My Trip to Florida
Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
colorizeIt's been a month now since I've been home, and I'm just now feeling ready to going in depth about my trip and posting pictures from it. It's still a sore spot, but I need to move on and stop being so bitter. So here we go.
We left on Thursday, August 16. We made it as far as Monroe, Louisiana. There was a paper mill in that town and it stunk like shit mixed with sulfer mixed with death. I hated staying overnight there, the smell leaked in when we went shopping at the mall, when we ate at Outback, and in our hotel room. It was just...awful. But the mall had an amazing double decker carousel and I wanted to ride it but it was $5 a ride. There were all kinds of animals on this thing. An eagle, a dragon, a dolphin, a gator, a panda, a seahorse, a bunny.
On Friday, August 17 we drove through the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and into the panhandle of Florida. We drove down to the coast of the area and made ourselves at home in Destin beach. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, and they upgraded us to the biggest suite in the place! It was a beautiful view. Here's a couple of pictures from right outside our hotel. I enjoyed the beach so much that these were the only pictures I took.
It was such a beautiful lobby, I wanted to spend a lot of time there.
On Saturday, August 18 we drove for 8 hours down Florida until we reached Orlando. It was a long but beautiful drive. Out of all the states we drove through, Florida has the best landscaping and rest stops. Which was actually surprising. Anyway, when we got into Orlando we went through crazy ass drivers and almost got in 15 wrecks (not a hyperbole) we finally made it to the Marriott village, where our hotel was. Once again, we were upgraded to an amazing room that was high enough up it had a view of Downtown Disney. We had access to the concierge lounge and they had a turndown service every night, and me and my sister fought over the chocolates they left on each bed until my mom got smart and just handed over the chocolate on her bed to one of us. After we settled into the hotel, we freshened up and went through more crazy traffic to Downtown Disney, where we looked around the gigantic World of Disney store and then ate at the T-Rex restaurant.
On Sunday, August 19 we woke up early and went to Universal Studios. We got there right before they opened, and my mom was nice enough to buy me an annual pass which is now worthless since I can't be there to use it. But our day was fun. We went straight to Harry Potter world, and got on the ride within 10 minutes. We took our time after that and walked around and rode things when we saw something fun. We hardly had any wait times, the park was surprisingly empty for a Sunday on one of the last summer weekends of the season. We got both parks done by 3pm, which was nice since I had to get back and rest and then shower to go meet my future roommates over at Applebees for dinner. I met them at around 7 and we all talked and exchanged roommate gifts and had a good time. I made it back to the hotel around 10:30 pm and passed out, since I had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to get in line for check in. I decided to put all my Universal pictures at the end of this, because there are a ton. So scroll down down down if that's what you're looking for.
On Monday, August 20 I was up by 4:15 (I woke up on my own without an alarm clock!) and got showered and ate and my mom dropped me off to get in line with my roommates, who had been in line since about 2:30am. It was already insanely crowded, I was shocked! People get in line super early to get the apartment complex and number of bedrooms they want, so they can room with exactly who they want. It's crazy. Anyway, we waited and waited and made friends with the girls ahead of us. We watched the sun come up. And around 7:45-8:00 am they started letting us go through the check in process. It was so busy and chaotic I only got a few pictures right at the start of things.
We stopped at a large handful of stations, one of which was the rooming assignments, and we got the complex and number of bedrooms we wanted! Chatham Square 2 bedroom! We were so excited. We got on a 9:00am bus after that and headed to Downtown Disney to go to the Casting building, to do all of our paperwork and find out where we're working! I got a kick out of the doorknobs of the building. For reference, I was placed at Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom, which means I would have probably been working at the Stitch store a good deal of the time. I am very very very very sad I didn't get to stay and start this role, I was so excited when they announced it to me.
This part of the day took forever. Hours and hours of waiting in line and going from station to station. I didn't get back to meet up with my mom to move my stuff into my apartment until about 12:30pm. We then ran to lunch at Denny's since I was STARVING, I hadn't eaten since about 4:20am and that was only a banana. After that, we moved my stuff in and my mom and sister got to meet all my roommates and their families! Katie helped me assemble my behind the bed shelving system, and it was a pain in the butt. But in the end, she got it to work, and then I left with my mom and sister to go grocery shopping! We got everything I needed at walmart and then we brought it all back and unpacked some more, then went to brave the traffic and eat at chick fil a. I came home after that and collapsed. It was about 11pm when my day was all done with. Busiest day ever.
I didn't get any pictures of my apartment, but it was a beautiful and spacious one. I had planned on taking pictures after it was all settled into and decorated, but I obviously didn't get to do that because I was fired a few days later.
