Home Again

Yep, I'm home safe and sound. I already kind of miss Florida and hanging out at Disneyworld with all the amazing people I met the last 5 months. The program really went by so fast and it kind of feels like it didn't even happen.

So whats next?......well I'll be starting my sophomore year of college in about a month. Right now I've just been relaxing at home. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job somewhere in town so I have something to do and can make some spending money.

I really want to do another program possibly starting in June and going through next January. I don't think I would want to do food and beverage again, but it's a possibility. I'm thinking that I would either like to do merchandise or attractions.

Then maybe my junior or senior year of college I would like to do a Professional Internship with the company. That would give me real experience in a job relating to my degree and give me the opportunity to network. It would be amazing if I can one day have a career with Disney.

For now I'm just happy to be home and looking forward to my next trip to Florida. I probably won't write much more in this until I start applying for my next college program, unless anybody has any questions for me about the program. :)

Thank you for reading and have a magical day!!!

GRADUATION!!!

YAY for graduating! haha. A couple days ago my program had its official graduation where we got our diplomas and our mickey ears. There was music, dancing, carnival-type games with prizes, free food, paddle boat races, and a few characters. It felt kinda like I was back in summer camp on the last day where everybody is excited to go home.

After graduation I, of course, went and hung out at epcot for the night with april :) We got slushies (bc it was so hoooooot!!!), rode a couple of rides, and stopped by France for amazing eclairs. We also kinda saw illuminations but we never really stopped to watch it hahaha. Ehh.....fireworks....no big deal :) I'm gonna miss being able to go to the parks whenever I want soooo much! I love being able to spend a couple of hours in magic kingdom or going to ride everest just because it sounds fun.

I definitely think I want to come back and do another program next year. I kinda love living in florida :) But if I do come back.....I'm definitely bringing my car!!!!!



Oh in other news........I'm being forced to move to another apartment for the last 10 days of my program. :( My apartment right now dropped to 50% capacity and that's when they empty the apartment so that they can put new people in. It just seems really unnecessary and kinda ridiculous to make us move 10 days before we leave. Oh well......I've vented. I'm moving to a new apartment this weekend......fun.......

Only 3 weeks left?!!

So, I was told to write another post so here goes nothing :) A lot has happened in the past month so I'm not sure where to start. The restaurant got quite a few new cps which was great. They had us all on 6 days a week because we were short handed while training everybody, but now we're good.

Umm......oh......THE AMAZING RACE (disney style)!!! This was something our managers put together for our restaurant and the restaurant next door to us. There were 16 teams of 2 and April and I decided to compete. We met at the restaurant for some free breakfast and began the race around Disney World. Each checkpoint had either a physical challenge or a trivia question and a clue to the next checkpoint. Through the day we went to all 4 parks and 2 resorts!! Let me just say that it was one of the most exhausting things I have ever done and that I was sore for 4 days afterwards. But in the end, April and I came out 8th (which we were proud of) and the winners turned out to be these 2 really in shape marathon runners (they shouldn't have been allowed to compete). It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I did it!

What else has happened? Oh there was 4th of July. Surprisingly, Hollywood Studios was pretty dead for that entire day. We even had really awesome fireworks at the end of the day. Our manager let us go outside and watch :)

Well not much else has happened. Sorry it took me so long to update. I can't believe I only have a few weeks left here. August 13 is going to be very bittersweet. I am going to miss it here sooooo much!

Magic Kingdom

So last night was another amazing night at MK. April and I got there around 915 at night. Well, we got some food at Kasey's Korner and then watched the summer nightastic fireworks at 10:00. After that we went and rode pirates and haunted mansion and got fastpasses for splash mountain. We watched the 11:00 parade which wasn't very crowded at all. It's so cool when the characters in the parade actually interact with you specifically. After the parade was over we still had 2 more hours until the park closed for the night. So we went on our own private splash mountain boat and hopped on thunder mountain railroad. Then we made our way over to fantasyland and got on peter pan's flight in no time at all. We ended the night with a nearly empty show of Philharmagic, where the doors open AutoMagically :)

I definitely plan on checking out mk late at night again this summer. Best ever!! :)

Summer Nightastic

Well I have finally passed the halfway point in my program (I think). Yay! I was pretty down for a little while there but now I've gotten myself in a good rhythm and am enjoying what I do. I don't know if I told you we had 2 more cps leave us :( When I got here in March, there were 9 cps and now we're down to 5 (we got 1 new cp last week). I really hope we get some new people in the restaurant soon because most of the exciting people left.

Anyways, summer Nightastic has begun at Disneyworld! So the fireworks/parade at MK are now different, DAK stays open an hour later, Epcot has a concert series, and HS has a dj at night and tower of terror got an update. So I went to MK the other day to see the new excitement and I have to say that I love the new parade! It's a lot better than the spectromagic. I did also like the new fireworks, but I'm a big 'Wishes' fan so it's hard to say that I loved it. It starts out kinda lame but the middle is really cool.

