Showboat, Teppanyaki, and Blisters, Oh My!

So Wicked was a blast and a half. I went over to Heather's early and we geeked about the show while Bryce sat at the kitchen table, probably wondering what kind of crack we were on. We looked at a couple different illegal recordings before deciding to watch the London cast. They were British, which was weird, and their Glinda wasn't particularly awesome, but we got over it. The Elphaba was good, and their Wizard was actually very good. Then, being the nerds that we are, we found a recording of a 30-minute condensed production that ran at Universal Japan. Being a theme park show, it had its own theatre, built around the green and clockwork themes of the production. ...Well, it looked like someone had spilled green paint all over 'it's a small world,' to be honest. It was fun to see bits of the show in another language, especially one in which I can pick up a few (completely useless outside context) words.



Wednesday I headed back to the Magic Kingdom, determined to see Tiana's Showboat Jubilee. I haven't talked about this before, have I? ....Well, working under the assumption that I haven't, it's a new show that debuted here at the Magic Kingdom featuring characters and songs from The Princess and the Frog, which comes out next month. They've decorated the Liberty Belle Riverboat, and three times a day it goes around the Rivers of America with Princess Tiana and crew on board singing and dancing. It's so cool! And the music isn't half bad, either. Totally can't wait for the movie now. I did some shopping (being November, I've started picking up a few Christmas presents here and there, so that I can be done by early December as usual and then start shipping them out), and walked around aimlessly for a while. Then, as I was walking out of the Emporium at the end of the night, the strap on one of my brown flats snapped! I was SO not happy about that. I still have to see if I can't get them fixed somewhere, because I seriously love those shoes.



On Thursday there were about fifty bajillion people on podium so I got an ER after a half hour of work. ...Yeah. So, it being Thursday, I called Heather up to see if she had plans. She didn't, so she made her way over to EPCOT so that she could try some of Food & Wine before it ended on Sunday. While waiting for her, I walked around, feeling acutely uncomfortable in my undershirt-tank top and polyester work pants. So I stopped in a store and used my awesome holiday cast discount to buy a really cute skort, as well as a new pair of slip-on shoes (they're black and white Mickey skimmers). Joy of joys, though, my new shoes ripped my feet open, as all of my new shoes tend to do, so half way through our day I had to switch back to socks and work shoes. But that was okay, because once we'd gotten a drink or two in Heather, she decided that we should check out Teppan Edo in the Japan pavilion. This is a teppanyaki-style restaurant (translation for the Asian Culture Challenged: there's a gigantic stainless steel grill built into your table, and the chefs cook your meal in front of you), and the chefs do tricks and stuff so it's like dinner and a show. The food was SO good! It's been a while since I've had good Japanese. ...Or any Japanese that wasn't quick sushi from the grocery store or Food & Wine booth. Ros and Carol, do you guys remember the last time we were at Sushiman? Yeah, that would've been it. Then we did a Kim Possible mission (they give you a cell phone thing that guides you through a specific pavilion as you "help Team Possible catch -insert villain here-"), which was more fun than it should be, and then it was time for fireworks. Being Canadians, we watched them from the Canada pavilion.



Friday we were going to go to the cast preview of the Christmas party parade (I worked a morning seating shift), but the directions were a little sketchy and vague, so as non-Magic Kingdom cast members, Heather, Ali, Lindsay and I elected to not go. Instead we went out for a late dinner at the Outback. Having never been to an Outback before, it was interesting. After having worked in a Disney restaurant, though, you definitely notice a difference in the level of service. The food was good, though. Three words: peanut butter pie. They give you, like, a double slice though (seriously, the thing is huge), so I got most of mine boxed up and brought it home. Good thing, too, because I needed it after Saturday. I was assigning again, and the numbers were nuts. It was fairly slow, and the numbers at the end were rather on the sad side, but the party sizes were kinda ridiculous. So many parties of 8!

