"You Can't Make Disney Your Permanent Residence." COMPLETE! 10/21 x 2

[dawnmichele]

We headed toward the Beast’s castle and checked in for our dinner. We waited for a while outside the doors and were a little afraid they had forgotten us, but they didn’t. Someone came with candles to lead the way. We ended up sitting in the almost exact spot where I had sat with D & H. We even had the same server, Frank.

My brother sprang for a bottle of wine. It was nice.

I had the steak, because the bite I had the first time left me wanting more.

It was delicious. As were our desserts.

After dinner, we posed for a photo with our host. I think my brother said something inappropriate to him about Belle.

The Little Mermaid ride is a logical choice when leaving the Beast’s castle.

We came out of the caves and found Wishes was happening. It was a great view and it’s always fun to see the fireworks from a new perspective.

By Eric’s castle, there were long periods where there weren’t any fireworks and i kept thinking oh i’ve seen enough i’m ready to move on, but just as i would more fireworks would start so i’d have to stop and watch them.

Eventually they did end and we moved on to the circus. During the day I usually don’t dig this area, but at night? I love that place.

We had to check out the fountain even though it wasn’t nearly hot enough to want to get wet. It’s cool to look at.

My brother is pointing out the elephants to me, since he remembers I love them.

There was zero line at the Barnstormer and none of us had ridden it (ok I did but when it was still in ToonTown), so we walked up and took our seats.

That thing was so fun! Since no one else was around they let us ride twice!!

But twice was enough and we headed on our way, and eventually found ourselves in line for Splash Mountain. It was a medium line and they boys in front of us were kind of funny.
We got stopped for a while in one of inside scenes, but it was a very good time.

I remember we were really laughing about something on the way off the ride, and claiming our ride photo. And I feel like it’s something I wanted to remember but I do not. Let this be a lesson to us both, always write things down.

We walked out of the park and back to Bay Lake after that. I’m sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.


Up Next: Gorgeous morning at Epcot.


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[bethk78]

Time for a little real life personal update.
I applied for the Disney College Program!
How crazy is that?
I applied the very first day. I had planned to wait, but I couldn't stand it and applied the evening of the first day. I had the next interview step the next day, and then final phone interview step 4 days later. Disney says they will make the majority of their decisions by mid to late October, so now it's just a long waiting game.

I posted this about it in my regular blog this morning, and thought I'd share it here as well...


Many of you remember when I was all excited about a phone interview I had. A couple weeks ago I posted on FB that I was about to have … well here it is.

At that time I had decided I wasn’t going to say what the interview was for until I found out the results. But I kept wanting to, which led to my wondering why I had decided not to tell in the first place. What was the big deal, anyway? Why would I keep it secret?

I couldn't think of any reason except that I would be ashamed if I ended up not getting the job. I would be embarrassed if I didn’t get this thing I have allowed myself to want so badly. I didn’t want to admit I wanted something and it didn't happen.

Except that is the opposite of how I want to live my life! I don’t want to be ashamed I wanted something and it didn’t happen. Or that I tried and failed. Because what is failing, anyway? It’s not this big terrible thing that means you’re a loser. It really means you are brave and adventurous for stepping out.

Think about anyone you can imagine who was successful or brilliant. They all tried lots of things and failed. I like to think of Walt Disney as an example. He failed a lot. He was fired one time because his boss thought he lacked imagination and didn’t have any good ideas. His business in Kansas City went bankrupt. And even after he moved to California and found success, he had more than a few set backs. Everybody who tries fails sometimes. Like Homer Simpson says, “Trying is the first step towards failure.” Except that failure isn’t really that bad.

I do not want to be the kind of girl who never tries anything because I’m afraid I might fail. To be honest, that is the kind of life I’ve been living for a long time and it is boring. I want to be a girl who tries all kinds of crazy things. I want to be the kind of girl who chases it.

That’s my new theme for life. That’s what I’d tell little girl me if I had a Tardis. That’s what I’m going to encourage to anyone who asks.

Chase it.

Here’s what I’m chasing next.

My interview was with Disney.

See how clever I was to use the example I did?

Each semester they offer paid internships at Disneyland and Disney World in a number of different jobs they call “roles. You live in their apartments, learn about the company, network and of course work really hard.

One of the roles offered is as a photographer, and some time around the end of last year I started thinking I might really like to do this thing. And all the details of that are something I promise I will tell you later, but for this post, I just wanted to admit I’m trying to do something and I might fail. Only about 25% of the people who have made it as far as I have actually get accepted. But I do not even care because I am chasing it. Which is what I intend to do from now until forever.

