Alligator Roadkill Was Just The Beginning!!! Updated 2nd May!!

[marDgreen88]

Your real life stuff is very exciting... congrats on the musical and that shirt was a major score. LOVE IT.

Your stories are always hilarious! The man from ToT sounds like a good sport but the head banger with a band takes the cake in this one, I must say. That picture is BRILLIANT.

No I totally get it... I mean, regular munchkins are pretty creepy, but animatronic munchkins could really do you in on a bad day.

 

[__disneygirl]

WOW. I am so jealous of your entire life. All of that is AMAZING! Honestly I would die if I got to be in I even got to go to London once, nevermind visit a family member there many times and go to DISNEYLAND PARIS!!!! Same thing with being in the Wedding Singer. That is just amazing. What is your role? I'm also jealous of the fancy chocolate BUT MOST OF ALL THE FULL HOUSE SHIRT. THAT IS UNREAL. So yeah, congratulations on all the awesomeness!

HAHAHAHA why is it not at all surprising that you would grab an unsuspecting stranger on ToT?

They hardly ever do the guitar handling guy thing. Also, sometimes they have a CM over the loudspeaker interact with Aerosmith. Like in between stuff the band says, a CM will say "Hey Steven, how about some backstage passes?!"

THANK YOU SO MUCH for always entertianing me so with your art. It is beautiful as I have told you many times. Hmm, I too wonder about the hat. Does he shower with it on?

p.s. Last night I had a dream I was out clubbing in Australia!!! AHHHH I WISH I WAS THERE RIGHT NOW!

 

[tinkgurl]

I want your Full House shirt! How cute!

 

[emma212010]

Hi! I'm just joining in, a bit late I know. BUT I did spend the whole snowstorm trapped in my house, so I read your whole report up to this point! OMG, I literally laughed so hard at your stories!!!!

You have had quite the adventure, and so many of your situations sound so familiar! It's exactly something that would happen to me!

I can't wait to hear more!!!

 

[danimaroo]

Your updates seriously leave me laughing out loud EVERY time. I am dying over here at Sam because I can totally picture that happening. I've seen many "Sams" at Disney World. I ALSO LOVE YOUR FULL HOUSE SHIRT. Best thing I've ever seen, and for $8, too!

And I love that you notice the meltdown hour, too! I always point out to Matt that around 1-2ish, that's when you see crazy meltdowns from children. We promised each other that we will take the well-needed afternoon break with our kids WAY before they hit meltdown mode, only to spare both us and those surrounding us of the horrid screams would emit our future children's mouths.

 

[Aussiesalad]

Loving the updates! Congrats on the Wedding Singer!

ToT is the most perfectly themed ride ever. Just so, so well done. Laughing so hard imagining you grabbing onto that strange man.

And your seatmate on RnRC. Huh. You really have all the luck don't you? I wonder if his baseball cap wearing is a nod to 91/2 weeks? Makes you think a little differently about his wife huh?

Thanks so much!!! I'm so excited to start rehearsals!

I know! It really is perfection! Ahhhh it was pretty awkward when I realised what I had done, luckily he was a good sport!!

I was pretty lucky this trip with all my new 'friends'! Seriously couldn't control myself once he began to 'rock out'. So great!!

You're knew friend Sam the metal man ,could easily be any 3 out of 5 brothers of mine LOL,They get so annoyed that I make jokes about their "rah rah kill ur mother eat ur grandpas " music and I refer to them as metallicaheads(kinda odd considering I actually do like some metallica songs) and they r not as screamy as Korn ,but I totally pictured them when reading that post.

That is hilarious! Yikes 5 brothers is a LOT! Haha I know what you mean about the music! He was so sweet this guy, just loved headbanging to his Aerosmith more than anyone I've met before!!

Great post as always!!

Agree about the creepy ness of the Munchkins! We were on the second to last row of the vehicles and got temporarily stopped for a minute. After the 'Yellow Brick Road' song finished and all of the Munchkins silently lowered down into their hiding positions again. So creepy!

