I thought of this last night as I was squirming around trying to think of where m WDW CP ID was so that I can avoid a $35 fine from Access Control (which has now been found by my father in our massive basement - thanks dad!), that I'm really gonna miss my twin brother this summer.

We've never actually been apart for a long time, we practically grew up side-by-side. When we were younger, we grew up in a hotel. Mom was the lounge singer, and we had our own room in the hotel while mom slept in the living room. We got into such crazy antics all the time with our friend who worked at the candy counter (Who I had such a crush on) and our rich friend who's dad owned the hotel. We also went to high school together....on a cruise ship...oh wait, thats not my life. That's Dylan and Cole Sprouse on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody...my bad.

Okay, I don't have twin brother (wouldn't that be awesome?), but I do have a younger brother who's 18 and growing fast. We grew up together, practically side-by-side and this will be the second summer that I'll be away from him which is especially hard on me because he's graduating high school, and I won't be there to experience some of the important aspects of leaving High School: prom, graduation parties, getting ready for college....don't get me wrong, I'll be there for Graduation (I'm hopping a plane from Orlando on a Saturday, attending graduation on Sunday and hading back to work on Monday), I don't care if I get a reprimand, I will be there for his graduation...

But because of Disney being so far away from Michigan, I won't be there to guide him though some of these milestones like a big brother should. And that huts me inside. I want to make up for it through giving him a free vacation to Disney World, but he's been there so many times (including when I worked there in '07 for free) that he's probably sick of it by now...

We're going to college together for a semester, his first and my last, and I plan on spending alot of time with him to get him settled into the college life yet still giving him room to grow on his own, I just really wish that Disney World wasn't that far away this summer so I could be there to experience the traditions of leaving high school, like he did with me (albeit from far away because he was younger then).

I've never seen Brother Bear, but I might watch it to pick up some tips. =)

What about you? Any siblings or family members that you're sad to leae behind fo 5 - 8 months? Are your families going to come visit you on your program or vice-versa? Leave your stories in the comment below.

Have a Magical Day!

So as the days get closer to me leaving for Florida (4 days, 20 Hours, 0 Minutes, 0 Seconds),I've realized my blogs are getting more sparse. So for those who absolutely love reading these everyday, I apologize. If I come up with interesting topics between now and Check-in I'll make sure to post them...

One topic that has been on my mind ever since I came home for what is considered all one-week of my summer vacation is the ever painful subject of Packing.

I say painful, because I am known to be somewhat of an over packer. So much that on my first program, my mother flew down with me so that I could have one extra suitcase for all of my things for 5 months (there were other reasons but that was one of the main ones)! Thai time however, I do not have that luxury.

I finished packing my ONE (yes I shall repeat, ONE) suitcase of clothes, bed spreads and towels that I'll need this summer. It is literally packed to the core nothing else can fit into it. If a gernerous relative gives me some clothes to take down I would have to say "Sorry Generous relative, but I cannot fit it into my suitcase, so therefore I cannot take it with me...' Okay, so I won't be doing that but that's how much the suitcase is packed!

Lets just say I'll be doing laundry every two weeks...which means I'll have to make good friends with some ICP's because there is NO WAY I'm sanding $10 every two weeks on laundry. Not happening. Call me stubborn, thats just the way it is.

If you haven't realized by now, I'm flying down to Florida and so I do not have the luxury of packing 3 suitcases of things that I will ultimately not need, but I'll want to have with me for sentimental reasons because thats what an over packer does...

Northwestern Airlines (the airline I wlll be flying on) lets you have one suitcase per customer with charges for suitcases over 50lbs. (Which I'm hoping mine is under but we can never be too sure) And I'm bringing a carry on that can be considered a carry-on but they'll have to put in that special bin before you get on the plane. That will be used to bring my material possessions which does not include my computer because the screen burned out and I'm using my television screen right now to get online and use other things my computer does and I unfortunately cannot bring my TV and I don't plan on shipping it. So this little bug will be without a computer unless I get the urgent need to get on a bus to Vista Way from Patterson (fingers crossed) to go to the Media Center to log on for hours. Fun times!

So I'll be packing my material possessions which I can tell you right now will include my pin set, my POTC flag, my Little's Fraternity Plank he made for me (everybody go "awwww" now!), a mickey photo album, many DVD's to watch on my roommates TV which I'm sure we'll have because I'm optimistic about that...

