It's Kind of Fun to Do the Impossible - A 12 Month CRP Report

OMG BIRTHDAY CAKE DONUTS YES!!!!!!!!!!!! They are SO amazing! I am tempted to walk the 5mins to my nearest Timmy's right now to get one after reading about yours haha! I was at a random Timmy's in Toronto recently and they were giving out free timbits which they were calling 'birthday cake timbits' - and I know that actual birthday cake timbits exist because I've had them, and they ROCK, but these were not them! These were just honey dip timbits with like 10 sprinkles stuck on them before their glaze dried fully...and it was a nice gesture, free timbits and all...but they had nothin on the real thing!!
Interesting about going inside customs at the border, I hadn't even thought about that. And how annoying that you had to wait a million years for that meeting when your paperwork was so simple! :mad: Hopefully that's the only snag on the rest of the long road! (Other than the lack of strawberry shortcake ice cream) That vending machine ice cream thing looks so fun! Makes me wish I was driving all the way down but I think I'll be taking the Auto Train from DC.
And Tennessee border....you're getting SO CLOSE to Florida!! (Even though you've already been there for over a month at this point) :rotfl: Can't wait to read more :)
 
BIRTHDAY CAKE DONUT!!! I had heard a rumour that they were no longer going to offer the birthday cake donut, however, I am happy to report that for the time being there are still available. I can't wait to hear about your arrival at Disney :goodvibes
 
Yay for updates! Can't wait for more!

I know I've been slacking on the updates; but I promise I have everything recorded in my journal and I'll start cranking out the updates when I get the chance.
OMG BIRTHDAY CAKE DONUTS YES!!!!!!!!!!!! They are SO amazing! I am tempted to walk the 5mins to my nearest Timmy's right now to get one after reading about yours haha! I was at a random Timmy's in Toronto recently and they were giving out free timbits which they were calling 'birthday cake timbits' - and I know that actual birthday cake timbits exist because I've had them, and they ROCK, but these were not them! These were just honey dip timbits with like 10 sprinkles stuck on them before their glaze dried fully...and it was a nice gesture, free timbits and all...but they had nothin on the real thing!!
Interesting about going inside customs at the border, I hadn't even thought about that. And how annoying that you had to wait a million years for that meeting when your paperwork was so simple! :mad: Hopefully that's the only snag on the rest of the long road! (Other than the lack of strawberry shortcake ice cream) That vending machine ice cream thing looks so fun! Makes me wish I was driving all the way down but I think I'll be taking the Auto Train from DC.
And Tennessee border....you're getting SO CLOSE to Florida!! (Even though you've already been there for over a month at this point) :rotfl: Can't wait to read more :)

Hey. any day you get free timbits is a good day! The birthday cake timbits are extra delicious, and I am really hoping they are still around next weekend when I get to visit home.
The Auto Train, that sounds so cool!!! I'm assuming it's just a normal train, but the name makes it sound so much more exciting.


BIRTHDAY CAKE DONUT!!! I had heard a rumour that they were no longer going to offer the birthday cake donut, however, I am happy to report that for the time being there are still available. I can't wait to hear about your arrival at Disney :goodvibes

Oh thank goodness!! I get to visit home next weekend and I am planning to stock up on so many birthday cake timbits and donuts for the plane ride back to Florida.
 


