3rd Family Visit

Over Memorial Day weekend, my family came down again to visit me in Disney World! During this visit, we stayed at the Beach Club Resort. I was able to get to spend 2.5 entire days with them, and during those days we spent time at the pool (which is the largest resort pool on Disney property), did a little bit of shopping, and of course, went to the parks! I also was able to spend time with them before/after I worked, which was nice. It's so much better to go back to a nice resort and good dinner after work than back to my apartment where I make myself a lackluster dinner!

Outside the Beach Club

When I went to Animal Kingdom with my family, we got VIP seating to watch Finding Nemo! We also ate at Yak & Yeti and went on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. In Epcot, we ate at Coral Reef and Le Cellier and watched Illuminations. At Magic Kingdom, my sister's friend, Jenn, was celebrating her 18th birthday, so my family was able to spend the entire day together, including eating breakfast at Cinderella's Castle with the princesses and riding the Seven Dwarves Mine Train on the first day it opened! Finally, before I drove them to the airport, we had breakfast at Cape May Cafe with Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. It was awesome to spend some time with my family and show them what it's like to live and work in Disney. 

Breakfast in Cinderella's Castle

The best part about saying goodbye to my family this time is that I get to see them again in less than a week! This Thursday, I am flying home for a week to help celebrate my sister's high school graduation. Obviously, I am beyond thrilled to be going home for a mini-vacation and to be able to see my extended family and friends from home, and MY DOG AND CAT!!!! 

Stay tuned for more exciting posts, and as always, keep on dreaming!

Watching Finding Nemo from a Guest's Point of View

My family visited again this past week, and I had to opportunity to watch Finding Nemo The Musical from a Guest's point of view. My coordinator gave my family and me VIP seating to watch the show. At first I was a little hesitant, mostly because I watch the show at least twice a day, usually more, so I didn't want to watch for fun. However, after watching as a Guest and not having to worry about watching people leaving, watching camera flashes, keeping the aisles clear, etc. it was much nicer! I was actually able to enjoy the show and take some great pictures! See the pictures below, and keep looking for more posts coming about my family's visit and all of the fun stuff that's been going on in the most magical place on earth!

Picking Up EHH Shifts

Last week I picked up my first EHH (extra hours hotline) shift on The Hub, and it was a parade shift in Asia! This was exciting, especially because I already know how to work the Animal Kingdom Parade, so I just got to experience it from a different side of the park. I also got to wear a new costume, which is always exciting! I also wanted to pick up the shift because the parade is going away on May 31, so I wanted to be able to work it a few more times before I have to say goodbye!

Costume for the parade shift

I learned a lot from working this shift, particularly that I am glad I always work on the theater ops side of the parade! We have things a lot more organized, and there are not as many traffic control problems on our side of the parade. Nevertheless, it was great to pick up a shift and experience new jobs and work with new Cast Members! I'm definitely going to keep looking to pick up shifts on the hub; hopefully I can find a Fantasmic or Magic Kingdom parade shift sometime soon!

If you want to know more about the hub and picking up shifts, look for an upcoming post all about the hub and how to use it!

Spring vs. Spring Advantage

If you're considering applying for the DCP or even if you're just curious about the application process, a huge part of the experience is applying for spring vs. spring advantage (or fall, fall advantage). The spring advantage program runs from January/February - May and the Advantage program runs until August. Basically, the difference is that spring advantage DCPers work during the summer months.

For me personally, I am so glad that I am doing the spring advantage program. I am not in any way ready to leave Florida yet, and I feel like I have so much left that I still want to do! However, I have a lot of friends and coworkers that feel differently. Some of my friends who are doing the spring program wish that they had extended and were staying longer. Others who are doing spring advantage wish that they had only done spring, because they are ready to leave now. I honestly think that your job has a lot to do with your happiness and wanting to stay or leave early. I love my job, my coworkers, and all my friends here, so I am so glad that I am staying for a few more months. I have some friends though, that hate their jobs, and thus are wishing that they had only signed up to do the spring program.

The one thing I will say about doing the spring program is that you have the option to extend your program through the summer. Basically, if you have a good record card, you will probably be given the opportunity to extend. Additionally, with that extension opportunity you can stay in the same job or you can switch jobs, which is also a nice incentive.

I recommend the spring advantage program because I don't think 4 months is long enough to be here for! However, I do have friends that would say differently, so my best advice to all of my readers is to do whatever you think is best for you. Take into consideration all of your options, and then decide how much time you want to spend in the happiest place on earth (:

New Roommates

The fateful day finally arrived when we received a notice on our door on a Thursday afternoon that we would be having new roommates move in on Sunday morning. As you can probably imagine, it was a little bit of a disappointment for us, as we were really hoping we wouldn't have new people move in until after our program was over. Nevertheless, the letter said we had to clean and make our rooms ready, so that's exactly what we did. We made arrangements in the bedrooms and kitchen for our new roommates and we had a cleaning crew come early Sunday morning to clean and sanitize the furniture. We also had a new (additional) refrigerator installed and more lockers come into our closets.