The book is 'Babysitters on Board'. Super Special #1
They were on a split cruise/WDW vacation.
This was back before the Disney Cruise Line. Disney used to be in partnership with Premier Cruise Line.

Awh thanks!! UGH I KNOW! They are really creepy!! I'm sorry you had to experience that with the munchkins...I probably would have freaked out!!

I love that book so much!! Seriously going to try and find it this weekend so I can read it again! I just remember when Karen sneaks off on the ship and gets a manicure, I used to think that was soooo cooool

 

[Aussiesalad]

I just sat down and read this whole report in one sitting. Love your drawings! You are hilarious. I can't wait to read the rest!

Yay!! Welcome and thanks so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Great update! I bet that guy on ToT had fun telling everyone about the girl who grabbed his knee!

And how to even touch on the awesomeness of your new friend Sam?! You really do have the best single rider stories!! I was waiting for you to say his hat flew off and hit his wife in the face!

Haha I'm sure he did! He got a way better story than me from the whole deal!

He was amazing!! He was just the most perfect RnR partner I could have asked for. He even introduced his kid by saying 'and this is my kid' ahhhhhh it was great!!

Eeek! I'm glad it didn't fly off, but I was kind of waiting for that too!

A great chapter, as always, Sally!

Congrats on your sister's promotion and all of the great things that means for you. I hope we'll get a Euro-Disney trip report out of the deal!

Thanks Glenn!! And yes that is definitely what it means!!

In that case, you'll want to pay close attention to my trip report. But unfortunately, the event I'm referring to is still a few days off in trip-reporting time, which means it'll probably be July before I get to posting it, at the rate I'm going.

Ahhhhh I'm excited already!!! I will keep up, don't you worry about that!!!!

And they do fit in better there than at Epcot's Future World or Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland, in my opinion.

Haha yes they make me feel a lot more warm and fuzzy than their robot cousins in Tomorrowland...

Do you also pay for the food since it was your idea that they eat it? If so, you're a dream date.

Sometimes I do BUT I also watch the person like a hawk as they eat the food which can make most people uncomfortable

Great response from that guy!

I know!!! He was great!!

Dang, I would've loved to have seen that.

Gahhh I know, I really need to fork out the money sometimes. The RnR one would have been pretty fantastic too!

Your drawings are great! It's like I was there!

Haha thanks! It's like we are ALL right there headbanging along with Sam...

That's interesting....I read trip reports from a teenaged kid on Expedition Everest and an older guy on Tower of Terror who said exactly the same thing!

I feel like the teenage boys would read more like, 'I'm never going on Everest again unless someone I know is sitting next to me. Australian girls are weird.... I'm never leaving my bedroom ever again"

 

[Aussiesalad]

Your real life stuff is very exciting... congrats on the musical and that shirt was a major score. LOVE IT.

Your stories are always hilarious! The man from ToT sounds like a good sport but the head banger with a band takes the cake in this one, I must say. That picture is BRILLIANT.

No I totally get it... I mean, regular munchkins are pretty creepy, but animatronic munchkins could really do you in on a bad day.

Thank you!! I KNOW! I've worn it so much already! Can't believe I went all these years without a Full House shirt

ToT guy was a good sport! He made the whole awkward situation more funny than anything OOh wow. Sam was brilliant! For the first 10 or so seconds I thought he may have been doing it as a joke... but no... that was just him!

Ughhh They really are quite scary!! Whenever we go through that room I wonder about what would happen if we broke down in there. EEEK
That would probably be the end for me....

WOW. I am so jealous of your entire life. All of that is AMAZING! Honestly I would die if I got to be in I even got to go to London once, nevermind visit a family member there many times and go to DISNEYLAND PARIS!!!! Same thing with being in the Wedding Singer. That is just amazing. What is your role? I'm also jealous of the fancy chocolate BUT MOST OF ALL THE FULL HOUSE SHIRT. THAT IS UNREAL. So yeah, congratulations on all the awesomeness!

