up on the sleep, and played some video games until I landed in Montreal.
When I arrived I followed the signs to the USA transfer baggage claim where I met Christine. Jei was also suppsoted to be there but apparently hadn't arrived yet. Christine had all of her bags and within minutes I had mine as well. While we were waiting for Jei and Brodie to show up (we had all planned the same flight to Orlando), we happened to notice some bright pink luggage on the luggage belt. Knowing Jei had bought pink luggage, we checked the tags and realising it was hers, pulled if off the belt for her. Eventually she arrived and Brodie's luggage showed up. We grabbed his luggage and waitied, and waited, and waited... eventually Christine decided to go look for him so we could go through customs, and literly no less than 30 secconds after she left Brodie walked in so we ended up having to wait for Christine.
She didn't take long to show up so we went through customs which was another adventure. Since me and Christine were replacing people on our program we had to go off into a seperate room. Christine had forgotten a bag a few minutes ago by where we had to fill out forms and the customs agent didn't seem too impressed but nothing happend which was fortunate. After a few stressful minutes we were called up (individually) and were asked questions like where we were going and why we were going there. Simple questions and we had our Visa and were off to the gate.
When we arrived in Orlando after a 3 hour flight that seemed much longer, we met our Disney person by our baggage claim, told us where we were staying (Chatham Square which is what I wanted) and he took us off to a waiting area for our bus. There was only 4 people on the bus to Chatham, me, Christine, Matt from Montreal and a guy from Brazil that I didn't meet. WHen we arrived he even requsted to be moved to Vista Way (not sure if it happened). Anyway we found out that me and Matt were in the same apartment, and Christine was in our building just under us! So that was awsome.
Now our bus driver had to drop us out on the sidewalk outside the complex, and our building was in the back corner. This wasn't much of a problem for me and Matt with our rolling suitcases, but Christine had a backpack, laptop case, duffelbag, and a hockey bag... in other words NO WHEELS. Matt took her laptop case on top of his rolling suitcase and I helped her put her hockey bag on as a backpack after she put her backpack on her front. About halfway to our apartment though she couldn't breathe so I swaped her one of my rolling suitcases for her hockey bag for the rest of the trip. At this point I desperatly needed a shower but me and Christine decided to take a quick swim in the pool first.
The Chatham pool was much nicer than I expected! I was expecting it to be cold but it was nice and warm and I plan on visiting it often! Matt came down with me and Christine but tried to take a nap in the sun on one of the lounging chairs. We didn't stay long because we didn't have suntan lotion and started getting hungry. While we were there Christine showed me her shoulder and she definatly broke some blood vessals or something with that hockey bag. We decided to check out the outlet mall for lunch so we headed back for our showers.
When I was done having my shower I checked my e-mail to find out Jei was alone in her apartment and wanted to hang out so I invited her along for food as well. Matt decided to join us and we went to get Christine. When we arrived we found out her roomate Mara had arrived. Mara was interviewed the same time as me and all of us had talked online for abit so she joined us as well and off we went on our short walk (10-15 minutes) to Jei's.
We decided to head to the outlet mall across the road for lunch but that turned into an interesting adventure as well. There was a wall up in teh way so we headed left along to wall to try to find the end, and we eventually did but then we had to walk back towards the outlet mall. After a few minutes of searching (the outdoor mall) we found the foodcourt and headed for subway.
After we ate I had the BRILLANT idea to try going around the other side of the outlet mall since we were going back to Chatham. It made sence in principal since chatham is about half a block farther down then the Commons (where Jei lives and we originally started our trek to the outlet mall). Anyway to make a long story short we had to walk way far out of the way and would up a block further... not sure if anyone was impressed with the suggestion but noone let me know if they were upset.
We then got to show Jei Chatham, and she seemed to enjoy it much more than the Commons. We all headed off to Wal Mart to grab some nessicities like towels and sheets and things like that. I didn't get much food since we decided we'd go Wednesday again so I grabbed a few small things for breakfast.
When we got back I started to finish unpacking (still not done now though) and put away my wal mart items before calling it a night.
Wednesday
Today wound up to be a long day but our elaborate plans didn't work out. Originally we all thought we'd be done early and would be going to Downtown Disney to see Cars, have supper, and I'd get my cell phone as well as our Wal Mart Trip... Turns out that Me, Matt, Christine and Mara had a full day of paper work to do and didn't manage to get home until around 4ish. While we were spending our 3 hours on the bus outside of the Social Security we realised one of my roomates was a good friend of Jeis that she was trying to locate the day before so I suggested instead of taking the bus back to Chatham we'd instead go to the commons and surprise her... well it turns out we were so late she went off to Wal Mart without us so we got to go back to the commons... shortly after we got back she got home and I let Jared (her friend) use my computer to talk to her and she came over. We basically tried to keep up the illusion we didn't know each other until she got here but I'm sure she knew when his room was the same as my room.
Also while this was going on John finally surfaced out of no where and needed to make a trip to Wal Mart as well, since he had teh night off I invited him to join us and he was in Chatham before Jei was.
Anyway since Jei didn't have to go to Wal Mart but a bunch of us still needed food, we left her in the apartment with Jared and made our quick trip to Wal Mart. In an hour I got about 90 dollars worth of food and a few other things I had missed the night before... man it was heavy! Me and Matt both filled our own carts and thats a lot to haul across Chatham. They do have cool food down here though I got Reese's brand peanut butter for example! By this time it was too late to see Cars, and when we got back I noticed we only had about 5 minutes to get to downtown disney if we wanted to eat and get me my cell phone. Me, John, Chritine and Mara all made that bus, and Jei and Jared said they'd come by on the next bus meeting us at Planet Holleywood.