Other things I'll figure out as I go along. Some things I'll have to leave here but I honestly have no use for them, it'll just be nice to have them with me. But sacrifices will have to be made because for this 3 months summer expedition I will not have the luxury of packing everything I own. I'll get over it eventually!

How is your packing going? Any interesting stories to share? Anything you're sad about leaving? Are you flying or driving? How much are you packing? Help me out and leave me your stories and tips about packing in the comments below....

...and I have yet to find my ID. Lets hope I find that today in the midst of my cleaning and packing. Lauren has to find her chapstick and 8GB Flash Drive...I'm right there with you Lauren!

Have a Magical Day!

- Will

So a little birdie told me that by calling College Recruiting and getting your Personal Number and then calling Casting that you could find out your location before your arrival date.

*Sidenote - I wouldn't advise doing this if you like surprises or If you feel
you're going to be dissapointed by what you hear...*

Well I did that today (which I really shouldn'tve have because I'm technically on Vocal Rest and I shouldnt've made any phone calls), and found out where I'm working for the summer...

...which is EPCOT Towers and Glow. If you're not familiar, Glow is a section of Merchandise which is my role - where you either walk around a park dressed in glowy tubes selling them to children and adults for usually $5 when it gets dark (usually before a parade or fireworks)...or you're stationed in a section of the park with a cart where you sell glow toys and you get to play with them. Another part of the job description is during the day you get to stand outside selling squeeze-breezes (the squirt bottles with the fan) or other water dispensing objects and in my case I would also get to work at The Two Towers - which are the two merchandise stations right before you entire World Pavillion.

When I first heard I was working at EPCOT I was on the fence. Let me explain...as some of you know, EPCOT isn't my favorite park. In fact it's my least. I particuarlly dislike Illuminations - the fireworks show at the park - and becauuse it's a learning pavillion i didn't spend as much time there as the other parks on my first program. Now that's not to say I dislike the park entirely. There are some aspects of the park I like. World Pavillion, Soaring, The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Space Ship Earth will always be favorites of mine, but as a whole i do feel the park is pretty boring.

So its safe to say when the lady told me over the phone that I would be working EPCOT Towers and Glow I was at first dissapointed.

But then I thought something...

When I was deployed to Glow in the Magic Kingdom on my First program, I had the time of my life! I loved walking around as "Glow Boy" and entertaining guests, dancing, performing and interacting with them, being in the parade and making people smile. That put a smile on my face and joy in my heart to know I was a part of something that great!

In addition to that, this might give me a new appreciation for the park and I'll get to see it in a different way than I did as a guest. I'll meet new people, interact with guests the same, and there's more to do on the program outside of work!

Plus...I won't have to wear long sleve shirts, slacks and a vest to work every day...that's always a plus. In addition, this will encourage me to pick up more shifts at other parks for the summer and get more money.

Here's what people had to say about Glow and Epcot in the Summer Alumni Facebook Group:

"Glow, is you stand around with a cart full of glowing
objects to sell to people, but glow is fun you can like play with the toys to
get peoples attention. Plus the bus rides to EPCOT from the Housing Pavillions
are short. Magic Kingdom busses take like an hour."

"I was just reading about this glow stuff, and it sounds
awesome, you'll be like a walking Raver. lol. Maybe you could add some funky
techno to your cart, and you'll have a one man party. Oh the
possibilities."

"Glow is awesome at epcot, everyone always wants a toy.
You get to wear them all crazy like and if you're lucky, you can ride a segway
with them. =D Just depends who your manager is."

" I got deployed to glow for a week when i was on my
program. it was at mk though. it really want bad at all... you get put in a
location and your out there by yourself which can kinda sound boring but it was
actually a lot of fun... I was kinda sad I was only there for a week. I did
squeeze breeze during the day too which was not so much fun bc it was superrr
hot outside!!Im not sure if it's the same at epcot though... but it def. sounds
like your doing so sort of glow. "

"Remember...no location is final until you're actually
there..."

That last one stuck with me. Nothing is final until 12 days from now when they hand me my sticker sand say you're working (INSERT LOCATION HERE). So I could've been working myself up over nothing. The Magic Kingdom will always be my favorite park, but it'll be nice to work somewhere else and get a different experience.

Cause as the songwriter says:

"Life's what you make it...so lets make it rock!"