Hahaha well I'm jealous of your life so now we are even? Seriously would love to live in NY! I've only been to London once before but I'm super excited to go back...and I cant even begin to think about EuroDisneyyyy! Cant even...
Thanks so much!! I'm just 'featured ensemble' whatever that means haha. I'm just happy I made it through both singing and dancing callbacks!
The shirt seriously makes my heart happy!!!!!

HAHAHAHA why is it not at all surprising that you would grab an unsuspecting stranger on ToT?

Haha I know. I manage to get myself into these situations on the daily it seems


They hardly ever do the guitar handling guy thing. Also, sometimes they have a CM over the loudspeaker interact with Aerosmith. Like in between stuff the band says, a CM will say "Hey Steven, how about some backstage passes?!"

Yeahhh I guess there are better uses for the RnR employees.... but still

THANK YOU SO MUCH for always entertianing me so with your art. It is beautiful as I have told you many times. Hmm, I too wonder about the hat. Does he shower with it on?

Thank YOU for appreciating it. All those minutes spent slaving away on the ipad
I actually think he meant ALL THE TIME! He was such a character that it wouldn't surprise me at all if he did!!

p.s. Last night I had a dream I was out clubbing in Australia!!! AHHHH I WISH I WAS THERE RIGHT NOW!

Ahhhh that is awesome!! Come see meeee!!!!! Actually my Saturday nights consist more of drinking cups of tea and watching Disney movies BUT hey if you were here RIGHT NOW I could totally club it up... yo

I want your Full House shirt! How cute!

I love it so much!! It's super soft too! I went back to check if they had more but they just had one of the 3 sisters in black and white. It was pretty cool but not as great....

 

[Aussiesalad]

Hi! I'm just joining in, a bit late I know. BUT I did spend the whole snowstorm trapped in my house, so I read your whole report up to this point! OMG, I literally laughed so hard at your stories!!!!

You have had quite the adventure, and so many of your situations sound so familiar! It's exactly something that would happen to me!

I can't wait to hear more!!!

Welcome!! Thanks for joining!!
Oh gosh I've heard about the storms over there, they sound CRAZY!!!
I've only been in snow twice in my life so it's really hard to even imagine but I hope you're staying safe...and WARM!

I'm so glad you can relate!! Makes me feel like I'm not so alone in my insanity

Next chapter will be up soon!!

Your updates seriously leave me laughing out loud EVERY time. I am dying over here at Sam because I can totally picture that happening. I've seen many "Sams" at Disney World. I ALSO LOVE YOUR FULL HOUSE SHIRT. Best thing I've ever seen, and for $8, too!

I know!!! There are quite a few 'Sams' at Disney right? He seriously was the sweetest guy... he just cracked me up with the intensity of his 'rocking out'.
I KNOWWW!!! I squealed really loud when I saw it even though I was alone. Too much excitement to contain!!!

And I love that you notice the meltdown hour, too! I always point out to Matt that around 1-2ish, that's when you see crazy meltdowns from children. We promised each other that we will take the well-needed afternoon break with our kids WAY before they hit meltdown mode, only to spare both us and those surrounding us of the horrid screams would emit our future children's mouths.

Ohhh the meltdown hour! It's crazy isn't it?? One minute all the kids are fine and happy and then all of a sudden the time hits and it's chaos!! That is too funny because Josh and I made the same pact!! Although Josh is more of a napper than me, so maybe he can take the child back for a nap and I can hit a few single rider lines....

 

[Aussiesalad]

Chapter 15

Jeans Are A Fantastic Choice And The Stupidest Map Reading Error Of All Time!!


With breakdown city in full swing we decided to hit one last favourite before heading out of the parks. It was of course....

THE MUPPETS!!!

Seriously who doesn't love this show?? Everything about it is great! Right from the pre show I am in stitches! Muppet humour is right up my alley! I was a massive muppet fan as a child and even went through a 6 month period where I would only let my mum play the muppets cassette in the car... NOTHING ELSE!
I'm glad she was understanding of my obsession... I don't know if I will be as patient if my child is as odd as I was...
Anyway into Muppetvision 3D!!

