Favorite Weekend at Disney!!!

As soon as I got this job, I told my mom she would be bringing Laura to experience Disney!  I told my mom I didn't care who came to see me, but Laura better be one of them!  And my mom kept that promise.  Laura along with my mom, Sarah, and my Aunt Debbie all made their way to Walt Disney World Friday, October 11 during Sarah's Fall Break!  We started our time together with dinner at the Old Key West Resort at Olivia's Cafe.  My family ate here during one of our trips and remembered it being good, so we figured it would be a fun place for our first dinner!  Again, real food for a whole weekend makes seeing my family even better!!!  After dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney for some shopping and I had to pick up a special gift for Laura!  I got her her very first pair of Mickey ears, with her name on them!!  Laura loves anything with her name on it and these were no exception!  I knew this gift could go either way.  Either she'd love it and wear them non-stop, or she wouldn't wear them at all!  Luckily she fell in love with them and wore them all weekend (except for our last day!)

So excited about her ears!

I got a big kiss for her present!!

Only my favorite people, ever

 Also, Sarah decided when I got this job that she'd be visiting on Fall Break whether anyone came with her or not!  This was the first time we saw each other since moving her into her apartment a couple days before moving to Orlando!  We've never gone that long without seeing each other, but unfortunately we'll have to since we won't see each other until Christmas!  How lucky am I to have such a great sister that makes saying goodbye so hard!

Saturday, we started at Epcot!  We headed to Guest Relations to get Laura's 1st Visit pin.  Just like the ears, she had to make sure she kept her pin on all weekend!!  She wanted everyone to know this was her trip, in typical Laura fashion.

Love love love her!!!

Some of Aunt Debbie's friends headed to get us FastPasses to Soarin' (since we had been convincing Laura how much she would love it).  We found Pluto and decided this would be Laura's first character meet and greet!  Walking up, Laura says, "There's a person in there, right?"  Hahahah Laura!  She's smart, just ruining the magic!  She did good with her first meeting and we moved on to Spaceship Earth!

All the girls with Pluto!

We rode lots of rides and got to go to the Siemens Office at the back of the Epcot ball since Aunt Debbie works for Siemens!  They had a Magic Mirror and free drinks ha!  Laura wasn't a fan of the moving sidewalks (as we anticipated) or Soarin' (as we weren't anticipating).  Before getting here, we told Laura the rules were if you get scared to close your eyes, hold someone's hand, and scream.  She repeated these rules for us over and over but did she use them?  NO!  Soarin' was a struggle and no where near Laura's favorite thing!  We thought she was having a panic attack and she wouldn't close her eyes.  She just kept asking when we would be getting back on the ground.  Haha, what an experience it was Soarin' with Laura!

We had to snap a picture before leaving Epcot!

After leaving Epcot, we headed to Animal Kingdom!  We rode a couple rides and even convinced Laura to try "It's Tough to be a Bug!"  Bad decision.  She kept her head on my shoulder the whole time she wasn't screaming and swatting bugs away from her face!

With the Tree of Life

The main thing we were excited about doing at Animal Kingdom was the Festival of the Lion King Show.  One of the perks of working at Disney is having other friends who work at Disney and I'm just so lucky to have a roommate who works at the Lion King show.  She was so sweet to put us on the VIP List meaning we got to be front row and got extra special treatment!  Seriously can't thank Courtney enough for this experience as it was our first and probably most favorite Magical Moment of the weekend!  At first, Laura was asked to help make the elephant noise but she turned that down so Sarah got chosen to lead the elephants.  However, Sarah forgot what noise an elephant makes...embarrassing!!! Ha!  But the show got started and we had so much fun!  Laura was amazed by Simba...so much so that we had to remind her to watch the show!  The dancers and Tumble Monkeys were so interactive with us, it was an awesome show!  At one point in the show, the dancers choose children from the audience to dance around the auditorium with them!  Luckily, our dancer saw Laura's potential and invited her to dance!!  Oh man, if you know Laura at all you know how she lovesssss to dance!  She got a shaker and she went to work!  Laura was dancing all around and even took a bow when her time as the star of the show was up!  Classic Laura!  It was such a magical moment and leave it to the Fogle girls to start crying watching it happen!  

