Disney Days

Its been an exciting couple of days at Disney since I became an official Cast Member!  On Thursday night, we had Woody's Roundup!  Woody and the gang held a BBQ (that was BBQless) for the CP's.  It was so cute, there was a DJ and a big open field for line dancing.  Honestly, it was so hot without trying to dance, I just watched in the shade!  Also, we saw that there were characters there!!! We got to meet Bullseye and Jessie, two characters I don't think I've ever met at Disney World!  We had hot dogs (at the BBQ, interesting) and met some new people!  After Woody's Roundup, we walked back to our apartment complex...in the rain!  It poured!  So we rethought our decision to go to Magic Kingdom but since the rain cleared up, we decided to go with our rain jackets in hand!

Excuse the selfie, but I was excited about the free hat!

With Bullseye and Jessie in Andy's bedroom!!!

After a long and interesting bus ride, we made it to the Magic Kingdom!!!!  We headed inside hoping to make it for the Electrical Parade...but it was delayed due to rain.  So we decided to ride some rides while the lines weren't very long.

We went to Tomorrowland in hopes of riding Space Mountain but the lines were still long.  We found Goofy and Pluto having a dance party!!!  

 Then we moved on to the New Fantasyland!!! I was so excited because last time I was here, they were building it.  Also, my cousin Trey got to help do some construction for New Fantasyland!  We rode on Ariel's new ride!  It was so so so cute!  I was dying because Ariel is my favorite!!  I'm ready to go back and see New Fantasyland during the day!!  Let me just say, now there are so many different castles!

We left Fantasyland and headed for the Haunted Mansion and we found Columbia Harbour House!!  Excuse the terrible picture, but I couldn't resist a picture out in front!

After Haunted Mansion, we planned on catching Wishes, the firework show, but they were delayed as well and we figured we should leave before the crowd!  We headed to the Polynesian to catch the bus back to our apartment.  Of course, as we were walking up, a bus was leaving so we had to wait a good 30-45 minutes before the next bus arrived.  We made some new friends at the bus stop and finally boarded a little before midnight.  We made it back and I headed to bed so I could wake up bright and early for my Food and Beverage Training!

Friday morning, I caught the 6:30 a.m. bus for Disney University and got there around 7:15.  I sat in the cafeteria with some new friends I made waiting on our 8:00 class to start.  Our class lasted about 2.5 hours where I learned just a lot of generic information about food service.  Keep in mind, the people in my class were there for Quick Service, Full Service, Outdoor Foods, and Culinary Students.  After the first 2.5 hours, we had to complete some online courses to finish up our F & B training.  I took about an hour before getting to head to Costuming to get my new slip-resistant shoes!  I thought rocking the bonnet would be complicated, but these black shoes I'll be wearing will be a little more difficult!  After I got my cute shoes, I came back to the apartment.  That afternoon, the plan was to go back to MK but we wanted to go to Cast Connections, the store for Cast Members.  It was so awesome!!!!  We went to all three cast stores and then headed to the bus and then it rained.  We decided to just head back to the apartment for the night!

All of my roommates except for Paige had the weekend off so while Paige went to training, the rest of us headed to the parks.  Saturday we started the day strong at Animal Kingdom.  We made the best timing around the park.  We met lots of characters, rode most of the rides we wanted, and even saw Finding Nemo The Musical, and Festival of the Lion King.  One of my roommates, Courtney is working at Festival of the Lion King so it was fun to experience where she will be working!

With the Tree of Life

Jessica, Dug, Jenny, Mindy, Russell, Courtney, and I being Wilderness Explorers!!

Mickey and Minnie in their adventurous outfit!!!

The roomies with Mickey and Minnie

We loved meeting Pluto and Goofy!

Donald Duck was so cute!

And we met Pocahontas!!

She posed so differently than the other Princesses!

Our last ride at Animal Kingdom was a Kilimanjaro Safari!  We saw so many animals up close!  We even caught a baby giraffe and rhino.

After Animal Kingdom, we went to Hollywood Studios for the night!  We successfully dodged the showers and even got to hang out at the Monsters University Pep Rally!  It was so fun and they even had MU Fearleaders!!

The night ended with Fantasmic!  This was my first time seeing this show and it was amazing!!!

Before leaving for the night, we checked out the stores of course!  I found the most interesting Ariel merchandise I've ever found!  A fork and coral included!  

Today, Jenny, Courtney, and I went shopping (whoops!) but we got lots of good deals!  I found some black socks for my hot shoes!  Tonight and tomorrow should be relaxing before I start my training on Tuesday!!  I'm so anxious to get started!!

