Dreams Came True! Hearts Soared! WE Became Part of the Magic!-COMPLETED. 5/19 NEW TR LINK

[katt789]

Good morning! Good morning! IT’S GREAT TO STAY UP LATE!


Are you ready to have the BEST DAY EVER?!?! Because we sure are…and we SURE DID!!! Are you ready for a tale of princess reunions, pixie dust explosions, RunDisney events, all the eating, millions of PHOTOS, countless “walks down the middle of Main Street USA” a lot of #budgetcuts and #thanksshanghai and ALL OF THE EMOTIONS?!?!?! Dreams came true, hearts soared, and WE BECAME PART OF THE MAGIC.


Good. Because that’s pretty much what happened throughout our week at Disney World. Now, you’re probably wondering who “WE” are, since I keep talking about us but I have yet to introduce anyone, how rude, I’m so sorry!


Me: Katt

I’m currently a 26 year old server living in le ole boring Edmonton, Canada, and unfortunately, back living with my Mom. HOWEVER this is because I moved back home (*cough*super broke*cough*) from Orlando after working on the Cultural Representative Program for Disney World!! So see, some things happen because of good reasoning. I pride myself in my Disney knowledge, and in being a performer! I always grew up dancing, doing gymnastics, and even got to go to an event in Portugal for it! YAY! My Disney bug bit me when I was 21. Harry Potter land was opening and we HAD TO GO; and if you go to Orlando you may as well do Disney too right?! 4.5 years and 27 trips later…you have me. Since I’m so into performing I obviously would LOVE to perform for Disney, but alas, that green card thing doesn’t work out too well. I’m currently going to focus my efforts more into the Cruise Lines and overseas parks to see what happens there!

Next up, we have Kara:

Kara is quite possibly, nope, lies. MOST DEFINITELY, the greatest best friend a girl could ask for! We met down on the program, with the same start & end dates, and only 2 in food & beverage, so a year of friendship was easily in the books. I seriously cannot rave about her enough! She’s amazing ya’ll. She’s also 26, and lives out near Vancouver BC, where she works in the childcare section of a Goodlife Fitness! She absolutely loves Stitch, Belle is her favorite princess, and our love of parades, shows, and photography is shared down to the bone!

Abby is next!

She’s 22, and another friend we met on the program, though she left about a month before Kara & I did. She also lives in Vancouver, though is originally from a SUPER tiny town in BC. She absolutely LOVES all things Rapunzel or Tangled related, lives for glitter, face paint, and all things child at heart. She’s also a performer, having gone to school for theater as well!


Pearl is the last person to join in on our adventure!

Another 26 year old for ya, and another Canadian from the program! She left a few months before us but was actually back on vacation over Kara & I’s last days! She’s an annual pass holder, and her boyfriend lives in Orlando, working full time at Le Cellier in the kitchen (aka, he’s American). I’m pretty sure her favorite princess is Rapunzel, it’s a pretty running theme that we all love Tangled around here! Lol.


This trip was brought up to everyone WAY back last year when we were all still working in Disney World. There was news of a new Tangled Musical that was going to be opening on one of the cruise ships (are you sensing a theme yet?) The other girls also all wanted to run the Glass Slipper Challenge, so it was decided, a week vacation, including the races, and a week of cruising! YAY!


I was kinda thrown into the mix because one of the girls was going to just cruise, so there was room for one more, plus, like, friends and everything! In the end, the other girl wasn’t allowed the time off work! They ALMOST got me to be irresponsible and come cruising too after that (believe me…I’m kicking myself now for not going… WAH) I was honestly just excited about going back HOME, having to leave Florida in the first place was painful enough, but to then have to be so far away from ANY of my friends was torture!


Where: All Star Sports! It was cheap, what can I say? Bahahah! Honestly, after this vacation, I will NEVER stay at an All Star Resort again. If we HAVE to some random time, I’ll do Movies, but certainly not Sports. But that story will come later.