Laura stealing the show as always!

After our afternoon at Animal Kingdom, we headed to the Trails End Restaurant at Fort Wilderness.  We'd never been to this restaurant and I was more than excited.  Its a buffet with some gooooood food!  Between the ribs and BBQ and macaroni and cheese and cornbread, I was kind of in heaven.  Florida doesn't have southern food and this was the closest I've gotten in a while!  There was so much awesome food, it was hard to choose what all to try!  Okay, I'll stop being a fatty and telling you all about our food! But, you should check out Trails End!  It rocked!

Sunday started our day at Magic Kingdom!!  First thing we did was run to get Fast Passes to meet the princesses.  As Sarah and I went to the back of the park for those, the Haines women found Susie, a Cast Member in Entertainment walking down Main Street who could tell how much Laura wanted to go on the Carousel and she made some magic happen so that Laura could ride on Cinderella's horse.  In case you don't know, Cinderella's horse has a gold ribbon on its tail!  Laura felt like Cinderella and Susie even made sure we had a PhotoPass photographer taking pictures of Laura enjoying it all!  Talk about another Magical Moment!  As a Cast Member, I know how awesome it is to make a child's day with some magic.  As a Cast Member in the park as a Guest, it was even more awesome to see the magic happen!!!!

Loving life on Cinderella's Horse!

After riding the Carousel, we headed to meet the Princesses!  First was Cinderella and Aurora then Rapunzel and Snow White!  We even met Lady Tremaine and the evil stepsisters.  Laura wasn't the biggest fan but they were so entertaining! 

Love love love my sweet Mama!

Can't ever get enough of my sweet Aunt Laura!

We rode lots and lots of rides throughout the day and even ate lunch at Be Our Guest with more of our family!  My dad's twin, Aunt Nancy and her family came to Magic Kingdom for the day as well!  My cousin Kevin and his wife Dixie moved to Gainesville this summer and Aunt Nancy, Uncle Jeff, and Lisa were down visiting so it was awesome getting to see even more family!!!  

On the People Mover...far from Laura's favorite ride!

While in Tomorrowland, my good friend Stitch told me he would be at a dance party!  As soon as I told Laura Stitch wanted to dance with her, she got pretty excited!  We saw Chip and Dale come out to the party and waited on Stitch!  Laura loved getting to dance with Stitch and all the kids were jealous of Laura getting all the attention!

We ate dinner at my restaurant and I was so excited to see some of my pals from work!!  Also, this was the first time I've eaten at my restaurant as a Guest!  It was awesome, as if I would expect anything less from the Harbour House!  We hit up the Haunted Mansion after dinner and Laura absolutely lovedddd it!  She's still talking about it!  Our day at Magic Kingdom was magical indeed!

Monday was our day at Hollywood Studios!  First thing we did was Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster!  I sat with Laura instead of going on Tower of Terror...it is the only ride at Disney I won't do!  And then my mom and I switched places for Rock 'n Roller Coaster!  We ate at my favorite place, Pizza Planet, for lunch!  And we rode my favorite ride, Toy Story Midway Mania!!!!  We rode almost every ride there and saw the Beauty and the Beast show as well as the Little Mermaid show!  Laura loved them both!!  We ended our night at Fantasmic!  Somehow the Fogle's have never seen this show and I wasn't going to let my family leave without seeing them this time.  Laura enjoyed it way more than Wishes (just because she doesn't really like the loud noises that come with fireworks).  But she loved seeing all the characters and the music at Fantasmic!

Hanging out with our Trading Pins, typical tourists!

After the show, we headed out and took one last picture in front of the hat..that you can't really see!

It was such a fun weekend with my family here!  Makes me wish they could come all the time!  Getting to experience Laura's first visit will be one of my favorite memories forever!  So so thankful for my family and the time we got to spend together!

