Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Living the Life
So I've down here for almost 2 months now. I'm loving every minute of it. I was home sick in the beginning and booked a flight home for a weekend. In that weekend, I realized why I was so excited to leave in the first place. It was great seeing my family and some of my friends, but I was put back in the same boring town with some friends that leave me out of things. I thought the fact that it would be the only time I'd been home in the next 5-6 months would make a difference and want people to spend more time with me, but I guess I was wrong. I have made so many great friends here already. My work is going great. The hours arent horrible, espec. since the Studios is rarely open passed 7pm this time of year. Spring break season is approaching which will bring on more choas at the parks, but I'm ready for it. My friends Zak, Dimitri and their other friend who are all seniors at my old High School are actually coming here for their spring break. I'm hopeing to be able to meet up with them and maybe take them out one night with me. It'll be great to see some more familiar faces from home again. The rest has just been the usual. Work, go out sometimes, sleep, repeat. Every now and then I fit in a shopping trip, I mean what girl can't resist shopping?! But anyways, like I said it's been great. I love it here. I honestly don't know what I'll do when my regular spring program friends leave in 2 months, but I look forward to meeting the new fall advantage cps.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Chaos
So I know I have not blogged in what seems like forever. I have now been moved into Chatham Square 18202 for 2 weeks and a day now. It seems wayyy longer than that though! I'm going to try and give whoever is reading this the best description of the program so far in the shortest way. The first few days before check in went pretty close to what I had planned. Everything went well. So the big part:
Check In Day:
(you can also refer to my vlog at: http://youtu.be/eiRNCgMwQdg)
We arrived at Vista way around 5:30am and there were already a good 30 people in line ahead of us. By 6am the line started to wrap around the street and by 7am it was almost across the entrance for the buses as you can see in my vlog. We started getting into Vista at around 7:50am if I remember right. When we got to the Welcome pavillion we did a little paper work and headed inside to get our housing assignement. Since I had all my roommates reselected, Katelyn took all our program guides to a lady who would sign them and give us all our keys. We got into a 3 bedroom Chatham Square like we wanted yay! After going through there and signing a few more papers, Katelyn and Hailey had to fill out some papers for their cars and then we were giving a Casting bus assignment. Our Casting bus left at 9:30. When we got there around 9:45 we were given our locations right away. Tara- DHS right block/icon merchandise, Katelyn- Epcot Towers&Glow merch, Haley- Contemporary merch, Hailey- DHS Hollywood Hills merch, Kaylee- All Star resorts arcade (recreation), Bridget- Character Performer "Friends with Pooh". The rest of casting is just a big boring maze of paper work. We were given a schedule for our Traditions class and first 2 days of training. We finally finished around 11:40, but didn't get on a bus back to Vista until 12:15. We all arrived at our new home around 12:30ish. We live in Chatham building 18 apt. 202 (second floor) our place is very nice although it lacks some essentials (ice cream scooper, toaster, plunger &more). (Apt Tour Vlog: http://youtu.be/GcpqkitX74M). We started moving in and unpacking. We had a housing meeting at 3pm at The Commons. The housing meeting is quite boring, but there are some things they tell you that you will need to know, like how to sign visitors in and stuff. After that we had the night to ourselves.
Traditions:
There are two sets of Traditions: Morning- 8am and Afternoon-2pm at Disney University. Bridget,Haley, and I had the aternoon session. When you arrived you are prearranged into groups. Luckily, Bridget was in mine. Throughout the beginning it's pretty boring. You go over a few online things and answer questions as a class for about a half hour. Next they start to go over the 4 keys- Safety Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. Then comes the cool part. The class room gets split in half into 2 groups. everyone gets handed a ear pieced radio to hear our teacher through. We left Disney University, walked over to West Clock(which is the bus stop to take Magic Kingdom castmembers to the utilidors for work) and got on a bus. For those that don't know, Utilidors are the underground tunnels under the Magic Kingdom that Walt decided to build so that the magic would stay alive and guests would not see say a Fantasyland cast member walking through Fronteirland to their work location. We headed inside the Utilidors which was so cool.We saw Belle on the computer and a few heads to the characters. We stopped at one point and our teacher told us we were directly under the castle. We eventually went up some stairs and came out onto Main Street USA. The feeling of walking out there and seeing the castle was unreal. It was weird, I had seen the castle atleast 30 times before, but this time was different. Maybe it' because it was my first time as a cast member? Who knows! All I know was that it was one of the most amazing feelings I've ever experienced. We walked down Main Street and around through Tomorrow Land. The entire tour we went over examples of the four keys we had seen. We finished our tour and went back down the to the utilidors through Tomorrowland. During the last hour or so of class we finished the 4 keys. We also had a surprise visit from our boss, the mouse himself! He brought us a present which we soon found out was our name tags. At the end of class we all went up to the front of the room to grab them and we all put them on together as a class for the first time. We ended class around 6:30pm.