We had 2 reservations at Sports as well, it was cheaper for Kara & I to fly in a day earlier so our friend Gene had booked us one night with his CM discount, and the rest of the week, Pearl’s boyfriend,Kyle, had done the same!


When: February 17th to February 25th (with the cruise and one last Disney day going until February 29th!)


Special Stuff
-RACES! Kara was signed up for the 5k, 10k, and ½ Marathon, the other girls did the 10k & the ½ while I watched from the sidelines, bahaha
-Reunions! SERIOUSLY EVERYWHERE. While working on the program Kara & I discovered our LOVE of photography throughout the parks, and thus made friends with a lot of performers, and a lot of other Disney social media type people. Then of course there were all the other people we worked with over the year, and other friends we had down in Orlando!


I think that about covers it for intro post information!! Now, let’s get on with the show!!!

 

[katt789]

Day 1-Wednesday February 17th
I'm Finally GOING HOOOOMMMEE

Day 2-Thursday February 18th
Main Street Usa
A Magical Wish, Waiting for You
You Got My Nose Right!
"There's Nothing I Can Do"

Day 3-Friday February 19th
Casey Jr's Coming Down the Track
A Cup of Curiosi-tea
The Dream, IT'S COMING TRUE
YAAAAARRRRRR
Once Upon A Dream
An Authentic Dinner

Day 4-Saturday February 20th
A Perfect Morning
Dazzling Brilliantly
Venturing outside of the Bubble

Day 5-Sunday February 21st
The Path Unwinding
GOATS
Try the Grey Stuff
IT'S SO EMPTY

****THERE ARE MORE UPDATES, TRIP REPORT IS COMPLETED, it's just not all linked, they're all posted one right after the other!!****

**NEW TRIP REPORT LINK!****

--TRIP VIDEO LINK--

 

[tiffany41108]

Have been following your adventures for a long time, Katt! Can't wait to hear about your trip to get me through to mine in October!

 

[katt789]

Have been following your adventures for a long time, Katt! Can't wait to hear about your trip to get me through to mine in October!

Yay!!! Glad you made it over here! I took a major absence from the boards but am back now! Happy to see you're still here!

 

[katt789]

Day 1- Wednesday February 17,2016


My travel day began with a very early morning running off to the mall to pick up the new Star Wars Tsum Tsums!! It was surprisingly a little INSANE UP IN THERE! There were people grabbing 5 of EACH CHARACTER...not cool guys… I managed to get all the ones that I wanted and the two extra I was picking up for Kara!

I headed out, got my nails done, picked up a few things, ha a nice sit down lunch to myself, stopped at Sephora again #whoops #byemoney and then headed back home to pick up the tips I’d saved up so I could run off to the bank and have a nice little (aka HUGE) cry while I exchanged my Canadian to American. I had over $600 saved and only got $400 back…tears…horrible… I spent the rest of the evening watching some Youtube videos and on the Dis until it was time to go!!


My Mom offered to take me out to the airport which was SUPER awesome since the airport is CRAZY far from the house! The craziness wasn’t gone yet though, halfway there, we must’ve hit something sitting on the road, because something was dragging on the road! We discovered it was a piece of metal underneath/near the front bumper. EEK! Once we’d figured out what ti was Mom just shoved it back up there and off we went! Crisis averted!


I cleared through security feeling like a total NOOB! I used to live in Calgary, so after checking my bag, I had to derpily ask “uhm…where do I go?” BAHAHA. I’d ended up getting through super quickly and easily to the gate that I had so much time to kill, so I got some chicken tenders and a glass of wine while I waited for MIDNIGHT so I could get on my plane and SLEEEEEEEP….or so I thought… I was hoping to sleep through the entire thing since it was the overnight flight, but I swear I only ended up getting an hour of sleep! UGH! My legs were SUPER restless, I couldn’t get comfy and there just wasn’t enough space to get any amount of comfort!


