Idiot of the week (courtesy of Beth):
Wife: (talking to husband): Look, these earrings are made in Wales.
Husband: (On other side of shop): What kind of whale?
Wife: No, they're made in Wales.
Husband: I know but what kind of whale??
Apparently this went back and forth for some time...
So I just had the best four days ever! I worked ten days straight which paid off on friday when Beth, Kirstie and I went to New York. On Friday morning we had to be up at 4am to get our taxi to the airport as our flight was at 6.25am. We were glad to be leaving Orlando as there was the most horrendous storm which made our flight delayed by 30 minutes.
Friday 22nd Janusry
When we arrived at JFK we got a taxi to our Hotel which was called Hotel Edison. We couldn't have picked a better location, the hotel was just off Times Square, it was great. Once we unpacked and sorted ourselves out it was about 11am so we headed out to Times Square to have a look around. The weather wasn't that cold suprisingly, it was actually colder in Florida last week than it was in NY! We went to Planet Hollywood to pick up our New York passes which we bought on the internet. At midday we were meeting Joe and his girlfriend Emma who also work at Disney and happened to be in NY the same time as us. We met them for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe which was really nice and we had our first NY cocktails!
After Lunch we went our seperate ways and we headed down to Central Park, we had a look around and decided to use our NY passes for the first time by going to the zoo. I was suprised at how good the zoo was, I thought it might be abit rubbish like London Zoo but it was really nice. The polar bears kept us amused for ages, they were definitely our faves!
We had a look at the shops around Central Park and stopped for a hot chocolate to decide where to go next! We headed to Rockefeller Center to see the ice rink and we went in the NBC store which broadcasts programmes like Friends, Seinfield, Law and Order and Heroes. By this time it was starting to get dark so we decided to do Top of the Rock which is where you go to the top of Rockefeller and can see the whole of Manhatten. Well, it was by far the best thing we did the whole time there! We went up just at the right time as the sun was just setting and the NY skyline with the Empire State Building looked amazing. We even met an NBC weatherman who was reporting the weather up there!
After Top of the Rock we headed back towards Times Square to go to Madame Tussauds. It was really fun, however I think the Madame Tussauds in London is better!
It was only about 8pm by this time but because we had been up since 3am and had fit so much in we were exhausted and it felt like midnight to us! We grabbed a slice of pizza and headed back to the hotel, we were all asleep by 9pm!
Saturday 23rd January
We were up bright and early the next day and we headed to Pax for breakfast, pancakes to start the day! We decided to go to the Statue of Liberty, however our plans had to change as the subway we had to get wasn't running so we had to have another think. We decided to leave the Staue of Liberty until the sunday and we headed back down to Rockfeller Center to do the NBC Studio Tour. We weren't sure what it would be like as we didn't know many of the shows now filmed there, however it was really good. We saw the news being filmed in the studio and we also went into the studios where they film Saturday Night Live and Dr. Oz. It was really cool.
After the tour we went to the Museum of Modern Art which was interesting. They had an exhibit of Tim Burton's work at 4.00pm which we managed to get the last three tickets too so we left the Museum to grab some lunch.
We went to a place near Central Park called Brooklyn Diner which one the girls advised us to go too. I had some soup and then the biggest slice of coconut cake you've ever seen! Beth got a huge slice of chocolate cake and Kistie got a piece of lemon meringue that looked like a torpedo! It was so good though and we couldn't finish it so we took it to go!
We headed back to the art museum to see the Tim Burton exhibit which was interesting and then we went back to the hotel to freshen up for the evening.
That evening we went to see The Lion King on Broadway. I've seen it before but it was a long time ago and I adored it so I couldn't wait to see it again. We had front row seats and as soon as the music started for 'Circle of Life' I got goosebumps and had a few tears! Lol. Second time round I loved it again, it's the best show I've seen on stage and I got very emotional as usual! Lol. After the show we weren't very hungry so we grabbed a slice of pizza again and finished our cake off at the hotel!
Sunday 24th January
We managed to get the subway to Battery Park to go to the Statue of Liberty this day. Once we got there we headed to a cute cafe for breakfast and had our usual dose of pancakes!
