A Dream of Pixie Dust, Photography, Food & Friends!-updated 2/14!

[katt789]

Hello! And welcome aboard the most recent (and it's been a long while) trip report by me, Katt! I will be your ghost host, your jungle cruise skipper, your host and narrator throughout this journey!

And I guess one of my actual face might be nice:

There ya go! I have been traveling to Disney for 5 years now, with friends, family, solo trips, you name it, I've done it. The addiction started back in 2011 when I discovered that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was opening, and we NEEDED to go. Naturally a trip to Florida without Disney seemed weird, so the planning begun. Before we'd even gotten home from that trip, the next one was in the works for 4 months later. 3 months after that was the next one, and that one brought with it my first audition. Throughout my journey with Disney I've had many auditions, and one very magical interview, which brings us about up to speed.

From Oct 2014 to Oct 2015, I participated in Disney's Cultural Representative Program, working in the Canadian Pavilion in a food & beverage role! While in that role, I met my absolute greatest best friend, who luckily enough, had the same arrival & departure dates as me; Kara:

We luckily bonded super quick and discovered our absolute love for so many of the same things throughout Disney, and had one HECK of a year working for the mouse, including a trip over to Disneyland to finish it all off with some extra pixie dust.

Joining us on this trip are 2 of our other closest friends from our program, Pearl:

And Abby:

They both finished their programs in the months prior to ours ending, but we still hung out as much as we could, and spent a lot of magical times with them making all the memories, and spreading pixie dust legitimately EVERYWHERE we went. (actually...we get pixie dusted in the parks and then we bring our own too..there's actually glitter everywhere, and this time we don't have to worry about washing it off for work...)

All four of us are HUGE lovers of all things Disney, spending the majority of our time at Magic Kingdom, Tangled is among the top for all of us when it comes to movies, we love spending time with princesses, watching the Festival of Fantasy parade, dancing along to Dream Along, eating our way around Epcot, drinking wine and dining on cheese plates over at the Grand Floridian, hitting up the Hoop Dee Doo and attempting to make it back to Magic Kingdom for the Electrical parade. Kara & I in our year discovered our love of photography as well! We both have DSLR cameras and have discovered the true passion that we have for it.

When: Feb 17-25th.
-Technically those are "my" dates. Abby doesn't fly in until the next day, Pearl's staying with her boyfriend the nights before, so it's just Kara & I the first night. Then I leave on the 25th and the other 3 are going on a cruise!

Where: All Star Sports! Nothing fancy to see here, just a cheap and comfortable place to lay our heads after an exhausting day of frolicking around the parks. We booked the reservation with the cm discount through some awesome friends too so that's a super added bonus

Why: This one seems pretty obvious since it's Disney, BUT, the other 3 girls are running the Princess Half Marathon, along with the 10k, and Kara's doing the full Glass Slipper Challenge!
-It's also an excuse for us to finally reunite! I haven't seen any of them since Oct when our program ended, and we know it's going to be very exciting!

Stay tuned for more details of our plans and lots of pictures!

 

[katt789]

Saved for Chapter Links!

**ETA** so many things have changed and I have no idea how to link posts anymore but this ptr shouldn't be too long..**

 

[katt789]

Day 1- Wednesday February 17th

Although Day 1 *technically* begins on the 16th, since I'm flying on a red eye flight! I was lucky enough to be given that day off from work as an added bonus, but that doesn't mean I'll be sleeping in, because it's TSUM TSUM TUESDAY, and unlike the Zootopia ones that were just released, THESE ARE THE STAR WARS ONES AND I NEED THEM IN MY LIFE.

Just look at them, they're so friggin cute! I'm probably not buying all of them, cause that's pricey and I don't feel the need for Bobba or Jabba, but DEFINITELY need Leia, Han, Chewie, Wicket and the Droids, and quite possibly Vader and the trooper *sigh* So much money...

After that I might go to the gym, and then make sure everything's packed up and ready to go. Mom's offered to drive me out to the airport which is AWESOME because I usually Uber to a hotel in the downtown area and then take a shuttle from there and it just takes FOREVER, seriously our house to the airport is about a 40 minute drive and it kills me every time.

