Update

I haven't updated my blog lately. I guess it's probably because things haven't been going so great, and the end of the semester is always hectic. School has been going decently. Only 4 more classes left, then finals. So basically 3 more weeks. I'm ready for this semester to be over already. Only 42 more days left till move-in. I'm excited, but I'm getting more scared about leaving my boyfriend. We've been together over 3 years, and it's going to be hard leaving him behind, but he is going to visit, so I'm excited about that. :)

I'm almost finished with my packing list. I will post that as soon as it is finished. Hopefully it will help some with things they might want to pack. I believe that's about all for now. <3

When life throws you a curveball....

Ok, so yesterday was the 60 day mark until my move to Disney. The plans for the move and everything were going great... then WHAM! I was hit with some crazy news. My best friend is pregnant, and I'm the godmother. WOW! I have already accepted my offer to go to Disney, but now I'm(for sure) not going to be able to extend my program.  We don't know how far along she is and won't find out until she goes to the doctor next month. I'm so excited for her, they've been trying to have a baby for a little while now. Although, I'm excited, I'm going to have to miss some of the most of the important doctors appointments since I'll be almost 10 hours away. I can only hope and pray that nothing goes wrong in the pregnancy. I'll be at Disney through May 13th, so she'll probably be around 6 months pregnant when I move back. I'm sure we'll have plenty of late night phone calls talking about everything. Just thought I would update ya'll on whats going on.

I'll try to do a packing blog soon.

Housing at Disney

There are 2 types of apartments one can live at. Wellness and Non-wellness. Wellness apartments are for anyone who is under 21 years of age. It is a dry apartment and you can't bring alcohol into the apartment at all. Non-wellness is for people over 21. They are allowed to drink in the apartment. If you are over 21, you have the option to live in wellness or non-wellness. If you do live in a wellness apartment and you are over 21, you still have to follow the same rules of no drinking in the apartment.

There are 4 apartment complexes for the CPs to live in. Vista Way, Chatham Square, Patterson Court, and The Commons. In each apartment complexes, there are apartments with 1-4 bedrooms. 2 People live in one bedroom, so one apartment can accomodate anywhere from 2-8 people. The disney website says that apartments can cost anwhere from $79-$108 or something like that. It all depends on where you live and how many people you live with. If you live with 7 others, your rent is going to be lower.

Vista

Vista way is the oldest apartment complex. It is the smallest of the apartments, and is also the cheapest. From what I've heard, it's known for the parties. It is the most sociable of the apartments. Vista Way doesn't have balconies like the rest of the apartment complexes, it does have 2 pools though. And it has a bus stop for CPs.

Chatham

Chatham Square is the biggest apartment complex. It was built in 2000, so it is only 10 years old.  Some of the apartments have balconies, and some don't. Some bedrooms here have their own bathroom, but some don't.  Most people call this place the happy medium. It isn't as sociable at Vista, but it isn't as quiet as Patterson.  It has a pool, and a bus stop and is right beside Patterson Court. It is basically just as pricey as Patterson. I think you save a dollar a week, by living here instead of Patterson.

Patterson

Patterson Court is the newest of the apartment complexes. It was built in 2008. Every apartment in this complex has a balcony and every bedroom has a bathroom. There are 2 sinks in the rooms(one in the bathroom and one outside the bathroom) so it's easy for one to get dressed while the other is showering.  Patterson is called the retirement home because it is the quietest of all the apartments.  This complex does not have its own bus stop. Patterson and Chatham share a bus stop, but it's only a 5 minute walk.

The Commons
I don't really know much about The Commons honestly. I know it is the housing for the international students.  Every apartment here has their own washer/dryer.  I could not find a picture of this complex.

Washers/Dryers
All apartments(excluding the commons) have washers and dryers in laundry mat form that everyone shares. Everyone buys a loadable washing card instead of carrying around quarters, you load your card when you go to wash clothes. I honestly don't know how this works either.

Roommate Matching

So, on November 1st, the roommate matching notification system officially became available for my arrival date and a few others. This system allows you to either choose who you want to be roomed with, or it matches you with some random person that you are able to contact before you move to Disney. You don't have to do either of these. You can just wait till you get down there and you will be paired up with whoever is next in line without a roommate. I do not recommend doing this though. Personally, I would like to know a little about who I will be living with before I move in with them for 4-7 months. Plus, it's nice to arrange who is going to bring what so you dont end up with extra stuff you wont use. But that's just me.

