Application Updates

Since my last post I have interviewed with the specific departments for my PI applications!!

I interviewed with the Animal Programs department for the Conservation Education Presenter, Coordinator, and Instructor positions. This was by far the most nerve wrecking phone interview I have done. It was a panel interview for all 3 positions so I was on the phone with 5 different people. Fortunately, I was prepared for their questions ahead of time thanks to a blog I had read (click here) which gave all the possible questions. The one not listed that I had to prepare was "If you had to choose one conservation message that is very close to your heart, what would it be and how would you spread it?" Overall though, I felt good about it because I was so prepared. Hopefully the blog will help anyone out applying in the future because it definitely helped me. I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without it!

I also had an interview (if that's what you want to call it) with the person who runs the Disney Youth Events program. The reason why I'm hesitant to call it an interview is because it felt more like a discussion about the internship and was very informal. He gave me a detailed description of the internship what I'd be doing, what the daily schedule would be like, how many hours I'd be working. It was very informative and he asked me the basic interview questions about my background in music, have I ever planned an event (even if it was just a trip), and who my favorite character was ( I said Steamboat Willie which led into him telling me about Disney's new old style cartoons they're coming out with haha.) It lasted about 45 minutes and felt like more of a really relaxed conversation.

Finally I made and submitted my video audition for the Youth Education Series Facilitator internship. I did it with my cousins who are in 4th grade. I'm a little worried about it because I did some editing and its kind of noticeable but I had to cut out the long pauses or extra footage since I had about 12 minutes of video and had to fit it into 5 minutes. Hopefully that won't affect their decision though because this is definitely my top choice for a PI. Here's my video teaching a musical scale:

Finally, this happened last night.

 I'm not too upset because I'm still In Progress for every single one of the PIs I applied for and those are what I'm really aiming for this time around. Also with a teaching degree, I know I'll end up back in Florida no matter what happens with Disney! :)

Happy waiting!

Disney Round 2 (hopefully)

Someone just posted a link to this blog in the Spring 2014 College Program Facebook group as helpful interview info! :) I forgot all about it but now that I see it again I decided maybe I'll blog some more, especially now that I plan on going back to Florida/Disney.

I'm just going to give a brief overview of what I've been doing and maybe go into more details in other posts. I completed my Disney CP in January 2012 and had the best 7 months of my life. When I tell you it was hard leaving that place, I mean it was one of the hardest things I've had to do so far. I made so many amazing friends on my college program (all or most who have since returned to the sunshine state) and was extremely happy there. I did apply to extend and was accepted but ultimately decided not to take it and come back to school in CT.

I've been working on my certification and Master's degree in Elementary Education for the past year and a half (almost 2 years now! crazy) and I will finally be finished this December. So you know what that means? I'll be on my way back to the happiest place on earth come January of 2014!!

So far I have applied for 5 PI's (professional internships), all in the field of education. The roles I applied for are:

Alumni Only-Youth Education Series Facilitator (YES program)
Conservation Education Presenter
Conservation Education Coordinator
Conservation Education Instructor
Disney Youth Events Internship

I would honestly love any of these roles because they're all something I'm interested in, mostly teaching. However, the Youth Events Internship is actually working with the Music Festivals that the schools participate in which would also be a good fit for me since Music was my major in undergrad. I had my phone interview yesterday and I felt like it went really really well so now I'm just waiting, working on an audition video for the YES program, and crossing my fingers! I also applied for another CP yesterday as a backup in case I don't get a PI, passed my WBI (web based interview), and am having my phone interview this coming Tuesday at 5:45pm.

So basically I have a lot of exciting Disney related things happening and I can hopefully keep this blog running a little better than 2 years ago haha. My next posts will probably be about more magical memories from my first CP and then more detailed information about my PI interview and application process so far. So stay tuned!!

Magical Memories

This blog is going to be about my magical memories while being on the CP so far :)

1) The other day I was working in Uptown Jewelers and I met a little girl and gave her a sticker. Her mom was more excited than she was and told her "Tell Miss Lisa what you're celebrating today!!" to which she replied "Mickey Mouse" lol

Mom: "Nooo tell her about how it's your birthday!"

