Today

Now today is one of those special Disney itineraries. I would deffinitely start my morning off with a charecter breakfast of the Contemporary sort. Moving from there I would go to the Magic Kingdom send the day there, riding rides, watching parades, with a nice lunch at tony's enjoying the off-season quiet. About 6 I'd head over to MGM to ride star tours and tower of terror. Dinner at prime time, with s'mores to follow. I'd watch Fantasmic and then catch the ever crowded bus to the ticket and transportation and make my connection via monorail back to the polynesian. Take a nice dip in the pool, or maybe a relaxing sit in the hottub, and end my night rather late, leaving me to sleep in late tomorrow for a half-day at Epcot or Animal Kingdom.

New contacts

Wow today was a lucky day for me! Not only did I have my favorite sub in French (I Hate the french teacher) but apparently her daughter was one of the celebrity tour guides at Disney! I was SO lucky to get advice from this woman. She told me her daughter started at the living seas as a day employee, and was promoted within 3 months! She got to meet all kinds of imagineers, and a friend who worked with her ended up becoming a writer for eyes and ears. To top it all off, she's worked for them too! She was contracted with Disney and they used her set designs! She's promised she'd get me some of her old contacts and hopefully this will be a foot in the door for me. What luck right?

I know it's been a long time since my last post so that deffinitely isn't my only news on the matter. I was rifling through the library yesterday and happened apon a great, big, thick, DISNEY biography. It's crazy huge. So I checked it out and i'm only like two pages in but what can I say, I'm a busy teenager, whith a lot of work on my plate.

In a meeting a couple of weeks ago with my stock broker I managed to convince my mom to let me sell some of my stock (college fund bound) for some stock in Disney. Now I get an annual report on how things are going, and where they're headed. I'm sure I could find a copy of the report somewhere out there on the internet, but it's kind of a personal thing, me being in love with Disney and all.

At lunch the other day, I also found that a couple of close friends of mine want to become something that would fit under the branch of imagineering, one of them wants to be an industrial engineer with a minor in fine arts (she dances oh, and did I mention she moved to america not knowing a word of english her freshman year, made straight A's, and is now a junior in an AP English class? There are native speakers who can't do that!) My other friend wants to become an electrical engineer. And with my interior and structural design we could make a good team, not to mention all three of us plan on staying in state for at least 2 years. I'm thinking Imagineering dream-team takes on Texas. Oh and wouldn't that be just perfect if by some random twist of fate Texas gives up and lets Disney have their way and build a theme park?

But, that's it. Other than changing my mind to having my wedding in the Canada pavillion rather than the Boardwalk.

The Dream

It's been awhile since I ACTUALLY blogged about becoming an Imagineer, but let's face it, this is very quickly becoming an all encompassing Disney blog. Who cares? I doubt we need another one, but I think this one is special because you get to hear all the things you didn't really need to about what the person who built that ride you are going to take your kids on in 20 years thinks about Disney. It should comfort you to know that Disney is still an enterprise run by people who really care what Disney stands for. So this is my gift to you, I care about your future familly vacations, the movies your children watch, and the products they buy in stores. I want to make everything you ever touch from Disney a magical experience, and this is how you can tell.

Yesterday I mentioned that I wanted to go on the Disney Dream. It's looking pretty boss. I turn 18 next fall, and I want to go to Disney, but alas, you can't rent a hotel room until you are 21, so I 'settled' for the 'next best thing' and I'm thinking it doesn't really look too shabby. I mean, as far as parks go, I've been there, done that, and not to say I don't love it, but a Disney cruise would be a whole new frontier.

Not to mention I'm a huge fan of free room-service cookies and cake of the day!!! The one thing I love more than Disney is eating sweets With Disney. And I happen to know firsthand how delicious their cookies and cake are. Really though, look at the menu for Lumieres, and tell me you don't want to go on a Disney cruise.

Although, I'm really not just interested in the food. It looks like a great deal of fun. However, whilst researching the cruises I happened to notice a specific trend in regards to entertainment. It's almost exclusively for over 21 adults, and under 17 children. And taking a cruise alone for my 18th birthday would leave me right in that gap, and if I had someone else to go with it would be no problem, but that's not going to happen. I would never share a room with a guy unless he was aware that he was 100% friendzoned, but all the girls I'm friends with are younger than me. I still really want to go, but something about going it alone makes me just a touch apprehensive. Maybe I'll find my new best friend on board, or go trooping for men or something. I could do it. I'm the sexiest thing to walk the earth.