We then got the ferry across to Coney Island and unlike the last time we went we were able to go up the monument that the statue stands on which was cool. It was a dreary day but we could see the skyline of Manhatten and Brooklyn Bridge. We walked around the statue as well and took some photos and then we got the ferry across to Ellis Island. Ellis Island is where back in the day all the immigrants came through when they were coming into New York. There is a museum there which explains all about it and you can see some of the original documents they used and the room that they all had to stand in. You can even look up your name on the database to see if you had any relatives which came through.
Once we got the ferry back to Battery Park we stopped by the cafe again to grab a snack (cookies and brownies!) Then we headed up the road where we passed Wall Street on the way to the World Trade Center site. Obviously there isn't much to see at Ground Zero anymore, it fenced off where they are re-building but it's so strange to see such a huge whole in the ground among all these tall buildings. Next to Ground Zero there is like a memorial store where they show what happened on that day and also what they are planning to do with it, which was interesting to see. After this we headed back to Times Square on the subway.
That evening we went to The Empire State Building. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and it was really foggy when we got to the top. We couldn't see much and it was so windy we were getting blown away! It was still fun and Manhatten still looked fantastic but we didn't stay up there long! We stopped to have a look at Madison Square Garden and Macys then we headed back to Times Square for dinner. We spent our last night having dinner in Planet Hollywood which was really good, we just missed Rachel!
Monday 25th January
This was our last day so we got up early to fit in some shopping! We had breakfast in the hotel (blueberry waffles this time!) We then headed out and I bought some typical NY stuff like an 'I heart NY' hoodie etc. I also bought soem jeans from American Eagle. Unfortunately the weather was horrendous, it was torrential rain and we didn't want to get soaked so we headed back to the hotel to wait in the lobby.
At around 1.30pm we decided to get a taxi to the airport to check in to our flight. Unfortunately our flight time became later and later and in the end changed gates about 5 times and was delayed by 3 hours! We ended up getting home around midnight absoloutly shattered! However it was an incredible 4 days and I think we managed to fit everything in we wanted to do. We realised on the way home how spoilt we are since we were thinking 'Oh no, we've got to go back to Florida!' Lol.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and 6 months to go!!
Idiot of the week:
Lady: (Looking at the quiz in one of our shops which asks 'What are the four countries that make up the UK?') Erm... England, Spain, France...
It's been a long time since I've had the chance to update this blog, i've been soooo busy, work has been crazy and i've also had my parents here! Lots to catch up on!
On the lead up to Christmas we had a few good nights to try and get ourselves in the festive spirit. Disney's Contemporary Resort held a Winter Formal for cast members one night so we got all dressed up and went along. They had free food and drink, music and also a chance to meet the characters, it was really good fun! Having a group photo with Mickey was definetly the highlight!
Another night Beth threw a christmas do at her apartment for a few us. She really went to town with food music and games, yes games! There was 'find the chocolate santas around her apartment' which I have to say I was appalling at so much so, Beth had to secretly point one out to me so I didn't look stupid lol. Although I was rubbish at that game we had an xmas quiz and Kirstie and I were in a team. It came down to us and Nick and Mimi and the deciding question was to name all of Santa's reindeer and Kirstie and I smashed it! hehe. We won a goody bag full of British choclate and biscuits! It was a really fun night and really nice of Beth to do it for us.
It was also my housemate Sarah's birthday in December so we decided to have a party at our apartment to celebrate! The first party I've had here eek! lol. I spent the afternoon decorating the apartment and moving all the furniture around while Sarah got the food and made some cakes! (She's a great cook!) We decided that although we were just staying in our apartment for the evening it was definitely a dressing up occasion! It was a wicked night, we played pass the parcel thanks to Sam organising it and Dan gave a speech for Sarah as she was a little worse for wear! I ended up tidying up after everyone had gone at 2.00 in the morning much to Sarah's amusement but I felt much better the morning after when I got up and everything was back to normal!
After experiencing everything Disney in the christmas run up, Beth and I decided to go to Universal Studios one day to see what was going on there. We headed over to Islands of Adventure first where they had a show of 'How the Grinch stole Christmas' and an area of the park was set up as Whoville with lots of cast members dressed up as Whos! It was really fun and the show was impressive. After this we headed back to Universal to catch the Macys Parade. In New York at christmas Macys have a huge parade and Universal has like a smaller version but basically the same. Lots of huge inflatables and weird and wonderful things with of course Santa at the end. It's still nothing on Disneys magic but it was still fantastic to see!