I should probably add here that even though I LOVE this show I am NOT a fan of 3d at all!!
It really makes my head feel weird and my eyes struggle to focus through most of the show. I wish I liked it. Most people seem to get a real kick out of that extra dimension but it seems to just confuse my brain. I like to tell myself that it's just that my brain is too smart for 3d, but it's probably the opposite.

After Muppets we headed out of the park and to where the car was parked...WHICH WE ACTUALLY REMEMBERED FOR ONCE!!!!
(Sorry, it was a proud moment)

After the short ride in our sauna of a car, we arrived back at the house and had a quick dip in the pool and a snack from the fridge. Then we got a little snazzier ready for a night at Downtown Disney!!! Yayyy!!!

This part of the update starts to get a little disgusting... yes again.... so feel free to skip the next few paragraphs or so if you are not into the over sharing of gross personal details.

I firstly need to let you know that I am a HORRIBLE judge of tempreture. Meaning that I am always dressed completely wrong for the weather. I just have no real scale in my head on what clothes go with what temperatures which leads to a lot of uncomfortable situations due to my inaccurate judgement.

Getting ready for the evening in DTD I pulled out of my suitcase what I thought would be a good outfit for the occasion. It was very tight dark thick jeans and a light floral top. I got dressed in the air conditioning and so of course I felt fine. I then put on some makeup (waste of time) and straightened my hair (another waste of time) and headed out to the car with the others. In the car we blasted the air con, circled the property an excessive amount of times and finally found Downtown Disney along with a parking spot right near DisneyQuest

Once I stepped out of the car I immediately regretted my choice. The boys had worn shorts and Bek was wearing a dress and so I was left alone to suffer horrible wrath of wearing tight dark jeans in Disney in the middle of summer.
You see in Australia (and every other place I have ever travelled to) after a boiling hot day a nice breeze will come in and the temperature will drop as the evening arrives. I had no idea that this just does not happen in Florida!! The air was still thick with humidity and moments after stepping out of the car, my hair was a frizz ball and my makeup had melted away.
Oh well, I put my discomfort aside, ignored how the jeans felt and thought happy Disney thoughts. On we trekked in search of a snack to cool us down.
I really tried to ignore it but every step seemed to make me hotter and hotter. My legs literally felt like they were on fire. I looked around and sure enough, I was the ONLY person in DTD I saw that was wearing jeans. I tried my best to think cold thoughts but it was getting worse and worse. My jeans were completely stuck to my skin all over and I was getting hotter by the minute.

THEN as I turned around to say something to Josh I slipped half over and had to steady myself on Bek's shoulder.

What the?

I looked down.

I dont want to say this sentence I really dont, but I feel like it is an important part to the story so here it goes...

I was so hot and my legs and ankles were sweating to such a degree that sweat was coming out the bottom of my jeans and onto my feet to the point where I couldn't even stand in my flip flops!!! I was just slipping all over the place!! I was THAT sweaty! Ughhh

I'm sorry!!!
I'm disgusting I know.

You see the thing is that I am NOT a sweaty person at ALL! Those jeans must have just pushed my body to the edge because it had never happened before that day and never happened since.

Ok... so I did what I needed to do.
I bought some overly priced shorts from Curl (that I never wore again) and that seemed to fix the problem.

After that disgusting episode we decided would would have some ice cream too cool ourselves down so we headed to haagan daaz for a delicious treat.

After our ice creams the sun was setting so we took a few pics.

Yay so glad I straightened my hair and put on that makeup...

We tried again about 20 mins or so later, but we were ever sweatier and grosser so yeah, not a big improvement.

This is us trying to pretend that we are not dripping with sweat... convincing right?

After our icecream/sweatfest we wanted to go and grab some souvenirs and spend some time shopping.

This next bit is quite embarrassing BUT I need to say it was before I was an active DIS-er and the heat had gotten to my brain quite a bit that day.

I pulled out the map I had printed from home and we tried to navigate DTD.

The map looked a little something like this...

