Vacation...finally.

Well I know I didn't post for a while but it was mainly because I was so focused on getting to the end of my contract and once you get into the last 6 weeks it is just a case of counting down and maintaining your energy and stamina! I started packing 2 weeks in advance because I was so eager to get off the ship but now that I've done 6 days on vacation, I'm ready to go back haha!

Going through the debark procedure was a lot more straightforward than before, because I knew where to go and who to find. It was sad to leave Nick behind on the ship but I went back to Canaveral 4 days after I got off so we went for lunch which was nice... and hopefully I'm going back there next Thursday to see him again.

I managed to work the system pretty well and use my Donalds (shift off recognition reward) for 2 of my 4 last Castaway shifts as well as being Welcome Line on my last cruise which was great! When I got off the ship, Florida Nick came and picked me up and we got Cheesecake Factory before going to Downtown Disney (which is a total mess right now thanks to all the revamp they're doing) and we went to see a movie called Into The Storm which was really good - like a new version of Twister!

Then I moved into the All Star Sports for four nights which was okay. I was using the Disney transportation which I quickly remembered is pretty horrible especially after park close but seen as my number one aim of this vacation was to not spend too much money, I had to deal with it. On Monday I headed out to Magic Kingdom as my first stop (of course). New Fantasyland is finished now which is good, no more cranes to be seen, however there are walls up all around the castle because they're making more standing area which in the long run will be a good thing. I tried to use the new Fastpass + system but I don't like it too much so far just because as a Cast Member, I can't book them in advance online and that means I either stand in the (longer) stand-by lines or I can choose from the Fastpasses that are left which are generally for the less popular rides and/or the less popular times of day. Either way, I ended up doing Pirates, ate lunch at Columbia Harbour House, did Jungle Cruise, saw the brand new (and AWESOME) 3pm parade Festival of Fantasy, saw Philharmagic and walked around the shops before leaving and going back to the hotel. Chilled at the hotel for a couple of hours before then heading out to Hollywood Studios with the idea of seeing the new Frozen themed fireworks however when I got there I realised how crazy busy it was especially as it was EMH. I got pizza and went on Star Tours (old habits never die) before deciding to bypass the hat/fireworks area and go on Tower of Terror, saw Fantasmic and then did Aerosmith on single rider. It was midnight by the time I got back to the hotel so I was pretty exhausted!

On Tuesday I wanted to go to EPCOT and I arranged to grab lunch with Tyler before he went to work so I got to the park at about 12.15pm and we got chicken nuggets. He went to work and I went to chat to people at the Rose and Crown which was fun. I walked around the whole world showcase, enjoying the chance to take it all in without having to rush anywhere but I decided not to do any rides whilst I was there because I was still tired from the day before. I probably should also mention that this week has had almost record breaking temperatures in Orlando, between 97-99 F each day with a heat index of 110-120!!! So, I called it quits and went back to the hotel and literally lazed around for the whole evening.

Wednesday, I decided to go to Animal Kingdom. I got there at about 11.30am and went to see the Festival of the Lion King in it's new location which is much more spacious. Then I got lunch at the quick service Yak & Yeti which was ok, did front row single rider Everest (awesome!) before going to do Dinosaur. I had a mickey bar whilst waiting for the Fastpass for Nemo I had got when I got into the park. When I was half way through the show I realised I had mistimed my day and I should have left the park at 3pm in order to get to the Dolphin resort to pick up my rental car at 4pm - oops! I couldn't get out of the show until 3.40pm and so after rushing to the front of the park and hoping the bus was there (it wasn't), I called Alamo and they sent a shuttle to pick me up... so I ended up getting my little Toyota Yaris from the WDW Car Care Center which was pretty painless in the end.

With some wheels in my possession, I went out in the evening to get food (Chick Fil A) and stop by Walgreens for a couple of things.

Thursday, I had to pack up all my stuff and put it in the car (took three trips to the room!) before driving to Port Canaveral to meet Nick. I picked him up and we got lunch at Fish Lips for a couple of hours before he had to go to work. I drove over to Cocoa Beach and looked around the giant Ron Jons before heading back to Orlando and going to the Premium Outlets to kill some time. I got my sister a pair of UGG boots (the equivalent to £85 instead of £140 in the UK!) and bought a couple of things in Charlotte Russe before Florida Nick called and said he'd got home. I was staying at his apartment for a few days so I drove over to meet him and we went out to get Thai food.

