CATS KIDZ DANCE AT DISNEY 2011

After 40  long weeks, a Senior Cabaret, a Sponsored Cancan, a Quiz Night, a Funday, a Smartie Challenge, a Princess Party, an Eggstravanganza,  Open Day, and  numerous cake sales - our blood, sweat and tears finally payed off - on the 21^st October 2011, the Catz Kidz were off to Florida!

After spending hours squeezing clothes in to our cases we were all packed up and ready to jet off. Unfortunately the trip didn’t start in the most glamorous way as we all had to drag ourselves out of bed to meet at Pool Meadows station for half past six - a far cry from the ‘fabulous’ life of touring dancers which we now like to refer to ourselves as.  Admittedly, it did get more exciting despite us all being slightly scarred by the early start as on the plane we managed to spy a very popular household name.

After many ‘omg, no way’ and ‘as if she’d be on our plane’ it was official, Davina Mcall was actually sharing the same air as us. So, of course, we felt the best way to communicate with such a celebrity was to write a note on a sick bag...luckily, she still came to meet us all, had quick photo and wished us the best of luck. This will now be our claim to fame for as long as we shall live. 

8 long hours later, we were finally there!  However things didn’t go quite to plan and we were struck with our first dilemma - they couldn’t find our reservation. After a long haul flight this is not what you want to hear but after much deliberation it was all sorted, food was brought and we were all tucked up in bed. Sixteen grumbly girls were transformed in to sleeping beauties ready for our exciting

adventures ahead.

Every day was jam packed but here is a short snapshot of everything we got up to:

22^nd October:

“there’s more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than can ever be done”

Our first day in America so of course we headed straight to the theme parks. Due to our celebrity encounter we thought it was appropriate to dress in shades. We also thought it’d help make our friends and family that little bit more jealous as we were in sunny florida and they were stuck in miserable England, where, knowing the typical weather forecast, it was raining.

When you’re surrounded by Disney merchandise it’s hard not to unleash the child at heart so we all ran straight to the gift stores and bought our selves signature books- our mission being to meet all the characters we possibly can.  It’s fair to say we were far too over excited and more in to the character than most of the children in the park.   As well as our character hunting mission we were fortunate enough to see some of the best shows Disney has to offer.  The first was the family favourite "Finding Nemo", which was an array of colour and puppeteering. Then we saw ‘The Lion King’ which left us all speechless and ready to join Simba and his friends.  We were in awe of the performers, as the rest of the audience might have noticed due to our nonstop wooping and clapping, and found it all very inspiring.

It all sounds too good to be true but then we got to see some of the worlds most beautiful animals whilst on the safari ride which we all agree was the most memorable ride of the day. After all it’s not every day you are within arms length of an elephant. It’d only been a day but we were sure that our American adventure was going to be something we’d never forget. 

23^rdOctober:

“It’s full of magic wrapped up in pixie dust, welcome to a place where dreams come true”

On our second day we travelled to the one and only ‘magic kingdom’- which was as magical as the name suggests! The nine am start was nothing in comparison to the gruelling six o’clock meet at the beginning of our adventure but it still meant we had a long day ahead of us. We were convinced we would run out of things to do but of course, at Disney World, that just isn’t possible. We managed to squeeze a go on every single ride we could and even managed to do a few of them twice.

24^th October:

Monday morning was SHOWTIME! This was what all our hard work had been for , nerves and excitement filled the air as we waited for a coach to pick us up and take us to our stage. Being the divas we are we of course, needed somewhere to rehearse. So where better than right in front of the hotel – much to the delight of passers by.

When the coach arrived we were greeted by the most enthusiastic chaperone which put our minds and nervous butterflies at ease. Rehearsals were done, moves were learnt, costumes were on and we were ready to show Downtown Disney what we were made of.

The show was a complete success, the audience were cheering us on the whole way through and we knew that we had done something to make ourselves, VJ, Christine and all our friends and family proud.

After the show, much to our delight, we had our first shop around Florida mall where everyone shopped till they dropped, spent far too many dollars and were now stuck with issue of having no room left in their suitcases.

25^thOctober:

After a fabulous reception to our show the day before we thought our trip couldn’t get any better but then we had a workshop with one of the Disney dancers which made us all feel like professionals. We learnt a few dances that they’d done in actual Disney shows and got to do a few mock auditions which will help us in our futures as dancers. We are all so very grateful for this opportunity, after all, not many people can say they’ve danced alongside a professional dancer.

To top off a great day we then stayed in Epcot to watch the firework show. ‘Show’ being an absolute understatement as it was the best spectacle we have ever seen. Stood in ‘Italy’, surrounded by Disney magic, and fireworks above our heads the moment was nothing less than picture perfect.

26^th – 28^th October:

As it was coming to the end of our holiday we thought we would have some good old fun and games- the perfect reward for all our hardwork. We went to Hollywood and Universal studios, islands of adventure, a water park, some more shopping and a good old fashioned American Halloween. As we dressed up in costumes, full blown make up, backcombed hair we were convinced we’d be the most over dressed people in the park but when we arrived at the Magic Kingdom we were suddenly reminded that we were in America and they don’t do anything by halves. The park was full of people in fancy dress, and even though it wasn’t as scary as the stereotypical Halloween we still celebrated in style. At the end of the night, we had gathered so much ‘candy’ from our trick or treating we had to give the remains to the hotel even after trying to cram it in to our suitcases.

29^th October:

Surprisingly after our previous shopping trip we still had some dollars to spend so we hit the mall again. Despite knowing our purchases wouldn’t fit in to our suitcases, our female brains took over and we returned to the hotel with armfuls of shopping bags- packing was going to be harder than we first thought.

30^th: We hit the second side of the Universal Studios and had our last day of being adrenalin junkies on all of the rides. We also made sure to soak up every single ray of sunshine we could so that our tans were perfected for our return to England.

31^st: Time to for our adventure to end, after a lazy morning and struggles with our suitcases we headed back to the airport and waved goodbye to magic kingdom for the last time.  Before we knew eight hours had passed and we were back home. Despite our adventure being over , it will be something that will stay with us forever, the pictures and memories being a constant reminder of how lucky we are , and the things we can achieve when we work as a team.

Thank you to VJ and Christine for taking us on such an amazing trip, to all the parents and chaperones who helped make the trip a reality and last but not least a big thank you to Amanda for putting up with the Senior Group and making sure we were always in the right place at the right time. We couldn’t have done it without you!