After Traditions:
I had Saturday and Sunday off. My mom was flying back home Saturday afternoon, so I spent the day shopping with her before she had to leave. She left around 2pm, but all the girls had already headed out to the parks. Bridget had training until 5:30pm so when she got home around 6, we headed to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with Hailey and Katelyn. Sunday Hailey, Bridget and I went over to Animal Kingdom for most of the day.
Training:
I started my training on Monday. Monday was called "On With The Show". We started by going on a huge tour of park. We got in before the park opened which was pretty cool. After that it was time for classroom work. We watched some videos and went over the 4 keys and the Disney Basics (I project a positive image and energy. I am courteous and respectful to all Guests, including children. I stay in character and play the part. I go above and beyond.) Mainly more boring stuff. As you can tell I'm more of a hands on person so videos and speeches are not fun for me. After that was over we split into groups based on our role and met with someone from our area. Mine was Laretta and she was ironically from Chicago. She walked us over to costuming where we were shown the costume we would need and tried them on for size. After that we were done with training for the day.
The second day was Teir 1. We wore our costumes and each had our own trainer. It was pretty simple. We did some E-Leaning online and did a walk through of our shops. We also had lunch in Take Five which is the cast only dining (we ate there Monday too). Take Five has a Subway as well as other food they make there like Pizza, actual meals, and a la carte items. I had a strawberry smoothie which was quite good. Teir 1 was very easy going. We were given our pin lanyards and traded alot with guests.
Wednesday was Merchantainment training at Disney Unviersity again. We did some more E-learning and then headed to lunch for an hour. After lunch we went into another room and started learning how the "Cash Wrap" (cash register area) worked. We did some hands on stuff since they had mock registers. It was very similar to the register I used at jcpenney. We also did some role playing. We were put in pairs and one person was the guests and had cards to read off of to act out situations while the other person rang them up.We watched a few more videos and that was it for the day.
Teir 3 & 4 were both pretty easy. We went over cash wrap situations and learned how to do various types of things like package pick up items, returns, voids, and such. We started working with actual guests too.
We had Saturday off and Sunday we had stroller training. We did more E-Learning and learned everything about renting strollers,wheel chairs, and ECVs. We also learned to clean,stack, and park all of them. The last big thing we had to do was our assessment. We had a stroller assessment and a general merchandise assessment. I passed both! With a total of 73/75. I am now an official cast member!
From then on I have been actually working various locations, but mainly Oscar's (strollers,wheel chairs, and ECVs).
The Social Aspect:
I haven't done toooo much since I feel like I have been swamped with work. I went to a paint party at Bar One with my friends Vinny and Katie and their friends which was awesome, although I sliced my finger open since there was glass on the floor I didn't see and I touched the floor. I also went to Bliss last Friday for ladies night. Bliss was really cool inside altough the dance floor was kind of small. We ended up in VIP upstairs where there was more room to move around. Last Tuesday I took the bus to Miami. The weather wasn't too great, but it was a good time. We walked by DASH (the kardashian's store) and got some gelato from Lecca Lecca (the place the Jersey Shore cast worked at). They say you get the most burnt in over cast weather, well that was proven! My entire back side got fried! I had to go buy from yoga pants from one of the gift shops because there was no way I was gunna had a 4+ hour ride home in jean shorts which a burned behind. Since then, I haven't done much since I have had mainly mid shifts at work and I'm usually too tired to do anything after. I did go see The Women In Black the other night after work with Hailey and Bridget, although I slept through most of it which I'm kinda happy about because I hate scary movies and judgeing by what I could hear, it was bad haha.