On 20th December my mum, dad and brother finally arrived In Florida after a 3 hour delay because of the snow in the UK! They picked me up and we went straight back to the villa. Like before I spent the week there.
The next day I had a day off so we went to Walmart and Lowes etc. as my parents had to get some stuff for the house. That evening Rachel, Kirstie and Beth came around and we had a miniture party to try and make them feel less homesick! Mum made a buffet and we ate lots, played games and pulled crackers like a real xmas day! It was a fun night and the girls stayed over, we were up until 4am catching up! The next morning my Dad showed off his cooking skills by making us a fried breakfast which Beth called 'the best meal she's had in six months!' After we dropped the girls back to the Commons we went to Celebration. Celebration is a town created by Disney which is meant to be what Walt visualised as the perfect American town. It's really beautiful and looked even nicer with all the christmas decorations, there was even a small ice rink and one street was covered in fake snow! We went for a walk around the huge lake that is there and looked at the amazing houses which people own there and at 6pm it started snowing in the snow covered street, it was lovely!
I worked the rest of the week including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We all gave eachother a hug at work on Christmas Eve when we realised it had turned Christmas Day back home! I'm not going to lie Christmas Day was awful! Everyone was very depressed and homesick at work, no one wanted to be there and time went very slowly. The managers tried to cheer us up by bringing in cookies and cakes and stuff but people still felt very down about being away from home. I celebrated with my family after work and they opened the presents I gave them but even they admitted that it wasn't the same as being back home. It seemed like a big countdown for nothing and I'm just glad it's over. I can't wait to spend Christmas Day back at home next year.
On the Sunday I had a day off again so we hit the outlets which were crazy busy! So much so that we parked in The Commons and walked across because there were no parking spaces! Luke was in his element spending all his money in Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger and he bought me some Converses as an xmas pressie and Mum bought me a cardy from Tommy Hilfiger. If I can offer one bit of advice it would be to NEVER visit Florida at Christmas, I've never seen so much traffic in my life! Having said that we had a lovely evening. I booked us a table at Citricos, a restaurant in Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. It's very expensive, however I got 50% off with my cast member holiday discount! The food was incredible and although none of us were very hungry we all managed all three courses! After dinner we went to the bar there for something to drink and we explored the hotel as it's one of Disneys expensive ones!
On the Monday it was time for the fam to go home. As their flight wasn't until 7ish we had lunch at Golden Corral and Dad very kindly bought me a big food shop from Walmart! It was just as hard as last time to say goodbye, I don't deal with them leaving me here very well, there were lots of tears and not just from me! I felt very down that evening but fortunately Beth was on hand to give me a hug and take me for dinner at Bahama Breeze! The fam were delayed another three hours on the way home too which made for a pretty rubbish flight for them.
The week after my family left I had awful hours at work, two days I worked until 1am and then had to be at work again at 10.30am the next morning giving me 4 hours sleep! It was tough! New Years Eve is the busiest day of the year for Epcot and I was working a 12 hour shift- 1pm until 1.15am. I've never seen anything like it, Magic Kingdom was closed by midday because it had reached full capacity so most people got the monorail across to Epcot. Fastpasses had gone by 10am and some of the rides reached a 5 hour wait! They even removed the benches so more people could fit in the park! The park can hold 77,000 guests and we reached 83,000 by the end of the night! I'm just trying to explain to you just how busy it was, it was incredible! The shops had non stop queues which was good for us because time flew but it was also stressful and guests were impatient and rude. Having said that I ended up having a great new year. At 7pm you guys were celebrating new year and our managers very kindly covered the shops for us while we all went out together to count it down. All the guests were crowded round and The British Invasion (our Beatles tribute band) did the count down, then once it hit new year they sang Auld Lang Syne and we all did the dance together with the Americans staring at us wondering what the hell we were doing lol. The next few hours flew by quickly and at midnight the managers let us go outside to watch the count down and fireworks for the American new year. The fireworks as usual were incredible and they also went round each country and we each had our own fireworks too. In the end I was really glad I worked New Years Eve and got to celebrate two new years!
