WDW College Program

Living in Florida for six weeks made me realize that I have finally grown up. I am a lot more independent but I just need to learn to cook better food for myself. During this week, I finally saw Wishes and I fell in love with it. I really enjoyed it especially 15 minutes before the first fireworks goes on, there is a show called Celebrated the Magic and it brings out a lot of emotions within me. I love how Disney can make you feel sad and love all at the same time. When I watched Celebrated the Magic I got goosebumps. It is just an amazing feeling watching short scenes from all the Disney movies. Before all of these happened, my friends were all so surprised that I still have not watch Wishes so they took me all around and made sure I have the best viewing spot and nothing was in my way. I feel really special at that moment because they are making a magical moment for me without knowing. As I was watching Wishes, the whole time my face just lit up full of smiles and then it finally hit me. Disney is a magical place to be.
This week I finally went to Chick-fil-a and I really like their french fries because it is different and their burger was so juicy. I can not wait for the next time to go there again. This week was kinda of bittersweet for me because my mom’s birthday was on Saturday and I could not be there with her eating yummy food but it is okay. In the morning I wished my mom a Happy Birthday and then went to Magic Kingdom for Dapper Day. It was pretty cool to see everyone dressing up and celebrating Dapper Day. It was also the first time that I have seen that Magic Kingdom was really busy. It was hard for us to walk around the park but we were lucky when it came to timing. We saw many of the characters such as Alice, Mr. Rabbit, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Belle, Chip and Dale with little wait time. One of my goals before coming to Disney was to take pictures with as many of the characters I can. So far I am doing a great job on it.
Blizzard Beach finally reopened and I was able to go to it. I love the concept of Blizzard Beach. It is a place Olaf would definitely love because it is about having winter in the summer. Blizzard Beach is too intense for me because they have this one ride called summit plummet that I thought was pretty high and steep. Even though Disney has two water parks, there are a lot of differences between them. For example, Typhoon Lagoon has the wave pool and Blizzard Beach has a concept of ski rifts. Typhoon Lagoon also allows you to snorkel in the water above sharks. For me, I definitely like Typhoon Lagoon more.

After my family left is going back to reality. I miss them so much already, and now that I extended now I have to wait three more months to see them. I needed to see them because they reminded me why I’m here a get me back on track. I had been really stressed with work and school. I’m so excited about this week coming up. I’m getting trained for auto plaza. Auto plaza hours are so much better; closing shift is 7:30, which is great. This job is for people that have cars because it’s on the entrance to get in the parking. The more roles I do and experience, I feel like it’s going to help for my future.

I started school again this week. We continue on working on our group projects and it’s going just fine. I love how I been staying on track on my assignments. I can’t believe I have three more weeks of both classes. But I’m glad that the classes end early. Now that I extended I could work more and get to explore more outside of Orlando.

This week my roommates and I celebrated two of our roommates’ birthdays by going to downtown Orlando and having dinner at Ceviche Tapas Restaurant. The food was amazing; with great taste and presentation. The service was exceptional. Our waiter really knew the menu and gave great suggestions. To get the best variety we ordered a lot of dishes to share so that we could have a little of everything. I highly recommend this restaurant. We also checked out some of the bars and clubs in downtown Orlando.

One of my really good friends visited me from Canada so I was able to stay at Disney’s All Star Sports and Movies. I stayed in baseball for Sports and Toy Story for Movies. The theme of Movies was so cute, unfortunately they sold us a room that was not cleaned and the bathroom handle was broken. The bathroom door would not open and someone finally came to the room after calling front desk four times. They changed our room; upon arriving to the second room there were guests still in bed. We finally received a room that was clean and free of guests and we were refunded for the first night of our stay.

Extension applications came out this week and I decided to apply for extension for different roles. I applied to front desk, concierge, hospitality, recreation, and main gate operations. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see what my options are since I am already here in Florida doing the program. I would love the opportunity to gain experience within a new field of the company.

Living on my own has forced
me learn to cook for myself. At home I relied on my parents for food or I ate out all the time. I have come to realize that eating out all the time is expensive so I have been putting some of my culinary skills to use.

I visited Typhoon Lagoon for the first time with my roommates. Being at there really feels like you are on an island in the Caribbean. It is an escape within an escape. The Lagoon itself is insane. The enormous wave that comes crashing down on you is so intense that I do not go in very deep. They have a swimming with the sharks attraction, which is awesome but I was too afraid to do it. Hopefully, I will conquer my fear before my program is over. It felt so surreal when we left Typhoon Lagoon because we were right there by Downtown Disney and I felt like I had left Florida the entire time I was there.

