The fam comes to visit!

Idiot of the week: (From fellow cast members Beth and Charlotte)

Man: Do you have any German football shirts?
Beth: Er, no sorry, this is the UK, so we only sell shirts from the UK.
Charlotte: You could try the German Pavillion though, they sell football merchandise.
Man: I tried there but they didn't have my size so I thought Id try here. (It's the UK PAVILION for a reason you moron!!!!)


Possibly one of the best weeks i've had out here so far was my family arriving last week. I was so ready to see them and on the Saturday they arrived I told them a little porky and said I was working when really I had booked the day off! Jackie drove me to Sanford airport where we had abit of an issue because it's such a small airport that they don't have an arrivals gate! We had to just hang around in the waiting area which was outside! Fortunately they came out after about 15 minutes and the shock on my mum's face was classic! They were so suprised but it was so fantastic, I even had butterfies! I went back to the villa with them and then I took them to The Commons to show them where I live. I introduced them to Golden Corral buffet for dinner and they were very impressed!

On the Sunday I had work but I finished at 4.30 so the fam met me from work and we went straight to Hollywood Studios. It was very fun using my maingate pass for the first time which lets me get 3 other people into the park for free! We went on Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollarcoaster and the new Toy Story Ride. I made them watch Fantasmic in the evening and they loved it! It was the first time id been in a Disney theme park with my family for four years so it felt special! :-)

I had the next three days off so we spent them at Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney. Mum had a ball spending money in World of Disney with my 40% xmas discount! She bought loads of xmas pressies. I also had a hospital appointment so the whole fam came along and mum met Doctor Selsky. We also had dinner at the Outback one night and dinner at Olive Garden with jacki and Randy.

On wednesday night I treated Luke to Halloween Horror Night at Universal Studios, I bought us our admission tickets and express tickets so we could skip the lines! It was probably the most frightening night of my life but totally fantastic too. Universal has a different theme each year and this year was 'ripped from the movies' so each house was based on a horror film. There were eight houses and a number of scare zones. The scare zones were what you had to walk through to get to somewhere else with monsters and zombies chasing you! These were themed too and the best one was the cannibals one- they actually had a broken down school bus, loads of fog and helicopter lights overhead. There were actors walking around bloodied and asking for help and of course weird cannible monsters! It was so well done and just so realistic! The houses were so scary, 'Wolfman' made me jump the most which is based on the new film coming out. 'Saw' was really well done, it had replicas of exact scenes from the first three films. The end scene was the worst, we walked into a room with a strobe light and standing against the wall were about 6 people dressed in the pig mask who all ran towards us! I tell you what I've never run so fast and that's the only time I saw Luke really freak out all night- he ran for his life as well!

The next two days I had work but I managed to get an ER both days. Beth came round for dinner on the thursday evening and stayed as we both had work the next day which was nice. Unfortunately mum wasn't feeling well at all and we were actually concerned she had swine flu symptoms. On the friday she felt better so I got the fam into Epcot before I went to work and I bought them a $25 gift card to spend at the food and wine festival. I met them after work and we went back to the villa to pack my case and we drove to The Commons so I could drop it off. We went for a last supper at Golden Corral which I found hard to enjoy because I knew I had to say goodbye at the end. Saying goodbye to my family this time was possibly the hardest thing I've had to do, I could see mum and dad were trying to hold back the tears and so was I but as soon as I walked away I burst into tears! I cried all night and found it tough to keep it together the next day at work, it was horrific lol.

Fortunately as it was Halloween that night two of the guys had a Halloween party at their apartment. I dressed up as a black cat and went along and it really cheered me up. We did silly stuff like apple bobbing and 'pin the broom on the witch!' It was really fun and just what I needed. I'm absoloutly fine now, it's funny how quickly you get back into the Disney bubble! Mum, Dad and Luke are coming in six weeks for xmas so it's not that long anyway!

Not much has happened since the fam left. We had a free lunch at work yesterday for getting through a whole year without any accidents! Beth and I went to the mall on monday because we desperately needed our hair cut, i haven't had it cut since I first got here and had to dye it! lol. I also bought some xmas pressies. Now Halloween is over xmas starts at Disney!

We were so lucky with the weather while my family was here, it was ridiculously hot and humid, I'm talking about the 90s in late October! Even that is unusual for Florida, it's usually cooled down by now. Since the fam has left it has started to cool down and it looks like the hot weather has well and truely gone now. just as well I asked my mum to bring my Uggs over! ;-)

We had an interesting day today, the managers arranged a trip to the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom for a backstage tour. We had to be on the bus at 6.00 this morning as we had to finish the tour before the park opened at 9.00am. It was really fun, we actually walked through the whole ride and at one point were inside the ride! They explained all the tricks and technical stuff and showed us all the hidden mickeys and secrets too! I had work from 10.15 until 6.45 so that wasn't fun! I've spent the evening cleaning the apartment as we have an inspection tomorrow so now i'm shattered!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. As it's Bonfire Night we celebrate it in the UK Pavilion all day. I'm not sure what to expect but we're going to have decorations, a pretend bonfire, guys etc. and we will all be given a special UK Mickey pin to wear. It's going to be so much fun. Oh, and we also get another free lunch! Ha!