I've kinda gotten back in the habit of going to the parks on all of my days off. Which is fine except for the fact that I desperately need to go grocery shopping and I've been getting behind on my laundry again.

Lots of new people are coming soon!! YAY!! Can't wait for you all to get here, and have fun at checkin. Be sure you have all your paperwork and the proper ids so that checkin goes smooth. Also try to decide which apartments you would like to live in and how many roommates you're willing to deal with :)

TTYL :)

Caribbean Beach :)

Well my mom and sister were here for a few days. It was really nice to see both of them and take them around all the parks. My scheduler hadn't given me any of the days I requested off but I was able to give away a couple of my shifts to 2 really nice people I work with. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort which was really nice. It's really close to the Studios and Epcot which was very convenient. It was a huge resort (as in it had like 7 pools), and it was so pretty. And for $100 a night, we were all happy.

I was pretty exhausted after they left on Wednesday, but of course I had to go to work :)

A lot of new cps have been arriving the past couple of weeks. There's been lots of pool parties and traditions groups around. I'm always disappointed because I'm usually working whenever the housing complexes have their welcome parties. They usually have free food and a couple characters. I heard the one here at patterson the other day had mickey and stitch. Kinda sad I missed out.

So, thank you Abby for posting a question! Yes there is a hostess stand outside, that's where one person checks people in and where we have people wait to be called to their table. At the H&V there are a few different "jobs" you could be doing as a seater throughout the day. 1) Greeter: this is the person who stands outside with the computer and checks guests in. 2) Seater: the ticket prints out at the inside computer with the guest name and the table # and you go outside and call the guest etc. 3) Buffet Line: you basically wipe down the buffet line and make sure it stays clean. 4) Desserts: we are in charge of the desserts so we have to go to the kitchen and replace them when they get low, and we have to keep refilling the ice cream machine. Those are the 4 basic jobs for seaters. There are 2 more jobs that you have to be trained extra for: GT and Assignor. The GT is in charge of the money for the night, they deal with the servers throughout the night and bank them out at the end of their shifts. The assignor is the one who walks around the restaurant and assigns the parties waiting outside their table. This person has to make sure that each table they assign is clean, set for the correct number of people, and is ready for the guests.

That was kind of a long answer to your question abby but there it is! Well got to go! I have some homework from my College Program class, I'll talk about it next time :)

Sad Good-byes

So yeah, it's been like 10 days since I've updated this.....sorry bout that :) I don't have an excuse for you, oh well.

Anyways, this week was kind of sad because we had a group of cps leaving. We lost 3 great people from the H&V and we all already miss them. That's one of the tough things about being a cp, there are constantly people leaving and arriving. 5 months really isn't that long and it goes by really quickly. I can't believe I've already been here close to 2 months.

Well, this past week has been a lot of parks and work (as it should be). I kinda went to epcot way too many times. A cast member in mexico started to recognize me.....not a good thing. So my goal this week is to stay out of epcot entirely. We'll see if I can do it.

My mom and sister are visiting next week! yay!! I can't wait to see them and spend some time with them. We're going to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort with my 50% off discount! I love that cast members get such a great discount on hotels. It's only gonna cost about $100 a night. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like my scheduler gave me the days I asked for off. (Even though I requested them a month ago) So I'll be hanging out with them in between going to work......not exactly the best thing. Hopefully I can find somebody to take a couple of those shifts for me but if not......I'm gonna be exhausted from running around like crazy. It'll come down to me getting them in the park in the morning, spending a couple hours with them, going to work, and meeting them at the hotel at night.

Well that's all for now. I feel like I never have anything new to talk about on this thing. If any of you future cpers have questions about the program, feel free to ask them. I need something to talk about! :)

DAY OFF!!!!

Yay! It's finally my day off :) Yesterday was absolutely insane at the H&V. It was a Fantasmic night (of course) so we were busy busy the entire night. At one point we were 30 minutes behind on reservations and had an hour wait for walk ins. That's definitely the craziest I've ever seen it.

Last night was the cp spring formal at the Coronado Springs Resort. I couldn't make it since I worked until 11:15 but I heard it was a lot of fun. Free food, DJ, and there were characters there all dressed up for the dance. My roomie was really excited to see Minnie and Mickey all dressed up. There were also characters from Ratatouille and Mary Poppins was there. You never know who you'll run into at cp events.

I can't believe I've already been here for more than a month. Time really does fly by. Some cps I work with are already going home next week :( Then we'll be getting new cps the week after that (I think). I'm really gonna miss some of the people I work with that will be leaving. They're all great people that I enjoyed hanging out with.