So we all ran to the bus and made it with time to spare and were off to Downtown Disney! When we arrived we went straight to Virgin Records to get me my Virgin mobile phone. It didn't take me long to find the $50 flip phone I was told about so I grabbed it and a $20 phone card paid and we were off to Planet Hollywood. When we arrived we found out they wouldn't seat us until everyone arrived so we had about 30 minutes to kill.
Me and John began to try to open my phone so I could set it up... it took most of our half hour which was good but then I found out I had to basically set it up online so it was pretty worthless. Christine had a hunch that Jei and Jared wern't coming so John phoned Jei's place and we were told she had left for Downtown Disney so that was great news... at about midnight (10 minutes after they should have arrived) I phoned my place and got ahold of Jared, because Jei started training today at 6 something they decided not to come and since they didn't have Johns cell they couldn't get ahold of us... so we just went and got our table.
We all had a pretty good meal, Mara and Christine shared a appatiser, while me and John each got a burger. When we were done we did some exploring of the movie memorebilia around the restaurant before we caught the 1:30 am bus back to the residences... it was a LONG ride with me and Christine not getting home until 2:20... I felt bad and tried not to wake up any of my roomates, fortunatly I only work up one but thankfully he had just gotten to bed so he wasn't really sleeping yet.
Thursday
Today seemed innocent enough from our itinnary. We had to board a bus at 9. Get our training schedules at 9:30, board another bus at 10:30 and sign in with international recruting at 11. So it was pretty natural we planned on going to Cars tonight since last night didn't pan out... well we still haven't seen it!
Matt's alarm went off early enough that after I showerd I managed to activate my cell phone so it was officially good to go at this point (came in handy today!)
One of my roomates had managed to get himself into the magic kingdom Wednesday night without his Disney ID (which we get on Friday). So we decided that when we were done we'd hit up Property Control (massive discoutns on merch... kinda like Winners) and then try to get into MGM. When we got to where we picked up our trainingh scheduels I was one of the first people through and got a picture of my uniform which thankfully isn't TOOOO bad. The worst part has to be the white shoes I get to wear. Other than that I wear either Khakies or khakie shorts with a black belt, and what is essentially a red polo shirt. I also have the option of a white visor or straw hat.
The weirdest thing on my schedule was my Discovery Day (orientation basically) is a whole WEEK after I start work. I wasn't too thrilled with that. Very fortunatly for me I have Sunday off and John (who has been working in Epcot since March) also has Sunday off. I have since cashed in on a promised tour so I will know where everything is come Monday morning.
Anyway our bus left early for The Commons so we got to sit around for a half hour while we waited. Thankfully after maybe 10 or 15 minutes they let us into an air conditioned room, but they didn't start until everyone else arrived almost 30 minutes later. Signing in turned out to be paper work... we had to sign a bunch of stuff and that took about an hour... we finished around noon.
At this point we had set up with John that I'd call him and we'd go to property control before heading off to MGM. First I called Jei to see if she was free and wanted to join us. She did want to join us but unfortunatly had some training stuff at 2. We figured a few hours would be nice so we agreed to go at 4 instead so she could join us. While John started getting ready I went and met Jeis roomate who seemed quite nice. While I was there Jei got a phone call and made other plans for the night so at about a quater to two I left for Johns, and we got everyone together and went to property control early. Before we left I finally got a chance to talk to Matt Chan (from Alberta) and he met us on the bus when it arrived at Vista Way.
I was a little dissapointed because all of the 75% off stuff was visably damamged in some way, but I got a cool Pirates of the Caribian plastic gun for 50 cents and an epcot passport (with just a damaged box) for 2.50. We then went to a location that was basically discontinued merch at 20% off so I got a WDW International Programs day planner, a notebook, and two books which totaled around $25. Since the bus only went to Vista and Chatham, Matt took his stuff home and me, John, Matt (my roomate) and Christine all brought our stuff back to Chatham.
we had about 45 minutes before the bus to MGM Studios, so we checked out our swag for a bit and then went out to the bus. Just like for Property control Matt joined us as well. When we got to MGM, my roomate who got in the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday was there as well ready to attempt MGM admission. We let him do the talking for us and within 5 minutes we were all in MGM.
First stop was the Rockin Rollercoaster which shockingly had maybe a 20 minute wait. Our first ride has some kind of malfunction and we didn't have the Aerosmith music playing so we were alloud thorugh a hallway to ride it again. It was a great ride. A dark rollercoaster with a boosted/quick start. After our two rides of that we set off across the park to dake the backlot tour. Unfortunatly when we arrived it was closed so we went back and rode Star Tours instead. After a snack stop, John, Matt C, and Christine all then went on the tower of terror while me and Matt waitied outside. When that was done we all went on the Rockin Rollercoaster a 3rd time, since Fantasmic was on neither ride had a long line and everyone else went on the Tower of Terror again leaving me and Matt to wander arround so we checked a few shops before meeting up with the ToT Trio again. We then headed off to watch the 10:30 Fantasmic show.
Fantasmic at MGM is in my opinion better than the Disneyland version. It's longer, has bleachers, and has it's own set (thus not taking over a good chunk of the park). I plan on seeing it again a few more times as it's just that good!
After that we took our busses back to our residences and I've spent almost 2 hours chatting on MSN and trying to get these 3 days updated. I'll hopefully be a little more regular and detailed with future entries so we shall see.
posted by Unknown at 12:15 a.m.
1 Comments:
Aww, thanks for saving the Tower of Terror for me. Really appriciate it! :)
Sounds like things are going well, and your having such a great time. Cant wait to see pictures!
Talk to you later gator
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