Little did we know, half the map had ripped off.

We tried to find a Disney store... Nope
Tried to find some of the restaurants we had heard were good...Nope
We tried to find the Christmas store...Nope
T-shirt store.... Nope
Gluten free bakery??????? NOPE!!!

'Well, this Downtown Disney is pretty lame compared to the one in Cali' said Tim

We all agreed.

We even thought we might be missing something so we crossed over Pleasure Island and got as far as Raglan Road. We saw the carpark to the right and assumed that is where everyone was headed...back to their cars.

'Hmm, well I guess we've seen everything' said Josh

We agreed to catch a movie and head back to the house.

Laughing to ourselves about how silly it was that they didn't even had a World Of Disney store at their Downtown Disney.

FACEPALM

It was a good 6 months after this trip until I found the rest of my printed map and figured it out!!

Next up

The Best Way To Start A Universal Studios Day Is With A Hearty (accidental) Hike

 

[cheekypoppins]

haha thats funny I remember on my first adult trip I got seriously angry because I thought that the MGM map was wrong and outdated for showing things that didnt exsist.I was going up Mickey Ave and the map said I could get through but to me it looked like the street was a dead end( I never walked ahead to see it turns a corner) So I was bummed thinking there was no muppet 3D anymore n no honey i shrunk the kids playground LOL I am happy to report I know better now

 

[marDgreen88]

MUPPETS. I agree, their humor is perfect. I kinda understand what you mean about 3D. Sometimes it makes me feel weird, too. Not always, but sometimes. I can see why you wouldn't like it if that always happened to you!

Oh gosh, I'm sorry about your sweating incident! That must have been scary. Aww I hope you've seen the rest of DTD since then! I admit I'm not really a big fan of DTD myself... I really like a good amount of enjoying the resort time and a TON of park time, so DTD is always my very last choice haha. But still, it's fun to see it at least once! So I hope you get to someday if you haven't yet!

 

[__disneygirl]

Featured ensemble is amazing! AHH I would kill to be a featured ensemble in like... anything. I'm so happy for you! I hope we get to see pics and stuff from this! And I definitely know what you mean about your Saturday nighrs being tea and Disney movies. Yeah same here pretty much. I really should go out more but I ENJOY MY BED!

Okay onto your update!

YAY for muppets and remembering where the car is! Progress.

YOU are not disgusting... FLORIDA HEAT is disgusting! Ugh... it's really hard to be cute in Disney with the heat. Sometimes you just have to forget about the hair, make-up, and nice clothes and just throw your hair up in a bun and put on some huge sunglasses and whatever outfit keeps you cooled off!

The whole breeze at night thing DOES happen in Florida from like October-April, but not in the summer Never in the summer. That's why I don't go during the summer anymore. I don't know how anyone does it. I have a low tolerance for this stuff! I was freezing my butt off at times on my Dec and Oct trips but it was sooo much better than sweating to death.

OMG that is too funny that you totally missed the Marketplace side of DTD! Your poor sweaty brain! I hope you got to go on your subsequent trip!

 

[amazingact21]

In your defense, DTD is really big and everything's kind of jumbled together, so it can be easy to miss a lot of stores. It took Alex and I two trips before we figured out where D-Street was. But hey, at least not walking all the way over to World of Disney meant you all could cool off in a movie faster.

Florida is insanely hot 10 months out of the year. Unless you're right on the water, there's never a breeze to cool you down.

 

[glennbo123]

I have trouble viewing 3-D sometimes too. I think you're right -- you're too smart for it. The "jedi mind trick" probably wouldn't work on you either.

Hey, if it makes you feel any better...I went to a Bruce Springsteen show this past summer and towards the end he sat down, took off his boots and dumped the water out. It was partly sweat and partly from dousing himself with a sponge all night, but hey, at least you're in good company.

That's so funny that you missed half of Downtown Disney. I only ever go as far as Raglan Road, but from the other direction.