And I think you should too.


Of course I'll keep you updated.

^^^ LOVE this post. ^^^

 

[gracer9977]

Time for a little real life personal update.
I applied for the Disney College Program!
How crazy is that?

One of the roles offered is as a photographer, and some time around the end of last year I started thinking I might really like to do this thing. And all the details of that are something I promise I will tell you later, but for this post, I just wanted to admit I’m trying to do something and I might fail. Only about 25% of the people who have made it as far as I have actually get accepted. But I do not even care because I am chasing it. Which is what I intend to do from now until forever.

And I think you should too.


Of course I'll keep you updated.

OMG!!!!!! I am so excited for you!!!

I am going to hope, hope, hope you get this because I think you would do an amazing job.

I have to go back and read the rest of your updates but I was so excited when I read this I just had to post immediately.

 

[gracer9977]

Sounds like you had a really lovely day just kind of hanging out and enjoying the park.

Love your pictures with Cinderella and Aurora and how fun that you were all 3 just having a friendly chat together. I will have to check out your video when I am home. I am curently reading this at work and decided not to watch the video here.

Great pictures of the castle changing colors during sunset and what a great idea to just sit and enjoy that.

Looks like a fun party in Frontierland with a bunch of the characters you don't get to see that often.

Love Gaston - he is just so funny. We had such a good time when the kids met him. My son had just come from pirates league and had the black beard and Gaston went on and on about how much more handsome he would be if he would just get rid of that ghastly beard. My Jack didn't know what to do, just looked at him like he was crazy.

Looks like a fun dinner at Be our Guest and of course I love all the pictures you took of the castle during the day. I took a ton of pictures when we were there. My mom was like why are you taking a picture of the lamp post and I was like cause there is a Gargoyle on it. It was all new when we were there so of course I wanted to take pictures of everything when we had lunch there.

Great pictures of Wishes from Eric's Castle.

Enjoying your updates and looking forward to the next one.

 

[disfanforlife]

My daughter just applied for the DCP too! Fingers crossed for you both!

 

[dawnmichele]

^^^ LOVE this post. ^^^

Thank you so much!!

OMG!!!!!! I am so excited for you!!!

I am going to hope, hope, hope you get this because I think you would do an amazing job.

I have to go back and read the rest of your updates but I was so excited when I read this I just had to post immediately.

Thank you!
I think I would too! And just imagine the photos I'd be able to take if I were there Every Single Day.
I appreciate your support and extra hoping!

My daughter just applied for the DCP too! Fingers crossed for you both!

Good luck to your daughter! It's crazy how long most of us are having to wait to hear. In two days it will be one month since my phone interview. I guess they're looking for people with great amounts of patience.

 

[disfanforlife]

Thank you so much!!



Thank you!
I think I would too! And just imagine the photos I'd be able to take if I were there Every Single Day.
I appreciate your support and extra hoping!



Good luck to your daughter! It's crazy how long most of us are having to wait to hear. In two days it will be one month since my phone interview. I guess they're looking for people with great amounts of patience.

Thank you. Her interview was about 3 1/2 weeks ago. She joined a FB page for people who have applied and she said that they did start accepting people earlier. I think that makes it harder to wait - knowing others have already been accepted. But she also said that a lot have been turned down already too. So, I just told her to be patient and try to stay busy to keep her mind off of it!

 

[dawnmichele]

Thank you. Her interview was about 3 1/2 weeks ago. She joined a FB page for people who have applied and she said that they did start accepting people earlier. I think that makes it harder to wait - knowing others have already been accepted. But she also said that a lot have been turned down already too. So, I just told her to be patient and try to stay busy to keep her mind off of it!

I think I am in that same Facebook group! There have been quite a few acceptances so far and that does make it frustrating to still be waiting. Especially when the people accepted have only been waiting a few days! But I practice my patience and luckily very few of the acceptances have been for Photopass. That helps for some reason.

And yeah, a lot of people have already been told no, so it could be worse! I remind myself if I make it in, when I'm there I will not care when my acceptance came!

 

[dawnmichele]

Remember when I said traveling solo left me so much more time to take photos? Yesterday’s update had 168 photos. Today’s has 143, although I might not end up using them all.