FINALLY we landed, at least I was in the 4th row so I was off the plane like a bullet, and raced down to the baggage claim so I could pick it up to clear through customs…but then I waited…and waited…and WAITED…and started to panic. After 20 minutes everyone else’s bags had came out and there were a few of us very confused lost souls wandering around. Turns out WestJet had changed their policy and if you’re clearing customs on your layover you don’t actually have to pick up your bags, so I’d just been wasting time #lesigh


Thankfully by the time I cleared customs and security I still had 3 hours until my flight! I wasn’t hungry at ALL but I knew I should eat something so I picked up a yogurt & large coffee from Starbucks. I killed the time watching Youtube, reading, and group chatting with the other girls until it was FINALLY time to board! We naturally had to wait to de-ice the wings but I was MUCH more comfortable on this flight so I actually slept around another hour and then spent time coloring! Yay!


The excitement was TOO REAL when we landed, it was so nice to stand up at first, but to step out onto the ramp and smell Florida, to hit up the fake-o-rail and SEE PALM TREES AGAIN?!?! GUYS TEARS RIGHT NOW TELLIHNG YOU ABOUT IT! I seriously can’t describe it properly, I was HOME, seriously, HOME. I know everyone on here loves Disney, calls it home, but I’ve always known that Florida is where I belong. To have actually gotten to live down there for a year, and now being trapped somewhere where I DON’T feel like I belong, to return to Florida, to sunshine, back HOME, it felt absolutely incredible and nothing could stop the high and the excitement of Orlando!

I picked up my suitcase & headed down to the Magical Express and hopped on a bus. We made a stop at Coronado, and then it was onto our home for the week, All Star Sports! Gene had already checked in for us for the one night resso, so I picked up my band and found my room!


GEEEEEZE!! IT IS SERIOUSLY AT THE BACK OF THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN PLACE!!! I took a little rest, watched some Phineas & Ferb, took a couple of photos and just enjoyed being back in Disney. As much as I did enjoy watching cartoons, I did have a mission to get to, we had to do a grocery run!

All that for $50!! I used an Uber to get there and back, and spent about a total of $22 on Uber, Yay! I came back to the hotel, picked up a couple of beers (KICKED MYSELF for not getting them at Walmart for half the price…) and just relaxed until Kara said that SHE WAS ON THE MAGICAL EXPREEEEEEEEESSSSSSS.





GUYS! It’s moments like this I really wish I was part of a reality tv show because then someone would’ve been around to video this moment. Kara & I really became legitimately the BEST of friends on our program. We have talked every single day since the moment I got on the shuttle in October. We’ve dreamed off far of places, new adventures, and have our plans in place for our next program already. We live a 15 hour drive from each other, and obviously saving for vacation means no one’s got money for flights. It had been 4 months since we’d actually seen each other, and I COULD NOT WAIT! Our plan for that night had involved pizza so I ordered and paid for it as I waited for her, once it was paid, I booked it out to get to the lobby and LEGIT RAN AROUND THE CORNER INTO MY DARN BEST FRIEND…UUUGGGGGHHHH.





…there may have been some yelling, hugging, lots of hugging, and a little bit of tears….


God I’ve only been home like 5 days and I already miss her so much! (though we haven’t really talked since she was cruising…) We waited for our pizza to finally be done, and headed up to the room.


I swear I don’t even remember the rest of the night, it was just so amazing to be reunited and to be in the place that we wanted to be. Those dang green cards, if it wasn’t for them neither of us would have left! We didn’t unpack since we were changing rooms, but we did set everything up to charge electronics, packed our park bags for tomorrow, and talked about the plans and things we had for our Asia trip in the fall & tried to get some sleep, EARLY MORNING TOMORROW!!!













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[DaisyDuck001]

Here

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Welcome back

 

[AllysonL]

Following along!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining in! Glad you met such great friends while on your program! Love the #budgetcuts and #thanksshanghai hashtags!

 

[katt789]

Here

Welcome back

Glad you're still here!! Yeah, life kinda took over and I really had no time to do disboard stuff while in Florida! Figured I should make up for it now!

Following along!!

Glad you're here!!

joining in! Glad you met such great friends while on your program! Love the #budgetcuts and #thanksshanghai hashtags!