 

[Aussiesalad]

haha thats funny I remember on my first adult trip I got seriously angry because I thought that the MGM map was wrong and outdated for showing things that didnt exsist.I was going up Mickey Ave and the map said I could get through but to me it looked like the street was a dead end( I never walked ahead to see it turns a corner) So I was bummed thinking there was no muppet 3D anymore n no honey i shrunk the kids playground LOL I am happy to report I know better now

Haha oh no!! That sounds exactly like me! I'm terrible with maps even when they are right and I have the whole thing.
Glad that we have both learned from our experiences

MUPPETS. I agree, their humor is perfect. I kinda understand what you mean about 3D. Sometimes it makes me feel weird, too. Not always, but sometimes. I can see why you wouldn't like it if that always happened to you!

I know!! They are beyond amazing!! I just find them so hilarious
Yeah, I mean it doesn't bother me too much and I still enjoy the shows if they are good but I feel like the whole time my brain is saying "What is this??? Nope I don't like it! This is NOT real!"

Oh gosh, I'm sorry about your sweating incident! That must have been scary. Aww I hope you've seen the rest of DTD since then! I admit I'm not really a big fan of DTD myself... I really like a good amount of enjoying the resort time and a TON of park time, so DTD is always my very last choice haha. But still, it's fun to see it at least once! So I hope you get to someday if you haven't yet!

Haha thanks! Ugh it was more disgusting than scary. I had a whole 'we aren't in Kansas anymore' moment when I was falling over due to sweat. YUCK!
I actually only made it there this last september when I went with Darcy and really enjoyed looking around....and finding the missing half!!

Featured ensemble is amazing! AHH I would kill to be a featured ensemble in like... anything. I'm so happy for you! I hope we get to see pics and stuff from this! And I definitely know what you mean about your Saturday nighrs being tea and Disney movies. Yeah same here pretty much. I really should go out more but I ENJOY MY BED!

Thank you so much!! I'm excited but a little nervous! I haven't done anything like this is ages!! YES I'll post photos and updates once rehearsals start and the whole thing gets rolling.
I know right. Totally living life to the fullest watching full house reruns surrounded by cats... life in the fast lane!!

Okay onto your update!

YAY for muppets and remembering where the car is! Progress.

Finally we remembered!!! It was a proud moment!

YOU are not disgusting... FLORIDA HEAT is disgusting! Ugh... it's really hard to be cute in Disney with the heat. Sometimes you just have to forget about the hair, make-up, and nice clothes and just throw your hair up in a bun and put on some huge sunglasses and whatever outfit keeps you cooled off!

Haha yes. I blame the Florida heat for everything!! I was simply a victim!
I seriously had no idea what I was doing this trip as I had only ever been once and that was in December. These days its all about the messy bun and massive sunnies

The whole breeze at night thing DOES happen in Florida from like October-April, but not in the summer Never in the summer. That's why I don't go during the summer anymore. I don't know how anyone does it. I have a low tolerance for this stuff! I was freezing my butt off at times on my Dec and Oct trips but it was sooo much better than sweating to death.

Ugh I seriously don't think I will ever do it again. I mean unless it was the only time I could go and it was go in summer or no Disney!
Crowds and heat like that are just not fun!!

OMG that is too funny that you totally missed the Marketplace side of DTD! Your poor sweaty brain! I hope you got to go on your subsequent trip!

Such a dork! My brain got all soggy with sweat apparently! Yes luckily I had a whole day to myself before Darcy arrived in Sept so I spent the whole morning touring the marketplace

 

[Aussiesalad]

In your defense, DTD is really big and everything's kind of jumbled together, so it can be easy to miss a lot of stores. It took Alex and I two trips before we figured out where D-Street was. But hey, at least not walking all the way over to World of Disney meant you all could cool off in a movie faster.

Thank you for taking my side against DTD and you're right, we cooled off wayyy cooler without seeing that whole other pesky side
Seriously felt like quite the doofus once I found the other part of the map though!!

Florida is insanely hot 10 months out of the year. Unless you're right on the water, there's never a breeze to cool you down.