Me: *gasp* "Is it your birthday today?!?"

Girl: "Yes, do you want to come to my birthday??"

Mom: "Awww"

Me: "You're having a birthday party? that's so cool!! I'll be right back, I'm going to see if I have something special for you!"

I came back with a birthday button and asked her her name (Nicole) and gave it to her. It felt really special and I felt like I made their day really special :)

2) One day I was in Photopass ringing people up and I saw a mother holding her little boy. I went over and gave him a Mickey sticker and his mom told him to "say thank you!" He didn't do that but instead he blew me the most adorable kiss! :)

3) While working outside at one of the train carts, I was waving with the Mickey glove and a little girl ran over to me and hugged me and gave me a "high four"

4) While in the Confectionery, the Dapper Dans were singing to the guests and they saw a little girl with a birthday button. They sang a birthday song for her and everyone was looking. At the very end of the song I walked over and gave her a Mickey shaped rice krispie as a birthday present :D

Oh my gosh.....

I really stink at these blog posts!! :/ I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. I'm going to try to recap everything for you all and I promise I will try and get better about posting!

Work has been really great, I still love my location just as much as I did when I first started :) The days are long and my feet hurt a lot at the beginning but I promise you get used to it! My feet definitely don't hurt as much now haha. I love my managers and I feel so lucky to be on Main Street where I can see the parades and fireworks happen. Last week I was deployed to Adventureland (working at Pirates and Island Supply) and while it was cool to try something new it definitely wasn't Main Street and by the end of the week I was more than ready to go back! So besides being deployed work is pretty much the same everyday. Occasionally something memorable will happen like when I gave a baby a sticker and he blew me a kiss as his way of saying thank you or when I have a full 5 minute conversation with a little girl about Pez dispensers (lol) or the scariest one where a kid decided to eat a sticker and started choking on it and no one knew what to do (he was ok, I guess he swallowed it but the family was not happy that no one tried to help.)

Anyways, yesterday was pretty cool at work because I had a special meeting :) A bunch of us CP's had a meeting with 2 of the managers. Steve is like a big kid and when we walked in he was playing the 25th anniversary park music on his laptop lol. I thought the meeting was going to be boring but it turned out being really cool. There were 3 ICPs (International College Program) in my meeting, one was from China and 2 were from France. It was really cool hearing how America was so different from their own countries and hearing about why they decided to come to Florida to do the college program. One of the really cool things about this program is that you'll meet people from everywhere :) During the meeting we also talked about how to make the CP better in the future, what advice we would give people, and played Disney Trivia 20 questions and won prizes!! :D We also got to sample some treats from the Confectionery, yummmm. The last thing we did was go out on Main Street and got a group photo in front of the casting door. It was really fun and a great break from regular work.

On my days off I've been doing 2 things, I either run errands all day and go grocery shopping or I go to the parks for free. For the past 5 weeks I've been getting Thursdays and Fridays off so I usually use one day for errands and one for parks (but I only run errands every other week so some weeks I go to the parks both days haha) It's really fun and I love being able to go on my days off. Some things that stick out in my mind are going on Rockin Roller Coaster 3 times in a row with Rebecca (one of my roomies) by going through the single rider line, going to the animation building and learning how to draw Piglet, and meeting my friend Donald in Epcot <3 I also have my seasonal pass for Universal which I'm still trying to make use of haha. I can't find anyone to go with so I might just end up going by myself and having a good time!

So that's about it for work and days off. Occasionally I'll do something before or after work if I have time but usually I like to relax when I have the time. On the 4th of July I worked but not until 3 so I ended up going to the pool before work with Rebecca and having lunch afterwards before work which was really nice. Then one night I got out of work at 8 and it was my friend Kelley's birthday so I changed my clothes and met her and Edward (they both also work on Main Street East) and went on rides until 11:30 at night (sooo fun.) Then last night my cousin was in Orlando and after work I took the monorail and met her at the Grand Floridian for dinner and we got to see the fireworks from there too. It was really nice and I had a good time. I love taking the monorail from work and just riding around because I can! :)

I hope this kind of recapped my program so far. Please comment if you feel like I've left anything out or want to know more :) I'd love to take requests on ideas for blog posts so I can post more often. I promise I will!! Until next time <3 Have a magical day!