As I sit here sick, tired and dreading my Pop Culture final (the paper I wrote on Disney movies got shot down and burned to the ground), I can't help but think how people get so overworked over the Swine Flu epidemic but will still go to the theme parks.

I heard from one of my friends working down there now that people are walking around the parks with masks on to not catch any symptoms of the swine flu. To me, that's utterly ridiculous.

You would think that if you'd spent so much money to go to a theme park that you'd focus more on the experience.

I got this from StitchKingdom:

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Mickey Mouse, Pluto, the Fairy Godmother and other Walt Disney favorites were still dishing out kisses, handshakes and high-fives
at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday, despite the flu virus alert gripping the
United States.

At the world famous Florida theme park, which is run by Walt Disney Co and visited by millions each year, enthusiastic crowds filled the avenues and rides, apparently unworried by the warnings of a possible pandemic of a new strain of influenza A (H1N1) virus.

The United States has declared a health emergency and in Mexico, where up to 176 people have died following the outbreak there of the virus originally termed ?swine flu, the government has ordered a five-day partial shutdown of nonessential government offices and businesses. The Mexican Health Ministry also warned people against touching or kissing while greeting each other.

Authorities in the United States, who have reported 109 confirmed swine flu infections but only one death, are recommending that people sick with flu symptoms seek treatment and stay home. Florida is testing a number of suspected cases.

At the Magic Kingdom on Thursday, one mother pressed her baby?s face into the costumed character Pluto's furry snout for a kiss. Other youngsters continued to snuggle up to various other Disney characters and share high-fives, while fidgety kids slid their hands along the rope lines while waiting to get on the rides.

Among the crowds were the Jansens from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. They said they were not worried about bringing their 2-year-old and 7-year-old children to the Magic Kingdom.

There's no concern for us. We always go to the big public places with the kids, said Ed Jansen. Just like any Dutch man or Dutch woman, we have both feet on the floor. We're not a panicked people.

Coordinating the international campaign against the new flu virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has its current alert level just one notch below a full pandemic.

Despite some official fears that crowded venues could increase contagion risk, there were no visible extraordinary precautionary measures in place at Disney?s Magic Kingdom.

Trash sweepers, as usual, swept up bits of garbage almost before they touched ground, but they did not appear to be doing any extra disinfecting or unusual
cleaning.

I have strepp throat right now (not swine flu), and I'm trying to get better so that I can enjoy my experience during the summer. But just because I'm trying to get better, it dosen't mean that as soon as I get down there I'm going to be extremely health conscious every moment while I'm on my program. I've seen custodial do their job and they know what they're doing and they teach us to wash our hands and be health safe while on the job.

So unless the Swine Flu epdemic gets so bad that they have to shut down the theme park (which won't happen - God forbid it does), I'm not going to worry or be extremely health concious...cause remember:

"Safe-D Begins With Me!"

My last vlog from school and on a Mac...SADNESS PERSONIFIED! Hopefully I'll get that computer I talk about in the vlog for my birthday so I can make sweet vlogs again!

...not in the way you might be thinking however.

I recently stumbled upon this website through a friend of mine called Castmember.com , an interactive web community specifically designed and operated by Disney Cast Members past and present.

It's operated entirely almost the same as Facebook where users can interact with other cast members around the world through wall posts, group discussions and photo upload capabilities. It even has a user feed just like Facebook that lets you know what your friends are up to and what groups have been updated.

What I find most interesting is being a social networking site itself, it encompasses a lot of other social networking sites within it like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and more all in their own database so that friends can browse their friends other social networking sites without even leaving the website.

There's also a "CastBlog" feature (mirroring Facebook's "Notes" function) where cast members' blogs can be read by other members of the site - leaving opportunities for others to make friends and get to know them.

 I haven't been able to explore the website fully but I joined on Monday and I have one friend so far, my future co-worker Jaime. I don't know how popular this will be on my list of websites to visit every day but it looks interesting none-the-less. 

Have you guys heard about this website? And if you're on it please be my friend...being the Social Networking fiend that I am, I can't stand not having online friends. I just won't stand for it. 

A recent fad going around on the Summer Alumni Facebook group is having cast members who are currently statused and have access to the Hub to find out what their work location is early.

For those unaware, the Hub is a virtual resource that provides all Cast Members with a single source for accurate, timely and

relevant information, including messages from executives, company news, work schedules, information about products and services, tools Cast Members need to perform their roles, Cast discounts and Cast activities.