Yesterday, Nick went to work and I went out to a shopping mecca called Winter Garden Village to find me some Panera Bread for lunch :-D I'd been waiting for 8 months for Panera! They really need to open one near the Port, they'd do great business. I got a bit distracted there and ended up going to a few stores including Bath and Body Works. Eventually I left and drove to Magic Kingdom where I was determined to do the Mine Train now it is finally open after 2 years of waiting... well, it was good. But just good. I waited for an hour (which isn't too bad considering some of the lines it's had) but I was sandwiched between two particularly annoying families and it was about 100 degrees so I was melting. After I got off the ride I went to Gaston's Tavern and got a Le Fou's Brew. I've tried to cut out drinking anything other than water (in my fancy new water bottle with a Brita filter in it) in the parks in an attempt to stay healthier and save money but I made an exception for Disney's version of Butterbear because it's also really good. After that I went to see the line for Space Mountain which said 30 minutes but ended up being nearer 50 minutes (thanks again to Fastpass+) but it was still great to do it. Nick got off work so we went to EPCOT where we'd been for about 10 minutes when the heavens opened and we got trapped in France for 45 minutes waiting for the storm to pass. I was hoping for a lower deck table at the Rose & Crown for dinner but because of the rain, we ended up sitting inside. We finished eating in perfect timing though and saw the fireworks from the viewing area which was great. I had the cheese plate, fish and chips and the bakewell tart - the food was great! It's definitely improved from when I was there especially because they've gone back to the classic menu. Also, our server introduced herself and then instantly told me she'd read my blog which was hilarious!

Today I have just chilled out. We went to the pool in the apartment complex and now I've just spent the afternoon using (FREE) internet and watching TV... yay for vacation!

8 weeks to go!

Sometimes it feels like the week will never end here… and the rest of the time you wonder where the time went. The week is a blur of stores mornings, counts, Castaway Cay, seeing the characters, napping, See Ya Real Soon and of course, selling paintings. My point is, I only have 8 weeks left! Actually, 7 weeks and 4 days after today. I even got my flight details which is a little bit crazy! They won’t give me the return flight yet though because my medical runs out during my next proposed contract so I have to get it updated during my vacation time and then they will give me the rest of my flight details. 

A few things have changed since I last posted… Nick got a new job as HR training officer which is super exciting for him – it means he has taken on an officer role, thus now walks around in “whites” with 2 stripes on his shoulders J He also moved cabin to the other end of the ship so it’s a little bit weird to not have him just down the hallway from me. It seems to be working out so far – it’s a new challenge for him which is good. On the slight downside it means that his contract got extended again so now we don’t finish on the same day anymore… sad face. Our vacation in Orlando is no longer – so I have to find people to hang out with for 2 weeks as I’m not changing my flight home and so I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed that we won’t get to go to Disney together. Then he was supposed to fly to England to see me which will still happen but just a little bit later in the month but unfortunately our already-booked trip to Disneyland Paris will have to be undertaken with someone else. But hey, these things happen and ultimately the pros outweigh the con that our vacation will be rearranged because it gives Nick such great opportunity.

In other related news, I have put it to “career navigate” which basically is a posh way of saying move department. I do enjoy the team in merchandise and the perks of the QIP payment and less hours compared to other roles is really nice but the job doesn’t challenge me at all and I want to learn something new, so I have put in to change to Guest Services. We will see what happens, I am happy to trundle along in merchandise for now but I thought I’d take a step out the very comfortable comfort zone I found myself in and see what happens.

I’m doing pretty well in saving money this contract – I’ve really resisted buying stuff on the ship. This is helped by not working in the Deck 3 stores because that’s where the temptation comes in! I’ve made a list of the stuff that I want to buy as gifts for people and I’m going to try to stick to that especially as now vacation will probably cost me more as I won’t be able to split the cost of stuff between two people.

We’ve had a couple of trips out this contract, we got to go to Downtown Disney about two weeks ago which was awesome!!! We got about 2.5 hours there which actually was just about sufficient because I went to World of Disney, then had lunch at Earl of Sandwich with the other Nick, then Tren-D, the kitchen shop, Art of Disney (which I now have a whole other appreciation for because I basically work in one) and finally grabbed an ice cream from Ghiardellis because getting back  on the bus to come back to the ship. We also did a trip to the Premium Outlets a few weeks ago and Nick went to Mall at Millenia but I couldn’t make that one because I was welcome line.

And an obligatory weather update, the weather at Castaway Cay has got to disgustingly hot level. Yesterday it was 95F (34C) with 1 mph wind… i.e. NO BREEZE! It was vile. It takes all your energy out of you – I’ve never been a fan of powerade and stuff like that but I can’t get through a shift there without it! 

