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!