Living a Dream Come True

I know it's been a while since I posted an update so I thought I should get one out! I've been pretty busy since both my classes started but I am loving them! I'm taking Entertainment Show Productions, which is a great class about the technical side of Disney shows and Disney Heritage which is like a history class just about Disney. I have friends in both classes, which makes it fun, and I am also learning a lot and enjoying a lot of the guest speakers. I can't decide which class is my favorite, and though I am sad I can't spend a full day at the park anymore, I think I would have regretted not taking both classes. And I'm especially excited for when my Show Productions class gets to take a backstage tour of Fantasmic!

My friend Caroline who works with me at the PhilharMagic complex is also in my Show Productions class, and we decided we should go to Animal Kingdom before class, since our class is right next door. It was fun to go with her because she knew so much more than me and she taught me a lot about the park. We made sure to go early so we could head over to Kilimanjaro Safari while the animals were all active and we got a real treat. They were all active and pretty close to the road to! I could have touched a giraffe if I had been allowed! We also went out on some of the walking trails where the animals were pretty active. We made sure to catch Finding Nemo the Musical and decided we should go back next week to catch the Lion King show and for more fun.


Before coming to Disney World I knew I would have to eat at Be Our Guest restaurant, so as soon as I got accepted I tried every day to get reservations. Well, I got reservations for Courteney and I on October 12^th, and when that day rolled around we were thrilled! Although dressing up is not required, we decided we would any because it would be fun. Let me tell you, the restaurant is gorgeous! There are three different rooms you can eat in and they are all designed beautifully. We got to eat in the ballroom, though we also looked around at the other two rooms. I had shrimp and scallops while Courteney had steak and we were both very happy with our food. And of course, we did try the Grey Stuff, and it was delicious! Once dinner was over we were invited to meet the Beast which was very exciting in itself! I've decided that I have to take my parents there for lunch because it is such a great experience!

Since my last post I was also lucky enough to be chosen to tour the Castles with an Imagineer as a part of Limited Time Magic. Bright and early in the morning I headed over to the Magic Kingdom where I met up with the other participants. We headed inside the park and met up with our Imagineers. We were split into two groups and one group toured the Be Our Guest restaurant while the other explored the Cinderella Dream Suite and then we switched. The man who gave us our tour of the Beast Castle was one of the many people who worked on the castle and the woman who gave us our tour of the Dream Suite was the interior designer on the project! Both tours were amazing but of course the Dream Suite was the highlight. It was on my bucket list to get to go see this exclusive suite and it was a dream come true to see it! It was totally gorgeous and designed stunningly. The whole thing is designed to be like you are inside a castle (duh!) but with secret modern day amenities. That was something I won't soon forget!


I also won't forget the Halloween Party I finally got to go to! Working the Halloween Parties is so hard when you can see how fun they are but can't go yourself! But I got to whip out my costume and find out just how much fun it was. I knew that I was gonna go twice so this time around I just focused on meeting all the rare characters that were out. My favorite were Tarzan, Jane and Terk but there were some other great characters that I am glad to have met! I'm going again on the 29^th and then it'll be just about time to gear up for Christmas! Never a dull day in the Magic Kingdom.


Work has continued to be pretty normal, though I did get recognized for my guest interactions and keeping people entertained while they wait in line. I'm making lots of great friends and I'm already dreading my program ending and missing them. The other day was actually pretty eventful at work. I was standing outside of Princess Fairytale Hall when our fire alarms started to go off and guest were asked to evacuate. While everything ended up being okay, we had to check every store, restaurant and ride that was attached to that building which took quite a bit of time. So for about 45 minutes I had guests who were yelling at me and blaming me for the whole situation (yay). Once I got my break I was relived to just get some time to catch a breath and relax. I was still a little frazzled once my break was over, but as they say “the show must go on!” Later that night was a Halloween Party and we typically close the Hall down at 6:30 so we can clear guests out who don't have tickets. At about 6:45 a man comes up to me pretty much begging to go inside, but I couldn't let him because he does not have a Halloween ticket. But the man pulls me aside and tells me he only wants like 5 minutes inside and doesn't want to see the princesses, he just wants to propose to his girlfriend. How could I say no to that?! So I walked him and his girlfriend up the Fast Pass line and have them wait while the last guests head in to meet the princesses. All the cast members are looking at me very confused as to what these people are doing here, so I had to clue some of them in. Of course the entertainment captain runs offstage to grab a Photo Pass photographer and we let the couple into an empty room and he proposes to her in front of Cinderella’s glass slipper! The poor guy would have proposed in the queue as long as he could be in the building so I'm glad we were able to make it a little more magical! Once she said yes I took them out to our nearest store and got them 'Just Engaged' buttons and let them know where they could look at their pictures. They were so happy they both gave me a hug! I was so glad I could make their engagement magical and I needed that magic to turn my day around, so it was great.


Besides all that I've been busy helping my parents plan their trip here in November. I'm very excited and I'm trying to get everything planned so that they have an awesome time! I'm looking forward to another audition in a couple weeks and I'm working on getting my classes picked out for next semester. It's hard to believe I graduate in just a couple months! I guess I should start planning for life as a college graduate, but for right now I'm enjoying living life in Fantasyland.

