in a world of my own

The Dapper Dans! This picture was taken during one of my most favorite days of park hopping ever. It was the first day that Sam and I went character hunting. Such a blast! Among other adventures we played Go Fish with Peter Pan, took Tom Sawer Island by storm, got the bajeezus scared out of us by a super hot butler, and got captured by Captain Hook.

To continue with the Disney mania, I provide you with this 'little' gem provided by Samantha. It kept me very much entertained today at work.

I apologize for the super wide spacing. I've tried to edit this three times and it won't let there be a single space in between. I give up.

DISNEYLAND

Name: Mel

Age: 22

First Disneyland Trip: 1989

How old were you?: 3


Where did you stay?: My uncle Bruce’s house. Sadly, that’s the biggest part of the trip I remember. I remember being super sick on the way down and having to take yucky medicine (my parents told me that they almost had to turn around). I also remember eating fruity pebbles for the first time and hating them (I haven’t had them since. Maybe I should try them), a small earthquake, and completely freaking out (and freaking out my parents) because I got out of the bed (with crayon posts like on Full House) and wasn’t able to walk. I guess it lasted for a good hour and they still have no idea what was wrong with me. Eventful trip huh?

First ride (that you can remember): Peter Pan’s Flight or the Submarine Ride

First character you met: Snow White

Favorite "land": Toss up between Adventureland and New Orleans Square

Favorite part of Main Street: The theater with the creepy mannequin taking tickets

Favorite Adventureland Attraction: Indiana Jones!

Favorite New Orleans Square Attraction: Pirates!

Favorite Frontierland Attraction: Big Thunder!

Favorite Critter Country Attraction: My choices are Pooh or Splash Mountain? Oh how shall I ever choose?!

Favorite Fantasyland Attraction: Alice in Wonderland

Favorite Toontown Attraction: I like all the fake shops and stuff you can play with. Does that count? If not, probably the Chip and Dale tree house.

Favorite Tomorrowland Attraction: If Matterhorn is considered Tomorrowland then I choose that. If not, Space Mountain.

Least Favorite Attraction: Star Tours. Love the queue and theme, hate the ride.

Ride that you like that others seem to dislike: Storybookland!

Ride that you dislike that others seem to like: Star Tours

Favorite Show: Queenie!

Favorite defunct Show: I’d love to say Captain Eo but I never saw it.

Favorite defunct Attraction: Submarine Ride (yes, yes, I know it’s back but if it doesn’t have mermaids I’m not interested)

Favorite defunct Fireworks show: Remember Dreams Come True

Favorite defunct Parade: The Electrical Parade is back so I have no complaints

Favorite Song from a Show or Attraction: Grim Grinning Ghosts

Favorite mode of Disneyland transportation: The good ol’ train. Or the Jolly Trolley.

Favorite face character: Not at Dland but Peter Pan or the Mad Hatter or the Tremaines

Favorite costumed character: Oh wow. I know it didn’t happen in Dland but probably Captain Hook and Mister Smee just because of our experience with them. Mister Smee and I have a secret and torrid love affair. Shhhhh.

Favorite audio-animatronic: Dirty Foot Dan!

Favorite full-service/buffet restaurant: Blue Bayou

Favorite quick-service restaurant: Pizza Port

Favorite snack: Turkey leg…just kidding. Dole whips of course!

Favorite store: Le Bat en Rouge.

Favorite part of the 50th Anniversary: Probably the color of the castle or the fireworks

Favorite 50th Anniversary Hidden Mickey: There was one in Tarzan’s tree house that I remember being really cool.

Favorite Happiest Faces on Earth photo collage: I honestly loved all of those. What a neat idea! The one I think of off the bat is the magnifying glass with Alice in it

Most Recent Trip: uhhhh…June of ’07?

Most Recent character I met: We really didn’t meet many characters at Disneyland. So we’ll go with Disneyworld. That would probably be Brer Rabbit outside of AK.

Year of a Million Dreams "Dreams" I won: wahh waaaaah. I gave away dreams though, so that’s way better.

The weirdest thing you've ever seen/experienced at Disneyland: Probably Timothy falling into the Rivers of America. Or maybe getting a celery string stuck down my throat on Indiana Jones. Or the lady that kept running down the middle of the road before the parade with the stroller and wasn’t wearing a bra. I’m sure I’ve had weirder experiences than that but I can’t think of any at the moment.

Future trip: Hopefully within the next year so I can get in for freeeeee!

What are you most looking forward to?: Riding the REAL Pirates.

DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

Favorite "land": It used to be Hollywood but after spending time in an entire park devoted to that theme, I’m going to have to say the Grizzly Peak area.

Favorite Paradise Pier Attraction: California Screamin’

Favorite Golden State Attraction: Tortilla factory. Or Soarin’.

Favorite a bug's land Attraction: Again, I’m not a huge fan of any of the rides but I love love love the theme-ing.

Favorite Hollywood Pictures Backlot Attraction: Disney Animation.

Favorite Show: Aladdin

Favorite Parade: Electrical Parade

Favorite Song from a Show or Attraction: The Airplane Song!

Favorite place to eat: That place on the wharf with the clam chowder bread bowls.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------YOUR DISNEY FAVORITES:

1). WDW park? Oh man. Uhhhh. Probably Magic Kindom but I love all my parks!

2). WDW resort? Grand Floridian

3). Thrill ride? Rockin’ Rollercoaster

4). Restaurant? 50’s Prime Time Café. Place we ate at the most? Pecos Bills. Place that would be the best for fighting off zombies/had the best tuna sandwiches EVER? Columbia Harbor House.

5). Attraction? Haunted Mansion

6). Show? Villains Mix and Mingle. LMAO.

7). Parade? Boo To You Halloween Parade

8). Nighttime show? Wishes and Illuminations are probably tied.

9). Characters? Same as above. Pan, Hatter, Tremaines, Hook, and Smee. Although I also loved Rosetta.

10). Store? Tinkerbell’s Treasures or any of the Art shops.

HAVE YOU EVER:
1) cried during "Wishes"? Yes.

2). Cried on the trip home? Yes.

3). Celebrated a bday in WDW? Yes. Working, but yes.

4). Rode in the front of the monorail? Yes…that’s kind of sad now.

5). Counted down the hours till the next trip? Yes.

6). Drove everyone else crazy with Disney talk? Frequently.

7). Took a trip without the kids? Are you joking? I never take the kids! They don’t belong at Disney World!

8). Been too shy to get an autograph? Yes. Every single time. The glaring one was Pocahontas.

9). Worn your ears to the airport? Aww. Unfortunately no. But I did carry my shopping bag and newly bought stuffed animal around proudly.

10). Received a wake up call from Mickey? If you consider a wake-up call from one of my managers to come in and work for the mouse then yes. If not, then no. I’ve never stayed at a Disney hotel.

MOUSECELLANEOUS:
1) How many trips to Disney have you made? Total? Oh geez. 8 or 9 I think.

2). When is your next Disney trip? Soooooon! I’m crossing my fingers for fall.

3). DVC member? home resort? Hah! I wish!

4). Fan of DDP? Disney Dr. Pepper? Why yes. Yes I am.

5). Annual pass holder? Not exactly.

6). 30 min. waiting in line or FP? I laugh at 30 minutes.

7). chicken tenders or turkey leg? Chicken tenders.

8). EMH or time for bed? EMH baby!

9). Favorite season to go? Christmas!

10) Favorite Prince and Princess? Princess is Belle, Prince is Aladdin.

11). Most magical memory ever? There are far too many to choose from. Probably walking into Magic Kingdom for the first time during my tour and seeing the castle and trying really hard not to cry in front of all the other CPs.

CP SURVEY
1) Where are you from? Land of the Cows, Colorado.

2) How old are you? 22.

3) When did you do the program? Fall of ’08

4) Where did you work at? It’s a Small World and Peter Pan’s Flight

5) Where did you live at? Vista Way. Oh Vista Way.

---Work Related Questions----
6) Did you do take 5's and magical moments? Magical moments, yes.

7) If so how often? Lots. I was very lucky to be liked by coordinators and managers so I got picked to do everything.

8) Would you say you had more good guests or asshole guests? On Pan we had more assholes but on Small World we definitely had more good guests.

9) Did you like your managers? We had like ten managers so for the most part, yes.

10) How many reprimands did you get? None! Although I did get a talking to for not putting the Small World keys in the clipboard after close (which I didn’t know you were supposed to do)

11) Were you terminated? Not to my knowledge.

12) Were you working at one location and deployed to another one? I switched back and forth from Pan to Small World and often did Wishes shifts. They wanted me to cross-train to Philhar and Pooh Complexes but I didn’t want to.

13) Did you call in sick, when you were sick? Once.

14) Did you call in sick, when you were not sick? Once.

15) Did you get along with your co-workers? Always. But that didn’t mean I had to like all of em.

16) Did you have sunday night bowling with workers, or something like that? We went to IHOP a lot.

17) Did you get guest service cards, or things like that? You bet I did! I’m a model cast member. Duh.

