I Never Thought That I Would Have to Ask Myself, "What Do I Want to Be When I Grow Up"

I was always going to be an actress. It was simple. I started doing it when I was eleven. There was never any other job I would have even considered myself qualified to do.

Or, at least, that's what I thought.

I got very lucky with the start of my career. I was literally discovered; my manager found me at a summer camp and introduced me to agents. I learned very quickly after graduating college that it is very difficult to get anywhere in the business without an agent. Equity open calls are pretty much only held because they have to be by union laws. Casting agents send assistants of assistants of assistants, and most of the time they already have people who auditioned through agents lined up for callbacks. So, in order to be able to afford the train tickets and the time to go on these mostly hopeless auditions, I am currently working two part time jobs at odd hours of the day. And even though I'm working 7 days a week at one of them, I'm still not making anywhere near enough to live off of. I have been putting so much financial strain on AJ and it's not fair. We can barely afford to pay our bills, and are living paycheck to paycheck. I don't want us to continue like this.
Even if I were to begin booking professional acting jobs, I would need to keep the part time jobs. In a business like acting, one success doesn't guarantee anything in the future. I worked professionally for 7 years, and I added one small role on an episode of a tv show, one professional show, one workshop,  three staged readings, and one commercial to my resume, along with some other work like commercials that never aired and commercial samples for focus groups.

In addition, my priorities have changed since I was a teenager. I always knew that I wanted to get married and have a family, but I figured that the family part wouldn't come until well in the future. Now, AJ and I have lived together for almost a year, and we know that we are going to be getting married, hopefully within the next few years. Our age difference has been brought up several times in the discussion of having children. Both of our fathers had our sisters late in life and will be in their seventies when the girls graduate college. My grandfather died when my sister was only three. I want our kids to know their grandfathers, and I don't want AJ to have to deal with being an "old dad".  And as more people around me become pregnant / have kids, the more I want to too.

But probably the biggest reason I'm considering making a change is that I don't like what I've become. I am jealous of my friends who work regular 9-5 jobs Monday through Friday and have the weekends to spend with friends and family. I'm jealous of women who get to wake up and shower and make themselves look presentable before work. I'm jealous of my friends who do community theater show after community theater show, while I'm stuck sitting in the audience dying to be on stage with them. I'm jealous of people who can afford to stay up and wait for their significant others to get home from a late night, and don't have to be in bed by 9:00 in order to get up the next morning.

So, I've decided that acting professionally no longer fits into the life that I want. It is kind of an overwhelming decision, seeing as for the past 12 years it's the only career I've known. Right now I'm going to focus on finding a full time job to just get out into the workforce and get money coming in and saved up. I submitted my resume to three jobs today, so we'll see what happens.

Barbie and her POSITIVE influence on me

Dear women of the world,

This is me, and this is one of my Barbie dolls. I have had her since I was about 2 years old (when I saw and fell in love with Beauty and the Beast). And I love her. In fact, I love Barbie in general.

I spent my entire childhood playing with Barbie dolls. I was an only child with two parents who worked full time, so I spent a lot of time by myself. My Barbies (all ninety-kajillion of them) had a house and cars and a motorhome and horses and a jetski and all kinds of fun things. Most of my Barbies didn't have carreers. They did have color-changing hair, or rollerblades, or ballet slippers, or fun sparkley party dresses, or PJs that glowed in the dark. One was even a mermaid. In addition, Barbie had friends and a family for me to play with; Ken, Skipper, Kelly, Stacey, Midge, etc.

Any of my childhood friends would tell you, whenever I went over to their houses, or when they came over to mine, the first question was always "Do you want to play Barbies?"

So what's my point in all of this? I want the world to know that I was not negatively affected in any way by playing with Barbie dolls.

Let me repeat myself, just to make sure you heard me. I WAS NOT NEGATIVELY AFFECTED IN ANY WAY BY PLAYING WITH BARBIE DOLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If anything, I was positively affected by playing with them!

It seems like ever since the internet was invented, concerned mothers and feminists have been bashing Matel and it's most famous creation for her ridiculously impossible proportions and the negative body image that they give to little girls. Matel even redesigned Barbie to give her a more realistic physique (although she's still very thin). 