I had no idea just how brutal it was down there until this trip! I've never been so sweaty in my life

I have trouble viewing 3-D sometimes too. I think you're right -- you're too smart for it. The "jedi mind trick" probably wouldn't work on you either.

:rotfl: Exactly! How does this clearly superior massive brain fit in my normal sized head?

Hey, if it makes you feel any better...I went to a Bruce Springsteen show this past summer and towards the end he sat down, took off his boots and dumped the water out. It was partly sweat and partly from dousing himself with a sponge all night, but hey, at least you're in good company.

That is HILARIOUS!! That actually makes me feel much better about my sweaty episode! So happy that me and Bruce are like birds of a feather!
"cause tramps like us, baby we were born to ...sweat"

That's so funny that you missed half of Downtown Disney. I only ever go as far as Raglan Road, but from the other direction.

I know!! So silly of us, well me. I love the marketplace now that I know it exists! Thats where all the best stuff is!

 

[cfw213]

Hello! I just saw from your comment in my TR that you are doing one too! I must have missed it before because I was reading from my iPad. I have a lot of catching up to do!

 

[Aussiesalad]

Hello! I just saw from your comment in my TR that you are doing one too! I must have missed it before because I was reading from my iPad. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Yay welcome!! Haha don't worry I somehow manage to miss so much when I just use my ipad. And it takes me 3 years to type anything!!

 

[Aussiesalad]

Real life update:

THE CALL FROM DISNEY CASTING!! & other fun stuff

Hi guys, I have to interrupt this trip report to tell you a funny story that happened last Monday afternoon at 4:57 just as I was leaving work. So usually if the phone rings that close to 5 it is such a temptation to let it go to the machine because it's just Murphy's Law that if you answer it will be at least a 20 minute conversation.

Somehow I drew the short straw so as the others ran out the door I picked up the phone.

'"Company name company name This is Sally speaking"

"Sally, just who I was looking for! This is *John* from Disney Casting"

It was THE most surreal moment of my life.
My first thought was 'HOW DID THEY FIND ME????'

Nevermind the fact that I have never auditioned for Disney or given them my name or number for anything...
NEVERMIND those facts!!!

I thought I must have been putting out some Disney obsessed vibe to the universe,
one that had finally been picked up on by the right person.

There was a quite a few seconds of silence/daydreaming until I came back to reality and remembered I was at work and so I asked John how I could help him.

Long story short they were not plucking me from my everyday life to be part of their magical family they are casting the Lion King for the Australian tour and they need some kids aged 10-13 to audition and wanted us to nominate a few of our kids that could sing, dance and act. Which is still super exciting and fun to do!

Seriously made my Monday afternoon! I love my job!

On the down low, I'm totally going to somehow befriend *John* (feel free to let me know suggestions you may have) because I think having a Disney casting agent as a friend would be very handy

In other fun news, we had our first read through for the Wedding Singer and it was so great! The cast is so wonderful and hilarious!! It's going to be such a fun production!! The first 10 minutes of rehearsal was HORRIBLE though. It's so awkward walking into a room of theatre people that all seem to know each other from past shows and you know absolutely no one. Everyone was so lovely but it's just those first few minutes of awkwardly siding up to strangers and trying to subtly edge into their conversation circles. Soooo awkwarrrrd.
I feel like I have a friend or two already though and I'm excited to get to know everyone else.
ALSO I have A LINE!!! Actually I have a character, a tiny mini microscopic character but still it's a character!!
I get to throw a tantrum on stage (which will be so fun) and have my name and photo in the program under a name...not just 'anonymous tree #3' or something like that.

I know it's not a massive deal but I'm still very excited

Also the high school elite dancers at my work all got their 'action shots' taken this week. You know doing crazy splits and flips in the air.
So naturally I tried to get in on the action.

So graceful I know...

Ok that's all!

Onto updatetown...
​

Chapter 16

The Best Way To Start A Universal Studios Day Is With A Hearty (accidental) Hike


We woke up to another sweltering Florida day (surprise surprise) which didn’t faze us as we were heading to Universal Studiosssss and IOA!!!!
Tim and Bek had been talking about exploring Hogwarts and Hogsmeade for our whole trip so far and they were bouncing of the walls with excitement.