Almost (half way) there...

I thought it was about time I blogged again, and I finally found some time to do it in! I appreciate that my posts have been very much more sparse than my first contract but in all honesty, there’s less to talk about. I spend my time going round and round the Bahamas, eating at the same places and doing the same thing every day. Every now and again there is the odd day that is different and when you live the repetitive lifestyle that I do, you appreciate those days – like today for example. I was welcome line for the second time this contract and I ended up being paired with Ana, my roommate who is actually finally into her last cruise of her contract. We were very lucky and got the permission to eat at Palo this evening – it was SO GOOD. I feel like the crew mess food has been worse this contract than last… or maybe it’s just because I’m sick of it. At Palo I had the calamari for appetiser, chicken breast (PROTEIN!!!!) for entrée with ricotta and pepper stuffing and then the server went overboard for the dessert and brought us chocolate soufflé, panacotta, tiramisu and then 4 scoops of different ice creams! The mango and mint sorbet was amazing as was all the desserts really. This was all after having the pancetta, parmesan, roasted peppers, breadsticks and garlic pizza bread which preceeds the appetiser – and is my favourite part of the Palo experience for sure.

After we were done at Palo, which coincidentally was the first time I’ve eaten dinner in there during daylight – summer is finally here! – we went to see the Golden Mickeys. I love the new cast, I think they are very talented and so it was my second time seeing that show with Dream 7 as they are known. The last cast were also great but these guys are my favourite I think! I bought a couple of gifts from the stores afterwards and walked around and chatted to a few people before coming back to relax in my cabin where it’s now almost 11pm and my night off is almost over.

 One thing that is definitely different about this contract is that I feel like I know more people around the ship – officers, entertainment cast, random people like security and HR compared to when I was here before. It helps that I’m the merchandise CAST representative so I go to a meeting twice monthly about living issues and things like that so I get to meet lots of the officers of different departments there and also now I’m in the gallery I do crowd-control for the Captain’s Signing which means I get to chat to the Captain twice a week which I find quite fun.

So yes, I’m not ignoring my blog, I just don’t want to make boring posts saying how we went to Nassau again or Castaway Cay again… talking of Castaway though… IT GOT HOT. Ugh. It’s okay when you do the morning shift from 8-12 but afternoons are a killer. I think part of it is that all you do is sell the same things – suncream, towels, buckets and the odd t-shirt and have the same conversations with guests over and over all afternoon. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate being able to work on a beautiful island like that and of course I still love working for Disney but it’s still a stamina test in that heat. When I was at CAST meeting a couple of months ago, one of the carpentry crew members said he wanted to thank his managers for letting them have “shore leave” at Castaway for the finale of the Dream Olympics (aka the DCL Games) and it was awesome to have gone in the sea at Castaway… i.e. it was his first time at the crew beach. That alone made me appreciate being in a role on the ship which allows me to visit the crew beach at least 4 times a month if not more, eat BBQ twice a week on the island and enjoy the sunshine even if I am working… so I’ve also learnt this contract to appreciate the good things I guess, even if everything else is getting you down.

Nick and I have finally booked the good old All Star Sports for our WDW vacation in August. Now just to work out the other details and we’ve at least got the first part of our vacation sorted. Then to plan the England part which is gonna be crazy!!

Quarter of the way

Well, the contract is progressing… I am about 6 weeks in now which means about a quarter of the way through. Apologies for not having updated this blog more but to be honest, I go round in circles twice a week to the same places so nothing much out of the ordinary happens!

We have started the DCL Games which is basically the Dream’s Olympics. Each department makes teams to enter into the events… we are entering in dodgeball, football, trivia, scavenger hunt, weight lifting and volleyball as well as anything else I don’t know about! I am only actually taking part in trivia… as we know, physical sport isn’t my thing! We went to watch the volleyball at Castaway Cay on the crew beach yesterday which was hilarious… merchandise got slammed by entertainment so it was a pretty quick game! It was cloudy in the morning but the sun finally came out in the afternoon and I was finally a morning shift yesterday so it was the first time I’d got to the crew beach since being back. We chilled out in a hammock for a while after the volleyball and Nick carried on playing some friendly games. The weather is really variable at the moment – last week it rained at Castaway then the sun came out after 3 hours and burnt me so much I could barely stay at work! Luckily the sunburn has faded now so that’s good.

We had a late night Nassau last Monday which was good. Nick and I were proper guests for the evening because we first went to see Villains, then ‘So you think you know your family’ in Evolution, then we had dinner at Royal Palace then we watched The Dreamers performing in the Atrium before going to see ‘Match your Mate’ in Evolution at the end of the evening. It was a really nice evening. I got to have the Grand Marnier soufflé that I had at Royal Court on the Fantasy and it was just as good as I remembered!