On Tuesday, August 21 we had a housing meeting first off. We all got ready and walked over to The Commons, which was about a mile away or less. It's the complex where the cultural representatives from other countries come and live while they're doing their year long internships at Disney. It's a beautiful complex, and the housing meeting was okay. Informative and they tried to make it as fun as possible. After the housing meeting, we all split up. I went with my mom and sister to go get shoes for Traditions and to get lunch and just spend time together. We went around to a few places and also went to the outlet mall and had lunch at Panda Express. I made it back to the apartment and met up with my roommates and we got on the B bus and headed over to the Polynesian Resort to watch the Wishes fireworks from the Magic Kingdom on the beach. We had a little treat beforehand. A DOLE WHIP. It was so yummy. After that, we headed back to the apartment and I passed out around 10 while the rest of the roommates went to Walmart. I was exhausted.
The Dole whips are serve yourself, once you buy the cup. You only get one trip up there, so you have to make it count. And we all did.
On Wednesday, August 22 everything started to fall apart. I was woke up early in the morning by a phone call from HR saying they were having trouble putting me in their system. They were putting all the August 20 arrivals in that day, in preparation of our first paid day of work, which was Traditions on Thursday. She said I was marked as a no rehire at the Disney Store, and the system wouldn't let her put me in. She explained she was doing everything she could to override it, but she'd have to go through her managers to do it and if no one could I would be terminated and sent home. I took it well at first, but by 9:00am when she called back saying it wasn't looking good, I freaked out. I called my mom, who had already left the area to head back toward home, and she said to keep her updated. She and my sister surprised me at around 11:00 am they had turned around and come back. We spent a few hours at Universal together, since we all had passes and I hadn't heard anything more from Disney. I assumed everything had worked out okay. Well later that night, after my mom had left again thinking things were okay I got a call saying it wasn't and I was fired and had to be out the next day by 11am so I called my mom and she and my sister headed back. Again.
On Thursday, August 23 I am so so so grateful to her and my sister for helping me out and being there for me through this day. It was just awful. After we packed everything up and got it in the car, we didn't want to sit around the hotel. Mostly my mom was REALLY worried about me and didn't want to just let me lay there and mope, so we went back to Universal for a few hours until the rain chased us out. Then we went over to Disney property and saw a few of the resorts we never had before. I swore I was all right to my mom, but she knew it was bothering me, so we just took it slow and saw what I was ready to see. We went to look at the new Art of Animation resort. It's just an adorable place. We ate lunch there and I didn't care for their food court, but it really is just an amazing place to hang out.
Then we went over to the Boardwalk resort, which was just stunning. If it had been sunny, it would have been even better. I particularly loved their scary as hell pool and slide.
After that, we went to Downtown Disney and looked around and ate at Rainforest Cafe. Then we headed back to the hotel for the night where I crashed and burned both physically and emotionally.
On Friday, August 24 we headed back through Florida and stopped once again in Destin for the night. We had a lovely night of just hanging in the lobby and walking around looking at souvenir shops.
On Saturday, August 25 we drove and drove until we reached Jackson, Mississippi where we just hung around town and ate dinner at a local place.
On Sunday, August 26 we drove and drove and drove through Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas and then we arrived home! I was sad to be home, but also grateful to not have to sit in the car for 3 days in a row anymore. haha the funny thing is, we spent 10 days on the road and I got really used to being in a car for so long every day so the first week I was back it felt weird to not do anything except be at home and be miserable and depressed.
And that's my trip. Yep.
Everyone follow the giant phallic tower to the Islands of Adventure!
This Spiderman was just hanging out in a store, following me and my mom around.
Wolverine, guardian of the ATM.
I insisted we eat here strictly because of this sign. The food sucked so we got our food at a stand and then brought it in here. I was content.
This "ride" sucked but it had the most beautiful scenery and architecture.
see? Beautiful.
The remaining pictures are all at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It is a very well done, but insanely busy area. The area is very small and while it is beautiful, it is not large enough to hold the amount of people that want to do things in it. You have to wait about 20-30 minutes to go into a store and look around, because the stores are so tiny and it's just...very busy. So to get any decent pictures at all you have to wait around for just the right moment where there's not so many people walking into your shot. It was a fun challenge! It was such a challenge, though, that I never did manage to get a picture of the train, which made me sad. But there's always next time, right?
My favorite touch here were the owls that would be hiding in rafters of various areas.
Butterbeer is so good. so very very good. We had like 8 of them and waited in line 20 minutes each time to get one. Then at the end of our trip we realized you could walk right up to the bar inside the Three Broomsticks if you were over 21 and get one there for no wait.