So, since I spent my whole of my 90s childhood dressing and undressing Barbie, did I grow up to have a negative body image? Far from it. I am 5'0" and I currently wear a size 8. Do I want to be thinner? Sure. Is it beause of Barbie's influence? Nope. It's because when was in high school I wore a size 2 (because I spent almost every night at dance class or rehearsal for a show), and I felt much better about myself because I was physically active.

  Me in a show in 2006,   and me in Walt Disney World this past May

Am I going to starve myself to get thin again? No, because I love junk food. Ramen noodles, cheese burgers, and really salty Wendy's french fries dipped in chocolate Frosties are some of my personal favorites :)

Ken gets criticism for his looks too. I smushed my Barbie and Ken's faces together to make them kiss all the time. Did I grow up looking for a GQ model to marry? Nope. I met a wonderful, sweet, crazy, sensitive, weird, supportive, silly, amazing man, and I couldn't imagine finding a more perfect person to spend my life with. 

Just about everything Barbie owns is pink, from her shoes to her clothes to her cars. She is what people think of when they think "girly girl". So, am I a girly girl? Sometimes. Do I love pink? Yup. Do I love to dress up and shop? Sure. Do I love other "non girly" things? Yup! I love watching football, and I love nerdy, sci fi stuff like Star Wars and Doctor Who. 

Recently, it seems like Matel has gotten really concerned with what Barbie is doing with her life. There's an entire sub line of Barbies called the "I Can Be" collection, where Barbie gets to be things like an architect, an olympic athlete, a news anchor, even a presidential candidate. The line was created to inspire young girls in their career goals. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all, but as I said before, when I was growing up, most of my Barbies didn't have a career. What made the ones on the shelves appealing to me was that they had different outfits or accessories from the ones that I already had. So, did I grow up wanting to marry a rich man so that I wouldn't have to work and could spend every day shopping? Nope. Do I have career goals? Pretty big ones.

So, according to all of the criticisms that I've heard about Barbie and what she does to little girls, if I played with Barbies as much as I did, shouldn't I have turned out differently? Well, you want to know why I didn't grow up wanting to be just like Barbie? It's because I never looked at Barbie as a role model. She was a toy. She was a doll that I could buy things for and dress up and play with. She wasn't someone to look up to and emulate. 

But even though she wasn't a role model, she did so much good for me.

Barbie was a creative outlet for me. I was a shy, socially awkward girl who loved to make up stories and act them out, but usually had no one to act them out with me. Barbie nurtured my love of every aspect of theater (which became one of the greatest passions in my life), from acting to props to costuming. "Playing Barbies" as I called it made me a better creative writer, because I came up with stories and adventures for her. 

So mothers, please, if your daughter wants to play with Barbies, let her. If you don't, you could be doing more harm than good. 

I'm Corinne. I'm 23 years old. I love pink. I love the Dallas Cowboys. I love shoes. I love Kevin Smith movies. I love Sherlock Holmes. I love makeup. I love theater. I love my boyfriend. I love Disney. I love the Boston Red Sox. 

I am a strong woman with a college degree and a self esteem.

And I love my Barbies.

Cori's Trip to Walt Disney World - Epcot (day 2)

The main tip of this post is, don't go to Epcot (and I would assume the Magic Kingdom) on a Friday at the end of the school year. I can't tell you how many "____ Elementary School Class of 2012" t-shirts we saw that day. And the Fast Passes for everything were gone by 12 o'clock. This is a picture of the food line at The Electric Umbrella at about 12:45. Glad we missed that!

We still had a good day though. We rode Mission: Space (my first time doing it with the G forces. I'll stick with the non-G force one next time. It didn't make me sick or anything, I just didn't enjoy the feeling, and had a more fun ride without it). Next we headed over to Ellen's Energy Adventure, which I love, because I grew up watching Bill Nye the Science Guy, and still curse PBS that that show (along with Wishbone) was never released on DVD (yeah, they have individual episodes available for science teachers, but who wants to buy all of them and then have to get up and change the DVD every half hour?)