Well not much else has been going on lately. I've been working a lot, I took my Safety in Motion class for work (very exciting stuff). A couple days ago after work I ran over to epcot to meet up with my roommates to ride soarin' and watch illuminations. It was way too hot/humid that day, so we were glad to get into the land. Illuminations is definitely my least favorite nighttime show here at disneyworld. The giant globe is cool and all, but there's like 10 minutes of just showing pictures which gets kinda boring when you're hot, tired, and ready to go home. I finally figured out where the cp bus drops you off at epcot. It's really confusing to get to the front gate, so I think I'm gonna stick with going to the ttc and taking the monorail to epcot.

I'm having a very exciting day off today. I went to wal-mart this morning and I think I might do a little laundry now. It's nice to have a day to relax, but I don't know if I'll be able to stay out of the parks completely today. Magic Kingdom anyone?

A Valuable Lesson

If you even remotely think that it is going to rain in florida.......bring an umbrella/pancho with you to work. :) Wanna know why I know this? Because I failed to bring an umbrella last week to work one day. And when I got off from work, it was pouring. As in torrential downpour that gets you soaked through in 30 seconds or less. Well what do cps do when its raining outside and we just got off work? We run to the bus of course. I literally felt like I had jumped into a swimming pool by the time I got to that bus. I was dripping wet. So learn this lesson.......umbrellas are your friends.

Lets see.....what else has been going on in florida? Well I spent a very magical day in Magic Kingdom with 2 fellow cps I work with, Vern and Drew. Definitely a lot of fun. We spent the day running around the park riding space mountain, splash mountain, haunted, jungle etc etc. Then since the park closed at 7:00 because of grad night we decided to go to downtown disney for some food. We met a dragon along the way :)
Oh hey, did anybody know that some schools have their proms at Disney World? Isn't that crazy?? A school had their prom in the Indiana Jones theater last night. I have to admit, I was kinda jealous.

Well that's it for now! Hopefully I'll be able to start posting these with pics more often :)
Have a Magical Day!!

Cast Adventures

So yesterday was one of my days off. One of my roommates, Becca, and I decided to go over to the Cast Connections store and Property Control. They are right next to each other and right across from Disney University. Definitely 2 really awesome places. Basically Property Control is full of merchandise that is broken/defective/too specific to sell to guests. For example, I saw a lot of shirts that said "Joe's 25th Birthday Celebration". Obviously if they put that in a regular Disney store it would take forever to sell. But anyways, they have some good stuff in there. I got a picture frame for my sister for really cheap because it was kinda faded. Everything in there is 75% off for all cast members. You have to show your id to get in and then they swipe it when you pay. They have a little bit of everything: hats, sweatshirts, t-shirts, jewelry, sunglasses, toys, etc. Also they are constantly changing what they have, so I think I'm gonna go back in a couple weeks to see if I can find anything else I want.
Cast Connections is right next door and is also a cast discount store. Stuff is a little more expensive in there because they don't carry damaged goods. I think it's just a lot of leftover merchandise from the parks/Disney stores. Disney is constantly putting new t-shirts/sweatshirts/everything into their stores and the old stuff has to go somewhere. I'm pretty sure it sorta just ends up in cast stores.
Well after our cast discount shopping adventure, Becca and I were going to go to Blizzard Beach. Right now cast members can go to the water parks for free!! (Until June I think) Unfortunately, we got there and the park was full to capacity. Weird right? I don't think that park is very big. So we decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon instead. My other roommate Tara works at Blizzard so she was disappointed we couldn't come visit her. But we had fun at Typhoon. I hadn't been there since I was like 7 years old so it was cool to go back. My favorite slide was by far the Crush 'n' Gusher. But we also did the 3 raft rides they have, their lazy river, and the wave pool. I wanted to go snorkeling too, but by that time it was getting late in the day so we skipped it.
After that we went over to Vista Way to sign up for CP classes. I signed up for the Experiential Learning class because it sounded the most interesting. I was really disappointed that they weren't offering the Exploration Series classes. I really wanted to take the Marketing class because that would pertain to my major. Oh well.
Then we went home and had a family meal with Danica. It was kinda cute to sit around the table and eat real food. Well we had chicken, tator tots, and green beans :) That counts as a real meal.
And finally I ended the day with the Great Movie Ride and Fantasmic. That was a lot to fit into one day, but it worked :D
It's so easy to find something to do here at Disney, and it's even better when you have someone to go on adventures with you! (Not that I haven't gone to the parks by myself multiple times).
Well, I've got work in about an hour and a half, so I'll try to write later this week.
Have a magical day!