One Exciting Ride

This week has been filled with lots of excitement! For those of you to don't know, I'm a writer for the Tips From the Disney Divas and Divos blog and this week three of them happened to come visit Walt Disney World with their families. It was great to meet some of the people who I knew so well online and to actually make a connection with them. It makes the writing community seem just a little smaller once you know someone in person rather than just online.

Dopey Diva

Tangled Diva all dressed up for Halloween

Nick the Disney Divo

Last Thursday my roommate Courteney and I headed out to Hollywood Studios for a day of fun, and after checking in with my fellow blog writers we decided to have lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. Let me tell ya, this place is the best! I seriously recommend that everyone go to this place at least once. Just like the name sounds, it's themed for the 1950's and you feel like you are walking into a real 50's house. Once their you are called to dinner "Steindorf kids, it's time for dinner!!" and you are taken in where your 'Uncle' or 'Aunt' is your server. Uncle Tim was our server and he was awesome. Not only did he make us get up and wash our hands before we ate, but he kept coming back and giving us a hard time. And of course, when he saw me with my cell phone out I got a very stern "No toys at the dinner table'! Not only is the Atmosphere great, but so is the food. Of course everything is a home recipe from a family member and everything comes in big portions. I had meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans and I was stuffed the rest of the day. Once again, Uncle Tim made fun of me for licking my plate clean. Courteney and I didn't have any room for desert but we vowed to go back there one day just for the deserts, which have big portions just like dinner. And the Prime Time has a Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake and is definitely a must try! (Have I sold ya yet?) Let's just say it was one of the best dining experiences I had ever had and I would gladly go back again and again.

This is where you get called for dinner

Our table! Look close, the Disney name is on the TV

Team Yen Sid!

Tuesday night was the Fantsyland Mystery Challenge, which is a once a year bonding event that takes place after the park is closed. The game changes every year, but this year it was a giant game of Clue! We had to wander around the areas within the Pinocchio Village House and the "it's a small world" queue and solve mysteries and play games to get clue cards. The more times it took us to figure out the answers the less cards we got. My team was only down one card at the end and unfortunately guessed the wrong one, but we weren't the first one to turn it in anyway so it didn't matter. What did matter was that it was a total blast! The challenges were things like charades, matching games, song writing and many more. I'm so glad I didn't miss this event and I love how much fun it is to work in the Magic Kingdom

Wednesday morning I went to auditions for the college program which would allow me to be a character performer and extend my program. I don't really want to extend my program anyway since I only have a semester left of school, but I thought I would go just for the heck of it. I was pretty worried about my foot since I hadn't been in jazz shoes, or really danced since I broke my foot, but it turned out to be fine. The combination was simple but it was really obvious that they were only looking for specific things, and I didn't fall into those categories. The size of the group that went was crazy. The auditions were supposed to start at 9am, so me and a few Fantasyland friends got there at 8am and we got numbers 306-308. They ended up starting to take people in to audition in smaller groups at about 8:30 because I think they realized they just needed to get people out. Personally, I wished they would have just said at the beginning "this is what we are looking for so if you aren't that please turn around" It would have saved there time and a lot of other people's time, but I guess there is always that off chance that you aren't what they are looking for and they take you anyway. What I really like is that they head casting director (who I have seen before) started his Disney career in the College Program at Food and Beverage, so it proves you really can make it in this company if you try. For now I will look for other auditions while I'm here and then I'll continue to keep my eye on the calender for the ones in California.

Thursday was my first time at the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival. Courteney and I decided to work our way backwards because we liked the last food countries better than the first. We only made it though Scotland, Hawaii and Greece before we had to head to the Festival Center for our 'Beverage Seminar'. Here we listened to Marco Antonio De Martino talk about the Vina De Martino Vineyard which is one of the largest vineyards in Chile and accounts for over 12% of the vineyard land that Chile has. We tried three of their wines as he talked about making each one of them and how much care they put into each and every bottle of wine they make. It was really fascinating, even if we did only like one of the wines.

Wines from the De Martino Winery Seminar

Escargot from France!

After the seminar we headed back out to the World Showcase to continue our food tour. We hit up the dessert and champagne booth, the refreshment booth, Canada, Ireland, France, Japan, Germany, the Cheese booth and China before we decided we were far too wined and dined to continue. I'm super excited for my next chance to go and hit up all the countries we missed! I think my favorite food so far was the escargot in France and my favorite drinks have been the green tea colada from Japan and the Caposaldo sweet sparkling Moscato I had at the Festival Center while I waited for Courteney to get off work. I can't believe how much food and alcohol we drank! What's great about this festival is that all the food is appetizer size and many of the drinks are shot glass size (though you can get much bigger). It really allows you to try a large variety of food and drinks

Green Tea Colada

without getting too full or drunk. I will admit that at one point I wanted to lie down and take a nap from being so full, but even from the 13 different drinks I tried, I was not tipsy at all (except maybe a little after the colada). The other great thing is the prices! Though I was worried about how much money I would spend, most of the drinks were $3 and under and most of the food was $5 and under. Yes there were plenty that were more, but I got a lot more bang for my buck than I expected. I'm really excited that I get the chance to be here during the Food and Wine Festival because it is a really big deal and it is an awesome experience. Last time I had escargot I was on a cruise ship, and I don't think I've seen it sense! There is such a large variety of things for you to try from so many different countries, you really are eating and drinking your way around the world.