On the way back over to the World Showcase, we caught the Epcot Jammitors. These guys are crazy talented! Very Stomp-esque. If you see them, definitely stop and watch. At one point, one of the guys was drumming with two sticks in each hand!

Once we got to the World Showcase, we headed to The American Adventure (AJ's favorite) to catch the Fife and Drum Corps. They were awesome, and I don't know if they're a permanent thing, or were just there especially for Memorial Day Weekend.

In addition, we caught the Voices of Liberty in the rotunda before the American Adventure show started. They are an a cappella group, and are always amazing. They ended their set with a beautiful rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel, dedicated to all of the men and women serving in our armed forces.


After America we hit the rest of the countries we hadn't done yet (or at least the ones that we wanted to hit). In Morocco, AJ found the Fez House, and we had to take a picture to send Khy (every time AJ makes a lame joke, Khy calls him a fez. He says it's because AJ talks like an old Freemason or Shriner, and should be wearing a fez). We went to Germany to get some beer, and for AJ to put me on the spot and tell me to "speak German to the cast members!" After we walked around some more, and finished our beers, we were ready to go. So we walked around, saying good bye to Walt Disney World as we left.

We left the next morning. We were sad to go, but at the same time, we were glad to get home. We missed our babies terribly, and they missed us! They wouldn't stop cuddling us!

Cori's Trip to Walt Disney World - Epcot (day 1)

After our last trip, which was spent running around the World Showcase like escaped mental patients, arguing and trying to fit everything in before our 7:30 dinner reservations, AJ and I decided to take two days to do Epcot this time. And I have to say, they were the two least stressful days we had in the parks.

The first day, we actually started out by getting picked up in the Epcot parking lot and taken over to Saratoga Springs for an info session about the Disney Vacation Club. They gave us info on it, showed us some of the model rooms for the resorts, and definitely convinced us to take advantage of it (you know, down the line sometime when we're not broke as hell). After the session, we got ice cream and (as if ice cream at 10:30 in the morning wasn't awesome enough) one pass each that was good for three instant Fast Passes.

When we got back to Epcot, we met up with my mom, Liv, and Glen and went to Captain Eo. I had heard so much hype about this attraction coming back to the parks, so I figured it would be something that I absolutely had to do, at least for the sake of my followers. It was ok. I mean, I guess it's cool to see how far 3-D animation has come since the late 80s, and it begins with a documentary about how the film was made. Not to mention it's a groundbreaking piece of Disney history. But I just didn't enjoy it all that much. Don't get me wrong, the man was extremely talented and the dance number was great, but it's just never been my favorite type of music, and I can not take him seriously when he talks. He sounds like a 15 year old girl. So, bottom line is, if you're a Michael Jackson fan, definitely go see it. If you're sort of ambivalent about him, like me, I'd skip it.


After hitting Journey Into Imagination with Figment, which is fun, but more for kids, we split off from the group and headed into the World Showcase and stopped in the UK to eat at the Rose and Crown pub.
This may just have been one of the best meals I've ever eaten. I had the cottage pie, which was ground beef, vegetables, and gravy, topped with mashed potatoes and cheese, and the cauliflower gratin on the side. And another first for me, a fried pickle. It was AMAZING!!!!!! My new favorite snack (bye bye diet!)  I had a Strongbow cider to drink, in honor of my girlfriends and a wonderful St. Patrick's day spent at Berlin's only Irish pub; Das Celtic Cottage. I think my favorite quote of the trip had to be at the end of the meal, when our waitress said, "Would ye like some to-go cups fer yer beers?" in her awesome Irish accent.

After lunch we headed out into the street and caught the World Showcase Players. They do a great performance, centered around telling the story of King Arthur and his knights. They pull up participants from the crowd, and sure enough, AJ was brought up to be Sir Galahad. (He was wearing a Captain America t-shirt, and when picking their knight, they said "We need someone brave and noble. Who is more brave than Captain America? Who is more noble than Captain America?" Cast members were saying hello to him as Captain America all day long.) The World Showcase Players are definitely entertainment not to miss, and the people they pull from the audience make it even better, ESPECIALLY when they're not actors (sorry AJ).