My worst fear was getting matched or stuck with a roommate who drank, smoked, had new boys over every day, or was involved in illegal activities. Fyi, I will be living in a wellness apartment since I'm under 21. The wellness apartments are like dry apartments. They don't allow people to drink while in the apartment. If any of this is found, the person doing it and possible all of their roommates/housemates will be termed and sent home. Not good. Luckily, I've already chosen my roommate and she is nothing like that.

More about my roommate. Her name is Ashley. We met on the Disney CP Spring/Spring Advantage facebook group. We are just alike in so many ways. Living with her is going to be a blast. We like basically the same types of things. We have the same favorite color, like most of the same types of food(besides Reese's, she doesn't like them, so more for me. haha. jk.). Our beliefs are closely related and so are our morals. We met online sometime in mid/late September after we both were accepted into the program and have been talking ever since. We've asked each other every question imaginable. I feel like I already know her.....and we haven't even met in person yet. The first time we will actually meet, before we move in together, will be on January 9th(the day before our move-in date).  We are hoping to get a 1 bedroom wellness apartment in Patterson Court.
In my next blog, I will talk about the 4 different apartment complexes.

Character Auditions

So the character auditions were a lot of fun. If I have learned one thing, it's that Disney is completely random with their character auditions. All the auditions are different. I'll tell you what mine was like though. The audition started at 4:00(EST), I believe. First, we were all placed in a tiny room, we didn't get started till after 4:30 though. The Disney people handed out a paper for us to fill out. After we filled it out, we went into another room, handed them our paper, received our number(I was # 12), got measured and they took our picture. this whole process took awhile since there were 129 people at my audition in Atlanta, but that was for both CP and Full-Time. After that, they took us all into a room and showed us a dance twice. We practiced it a couple times and went into another room and did the dance. We danced in groups of 4, and a total of 12 people in the room at a time. It was an across the floor dance(kind of like a parade dance). Each person did the dance a total of 3 times(it was a 16 count dance). After this dance, they cut close to half of the people(I was in this group). After cuts, they taught the remaining people a harder dance and they did animation.  My audition was on October, 15th.  I received the email saying that I wasn't selected for a character performer on November 5th. So far, 2 people who were at the same audition as me have been selected to be a character performer.  I saw these 2 people on the facebook group for the DCP Spring 2011. I'm sure there are a few others chosen from my audition that aren't in the facebook group. The audition itself was a lot of fun. My heart wasn't set on a character performer, but I figured I would audition anyways, because you never know until you try. I will stay a merchandise cast member for the Spring 2011 Program. If I decide to extend my program, I will audition again.  If anyone has anymore questions about the audition process, feel free to ask me. :)

Acceptance

I'm 2 months behind on my blog, so most of the posts that you see are going to have the same dates. It's November 8th, and I'm posting something that happened on September 13th. I am trying my best to get my blog up to date. :)

The purple folder picture!!!! I took it on my laptop, so its not that great. Oh well. :) I was accepted as a merchandise cast member on September 13th. I received my acceptance e-mail 10 days after my phone interview. My purple folder came in the mail on September 17th. It was postmarked for the 15th.

P.S: I didn't tell my parents that I applied for The Disney College Program until after I completed my phone interview. They weren't upset, but I do not recommend doing this. They weren't home for me to tell them I applied and they had no clue what it was. The conversation went a bit like this:
Me: "Guess what?"
Mom: "What?"
Me: "I have a phone interview with Disney tomorrow"
Mom: "What?"
Me: "Yeah, I've already been through one interview"
Mom: "Do you actually think you'll get the job?"
Me: "Well, its worth a try, isn't it?"
Mom: "I suppose so"

My parents didn't actually think I would get the job.... here's what happened when I got accepted. haha.
Me: "I got in!!"
Mom: "Got in what?"
Me: "DISNEY! I got the job"
Mom: *Automatically thinks about having the extra room in the house and what she's going to do with it*
Mom: "Oh, that's good" *smiles*
They want me to leave.... haha. jk. :)