Rain rain go away

So today it kinda rained. Yep........but rainy days are actually good to go to the parks on. I worked this morning until 145 and then was able to spend the rest of the afternoon at epcot with some cp buddies. :) What kinda sucked about my shift this morning (that started at 8) was that I had closed last night. So basically I got home at about midnight, got to sleep around 1, and had to get up for work at about 630. My roomie was sleeping when I got home and was still asleep when I left. I've been told by other cps that closing then opening shifts happen once in awhile and it's just something we gotta deal with. Oh well, sleep is overrated. I can sleep in tomorrow.

So a few days ago I got to spend the day over at animal kingdom with another cp friend that I work with. It was a lot of fun. We got to ride everest 3 times :) We also found jiminey cricket!! I was really excited because I had never seen that character anywhere in the parks before. He looked kinda lonely so we took a pic with him. I would put it up, but I don't have it :( Drew really needs to upload photos to facebook. Anyways, we pretty much did the entire animal kingdom park between 10:00 and 4:00, and we were done. The only thing we didn't do was the finding nemo show because we missed it by about 15 seconds. Seriously the people in front of us got into the show and we didn't. Oh well, I'll see it another day. After all, I do have about 4 1/2 more months here in Disney World.

That's all I have to report right now. I'm behind on laundry and grocery shopping right now. When you live in disney world, you tend to skip out on the boring everyday stuff you should do in order to go hang out in the parks and have fun :) My days off are thursday/friday so I'll be able to get caught up on stuff. Unless someone asks me to go to a park! :)

TTYL! :D

Somewhere over the rainbow!

Hey people!! So, I haven't blogged in a few days.....sorry bout that. It's hard to make myself just sit down to write a couple paragraphs. I really want to blog a lot because it'll be cool to have a record of my stay here in Orlando, so I shall continue! :)
So now that Spring Break is over pretty much everywhere, the parks are now dead. Yep, I looked outside today in the middle of the afternoon and saw almost nobody. What do cps do when it's really slow and we're really really bored? Well we tend to talk to pretty much anybody and sing songs to the guests. :) It's what we do. I think at one point today there were 5 of us outside the restaurant singing/talking to guests.
Slow days are just that......slow! They seem to take twice as long as normal days. I literally felt like I was at work for 12 hours today when I was really just there for 7. Oh well, at least I was being paid for my time.
CP jobs at disney are never going to be glamorous, most of them are not going to be fun/enjoyable. As long as you realize that and try to have fun with the people around you then you'll survive your program. I don't think I would be able to survive if my fellow cps at the H&V weren't there. They definitely make work bearable and are always a huge help if I don't know what I'm doing. Which still kinda seems to happen a lot. Where do we sell banana milkshakes? I still have no idea!

I got my ears! :)

Well I was finally able to take that little red tag off my nametag that says "earning my ears", because I passed my assessment!! woohoo! I am now officially not training anymore. This means no more following people around and being babysat by other employees. Granted, I still know very little. Guests still ask questions and I have to run and ask somebody else before answering that question, but it sure is nice not to have someone breathing down your neck all day.

This week has been very tiring. Working 7 in a row.....not so much fun. But a couple of my roomies and I went to magic kingdom a couple nights ago after I got off work. It was so nice to go watch the spectromagic parade and WISHES!!! I always tear up during that fireworks show.

Happy Easter to everybody out there :) I was invited to an Easter party in another building which was a lot of fun. A couple of my roomies tagged along too. The girls who put it on went all out! They had 2 hams!!! Crazy right? We still have leftover ham in our fridge. It was really nice to go out and meet some more cps. It's been kinda hard to meet people since we've gotten here. We've all been working sooo much and there really haven't been any cp activities going on.

My family is coming to visit in a month!! yay! Well my mom and sister are coming to visit. My dad can't because of work. But anyways, I'm excited to see them. I already booked us at the Caribbean Beach with my disney discount :) It's awesome getting 50% off hotel rooms!

Well today I work from 4 to 11 which means I'll be closing....again. Closing really isn't that difficult, it's just kinda a long process. I got an overview of it last night so hopefully tonight will go well. I hope I don't have to do the ice cream machine.

Well I think that's it for now. My day off is on friday, and I think I'll do some laundry and go to the grocery store. Exciting right? Maybe I'll sneak over to Animal Kingdom at some point. I still haven't been over there since I got down here.

Talk to you later!! :)

The beginning of 7 straight work days!

Hello hello!!

Sorry it's been a few days since I've blogged. I had 2 days off which was really nice. The only problem was that everybody else was working the days I had off! So I went to wal-mart (the cp bus is really convenient) to get groceries and decided to go to epcot by myself. I have to say, going to a park by yourself is sooooo much better than just hanging out in an empty apartment. It was nice to just wander the park and watch all the crazy people that go to disneyworld!!! I got some delicious ice cream in the african section and watched the chinese acrobats' performance. Those little kids are amazing! If you haven't seen the show, GO SEE IT! They were flipping around and jumping through hoops and I just don't even know how they got their bodies in some of those positions. And yes, I'm talking about little kids. I know I couldn't do any of that at the age of 10.