Me making an attractive face on my last solo Disneyworld Excursion

Nobody knows

Today has felt like an Epcot day from the beginning. I don't know how the rest of the world is fairing today, but here in Texas it feels like an Epcot day. Yesterday was deffinitely a a Magic Kingdom day, more specifically Frontierland. You know, the kind of day where you could just run around Tom Sawyers Island for a while, go on Pirates, Splash Mountain, watch the Country Bear Jamboree. Today feels like a late-start Epcot day. Get there around 4, stroll over to Japan and have dinner at the Tokyo Dining. I think I'm feeling a crab tempura roll. I wonder if they have those? After dinner a nice long stroll around the World Showcase, stopping in shops to look at the merchandise. Ride Maelstrom and the Gran Fiesta. Maybe go out to The Living Seas, even though I'm not a huge fan of the Nemo-redo. Watch the fireworks from Norway as I grab a pasterie. I think today if I had to decide I would stay at the Boardwalk. It just always seems like a good hotel for an Epcot day. Rarely are Epcot days paired with Beach Club nights, not that it's a bad combo at all, it just happens to go with my mood most Epcot days. Atually I'd have to say my stay at Beach Club was a lot better than my stay at the Boardwalk, but I was six, and I had the flu, so it's really not the Boardwalks fault.

But in case you were wondering, I do this every single day. I spend some time daydreaming of what park I would be in, and what I would do. Sometimes I go to DisneyQuest in some sweats and play DDR for a lifetime, some days I just sit poolside at the Carribean Resort. Sometimes I even like to go to two or three different places at once. Last week had one of those days where I felt like starting my day off with Animal Kingdom, then going to Typhoon Lagoon, and then finishing my day off with dinner and a fireworks show at MGM. That would have been a special day, I would have spent the night the Contemporary. Extra special day-plans are always paired with one of the original three Disney Resorts.

I really don't think people understand JUST how much I love Disney. It's almost impossible to understand. It's as if Disney is another part of me. I have the most happily married parents on earth, really I do, and their marriage is the best example of how I feel about Disney. I do everything with Disney. I think of Disney and my entire world is lit up. I could do anything for Disney, no, I Would do anything for Disney. Actually, I'm pretty sure I already do everything for Disney. I absolutely cannot wait until I can marry work for Disney. Create the dreams and ideas that make my life so magical. We were a match made in heaven really. Over-dramatic me, with over-dramatic Disney. Magic is both of our favorite words. We both Love animals. We both like to entertain and educate. We both love to travel. We want to make the world a better place through our dreams. One of these days we'll get to share dreams. Until then, nobody will know how much I love Disney.

Speaking of dreams, the new cruise ship the Dream is opening next year. Guess who turns 18 next year? Can you say 'Hello Disney cruise for one! Destination: Bahamas!' I talked to my dad about it already. Its like 600 dollars for the cruise, so I could save up myself, and it's close to a holliday, not to mention it sails out of the Florida location which means I can visit some familly while I'm there. It's sounding like a great experience to me. However it might be a little weird, not that I want to go around picking up men or anything on the cruise, but I don't think there are going to be a lot of singles on the cruise. I'm sure I'll find some. If not, I love kids, I can be that creepy person who just plays tag with all the little kids. It's not like I'm a pedo bear or anything. I just like hanging out with kids. They've got better imaginations.

Anyways, I have prior engagments I need to prepare for. Leave me a comment, what kind of day do you think your day is? Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, minigolf? Oh that one might be an addition to my day. Thanks for reading!

Beg, whine, and plead.

I found this really great website, and trust me, it is Hard to find a good website on Imagineering. Usually I just get some really old forums that haven't been touched since 2007 with really contradictory advice, which I mean, is always going to come up. How to become an Imagineer isn't a black and white thing. If it were don't you think Imagineering would be a college major? But anyways, I found the 'Unofficial Walt Disney Imagineering Site' and I laughed my butt off at the last quote from Mark Rhodes. It says "Beg, whine, and plead." And according to him that is the best way to become an Imagineer. I think I could do that. No, I deffinitely could do that. I do that everytime I need money. Or transportation. Or food.

So, I don't have any followers yet, and there's no way to determine how many people have read my blog yet but I'm thinking. How cool would it be if kids like me ended up being able to use this to get to know college students working toward becoming Imagineers, or adults applying to be Imagineers, or adults who are already Imagineers? How cool would that be?

On another note, a really old familly friend of mine stopped by today. She's moving out to California (I asked, she said she won't take me) and she came by to drop off a couple of fur coats she no longer wanted. We got to talking about what I wanted to do and apparently she has met an Imagineer before, and actually has one of his Imagineer work shirts. She had a couple stories from him she could tell me and it was really interesting to find out. I've only ever known one other Imagineer, but she was in accounting, which is not really what I'm shooting for.