Of course!!! It was such an incredible experience! Baahahahah, we said them WAY more than we thought we would. I highly conidered naming the TR #budgetcuts but i figured it was too negative b bahaha

 

[abarriger]

How wonderful to reunite with your best friend in the best place on each! Excited to see how your trip goes (and what you have against the All Stars!)

 

[Pemeberly]

I never follow trip reports but we have like the same personality! Def following along.

 

[Cheer4GSU]

I'm anxiously waiting to hear the end of your trip, but I'm also curious how complicated Uber at Coronado. We are going at the end of the month and I am planning on using them to get to Universal. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip was!

 

[katt789]

How wonderful to reunite with your best friend in the best place on each! Excited to see how your trip goes (and what you have against the All Stars!)

It was amazing!!! And you'll find out soon!!

I never follow trip reports but we have like the same personality! Def following along.

Awe yay!! Glad you're here!

I'm anxiously waiting to hear the end of your trip, but I'm also curious how complicated Uber at Coronado. We are going at the end of the month and I am planning on using them to get to Universal. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip was!

Hahaha, yay! Uber is super awesome, we always use them to get to univerasl!!

 

[Kiren]

So much energy! I'm in! Also hello from Victoria!

 

[katt789]

Day 2-Thursday Feb 18th


Our morning began pretty early today, we got up, ate some breakfast in the room, packed everything up and finished getting ready. THE EXCITEMENT WAS TOOOOO REAL!!! Seriously. We quickly dropped our stuff off at Bell Services, and I INSISTED that the groceries NEEDED to be in the fridge, I didn’t want the yogurt to go bad and was seriously worried about it! We hurried out to the bus to join a rather large line, and judging by the time it was, we were worried about missing Welcome Show!! A bus did pull up, but they CUT IT OFF RIGHT INFRONT OF US!!


SAD DAYS!!


We took a selfie to make sure we were still excited.

Another bus pulled up and we were on it pretty quickly, HOPING that we’d at least be able to get through bag check and watch the show from “outside” the park. We’d just begun to see monorail tracks when Kara GASPED, and said she’d realized that her camera battery was STILL PLUGGED INTO THE WALL!!!

…of the room we’d just checked out of…

THANK GOD she still had a US number and pulled up a number for All Star Sports, and attempted to get through to the front desk. All we wanted was for someone to run up to the room and grab it so we could get it when we got back that night. However she was redirected to Lost & Found before she could even finish her sentence. Lame. Lost and found wasn’t EVEN OPEN YET. She called a few more times and just ended up frustrated because no one was helping, I took the phone and called, and got the same story, and was transferred to lost & found, where I left a very detailed message about what we were hoping for, and a call back number. Luckily, the MOST MAGICAL PLACE ON EARTH WAS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!! EEEEKKK!! WE WERE GOING TO MAKE IT FOR WELCOME SHOW!!!

…or so we thought…

Guys…seriously…we were so irritated…the bus pulled into the bus lot, and STOPPED, there was a bus parked in a spot, and another bus BESIDE IT STOPPED COMPLETELY BLOCKING THE DARN ROADWAY. We sat there, and sat, and sat, and sat. THEN we look to our right and see the Walt Disney Railroad Train! All loaded up with characters and ready to go…then it started moving…we’d missed it…and we were still trapped behind the non moving bus.

NOT off to a great start for our day. Luckily, this meant we were quickly able to get through bag check and INTO THE PARK AND IT WAS SO INCREDIBLY MAGICAL AGAIN!!!!!

We spent some time just wandering and taking a few pictures, simply soaking it all in, the matters of the camera battery and rude cm’s and late busses all wasted away as we basked in warmer than Canada sunshine, a best friend in hand, and pixie dust in the air, it was just simply so magical and wonderful to be back where we belonged! We didn’t have long to wait though, because at 9:15, the Main Street Trolley Show was starting!!

