Nearing the end…

Making the most of what was left of the DCP involved A LOT of “squeezing things in” each day! I wish I would have spaced things out a little bit more because I found myself trying to cross everything off my bucket list once December rolled around. I finally realized I had a ton-more stuff I wanted to do and very little time to do it.

December 1st was our Sleeping Beauty Castle Picture! Anyone in the DCP who wanted a memorable photo of them self surrounded by their fellow CPs was welcome to go. Not everyone ended up going though since it was at 7am before the park opened. I mean- that’s early if you worked a full week and had an long shift the previous day… but to me, it was worth it!

Then I spent the rest of the day in the park with my friend, Chris, being touristy!

At the beginning of December I received this Candy-gram from my friend James! It was so sweet of him to think of me and I wanted to return the thoughtfulness, but I think they only offered them for a week or so and I didn’t know that BUT THANK YOU JAMES haha

A couple days later I decided to go to the park to do some more bucket list things, but I couldn’t find any of my friends to go with. That’s the nice thing about the DCP though- you live in the same apartment complex as everyone else in the program… plus you’re already Facebook friends with most of them. So what did I do? I messaged one of my Facebook friends that I’ve been meaning to get to know (sadly I waited until the last month!). Turns out Emily and Jennifer were literately my neighbors haha! So the 3 of headed over to Disney and one of the things that we did was ride in the Caboose of the train for the first time!

When the day was over and the park was about to close we headed over to California Adventure for yet another event! This time we got to tour Soarin’ Over California. First we rode it and then we got to go BEHIND the screen! To my surprise, the screen is metal and has small little holes in it! I even touched it… shh! Haha. They let us smell the beads of the 2 scents they use- oranges and pine. Oh my gosh, if Disney was to sell those beads in the parks, they’re sell like HOT CAKES! The tour guide rattled off a lot of (really cool) facts about the attraction, but I honestly can’t remember them. I know he was saying that one(?) of the clips was kinda fake… like it was photo-shopped. I think it was the one with the hand glider. The person is really hand gliding, just not in the location that they show him in. Another interesting fact is that in one of the clips there’s a guy just chillin’ up on a mountain just so he could be in the video because he heard they were filming that day… he was waiting there for HOURS! And the snowboarder who falls, really does fall! haha. There’s also a Hidden Mickey in the film, and no, not the one at the end. I’ll give you a hint- it’s during the golf course clip. The fact that was mind blowing to me though was learning how much they spend on film and how quickly they go through it! I think they said something along the lines of each roll of film costing $10,000 and it lasting 30-60 days… times 2 since they have 2 theaters! Shesh!! The film gets worn out because it’s constantly being played. That’s why the attraction is currently being refurbished- so they can switch to digital! Now I know why the ticket prices are so expensive haha! So make sure you go on Soarin’ over California so you can make the most of your park admission!!

Here’s a Facebook status I posted:) What a beautiful night! I think that was the first time I stood between the tree and the castle on the middle of Main Street… if you haven’t stood there during the Lighting Ceremony/Fireworks, I definitely recommend it!

My friend, Katie, from high school & college decided to take a spontaneous trip to Disneyland with her two friends, so since my plans got cancelled I decided to spend the day with them. I’m so happy I did because they were so sweet and they really cheered me up! Katie is a DCP alumni so it was fun being able to talk to her- sharing our experiences and memories.

Sarena and I realized we never spent a whole day together just us two… so this called for a BEST FRIEND DATE! We went to the movies and saw Mocking Jay, did some shopping for the Celebration party the following night, ate at Buffalo Wild Wings and then headed to Disneyland (duh!). So as we were driving there, we feel a thud so Sarena pulls over and it turns out she got a flat tire… thankfully we were right in front of a donut shop! …I mean- thankfully we were in a good area! Haha 😉 so we call AAA and we know it’s gonna be a little while so while we’re waiting we thought it was necessary to get a donut… I mean it was the nice thing to do since we were parked right in front of the shop. We were just trying to be courteous… since they were staring at us. The donuts, not the people. That would be rude.

Oh, and Sarena had window markers in her car so we figured out another way to pass the time!

We finally got to Disneyland… with 30 minutes before park close- but that’s plenty of time! We were the last ones on Pirates (Sarena’s tradition that I was honored to be apart of) and then spent the rest of our time on Main Street as we took a gazillion pictures with the Castle and the Christmas tree… that’s what people do on their day off, right? Oh, and bugged our favorite custodial co-workers a little too! Another necessity.

Here’s a selfie we took this fun couple that we started talking to on Main Street. When we asked if we could get a picture with them they replied, “only if you put it on Instagram!” haha

Sarena and I also found this half-and-half light bulb at Coke Corner that one of our leads told me about. When Walt put the light bulbs in he didn’t want a odd number of white and red bulbs, so he made one BOTH!

This day was one of my favorites, but to top it all off… Sarena and I decided to take advantage of the empty park and so we just started to dance. We were at Rapunzel’s tower watching her hair glow and there was just something about being there alone that was magical. These are the nights I miss.

The next day was Celebration! But I think I’ll just make a new post just about that since it was a very fun and eventful evening!