---Housing Questions----

18) Did you like your apartment? Loaded question but yes for the most part.

19) Did you like your roommates? Yes. I was extremely lucky.

20) Did you get along with them? Yep.

21) Was there any fights/heated debates? I think the big ones were all about cleaning.

22) Was it clean or trashed out? Pretty clean. The fridge frequently got disgusting but other than that it wasn’t awful.

23) Were you there at the apartment for the most part? Probably more than anyone else. It comes from being the only single roommate. Sigh.

24) Did you and your roommates take trips? Yep. Mostly to Walmart haha.

25) Did you fail inspections? Nevah!

26) Did you use the facilities there (ie pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, hot tubs, weight rooms)? Hell to the no. I tanned next to the pool once. I guess I used the library quite a bit though.

27) Did you cook by yourself, or did everyone help out, or did you do your own thing? Everyone pretty much did their own thing. I think there were a couple of times a few of us would make something together.

---Miscellaneous Questions----
28) Did your car break down? Nope. Which is surprising since I didn’t get the oil changed until a month before I left. Good car! *pat pat*

29) Was PI your home on Monday and Thursday Nights? Oh yeah. I’m quite the party animal.

30) Did you do drugs? Lots of pixie dust.

31) People underage, or underage at the time, how many times were you drunk? Of age and never drunk. What a LOSER! Geez.

32) Did you have sex? Hahahahaha. Not quite.

33) If so, did you catch a vd or got pregnant? Girls have a button and boys have a pole and evil touching takes it’s toll!

34) How many times did you go to Clearwater? None.

35) How many times did you go to Cocoa? Once!

36) How many times did you go to Daytona? Zero.

37) How many times did you go to Miami and the Keys? Nadda.

38) Did you go to any other beach that is not listed? I didn’t even go to Blizzard Beach.

39) Which one did you prefer? Definitely cocoa.

40) How many times did you go to City Walk? I’m very sad to say none.

41) How many times did you go to Universal Studio's and Isle's of Adventure? Again, sad to say none. Next time I’ll have money!

42) Did you go to Sea World? I drove past it a lot!

43) How many times did you go to Busch Gardens? Zip.

44) Did you go to any other theme park (not including Disney)? I wouldn’t cheat on my mouse.

45) How many times did you go through the tunnel and backways to get into the parks when you wanted to go? Too many times to count.

46) Did you go to pin parties? No?

47) Did you go to any holiday event in the parks if you had the day off? I wanted to but I didn’t have the money for it.

48) Did you go to the water parks? Nope.

49) Did you go to the Florida Mall? Yep!

50) Did you go to the Mall at Millennia? Nope.

51) Did you go to any other mall? Nope.

52) How many times would you go to IHOP, Steak N' Shake, Perkins, and Denny's in a week? Probably once every three weeks.

53) How many times did you go to Jungle Jims? None.

54) Did you always go to Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and fast food at night? Oh yeah.

55) Did you go home on your program? Nope.

57) Were you caught in a hurricane? Yep. The first day I got there.

58) Did you drink a hurricane or two or more? Ummm. No?

59) Did you go to the clubs in downtown Orlando? Hell no.

60) Did you go to any concert? LOL. Yes I did.

61) Did you watch a play or something like that? I was in Reefer Madness.

62) Did you go to a dinner show? Like I said. Reefer Madness.

63) Did you go to any sporting event (baseball, football, basketball, nascar, etc)? I drove past the Richard Petty driving experience.

64) Did you go to property control a lot? Too much.

65) Did you take a class? Just one on how to be a campus rep.

66) Was it a hard transition to go back home or easy? A little of both but mostly hard.

67) Would you do it all over again? In a heartbeat. Especially if I knew then what I know now.

Phew! All done. I hope your brain isn't too covered with moss. Tomorrow will be the literary quiz! Wooooo! I know you are about ready to poop your pants with excitement!

Today was awesome because I got to chat with one of my favorite customers of all time, Ruben, who gave me a four cent tip because he hate "damn pennies". He's this scrappy 96 year old man who takes a walk to our store every week to harass whoever's working. His wife's name is Ruby. Ruby and Ruben! How adorable is that?! He doesn't look his age AT ALL. He seems like he's maybe in his late 70s. It's crazy. He isn't hunched and is completely sharp and lucid. The only telling of his age is that he is impossibly wrinkled and he shakes a bit. One time I asked him how he stays so young and his answer was that he doesn't buy into all that "health crap". "Booze, smokin', and womanizing. That's how I've stayed alive for this long!" LMAO. Damn straight.