Work Hard, Play Hard (Week Two)

I'm sure it's not surprising to anybody that the first full day after I got my blue ID I spent in the parks! Kicked off my Saturday with an early morning visit to Hollywood Studios, aka my home park. From the jazz music over the speakers to the Star Wars stuff everywhere, I knew it was going to be the park for me.

Ironically, I only rode one ride that morning (and to this day, I think it's the only ride I've done in Studios!), which was of course Rock n Rollercoaster starring Aerosmith. I was definitely scared to ride it since I've never been on a rollercoaster before, but it turns out having Steven Tyler screaming in your ears while you go 60+ mph and flip upside-down is actually a great experience. It's honestly one of my favorite rides that I've ever been on overall! It's not THE favorite though...that's coming in a little bit. ;) As promised by Tommy and several of my other friends, my soul DID leave my body. There are two types of existence: pre-Rock n Rollercoaster, and post-Rock n Rollercoaster.

After wandering through Studios for a bit and checking out my work location (Tatooine Traders, I love you!), my friends and I decided to swing by a meet and greet to get some warm hugs from Olaf! I must confess that I don't actually like Olaf, so meeting him was kind of anti-climactic. I also was not quite sure what to say to him, seeing as he can't talk back! The line was very short, so it was a quick in-and-out.

We headed to Epcot next, where I got to finally see the big ball that encompasses Spaceship Earth. It was a fun ride to go on just to say that I've been on it! Maria and I tried out Mission Space next. Mission Space has tragically tainted any memories I will have of Epcot for the rest of my life. I'm a bit claustrophobic, but ignored the warnings that I shouldn't do the ride. It really wasn't bad until they sealed the doors and the CONSOLE MOVED CLOSER. I spent the whole ride with my eyes closed and trying not to panic. Poor Maria felt bad for suggesting we do the ride, but it was 100% my own fault. 😂 Lesson learned.

The next couple days consisted of a lot of work training for me, so I didn't go back to the parks until I took a spontaneous adventure with two of my roommates to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Despite being the park I was least interested in, it absolutely became one of my favorites for two reasons: Pandora, and Expedition Everest.

Expedition Everest is my favorite ride in all of Disney World. I've loved all the thrill rides that I've done, but Everest takes the cake. Since Kam, Alexa, and I went at night on kind of a drizzly evening, we got to practically walk on to the ride, which was amazing considering the wait times regularly soar over two hours. They didn't give me any context ahead of time for the ride. All I knew was that there was a Yeti somewhere.

If you haven't summited Everest, the ride starts off relatively slow when compared to the other thrill rides at Disney. As the cars slowed to a stop at the top, I was honestly thinking "wow, why does everybody like this so much?". Then I realized that the tracks were split. I had just enough time to scream "Wait, do we go backwards?!" before we were suddenly hurtling back down the way we came. As promised, the Yeti did make an appearance before the end of the ride! As soon as we pulled into the station, I was laughing and begging to go again. It's been the only ride that I've ridden more than once at Disney (current total: 3).

In my non-park life, I had several more days of training at Disney University before I got to start my "on the job" training in the Theater District. It consisted of two, four-hour classes that focuses on the more specific training for merchandise cast members. There's not the same excitement as in Traditions, but it's definitely necessary information to get!

Stay tuned for my week three recap!