I almost decided to stay for Illuminations, but I just wanted to get home and relax with my roommates. We had a very exciting trip to Marshall's for necessary clothes :) And Danica got to tell me all about being "friends with mickey" (winkwink). She's been so nervous since we got here, I think we all were. It seems that after about a week, everyone starts falling into a schedule and getting used to our different roles.

On my second day off, I slept in......a lot :) Gotta love getting out of bed at 11. I was going to do laundry, but I went down to buy a laundry card only to find out that I needed $5. This wouldn't have been a problem, except the machine wanted exactly a $5 bill. Not 5 ones or a ten, A $5 BILL. So I kinda just gave up on that and decided to go to hollywood studios for some.........hmmhmm......research :) I have to be very familiar with the park for my job, right? So I decided to go over there and wander around. Apparently, it's supposed to be really crazy crowded right now but it didn't seem too bad. Tower of terror (sign said 45min) seriously walked right into the library, amazing! Then I wandered over past the little mermaid (I don't really like the show they have) 5 minutes until the next show....ok......air conditioned and cool......sounded good to me. Then I wandered to the back of the park (toy story of course had a 2 hour line so skipped that one) and walked right into the muppets show. Then I waited 5 minutes for star tours and had some dinner at the backlot express while watching the jedi training show. Those little kids were so adorable!! Then I got into indie jones about 10 minutes before the show started. And finally, I ended the day like every day should end in the studios, in a trip through the movies on the Great Movie Ride! Overall, definitely a wonderful day, a lot of perfect timing and fun times.

Well today it was back to work. I got up at 530 and caught that 615 bus........yay. Got to work and finally got to meet with the manager who is actually organizing my training......finally. My first 2 days were pretty unorganized and today....well....it was still kinda unorganized. But guess what?! I finally learned all the table numbers!!!!! woohoo!! I'm one step closer to passing the dreaded assessment on monday. I got to meet a few more cps today at my work location! yay!! They were all really nice and helpful. I feel like the cps are definitely more willing to help me out than the full-timers that have been there 20 or 30 years. Fellow cps are a wealth of knowledge and can prove to be a wonderful source of information and guidance, always remember that. Also I think the cps make the work location more fun. People who are about 21/22 are definitely more into dancing with the characters and making work fun. I also got to chat with one of the cp character attendants too!

Overall it was another interesting day :) I'm so glad that I don't have to get up at 530 tomorrow!!! My shift doesn't start till 130 so I can sleep in. I think I'm gonna learn the closing procedures and the dinner setup.

Well I appreciate anybody who's reading this. And thank you to Jenn for giving me my first comment!!! I was so excited to see that somebody is reading and enjoying this :) If any of you readers have any questions for me or just want to say hi please leave me a comment below.

Talk to you later!!

just keep swimming just keep swimming

So all of the playhouse disney pals songs that are sung at the hollywood and vine are becoming permanently ingrained into my head. It's like a continuous circuit of the hot dog song, the chacha song, and the popcorn song.
But, today went a lot better than yesterday. Yesterday I felt like the manager didn't really have any interest in anything I was doing. Which is frustrating, because I wanted to know how to do things correctly and wanted to be paired with people who could teach me correctly. There was a different manager today, and she was a lot nicer. She took the time to talk to me about what I was doing and what the rules were for the restaurant. It was also nice because I met a few other cps that worked there too and they all seemed really nice. It felt good to be welcomed by people who are doing the same program I am. Also, since they've trained so recently, they were actually really good at showing me how to do things.
One tip I would give anyone. Write down questions to ask your leaders/managers. It's hard to remember all your questions when they ask you if you have any.
Well I'm going to bed, and looking forward to having the next 2 days off.
What shall I do? :)

First day at location

*sigh*

Kinda overwhelming today. I've never worked in a restaurant before, so getting used to all the hustle and bustle took a little while. So far, the job I have to do is pretty simple. As a seater, I take people to their table (I still need to learn all the table numbers) and tell them that their server will be right with them to take their drink orders. It's really fun because all the characters walk around and dance with the little kids.
The only thing about today is that I was just kinda thrown into the role. I never really got a complete tour or a rundown of the rules of my role. I'm hoping that tomorrow I get a little more specific direction.

We'll see how tomorrow goes!

Too tired for a title

So the past couple of days have been crazy!

We went to traditions! I had the early session so I had to be on the bus at like 645 which wasn't very much fun when your roomie decides she needs to get up at 4 in order to be ready. I actually enjoyed traditions for the most part. The first 1/2 hour was kinda torture, we just watched a powerpoint presentation and a lady read it to us. But after that, it was a lot of fun. The two people that presented traditions to us were really fun and had a lot of energy. We played games and my group (which was actually a group of my apartmentmates) won the "name the most disney characters in 90 seconds" game with 36 disney characters. I got a little pluto statue for that :) We got our ids, our nametags, our training schedules, and got to walk around the tunnels and fantasyland for a little while.