My flight leaves around 1:20 am with a layover in Toronto to clear customs, and then straight onto Florida! I land around 1:20pm and hope to be rolling into All Star Sports around 3pm.

**NOT MY PHOTO** found on google.

I debated heavily on how to save money for this trip thanks to being on a bit of a tight budget and decided the best way to do that was to have some groceries for breakfast & snacks. Then it was onto how to get these groceries, garden grocer was missing a bunch of the things I wanted, so I decided to Uber over to the nearest Walmart to pick up some things for cheaper and have a wider selection. I also want to keep eating as clean as possible through this trip, since a year living in the Disney bubble does certainly pack on the pounds! So lots of fruit and veggies and breakfast to help with that!

I've then got a few hours that I might nap, I might swim, I might meet a friend at DTD, who knows, Kara doesn't get in until a bit later that night, but I'm sure our reunion will be:
-Scream
-Running
-Hugs
-Tears
-More hugs
-Pizza
-Wine
-More hugs
-Wish we had our chipmunk onesies with us
-And probably look like this

Then it'll be time for us to at least pretend to try to go to sleep! We're headed straight into the parks early the next morning, and have to change rooms at Sports to the reservation for the whole week!

 

[katt789]

Day 2- Thursday February 18th


Today’s the day!! We’ll finally be getting back into the parks after way too long of an absence! Kara & I will be up early enough to make sure we’re packed up and drop everything at bell services before heading over to the bus to make it in time for Welcome Show!


IMG_1848 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


IMG_1880 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


The best part of the show, to be honest…


I’m sure we won’t really be rushing anywhere, we might run over to Fairytale Hall if the line isn’t that long to see Rapunzel & Cinderella quickly, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if we just stroll through Town Square/Main Street trying not to cry, holding in all the feels. Have a photo shoot or two, you know.

Starbucks might be needed, and then it’ll be time for the Trolley Show!! We kinda discovered it by accident last year and absolutely LOVE it, it changes with the Seasons (with an added bonus of a special Xmas one) and each one is fabulous in its own way, but Winter is our favorite, and that’s what’ll be happening today!

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


We’re also VERY excited to see the Trolley kids, who grew to be friends over the seasons, and put up with us watching all 4 stops of the show multiple times a day, bahah. They really are some of the sweetest people I know!

Somewhere throughout the day, Amanda will be joining us after she’s finished with her audition.

Amanda & I met through Tumblr a few years back, met in person at an audition, hung out in the parks, and just became instant friends. She now lives down in Florida working for Seaworld, her husband works for Disney driving the Mk area boats too! She’s one of my best friends and I’m super happy to be getting to spend more time with her again!


We don’t have major plans or fp for the day, but I’m sure it’ll involve some meet and greets and attempting to see as many friends as we can before 3pm.

**ETA: We will DEFINITELY be tracking down the Tremaines these first few days! It's been pretty much confirmed that Lady Tremaine will be leaving the parks on the 21st and we have a very special relationship with her and want to make sure we see her!

Around 2:30 we’ll be getting spots in Frontierland for the most wondrous of all parades, ever. Guys, seriously, if you haven’t seen Festival of Fantasy, do it, it’s amazing.

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


After the parade is where we’ll be temporarily splitting up, Kara’s headed to the Disney Run expo, potentially with Pearl. If Amanda has nowhere to be we’ll probably grab dinner, maybe hit up another park or DTD. Otherwise I’ll probably head back to the hotel to start editing photos because there will be hundreds already lol!


Kara & I will meet back up after she’s done at the Expo either at the hotel or over at Hollywood Studios! This is really our only chance to see Fantasmic during the week, and I really wanted to see it at least once, so Kara agreed to go with me. Not sure if we’ll squeeze in anything else at DHS because of the time, we want to get good seats for the show after all!


Fantasmic is always a challenge to shoot for me, I like to use my zoom lens, but the aperture doesn’t go wide enough to get decent shots sometimes, and the wide aperture lens I have is only a 50mm, so there might be some playing around this time, who knows how pictures will end up!?