Application Process

How I found out about the Disney College Program
I've been asked a million times, "How did you hear about this opportunity?" Well, most people say they say signs at their campus and whatnot, but that's not what happened in my case. I knew someone who went to work for disney in the Spring 2010. I had no clue as to how she got the job there, I figured her brother got her a job since he works there. On one of her facebook status updates, she mentioned something about the Disney CP. I had no clue what a CP was, so I googled it like I do for everything I don't know, or that I'm not sure of. The wdwcollegeprogram.com website popped up, so I looked at it. My mind was blown. This was the coolest thing ever. The website asked if I wanted to be put on the e-mailing list since applications for the Spring/Spring Advantage weren't up yet. I added my email adress to it, and got a "thank you for your interest in the WDW CP." This was sometime in July, I never recieved an email when applications were available. Luckily, the girl I knew made another Disney-related status update on September 1st. This reminded me to check to see if the applications were available, and they were!

Filling out the Application/web interview.
After looking up all the info I could find on the DCP, I decided to apply. I thought "What the heck, the worst they can do is say no." On September 1st at around 6 p.m. I applied. There were questions about my previous work experience, my skills, and what roles I would like to work in. After that entire process, I did the web-based interview. It's basically asks you questions and you choose: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree. This interview is timed though. I cant remember how long you have since it was over 2 months ago since I did the interview. After the web-based interview was over, they told me I was a strong candidate. It's a pass or fail thing, either you're a strong candidate, or you fail, I'm pretty sure there is no in between.  They gave me a number and told me to call and schedule a phone interview. It was too late that night, so I waited until the next morning around 10 a.m. EST to call. The morning of Sept. 2nd I called the number given to me the night before. A young man answered the phone and I told him I was calling to schedule my phone interview.  He was very nice. We went over all of my information to make sure it was correct, then he gave me a time for the interview, and asked if that time was ok for me. It was, so he set me up for that day/time and told me to have a magical day. My phone interview was scheduled for September 3rd at 11 a.m. EST.

Phone interview.
So, my phone interview was scheduled for 11 a.m. I got the phonecall at 11:05. Those were the longest 5 minutes of my life. My interviewer called, her name was Peggy. She was nice, but not very talkative. I've heard that some of the interviewers were overly nice and super talkative. We started my interview, it took 34 minutes.  We went over all my information and made sure everything was correct, then started the interview. I was very very very very.....very nervous. Most of my questions were about merchandise and  QSF&B. My top 3 roles were attractions, merchandise, and character attendant. She asked me how I would handle a situation where I was very busy with customers and another worker asked me for help, how well I could handle money, when had I ever made a guest feel special, how I would handle being a hostess and a few more situational questions. She also asked how I would feel about living with up to 7 other girls from all over the world, how I would handle a situation where my roommate was messy and a couple other living questions. Seeing as how this was over 2 months ago, I honestly can't remember all the questions I was asked. I believe the biggest question of them all was "Why do you want to work at Walt Disney World?" I do believe I nailed this question. I honestly thought I screwed up the interview and didn't do well at all. So I wasn't expecting to hear back from Disney.

Interview Tips.
Smile. They can hear it in your voice.
They know you're nervous. Its ok.
Write down things you want to mention.
Write down answers to potential questions you think they might ask. It helps you to be more prepared.
Try to keep away from saying "ummmm" a lot.
Don't automatically answer questions, take some time to think about them. Don't blurt out the first thing that pops into your head.
If you don't want a role, don't check it on the role checklist. I've known many people to check a lot of things on their role checklist and end up getting a role they didn't want. You can't change your role once you're accepted for it.

1st Blog

Hey guys. I'm a little late starting my blog for the WDW CP Spring 2011, but better late than never, right? School has been pretty hectic this semester so I really haven't had time to make/post any blogs. Please forgive me because I am new to this whole blogging thing so I really don't know what I'm doing. It might take me awhile to get used to everything. I'll be making a few blogs soon talking about all the different topics such as: how I heard about this opportunity, the entire application process, the acceptance, the roommate matching system, and all those great things! I think that's about it for now. <3