Encouraging Visitors

Wow, am I a terrible blogger or what?  Sorry life has been crazy but I figured I'd update you on some of the most exciting things that have been going on!  October is here and has brought many people I love to Disney with it!  Unfortunately in Florida, October doesn't mean fall colors, chilly weather, sweaters and boots, or leaves changing colors.  It pretty much feels like August just at night its in the upper 70's instead of the 80's/90's it is all day long.  I guess that's the only way I feel like its fall.  I've literally been having dreams that I get to drive through the mountains (at Lake J of course) wearing boots, jeans, a cardigan, and a scarf and I am just happy as a clam.  All I want is fall!!!!  Oh, the things that would make me happy right now!  Fall is my favorite time of year and I just hate it hasn't shown up in Central Florida yet.

October has brought some exciting things, though!!  First came Katherine and Joe (a couple days before October started).  They came down for the USC vs. UCF football game and decided to spend some time at Disney World.  I was ecstatic because it had been a month and a half since seeing Katherine!!  They came to Magic Kingdom after the game and we had so much fun!

Katherine meets Mickey

I had to document Joe hugging Mickey!!

It's a Small World with my BFFL

The aftermath of Splash Mountain

Our awesome picture!

 After Katherine and Joe's weekend visit, next my dad came to see me!!!!! He was only here a little longer than 24 hours but we did a lot in our short time.  First off, we stayed at All Star Movies Resort and we were chosen to participate in the Magic Band testing!!! Eeeeek!  In case you haven't heard how awesome these are, I could go on for days and days about them.  They're still in testing right now but soon (before the end of the year) everyone who stays on property will receive these.  They act as your room key, your park tickets, FastPass+, reservations, and you can save your credit card to it!  They'll get mailed to your house in this super cute box with Mrs. Incredible on the outside.  Inside is everyone's personalized Magic Bands!!!!  Your name is even on the inside.  You get to choose between different colors and they rock!  Getting to stay in a hotel with a big bed was magical for sure.  Any break from working every day is pretty wonderful!

Our awesome Magic Bands.  I of course got pink and Glenn got orange (duhhhh, he's got that Clemson blood).

Can't start out a Disney vacation without some Mickey towels!

 After dropping our stuff at the hotel, we headed to lunch at the Wilderness Lodge at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.  My family ate here years ago on one of our trips to Disney and we loved it!  My dad absolutely loves the Wilderness Lodge because it just looks like a great big log cabin and my daddy loves some log cabins.  If my mom didn't insist on living close to civilization, I have no doubts my dad would love to live in the middle of nowhere in a big log cabin! 

Our view of the lobby at lunch

Sooooo happy with my Daddy!

 Also, another side note:  when my family comes to town it means I get to eat like a normal person.  While I'm no longer a college student, I'm still broke and living in Orlando like I'm a college student.  My meals consist of Ramen, Easy Mac, cereal, and when I feel like cooking...some Hamburger Helper.  You could say I don't exactly eat real food all the time.  Since my dad was here and I got some awesome discounts, we did the Disney Dining Plan and got lots of good food!!!  Beware of lots of food pictures!

BBQ, sweet potato fries, and baked beans...need I say more?

In case you haven't eaten at Whispering Canyon Cafe, ketchup is a big deal!  When you ask for ketchup, you don't just get one, you get them all!  Everyone in the restaurant brings you the ketchup from their table.  Even though my dad just needed a little bit, we had plentyyyy of ketchup to go around!

 After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before heading to Epcot for the night!!

Gotta love selfies with my Daddy!

 At Epcot, we decided to eat around the world a little at the Food and Wine Festival!

First we got Filet Mignon's from Canada using our snack!! That's right, a $7 steak fo free using our snack from the DDP.  What a deal!  My dad got a beer too, but you know beer isn't my thing!

I stopped at Hawaii for a taste of the Aulani Sunrise which was amazingggg.