After traditions a couple of my roommates and I went to Magic Kingdom. Of course we kinda got stuck on the first ride we went on (pirates) for about 15 minutes. Oh well. Then we went on thunder, space, and phillarmagic. We also saw the show in front of the castle and got some tasty frozen drinks (it was kinda warm out).

Yesterday, which was the day after traditions, was my orientation to my workplace, hollywood studios. We clocked in and got a walking tour of the studios. Weaving in and out of backstage areas was kind of confusing. Literally you turn a corner and all the sudden you're onstage or you're offstage. Then we did some e-learning classes, and got a more detailed training schedule. We all went to see our work locations and met our managers (well we said hello to our managers, it was really crazy). Then it was off to costuming! Mine actually is kinda cute, if you've ever been to hollywood and vine you'll know what I'm talking about.

Then, as I was getting onto the bus to go back to the apartments, I met my roommates coming off the bus. They were all excited to be going to hollywood studios and asked me to come later. So I went home, ate some dinner/lunch, watched phineas and ferb for 15 minutes, and ran to meet the next bus. I have to say, I had pretty perfect timing to reach the bus. A couple seconds later and I would've missed it. Well I got to hs, found an atm (i've been running low on cash), and met up with 3 of my roomies. We went to see beauty and the beast, went on star tours and great movie ride, watched the american idol experience, and went back to catch the bus.

Those were definitely a couple of long, tiring days. Today I have my food & bev basics class at disney university in a couple of hours. I'm kinda hoping it doesn't take 4 and a half hours like my schedule says it will.

Well after the first few days, I got less nervous after traditions, and more nervous after orientation. We'll see how tomorrow goes, because that's when I actually start on the job training.

Talk to you soon!

Day 2

Well day 2 isn't quite over, but I figured I'd type some of this down now while I have a few minutes to myself.
I started today at about 630 with my roomie getting up. It actually kinda helped me get up since she was moving around the closet and the bathroom. We figured out really quickly that we want to get some kind of curtain to put up in the sink area of the bathroom. Because the sink area is open to the bedroom, it's really bright if someone wants to turn on that light to use the mirror to put on makeup or brush their teeth. Neither one of us wants to wake up the other if we get back really late from work or need to get up really early for work. So I'd suggest to anyone living in patterson to consider getting a curtain rod and pretty curtains to put up.
We caught the 734 bus and got to vista at about 750. We were one of the first people there and got through the lines really quickly. This is when we turned in all our on-boarding paperwork and got inspected for the disney look guidelines. A couple of my apartment mates were told that they needed to change their hair color so that it looks completely natural and is all one color. Then we went inside and found out our assignments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got............(drum roll).......................Hollywood Studios!!!!!!! I will be at the Hollywood and Vine restaurant working as a seater. I've never actually been in there before, so I think maybe either tomorrow or this weekend I'm gonna go in there and see what the costumes are like and how the atmosphere is. I did look it up online and saw that it is a home-style buffet with character dining! Which sounds really awesome, the only downside is that it's playhouse disney character dining and I will have no idea who any of the characters are. Maybe my homework should be to watch the disney channel in the morning to learn all the characters :)
Anyways, after you find out your role, you turn in another form that has to do with your eligibility to work (you just need either your passport or your driver's license and social security card). Then you learn about how your payroll works and you're all done! It all took me about 30 minutes.
So then we just all came back to the apartment and relaxed/hung out/talked for a while until we had to go to our 945 housing meeting. This is where they just go over the rules and where you can go if you ever have a problem or need help. That took about 2 hours, which seemed really long. Helpful tip: bring a sweatshirt or jacket to this meeting because they keep the room freezing cold.
So then we just came back and ate some food :) I made a quesadilla and everyone was all impressed as they ate their sandwiches, cereal, and microwave food. That's been about it for today. I'm just relaxing in my room right now trying to relax and I might try to take a little catnap because tomorrow is going to start even earlier. We have to be at the bus stop at 645! WAY TOO EARLY!!! The only good thing about having traditions in the morning is that we'll be able to get our ids earlier and go play in the parks! We're thinking about going to magic kingdom to go see wishes :)
Well that's all for now!
Later :)

First Day :)