I woke up late on the pull out couch in the living room of my brother’s Bay Lake Tower one bedroom suite. Brian and Adriane were already gone but i was enjoying some down time. I didn’t have anywhere I had to be until a 12:45 lunch reservation at Via Napoli.

I ate some breakfast out on my brother’s balcony. With this kind of view it’s a great place to eat your in room breakfast.

Eventually I headed to the monorail for a ride to Epcot. There was a line, and I didn’t make it on to this first train.

But I caught the next one.

I love taking the monorail to Epcot. You get some great views from up there as you circle the park, even if they are through the window.

We arrived and I headed in. I wish this fountain were cooler. I wish the whole entrance to Epcot was cooler. Those pylon things just don’t do it for me.

I headed straight back to the World Showcase.

Looking at the countries across the World Showcase Lagoon.

The big platform for Illuminations was out.

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[dawnmichele]

Fun Fact: Today I had to upgrade my Photobucket account because I was out of bandwitch. That's kind of exciting. Sorry if you stopped by and only saw boring Photobucket boxes instead of my photos, but it shouldn't happen again.

But back to Disney World...


Here comes my boat!

I decided to boat it over to Italy to save myself some time, and check out the unique views from the middle of the lagoon.

The sun on the water was much prettier than it looks in this photo.

Looking back across the lagoon after disembarking.

Germany looked particularly charming this day.

Home to delicious treats!

And Italy! I truly love Italy, real or fake.

My destination -

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[dawnmichele]

My favorite part of this meal was how they called my name when my table was ready. In Italian where it sounds like “Ma-kay-lay”. Thanks Italian lady!

Blurry pic but I loved these glasses.

I love these walls, and my Minnie ears.

7.jpg

These three pizza ovens, named for three volcanoes in Italy, are so cool.

Stromboli, Vesuvio and Etna.

Watching the chefs is fun.

My yummy pizza came!

The mushrooms were well cooked and seasoned. The cheese melty and delicious. The tomato sauce wasn’t my favorite, but I loved it. I didn’t eat all of it though, because I knew I needed some tiramisu! It was entirely necessary.

I left the restaurant very, very full of yummy Italian food.

For some reason on this trip I really loved this Donkey.

I felt like I needed some extra walking so I headed around the showcase.

Oh look, I’m in France!

I accidentally got the monorail over the fountain shot.

I didn’t go into the building, but I did pass it.

I stopped in to visit some of my friends!

After that, I headed back to our room to get ready. We were going to the Christmas party that night! That’s right, 2 MVMCPs in one week for me. Woohoo!



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[bethk78]

I love the view from the room!!

Great pics as always. I love all the pictures from the monorail. I wish I was riding that right now or walking through Epcot.

Accidental monorail fountain shot = perfect.

 

[gracer9977]

Ahh what a nice view to wake up too. I would totally eat my breakfast on the balcony and enjoy that view.

Looks like another absolutely beautiful day. Blue, blue skys in all your pictures.

Funny, I did come by and check out your TR and got all the boring photobucket boxes. I thought it was a problem with my computer so I waited a few days and tried again and yay pictures!!!!


Looks like a very yummy lunch and those ovens are really cool. I have never eaten there. One day.

Great selfie in France.

Lovely pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.

Hurray for another MVMCP!!!

 

[dawnmichele]

I love the view from the room!!

Oh, I know, right!! It makes it impossible to have a bad morning.

Great pics as always. I love all the pictures from the monorail. I wish I was riding that right now or walking through Epcot.

Thank you again! Me too -- and I can not believe how soon I'll be back. It's crazy going through this report and knowing I'll be there again before I know it!

Accidental monorail fountain shot = perfect.

How fun was that? I often stand there for what seems like forever trying - and never get it. That time I'm thinking oh, I'll take a picture of the waterfall and bam, there's the monorail. Pixie Dust, I swear

 

[Cupcakey78]

I need moarrrrr!

 

[dawnmichele]

Why was my brother outside when Adriane and I were on the balcony? I have no idea, but there he is. Hello brother!

And Hello castle!

We were all meeting back in our room to get ready for MNSSHP! My second of the trip! I was super excited to have a second chance to catch what I missed, and to just wander the party at a more relaxed pace.

Outside the building we looked back to find our room. There it is! Home sweet home.

After a short walk, we were at the party!

Since I got in line early for the Princes the night of the first party, I got in line a little after 6 for the 7 Dwarfs at my second party. I wasn’t too far down the line. I sat on the little way just by the arches and had a blast talking to the family in front of me. Sometimes other Disney fans make lines not seem so long.

