Day 7 & 8: Swimming, Eating, and an Attempt at Orlando Tourism

Yesterday I promised an amazing free activity to do in Orlando and I was more than excited to share with you my personal experience with The Peabody Duck March. The Peabody Duck March is free at the Peabody Hotel and it is literally a march of ducks to their respective fountain in the hotel's atrium. Here's a video of the march if you're curious.

So you're probably wondering why I don't have my own pictures/video of this amazing event. Well, as they start promptly at 11am, we (Staci, Nick, and I) left 3o minutes early, but that unfortunately was not enough time to figure out parking, which was really difficult at the Peabody Hotel. The only convenient option would have been valet, but ain't nobody got time for that, so we left and are planning on visiting the march at some point in our 6 month stay in Orlando.

As we are all low on money we are finding more and more things to do that are either free or cheap, which as I have said before is more difficult than we thought. The good news though is that on Saturday, tomorrow, Staci and I will get our Disney passes to get into the parks for free! That's right, we get into Disney world for FREE. Honestly, that's worth the internship itself, but thankfully we do get paid!

So let's take a second and talk about the food. Nebraska and Minnesota do not have any of these classic restaurants, I guess because when my roommates list off the restaurants around us, most likely I have visited none of them. Staci and I visited Steak n' Shake on Sunday and I got the guacamole burger - it was SO good. The burger was juicy and everything tasted fresh - except the water. I've noticed that the water in Orlando/Kissimmee is not the best as it has a weird taste. Anyway, we also got Baskin Robins, which I weirdly have never had and a Boston Creme donut from Dunkin' Donuts. Oh. My. I told Staci that I now know why the South has an obesity problem. Seriously.

We are now looking at more local restaurants as we all like to support local businesses and our first experience with local food was at La Estacion Colombiana. Staci and I went as the restaurant was right by an auto repair shop as Staci had to get her brake lights replaced. So as you can tell, we were a little hesitant, but we had over half an hour to wait, so we decided to bite the bullet and try the restaurant. We both commented how we knew Spanish and it really shouldn't be too bad, but we walk in and immediately the waitress spoke a flurry of Spanish. Staci and I looked at each other and just sat down. We both ended up getting a side of rice and a salad, mine with avocados. Staci and I are both dreaming about that rice.

Today Staci and I ended up going to the pool as it was gorgeous out. It was SUCH a good decision. It was perfect out and the pool wasn't too hot or too cold. Thankfully my sunburn has been getting better and I did get some 50+ sunscreen, so I am now Florida prepared :)

I am thinking I will post one more time about the whole Disney internship program and try to explain somethings about what I am doing/how I got the internship. Hopefully this will be helpful to those who are interested in applying for the spring :)

Day 6: Casting

Yesterday I went through Casting, which basically means they take your fingerprints for background checks and make sure all your paperwork (I-9, W-4, etc) are in and correct. Staci, my roommate who is from Richmond, and I thankfully had the same "check-in" time so we carpooled to the Casting Center which is right by Downtown Disney. 

As I have never been to Disney World before, I was fan-girlling all over the place. There were Donald Ducks, Mickey Mouses, and magic all over and I knew that I was just at the tip of the ice berg. They even had a door handle to Casting that was exactly like the one in Alice and Wonderland - except for the fact that it didn't come to life.

Oh, I should also clarify one thing: "Casting" does not mean that I will be a character in the actual parks. All employees, whether playing characters or not are considered "cast members." When you start the application process, you are given a "recruiter" and everything. Everything in the wonderful world of Disney is about Show - from your work to how you act, make sure that you are professional.

For some reason, both Staci and I were really nervous for Casting - they really don't do anything, but it's just the reality of really starting to work for Disney that got to us, I think. As we were driving to Casting, Staci noticed that I did not cover up my wrist tattoo, which according to the "Disney Look" is against the rules. I started freaking out, but thankfully we came up with a solution to just cover it up with my lanyard (thankfully it was fine for Casting that I did not have it covered up, but from this point forward I have to either cover it with make up or wear long sleeves - yuck). We left the house almost an hour early because of our nervousness and sat in the car until 1pm to not be too early, but by the time we entered Casting, there was already a line, so it was probably a good plan that we left so early.

Going through the process was a breeze and everyone is pretty much open to a conversation and some light jokes to make the day go by faster. As I went to my first station I had to wait with one of the Full-Time cast members and he said "Wow, you must be good." I was really confused and asked, "Wait, what do you mean?" He casually showed me my folder and to me I didn't see anything highlighted or different, so I just looked at him with a confused face. He then responded with "Let me give you some perspective here - There were over 30,000 people who applied for these jobs and only 300 were accepted. You should be proud that you were one of them." Wow. I did not know that there were that many applicants and that there were so few accepted. I knew that it was a big deal that I got in, but that is crazy. Nick, my roommate who is from Detroit, and I did the math and that is 1% of all applicants who applied were accepted. Crazy!

I have recently experienced the Florida sun and it is now showing on my face and shoulders aka I have the sunburn from hell. It is getting better, but that still did not keep every single full-time cast member from  pointing out that I "got some sun" and that I "made real good friends with the sun." Yup. I'm aware. I literally look like T-Rex when I drive, so if I couldn't see it, I have definitely felt it.

After Casting we went back to our town house/house/condo, or as my roommates and I like to call it a tousedo, and just chilled with each other. We're already running low on money, so we are trying to find things to do that are free - which in Orlando are not many, however we DID find something that will be covered in tomorrow's blog - oh, just wait, it's amazing.

One funny thing happened today, we found that Nick has a hidden smiley face in his drawers, can you find it?