We left on Thursday, August 16. We made it as far as Monroe, Louisiana. There was a paper mill in that town and it stunk like shit mixed with sulfer mixed with death. I hated staying overnight there, the smell leaked in when we went shopping at the mall, when we ate at Outback, and in our hotel room. It was just...awful. But the mall had an amazing double decker carousel and I wanted to ride it but it was $5 a ride. There were all kinds of animals on this thing. An eagle, a dragon, a dolphin, a gator, a panda, a seahorse, a bunny.
On Friday, August 17 we drove through the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and into the panhandle of Florida. We drove down to the coast of the area and made ourselves at home in Destin beach. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, and they upgraded us to the biggest suite in the place! It was a beautiful view. Here's a couple of pictures from right outside our hotel. I enjoyed the beach so much that these were the only pictures I took.
It was such a beautiful lobby, I wanted to spend a lot of time there.
On Saturday, August 18 we drove for 8 hours down Florida until we reached Orlando. It was a long but beautiful drive. Out of all the states we drove through, Florida has the best landscaping and rest stops. Which was actually surprising. Anyway, when we got into Orlando we went through crazy ass drivers and almost got in 15 wrecks (not a hyperbole) we finally made it to the Marriott village, where our hotel was. Once again, we were upgraded to an amazing room that was high enough up it had a view of Downtown Disney. We had access to the concierge lounge and they had a turndown service every night, and me and my sister fought over the chocolates they left on each bed until my mom got smart and just handed over the chocolate on her bed to one of us. After we settled into the hotel, we freshened up and went through more crazy traffic to Downtown Disney, where we looked around the gigantic World of Disney store and then ate at the T-Rex restaurant.
On Sunday, August 19 we woke up early and went to Universal Studios. We got there right before they opened, and my mom was nice enough to buy me an annual pass which is now worthless since I can't be there to use it. But our day was fun. We went straight to Harry Potter world, and got on the ride within 10 minutes. We took our time after that and walked around and rode things when we saw something fun. We hardly had any wait times, the park was surprisingly empty for a Sunday on one of the last summer weekends of the season. We got both parks done by 3pm, which was nice since I had to get back and rest and then shower to go meet my future roommates over at Applebees for dinner. I met them at around 7 and we all talked and exchanged roommate gifts and had a good time. I made it back to the hotel around 10:30 pm and passed out, since I had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to get in line for check in. I decided to put all my Universal pictures at the end of this, because there are a ton. So scroll down down down if that's what you're looking for.
On Monday, August 20 I was up by 4:15 (I woke up on my own without an alarm clock!) and got showered and ate and my mom dropped me off to get in line with my roommates, who had been in line since about 2:30am. It was already insanely crowded, I was shocked! People get in line super early to get the apartment complex and number of bedrooms they want, so they can room with exactly who they want. It's crazy. Anyway, we waited and waited and made friends with the girls ahead of us. We watched the sun come up. And around 7:45-8:00 am they started letting us go through the check in process. It was so busy and chaotic I only got a few pictures right at the start of things.
We stopped at a large handful of stations, one of which was the rooming assignments, and we got the complex and number of bedrooms we wanted! Chatham Square 2 bedroom! We were so excited. We got on a 9:00am bus after that and headed to Downtown Disney to go to the Casting building, to do all of our paperwork and find out where we're working! I got a kick out of the doorknobs of the building. For reference, I was placed at Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom, which means I would have probably been working at the Stitch store a good deal of the time. I am very very very very sad I didn't get to stay and start this role, I was so excited when they announced it to me.
This part of the day took forever. Hours and hours of waiting in line and going from station to station. I didn't get back to meet up with my mom to move my stuff into my apartment until about 12:30pm. We then ran to lunch at Denny's since I was STARVING, I hadn't eaten since about 4:20am and that was only a banana. After that, we moved my stuff in and my mom and sister got to meet all my roommates and their families! Katie helped me assemble my behind the bed shelving system, and it was a pain in the butt. But in the end, she got it to work, and then I left with my mom and sister to go grocery shopping! We got everything I needed at walmart and then we brought it all back and unpacked some more, then went to brave the traffic and eat at chick fil a. I came home after that and collapsed. It was about 11pm when my day was all done with. Busiest day ever.
I didn't get any pictures of my apartment, but it was a beautiful and spacious one. I had planned on taking pictures after it was all settled into and decorated, but I obviously didn't get to do that because I was fired a few days later.
