3rd Family Visit

Over Memorial Day weekend, my family came down again to visit me in Disney World! During this visit, we stayed at the Beach Club Resort. I was able to get to spend 2.5 entire days with them, and during those days we spent time at the pool (which is the largest resort pool on Disney property), did a little bit of shopping, and of course, went to the parks! I also was able to spend time with them before/after I worked, which was nice. It's so much better to go back to a nice resort and good dinner after work than back to my apartment where I make myself a lackluster dinner!

Outside the Beach Club

When I went to Animal Kingdom with my family, we got VIP seating to watch Finding Nemo! We also ate at Yak & Yeti and went on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. In Epcot, we ate at Coral Reef and Le Cellier and watched Illuminations. At Magic Kingdom, my sister's friend, Jenn, was celebrating her 18th birthday, so my family was able to spend the entire day together, including eating breakfast at Cinderella's Castle with the princesses and riding the Seven Dwarves Mine Train on the first day it opened! Finally, before I drove them to the airport, we had breakfast at Cape May Cafe with Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. It was awesome to spend some time with my family and show them what it's like to live and work in Disney. 

Breakfast in Cinderella's Castle

The best part about saying goodbye to my family this time is that I get to see them again in less than a week! This Thursday, I am flying home for a week to help celebrate my sister's high school graduation. Obviously, I am beyond thrilled to be going home for a mini-vacation and to be able to see my extended family and friends from home, and MY DOG AND CAT!!!! 

Stay tuned for more exciting posts, and as always, keep on dreaming!

Easter on the DCP

What are the holidays like on the Disney College Program? Well, to be honest, not that much fun. I would have much rather been home for Easter and spent the time with my family, but since I was here, in the happiest place on Earth, I decided to make the most of my time and try to enjoy the holiday.

Easter morning started out early with my roommate Megan and I getting up to attend 7:30 mass at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine. The church is literally right around the street from our apartment complex, and it was nice to go to church and see all the people gathering together. However, the early wakeup call did not make me too happy!

I hid Easter eggs around our apartment for my roommates to find, so when Megan and I came home, our other roommate, Danielle was awake, so they had an Easter egg hunt while I watched and gave hints! Danielle also made an Easter basket for all of the roommates to split, so we got to open that up and eat some of the treats inside!

I worked from 11:45 to 7:15 on Easter. I actually picked up a longer and later shift that day, because I did not want to be sitting in my apartment bored and sad that I wasn't at dinner with my family. Work was fine, but it didn't really feel like Easter, it just felt like a regular day at Animal Kingdom. My coordinators and coworkers were nice enough to make us little Easter bags with candy, which was a special treat!

After work, all of my roommates were home, so we decided to make fun plans with some of our upstairs neighbors and try to make Easter as much fun as possible! We decided to head over to the Boardwalk and rent the surrey bike and ride it around the Boardwalk! It was so much fun, but we joked that with six people on it and having to go up hills, we were more paying to exercise than anything else. Still, we had a blast and it was a great experience. After having worked up a sweat, it was time to go get some ice cream from Beaches & Cream. We ended up sitting outside and talking about all of our jobs and sharing stories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

While it wasn't a traditional Easter by any means, it was definitely a unique one and surely one that I will remember. I'm glad I got to spend Easter with such great friends and that my coworkers at Finding Nemo tried their best to make Easter as special as possible. Nemo is truly one big family!

Oh, and for those of you interested in knowing if Disney does any Easter decorations, they had an Easter egg display in the lobby of the Grand Floridian. All of the eggs are completely edible and weigh between 12 and 16 pounds. Check out some of my favorites below!

The whole display

Cinderella & Prince Charming

Queen Elsa

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider

Ariel

Lady & The Tramp

2nd Family Visit

A large part of the reason I was so behind in my posting was that just last week I received my second visit from my mom and dad! It was awesome to see my parents, and this time, they stayed for an entire week, so I had plenty of mom and dad time to myself!

For this visit, we stayed at Bay Lake at the Contemporary Resort. I love staying here because it's within walking distance to Magic Kingdom AND has a monorail run right through the Contemporary, so it's easy to get to Epcot as well! Also, the resort is just really nice and has an all around great feel to it.

I did a lot of fun things during their visit! The first day included a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, which was so much cooler than I expected! I was expecting a museum type thing, but it was actually its own park! We got to see a lot of cool exhibits, including the Atlantis Space Shuttle and the Space Shuttle Launch Center. If you're ever in the Orlando area and have some time to spend away from Disney World, I highly recommend the Kennedy Space Center!

During their visit, we also had a trip to Gatorland. I have to say, Gatorland was not my favorite place, but please keep in mind that these thoughts are coming from me, a conservation biology major who wants to go into the animal training and care field. I personally thought that the conditions in Gatorland were not up to the standards that they should be. I was really against the use of gators for certain forms of entertainment (like paying $8 to sit on a gator... is that even humane???). However, while Gatorland was extremely cheesy and not my personal cup of tea, I have to admit that they did try their best to spread conservation messages to the public. And hey, my dad loved it!

I also had the chance to cross something off my bucket list during the visit - scuba diving in The Seas! The experience was AMAZING. If you're ever going to scuba dive, I highly recommend The Seas! It is like luxury diving; you don't have to clean or put away your equipment, you get a towel handed to you as you get out, and you have a warm shower waiting for you immediately! In addition to the great Guest service that Disney provided for the experience, actually getting into the tank and diving was awesome. I felt like a celebrity because I got to go up to the windows and wave to all of the Guests! I even had some people take pictures of me! Aside from all of the people watching and waving, I got to swim alongside sharks, stingrays, and sea turtles. Honestly, this was one of the best things I've done on my program. If you are scuba certified YOU MUST GO DIVING IN THE SEAS!!!! Take my word for it, it's well worth it!

Your local celebrity Megan scuba diving in The Seas

Finally, my parents were amazing and scheduled a fireworks cruise for us and some of my friends! We got to meet at the dock at the Contemporary Resort and take our own private boat out into Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Afterwards, we all got to hang out at the top of Bay Lake Resort at the Top of the World bar and lounge. It's reserved exclusively for vacation club members staying at Bay Lake Tower, so we felt really special that we even got to go up there! Plus, the views of the Magic Kingdom were amazing. The whole thing was awesome, and I was so glad to get to spend some time with both my friends and family. It was a beautiful night with great people!

My friends and I on the boat

Wishes from the Seven Seas Lagoon

In addition to all of our fun activities, I also had the opportunity to eat in some great restaurants with my parents, including Narcoossee's (Grand Floridian), California Grill (Contemporary), Tutto Ristorante (Italy - Epcot), Fifty's Prime Time Cafe (Hollywood Studios) and Le Cellier (Canada - Epcot). All of these restaurants are great and I most definitely recommend them. Plus, they are all excellent dining experiences in the Walt Disney World Resort, and it's always nice to get spoiled a little bit while on vacation!

So, to summarize, I had a great time with my family when they came to visit me. Thanks once again, Mom and Dad, for a great visit and for all of the fun things we did! You guys are both the best!

Love you guys!

And to the rest of you, thanks for sticking with me and reading this whole post! If you have any questions or need recommendations for activities from me, please let me know! I love to help other people plan their fun vacations/visits/etc. 

Until next time... keep on dreaming