NO VACANCY

We hadn’t booked a hotel room for the night because we honestly had no idea where we would be at this point in time. My mom had hoped that we would make it through Atlanta, Georgia because she didn’t want to stop there (on account of it being more expensive for the same hotel room) but we had been stuck in traffic earlier that day right before the Kentucky border and had not made very good time due to it. Because of this there was no way we could safely drive through Atlanta to try and get to a hotel on the other side of it so we decided to stop before we got into Atlanta.
Whenever we have driven to Florida we have gotten the book ‘Along the I-75’ which has amazing details and directions in it, along with some fun facts that help make the time pass down those boring stretches of the road. The book also lists all of the decent hotels at each exit along the highway.
We stopped at about 5 or 6 exits away from Atlanta and not a single hotel had an vacancy! We had completely forgotten that it was the 4th of July weekend and that people were probably travelling with their family; which had led to us not being able to find a hotel room anywhere. Three exits away from Atlanta we found a hotel that had one smoking room available. But A. None of us smoke and didn’t really want to be in a smoke filled room all night, and B. We kind of wanted either a suite with multiple rooms or just two rooms. So we made the executive decision that the smoky room was not for us and continued on. Again we found no rooms available at any hotels at the next exit and we only had one exit left to try. Now I know what you’re thinking, hey why didn’t you guys just call the other hotels? Well none of the hotels were willing to give us the phone numbers for their partner hotel at the next exit – crazy I know! And by the time we would have looked any numbers up we could have already driven to the next exit, so it didn’t make that much of a difference.
The final exit before we entered Atlanta we pulled off, checked the hotels that the book recommended, and again had no luck. There was a Hilton Garden Suites that I saw peaking around the corner and it looked very fancy and nice. I convinced my mom that we should just try to go there even though the book didn’t recommend it because I thought it wasn’t recommended because it looked pretty pricey, but once we got to Atlanta the prices would go up anyway so it was worth a try.
When we got in the man at the front desk told us that he had two non-smoking rooms available and they were the last two in the entire hotel as they had to save them for the end because they were handicap accessible rooms. JACKPOT! A large spacious room, yes please. They were indeed way more money than we were hoping to spend, but at this point in time it was almost 2 am and we wanted to be up and on the road in 5 hours, all we wanted was a shower and a comfy bed so we went for it. While we were getting everything sorted out at the counter for our rooms we got to chatting and it turned out that he had done a PI in Magic Kingdom Guest Relations a few years ago. He wanted to share the Disney magic so he was able to give us an even lower room rate and complementary breakfast buffet tickets for the morning. Brendan was really starting to see the magic that the Disney community brings to one another, and I was getting really excited to be able to finally join in on creating that magic for guests.
 
It sounds like you hit the bridge construction on I-24 just before Kentucky. We live in the town where that bridge is and it was a traffic snag for months. Rest assured though that it is completely done now. There are times when it was backed up for hours, it caused for major problems for travelers and locals.
 
It sounds like you hit the bridge construction on I-24 just before Kentucky. We live in the town where that bridge is and it was a traffic snag for months. Rest assured though that it is completely done now. There are times when it was backed up for hours, it caused for major problems for travelers and locals.

That sounds exactly like what we hit, because it was by a bridge that it happened! Thank goodness it is all finished now, I can't imagine having to drive through that every day.
 


ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The next morning we woke up, had our delicious complementary buffet breakfast downstairs. Pack up the car and we were off again on the road. Today was also a very special day because it was Brendan’s birthday!!!!! How nice that he gets to spend his special day trapped in a car for hours again...
Finally we made it to the gorgeous Florida welcome centre.



We were greeted with a cup of juice (orange for Brendan and my mom, grapefruit for me). We took a minute to relish in the fact that we had actually made it, and then decided to get back in the car as we still had a ways to go.
When I was younger my aunt and uncle had a house in the beautiful old town of St. Augustine. I was lucky enough to be able to visit there almost every year and enjoy all of the beauty and culture that the town had to offer. Mom and I had decided before we left on this enormously long drive down to Florida that it would be worth the extra few hours of driving to detour to St. Augustine and have lunch at the Florida Cracker.

When we finally got there it was like nothing had changed, we didn’t even need directions or a map, everything just came right back and we instantly knew where we were. We finally found parking, and navigated our way through the old cobblestone streets to our favourite place to eat lunch in St. Augustine.
Before we even looked at the menu we ordered an appetizer of alligator tail, which is something that actually does taste like chicken. I know people say that all the time, and I don’t generally eat things that live in the water so I know they’re lying when I taste it, but let me tell you gator tail actually does taste like chicken!
 
I am totally loving the CRP and you haven't even made it to Disney yet. The anticipation is killing me. Hope all is going well, loving the updates :cloud9:
 
I am totally loving the CRP and you haven't even made it to Disney yet. The anticipation is killing me. Hope all is going well, loving the updates :cloud9:

Everything is going so great! I have had so many wonderful people coming down to visit me that I just haven't been at the apartment with my lap top. But I have been taking tons of notes and will find the time to get everything down.

More, more, more!! Come back to us! popcorn::

I know I know I know.. I have been awful! I promise that I have everything written down in detail and will get it all up on here!
 
THE SUNSHINE STATE

After our especially delicious lunch we headed back out on the road, unfortunately we couldn’t stay the night to take part in the amazing ghost walk that they do, although I really suggest it to anyone who likes that sort of thing. We still had a few hours worth of driving to do before we made it to Orlando, and getting stuck in construction traffic only made that worse. The traffic was so bad there were times when we just sat there on the road for what felt like days just waiting to move up an inch. My time was spent counting the people who were running out of their cars to ummmmm relieve themselves in the bushes, which was made much more challenging since the rain was just coming down in sheets.