I haven't had access to the Hub since May of 2007, the last time I was in Florida and on WDW property, and I can't log in again because every 3 months they make you change your password for security reasons. Ergo, I cannot log in and try to see my work location early.

Some people (including myself) have tried getting people who do have access to look them up under contacts and try to see that way if their work status would show. For some of them, they work, for others they don't, and for some they are not even in the system yet. For me, I've had two people try to see if my status shows, and since I am a Campus Representative, it either shows up as "Attractions H/H" or "Campus Representative" ... meaning until they transfer me over (when the season ends), I cannot find out my work location for the summer.

A part of me is relieved, I kind of like the element of surprise - which is one of the reasons I'm rooming blind, I mean unless an awesome roommate potential comes along and sweeps me off my feet (literally) and I change my mind. The day I was on my first check-in and I was told I was working in the Magic Kingdom, my heart jumped out of my chest (literally...it wasn't a pretty sight) and I had the biggest smile on face because of the surprise...

On the other hand, when I go for my second check-in and I get lets say...a resort or EPCOT - two places where working merchandise would not appease me - and they tell me I get one of those areas in Merchandise, I don't want to have my heart sink into a dark abyss and be disappointed the entire summer...I mean don't get me wrong, but once you work at a place like the Emporium, it's pretty hard to upgrade.

But none of that currently matters, because I cannot check my status until they change me over anyway and 20 days is seeming to come closer and closer now, so I'll guess I'll just wait.

What would you guys do? Would you keep trying to see if they put up your status? Would you wait out the storm? Would you contact a old manager friend and pull some strings? Leave your comments below...

Oh! That reminds me...I had a little chat with one of my favorite managers Dwight about a week ago. (Before my computer screen died...sadness) He was very excited that I was coming down for another program (though it may be short) and said he'd try to pull some strings to get me back into the Emporium...so maybe I'm doing all of this worrying for nothing! We'll see in 20 days.

-----------------------------------------------

In other Disney News:

• If you're a fan of Pixar Animation character's turning up in the parks like Wall-E or Remy from Ratatoullie then you'll be pleased to hear (a rumor) that the Pixar logo him/her self will make an appearance in the WDW parks soon. Luxo Jr., the lamp shown at the beginning of all Pixar Films either jumping on the I, or doing something else funny is being worked on right now. Read all about it at TheDisneyBlog.

• As I said in my last Vlog on Friday, I'll be having lunch/dinner with LaurenandMatt from YouTube - however, not in Michigan as I planned...when we get down to Florida we'll have a grand 'ol time in one of the parks or off property getting to know each other cause they're such awesome people!

• There has been some controversy with Disney changing the name and profession of the first Black princess in The Frog Princess scheduled to open soon. Instead of being a chambermaid - she'll be an aspiring restaurant entrepreneur and her name will be changed from Maddy (being too closely related to "Mammy" a common term for Black Female slaves) to Tiana. I plan on doing a blog on this later so I won't focus too much on it here. Just making you aware.

Enjoy your week and make it magical!

- Will

Wow! I make alot of Talky Blogs...I have a problem!

"Hi! My name is Will, and I'm addicted to making Talky Blogs!"

Anyway, I'll get pack to regular posting sometime this weekend... this week has been crazy stressed out with reports and homework and the like so until then, enjoy this next Talky Blog where you'll get a tour of my fraternity house plus some other updates with me and the college program.

23 Days until the best summer job ever!

- Will

Sad day...again. I woke up to this on the Orlando Sentential

Two people died in a head-on collision on Epcot Center Drive early Sunday,
Florida Highway Patrol said.A 50-year-old Orlando man was traveling north on
Epcot Center Drive in the wrong direction at about 2 a.m. Authorities said he
collided with a Honda that was driving south. Both vehicles caught on fire, and
both drivers were trapped in their vehicles.They died at the scene of the
accident, FHP said.The driver of the Honda was 19-year-old Aaron Pichoff of Winter
Garden. Authorities have not released the name of the other
driver.

Investigators have not yet determined whether the driver of the
first car had been drinking.

This news follows from a couple of weeks ago when a Cast member was killed in an automobile accident with a Disney World Bus. I strongly urge all of my Cast member friends to drive safely and be very aware of your surroundings.

Please keep the families of all the victims in your thoughts and prayers.

Talky Blog interviewing myself so you can get to know me better...plus a few other updates as well...