Disney Traditions

Today was the long awaited first day of working for Disney.  Today would probably be better classified as my first day of training, but you know Disney is 100% legit so today was Work Day #1 in Disney's eyes!  Today even included being dressed in the Disney Look which is the most strict business attire I've ever been held to.  Today's class at Disney University (yes, it exists) was Disney Traditions, which all Cast Members go through as part of training.  Since there are so many of us new to the College Program, we have to have different sessions.  Luckily, I got the first session but there are different groups throughout today and tomorrow.  The trade-off for having the early session meant that I had to be at the bus stop at 6:45 a.m.  I haven't seen that time of day since my Student Teaching days so it was a little difficult getting out of bed.  Fortunately, 3 of my roommates had Traditions with me so we got to walk to the bus stop together before the sun came up!  We loaded up the buses a little after 7:00 and headed to Disney University!!  We were all so anxious knowing that it would be such an exciting day just starting with Traditions!

Here it is!!!!

The only picture I got inside!

Since Disney University is "backstage" pictures usually aren't allowed but I was allowed to snap this adorable picture of Chip and Dale!  Throughout the building, they had lots of characters coming out of the ceiling and different halls were different themes!  I wish I had time just to walk down all the halls and look through everything...but there just aren't enough hours in the day!  So at Traditions we learning everything from safety to integrity to even fun trivia.  About halfway through our Traditions class, we got to head over to Magic Kingdom!!!!  DU is pretty much in Magic Kingdom's backyard so it wasn't far away at all.  We spent most of our time backstage but got to walk down Main Street USA as well!!!  Eeeek, I literally was tearing up.  This was my first time IN the parks as a Cast Member!  There were so many emotions throughout the whole day but this was one of the most emotional moments.  

Only my favorite castle!!

Back to class and more fun information to learn!  Again, one of the fun things throughout the day was the trivia we answered!  When you answered a question, you got a "critter" aka a Disney character!  Just a little while after we got back from Magic Kingdom, we had a visitor at the door.  Who, oh who, could it be?  The Big Cheese himself, MICKEY!!!!!  And guess who answered the first trivia question with Mickey there?  ME ME ME!!! And I got this cute little Mickey to keep!  Seriously, today rocked!

In case if you've been reading along with my other posts, you might have seen the really exciting things I was looking forward to at Traditions...my Cast Member ID and my name tag!!!!!  I got 'em!!!  We got our ID's when we walked in this morning and the last thing we did was get our Disney name tags.  And the best thing of all, I don't have to give my name tag back at the end of this experience!  Best of all, as part of the Disney College Program, I get to represent my Alma Mater while being a Cast Member.  What could be better?!

Another perk of today, as if things could get any better?!  I met a new friend!  Other than my roommates, I've met a lot of people, of course.  I mean I'm in a program with a couple thousand people!  But I've only met a couple that I've really hit it off with early on in our DCP conversations!  Well, at Traditions, one of my roommates Jessica was in my group so we got to sit together but then we had a really fun table with some other new friends too!! It was Jessica, Taylor, Kyle, Nick, and I at the table and I ended up on the bus back to the apartments next to Taylor!  At Traditions, the table was talking about majors/the future/all that and Taylor said he hopes to go into Missions.  I freaked out a little because I figured we could have a great conversation!  On the ride back, I got to talk to someone about God and how we think God is using us here at Disney!!!! It rockeddddd!  I think I might even try going to church with some of the friends he's made on Sunday!  It was a great finish to the fun Traditions day!

Now we're just hanging out and resting up before we head to Woody's Round Up Welcome Party tonight!!!  And Woody and his friends will be there!!!!  Afterwards, when our other two roommates get back from their Traditions class, we're going to go to the Magic Kingdom since we can FO FREE!!!  Yay yay yay!  So much excitement on this Thursday!  Its been a great (almost) first week at Disney and I can't wait to see the adventure that continues to unfold.  I know God is already working in my heart and I can't wait to see how this experience changes my life!  As always, thanks for reading!

A Day Off?!

Let me start this off by saying that all summer I worked Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. with a random week off and an occasional late day due to a doctor's appointment.  I know my friends in the real world live like this all the time, but that schedule was not my favorite thing in the world!  So getting down to Florida and having days off, I DO NOT know what to do with myself!  Its so weird knowing soon I'll be busy busy busy very soon, but for now, I just wait for that to come.

Like I said in my last post, Sunday was filled with checking in and getting unpacked.  The unpacking went by way faster than the packing did and by dinner everything was unpacked and had a place to go in my room.  I must say this is one of the perks of having a furnished apartment.  For once I didn't have to worry about moving couches and futons or kitchen tables and nightstands!  It was a big relief to say the least.