Once the party started the line went super fast and I was done meeting the guys and on my way by 7:15 at the latest. Fantastic!

I headed straight for the carousel because I wanted to meet Bert! But Bert wasn’t there Just Mary and the Penguins. Good enough.

But why on earth did I wear that shirt for the party? I guess I thought I might meet Jessie and Woody? Or because it was green? Oh well.

Love this view.

I headed for my favorite ride and walked right on. The sign said it was a 10 minute wait, but the sign was a liar.

And then I headed to check out the dance party!

It was fun, but honestly it would have been a lot more fun if I had someone who would have danced around like a fool with me. But still fun, if not a great place for photos.

Brian and Adriane were eating at Liberty Tree Tavern during this time (why on earth would you spend party time eating dinner?), but they were about done and the parade was about to start, so I found a crappy spot near the Liberty Bell and waited for them.

I didn’t even pull out the Nikon, but here’s a picture I took with my phone.

They left the restaurant just in time to catch the parade crowd try to head out. We wandered around Frontierland for a little bit and then decided to cut towards the front of the park.

As you probably know by now meeting characters in one of my favorite parts of a Disney visit. Since it had been parade time, not many of them were out. So imagine my surprise when we went under the archway from Frontierland to Adventureland -- and there was Baloo!! Baloo is one of my favorites and he is Never in the MK anymore.

I was so excited, I might have accidentally shouted out a excited utterance not quite suited for children when I saw him. Something like “Holy this and that, Brian! It’s Baloo!” My brother and Adriane still give me a hard time about that they thought it was so funny. But I was so excited! I couldn’t help it!

Baloo seemed happy. He danced with me for a while!!

And then Adriane got some Baloo love!

After that excitement, I wandered around in a daze of excitement for a while. We rode Pirates and the Jingle Cruise. The Jingle Cruise, in case you missed it, is just the Jungle cruise, dressed up for Christmas, with a few different holiday jokes tossed about the tour. I think some people found it lame, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! Plus it was the first time I’d done the JC in the dark and I definitely liked it better that way.

And then it was time to find a spot for Celebrate the Magic and Holiday Wishes! How exciting. I really loved this part. And I hadn’t seen Frozen yet at that point, but man did the crowd come alive with the singing along with the Let It Go part. I was impressed and had no idea how crazy that whole scene was going to get.

I didn’t take many pictures because I was trying to be in the moment. But as if I could sit through all those fireworks and not hold my camera up a couple times!

I could watch that stuff all day long!

Up Next: The parade!

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[dawnmichele]

Ahh what a nice view to wake up too. I would totally eat my breakfast on the balcony and enjoy that view.

Looks like another absolutely beautiful day. Blue, blue skys in all your pictures.

The weather was so amazing on that trip. On our April trip, the weather was horrible which makes me appreciate these pictures even more.

Looks like a very yummy lunch and those ovens are really cool. I have never eaten there. One day.

If you are a pizza fan, you definitely should. They have other food there as well, I think. But the pizza was fantastic and not really that expensive.

Great selfie in France.

Thank you, but that was actually a Photopass Photo! I had just enjoyed a refreshing Grand Mariner slushie in France so I was feeling pretty happy. Alone in Epcot after a great meal and a tasty glass of grown up candy - it was dreamy.

Lovely pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.

You can tell Mickey wants to be my boss in that picture, can't you?

 

[dawnmichele]

I need moarrrrr!

Well there you go! I am to please over here.

 

[gracer9977]

Ahhh Baloo. I love the pictures of you dancing with Baloo and then him crushing you with a big bear hug. I totally get the excitement over seeing a character that you love but don't get to see very often, or ever.

Funny picture of your brother on the ground while you were both up on the balcony.

Great picture with the dwarfs. I have never seen them in the parks so that is awesome that you got a picture with all of them.

Looking forward to your next update.

 

[dawnmichele]

As soon as it was over I let myself be swallowed by the throngs of people leaving the park and stopped across the street from the confectionary to grab a seat for my second MVMCP Parade!

Look! It’s snoap!

These dancers are to let you know the parade is coming…

But not for a long time.

Brian and Adriane joined me. And brought my jacket. It was chilly by that time of night!

Still not the parade though

Oh and then it started!!

Once upon a Christmas time at Christmas…
(and now that song will be stuck in my head all day)
(and now maybe yours, too)

Up Next: More parade!

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