Next, we headed over to Canada to catch Off Kilter. This is another must for anyone who loves Irish music. They're a rock band with bagpipes! Jamie is one of the best pipers I've ever seen. They're talented, they're funny, and they do weddings! (Hiring them would most likely eat up our entire budget, but hey, a girl can dream!).

It looked like it was about to start raining, so we decided to head back to Future World so that we'd be able to be inside if it did. We went to Spaceship Earth (we walked right on. Most people get in line for that as soon as they walk in the park. DON'T DO IT! YOU'LL WAIT FOREVER! Wait until the afternoon). It brought back memories of Liv's first trip to WDW, where she called it "the eff-cot ride" and made us go on it three times. It's  changed since then, however.
The entire end section where you go down backwards used to be more animatronics about communication (tv, phones, video chatting, etc). I'm assuming this was changed when AT&T stopped being the ride's sponsor. Now, you have a touch screen in your car, and it asks you questions in order to build you your ideal future. It uses the pictures that it takes of you a the beginning of the ride to put your head on an animated body an show you the future you create. It's fun, but I guess I'm nostalgic. I loved that part of the old ride (I got stuck on that part of the ride once and spent 10 minutes watching I Love Lucy on one of the TVs).

When we got to the exit it was pouring. But luckily, I had thought ahead and picked up pocket ponchos for us! They were $1.50 in Harmon and AJ was able to put both of them in his pocket. Granted they were little more than trash bags with hoods, but they kept us dry on the sprint from Spaceship Earth to The Land pavilion. Now, about a half hour to an hour after the rain starts is the best time to do any of the indoor rides like Soarin or Mission Space. As soon as the rain starts, everyone will run for cover and ride any indoor ride. Once they get off, the rides are empty, as no one else is coming into the pavilion due to the rain. We went on the Living With The Land boat ride, and only had five other people in the boat with us (this is another one that, once you do it a few times, unless you're really into agriculture, is pretty skipable. Although, it does have quite a few hidden Mickeys to find). After that, the line for Soarin' was still about 20 minutes, but by that time all of the Fast Passes were gone, so we decided to just wait. About a minute and a half into waiting, someone in the Fast Pass queue goes "Excuse me? Is it just the two of you? Would you like Fast Passes?" Right place at the right time.

After we got off Soarin' it had stopped raining, so we headed back over to the World Showcase. On the way, we stopped at Club Cool so that I could have some Mezzo Mix. For those of you who don't know, Club Cool is a Coca Cola gift shop / soda tasting place, where you can sample sodas from around the world. And Mezzo Mix is an amazing German soda, which is basically a combo of cola and orange soda. Trust me, mixing the two yourself doesn't even come close, you need the real thing.

We decided to go for a ride on the boats out on the lagoon, since I didn't remember doing it as a kid and AJ had never done it. It was nice. A great way to see the countries from a different point of view. We went round trip, back to the international gateway.

This time we started in Mexico, riding the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride before stopping to try on sombreros, and thence to Norway for Maelstrom. Many of the countries that have a ride have an informational video about the country afterwards. Disney used to force you to stay and watch the videos by having the exit doors only open after the film, but now they remain open so that you can skip the film if you want. I didn't remember Norway's film, and don't really know that much about it, except that they had vikings, so we decided to stay and watch it. I don't know any more about Norway after having watched the movie. It's visually very beautiful, but probably one of the least informative movies about a country that I have ever seen. It told me nothing about the country other than its viking roots and that it has cobblestone streets and a fishing industry. I'd say skip it.

We headed to China next, and decided to stop at the Nine Dragons restaurant to see about getting a dinner reservation. They told us that they could actually seat us now, and we decided why not? We ordered some dumplings as an appetizer, and I ordered the noodle sampler dish. When it came out, I was shocked! I didn't know where they were going to put this huge tray of food on our tiny two person table! It was delicious, but I couldn't even touch the second bowl of noodles! Our waiter was one of the best waiters either AJ or I had ever had, so good that we asked to see the manager so that we could complement him.