Haven't posted in a while...

Sorry everyone who possibly might read this! I've gotten behind on my blog already! I've been in Disney for almost a week now so I'm going to give yall a recap on check in and my training.

First of all I don't think I mentioned here that my roommate situation changed a few days before I arrived. My original roommate KT ended up getting a job on the Disney cruise line for the Disney Dream and had to turn down her internship. I'm so excited for her even though we don't get to live together. She's going to have such an amazing time! So like 2 days before I got here I found a new roommate from facebook....ironically also named Katie! She's super nice and we get along great together and also with the other 2 girls in our apartment. Let me start from the beginning though....

I got to the check in line at the apartments at 7am and met up with one of the girls I had been talking to on facebook (Nicole) and we found my roommate Katie in line already. Nicole's roommate Rebecca (who we also talked to on facebook) wasn't there yet because she took a flight in that morning so she checked in later. We didn't wait very long since we were there early, they let us in around 8am and we went through a series of tables where we received papers, signed papers and got our apartment set up.

Then we got on the bus to casting (the door knobs in the front are from Alice in Wonderland!) where we got our work locations (I'm working on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom!! aka I get to watch fireworks and watch parades every night :D) and got more papers, signed/handed in more papers, got fingerprinted, set up direct deposit (or our Partners Visa....more about that later), got our training schedule, and finally took an awesome picture at the end.

Then we took the bus back to the apartments (at this point I was separated from my roomies but it was ok because everyone is super friendly and talks to each other since we're all in the same boat and don't really know anyone.) I went back to my apartment and unpacked and my aunt came with a tv for our living room and then we went out and ate lunch at the Golden Corral. I had a boring housing meeting from3pm-5pm and then I was done for the day. This is pretty much how your schedule will be if you get there around 7-8am, get your assigned apartment, go to casting, unpack your apartment/eat lunch, and then go to the housing meeting in the afternoon. The next day (June 7th) was a free day where my roomies and I went to Walmart and bought things for our apartment.

On Wednesday (June 8th) we had Traditions. Now everyone says Traditions is long and boring. Well it is long (about 4 hours) but I didn't think it was too boring, we watched a lot of videos about Disney World and being a cast member and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside lol. We also got to go to the Magic Kingdom and Mickey Mouse came to visit us in class :) At the end of the class they give you your official cast member name tags and you also get your Disney id in the beginning which gets you into the parks for free! That night there was a pool party at Vista Way that my roomies and I went to. It was ok, I'm not really into parties but there was free pizza which was worth going for in my opinion :)

The next day (June 9th) I immediately started training for work. This doesn't happen to everyone, some people have time off before they start. My roommates had Thursday off and then 2 had Friday off as well and didn't start until Saturday. I had orientation at Magic Kingdom on June 9th which started at 7:15am so I had to take the 6:05 bus. The busses (at least for people working in MK) are not that bad, I will definitely be using them instead of driving my car everyday and wasting gas. Plus it's nice because you meet people while riding. Anyways it sucked orientation was so early but it was really fun. We went in the underground tunnels under MK. The tunnels are like top secret, they don't let anyone take pictures of them because it would "ruin the magic." Sorry! :) We learned all about how the cast members keep the magic and fantasy alive in the Magic Kingdom while walking around the park. It was really interesting and made me love Disney even more. At first I wasn't excited about working in MK cause they can have really late hours (which CPs usually work since we're at the bottom of the totem pole) but now that I did orientation I'm so excited I get to work in the one park in Disney World that Walt actually planned out and designed himself! :) I got my costumes for work at the end and also got the rest of my training schedule. YAY!