 After dinner, we headed to do some of my dad's favorite rides.  We had to do Soarin' because its my dad's all-time favorite!  He even has a t-shirt and a keychain so you know he's serious about this ride!  It was amazing as always and then we headed over to Test Track.  Test Track has been refurbished since our last trip to Disney and I knew Daddy would just love it.  The ride is sponsored by Chevrolet, which is usually a Fogle favorite, even though he just bought a Ford truck!  Haha, he still loved it!  Sorry if this ruins any magic but you get to design your own car now and then throughout the ride they're testing your individual car to see how it performs on the tests!!!  This is Disney's new thing on every attraction, they want to make everything as interactive as possible.  And as a future teacher who thrives on hands-on activities, Disney is doing an awesome job of being educational and hands-on! 

Daddy's truck

My pink car, of course!

Loving Test Track!

 After some rides, we headed back to Food and Wine and did some shopping.  I tried the Apple Strudel from Germany and we got ready for IllumiNations, the fireworks!  It was such a fun afternoon and night at Epcot and I was so glad to finally see what the Food and Wine Festival was all about!  It will be here through November, if you want to come check it out!

Back to the awesome food I was so happy my dad could provide for me...we had breakfast at the hotel.  The beloved Mickey waffle and bacon (not pictured because I already ate it) were the start to another fun day!

It tastes better because its Mickey, of course!

 We packed up, checked out, and hit the gift shop for some presents before heading to Downtown Disney.

We shopped and I must say, my dad even made a surprise purchase for the family.  I never would have thought he would have bought the family a Disney present without any pressure (hahahah) but it happened!  After shopping and checking out where we wanted to use our last meal, we found Wolfgang Puck Express!  So here's the deal, it has the same menu as Wolfgang Puck (not as much stuff, but same stuff) but it counts as Quick Service instead of Table Service.  I got the Chicken Alfredo and it was divine!  Daddy got half a chicken with their amazing fries!  This meal would have costed us $50+ had it not been for using our meal.  For reals people, you have to do the Disney Dining Plan, it rocks!  And as far as using this meal as a Quick Service meal, I just want to tell the whole world to do it because it was such a good deal and good meal!

Again, sorry for the food pics! Broke college girl, over here!

We went to World of Disney after lunch and stumbled upon a Bucket 'O Soldiers!  In case you didn't know, when I turned 5 my dad decided to give me army soldiers assuring me they'd come to life when I left the room like they did in Toy Story.  For forever, we've always found toy soldiers and this trip didn't stop us!  

Saying goodbye to my dad was bittersweet as always.  I was emotional (surprise) because I didn't want our time to end, but knowing I'd get to see him again in a couple weeks, made it okay!  I'm so thankful that my dad took the time to come see me, even if it was for a 48 hour trip total!  Having familiar faces and loved ones here at Disney is so encouraging, I can't even say it enough!!

I'm realizing many, many things about myself while working here and one is that I get easily bored.  Sorry if that sounds terrible of me, but its true!  So waking up and putting on my colonial garb and doing the same thing every day sometimes gets repetitive and I'm not a fan of repetitive things.  When the opportunity presented itself to work another shift, I didn't hesitate in picking it up!  The first shift I picked up was a Parade Audience Control shift.  It was only a 3 hour and 45 minute shift but time is money and I figured it would be fun!

Exciting part #1:  Wearing a different costume
Exciting part #2:  Wearing my hair down (without a bonnet)
Exciting part #3:  Knowing I wouldn't have to take out any trash!!!!

Sorry for all the selfies!!!

Even the buttons were of the castle!

 So my shift was super awesome and super easy!  I showed up extra early because I was worried about getting lost/being late.  My start time was 6:00 p.m. so I clocked in 15 minutes early to get my assignment and then we just sat around until a meeting started at 6:00.  This was super weird to me because we only have an Opening meeting like 15 minutes before we open and I figured this meeting must be like that.  WRONG!  This meeting lasted for an hour and at the end, we got our assignments.  I was assigned to a group with our leader, Angel!  He was hilarious and we had lots of fun working together.  Pretty much all I did before the parade was redirect traffic, answer questions, and help people get to where they could see the parade.  Of course there were difficult moments, but again, I was thankful that no trash or physical labor would be involved so I was a happy girl.  As if I didn't know this about myself before starting to work for Disney, physical labor isn't really my thing.  I'd much rather have a job where I don't have to sweat or do heavy lifting all day...duly noted for the future!  Apparently this night was a particularly difficult night and we were understaffed but I didn't think it seemed to difficult compared to what I usually do.  I loved it and I've already picked up another shift for next week!  The end of my shift was another meeting, our break, and then I headed out!  I am very thankful for getting to pick up other shifts because it helps me remember why I'm working for Disney!  Just getting to talk to Guests and interact with them are the moments I love most!