But anyways, just something I felt was another step in my direction. Once she finds the shirt she says it's all mine. Leave comments if you visit the page so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself here.

Hello Mr.Internet

Hello, I am Liz, and I am a 16 year old with a dream that I would like to share with you, the internet.




When I was a toddler my mom spoon fed me Disney. Everything I did, everywhere I went, there was something about Disney. I had dozens of Disney storybooks. I had Disney stuffed animals and hand puppets. I had Disney movies, and singalongs, and cassette tapes. I had Disney two-in-one shampoo. My first in-theatre movie was a Disney flick. I remember waking up super early and my mom putting on Disney's Ink and Paint. I remember being upset about having Saturday school because I would have to miss Recess and Pepper Anne. I remember turning five and asking my parents every day when we would go to Disney world and them replying "When you turn five and a half." I remember asking them this in the kitchen, in the yard, in the bathtub. And the most important moment of my life, stepping for the first time out of our vehicle and onto Disney property, I remember that moment. I remember my first stay, in the All Star Movie resort. I remember having my Bugs Life hat on. It was purple. It was way back before there was a fence around the giant Woody, and Will, my brother, climbed up on it while I struggled to and ended up failing and instead settling for climbing one of the shorter charecters. I was infatuated with the One Hundred and One Dalmations section. I was always the BIGGEST fan of One Hundred and One Dalmations. My parents had deffinitely picked a good first hotel.



That's gotta be another one of the things I love about Disney World. By no means was it a cheap vacation (I know that now after trying to pay for one myself), but my parents cut whatever costs they could, from eating PB&J's to staying in the cheapest room. But the thing about that that I love, is that even the cheapest hotel was still a magical experience. All the larger than life characters, the morning wake up call, rides at the front of the monorail. Every guest at Disney is the Guest of Honnor.



This was me, and my brothers, and my fathers first trip to Disney. It was my moms second. A few years later my dad lost his job. Money was tight, but we still made our annual (sometimes twice a year) trips to Disney World. When my dad got his new job it took us right to Florida, and much closer to the kingdom, but for my mom that still just wasn't enough. A year after that we moved to Celebration Florida. We spent 3 or 4 years there before having to go back to Texas, but man do I mean to tell you. It was a dream come true for me. My mom took a part time job at Disney in the summer and I had every birthday party I could there.



While I was there I must've done every book report, every historical figure report, and free-report, on Walt Disney. I even did my science fair project in the Animal Kingdom. My room was then decorated One Hundred and One Dalmations. I had three Disney Bears, hundreds of Disney pins and random other merchadise. I spent all my free time at Disney. If I saw a lost tourist I would ask them if they needed help. I would meet kids from around the world in the playgrounds and hang out with them until they had to go. I would go over to the hotel beaches to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks like a sneaky snake. I knew which spots were gum, and which weren't. I could tell you the Original story behind the haunted mansion bride. I knew the best way to get out of going through the lines, and I knew how to maximize your time in the park so you could get everything worth doing done by 1. I was a princess, and it was my kingdom. Castle and all.



Moving back to Texas catapulted me into a harsh reality called Highschool, and Future, and Responsibility, and this odd place called Six Flags. Which by the way, after growing up in Disney, Six Flags was a bit of a let down, but don't tell them I said that. It was in moving to Texas that I realized what I was meant to do with my life. I was born to create the magic they had at Disney World. When I told my mom exactly what I wanted to be she laughed. She thinks there's no way I can do it. But all I have to say is that If you can dream it, you can do it. One of my favorite Walt Disney quotes. Or maybe It's sometimes fun to do the impossible would be appropriate? Whichever you choose, I knew what I wanted to be, and I knew Walt supported my dream. I want to be one of Disney's top Imagineers. I want to be the one who sits at some snazzy restaurant with my coworkers drawing on napkins and deciding the theme of the next big park. I want to bring magic and entertainment to millions of people everyday. I want to convert as many people as I can to the Church of the Mouse. I want to be responsible for the romantic dinner for two on property, or the dried tears after a fallen icecream cone, the baby's first visit, the 13 year olds 8th time riding Rock'n Roller Coaster. I want every person in the world to feel the same way I do everytime they step on property or think about what the name Disney means. It's a familly legacy, and everyone who wishes on stars, or talks to animals, or tries to educate through entertaining their audience is a member of this familly.



So I started this blog to share with you my journey into the wonderful world of Disney. Whether you're going the same direction, or you're already there, or you're just looking for something to kill time, I hope you can send your advice, your stories, or your ideas. Look forward to a lot more posts since this is going to be a very long and bumpy ride.