I did it.

My long awaited final Disney College Program post! I’m sorry it’s so late, and I don’t really have an excuse because I have just been enjoying life outside of work and relaxing. But I am here now, and that is what counts, right?! Anyways, my program end date was August 2^nd, 2013—and my last day of work was July 31^st. I’m not going to lie, I was very anxious for my program to end; almost every one of my CP friends’ was as well. I absolutely loved the program; but after a while sharing a 3 bedroom apartment with 5 other girls, having no other transportation options except for Transtar, and getting silly hours because you were a CP was a little exhausting. This caused me to make this post a list of things that I wish I would’ve done or had known before, during, and after the program.

Before I came down to Florida for my program, I believe that I prepared myself quite well for what I was going to experience. I knew that I would work hard and consistently long hours, and that I was basically at the bottom rung of the ladder. If you decide to participate in the Facebook groups, Google hangouts, and any other way to meet new people before you arrive, just know you probably won’t hang out with half the people you met or friended on Facebook. My best friend was one of my roommates who I hadn’t even said a word to before we arrived in Florida. However, some of the greatest people whom I am blessed to call my friends and Disney family—I met over Google hangouts. You just never really know who you’re going to get along with and become friends with until you meet everyone in person. I also would highly suggest bringing your own car down with you. I knew that I’d regret not bringing mine down with me; however, it just wasn’t feasible for me. While I did have some memorable moments on those lovely buses (A, B, and K buses I’m talking to you…) my life would’ve been so much simpler if I had my own car. Just make sure you can afford the gas down there, and that you don’t mind being used as a shuttle service for some of your lovely DCP friends… I may have been guilty of this.

During the program you will have some time to play but you will definitely spend most of your time working. When you have free time go do something fun!!!!! On my days off I always tried to do something; whether it was going to the parks, watching the fireworks, tanning at the pool or water parks, planning a beach day, or just shopping at Downtown Disney. You have so many options available to you, most of which are free for your use! Don’t get me wrong a chill and relax day is definitely nice after a long work week, but just make sure your taking advantage of all of the wonderful things to do around you. You’re living next to “The Most Magical Place on Earth” which people pay thousands of dollars to visit for just one week. Visit, have fun, and enjoy your time down there.

If your program is anything remotely like mine you will probably have two separate groups of ‘families’ as I like to call them. One will be your roommates and friends that you have met, the other will be your work family. I honestly believe with my entire heart that I had the greatest work family a girl could ever ask for, and I know that you’ll feel the same way. These people make you you feel okay working a 15 hour shift because at least you’ll get to see their face for a few minutes. If we had someone who had a car when we closed the park, you could guarantee that you would find us at IHOP or Ale House that night after work, maybe even “waffley house”. These are the people that will probably either make or break your experience down in Disney. Just know that you will get close to your fellow cast members, no matter how hard you try to tell yourself that you won’t care when you leave, you will—it’s inevitable. I know a bunch of part timers and full timers who hate CP’s because they become friends with us and become friends with us, and then their hearts are broken when we leave. It’s a terribly wonderful and horrible process that happens every semester and maybe if you’re lucky it won’t hurt as much when you leave. Because I know when I left it was the most painful thing I ever had to do; to leave these people whom you saw every day for 5 or 7 months, and then they’re just gone.

I am lucky though because I was able to go into a seasonal position at Fantasyland when my program ended. This is where I believe one of the most important aspects of this program came into play for me, networking. I hate that word; I hate the idea of it and everything that comes with it. I wish people could get an interview or a job based on their motivation, work ethic, education, and values. Unfortunately, life doesn’t like to play that game, so you need to network if you want to move up or around. Thankfully Disney makes networking pretty simple for you. They have all sorts of workshops, meet and greets, and you will have several managers whom you can always talk to and get to know. If you show them your determination and how hard of a worker you are you’ll have no issues networking.  I was lucky enough that managers got to know who I was for good reasons! I emailed my old homeroom manager and asked if it were possible for me to go seasonal in my old role; she was able to contact casting and scheduling and they were able to open a seasonal fantasyland attractions position for me! So I am still an official Walt Disney World Cast Member, and hope to continue my career with Disney far into the future.

Well guys, this’ll be the last post I make in reference to my Spring 2013 Disney College Program. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep y’all updated on where life takes me—PI’s, management internships, coordinator positon, CEO! The possibilities are endless.

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney

Hospitality Training and All Star

So I thought I would share a little bit about my new position with y’all!