Finally the clouds parted and we had made it, the rain seemed to let up just as we were pulling into our suite for the next few days. I was lucky enough to have my family stay with me until July 10th, even though my check in days was July 8th. We were staying at the Staybridge Suites just across from the entrance to Downtown Disney, and just around the corner from the housing complexes which is why we chose it in hopes that it would make moving everything in a little easier for us all.

They suites were really nice; they had all been newly refurbished and were quite modern and very spacious. And the hotel had complimentary breakfast every morning, and a few nights a week they offered appetizers and drinks to guests.

If you’re a family looking for a place off property to stay at I really suggest it.
That night Brendan decided to go to the gym, and I didn’t want him to leave (and I certainly wasn’t going to the gym) so I was hanging on the back of him trying to prevent him from leaving the room, when he dragged me by the couch in the living room and my toenail caught on the leg of it. Needless to say, it ripped it really good and took almost a month to grow out. Ow!!

While Brendan was at the gym I showered and then hung out with my mum. Then we all went to bed nice and early, it was a relief not to be sitting upright in a car still.
 
I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD – JULY 7

Originally we had planned to skip visiting the Disney parks this go around since I would be getting my blue ID and guest passes in a short amount of time, and it wasn’t really worth spending the money on. That was the plan before we actually got to Orlando, when we got up in the morning Brendan decided that he couldn’t be that close to WDW and not be able to visit it. We made the executive decision to visit EPCOT that day so that Brendan could see where I was going to work.

My mom dropped us off at DTD and we caught the next resort bus that arrived. It took us to the Yacht Club where we sat forever! A ton of busses came, but no Epcot bus. Finally we just decided to take the third MK bus that came and from there got the Monorail to Epcot.

We bought tickets at the ticket booth from a wonderful cast member, and chatted about how I was about the join the Epcot family. Then Brendan and I made our way into Epcot. It was Brendan's first time in any Disney park and he was instantly blown away, not only by the park itself but mostly by the cast members and how they were treating each and every guest.

Our first stop was guest relations to get Brendan a birthday button since his birthday had been the day before. We also tried to get me a CRP 2014-2015 button, but the girl behind the counter (who was most likely on the same, or a similar program) didn’t understand CRP and wrote CIP on it, well close enough and now I have a funny button.

Our next stop was to get some Fast Passes. We got fast passes for Test Track, Malestrom, and Living with the land. Brendan isn’t much of a ride person, so obviously I started him off on the fasted ride in all of WDW, Test Track. With our fast passes we were able to walk right into the design room and being building our car. We had two of the sweetest little girls behind us in line and when we had moved into the next line area we chatted the whole time. My hair was braided (as usual) and the two of them were discussing if I looked more like Anna or Elsa. One thought Elsa because there was only one braid that swung over my shoulder, the other thought Anna because of how I actually looked. It was really funny and their mom was really friendly as well. Brendan loved how friendly everyone was in the park and was all smiles.

Our next fast pass was for Malestrom so we headed over to Norway. As suspected Brendan both loved and appreciated that amazingness that was the Malestom. Especially his new favourite line to say, “This is troll country.”
After visiting Norway we were feeling a bit peckish so we headed back to Mexico and ordered some Tacos de Carne and the kids Empanadas de Queso.
 
I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD – JULY 7 CONTINUED

We still had a bit of time before our Living with the Land fast pass so we moseyed over to Spaceship Earth and took a peak at what our future is going to look like.
After Spaceship Earth we went to the land pavilion and took a wonderful boat ride through Epcot’s greenhouses. We could have learnt about different eco systems and how all parts of the world do things different to make the most of their environment. However we had a boat full of Brazilians, and the only thing we learnt is that Brazil must really love papayas because every other word out of their mouth was papaya! The kids kept trying to climb out of the boat and were constantly standing and jumping while screaming papaya at the top of their lungs. .. it was a great ride.
I tried to explain Sorin’ to Brendan so he could decide if it was something he would be okay with going on, but he must not have understood me because when we made it all the way through the hour long line and he saw the loading video he decided that he absolutely could not do it and we just walked right through when we got inside, following the people who had just flown right out the exit doors.
We decided to tour around the World Showcase and as we headed through China we saw Mulan was out meeting and greeting guests.
We told her that Brendan was a quarter of a century old now and she said not to worry because that was nothing close to how many centuries old Mushu is.


Brendan stopped and played some music in Africa.

