Carrying on my tradition from Trek America last year, I filmed each section of my 2 week trip in June.
Following my blog post on New York, here is my video from my few days in the Big Apple.
Explore :: New York City
New York has always been on my list of places to visit one day. Although I never really knew what to expect. Everyone who has been has said how amazing it is, but a part of me felt slightly intimidated by the huge city. I'd always imagined I'd be in New York in the winter. Visions of the thanksgiving day parade, ice rinks, snow and giant Christmas trees lined my thoughts of how I'd spend my first visit to NYC. Basically Home Alone: Lost in New York with less drama. However, last month I made my first visit to New York City, in the heat of June.
I landed in JFK and made my way through the city traffic to meet the girls at our Air BnB apartment. We headed straight to Central Park, picked up a pretzel from one of the dodgy looking street venders and wandered around taking in the sights. We had tickets that evening to see Aladdin on Broadway, which was definitely one of the best shows I've seen. The genie was hilarious and fully deserved his Tony award. If you're in New York in the near future, definitely purchase some tickets. After the show, we explored Time Square at night. I feel Time Square is something that would have been amazing 5+ years ago, but with the rest of the world catching up with technology it was slightly underwhelming. Plus there were extremely creepy dressed up characters. which I was not a fan of.
The next day we had a typical New York tourist day. We started our day with an iced latte from Dunkin' Donuts and took a boat ride over to see the Statue of Liberty. The three of us are big Friends fans, so it was no question that we needed to buy Chandler style Statue of Liberty hats. Happily exclaiming that "New York is awesome!".
Having taken as many photos as possible of the iconic landmark, we made our way to Chelsea Market for lunch. We were a bit spoilt for choice, so decided on pizza and some doughnuts from Doughnuttery. We climbed up the steps to the Highline to eat our food and enjoy the New York sunshine, with a quick stop at the gelato stand of course.
Exploring more of New York, we went in search for Carrie's NYC apartment and had cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. We even tracked down the Friends apartment after looking at a whole street of what seemed to be identical buildings.
With tired feet, we made our way back to the apartment to get ready for our last evening in New York. We had reservations for Top of the Rock, which we'd purposely booked so we could watch the sunset whilst we were there. I'm so glad we did, as we got to see the cityscape in both day, dusk and night. It was a great way to end the New York part of our adventure.
What to Wear to Disney Traditions
One of the main things everyone seemed to worry about prior to both of my Disney College Programs was what to wear to Traditions. There's so much hype and nervous excitement around this element of your Disney training, it seems to have created some panic over what is suitable to wear.
To be short and sweet, just wear what you'd wear to an interview. If your Mum and Grandma would approve of it, you're probably good to go.
Although I will be more helpful than that, don't worry.
Girls
You're free to wear dresses, skirts or trousers to Traditions. Just make sure your skirts and dresses are to the knee or below and any tops don't show off too much cleavage. Follow those two rules and you'll be absolutely fine. Patterns and colours are also acceptable, don't believe those rumours that you can only wear black, white, grey and navy.
I'd also advise that whatever you wear, you'll be comfortable outside in Florida's heat. You will be going outside, so for that reason I'd suggest a dress or skirt and blouse combination over trousers and a blouse. If you get chilly, take a cardigan for Florida's crazy air conditioning when you're inside.
Shoes wise, I'd 100% recommend wearing flat shoes. You will be walking around, so unless you own a pair of super comfy heels which you're competent walking in for a while, go with the flats.
If it helps, I wore a knee length floral Ted Baker dress and grey flats for both my Traditions classes and it was acceptable.
You can view Disney's acceptable clothing guidelines here. Take a look, make sure you follow them and you'll be fine.
Guys
You have it easy in comparison to the girls. Wear a smart pair of trousers and a shirt and you're good to go. There's no need to wear a tie, but you're more than welcome to if you want. Just make sure all your clothes are neatly pressed and in traditional patterns and colours. Best to leave that Hawaiian shirt and your jeans for your days in the park.
As I said for the girls advice, wear something that you'll be comfortable in both outside in the heat and inside in the often chilly air conditioning.
In terms of shoes, wear a pair of traditional smart shoes in a suitable colour. Boat/Deck shoes aren't allowed.
Think of what would have been acceptable in school and at work interviews and you'll be fine.
If you want to double check your outfit is suitable, you can view the Disney guidelines for men here.
Everyone
You'll need a few outfits that match these Traditions guidelines, as you'll also be wearing smart attire for your introduction and training classes before you get given your costume. About 4 smart clothing options should be enough.
Also don't forget, you will need to be adhering to the Disney Look guidelines at this stage. You should have already have had some information on this, but if not it can be viewed here.
Hope this helped with your packing for Disney Traditions. Keep it sensible and you'll be fine. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send me an email.
Have an amazing time, you're about to embark on an amazing experience, enjoy it!!