I now work Hospitality at Disney’s All Star Resorts, I work two positions: front desk and runner. Front Desk is pretty self-explanatory; I check people in and out, give them directions, explain dining plans, extra magic hours, keys, etc. And the runner is an interesting position. Basically you drive around the All Star property for your shift, helping guests who were locked out of their rooms, delivering packages they had ordered, surprising them with floral arrangements, sometimes driving them to their room or possibly to a park or other location on and off property.

I finished my training for Front Desk on Saturday. It was four 8 hour days of training at Disney University. These days consisted of learning Lilo (the reservation system, also the name of my dog!), how to do check-ins, check-outs, exchange foreign currency, paid outs, refunds, room changes, and all that jazz. It was a little overwhelming because there is so much information you need to know, but by the fourth day I felt a little more comfortable about what I was doing. I will say that the way Disney University trains you is very cool. They have an actual little lobby set up like the check-in desks, so you do different scenarios with your ‘guests’ and that helps you get more hands-on training. Once I was done with my four days at Disney University I started my All Star training.

It’s actually funny because out of all of the Disney resorts on property, All Star is the only one that I had never visited before. So I knew the least about it, but after our property orientation I had a better feel of the resort. The nice thing is all three resorts—sports, music, and movies—basically have the same set up, so it isn’t too confusing when you switch resorts constantly because everything is in the same general area. After my property orientation, I received my costume, which is all blue. Blue pants, blue top, blue bag… everything is blue, I look like a mail man. And then I had my first day of training on the desk!

I was lucky enough to have the same trainer, Edward, for all 5 days. Edward was very nice and extremely helpful! He knew exactly what he was doing and wasn’t afraid to ask managers if I had a question he could not answer. He definitely better prepared me for the desk, which I am very thankful for. Throughout my training I got a little bit of everything; I received cash, paid outs, refunds, foreign guests (thank goodness for the language bank!), cancelled reservations, groups, etc. Basically what Disney University told me might happen during my time in hospitality; I got in my first week. The interesting thing is All Star is the largest resort on property (when you put the three themes together) and they have hundreds of check-ins in one day. But, it’s a lot calmer than Magic Kingdom. Unlike MK you have downtime, and I don’t really know what to do with myself. The managers don’t really care if you talk with your fellow cast members as long as you are there to help a guest should they need it. One suggestion during down times is to blow up balloons; they even have a whole helium tank and a balloon animal guide. It’s just a very different setting than Magic Kingdom, which I will have to get used to.

My homeroom managers seem awesome, and the FSA’s are great as well! That is definitely something I like about my resort, I have actually met my managers, where in Fantasyland I didn’t know half of them by May. All Star is extremely different from Magic Kingdom and I’m assuming the other theme parks, you have guests there 24/7, so you are basically always on call. But you also have those down times, and from what I’ve been told when people are deployed from another resort to All Star, they are always surprised at how busy it is. However, I would like to try to cover shifts at other resorts, because once you are front desk trained you can pick up shifts at any resort on property which I believe could be fun!

Alright I believe I covered everything in this little post for y’all. But if anyone has any questions about hospitality, All Star, my extension, or the College Program feel free to ask! Have a philharmagical day everyone!

Extended!

I have officially extended my College Program!!! Yay! Happiness, and rainbows, and butterflies, and all that jazz (just imagine a dancing Kelsey)! I was accepted to extend my program until August 2, 2013 in Hospitality. I am so excited to have this opportunity and it should be interesting to see how different hospitality is from attractions; my guess, it’ll be extremely different. But I’m hoping I will get more intense guest interaction, and it definitely doesn’t hurt that I will be in air conditioning during the summer ;).

But anyways, I am transferring roles, which means that I will be leaving my Fantasyland family May 12^th. I totally feel like I’m going to cry already, these silly people have made such a huge impact on my life, and I know that my CP wouldn’t have been nearly as great as it has been if I hadn’t have had them by my side day in and day out. We just had one of our busiest seasons of the year—spring break—and every day I was scheduled for those two weeks, I worked 12 hour shifts. But, I loved coming into work and seeing my cast members. I did a little interpretive dance/hand thing during Wishes for Daniel while guests stared at my awkwardness. I did the moon walk, Macarena,  and any other dance I thought would be fun with Andria at guest flow while Paul judged us and secretly wished he could join :). And I got to fill the theater for back to back shows with Andria and Cait while hoping that guests’ would listen and move all the way down their row. This has been the greatest job I ever could have asked for and I am so blessed to have gotten to know everyone I work with in Fantasyland. So thank you to all of my fellow CP’s, part-timer’s, and full-timers; you made my CP worth every hoop I had to jump through to get down here.  

1/3 of the way in...

Hey everyone! It’s been a long time… whoops. I’m sorry, I’ve been really busy! But I thought I’d update y’all on the program.

