International Festival of the Arts

Right now Epcot is celebrating the Flower and Garden Festival.  I haven't been over for that yet, so I want to talk about the International Festival of the Arts that was at the park on the weekends in January and February.  

The Festival celebrated all different types of art--including the culinary arts, visual arts, and performing arts.  It ran for six weekends, and I went for five of the six. 

This was a massive paint-by-number that guests could help with.  You went up to a table at the front and got a small container of paint with a number on it and a brush, then you went and painted a few boxes with that number on it.  It was a really cool idea. 

There were also seminar classes on a whole variety of topics...photography, animation, henna, even watermelon carving.  Erin, Liana and I went to the seminar on the art of henna.  Two of the women who work with henna in the Morocco pavilion spoke to us about how to make your own henna paste and all about the different designs. 

Henna seminar

Each weekend, a different Disney artist did live performance art.  I got to see two different artists perform, and they both were amazing.  They started with a blank canvas and then painted a Disney character with everyone watching.  The first artist I saw was James Mulligan, and I watched him paint Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney.  He started with a scored canvas and threw glitter over pretty much everything while he was going.

At the beginning

Partway through

Final result!

I also got to see Stephen Fishwick perform.  He basically finger painted his painting and it was incredible to watch.  He did the whole thing upside down, so it was hard to tell which character he was painting until he was almost done.  He also did the whole thing in time to the music, which was so cool.

During

Final result!

Erin, Liana and I also went to Le Cellier for lunch when we were at the festival.  Le Cellier is the nicer sit-down restaurant in the Canada pavilion.  It's a steakhouse, but I'd read really good things about an accommodating chef for being vegan there so I wanted to try it.  Unfortunately those things are no longer true, but the chef did pull something together for me.

One of my favorite parts of the Festival was the Disney on Broadway Concert Series.  Three different pairs of actors/actresses who have performed in Disney shows on Broadway came for two weekends each.  They performed a medley of songs from Disney Broadway shows, and each show gave me chills. 

Josh Strickland--he originated the role of Tarzan on Broadway

Kissy Simmons and Alton Fitzgerald White--she played Nala and he played Mufasa in The Lion King

I also absolutely loved Animation Academy.  They had different artists teaching classes on how to draw Disney characters.  I learned how to draw Tigger, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Merida, Tinker Bell and Rapunzel. Each class was about 20 minutes and I was kind of amazed at the end of every one that the drawing I had produced actually looked like the character it was supposed to be.   

She taught me how to draw Minnie, and then she let me take her sketch home too!

So many different Disney artists were there at the festival.  Their works were available for sale, you could watch them painting, and just talk to them.  I didn't meet a single one who wasn't lovely, and they were all so humble.  

James Mulligan painted this Figment during the Festival

Each time I visited, I just walked around and appreciated looking at all the pretty Disney things.  Finally, on the last weekend, I decided which prints I wanted to take home with me.  Thank you Fairma!

This one is by Irene Sheri.  She wasn't at the Festival, so I didn't get to meet her, but I love this little girl

This one is by Rob Kaz.  It's my favorite Disney scene, so I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it

I got to meet Rob Kaz!  I went after work just to meet him.  He's super sweet, and he's a local artist (he lives in Celebration).  We talked for a while, and I told him all about Wild Africa Trek and the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums)

Erin and Liana left Florida at the end of January, so visiting the Festival was one of our last hurrahs as roomies :)

Excellent Festival--it's my new favorite :)

I loved visiting the Festival.  The Broadway performances, the art classes, getting to meet famous Disney artists...it was wonderful.  This year was the first time the Festival has been put on, but it was so popular I can't imagine it's going anywhere.  Definitely recommend coming down to visit next year during this time!

Disney Princess Half Marathon

In my very eloquent words on Facebook, "Guys guys I did the thing!"

By "the thing," I meant the Disney Princess Half Marathon, which took place on February 26th.  It was so much fun.  I absolutely loved it and I want to do it again next year.  Here's how the day went down:

2:00 am: Alarm went off and I got up.  I am so lucky that my roommate Kayla was also doing the race, so we had each other to make sure we were both awake, and her boyfriend Andrew drove us to Epcot. 

3:30ish am: We got to Epcot and parked.  There was a surprising amount of activity going on and an incredible amount of energy for that early in the morning.  They had a place to check your bags, a concession stand, a stage with a DJ (I have a lot of respect for him, because he had so much energy for so early), and two character meet-and-greet locations.  We hung out for a bit, then got in line to meet Merida/Pocahontas (they were switching princesses in between sets).  We got to meet Pocahontas, who's Kayla's favorite.  So that was a good start to the day.

4:30 am: They announced that the corrals were open, so Kayla and I said goodbye to Andrew and started making our way toward them.  It was a ~15 minute walk to get over there. 

