Walt Disney World

Briar Fox
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Disney World

*In this Journal text in italics is written by Danielle and unitalicized text is written by Daniel.

teach me the “black notes”

So Dan and I are having a wonderfully unexpected trip to Disney World. Thanks to an acquaintance of my cousin Sarah and her husband Kevin, I have an interview to be a photographer in Disney! Sunday…. After we drove in record time and stayed at the worst motel ever in daytona the night before, we arrived at Port Orleans French Quarter at like ten thirty Sunday morning. We quickly found a wonderful resort awaiting us in a beautiful room. It was fun, we had a fun pool, but first we went to the magic kingdom, where it rained so everyone left and we got on to stuff like the speedway we would never normally get onto!!!!! It was rad. We rode all the mountains except thunder… and we ate at a taco place with hugeeeee tacos. Oh and the best thing was we got to ride pirates of the Caribbean during its first day of soft opening. First thing we did. Johny depp looks soooo real.

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 As our luck would have it, it began to down pour. Which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise … as everyone headed for cover we headed to the empty lines. We even got to ride on the Indy Speeedway cars which usually have a ridiculous wait time! Which believe unless you fall upon our luck and walk on and ride around in the rain; it is not worth the wait!      So as we were making dinner reservations for the week our concierge could tell that I was excited. “First time in Disney World?,” he asked. Of course it wasn’t but it was my first time staying at the Port Orleans which was beautiful. So I told him that the real source of excitement was that I was there for an interview. He whispered and reassured me that I would get the job. 

TOWER OF TERRRRRRRRROOOOORRRR
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Monday

      Today we started off in the Animal Kingdom where our mission was to ride Everst. We succeeded many times and it is now my new favorite ride! Animal kingdom and everest twice. Evererest is like the bomb diggity of events at WDW. The coaster is well worth the wait. The yeti on it is fun, the theming in the line is cool, and the backwards in the dark part is pretty awesome. Oh and it’s the most comfortable fat kid ride in the park! We also rode kali river rapid and polywhirl or whatever it is called… our least favorite ride in Disney world because it hurts so much.

Look! its raining in tommorrow land
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We then headed to epcot to eat in japan where we met a family from down there. It was too muggy to do anything else in epcot. That night we swam again and dani worked on her pictures and had them sent to walmart for us.

Swimming at the resort was just as fun as the parks. The pool had a giant shell

with alligators playing musical instruments and water poured out the top. A sea serpent that was being commanded by King Tritan spanned the pool. And as Dan and I went down the water slide at the top of the serpent’s head with the other kids we made a friend. He was five years old he made sure we knew this several times. He had special floaties on his arm because he was five. He couldn’t find the stairs but his mom was waiting for him at the end of the slide. Oh and he loved Disney World!

Everest
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Tuesday we spent all day in MGM.

Yay for a fun fourth of July that wasn’t cold by any stretch of the imagination! We spent today in MGM where we rode Tower of Terror five times. Dan’s face was so cute when we’d come off the ride that throws us up and down thirteen stories to our death. He’d smile and say “again?” How could I possibly say no? We got there and rode Tower of Terror three times straight, then went on rock’n rollercoaster. I didn’t die like that kid last week, so that was a plus. We then went over to see mickey mouse, he gave me a high five. Then we ate at the sci fi dine in. I was known as hitchhiker. We then played who wants to be a millionaire twice and I was second place yippie. We then saw the little mermaid show and saw Shannon the dog. After that we went to the animation studio and spent like 2 hours in there learning to draw and taking pictures. We watched the fireworks at MGM then rode Tower of terror until park closing… muhahahah we then went to wally world, where we got danis pictures.

Watch out for the Yeti!
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Wednesday was the most important part of the trip… my birthday.Today was Daniel’s Birthday. We started off our day in the Magic Kingdom in Town Hall by getting Daniel a button that said “Today is my Birthday.” We rode both of our favorite rides in Tommorrow land; Space Mountain (his) and Buzzlightyear (mine.)

We went to Magic Kingdom and did a bunch of tomorrowland and found the animation theatre at the photo center in the beginning of the park, we spent some time back there looking at stuff. We ate a toni’s and I got a billion dollar Sunday…. Well it seemed that big… then we went back to the hotel freshened up and went out to down town Disney where dani looked for pins and then we went to THE ADVENTURERS CLUB! Yes! Score! I got toasted but it was awesome.

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And when we came back to the hotel Goofy had left Daniel a birthday card.

Thursday

Today was the big day! I was so nervous I was amazed I could stand up straight! I got a call from Karen, the recruiter I was meeting with for my first interview, at 9:15. She wanted to make sure I was there and was going to make it. Luckily, Our hotel was only a five minute drive a way so I was positive I’d make it on time. I arrived at the casting building at aproximately 9:30 and my interview was at 10:00. They signed me in and told me Karen would be out shortly to get me. Well It was 10:10 and then it was 10:15 and 10:20 rolled around and I started to panic. I went back up to the desk and tried to sneak my way in so I wouldn’t have to stand in a long line again, since my interview was already going to be late. So once I got someone to help me out they realized Karen was never made aware that I was there. So they gave me something to fill out and just as I sat down Karen came out and called my name.

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    The interview seemed to go well and she was very friendly and helpful. Then I went on to my second interview. I was scheduled to meet with the director of photographers in Animal Kingdom. As I was waiting for him to get his coffee I overheard two other women talking about how they were amazed by the scrapbooks and portfolios people were bringing in. I was smiling as much as possible to hide how nervous this was making me. As I began to talk to John I wasn’t as worried. He also told me that the first week of training is on Disney traditions and they sprinkle you with pixie dust. “However, I think you already have a lot of pixie dust,” he assured me.

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Later we met up with my friend Shannon from college, she now is an entertainer in Disney World. Dani had her interview it went well. Then we went out with Shannon to all star café. That was fun she told us all the dirty little secrets of the world… or not so much but it was fun. Then we took a long nap at the hotel and then listened to the live entertainment at our resort, which was this one man band dude with tons of saxes, after the show I talked to him about his bari and then he gave me his email and told me he would teach me the “black notes” which I cant wait to find out.

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Friday – back to animal kingdom to ride everest 3 more times... back to epcot, mission space didn’t kill me. Then we ate at the coral reef… rip off. We got to check out some things I haven't seen before in the Living Seas. They added some fun nemo stuff. They had a tank of the "real" nemo characters which was fun because you can tell the animators really captured the personalities of each of the fish. Then we went to turtle talk with Crush. I'm still in awe of how they do it... and I can't figue it out. There is a huge screen at the front of this little theater you sit in. Crush comes swimming out onto the screen and talks to people in the audience... not just talks interacts. He asks the audience questions and answers theirs in return. It is so cool!

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We left and went back to the adventurers club. Yes. Great. Rad. Groovey.

Saturday we went to typhoon lagoon and left. L I cried. And so did I.

Monday: I am home... on my break at work talking to Dan on my cell... and a 407  number is trying to call me... I quickly hang up with Dan to speak with Holly who has called to offer me a position! Woo hoo! I'm moving to Disney World!