Day 1!!! I'm here!! yay!!!!!!
So day 1 began for me with getting over to vista at about 9:10. Since march 24th is a very small check-in date, the lines were very small which was really nice. We filled out some paperwork. Picked out our apartment complex, and were given an apartment assignment. Then we got our lovely housing id pics....and i mean sooooo lovely. People could then register their cars (i don't have a car here but it looked pretty simple). Then a couple more forms to sign and then it was off to check out my apartment and claim my bedroom. After that i went back to vista to go to casting for the background check (fingerprinting). Then we went to wal-mart, walgreens, bed bath & beyond, and finally publix to get important supplies.
Things I bought:
comforter, pillows
combo lock (there's a locker in the closet)
towels
paper towels
those clips for chip bags
hangers
scissors, tape
lamp for the bedside table
toiletry stuff
and lots and lots of food!
I was so glad that my parents were here to help me move in the first day. We rented a car so that we could drive to get everything I needed. I don't think I would've been able to get everything I needed while riding the bus.
So, I ended up in Patterson. I kinda wanted Chatham, but so far Patterson is really nice. Everything here still looks so new and in really great shape. I'm in a 3-bedroom which means I am living with 5 other people: danica, erica, alex, becca, and tara. Danica is my actual roommate, and her role is CHARACTER :) I think that's so awesome. Becca is also going to be a character performer. I think danica will be friends with minnie or mickey, and becca is going to be friends with tigger!
Well I thought that on the first day I would find out where I would be working. Nope. :( I have to wait until the second day. I did catch a peek at one of the folders they had my paperwork in and I think it said Hollywood. So I'll be really happy if I actually do work in the studios! (btw: that's my favorite park)
Well the first day ended with a well-deserved dinner with the parents and a relaxing shower. I said good-bye to my parents (which was kinda easier than I expected) and finished organizing my room. Then to bed at about midnight so that I could wake up the next morning by 645 to catch the bus over to vista for......DAY 2.

P.S. I wanted to post this last night, but I kinda was too tired to finish the last couple of paragraphs.

Almost Ready to Leave

Well I'm almost done packing. Tomorrow morning my parents and I will be driving down to LA to stay with my grandparents for the night. Then at 6am Monday morning, I'm ON MY WAY TO FLORIDA!!! This past week has been so crazy. Packing, finals, and everybody wanting to see me "one last time" before I leave. My mom also decided to choose to freak out about my health insurance at the last possible moment.
I decided when I was accepted into the program that I wouldn't choose to receive internship credit for it. I took so many AP classes in high school and I definitely didn't need any more free elective units. So instead of wasting $2000 on electives I didn't need, I decided to take the quarter off. Which kinda messed up my health insurance coverage :/ But.....the good news is that I was able to get something called travel insurance from a company called Seven Corners for only a couple hundred bucks. It's really nice too cause the hospital and urgent care center closest to lake buena vista accept it. So would I rather pay $2000 to remain a full-time students OR $200 for temporary health insurance? :)
So I was glad that got taken care of. One less thing my mom can stress out about. Other than that, I've just been packing nonstop. My sister came to visit and I got to spend like no time at all with her :( Between studying and packing there just wasn't a lot of time to go hang out at the beach.
The weather was so nice this week. Yes I am going to talk about the weather......is there a problem with that? It was amazing this week! In the 70s the entire time, perfect weather to go outside and relax (not that I had time to go outside and relax). It's like SLO was sending me off with fond memories of it so that I would come back :)
I've been watching John Henselmeier's punishment week lately. I feel really bad for him, especially since he's sick this week. It seems like even his body wants to punish him. But I've enjoyed watching all the vlogs. I've never been on Stitch's Great Escape, but the way he's dreading it kinda makes me not want to ride it :)
I finally saw alice in wonderland!!!!! (about time right?) I really liked it! Parts of it were kinda weird (the whole dancing thing at the end kinda freaked me out) but overall I enjoyed it. There was a preview for Toy Story 3 and Tron so I got really excited!! I'm kinda glad I'll be with a bunch of disney maniacs in June so there will be no shortage of people who want to go see toy story with me.
Well I think that's about it. I most likely won't have internet access till I get to Florida. I don't even know if the hotel we're staying at will have internet available for me to use. I really want to keep blogging throughout my program. Even if nobody reads this, it'll be nice to have so that I can look back at my program and remember. I can't wait to find out where I'll be working!!!!
TTYL!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Well I guess it's not really st. patties day anymore (since it's currently 1:30am) but I'm wide awake so I thought I would write another blog. Finals this week have been crazy! I'm not happy that I have my last final Friday and I leave Sunday for Florida. Not enough time to pack!!

My room is still a mess. Everything from my dormroom kinda just got shoved into my room at home, so I think I'm lucky I can actually sleep in my bed. :)

So I decided that I would do a survey, because it's fun......
1. Name: Michelle
2. Location: San Luis Obispo (SLO), California
3. School: California Polytechnic State University
4. Year of school: First-Year
5. Major: Business
6. Role for cp: FSFB
7. Dream Location: ???? anywhere ????
8. Wellness or non-wellness: Wellness
9. Morning/Night Person: Uh...it's 130am.....so.......
10. What you do for fun: Hang out with friends, movies, reading, going to disney world
11. Favorite Park: Either epcot or hollywood studios
12. Favorite Ride for each park: Tower of Terror, Soarin' (cause it reminds me of home), dinosaur!, and pirates (or haunted.....or jungle.....or thunder.......or splash?)
13. Describe yourself: I'm one of those people that is shy at first but then when I get to know people I open up. I'm perrty smart sometimes. I can cook! woohoo! I'm so looking forward to having a kitchen!
14. Favorite character to see in the parks: Probably.......minnie and mickey. just because they're the classics. they are what pops into my mind when I think of disney.

