Adventure in Orlando - Almost October

Again, much time has past since I last posted. Again, sorry about that.

The past few weeks have been lots of fun. I'm enjoying getting to know the canadians I live and work with more and more. Movie nights are evolving into a fun weekly event, and Games night is always a ton of laughs. I've been here 6 weeks now, and it is flying by pretty quickly. I only get two nights off a week, so a lot of it is spent working.

But one of my personal highlights was venturing up to Orlando to check out a vegan restaurant on my own (would have been nice to share it with somebody, but the veggies I know were all working). So I wrote out my directions and set off in search of Ethos Vegan Kitchen. A short drive west on I-4 and only a couple minutes off the interstate, I found myself in the Antique district of Orlando. It was a really nice area, cool old buildings, and a good vibe. I parked, and found my way to Ethos Vegan Kitchen.

When I entered, I instantly thought of Cafe Aquarius a few years back in Guelph. The cafe small, with tables of various sizes/shapes. A few couches in the back, and a variety different people in and about. I scanned the menu, extremely happy that I could enjoy anything I saw. Sandwiches, Pizzas, Sheep's Pie, Lasagna... so many options, it was a tough decision. After much deliberation, I went with the Dilly Philly - A Seitan Philly "Cheese" steak sandwich on ciabatta roll, with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy.

My goodness, It was delicious. I was very satisfied, and very full by the end. And I can't wait to go back and try some of the other menu items. Hopefully some of the other disney veggies will be able to join me next time.

Also, I took note that Sundays at Ethos is Vegan Brunch time! From 10-3. Unfortunately I work early this coming Sunday, but I will get out there at some point. I love me some vegan brunch. There are many other vegan and vegan friendly restaurants that I need to try, so I'll review them when I get the chance to get out there. So far Ethos is my favourite, but best out of 1 isn't hard to do.

So it's almost October, which means the start of the NHL season, and some events that I'll miss back home. My sisters birthday, and Canadian Thanksgiving. This makes me sad, as both are times I would normally spend with my family. I do miss my family quite a bit, they have always been very supportive of me, and I know they are happy for me being down here, but I'll still miss them.

-Dan

La Nouba, One Full Month

Time has flown by so far, a couple days ago I celebrated my 1 month anniversary here at Disney. (by celebrated I mean it happened, I didn't actually celebrate it, no champagne or anything). So what's happened recently?

Jeremy and I have started a movie night group, on Sunday evenings we try to get people together to watch DVDs. It's run for two weeks, we watched Best In Show (and Dr. Horrible's sing a long blog). and then Bella.

There is some tweaking we need to do in order for more people to be able to enjoy it, such as starting the movies earlier, but we're working on it. We have lot's of DVDs to get through, so hopefully we can keep it up.

I also went to se La Nouba, which is the Cirque de Soliel show here in Disney World. It was pretty damn cool, a lot of really cool acts, but the characterization and the story telling behind them was really neat. It was very impressive the whole way through. Also went to Earl of Sandwich, where i had a Veggie sandwich (roasted red peppers, cucumber, etc). It was pretty good, but I would have liked more options. I really need to hit a vegan restaurant one of these days. (though I am starting to cook more of my own meals, so that's good)

I'm done all my training at the Canada pavillion, and have worked the popcorn cart and Front of House inside the restaurant. It's now time for me to start studying the menu so that I can spiel and eventually become a server. Of course, knowing my studying habits, that could take a while. I might have to pretend that it's actually a script I have to learn by a certain off book date, I think that's the only way I'll get it done.

Also, I miss hockey. Being down south nobody seems to notice that hockey season is right around the corner, except for my fellow canadians. I've been watching pre-season games online, and I'm looking forward to the season, I only wish I could watch them on my TV!

Oh well. Things are great here, though I'm still waiting for the temperature to cool down.

Hope everyone back North is doing well too!

-Dano

Throw In, 4 Park Challenge, and other such fun

Ok, I swear I just posted on this blog, but it looks like that was almost a week ago. Where does time go?

A new arrival group appeared at Disney on Tuesday, so that means a Throw-In! That also means I'm no longer a newbie! So on Wednesday I attended my first Throw-In from the other side, it was a lot of fun, hosted by Captain Canuck - Michelle, with all the great title holders, they introduced the new arrivals to the pavillion with songs, speeches, and other sillyness. It was a fun night.

To follow that up, the next day I was invited to join a small group of Canadians in the 4-Park Challenge! What is the 4-Park Challenge you ask? (and how can I hear you ask things as I'm writing the blog you ask? - Stop asking questions, just read.)

Well, let me tell you. The 4-Park Challenge is something done mostly by cast members, it involves going to each of the 4 WDW Parks at 1 day, at each park you must do 3 major rides, and get a photo with 1 character. While using all modes of transportation between parks (Monorail, Boat, Bus)

To make it more challenging, we bumped it up to 4 rides at each park, and 2 characters.