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


After Fantasmic it’s back to the hotel for bed! Kara’s got a 5k to run in the morning and it will have been a long day. Pearl will most likely be in the parks with us for at least the parade, but we’re not sure, this might be the first time we see her. Abby gets in super late tonight, so chances are she’ll show up, we’ll all wake up and end up lying in the dark giggling over nothing like we’re back in Junior High , and reminisce about all the hilarity of our program until the wee hours of the morning. (this may be what exactly what happened before the 24hr event…)


The next morning is an early one though, so hopefully we get some sleep!

 

[katt789]

Before I start here I figured I’d throw in a little life update, but because I have no pictures with it, I’ll add it in here, feel free to skip if you think it’s boring lol! I’ve got 2 days left til I fly out!! EEK!(not counting today because I’m leaving for work in 20 mins and will be gone legitimately all day lol.


-I printed off some super cute “Thank you” type cards to give out to cm’s when they make some extra magic or are just awesome in general. We used to give them out all the time before and CM’s loved it! It just felt kinda weird doing it when we were also cm’s so I’m glad to be back to it!


-I’ve been a little heartbroken at some news of characters being pulled from the parks, and this time its personal. Bahah. It was rumoured that the Tremaine family wouldn’t be around starting on the 21st, but I confirmed that it’s only Lady Tremaine, the sisters will still be around. Which to some people wouldn’t be a problem, but I will miss her more than anything so I really hope we see her in the first few days of the trip..or all the days.


-As I said previous, I work all day today, home to try and sleep, tomorrow I work the morning, and have to pick up some last minute prescription refills, then Tuesday I’ve covered earlier. It’s coming up so soon, I’m so excited!!!


************************





Friday February 19th


Today’s gonna be an early start for most of us! Kara’s up the first, off to run the 5k, Abby & Pearl are headed off to the RunDisney Expo (as far as I know) and there’s EMH at Magic Kingdom, which is where we’re all meeting later, so we all know where I’m heading!

The plan for the morning will probably be very similar to the other mornings, grab some Starbucks, take some photos, and wait for the first Trolley Show. I know it might seem like a “waste” of the EMH, but I’m not big into doing rides alone and the others will be joining me shortly.

I’ll make sure to check out Fairytale Hall during that first hour, who knows, maybe the Frozen side won’t be too long, after all, I’ll have the time to kill. Lol.

And of course I’ll make some time see my favorite family.

We’ll probably end up catching the Move It Shake It Dance It Play it parade/street party/dance party

And obviously watch the Festival of Fantasy parade. We usually grab spots in Frontierland and then follow it to the front of the park to watch it again! Two viewings at once! There are some days that Barbershop is a hot mess of Instagrammers, which is usually when we’ll put the cameras away and just enjoy it and wave to all the beautiful people.


It also gives Kara & I time to play around with which lenses were shooting with. I originally shot with my standard lens, then discovered how much I loved shooting with my 75-300, but with the new 50mm one I’ve got I want to play around with it too!





Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


After the parade we’ll be heading out to Downtown Disney/Disney Springs..whichever you want to call it. It’s gonna take me a while to adjust to saying Disney Springs, so it’s gonna be DTD for a while! Lol. We have reservations at Morimoto for dinner!


Going Up by PelicanPete, on Flickr
**photo not mine, credit goes to owner**


Morimoto Asia grand opening at Walt Disney World by Ricky Brigante, on Flickr
**photo not mine, credit goes to owner**


It’s a new one for most of us, and I’m super excited to try it! I know we’re checking out the Sake sangria, and I’m most likely going to get sushi of some kind! YUM!


Morimoto Asia grand opening at Walt Disney World by Ricky Brigante, on Flickr
**photo not mine, credit goes to owner**


After dinner we’ll probably end up exploring the DTD shops for a bit to check things out and pick up a few things before what I’m sure will be an early night for the others since they’re all running the 10km in the morning, but for a few hours I’m headed over to a friends for some birthday celebrations!!

 

[Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Daa]

Hey there! How fun you were a cast member! That would be my dream! Your trip looks like it will be so much fun! Have a great time!