Well ok. Now I'm kinda tired....so I'm gonna stop making up questions and stealing questions from the roommate survey. Time for bed!

Goodnight. Sleep Tight!

6 DAYS TILL DISNEY WORLD!!

Goodbye Dormroom/Hello Packing!

hellohello!!

So I moved out of my dormroom today. That was kinda weird, leaving behind my roomies and all my friends. I didn't even realize how much stuff I had in there until I was trying to get it all packed. And...of course.......I have a cold. I hardly ever get sick, but when I do either finals are happening (which they are) or something big is happening in my life (which is also true with the whole moving to Disney World thing). But I really don't care if I'm sick. In exactly one week I will be on my way to Florida! woohoo!

Now since I live in california, I can't really have my car in florida. Well I guess I could, but that would involve a week in a car. I would probably have to leave tomorrow. :) And since I have finals on Wednesday and Friday, I don't think that would work. So....I will be packing my life into a couple of suitcases and a box that my parents will ship to me. I'll be jumping on a plane and hoping I didn't forget anything too important.

Packing for an airplane:

Most packing blogs I've read have been about people packing all these different little knick knacks into their cars. Since I won't be able to do that, I'm gonna focus on the essentials.

1. Professional Clothes!!!!! (Very important to have for traditions and training. This will include dress pants, blouses, sweater, and nice shoes)
2. My kindle (it's kind of the love of my life right now......some people buy an ipod......others buy a kindle)
3. Laptop (I could never survive without my laptop....this would also include all the cords that go along with it...power, ethernet, I also have this lock so that you can lock to a table or a desk)
4. Regular clothes (I'll be going to epcot the day before I check in so I'll definitely need some regular clothes to hang out in)
5. UMBRELLA (it rains in florida....or so i've heard :) )
6. Paperwork for checking in, driver's license, passport, all that good stuff.
7. Cellphone (kinda goes without saying....but I'm putting it on the list)
8. Digital camera (my dad just bought me a new one a couple of days ago, it's really pretty :) can't wait to take lots and lots and lots of pics in fl!)
9. Sheets
10. My mickey towels :)
11. A pretty dress (you never know when you'll need a pretty dress)
12. A backpack (always a good thing to have, I'll probably bring 2 that are different sizes)
and most likely....my suitcase will now be full.

The great thing about moving somewhere is that.......THERE'S ALWAYS SOMEWHERE TO BUY SOMETHING YOU FORGOT :) I plan on buying pillows, a comforter, extra towels, any kitchen supplies I might need, toiletry stuff, and any odds and ends when I get there. I have no idea what I'll do with all that stuff on August 13 when I leave, but I'll figure something out.

I can't believe how fast this quarter at school has gone by. It feels like only yesterday I had 89 days left till my cp. Now there's only 9 days left.

Well that's all for now. Talk to you soon!

First Blog!!

Hello everybody! (anybody there? no.....oh well) My name is Michelle and I am currently a freshman at Cal Poly State University in SLO, California. I guess I'm technically a first-year sophomore......maybe ??? Anywho, I am a Business major who hasn't decided what she wants to concentrate in. So......I decided to go to Disney World! Great idea right...right? :) I know, I think so too!!!!

I'm new at this but a blog sounded like fun, so I'm gonna give it a shot. A while back I was accepted into the WDW College Program!! Woohooo! I'm really excited that I get to spend 5 months in Disney World with a bunch of awesome people (that I haven't met yet, but I know they will be awesome). So I will be arriving in Lake Buena Vista, Fl in about a week and a half to begin my adventures :)

If you don't know what the College Program is....then you should check out this website: www.disneycollegeprogram.com and learn more about it.

So I was accepted into the Spring Advantage Quarter program which means I will be there from March 24 until August 13. My role will be Full Service Food and Beverage, which means I will basically be a hostess for one of the restaurants either in a park, in a Disney hotel, or in Downtown Disney. I will be getting minimum wage for my hard work, but that's ok as long as I get to go in the parks for free whenever I want! :D It doesn't really matter to me where I end up working, but I kinda want to be in one of the parks. But hey, DD or Disney hotels could be fun too.

Well....I think that's it for now. I'll definitely post more later. Maybe I'll do a survey about myself or list what I'm packing.

TTFN