So in the morning (early in the morning...) Craig, David, Kimberly, Jeremy and I met up and went over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for breakfast at Boma. Boma is a great African themed restaurant with a buffet. Though breakfast there is pretty standard american fare, so that was odd. I'll have to go back for dinner sometime when they have a more inventive menu.

From there we went to Animal Kingdom, our first park. It was evident pretty early on that we picked the right day to do the challenge. The parks were nearly empty. We first went on the Safari, walked right on to that one. From there we went over to Expedition Everest, which is really fun. Then to Kali River Rapids, where we got wet, and finally to Dinosaur. Along the way we stopped for pictures with Baloo and King Louie for our Characters, and in an hour and a half we had one park down.

From there we drove over to the TTC (Transportation and Ticket Center) and took the Monorail to Epcot. Another park that was really empty. We hit Spaceship Earth, Soarin, Mission Space (Test Track was temporarily out of order) and Maelstrom (The ride at Norway). Walked around the world showcase to get pictures with Mulan and Snow White, and we quickly had 2 parks down and we're looking good.

We jumped on the boat to take us to Hollywood Studios, and though it took a long time, it got us there. Lineups at Hollywood Studios were a bit longer, we went on Tower of Terror (my first time ever, I was holding on too tight to do the moose ears with the rest of the group), Rockin' Roller Coaster, Toy Story Midway Mania (thanks to Jeremy who helped us sneak into the fast pass line by telling the cast member we were on the 4 Park challenge and needed this ride!) and Star Tours. Finding Characters was a bit more difficult. We ended up catching Quincy from Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny (from Handy Manny), and had 3 parks finished before 5pm. Looking good!

The Bus back to the TTC and another Monorail ride later and we were at Magic Kingdom to finish up. Here we went for the Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Carribean. And to finish off the Challenge with a bang, our characters were Mickey and Minnie Mouse! The Big Cheese(s)!

All in All it was a lot of fun, I had a great time, it was exhausting but totally worth it. And though Craig was strict at times ("You have 2 minutes for a bathroom break, go go go!") it was all good. I went on Tower of Terror for the first time, and enjoyed it. Though it still kinda freaks me out.

Today I went back to Animal Kingdom with Rachel, there were supposed to be more joining us, but they ended up missing the bus, and decided not to come. So we made the most of our day, went on a great safari (it wasn't too too hot, so there were plenty of animals out), Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and caught the Nemo Musical before going to Sanaa for lunch. It was a lot of fun, but I was still pretty tired from the night before, so we headed back home after that, and I had a nice long nap.

Living in FLA ain't half bad so far. I'm enjoying getting to know all the canadians, and some people from other countries too. I do miss everybody back home too! But it's a bit easier now that I've got some people to hang out with here.

I still want to get some golfing in...

Ciao for now!

-Dano

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Pictures added!

So September 4th rolled around, and you know what that means... Halloween!

Ok, so that might seem a little crazy in most places. But here in Disney, it's a great time of year, so why would we only celebrate it on one day? So September 4th was the first night for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, I joined a group of canadians in getting dressed up and heading over to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.

For the Not So Scary party, the Magic Kingdom is decorated like crazy for halloween, there is a special villian show, a halloween parade, halloween fireworks and Candy Spots!!! for trick or treating. It was definitely a fantastic night.

I was a ghostbuster (who you gonna call?), so the Magic Kingdom was the place to be, I had people all night telling me to go to the Haunted Mansion, as they had a ghost problem there. Lots of people loved my costume, though I found that most of them were 20 or over, a lot of kids had no idea who I was.

It was a great night, and I plan to hit up the halloween party again a few times before halloween comes and goes, hopefully we'll get some more canadians costumed up.

I don't have any pictures, but some of the other canadians did, so If I get some, I'll post them here for sure!

Pretty soon I start on the popcorn cart, so I hope to get some pictures of me there too. Should be fun to learn!

Hope all is well back home.

-Dano

Earned my ears!

Haven't posted in a little while, as work has me getting home exhausted at 11:30 or so, and most nights I can't be bothered to post on the blog at that point. But I figured I'd try to squeeze one in now.

So I have earned my ears, or at least my first set of ears. At the Canada pavilion food and beverage there is the Popcorn cart and Podium. I started out at podium, so I had 4 days of training to learn all the different podium jobs. Now that I completed my trading I was able to take off the "earning my ears" flag from my nametag. So now it just says "Dan, Guelph, Canada" I want it to say "Dan, Guelph, Ontario" but apparently I'd have to pay for a new nametag, and I'm kind of broke right now.

I'm having a lot of fun, the canadians here have been great to work with, and everybody has been really supportive. Met some movie buffs, and people who aren't all about drinking, so hopefully I'll have somebody to see some movies with. Also I'm talking to some avid golfers, so I'm hoping to get out and hit the golf courses around with my cast discount!

I do miss home, but getting to know everybody here is making things a bit easier. I'm glad to have started working, as it is fun interacting with the guests, and enjoying the company of my fellow Canucks.

So now I'm just waiting for all of you to come down and visit!

-Dano