I’ve been avoiding getting off the ship very much so I can save money. I just sent home $1000 so that’s a good start but the rest of my wages I’m going to keep in dollars I think. 

Nick 1 came to visit me on Sunday with his friend Breckan who used to work on the Dream too, she was in YA. We got lunch at Chilis and then they took me to Walmart which was awesome. Other than that and a couple of trips to McDonalds in Nassau I haven’t really been off the ship that much since my last post. We have a new thing called In Port Manning where a certain amount of people have to stay onboard on port days so it kinda limits you anyway – my days are alternate Mondays and Thursdays. Tomorrow is an IPM day for me but I got scheduled Welcome Line so that’s all good… then on Friday I get to lie in again… and then Saturday I have a Donald scheduled for my Castaway shift so no working on the island for me! This three day cruise should be lovely!!

I can’t remember if I mentioned it already but I am in yet another location now – the art gallery on board. This has been a great opportunity to learn new things about a different kind of merchandise as well as HOW to sell things. It can get a little quiet at times but today’s sea day has been rather busy! Talking of which I had better get back to it…

Back to ship life!

Another sea day, another blog post!

So I've been back on the ship for just over two weeks. Not much has changed really and I've slipped back into the lifestyle reasonably easily. It is always a shock to the system to go from sitting around to working 70 hours a week with much less sleep!! The weather has been very variable but we've just about made it to Castaway every time... thanks to Captain Guus. All the other ships seems to have been less successful with the winds so that's good. I've been off in Nassau twice - once for McDonalds and McWifi and once to go look around the Disney Wonder. Thats means I've stepped onto all 4 ships now which is awesome.

They have a new rotation where about once every 4/5 weeks you stay onboard for a Canaveral shift to work in Whozits & Whatzits or Quacks which is open for guests when they've first got onboard. I have done it once and it went quite well actually - the guests are excited to be onboard :-) I am aiming to save more money this contract so actually working on port days is a good way of doing this haha.

I shared my cabin with a Brazilian girl called Juliana for the first two weeks and was on the other side of the i95 to the usual place... next to a watertight door. I didn't like being that side much and the bathroom always smelled funny. Anyway, I put a request in and now I've moved back into my old cabin 10712 with Ana, my old roomate. So far so good. I also spent my first two weeks in Sea Treasures which was very different to Mickeys Mainsail. It pretty much only sells clothing and a few home items. It was much slower paced and there was hardly any tidying to do which sounds great but I know I have to be the kind of person to be busy all the time so I think I preferred Mickeys... and that's where I got moved back to on Sunday.

I am hoping to eventually end up in White Caps which is the duty free high end store with the handbags and jewellery but we will see what happens!

I'm hoping to find some time to do more fun stuff at Castaway... we already went snorkelling on a catamoran which was fun even though the sea was a little bit cold. Next up I want to rent a bike and cycle round the island!!

I'm back!

Well, it's been a while but I am back for a quick update!

As I last wrote, I made it to the end of my contract... the next day was much easier than I thought. I realised the key was to go to do everything 15 minutes earlier than they said, which meant I beat the queues of the other 150 people getting off (biggest debark group for the year) so I got my luggage scanned at the x ray machine, picked up my final pay, settled my crew account, said goodbye to everyone and then went to D-Lounge. As I was getting off as a guest on an ESTA it meant that I was the first crew to get off the ship so that was easy and suddenly... I was free!!!!!

It honestly felt amazing to get out of the terminal building and know I didn't have to go back at 3pm. I was excited for vacation, the sun was shining and I was super happy to be off the ship after the most crazy last two weeks. I waited around for Nick 1 to pick me up and then we went to his house. He had work in the afternoon so I just tried to sort my luggage out (packing in a tiny cabin is a nightmare by the way) and then had a bath (amazing) and fell asleep on the sofa watching TLC.

So, I had a lazy few days around Disney - caught up with lots of my friends who were in and around Orlando which was nice. Then on the Thursday my mum flew in from England and we checked into the Caribbean Beach Resort. It's okay, better than I thought it would be but it is huge. We had a pirate themed room which was cool. On the Saturday we went to Port Canaveral to join the Disney Fantasy for a week!