5:15 am: I was in a different corral than Kayla, so I stayed with her until 5:15 and then went to my corral.  Where I waited with the people around me for the race to start at 5:30, and then for our corral to finally take off around 6:30. 

6:30-9:30 am: I ran the race!  I stopped to meet a bunch of characters, and my final time was somewhere around 3:11.  We started right by the Epcot parking lot, ran to Magic Kingdom (including going down Main Street and running through the castle), and then went back to Epcot to finish.  Along the way, there were characters and DJs, so there wasn't too much opportunity to be bored or to focus on how much farther there was to run.  There were also so. many. people. Just overall, so many runners.  I loved seeing some of the costumes that people wore.  As you can see in my photos, I Disney-bounded as Ariel, with my mermaid tank top and blue-green leggings.  I even had a dinglehopper in my hair, though I forgot to take any pictures of it. 

Ahead: all of the Photo Pass photos that were taken during the race.  I also took a bunch of selfies throughout the race, but I'm having trouble getting them up right now.

Running down Main Street

Running through Tomorrowland

I asked her what a good pose would be for the two of us :)

Me meeting Gaston: "Gaston, could we do a flexing pose?"
Gaston: "No! Well, I can flex but you can't"
Me: "I can totally flex too!" (that's what my face is saying in this photo)
So I proceeded to flex...

...and Gaston covered my baby bicep.

Running through Frontierland

Coming through the castle!

Got to meet Tourist Genie

And Mushu!

Running through Epcot

Happy Katie :D

I did it!

And I look much happier than the woman behind me...

After the race, we went back to the apartment to get showered and changed.  I went to meet my friend Maggie for lunch and then we hung out at her apartment for a while.  Somehow, and I'm still not sure how, I had the energy to go to Magic Kingdom after the race.  I really wanted to get some photos with my favorite princesses on the day that I ran the Disney Princess Half.  So I went solely for photos. 

Meeting Tiana.  She told me she was really good at hopping because she had once been a frog.  So I told her I wasn't so good at hopping, but I did have to weave between people during the race. 

I love Rapunzel <3

I also had to meet Tink, even though she's not a princess. 

I asked her for a sassy pose ;) And then looked at the wrong camera

I had to meet my childhood favorite 

Classic castle photo

I had over 40,000 steps that day, and I was so tired at the end.  But it was also so so much fun. Fingers crossed I'm still around next February and I get to do it again.

Bye for now!

Catching Up

Hi everyone!

It's been...a while since I last posted, to say the least.  And a lot has happened between now and Thanksgiving.  So I thought I'd share more about what I've been doing with the company.

My internship as a Conservation Education Presenter ended on January 27th.  As you saw/read from my posts throughout the summer and fall, it was an amazing experience and a fantastic intro into working for The Walt Disney Company.  I know I've told some people, but one of my fears coming down to Florida to work for the company that is responsible for some of my favorite things in the world was that as a cast member (CM), I'd discover some dark secrets that Disney successfully keeps from guests.  I've been a CM for 10 months now, and my love for the company has only grown.

Right after my internship ended, I moved to the Wild Africa Trek (WAT) team.  WAT has been wonderful so far.  I trained for about two weeks, and since then have been a full-time CM.  I'm on a temporary assignment right now with no definite end date.  A quick overview of what WAT is: it's a three-hour guided experience through the Africa area of Disney's Animal Kingdom.  We start by walking through the village of Harambe to reach our own private trail.  Then we clip into a cliffhanger that lets you look out over the hippos while we chat with one of their keepers.  We get to take guests across two suspension bridges that go over hippos and crocodiles before clipping in again for an up-close view of the crocodiles.  Following a guided tour of the savanna, we stop for a snack on the boma (a viewing platform in the middle of the savanna).  We then finish our guided tour through another part of the savanna, and bring everyone back to the village.  The photos below are from my first day on the team, during which I got to experience WAT as a guest before officially starting to train. It was wet. And cold. But still awesome.

Clipped in and checking out a training session with Henry and Hans (father and son hippos at the park)

Crossing the bridges

I swear those are crocodiles in the water below me--it was just a cold day and their water stays at a constant temperature (so it was warm for them that day)

See? Wet and cold. 

There is a lot more that happens behind the scenes for an operation like WAT to function than I realized.  As a guide, I can be taking guests out on trek, helping make sure that the right food gets on the right truck, greeting guests and helping get them checked in, helping get guests into harnesses, or any one of a number of other things.  There's never a dull moment, and I love being part of a team that provides a once in a lifetime experience.

As for housing, I've moved into a new apartment in Davenport, FL with two awesome roommates, so all is well there too!

That's enough for one post--I'm planning to do a few more covering some other things that have happened in the past few months soon!

Bye!