It sounds like back home is having some crazy weather with all the snow? It is very cold here in Florida and I know you are all probably thinking i'm talking rubbish and that I have just got used to the heat but i'm not lying! For the past week it has been 7*C during the day and -2*C at night! It's bloody freezing! I have spoken to alot of Floridian guests and they have said that it is very unusual for it to be this cold for this long, Florida usually gets about one or two cold days but nothing like this length of time. I've read reports that Florida has had it's hottest summer for a long time this year but is now having it's coldest winter for 25 years! Typical! I just hope the heat comes back soon, I have come to the conclusion that I am definitely a summer kind of girl, I don't know how I am going to cope when I get home!
Now the craziness of Christmas and New Year is over my hours are back to normal so it's back to the gym and diet time! It also means I have reached the 6 months mark, can you believe that? I can't believe i've spent 6 months in Florida already, it's scary how fast time has gone by, I've got to make sure I make the most of the last half of my year. I'm doing ok so far, Kirstie, Beth and I have New York booked for the 22nd January and I can't wait!! I'm soooo excited although slightly scared about how cold it is going to be! I've also booked to stay in Animal kingdom Lodge for my birthday next month, it's one of Disney's more expensive resorts because it feels like you are on safari, your balcony leads out to giraffes and elephants!! It's going to be a fun couple of months!
Lady: (Looking at the quiz in one of our shops which asks 'What are the four countries that make up the UK?') Erm... England, Spain, France...
It's been a long time since I've had the chance to update this blog, i've been soooo busy, work has been crazy and i've also had my parents here! Lots to catch up on!
On the lead up to Christmas we had a few good nights to try and get ourselves in the festive spirit. Disney's Contemporary Resort held a Winter Formal for cast members one night so we got all dressed up and went along. They had free food and drink, music and also a chance to meet the characters, it was really good fun! Having a group photo with Mickey was definetly the highlight!
Another night Beth threw a christmas do at her apartment for a few us. She really went to town with food music and games, yes games! There was 'find the chocolate santas around her apartment' which I have to say I was appalling at so much so, Beth had to secretly point one out to me so I didn't look stupid lol. Although I was rubbish at that game we had an xmas quiz and Kirstie and I were in a team. It came down to us and Nick and Mimi and the deciding question was to name all of Santa's reindeer and Kirstie and I smashed it! hehe. We won a goody bag full of British choclate and biscuits! It was a really fun night and really nice of Beth to do it for us.
It was also my housemate Sarah's birthday in December so we decided to have a party at our apartment to celebrate! The first party I've had here eek! lol. I spent the afternoon decorating the apartment and moving all the furniture around while Sarah got the food and made some cakes! (She's a great cook!) We decided that although we were just staying in our apartment for the evening it was definitely a dressing up occasion! It was a wicked night, we played pass the parcel thanks to Sam organising it and Dan gave a speech for Sarah as she was a little worse for wear! I ended up tidying up after everyone had gone at 2.00 in the morning much to Sarah's amusement but I felt much better the morning after when I got up and everything was back to normal!
After experiencing everything Disney in the christmas run up, Beth and I decided to go to Universal Studios one day to see what was going on there. We headed over to Islands of Adventure first where they had a show of 'How the Grinch stole Christmas' and an area of the park was set up as Whoville with lots of cast members dressed up as Whos! It was really fun and the show was impressive. After this we headed back to Universal to catch the Macys Parade. In New York at christmas Macys have a huge parade and Universal has like a smaller version but basically the same. Lots of huge inflatables and weird and wonderful things with of course Santa at the end. It's still nothing on Disneys magic but it was still fantastic to see!
On 20th December my mum, dad and brother finally arrived In Florida after a 3 hour delay because of the snow in the UK! They picked me up and we went straight back to the villa. Like before I spent the week there.
The next day I had a day off so we went to Walmart and Lowes etc. as my parents had to get some stuff for the house. That evening Rachel, Kirstie and Beth came around and we had a miniture party to try and make them feel less homesick! Mum made a buffet and we ate lots, played games and pulled crackers like a real xmas day! It was a fun night and the girls stayed over, we were up until 4am catching up! The next morning my Dad showed off his cooking skills by making us a fried breakfast which Beth called 'the best meal she's had in six months!' After we dropped the girls back to the Commons we went to Celebration. Celebration is a town created by Disney which is meant to be what Walt visualised as the perfect American town. It's really beautiful and looked even nicer with all the christmas decorations, there was even a small ice rink and one street was covered in fake snow! We went for a walk around the huge lake that is there and looked at the amazing houses which people own there and at 6pm it started snowing in the snow covered street, it was lovely!