It was awesome going through the embark process as a guest! In fact, the whole cruise was awesome. We went to St Thomas and St Maartin, did port adventures for both to explore the ports. We ate SO MUCH FOOD which was yum yum. My favourite thing was the Palo brunch which was on the last sea day, incredible. We also had Palo dinner as well. We went to Castaway Cay and it was a little cold but Mum seemed to like it. Pirate night was fun. We had a nice room with a balcony which was so nice to go and sit out on. Overall it was just a great experience!!

After that I flew to California where I met Nick 2 and we had another fantastic week. We stayed in a hotel about 15 minutes from Disneyland which was such a big room it was more like an apartment. We went to Disney a couple of times, went to Magic Castle (which is an invite-only restaurant/magic experience... pretty cool!!), went around the Santa Ana/Anaheim Hills area and mostly just relaxed and caught up on sleep. Sadly, after a great week I had to go home and finally got back to Bristol where I stayed for the next 5 weeks not really doing much - going to the gym, staying inside from the horrible weather and catching up with people before I left again.

We went to the Harry Potter Warner Bros studios which was awesome as well. All too soon it was time to pack up again, do three more flights (thanks Disney!) and get back to Orlando. On return, I went to Citricos with Nick 1 and Eric before joining the ship the next day... more on that soon!!

I did it!!!

I survived!! 

So my last two weeks of my contract were even more crazy than normal because of Christmas and new year... Sound familiar? Yes, I finished this contract at the exact same time as EPCOT so had a similar experience at the end. We went back to having the sea day on a Wednesday which I've decided I don't like as much as having it on a Monday. Christmas Eve we didn't end up finishing until quite late so we just had a drink at the bar and then called it a night. Christmas Day was the sea day and I was on my last day as Fairy Godmother in Training so that was quite a long day but we had some nice conversations with guests. Lots of chocolate and sweets were involved. I found the guests more sympathetic that we were away from our families and stuff on the cruise line versus in the parks so that was nice. 

Boxing Day was canaveral and we had quite a large delivery so that was busy. I rotated into the zone in mickeys that had quacks which is our small stall out on the pool deck and the location of the sculls and scurry make up. So on pirate night I retrained Amy up there and that was fun. New Years Eve was pretty awesome... Some of us finished at 1030 and started at 9 then next day and some finished at 1130 and started at 10am... I was one of the "lucky" ones that finished at 10.30pm so Tyler came round and we, along with Ana, shared some bubbly and watched half of the ABC Christmas Day parade on demand which made me super excited to go back to the parks! Then at about 11.15 we headed to Deck 11 where we watched the entertainment and saw the fireworks which was awesome. Then we went to deck 1 aft which had been decorated out really well by guest services and was a fire and ice theme so one half of the loading bay (because that's what it really is!) was the bar and themed like ice and the other half was the dancefloor themed like fire. It was good but we were tired and had already enjoyed the night really so we just stayed a while and then Tyler and I just chilled out in my cabin until about 2am then called it a night. 

New Years Day was somewhat of a struggle!! The whole crew were tired and the guests equally so! I was in sea day quacks for half the day so I went straight to the stockroom at 9am and then restocked the quacks location before staffing that up on the pool deck until 3pm. It was quite fun and I had some good chat with the guests... It was a killer watching all the food coming out of cabanas and Flo's though!! After that I went back to mickeys until midnight... Yes my New Year's Day was a shift from 9am until midnight! Memorable! 

The rest of this week has been rediculously easy in comparison. The next day I was on welcome line so that was super easy - I went and saw the golden mickeys in the evening before napping and packing. Yesterday we were off the whole day as it was Friday Nassau so I went to McDonald's then worked in the evening. Today I had to work 8-10am helping the crew shop but then I was done for the day because I am leaving as a "guest" so I can't work for 24 hours before I leave the ship! Ha! I did three trips up and down the ship returning all my costumes, returning my micros card, payed my account off at the crew office and signed the Bahamian book which is some customs thing. I also got my key to the world card so I can debark as a guest. I decided to go and see frozen at 3pm (4th time!) for something to do and when I returned, Ana was freaking out because guest services had been trying to contact me... Turns out they mis-marked me as off the ship so thought I was still on the island! While I went to guest services to sort that out, security phoned my cabin to ask Ana if she had seen me which thankfully she had otherwise I would have delayed the ship leaving as they would have thought I was still there! Oops! 

That brings me to now. I am just killing some time before going to see Believe tonight which I'm super excited for as it's the show I have seen least... Only twice. I've pretty much packed everything now. I just have to take my luggage to be inspected by security tomorrow, attend immigration at 5.30am ugh, settle my pay check at crew office, get a manager to check off my cabin and finally say goodbye to everyone.

So excited!!