Now I on the other hand was looking forward to the Hulk and Dueling Dragons and all the other coasters and thrill rides because….

I had never read any of the Harry Potter books and only seen half of the 3rd movie.

I know, I know...

It’s just the craze took off quite quickly and I never really caught up!

I’m happy to let you know that as of September 2012 I have now read 2 of the books and seen one movie… slowly getting there. Just give me another 15 years and I'll be up to date

But despite my lack of Potter education they were going absolutely Potter-mad which made me excited too. I love sharing people’s obsessions and getting all wrapped up in the hype!

Poor Josh was still feeling horrible and so he decided to have another day to rest while we hit up the parks but he agreed to drop us off and pick us up so we wouldn’t have worry about parking... or where we left the car!
So we looked up universals address (first mistake) and plugged it into the gps
Off we went, our excitement building with each HP billboard we passed.

We followed Brigette's directions and after about 20 minutes pulled off highway 4 into a weird back street and a big carpark with big Universal signs. We could see all the rides in behind this carpark and buildings but it was weird. It DID not look like an entrance to a world renowned theme park. Buttttt there was all these people around that were all heading in so we figured it must be. Josh asked me if he should wait around to make sure we got in alright but I was sure we would be fine and not to worry (2nd mistake!!!) so Josh let us out and in we headed towards where it said entrance.

As we were walking it was looking stranger and stranger so we stopped and called Josh on his mobile to see if he could come back and get us. Unfortunately he didn't hear it ringing so we were stuck there.
We walked over to a guy who had just got out of his car and asked if this was the entrance to IOA or Universal.

"Nah man, this is employee entrance"

"Oh...
Can we get in this way?"

"No way, sorry it’s employee ONLY through here"

"Oh…
How do we get to the main entrance?"

"You gotta drive around a block or two"

"But we don’t have a car, can we just walk there?"

"Geez, that sucks.
Probably but it will take you ages to walk!"

"Oh… ugh…
Um we don't really have a choice, which way should we head?"

He gave us directions with a sort of smirk and off we headed..

This was our route.

It was ridiculous!

Googlemaps says it is 27 mins walking distance but I swear it felt a LOT longer!!

I think it would have been fine if it wasn’t 300000 degrees and humid as an ogre's armpit.

We headed back through the carpark and up to the main road. We passed the high school and wound our way back towards the MASSIVE turn off sign which we had somehow missed! Then followed the main road down towards the entrance then down under a bridge and up next to the river where they checked our bags.

We finally arrived at the gates sooooo sweaty and dying it was ridiculous!!

But we made it!!

So in we went through Port of Entry.

Past the Hulk!!

And to our main destination.

Tim and Bek fangirled around like crazy and I got a few shots.

We beelined for Forbidden Journey before it got too crowded and crazy in there.

Now as a person who knew nothing about Harry Potter I really appreciated this theming! Obviously the die hard fans would get the most out of this experience but I really enjoyed the immersive theming in the castle. It is brilliant and worth seeing even if you're not a potter fan.
The ride I enjoyed but, as I mentioned before I have issues with screens.
Wait did I say that? I think I just said 3d. Well it's a screen thing too. I don't get sick or anything but any rides with moving screens or 3d just make my head feel somewhat confused and weird.
I liked the ride but I wish there was more real ride and less screen time.
It was still amazing and we rode it twice in a row as we knew it would probably be our only chance before the crowds picked up for the day.

Weeee round two!

Then we headed to Dueling Dragons

(SO sad that they don't duel anymore!!!!!)

I love these rides so much!! Front row/no hands all the way!!

Next we decided to cool down a bit and so we went back through Toon Lagoon.

Slow down Marmaduke!!!

And headed towards what ended up being another silly decision...

Where Is My Shoe??? And OUR HEADS ARE EXPLODINGGGGG!!!

​

​