After dinner, we sort of wandered around, not feeling the need to do anything in particular, because we had another whole day to fit it all in. As we were walking around the lagoon, we saw people lined up along the railings for IllumiNations, even though it was about an hour away. Now, every time I've seen IllumiNations, we've been somewhere in Future World, or shoved along the back of one of the pathways around the lagoon, and since I'm pretty short, I've never really been able to see everything. So we decided that once we found a spot along the railing, we'd park ourselves there and wait. It may have been a boring 50 minutes, but when the show started, it was all worth it. Actually being able to see the globe and the images on it, as well as the pyrotechnics was so great (finally!)

Oh also, we rented a locker for the day, since we left the Disney Vacation Club presentation with a bag of goodies. Definitely worth it! $7 for the locker for the day, plus a $5 deposit, and you don't have to carry around anything but a key. Every time you buy something, just go put it in the locker. Just don't forget about it in the mad cattle drive to leave the park!

Cori's Trip to Walt Disney World - Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is my favorite park, and the only one that I can confidently say can be done completely and thoroughly in one day.

This time at least, everyone followed my tips. We started out by getting fast passes for the Tower of Terror, and then hopping on the Rock n' Roller Coaster. We waited about a half hour for the Rock n' Roller Coaster, and then by the time we got off, our fast passes were good to go. If you like thrill rides, both of these are can't miss rides. Going early in the day definitely cuts down on your wait time.

If you're a Disney/ movie trivia buff like me, Hollywood Studios has two exhibits/tours that I can't recommend strongly enough. The Back Lot Tour and Walt Disney: One Man's Dream.

The Back Lot Tour is a combination of a tram tour and a special effects demonstration.
It starts off with a "show", in which you see a few volunteers "acting" for a "film" that Disney is shooting. The scene is crew members on a ship that is getting shot at by enemy planes, so you get a special effects demonstration, complete with water and fire. Those poor volunteers don't know what they're in for!
After that, you walk over to the queue area for the trams, which takes you through a prop storage area. You then board the trams and take a tour of the boneyard, where they hold props that are too large to be in storage (you'll see a lot that you recognize from Disney movies or other movies or shows distributed by Disney companies like Touchstone, as well as some from the Star Wars films).


The tram then goes through the wardrobe and scenic design departments, and onto a "set" for another special effects demonstration. You then go back through the other side of the boneyard and back to the exit.




This tour used to be a LOT longer. I have lots of video footage of it from previous trips, and I remember going though and seeing a lot more cars and planes in the boneyard, as well as the facades of houses (I specifically remember the facade of Blanche's house from The Golden Girls).

The exit of the tour is the AFI (American Film Institute) Exhibit, which has different themes. This time when we went it was villain themed. They had a lot of Disney villain things, like the costumes of several of Davey Jones' crew members from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Susan Sarandon's costumes from Enchanted, as well as Davey Jones' organ and a video showing how they digitally animated his tentacles and other facial features, while trying to keep Bill Nighy's facial expressions and character intact. They also had non-Disney exhibits, such as the AFI Top Villains wall, Jack Nicholson's jacket and axe from The Shining, and Darth Vader's costume. At the end of the exhibit is a gift shop (what else is new, right?) where you can find lots of books on classic films and actors, as well as Walt Disney and the company.


Walt Disney: One Man's Dream was an amazing exhibit. It's a walk through 'museum' starting with Walt's birth and childhood, going up through the design of Walt Disney World and beyond. The exhibit features facts about Walt, as well as artifacts from his life, like his second grade school desk, an original pair of 'Mousketears' and an Oscar. I was like a kid in a candy store.
The exhibit is set up beautifully. My two favorite parts were the 1950s TV sets mounted on the wall playing commercials and the opening to Disneyland (the television show), and the full scale replica of the studio where Walt shot the episode where he explained the concept for EPCOT, complete with the video playing on the monitors of the cameras.