Yesterday (Monday), all we had was a Housing Welcome Meeting.  Three of my roommates had theirs at 11:00 a.m., my roommate and I had ours at 1:00 p.m., and one of my roommates had her meeting at 3:00 p.m.  So we were pretty much in and out of the apartment all day.  I finally got my parking permit!!  I must say the security here is crazy!  

I'm not sure if I talked about how the DCP apartments work but there are four different apartment complexes for the Disney College Program participants.  People are moving in and out every week.  There's Vista Way which is where check-in was and those are the oldest apartments, but there are more buildings there than at the other complexes.  I live across the street and around the corner at a place called Little Lake Bryan where there are multiple complexes.  We have The Commons which is mainly International and Culinary Program students, but also some DCPers.  The Commons is super nice and even has laundry inside each unit (or so I've heard), the rest of the apartments just have laundry areas throughout the different apartment buildings.  There's also Chatham Square, which is where the bus stop is, and then there's Patterson Court, where I live!  At all of these complexes, you have to show your Housing ID to get in whether you're walking or driving.  Its pretty intense but helps keep things safe so I'm grateful for the security here!  Also, transportation is provided by Disney to go anywhere on property.  Whether we're going to work or going to play, the buses will take us to any park or resort!!  

Okay, now back to what happened yesterday.  After I got my parking permit, I came back to the apartment and just hung out with my roommates until Courtney got back from the Welcome Meeting.  We then decided that we should have our first roommate dinner so we headed to Publix and got spaghetti, salad, bread, and Moscato!!  If I didn't already love my roomies enough, the fact that we all agreed upon Moscato sealed the deal for me!  The plan was to come back and make dinner but it was getting close to 8:00 and we wanted to go watch our new friend Khailen take a class at Antigravity.  Let me just say it was so cool!!! These people were doing Cirque du Soleil stuff!  It was awesome just watching them do tricks I know I can never do hah!  We stayed and watched for an hour before our stomachs decided it was time to come back home and cook some spaghetti!  Our first dinner was such a success!  We spent hours just laughing and talking!  After dinner, we decided to watch Cinderella (of course).  We still haven't hooked up our cable so we had to stick with a Disney movie for the night.  Unfortunately we all fell asleep before it was over (hah!) but it was a great night to say the least.  I can't wait for the laughter and great times we'll share over the next 5 months!

So I decided since we didn't have to do anything today, I might as well take advantage of sleeping in while I could.  Of course a year ago, sleeping in meant sleeping until at least noon...that's not the case anymore.  I slept until 9:30 a.m.!  Today everyone is kind of doing their own thing.  I'm about to head to Walmart to get some more substantial food so I'm not tempted to eat out every other meal!  Also, I'm going to take my first trip to the outlets.  Did I tell you that I live within 2 miles of like three outlets?!  This could be a bad thing...or a wonderful thing haha!  Tomorrow when I finally get my Cast Member ID, I can start using some discounts I get (including at the Orlando Premium Outlets that are right outside my apartment complex!!)  

Tomorrow we have Traditions which is our "first day of work" according to Disney.  Its pretty much our first day of training and its something that all Disney employees go through.  I'm super excited and knowing me I'll probably cry at some point along the way from the excitement!!!  Its supposed to last like four hours long but I'll be even more official once its over with my name tag and Cast Member ID (pictures to come).  That also means tomorrow is the first day I can officially go in the parks for free!!!!  

I hope you're enjoying my updates from Disney!  I doubt they'll be daily once work really starts, but I'll try!  After Traditions tomorrow, I have my food and beverage training on Friday then I'm free until Magic Kingdom training on Tuesday.  What to do?  Oh yeah, I'll be in the parks for sure!  After Tuesday, I'm still clueless as to what my training schedule will look like but I'm hoping to get to work super soon!

I'll leave you with a little sneak peek of what my costume will probably look like...brace yourself.  I'll be wearing some authentic colonial garb! (see what I did there?)  I get to try my costume on next Tuesday during training and can't even wait to tell you all the sweet details hahah!!

I plan on being this excited about my costume as well, no jokes!

Learning to take a Leap of Faith

So if you've talked to me at all during the past 5 months, you know what I'm up to for this next phase of my life.

I'm going to Disney World!!! Also, if you've been in my life recently, you know this is not at all what I thought was in store for me but God has big plans and I'm not about to mess those up!  