On Sunday morning, our new roommates, Sam and Emily moved into our apartment. I have to admit that I think we lucked out. Both seem like really nice girls and we've worked through the awkwardness of adding two more people into an apartment quite nicely. Sam was actually one of our friends old roommates! Both girls extended their programs, and Sam will be starting at the Contemporary as a concierge and Emily works at Art of Animation in Quick Service Food & Beverage.

The one downside to having two new people move in during the middle of the program is all of the additional stuff we have now! We have two toasters, another TV, way more decorations, and a lot of other things we wouldn't have doubles of if we had been able to talk about things beforehand! We are making it work though, and have managed to find places to put everything that the 6 of us own.

I'm excited to see what the summer holds for me and all of my roommates. I hope that we can enjoy the remainder of our program, and I know for a fact that we will all enjoy the $25 deduction in our rent starting next week!

Animal Kingdom Cast Party

In case you haven't heard - Animal Kingdom is growing!

Last Thursday, there was a Cast party in the new Festival of the Lion King theater in Africa for all of the Animal Kingdom Cast Members. They had catered food, lots of drinks, free Mickey ice cream bars, and lots of tents and tables outside giving away free things. The idea of the party was for Cast Members to get to see the inside and outside of the new theater and to thank the Cast Members for all of our hard work.

I can't say too much about the theater, but I will say that I believe that most Guests will be very pleased!

I really enjoyed the Cast Party. I was able to take pictures with the shovel used to break ground at Avatar land, learn about the new and exciting things coming to Animal Kingdom (hint: it's going to be AMAZING!), and spend some quality time with my fellow Cast Members away from work.
It was also really nice to have an event where they were thanking us. We even got to meet Rafiki and Timon!

Meeting Timon & Rafiki

Breaking ground on Avatar!

Starlit Splash

May 7, 2014 was definitely the best night of my entire College Program. Disney Internships and Programs rented out the entire Typhoon Lagoon water park from 7 PM to 1 AM for all of the College Program participants and had a giant party for the CPs!

From the moment my friends and I entered the water park, we could tell that it was going to be a good night. There was a DJ playing lots of great party music and a huge dance floor on the beach. The wave pool was in full force and we could smell lots of amazing free food right around the corner. Throughout the whole night we were able to spend tons of time in the wave pool, go on three tube slides, dance on the beach, meet Captain Jack Sparrow, have some free food (including Mickey bars!), snorkel with sharks, and watch an amazing fireworks show from the water!

Meeting Captain Jack Sparrow

There were so many CPs there, and you could tell that everyone was ready to let loose and have some fun. We were all dancing on the beach and in the water, swimming in the waves, and talking amongst ourselves. At 11:45, the entire party stopped, as they set up a fireworks show and we had an amazing fireworks display that we could watch from the beach or the wave pool! It was beautiful, and a perfect way to celebrate the night.

To make things even better, it was my friend's birthday at midnight, so we got the DJ to make a special birthday announcement for her and we all danced in front of the stage for a good part of the night. It was honestly the most perfect night; I loved every single second of it.

I am so grateful to Disney for setting up a night for the CPs to celebrate all of our hard work and accomplishments. Starlit Splash was a total blast and a complete success!

Typhoon Lagoon at night

How Cast Members Treat Other Cast Members

There are obviously a ton of perks to being a Walt Disney World Cast Member: free park admission, 20% off of all Disney merchandise, restaurant discounts, 50% off of activities, resort discounts, and way, way more. However, another perk of being a Cast Member is the way that Cast Members treat one another. 

Whenever I am at work and another Cast Member passes by me, they will always smile and wave, or say hello. It doesn't matter who they are, what department they come from, or how high up in the company they are. Even the Vice President of Animal Kingdom, Josh, will walk by and say hello to all of us!

Besides just being extremely friendly to one another, you feel like you are a part of a small family. Even though there are 65,000+ Cast Members, it doesn't feel that way. If you go somewhere and tell someone you are a Cast Member, they will automatically ask you about where you work, what you do, and how you like it. We all share this special bond of working for The Mouse, and it brings us close, even if we don't know personally know each other. 

The people at Nemo are especially great at treating one another fairly and nicely. I've heard a lot of stories form CP's about how the full-timers don't like the college kids because we "take their hours" and all of this stuff, but I never feel any hostility from my Nemo coworkers. We all truly care about one another and want to see the others do well, not just in work, but in life. When I had bad sunburn from my trip to the beach, I had at least 3 or 4 coworkers ask me about it for multiple days, give me tips as to how to treat it, and tell me to let them know if it was really bothering me. It's times like these that make me glad to be a WDW Cast Member at Finding Nemo The Musical. 

I love being a Cast Member, not only for all of the amazing perks, but for the way that I am treated and the way that all Disney Cast Members truly care for one another.