At the end of the exhibit is a theater where they show a 15 minute documentary of Walt Disney's life that explores the extraordinary hardships he overcame. It starts off narrated by Julie Andrews, and then uses pieces of interviews with Walt himself, along with never before seen footage like his personal home movies. I laughed, I cried, I giggled profusely, I clapped when it was over, I loved it. Luckily, someone recorded it and put it on youtube :)




Toy Story Midway Mania is probably one of the best interactive rides that Disney has come up with in the past few years. Get there first thing and get fast passes, because they run out and you are going to want to ride it multiple times, and they run out of them fast. It's similar in design to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin in the Magic Kingdom, except this time you're playing carnival games. You sit four to a car (two on each side. If you have only two people in your group, you get to go in the faster line), and are each armed with a gun. This gun, however, has a pull string instead of a button. You put on your 3-D glasses and the car moves to a screen where you get a practice round. One of you is always red, and one of you is always blue, which is a great improvement from Space Ranger Spin. One of my biggest complaints with that ride is that I can't tell which of the seventy five or so red dots on the target is mine, so I find it impossible to aim. With Midway Mania, you know exactly which is yours and there's always only two of you shooting at a time.
So you go through several classic carnival games; popping balloons with darts, smashing plates with balls, throwing rings around little green aliens, etc, and rack up points. A big hint, a lot of the higher point items are on the bottom of the screen! There are five games, not including the practice round. AJ always beats me on Space Ranger Spin, but this time, I beat him! Like I said, you're going to want to ride it multiple times.

Just outside of Midway Mania is a refreshment stand, where they serve carbonated frozen beverages, called Wheezy's Easy Breezy Peasy Freezy, or something rhymy like that. For those of you who don't remember him, Wheezy is the penguin squeaky toy in Toy Story 2.

Anyway, these drinks are amazing! I got a lemonade flavored one, and it was the best drink I'd had all week. (AJ told me that I had do pose like the 1940s advertising women for this shot)


If you're a fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood (which I am, which is why this is my favorite park), then The Great Movie Ride is a must as well. It's housed in a replica of the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater, complete with stars' hand prints and signatures outside. Inside, the queue areas feature movie props and costumes (when we were there it was Julie Andrews' carousel horse from Mary Poppins and one of Susan's costumes from Narnia) and a large movie screen showing previews for classic movies like Singing in the Rain, Casablanca, Footlight Parade, Mary Poppins, and others that are featured in the ride. The ride itself takes you on a journey into the movies with audio-animatronics acting out scenes from these classics, complete with your tour vehicle being held up by either a gangster or an old west outlaw.
I still get giddy and choked up when we get to the Casablanca scene. And then AJ makes fun of me because I can quote it along with Bogey.
The ride concludes with a video montage/medley/mash up of classic films/lines/awesome moments.






Another great first was Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. Star Tours was always one of my favorite rides because I can remember going on it with my father and grandfather (who has since passed away) on my first trip to WDW. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be the same, and therefore wouldn't be as good, but it was awesome. The new ride has a new high-definition video, a Disney Digital 3-D high-definition screen, an improved motion simulator and several newly added special effects. It also changes. I overheard someone ask how many different simulations there are, and the cast member said over 50. You could ride it for days and not have the same ride twice!


Once again, I didn't make it to the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, because, as AJ puts it, we were in Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, and my face was just so lit up and excited, he didn't want to tell me we had to leave. We did make it to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular though (after a frozen banana). This is so much fun that even if you're not a fan of/ haven't seen Raiders of the Lost Arc, you need to see this. They also take volunteers to be extras for this show (something I definitely would have volunteered for if we had time to see it again. I would love to see the stunts up close). Some of the stuff that they do is really amazing. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll tell you that you'll see the temple big rolling ball o' death scene, the market place scene, and the Nazi airplane scene, along with some very funny bits in between.











The biggest first for me on this trip was Fantasmic. I was so excited for it. And "fantasmic" is probably the only way that I can describe it. It is definitely worth sticking around for. And I love that Pocahontas got it's own little segment. As much criticism as it gets for being horribly historically inaccurate, it's still one of my top favorite Disney movies, and I think that unfortunately, the liberties taken with the history overshadow the beautiful music and animation. We used the VIP seating service for it, which meant that we made reservations at one of three restaurants in the parks, and they gave us VIP seating tickets, so we could get their later and be guaranteed a seat. What they didn't tell us when we made the reservation is that with the package you get a fixed price ($30 a person) limited menu. My stepfather complained and we ended up getting to order a la carte from the regular menu, because apparently we weren't the first to be shocked about this when we got there.