On Tuesday, August 21 we had a housing meeting first off. We all got ready and walked over to The Commons, which was about a mile away or less. It's the complex where the cultural representatives from other countries come and live while they're doing their year long internships at Disney. It's a beautiful complex, and the housing meeting was okay. Informative and they tried to make it as fun as possible. After the housing meeting, we all split up. I went with my mom and sister to go get shoes for Traditions and to get lunch and just spend time together. We went around to a few places and also went to the outlet mall and had lunch at Panda Express. I made it back to the apartment and met up with my roommates and we got on the B bus and headed over to the Polynesian Resort to watch the Wishes fireworks from the Magic Kingdom on the beach. We had a little treat beforehand. A DOLE WHIP. It was so yummy. After that, we headed back to the apartment and I passed out around 10 while the rest of the roommates went to Walmart. I was exhausted.
The Dole whips are serve yourself, once you buy the cup. You only get one trip up there, so you have to make it count. And we all did.
On Wednesday, August 22 everything started to fall apart. I was woke up early in the morning by a phone call from HR saying they were having trouble putting me in their system. They were putting all the August 20 arrivals in that day, in preparation of our first paid day of work, which was Traditions on Thursday. She said I was marked as a no rehire at the Disney Store, and the system wouldn't let her put me in. She explained she was doing everything she could to override it, but she'd have to go through her managers to do it and if no one could I would be terminated and sent home. I took it well at first, but by 9:00am when she called back saying it wasn't looking good, I freaked out. I called my mom, who had already left the area to head back toward home, and she said to keep her updated. She and my sister surprised me at around 11:00 am they had turned around and come back. We spent a few hours at Universal together, since we all had passes and I hadn't heard anything more from Disney. I assumed everything had worked out okay. Well later that night, after my mom had left again thinking things were okay I got a call saying it wasn't and I was fired and had to be out the next day by 11am so I called my mom and she and my sister headed back. Again.
On Thursday, August 23 I am so so so grateful to her and my sister for helping me out and being there for me through this day. It was just awful. After we packed everything up and got it in the car, we didn't want to sit around the hotel. Mostly my mom was REALLY worried about me and didn't want to just let me lay there and mope, so we went back to Universal for a few hours until the rain chased us out. Then we went over to Disney property and saw a few of the resorts we never had before. I swore I was all right to my mom, but she knew it was bothering me, so we just took it slow and saw what I was ready to see. We went to look at the new Art of Animation resort. It's just an adorable place. We ate lunch there and I didn't care for their food court, but it really is just an amazing place to hang out.
Then we went over to the Boardwalk resort, which was just stunning. If it had been sunny, it would have been even better. I particularly loved their scary as hell pool and slide.
After that, we went to Downtown Disney and looked around and ate at Rainforest Cafe. Then we headed back to the hotel for the night where I crashed and burned both physically and emotionally.
On Friday, August 24 we headed back through Florida and stopped once again in Destin for the night. We had a lovely night of just hanging in the lobby and walking around looking at souvenir shops.
On Saturday, August 25 we drove and drove until we reached Jackson, Mississippi where we just hung around town and ate dinner at a local place.
On Sunday, August 26 we drove and drove and drove through Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas and then we arrived home! I was sad to be home, but also grateful to not have to sit in the car for 3 days in a row anymore. haha the funny thing is, we spent 10 days on the road and I got really used to being in a car for so long every day so the first week I was back it felt weird to not do anything except be at home and be miserable and depressed.
And that's my trip. Yep.
Everyone follow the giant phallic tower to the Islands of Adventure!
This Spiderman was just hanging out in a store, following me and my mom around.
Wolverine, guardian of the ATM.
I insisted we eat here strictly because of this sign. The food sucked so we got our food at a stand and then brought it in here. I was content.
This "ride" sucked but it had the most beautiful scenery and architecture.
see? Beautiful.
The remaining pictures are all at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It is a very well done, but insanely busy area. The area is very small and while it is beautiful, it is not large enough to hold the amount of people that want to do things in it. You have to wait about 20-30 minutes to go into a store and look around, because the stores are so tiny and it's just...very busy. So to get any decent pictures at all you have to wait around for just the right moment where there's not so many people walking into your shot. It was a fun challenge! It was such a challenge, though, that I never did manage to get a picture of the train, which made me sad. But there's always next time, right?
My favorite touch here were the owls that would be hiding in rafters of various areas.
Butterbeer is so good. so very very good. We had like 8 of them and waited in line 20 minutes each time to get one. Then at the end of our trip we realized you could walk right up to the bar inside the Three Broomsticks if you were over 21 and get one there for no wait.