We passed through Germany we stopped at Sommerfest and I got a Bratwurst. I didn’t want the sauerkraut but Brendan wanted to try some so I asked for the sauerkraut to be on the side. This is what we received.
PHOTOS OF SAUSAGE AND SAUERKRAUT
Brendan got a beer and we just by the lagoon while we ate, it was so peaceful and relaxing.
When we entered the United Kingdom Brendan just had to send a photo home to his dad. His parents are originally from Ireland and England and they go back every summer to visit family so he thought his parents would really enjoy seeing a picture of what Epcot said the UK looked like.





Finally we made it into Canada and Brendan got to look around the pavilion that I would call home for the next 12 months.
Illuminations was starting in less than an hour and our legs were tired so we decided to just find a spot and sit down. We ended up just by the Refreshment Port, and after about 20 minutes of waiting Brendan decided that he needed a cronut since people kept walking by with them. Once he had food all of the ducks that had been playing on the grass decided that we were their new best friends and hoped we would share with them (do not feel the wildlife!)


While I was watching Illuminations it really hit me, starting the next day I was going to begin a journey that I had been dreaming about for my entire life. I was going to get to listen to Illuminations every night at work, and make the magic that we had experienced today for thousands of other guests throughout the year.
I couldn’t wait!
When Illuminations had finished we headed out to the bus area and caught the bus back to our hotel (it took forever and made me realise how much I appreciated the WDW bus system).
 
WOOHOOOOOO an update!!! :yay:

Bahah I can't believe he changed his mind AFTER waiting in the giant line for Soarin! D'oh.
Love the photos of sausage and sauerkraut lmao! :rotfl:
And you guys got a GREAT shot with Mulan! I want to meet her so badly. What a fun start to your amazing journey!
 
THERE'S A GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW

A great big apology to anyone who was following this thread from the start or who may have stumbled across it randomly.

I am happy to report that I finished my program and successfully completed what was the best year of my entire life so far.

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I was even able to extend for a few extra weeks so I could spend more time where I belong, and get my 1 year pin of course!

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I am so sorry for not being able to keep up with the report, I kept notes as my year went along with the intention of doing a round of massive updates; but (and I'll try to do this without sounding like a giant excuse) recruitment forgot about Canada Merch for a while *cough* 6 months *cough* and as people's programs ended our numbers dwindled down to 6 to run the entirety of the Merchandise pavilion. Needless to say 6 days a week and open close shifts, A) weren't the most interesting for you to read about, and B) left me wondering if my brain has resisted turning to mush in my head.

That, coupled with a massive life altering event that unfortunately took me some time to personally overcome really put a damper on my report. (If you follow me on Instagram or twitter you may have deduced for yourself).


I was lucky enough to meet some of the best friends that I have ever had in my entire life, and we had the most amazing times together.
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So I figured I would just put some of my favourite memories from my program up here to share with all of you!

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SHINING AT THE END OF EVERY DAY

From start to finish my program was an absolute dream come true. Like Walt said, it takes people to make the dream become a reality and if it wasn’t for these people there’s no way my program would have been as amazing as it was.

I made friends from all the way across the pond in the UK!
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And some a bit closer to home from the West Coast of Canada
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I got to experience Dapper Day with my Ukadian ladies.
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Spend a whole 24 hours in the Magic Kingdom
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I got to fight ruffians with my favourite princess
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Help find Goofy during his Mystery Tour with my Wonderland Ukadians
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And have taco night in the Treehouse Villas
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After a day of learning all about Marceline, the Haunted Mansion, and Pepper's Ghost I got to have story time on the Hub Grass
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I found all the fun secrets of the UK and Canada Pavilion including how to go behind the windows in Christopher Robin's Room (sadly on my last day of work)
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I discovered, fell in love with, and then got to be a part of the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review
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I got to go on one of the most amazing trips of my life time with some of the most amazing people I know
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Seriously though, Disneyland is spot on magical and perfect!
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I got to have countless Hugga Muggas with the world's best boss!
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And leave my legacy all over the North West Mercantile
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Graduation and Last days were heartbreaking, saying goodbye to family is hard
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And last but certainly not least, I got to meet my best friend on the entire planet, King David of the UK pavilion!
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Most importantly if anyone has any questions about the CRP or just anything else in general feel free to ask! As I finally am able to go through all of my photos from the last year I'll hopefully be able to sneak a few more adventure specific posts up on here.

 
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Sounds like a wonderful experience for you. Thanks for coming back and providing the conclusion.
 

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