To tell you the truth, you really don't even need the VIP package. The guidebooks and websites suggest getting to the amphitheater about 90 minutes before the show starts to get seats. Really, this is only for the middle section. The VIP area is on the extreme right side of the amphitheater, and the extreme left wasn't even beginning to fill up until about five or ten minutes before the show started. There's nothing wrong with seeing the show from the side (it was actually really cool from the right hand side because we could see the fireworks for Illuminations at Epcot going off in the background.

I've never done it, but from what I've heard, if you only have one day in the park, don't do The American Idol Experience. One of my friends did it when he and his girlfriend went, and he auditioned and moved on to the final round, so they had to be back at a specific time, wait around for the votes, come back again, wait around again, and then come back for the finals. Not only did they have to plan the rest of their day around when they had to be back, but while he was performing and waiting for the results, she was standing around waiting.

Again, if you don't have the app, grab a times guide for the show times and a map, because getting around the park can be a little confusing without it.

Cori's Trip to Walt Disney World - The Magic Kingdom

Our first park was The Magic Kingdom. Everything that I've read says "Don't go to the Magic Kingdom on Monday!" It's the busiest day statistically, because everyone does exactly what we did; get down and checked in on Saturday and Sunday, go to the Magic Kingdom on Monday. But you know what? I was too excited. And it really wasn't that bad.

I really wanted this trip to be about doing things that I had never done before in my 5 previous trips to WDW (or had done when we went when I was 5 and I don't remember doing). It was all about new experiences, as well as getting some great inside tips to share with the followers of my Disney Trivia tumblr.

Once we got into the park we obviously walked up Main Street. We caught the Dapper Dans singing on a trolley as it passed.






We went on the Haunted Mansion first. I was taking pictures of the tombs and headstones in the graveyard at the front of the queue, when my sister went "Is that an engagement ring?" and pointed to the ground. I shouted "WHERE?!" and almost dove over the fence to get a good picture of it. I had heard that they had removed the fencepost anchor that originated the "wedding ring myth", because the people taking pictures of it were causing traffic jams at the ride's exit, but I didn't know that they had added an actual ring.

So, to find the ring, when you get in the queue, pick the longer route that takes you through the graveyard. Once you've gone through all of the mausoleums and have come back around to where you can see the front of the organ crypt, look for the green trash can in front of it, in the corner just on the other side of the fence. To the right of it, embedded in the ground, is the engagement ring. 

 

Also, don't forget to watch Madam Leota's tombstone right next to the mansion entrance. She opens her eyes and looks around.









In Tomorrowland, we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority for the first time. It's a great place to rest your feet, as well as get some good pictures of the park from above. Although, there were some times where it went through very dark areas through the inside of Space Mountain, where you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I really didn't like that. (I really didn't like Space Mountain either. Didn't like it the last time I went on it, really didn't like it this time). We also did the Tomorrowland Speedway (the go karts on tracks). I guess if you're a little kid or you aren't old enough to drive a car yet, it's fun. For an adult who's been driving for seven years, it was boring. The cars don't go that fast, the fumes smell awful, and if it's a hot sunny day, it's intensified ten times. For an adult, it's totally skippable in my opinion.

Next we ate lunch at Casey's Corner. Since the restaurant's theme is based of of Casey at the Bat, it features classic American baseball game food; hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken fingers, french fries, etc. I had the mini corn dogs, which were kind of like pigs in a blanket, but corn dogs, and AJ had some beast of a hot dog covered in BBQ pulled pork, coleslaw, and other stuff. We sat in the back of the restaurant, where they have "bleachers" set up in front of a large screen that plays old Disney sports-themed cartoons. It was really fun and I highly recommend it.

In Adventureland, I of course had to get a Dole Whip. I decided to be adventurous (it is Adventureland, after all) and got a float with orange soft serve instead of just plain vanilla. It was AMAZING, especially when the soft serve melted and the two mixed together!