I worked the rest of the week including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We all gave eachother a hug at work on Christmas Eve when we realised it had turned Christmas Day back home! I'm not going to lie Christmas Day was awful! Everyone was very depressed and homesick at work, no one wanted to be there and time went very slowly. The managers tried to cheer us up by bringing in cookies and cakes and stuff but people still felt very down about being away from home. I celebrated with my family after work and they opened the presents I gave them but even they admitted that it wasn't the same as being back home. It seemed like a big countdown for nothing and I'm just glad it's over. I can't wait to spend Christmas Day back at home next year.
On the Sunday I had a day off again so we hit the outlets which were crazy busy! So much so that we parked in The Commons and walked across because there were no parking spaces! Luke was in his element spending all his money in Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger and he bought me some Converses as an xmas pressie and Mum bought me a cardy from Tommy Hilfiger. If I can offer one bit of advice it would be to NEVER visit Florida at Christmas, I've never seen so much traffic in my life! Having said that we had a lovely evening. I booked us a table at Citricos, a restaurant in Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. It's very expensive, however I got 50% off with my cast member holiday discount! The food was incredible and although none of us were very hungry we all managed all three courses! After dinner we went to the bar there for something to drink and we explored the hotel as it's one of Disneys expensive ones!
On the Monday it was time for the fam to go home. As their flight wasn't until 7ish we had lunch at Golden Corral and Dad very kindly bought me a big food shop from Walmart! It was just as hard as last time to say goodbye, I don't deal with them leaving me here very well, there were lots of tears and not just from me! I felt very down that evening but fortunately Beth was on hand to give me a hug and take me for dinner at Bahama Breeze! The fam were delayed another three hours on the way home too which made for a pretty rubbish flight for them.
The week after my family left I had awful hours at work, two days I worked until 1am and then had to be at work again at 10.30am the next morning giving me 4 hours sleep! It was tough! New Years Eve is the busiest day of the year for Epcot and I was working a 12 hour shift- 1pm until 1.15am. I've never seen anything like it, Magic Kingdom was closed by midday because it had reached full capacity so most people got the monorail across to Epcot. Fastpasses had gone by 10am and some of the rides reached a 5 hour wait! They even removed the benches so more people could fit in the park! The park can hold 77,000 guests and we reached 83,000 by the end of the night! I'm just trying to explain to you just how busy it was, it was incredible! The shops had non stop queues which was good for us because time flew but it was also stressful and guests were impatient and rude. Having said that I ended up having a great new year. At 7pm you guys were celebrating new year and our managers very kindly covered the shops for us while we all went out together to count it down. All the guests were crowded round and The British Invasion (our Beatles tribute band) did the count down, then once it hit new year they sang Auld Lang Syne and we all did the dance together with the Americans staring at us wondering what the hell we were doing lol. The next few hours flew by quickly and at midnight the managers let us go outside to watch the count down and fireworks for the American new year. The fireworks as usual were incredible and they also went round each country and we each had our own fireworks too. In the end I was really glad I worked New Years Eve and got to celebrate two new years!
It sounds like back home is having some crazy weather with all the snow? It is very cold here in Florida and I know you are all probably thinking i'm talking rubbish and that I have just got used to the heat but i'm not lying! For the past week it has been 7*C during the day and -2*C at night! It's bloody freezing! I have spoken to alot of Floridian guests and they have said that it is very unusual for it to be this cold for this long, Florida usually gets about one or two cold days but nothing like this length of time. I've read reports that Florida has had it's hottest summer for a long time this year but is now having it's coldest winter for 25 years! Typical! I just hope the heat comes back soon, I have come to the conclusion that I am definitely a summer kind of girl, I don't know how I am going to cope when I get home!
Now the craziness of Christmas and New Year is over my hours are back to normal so it's back to the gym and diet time! It also means I have reached the 6 months mark, can you believe that? I can't believe i've spent 6 months in Florida already, it's scary how fast time has gone by, I've got to make sure I make the most of the last half of my year. I'm doing ok so far, Kirstie, Beth and I have New York booked for the 22nd January and I can't wait!! I'm soooo excited although slightly scared about how cold it is going to be! I've also booked to stay in Animal kingdom Lodge for my birthday next month, it's one of Disney's more expensive resorts because it feels like you are on safari, your balcony leads out to giraffes and elephants!! It's going to be a fun couple of months!
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