A little off topic but Disney is soooo thorough with training which makes me so happy. Whoever is nervous about coming don't be!! I was really nervous to start because I was afraid I wouldn't know where to go or what to do or who to see but they do everything the first few days in groups so we're all going around together. Even this morning when I had to go to training by myself (no roomies this time) I found people going on the same bus to my orientation. They even told us they don't want everyone walking around like a deer in the headlights so they literally take you step by step from orientation to costuming to your specific work location and show you where each and every location you'll need to know is so you feel comfortable and know what you're doing. They even tell us which busses to take and what time to take them the first day! I think I have like 6 days of training which is awesome. I now understand why Disney is so famous and is on the Fortune 100 list of top companies to work for!! :)

But yeah I've basically been training all week. On June 10th (Friday) I had an orientation for my work area. We were basically just shown all around our area to become comfortable (no learning the register or anything!) We got our pins to trade that day and wore them around the park which was fun. Everyone wanted to see what we had. I had Merchantainment class on Saturday (June 11th) which was also long (all the shifts I got so far are 8.5 hours long but don't worry they go by fast and you get used to it!) but we practiced on the practice cash registers during class and learned more about working in Merch. Yesterday (June 12th) I actually got to work on the register for real and I loved it. We started off in the Confectionery (where they sell all the candy) and I got to work the register and also pull the cookies and fudge for the guests and wrap them up. I really loved working there and I think I'm going to have a great time. I also rotate to all the shops on Main Street East (the hat shop, 2 carts, the jewelry store, and the art of disney) so I also trained at one of the outside carts right by the front entrance. This was amazing because we got out there just as the parade was starting and it still felt as magical and incredible as it always had! :) I'm really excited for Wednesday because I get to do specialty training and learn how to make cotton candy and stitch names into people's mickey ear hats!! :D

Anyways, today I have the day off so I'm off to play in the parks! Disney is really great so far! We'll see what next week brings! Hope everyone has a magical day!

Role Change

I had a realization yesterday that I'm not a good fit for the role of Lifeguard. I haven't been swimming regularly in 4 years and I wasn't going to be able to be ready for the swim test in 2 weeks (when I have to fax Disney the form saying I'm able to perform the required swim skills.) So I called Disney yesterday and asked if it was too late to change. She told me there were no guarantees but she'd put in a request and I'd get a call within in the next 48 hours.

So a recruiter (Stephany) called me this morning and was super nice and I explained to her that I'm not a very strong swimmer and I didn't think I'd be able to do the swim test for lifeguard because I haven't been swimming regularly in 4 years, she said she understood and offered me a position in Merchandise. I accepted so now I'm going to be working Merch!! I think I'm going to be so much happier with this role and I'm extremely excited about it! Hopefully I get a good location! Yayyy! :)

In some non-Disney news, I graduated from college last Saturday, it was such a liberating experience. I never thought I'd get there never mind get there with the degree I wanted (Music) and having done a violin recital!! So needless to say, I'm pretty proud of myself even if I'm not one of the smarty pants with a 3.9 gpa :p I also got a lot of graduation money so I've treated myself to a Kindle which is coming today! I can't wait to get it. Oh and my birthday is coming! (9 days!) Life is good right now! :)

Change of Plans!

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting on here, school has been super busy with my recital and now the end of the semester, finals, and graduation. I don't have a lot of free time! I did want to update a little though. In my last post I revealed that KT and I will be staying at the All Star Music for 2 nights before check in. This has now changed! My dad found a really good deal on the Buena Vista Suites (cheaper than Disney) which is  a lot closer to Vista Way (5 minutes down the street) and includes breakfast. So I will be staying there for 1 night with my dad and brother (who are coming down on the Autotrain with me) and then staying the next night with KT  before check in! The hotel looks really nice and I'm super excited I'll be able to split my time between my dad and brother and my new roomie KT :)

Also, our apartment is now complete! We've been planning on sharing an apartment with Nicole (who I've been talking to on facebook) but she needed her own roommate and we finally found one! :) Her name is Rebecca and she seems really nice. I think our apartment is going to work out really well, we all seem very compatible and easy going about things.

That's all the Disney news I can think of for now. 44 days until I leave for Florida! :)