AAAAAAAHHHHH

Trolley had been something we kind of stumbled upon halfway through our program last year, we’d both stopped for it once or twice before but never really WATCHED it. Throughout the program it became one of our FAVORITE THINGS. The show changes by the season, Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Christmas, and it’s just so cute and wonderful. Heck, we dressed up as Trolley Girls for the 24 hr event last year! (p.s. Kara made those, check out her etsy shop “Sewitsmagic”)

It wasn’t just the fact that we watched a cute show, or took awesome pictures of it, multiple times a day, or followed it down through all 4 stops of the show, it really is the PEOPLE that make it so magical. (Isn’t that the truth for most things at Disney). We’ve obviously made friends with most of the performers throughout the year, and they are some of the kindest, sweetest, most genuine people I’ve ever met!! We knew some of our favorites were going to be here today, so we were both getting super jittery when we lined up curbside to wait!

THEN THE MUSIC STARTED AND WAS ALL PUMPED IN AND KARA AND I FLAILED, GRABBED EACH OTHERS HANDS, SCREAMED AND WERE PROBABLY SHAKING LIKE A BABY CHIHUAHUA!

#realtalk

THEN, we see 2 of the Trolley girls from a distance walking towards us, they see US, AND FREAK OUT, SCREAMING AND RAN TOWARDS US and there were ALL the hugs and love and “AAAHHH”s from everyone. We were all so happy to be back and they were JUST as happy to have us back! LIFE WAS AMAZING. Kara & I both had so much adrenaline and excitement pumping through us we were legitimately shaking at this point, there may have been holding back of tears. It was wonderful.

Here, take a watch with us!

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


I WISH that these photos were better, BUT, I stupidly uploaded a bunch of them to Flickr without editing them first, thinking “oh, I’ll just use the photoshop express app before I instagram them” #derp.


I also didn’t take that many pictures, if any actually, for the first show, because it was just so amazing to WATCH it again, especially with so many fabulous performers out there today! I also felt bad to be taking a bunch of pictures while Kara literally couldn’t take any. We both videoed /snap chatted on our phones too lol.


We watched all four stops, and at the end it was time for more hugs, general chit chat and “How have you been’s? is it good to be back?” kinda stuff. I also had put together a photo book on Shutterfly from our program and wanted a bunch of them to sign it so that happened, and a photopass happened to be around to capture the moments! YAY!
MK_MAGCMMNTS_7608616188 by Amanda Hair, on Flickr

MK_MAGCMMNTS_7608616189 by Amanda Hair, on Flickr

MK_MAGCMMNTS_7608616621 by Amanda Hair, on Flickr

MK_MAGCMMNTS_7608616622 by Amanda Hair, on Flickr


**we didn’t order memory maker, but between Pearl & our friend Amanda having annual passes, we got all the pictures**
MK_MAGCMMNTS_7608616623 by Amanda Hair, on Flickr

MK_MAGCMMNTS_7608616624 by Amanda Hair, on Flickr



We said see ya soon to most of the Trolley Kids & hung around with Tori & Ellona a little bit longer, walking them to their exit and made sure to get some pictures with them before they left!


12717302_10156726772115647_7534098807829964226_n by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


10422565_10156644109790360_8946865487158459949_n by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


12734253_10156644109710360_7767147786646274336_n by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


So if you ever have the chance, go check out the Trolley Show because not only is it ADORABLE, but the people in it are some of the greatest people you’ll ever meet!

 

[missangelalexis]

Hi Katt! So excited to see you back on here doing a TR. Been following you on IG

What a fun trip this sounds like it was! Despite the not so great start to your first park day, sounds like the first Trolley show really made up for that!

 

[Pemeberly]

I've never seen the trolley show! :O Might have to check it out this year.

Love your outfits for this first day, by the way!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I also like your Trolley Girl outfits!

How frustrating that the cast members at All Star Sports wouldn't help. After all that, you must have been wanting to address them by their initials!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

frustrating start to the day between the bus and missing the welcome show and Kara's battery and the related non-helpful CMs ... so very glad that all of that got erased pretty quick buy the Trolley Show and the members of said show.

Also glad there was a photopass photographer there to capture it!