The next day was my roommate, Mindy's birthday!  We had lunch reservations at Akerhus Banquet Hall in Norway at Epcot!  I've been here twice for breakfast with my family but lunch was a totally different menu and still so much fun!  None of my roommates had ever been, so it was exciting getting to experience this with them!  Also, there is rarely ever a time where we're all together at the same time, so it was nice to all have the day off and get to spend some time together!  We got visits from Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Ariel!

Cinderella was beautiful as always!

Aurora reminded me that she would take me dancing to find a prince!

Snow White had extra rosy cheeks but was so much fun to talk to!

And of course, my favorite princess of all, Ariel was awesome!!!!!!

This was my conversation with Ariel:
Me:  Hey Ariel!!!!
Ariel:  Well, hello princess!
Me:  Can we get a picture together?
Ariel:  Of course!
Me:  Ariel, you're my favorite!
Ariel:  Oh, you're my favorite too! (And then I got the biggest hug ever and the picture above!)

MAGICAL MOMENT!!!! I was in Heaven.  It doesn't matter how many times I've met Ariel, this was the best visit everrrrr!  Okay, I'll calm down again!

The beautiful birthday girl with her card signed by all the princesses and her surprise cupcake!

 Lunch was amazing and again, real food rocks!!!  I'm always a fan of going out to eat because I know I'll actually eat a real meal!

Another exciting thing happened that week and that was that my Disney class started!  I'm taking a fun class called Disney Heritage and its part of the Exploration series, meaning its not for credit or anything!  This is like the hardest class to get in so I'm so thankful I have a spot.  We'll be learning about the history of the Walt Disney Company and how we got to where we are today! One of the best parts of the class?  Molly is in it with me!!!! What are the chances?  We didn't know each other when we had to register, had no idea where we'd be working much less that we'd be working in the same restaurant, we definitely didn't know we shared a birthday or the same love for Jesus, and we get to share this time together in class!!!  I'm excited about it!  I don't have to be that awkward girl who doesn't know anyone.  I'll try to post cool things I learn from class, but you might just have to wait for it to come up in conversation for me to tell you awesome things!

Love love love her!

 After class, we went to dinner at Chuy's and it was amazing!  I had been craving some good Mexican food for a while, and Molly knew just the place!  Again, I'm so thankful for Molly and our friendship.  No worries, we already have plans for me to come visit her in Dallas and she'll have to come see me as well.  And, we might just go on a road trip to Marceline, Missouri (Walt's hometown) for our birthday! Hahaha, big plans for sure!

Like I said before and I'll say it a million times, any way that I can connect with Guests makes my days better!  Whether its finding someone from South Carolina, finding someone who knows what PC is, or finding someone who has heard of Irmo, it always makes my heart smile to make that connection.  Its even more exciting when I get to see familiar faces!  I've seen so many people who have taken the time to come visit me at work and I couldn't be more thankful!  In September, I saw the Harmon's and Katherine and Joe!  Since then, I've seen my Econ teacher from high school, Mrs. Long and her family!  That was so reassuring to see Mrs. Long and even hear her say she's proud of me!  Not a day goes by where that little bit of doubt speaks up in my mind and makes me second guess my decision to come to Disney, but hearing such reassuring words makes the doubt go away!  This past Friday, I even saw my own sorority sister, precious Lauren!!!  She was one of my Belk girls my junior year and one of my favorite ADPi's!  She came to see me at work before the Halloween party and I was sooooo happy!!  Maybe this picture can be published in the Adelphaen?! Ha!

This weekend was filled with fun times as my family came to visit!  That will be an entire blog post of its own!  Thanks for following my journey!!!