Seaworld, manatees and the triple threat to Florida!

Hi everyone,

How you all doing? Here's a quick update for you!

Things here are going really well at the moment. I was seating the other day at the restaurant. That's when you show guests to their table. I got chatting to this absolutely amazing family. They were great! I was chatting to them for about half an hour and they were the nicest guests I've ever had, either here or back on the cruise ships. It was two adults and three kids (Zac, Matt and Katie) and they were just brilliant. I loved talking to them! We were laughing about the dumb guest comments I get and they asked all about England (which people NEVER seem to do) and they were just so friendly. Honestly, if all my guests were like that, I wouldn't need paying to do my job! I went to management and asked if we could do something nice for them so I ended up making them the "Table of the Day" and getting them free smoothies. I won't forget that family for a long time. Just the memory is making me smile.

A bit later in the day, I did the magic moment again with a little boy called William. He was six and very excited to be chosen. I gave him the Mickey wand and he was enthusiastically waving it around "directing" the fireworks. He was a little too enthusiastic because he ended up clopping this other guest on the head! She said, "excuse me! That hit me!" and then William's mother answered, "ease up, he's only a little kid and you're ruining his day!" I suggested we move to further along the deck and the mother said loudly, "yes, lets get you away from the frosty faced bitch woman!" I wanted to die! Poor William, it did ruin his moment, he was so subdued afterwards. When the guest had gone, I went to the other table and apologised profusely for them being hit in the head. They were actually really nice about it but I was upset it had happened to either guest. I'd been having such a nice day!

My signature magic trick is being copied. I have a thumb trick where I produce a red light from nowhere, throw it around and get rid of it. It's really effective. However, Nathan turned up to work today with the same thing. I thought it would ruin it (that's MY power!) but instead, Nathan and I have been throwing this ball of light across the restaurant and all the guests love it! We got alot of guest comments and at the end of the day, I was given two guest fanatic cards from two different people for entertaining the guests. They go on your record so its great to recieve those!

I used the I-Ride trolley again today. I caught the trolley from stop 41 which is just the other side of the premium outlets to stop 33 where Seaworld is. Cast members get a discount on the I-Ride, it only costs 25 cents! Excellent! I love the I-Ride, the trolleys are green and have smiling faces on the front. Ahhh, the little things!

I paid for a year pass at Seaworld. You can set up a direct debit from your paycheck so they're taking $20 a month which really helps to spread the cost. I LOVE Seaworld! I got to touch and feed stingrays and dolphins and I saw alligators and manatees. I watched the shows and I just had the most amazing day. I could easily spend the rest of my life in Seaworld, I'm such an animal nut! The ticket I chose also includes Aquatica, Seaworld's new waterpark so I have a year pass for there too!

I'm really excited about tomorrow because.....I'm swimming with manatees! I'm being collected really early in the morning to go by coach to Crystal River to snorkel with manatees. I can't believe it! I'm bouncing in my chair, I'm so excited! I saw some manatees today at Seaworld and I don't remember them being that big. That's a little scary. Still, they call them "gentle giants" so it should be okay. I'll get photos, even if I have to go without food for the next month! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Oh, trying to describe what a manatee is to Saori and Nami (my Japanese housemates) was so funny. I said they were like big cows with tails. Vikki was even worse. She said, "just think of a dolphin that's been sat on by a giant. They're like flat dolphins!"

We got a letter through the letterbox this morning. "Hurricane Preparedness" again! Gustav luckily missed us but Hanna looks like she's barrelling right for us. She's a category one at the moment and right behind her are tropical storms Ike and Josephine. They're calling it the "Triple Threat". No one is certain where Ike and Josephine are gonna hit yet though. I guess they were right about it being an active season. Whew!

Right, well, you're all up to date again for now. I will let you know how tomorrow goes as soon as I can!

Gustav, Hanna and ER Baby!

I've been seating for the last couple of days at the restaurant. I really enjoy seating, you get to talk to the guests and it's not exactly a difficult job. I've been working six hour shifts but today I got ER'd at 4pm! ER stands for Early Release and when there's too many staff on, the managers go round and ask if you want to go home. I only had a couple of hours left but I jumped at the chance anyway. It was great! I like being ER'ed. As I left I kept saying, "ER, Baby!"

The big news at the moment is Gustav and Hanna. Hurricane Gustav is an extremely dangerous hurricane. He is currently a category three storm but looks like he may become a five. Five is the worst you can get. I feel really fortunate in a guilty kind of way because it looks like it will miss us and come barrelling up through New Orleans who are only just getting back on their feet from Katrina who hit three years ago. Katrina was a category three storm so a five is really getting attention. Everyone is watching Gustav like a hawk, just in case he swings to the east but it's unlikely. I feel so sorry for New Orleans. They are very badly situated to deal with hurricanes of any strength, let alone one with winds up to 155mph! They are strongly suggesting the evacuation of New Orleans and that will become mandatory tomorrow morning at 8am. These photos above show Gustav at the moment. It hasn't even hit yet. I really feel for Louisiana and I hope everyone gets through it unscathed up there.

The second storm is TS (Tropical Storm) Hanna. She's quite a way off at the moment and all that's happened is she's made a rather dangerous undercurrent rip off the coast. At the moment, it looks like she will hit the Bahamas and run out of energy before she reaches Florida but once again, we're keeping a weather eye on her, no pun intended. It really looks like this year will be a very active season. It's only August, the middle of hurricane season isn't until September and already we've had eight storms (Arthur, Bertha, Cristobel, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav and Hanna). The next one will be Ike, followed by Josephine and Kyle. If it's just tropical storms, it won't be too bad but surely one of them will be a hurricane? Still, I'm not too worried. Obviously, I'm slightly nervous but I honestly believe that Disney is one of the safest places to be when a hurricane hits. The people of Florida are so used to hurricanes, they know what to expect and when. They take all of them very seriously, even "diva storms" like Fay (that come, make alot of noise, promise alot worse and then fizzle out). One thing that made me smile is the name for the 20th storm of this year. That will be Hurricane Vicky. My roommate is called Vikki and back home, my mum and little niece both call me Vicky. I can imagine the headlines! "Vicky threatens Florida!", "Bush declares state of emergency from Vicky", "Florida is unprepared for Vicky".....

I'm assigning again tomorrow. I'm hoping I'm only training as I have asked for extra training but it looks like I may be flying solo. I don't like that idea but I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing before I go, we've finally got a TV here at 1615! Yay! I got a DVD player at one of the throwouts so I'll set that up in a minute. I cannot believe how long we've gone without TV. When no one's home, the apartment feels so quiet. I turned it on today but I forgot how dire Amercan TV really is. They make an episode of Friends (22 minutes), last an hour due to adverts. I think I'll be using the DVD player most.