Randomly one night 10 years ago, I was an awkward 7th grader surfing the net (as irmohottie25 of course) and somehow I stumbled upon the Disney College Program.  I'm still so unbelievably unsure of how I found the Disney College Program but I'm so glad I did.  Again, I found this website as a 12-year-old who was no where near going to college, in fact I found out about the Disney College Program before I even heard of Presbyterian College!  From my night of surfing the net, I wanted to learn every single thing I could about the Disney College Program.  I researched what they offered, the housing arrangements, the education aspect, and every single thing I could possibly learn!  I knew they offered a Spring, Summer, and Fall program at Walt Disney World in Florida.  My plan for the next 5 years was as soon as I could apply in college, I would and Disney would be where I would spend every summer during college.  That was my plan, without a doubt!  I even remember saying my goodbyes before leaving for PC and telling people that would be my last summer at home because I'd be at Disney from there on out.  I hadn't been planning on anything else.  So my first semester of college came and went and I stalked that DCP website like nobody's business!  Not to mention I was also subscribed to receiving Disney's emails about the program but I thought maybe they would forget to email me when the applications were out.  Anyways, when the applications came out, DCP was no longer offering a summer term.  I felt like my dream had just been taken out of my hands.  I had no idea how I'd make my dream of working at Disney come true anymore.  I still checked every year for a summer term, but it hasn't ever come back and I couldn't ever take a semester off during college to do the program.

How in the world did I get here?  So I was in my last week of full-time teaching and I got an email from the Office of Career Programs saying it was my last chance to apply for the Disney College Program!!!! I freaked out and emailed Heather Rush ASAP asking if I could apply even though I was graduating.  The answer was "of course!!!!"  I completed the application that night, found out the next day I had to complete an online interview, and found out a couple hours later I got a phone interview!!  I had my phone interview 2 days later and the rest is history!! After my phone interview I was told that it could be 2-4 weeks before I knew anything and a week and a half later, I was offered a job with the Walt Disney Company!!! 

For the past four months now, I've been getting ready for a journey that I had no idea what would unfold.  I didn't know where I would live, where I would work, or how the experience would play out.  My mom named this my "Leap of Faith!"  I figured that was an appropriate title for this journey.  For the first time ever, I don't really know what the future holds.  I know I'm at Disney until January 3 and for now, I have no idea what the future holds after that point!  I packed up last weekend and drove down to Orlando Sunday, checked in at Disney on Monday morning, and the adventure began!  By the way, I totally planned on finishing this post before I actually started but finding wifi on my trip down to Orlando was a struggle so you get it a couple days late with a little more information...

At check-in, I found out where I'm living, what my job is, and lots lots more!  I found 5 roommates on Facebook back in March and we all requested to be together and we got it!!!!  We actually got our second choice for an apartment but we are SOOOOO happy we got it!  Its the newest apartment complex of the four that DCPers can live in.  Our apartment has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and we even have a cute little patio!  After I got my housing figured out, I took my first ID picture.  This ID is for our housing and later this week, I'll get my official Cast Member ID (which helps me get loads of discounts!!!)  After the ID, I got to wait in line for my job!!! This was the most exciting part, I'd only been waiting since March to find out where I would be working.  We made some new friends in line and I finally got to the front of the line to hear a very nice man say, 

"Congratulations Rachel!  You'll be working in Magic Kingdom at the Columbia Harbour House!"

YAYYYY!!!! I was so relieved to finally know where I would be working for the next 5 months.  I knew one of the first things I would have to do would be to Google the costume when I got out of Check-In.  After we got our role, we got our program itinerary for the next couple days.  I found out that I had Casting at 11:30 (just an hour or so away).  After we got our itineraries, we got to talk to a Cast Member to explain our schedule and answer any questions we had.  We went over what to wear, where to go, all that stuff!  We finished up by signing lots of paperwork before I had about an hour to be back for Casting.  I found my mom, who had been meeting lots of other parents while I was checking in for two hours!  We decided to go to Chick-Fil-A at like 10:45 to make sure we got lunch before leaving since we were told Casting could take 2-4 hours.  After lunch, my mom and I had to try to figure out how the rest of the afternoon would go.  My mom's flight home was at 3:30 and needed to go to the airport around 2:00.  We said our goodbyes in case I didn't see her again and I jumped on the bus for Casting!

Casting was super awesome!!! There were lots of "Welcome to the team!" and "Have a magical day!"  I signed more forms than I ever knew I could and finished up in about two hours.  I walked outside and realized I had just missed a bus but I frantically called my mom hoping I'd get to see her again before she flew out.  Thankfully, the bus showed up at the same time as her taxi was driving up and she decided to wait on me!!!  I quickly drove my mom to the airport, we said our (real) goodbyes and she was on her way back home.  On my drive back, it finally hit me that I'm not leaving Orlando!!!  I tucked my tears away and finally went to check out my new apartment!  Like I said, we're in the newest apartment complex and couldn't be any happier here.  I had help from my roommate and spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled in!  

It's been a crazy couple of days but we are staying busy!  I had another meeting today and tomorrow I don't have anything!  I promise to try really hard to keep updating this throughout my program!!