DAK After Dark, GKTW, and Extensions

Omg…it’s almost been a month since my last entry. Sorry! That just means LOTS to talk about.

On the top of my list…mom and Stephen will be here in three days!!! I am in definite need to some home so I absolutely cannot wait. I spend my whole shifts daydreaming about what were going to do. I went to the resort the other day to finish paying off the room. We’re staying at All Star Movies. Not my top choice, but cheap. Today I actually thought I could get Autumn down here too, but that didn’t happen and I ended up crying in the middle of Magic Kingdom. I finally got to talk to her for the first time in two weeks and said she could of came this weekend because her exam got cancelled so of course I immediately looked up plane tickets. But long story short she can’t come because she’s being academically responsible L STUPID COLLEGE!

But anyway…extension applications came out last week. So about a week before the email came I was 100% sure I was coming home in January. Even the morning I got the email and read it I was sure I wasn’t going to apply and come home. Well…the same day the email showed up Maria (my awesome roomie from my last program) text me at work to let me know I needed to extend because she got accepted in the spring program. UGH…so now I don’t know what I’m going to do. I went ahead and applied for an extension, but I honestly don’t know if I’m going to accept it. It depends on what the offer me and how I feel that day. Lol. My choices were photopass photographer, bibbidy bobbity boutique, recreation, and same job same location. So I don’t know…..

So one of the reasons why I wanted to do another program was so I could volunteer at Give Kids the World again. Well I did! Twice. I tried to get Fridays off so I could go every week, but that didn’t happen. So a couple weeks ago I gave away my Sunday shift and my Friday shift so I could go. I LOVE THE VILLAGE! Sunday was the Candy Land party. (Every night at the village is something different, but it’s the same every week. Monday is Halloween, Tuesday is Mayor Clayton’s birthday, Wednesday is Village Idol, Thursdays is Pirate and Princess Party, Friday is Winter Wonderland, and Saturday is something lol.) The Candy Land party was super fun. The playground is a life size Candy Land board and the families get to play on it. So my job was to take the families around the board. So many precious children!!! Then Friday was Winter Wonderland so it was Christmas in the village. I went with a co-worker Friday and we had an awesome time! We got to be ballerinas in the Christmas parade. Then we got to dance in the snow with the kids. I’m really hoping I get to go back before I leave.

 

So it’s Halloween. And of course us here in Disney have been celebrating since the beginning of September. I’m kind of happy it’ll all be over next week. So every year Animal Kingdom throws a Halloween party just for DAK cast members. It’s called DAK After Dark. After the park closes we get to hang out. Dinoland stays open and we get to play the carnival games, Asia becomes like a haunted house, there’s a costume contest, pumpkin carving contest, a DJ, and free food! It was last week and it was pretty fun. Cast parties are always the best. It did kind of suck that I had to close the village that night so I was an hour late and it was the cold! I have officially turned in all my shorts and traded them for pants and I’m wearing my long sleeve shirt every day. It’s actually beautiful outside (lower 80s), but I’m really cold nature.

Soooo….I bought another camera….I couldn’t take it anymore! Standing there every day watching people with their cameras taking pictures was torture. Lol. So I convinced my roommate to drive me to Best Buy and I just did it. And I’m a much happier person now J

So funny stories about work…yesterday I was at Safi with the hippo and I was talking to a family about a fish that is broken. He hangs out by the same window and he’s pretty much bent in half. When I first saw him I thought he was dying, but he’s been there for about a week now. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but of course everyone who sees him asks me what’s wrong or if he’s dying. So I was talking to this family and we were talking about the fish and then we switched the conversation to the hippo and how it’s the most dangerous animal in Africa and how it’s tusks were huge and could do some damage. Well the little girl of the family who was about 9 thought we were still talking about the broken fish. The look on her face was priceless! Omg…I laughed so hard. She pointed to the fish and said, “That thing is the most dangerous animal in Africa”?! LOL. So funny….

My other story is from a couple days ago. I was in research and I was standing where I always stand by the bullfrog tank. On the wall behind me is the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, the scorpion, and our tarantula. So I’m standing there talking about the bullfrogs (which kept being referred to as the Harry Potter frogs because they’re so big. I’ve been here for three months and have never heard anyone reference HP, but I heard it from FIVE different guest this day!) and I had a guest ask me if the tarantula was dead. I said, “No, it’s alive” without thinking twice about it. I mean I have people ask if the Hippo is a robot all the time. So later in the day I’m in research again and another guest ask if it’s dead again. So now I’m wondering what the heck is going on. I actually go over to look and sure enough the humungo spider is on it’s back! I was like, “yeah, it’s alive…..”. LOL. So I had to try to get a hold of an animal keeper which was a lot harder than it should have been. They don’t really know how to communicate. Rotation came through before someone came to see what was going one, but later on the whole cage was missing. I asked someone what happen and they said that they thought the spider was molting. I was like uh…it looked pretty dead to me! But sure enough the next day the animal keeper came up to me and showed me that it did molt. She showed me a cup with a tarantula in it, but it was just its skin. It was so weird! So no dead tarantula. Lol.

Crowds are getting larger and it’s awful. I am not looking forward to real holiday crowds. People become stupid when they come to Disney. I HATE when people just stop in the middle of the walkway or walk like a turtle!

Grocery bingo was last night. It was at the Chatham field so we had to sit in the grass, but it was better than last time. I had a WAY better card and actually almost won this time. Lol. And we got candy and there was a costume contest.

So there’s an update! Sorry it took so long. I would say I’ll be better, but I’d just be lying. Lol.