I’ve been working a whole lot lately. Yesterday I had a 15 hour shift and have a 58 hour work week. That’ll definitely be interesting! Other than that I’ve been hanging out with my roommates and friends; I’ve also been getting to know my coworker’s which is great, because a lot of them are CP’s as well!

I love my job too; it’s just amazing being able to work in the Happiest Place on Earth. I get to make so many magical moments for people and make their vacation just all that more memorable! My attractions are definitely interesting also… The carrousel is pretty crazy if you’re working it by yourself when the park is busy, and lots of people enjoy jumping off when it’s moving. So if you ever ride Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel, don’t be that person! I love Philharmagic, it’s a great movie and is always fun to see people’s reactions to certain parts in the film. I have also been Wishes trained, so I can be scheduled to basically guard the castle from guests before, during, and after the fireworks. It’s just awesome being able to watch Wishes every night and get paid to do it!

Anyways, I really love it here, and it’s scary to think that I’m already almost 1/3^rd of the way into my program. I’m super excited because my parents, grandparents, and aunt are visiting next week! So I’ll get some family time and a few days off, which will be much appreciated. Well, that’s all of the updates I have at the moment, and hopefully I’ll be able to make another update soon.

The Past Week!

Hello world! Nothing of too much importance has happened these last few days. Our apartment is actually clean tonight, which makes me extremely happy! Yesterday I went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot with one of my lovely roommates Kristen. We had so much fun! I love being able to go to parks on my days off, but I have to be super careful because I spent a ton of money yesterday. Like, a lot. I had planned on saving money during this program but right now we still have a holiday discount on all merchandise, and that discount is just trying to kill my bank account. But I’ll be more careful once the discount is back to normal… hopefully ;)

Other than that I’ve just been working! I’m getting more into the groove of work and making each position my own. I’m also beginning to get to know my coworkers more, and they seem really great. The other day I submitted a form to cross-train but I have no idea if they’ll let me, but it never hurts to try!

So, yeah, that’s about all I can think about at the moment. But hopefully I’ll have more exciting stuff to share with y’all later :-)

I earned my ears!

It’s official guys, I earned my ears! I can officially operate all of the positions for Prince Charming Regal Carrousel and Mickey’s Philharmagic on my own! I had three days of training: the first focused on the carrousel, the second was Philharmagic, and the third was a combo of each. Then, I had my assessment on Sunday, which I was super nervous about. My assessor was great and very helpful, but she did e-stop (emergency stop) the carrousel when I wasn’t looking to make sure I knew how to handle that situation. And yesterday was my first day on my own! It was actually a lot of fun. I got to see so many cute little kids and wish them Happy Birthday or call them princess, I love it! I mostly did stroller parking and the exit glasses for philhar, but I made the most of it and actually had a good time doing those!

I have lost my voice though, because I have to scream/annunciate at guests to fill in all the available space in the queue for carousel. So if you guys are ever told to move all the way down please do it! Anyways, I’ve been hanging out with my roommates and friends a lot lately, which is great! And our sixth and final roommate arrived this morning. She seems super nice so hopefully everything turns out well!

In other news, the buses suck. I waited for the Walmart/Publix bus today and it never showed. Then, once I called transportation from the apartment they said it was running half an hour late and that I would have to just guess and wait for it to arrive. Yeah, ummm no thank you. So I’m either going to Publix tomorrow or getting groceries delivered, at the moment I am still undecided. 

Well, I am going to enjoy my two days off, and to end this post I will be posting some pictures of my time here so far!

First Day of Work

So yesterday was my first day of ‘training’! I would call it more of an all-day park orientation. I took the 6 a.m. bus because I had to be there by 7:15… let’s just say that I was dead to the world until I got to Magic Kingdom. When everyone was there we were split up into two groups and took tours of the Magic Kingdom before the park was open! That was super cool because I have never seen the park empty, so that was a dream come true right there! We also got to ride Haunted Mansion and the People Mover, which I love. Then when the tour was over we split up into more groups that were specific to our locations. Right after we were separated I found out that I’ll be working Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel and Mickey’s Philharmagic! So that’ll be cool!

            We then had lunch, and went on a tour of Fantasyland! I just love Fantasyland so much; it’s just wonderful in every possible way. Once our tour was done and when we finished riding the Barnstormer, it was time for costuming! I personally like my costume, although I was jealous of the New Fantasyland and Storybook Circus costumes lol :) Costuming took a little time only because we all had to get our costumes, make sure they fit correctly, and check them all out together. And after that my day was done!

            Today was my day off so I got to sleep in, and then I start another class tomorrow, and on the job training Thursday. So wish me luck! 

here is me in my costume!