We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and I said hi to George, and then told him that I totally believed in him and would love to see him. Well, the ride stopped (probably because the boats got jammed at the end or they were un/loading a handicapped person) and AJ started getting nervous, telling me that I made George stop the ride, and that he'd shown himself. I said "He didn't show himself. I wanted to actually see him." Well, the ride stopped about six more times between then and the time we got off. I guess questioning George's decision to reveal himself or not also makes him annoyed.
In total, we got stuck on 5 or 6 rides that day. Every time we did, AJ said "See? You pissed George off and then he called his other friends".



Our next "first" was riding the WDW Rail Road. I have pictures of me on the train from my first trip to WDW, but I only have a few clear memories of that trip, so it was almost like riding it for the first time. It's fun. You get to see areas of the park from above, some areas are set up with figures that go along with the area and the train's narration, and it's a quick way to jump between the front of the park, Fantasyland, and Frontierland (hint hint, it lets you off right near Splash Mountain. Go get a fast pass before they're all gone).

In Fantasyland, we could see the Fantasyland expansion going on, which, I have to admit, seeing big walls and cranes right in the middle the park sort of killed the whole "magical atmosphere" that Disney strives to create in the parks. However, they did their best to fix it. They put large renditions of the concept art for the new areas and attractions, as well as little shields with quotes by Walt Disney about imagineering and building the parks.












One of the things that I was most excited for was meeting my favorite princesses. Since I'd last been there, Rapunzel and Tiana were doing meet and greets, and I had been stalking Disney blogs and sites for the all of May trying to find out when Merida would start meet and greets. Luckily, she started the day before we left for Disney. I was so excited!
We got around to looking for Merida at around 3 o'clock; just as we heard the parade coming down Main Street. This is the PERFECT time to do things like character meet and greets or rides, because all of the little children are watching the parade. I only had to wait about 20 minutes to meet Merida, and the queue setup made it seem even shorter. She was the best face character I've ever met. She was just perfect. And the bears were adorable!

Rapunzel's queue was longer (I waited about 45 minutes), and I didn't get to see Tiana because we just ran out of time and energy. I got Rapunzel and Merida to sign my Disney Princess hat, though, and I wear it with pride.




By about seven o'clock, we were ready to go home. It was hot, and we had done a lot of walking and backtracking (that's another story). Since the rest of my family wanted to go home too, we decided to leave with them rather than staying and then having to take a taxi home (the only negative thing that I have to say about staying off property, no shuttle service). So we didn't get to do about four or five rides and I didn't get to meet Tiana. If I had to do it again, I would definitely take two days to do everything in the Magic Kingdom. I think we would have enjoyed it so much more had we not kept saying "Ok, we have to go here now, and then we have to make it back here in an hour for our fast passes, and then we need to go do this..."

My advice is, if you've only got one day, plan it out. Figure out which rides are the most important to you and the people you're going with, start at one, and work your way around. When most people enter the park, they either start in Fantasyland, because those are the rides that little kids want to go on first, or they go to the right and start out in Tomorrowland. If you head to Liberty Square or Frontierland, start there, and work your way counterclockwise around the park, you'll beat a lot of the crowds. Also, get to rides that don't offer fast passes and have ridiculously long wait times later in the day, like Pirates of the Caribbean, and ride them when the park opens and they're not crowded (That was my plan.)
And if you discuss the plan with your group and they like it, make sure that they follow it. Don't start at the Haunted Mansion and then walk all the way over to Space Mountain (like we did) because someone doesn't feel like waiting until later to ride it. Not only does it waste time and make for extra walking, it also means you're walking through the two most crowded sections of the park when they're most crowded.
Also, get a times guide. This way you'll know when the parades are (because you could be stuck on one side of the park until it's over if you don't). The guide will also tell you what time shows are and (usually) what time character meet and greets are, but always ask the cast members about that. We rushed around like crazy and ran from the back of Fantasyland all the way to the park entrance because the times guide said that Rapunzel would only be doing meet and greets until 5 o'clock, when she was really doing them until 8 o'clock.