Sunday.... to be honest, I don't really remember Sunday, which means it wasn't particularly interesting. I think I was seating.... Ah! Yes, I was seating. 2-9. Nothing fascinating happened. Movie night was Rachel's pick, so we watched The Wedding Singer. A LOT of people showed up for that one. I actually brought Sayaka along with me, since she's leaving and when I told her what we were watching she said she liked Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. She thinks my group of friends is highly entertaining, which I suppose is always a good thing.

Monday night I had decided I was going to Canadian Girls, since they were partying with other girls and the theme was Pajama Party. I didn't last too long there, though. They're a great bunch, but parties really aren't my thing. So I went running back to Craig's apartment and begged the games night crew to take me back. I took David's place on a team for Scene It when he had to leave. The amount of non-Disney movies I've seen is kind of pathetic. I need to work on that. Oh, and at some point before that I was cleaning my drawers on my bedside table because I thought I'd lost a book. Turns out it's at home, but at least I got some cleaning done. Not that you can tell. The drawers look exactly the same as they did before.

Tuesday was a lot of fun, because I got to play tour guide. Melissa from my arrival group hadn't been to the Magic Kingdom since she was little, and didn't remember it (how someone goes about working for Disney for two months without stepping into the Magic Kingdom is beyond me), and she knows I'm beyond freakish about these things, so off we headed in the early afternoon for a tour. It closed at 7 for the first night of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party, so we had about 6 hours to explore. We did all the major classic rides that don't majorly suck (coughDumbocough), and I told her enough useless information to probably last a lifetime. It's been a long time since I saw someone jump in the Haunted Mansion, so that was fun, and her reactions to PhilharMagic were fantastic! We had a really terrible skipper on Jungle Cruise, though, so hopefully she'll go back again sometime and have someone better. Like, seriously, who ACTUALLY explains how to identify an African elephant?! Everyone knows the proper way is to say, "That's an elephant and we're in Africa." But yeah. Then I called home, and clicked around on the internet for a while, I think.

Yesterday I woke up and thought, "Screw groceries and laundry. I feel like going to the Studios!" So I did. First, though, I had to go to EPCOT and pick up a going-away present for my roommate from the Canada pavilion. Then I heard someone mention Everest while I was walking through the park, taking pictures of all the Christmas stuff they have up now, so I got it into my head that I really kinda wanted to ride Everest again, too. So I did. But there isn't a direct bus from EPCOT to Animal Kingdom, apparently, so I took the bus to the All-Star resorts (I needed something there anyway), and then headed over. There was a long wait, even for the single rider line (not sure how that one happened, but whatever), so I grabbed a fastpass and went DeVine hunting. For those of you who haven't been to Animal Kingdom, and for my family members who probably don't remember, she's an Animal Kingdom character-type thing with stilts on her hands and feet, painted green, and draped entirely in vines to blend in with her surroundings and every once in a while she moves. I got some great pictures of her, and then went over to see who was at Camp Minnie-Mickey. In with the usual crowd were Thumper and Miss Bunny, so I got my picture taken with them. Trekked back to Everest, rode that, and then hopped the Hollywood Studios bus. I spent most of my time walking around this time. I stopped in at Tattooine Traders to pick up Wicket's Christmas present, and then went in circles over and over and over again, taking pictures of aaaaaaall the Christmas decorations up around the park. It's actually kind of ridiculous. I also added Prince Caspian to my character photo list. I stopped for dinner because I was kind of hungry and extremely bored at this point, and I didn't want to do rides anymore, but I wanted to wait until 6 for the Christmas stuff they have going on there. Then it was close enough to 6 that I headed over to where the crowd was gathering on the Streets of America. Oh. My. God. So, the Studios houses what is known as The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. The ENTIRE Streets of America section of the Studios is draped top to bottom and end to end in Christmas lights. And they blink on and off. To music. And they have fake snow. SO FREAKIN' COOL! I have so many pictures from that, my camera actually ended up full at the end of the night.

Today, I assigned. Tomorrow, I assign. Saturday, I assign. Wait until about Monday before asking how I am.