My roommates and I dined at Tokyo Dining in Japan, Epcot one night. We ordered the spicy tempura calamari for an appetizer and six rolls, which included the Dynamite Roll, Volcano Roll, Spicy Crunch Roll, Tempura Roll, Rainbow Roll and Philadelphia Roll. We also tried their signature cocktail called the Mt. Fuji. The service was excellent and we also got to view Illuminations from our table.

We also ventured to House of Blues in Downtown Disney for their Rewind Wednesday party. The venue was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. There was a huge dance floor that was packed; three bars downstairs and one upstairs. The seats from upstairs overlooked the dance floor on the first floor.

For my Experiential Learning class we took a field trip to Epcot to learn about education through entertainment. We were required to get on one attraction from three categories and determine whether they were educational or not and if they were entertaining or not. We also had to fill out what we learned and how we were entertained. This was a different but cool way of learning. I enjoyed this class because it was not a lecture where we looked at PowerPoint slides the entire time.

My fourth week of the program was very exciting and adventurous. I had four friends visiting Florida within the same time frame that my roommates and I had a three days off together. One night two of my friends just came by my apartment and we hung out here then went to a hookah lounge. The next day my roommates and I drove down to Miami because that is where my other friend was staying. We went to the beach, lay out and got into the water, which was extremely warm. Unfortunately, a wave took me down and I cut my knee and it would not stop bleeding. We decided to stay the night so we booked a hotel and went to dinner on the strip.

The next day we drove back up to Orlando because my best friend’s cruise ship was docked in Port Canaveral for the day. My best friend and her mom met me at Epcot and we spent our day going around the world. It started pouring and would not stop so it made the experience a little less enjoyable. We stopped to dine at the Nine Dragons Restaurant where we ordered mainly appetizers and shared it at the table. We had pot stickers, shrimp and taro lollipops, shrimp and chicken egg rolls, chicken dumplings and vegetable fried rice, all of which were tasty and flavorful.

On Tuesday I went to take the driving test and thankfully I passed. After holding it off for very long while living in New York because I didn’t have a need to drive as much as I do while living in Florida. It was a great experience, my instructor was very nice.  The driving test is very self explanatory and it only takes about 15 minutes and you get your “temporary” license on site. Having a Florida license is a great benefit because you can get Florida Resident discount in Major theme parks, Zoo’s, and free parking!

It’s been difficult eating healthily these past two months! In the beginning when I was unfamiliar with the parks and I did not go out as often, I would mostly prep my own meals. However, since I found a food buddy here, I’ve been eating outside a lot. I’ve also been frequenting The Grid, the convenience store by the entrance of The Commons. Their heroes, cobb salads, and chocolate muffins are actually really good and it’s been hard resisting them! I’ve decided that although I’ll go back to preparing my own meals most of the time, I’ll still allow myself to go out to eat without any guilt. It’s almost the end of my program (less than 6 weeks left) and there are still so many restaurants I want to try.

Last week I had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian for the first time with Allison and Rebecca, my friend from New Zealand.

Hercules Egg @ The Grand Floridian

The lobby was beautiful and filled with Easter eggs like the one above. They were mostly Disney-inspired eggs and completely made of chocolate. It reminded me of the cakes from City Tech that would be showcased outside of dining room and made me miss home!

Character Dining with Winnie the Pooh!

The food at 1900 Park Fare was delicious and I finally got to try their “strawberry soup.” It’s basically a strawberry smoothie and a delicious one, at that! Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Alice, and Mad Hatter came around to each table and we were able to take photos with them. My favorite characters were Pooh and Tigger. They were so adorable and full of energy! I’d love to meet them again.

Ahi Tuna Nachos for Two

Chicken Tikka Masala

I finally ate at Yak & Yeti in Asia at Animal Kingdom yesterday. It was so delicious! I shared the Ahi Tuna Nachos with my friend and we each had their Chicken Tikka Masala as our entree. Our server, Brian, was very friendly and made a lot of jokes which is always a plus and by the end of the meal, we were completely stuffed. But there’s always room for dessert…. So we headed on over to Epcot and got us some Cinnamon, Caramelized Apple, & Crumble Crunch ice cream (yes, that is the name of one flavor of ice cream)!

Cinnamon, Caramelized Apple, & Crumble Crunch Ice Cream

It’s my favorite ice cream in France and I would highly recommend it to anyone! While eating this delicious dessert, we started planning out when we’ll be eating at the other restaurants on our list. Our program is quickly coming to an end and Disney really has so much food to offer! I hope we can complete our list in these upcoming few weeks!