Check In Day:
(you can also refer to my vlog at: http://youtu.be/eiRNCgMwQdg)
We arrived at Vista way around 5:30am and there were already a good 30 people in line ahead of us. By 6am the line started to wrap around the street and by 7am it was almost across the entrance for the buses as you can see in my vlog. We started getting into Vista at around 7:50am if I remember right. When we got to the Welcome pavillion we did a little paper work and headed inside to get our housing assignement. Since I had all my roommates reselected, Katelyn took all our program guides to a lady who would sign them and give us all our keys. We got into a 3 bedroom Chatham Square like we wanted yay! After going through there and signing a few more papers, Katelyn and Hailey had to fill out some papers for their cars and then we were giving a Casting bus assignment. Our Casting bus left at 9:30. When we got there around 9:45 we were given our locations right away. Tara- DHS right block/icon merchandise, Katelyn- Epcot Towers&Glow merch, Haley- Contemporary merch, Hailey- DHS Hollywood Hills merch, Kaylee- All Star resorts arcade (recreation), Bridget- Character Performer "Friends with Pooh". The rest of casting is just a big boring maze of paper work. We were given a schedule for our Traditions class and first 2 days of training. We finally finished around 11:40, but didn't get on a bus back to Vista until 12:15. We all arrived at our new home around 12:30ish. We live in Chatham building 18 apt. 202 (second floor) our place is very nice although it lacks some essentials (ice cream scooper, toaster, plunger &more). (Apt Tour Vlog: http://youtu.be/GcpqkitX74M). We started moving in and unpacking. We had a housing meeting at 3pm at The Commons. The housing meeting is quite boring, but there are some things they tell you that you will need to know, like how to sign visitors in and stuff. After that we had the night to ourselves.
Traditions:
There are two sets of Traditions: Morning- 8am and Afternoon-2pm at Disney University. Bridget,Haley, and I had the aternoon session. When you arrived you are prearranged into groups. Luckily, Bridget was in mine. Throughout the beginning it's pretty boring. You go over a few online things and answer questions as a class for about a half hour. Next they start to go over the 4 keys- Safety Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. Then comes the cool part. The class room gets split in half into 2 groups. everyone gets handed a ear pieced radio to hear our teacher through. We left Disney University, walked over to West Clock(which is the bus stop to take Magic Kingdom castmembers to the utilidors for work) and got on a bus. For those that don't know, Utilidors are the underground tunnels under the Magic Kingdom that Walt decided to build so that the magic would stay alive and guests would not see say a Fantasyland cast member walking through Fronteirland to their work location. We headed inside the Utilidors which was so cool.We saw Belle on the computer and a few heads to the characters. We stopped at one point and our teacher told us we were directly under the castle. We eventually went up some stairs and came out onto Main Street USA. The feeling of walking out there and seeing the castle was unreal. It was weird, I had seen the castle atleast 30 times before, but this time was different. Maybe it' because it was my first time as a cast member? Who knows! All I know was that it was one of the most amazing feelings I've ever experienced. We walked down Main Street and around through Tomorrow Land. The entire tour we went over examples of the four keys we had seen. We finished our tour and went back down the to the utilidors through Tomorrowland. During the last hour or so of class we finished the 4 keys. We also had a surprise visit from our boss, the mouse himself! He brought us a present which we soon found out was our name tags. At the end of class we all went up to the front of the room to grab them and we all put them on together as a class for the first time. We ended class around 6:30pm.
After Traditions:
I had Saturday and Sunday off. My mom was flying back home Saturday afternoon, so I spent the day shopping with her before she had to leave. She left around 2pm, but all the girls had already headed out to the parks. Bridget had training until 5:30pm so when she got home around 6, we headed to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with Hailey and Katelyn. Sunday Hailey, Bridget and I went over to Animal Kingdom for most of the day.
Training:
I started my training on Monday. Monday was called "On With The Show". We started by going on a huge tour of park. We got in before the park opened which was pretty cool. After that it was time for classroom work. We watched some videos and went over the 4 keys and the Disney Basics (I project a positive image and energy. I am courteous and respectful to all Guests, including children. I stay in character and play the part. I go above and beyond.) Mainly more boring stuff. As you can tell I'm more of a hands on person so videos and speeches are not fun for me. After that was over we split into groups based on our role and met with someone from our area. Mine was Laretta and she was ironically from Chicago. She walked us over to costuming where we were shown the costume we would need and tried them on for size. After that we were done with training for the day.
The second day was Teir 1. We wore our costumes and each had our own trainer. It was pretty simple. We did some E-Leaning online and did a walk through of our shops. We also had lunch in Take Five which is the cast only dining (we ate there Monday too). Take Five has a Subway as well as other food they make there like Pizza, actual meals, and a la carte items. I had a strawberry smoothie which was quite good. Teir 1 was very easy going. We were given our pin lanyards and traded alot with guests.
Wednesday was Merchantainment training at Disney Unviersity again. We did some more E-learning and then headed to lunch for an hour. After lunch we went into another room and started learning how the "Cash Wrap" (cash register area) worked. We did some hands on stuff since they had mock registers. It was very similar to the register I used at jcpenney. We also did some role playing. We were put in pairs and one person was the guests and had cards to read off of to act out situations while the other person rang them up.We watched a few more videos and that was it for the day.
Teir 3 & 4 were both pretty easy. We went over cash wrap situations and learned how to do various types of things like package pick up items, returns, voids, and such. We started working with actual guests too.
We had Saturday off and Sunday we had stroller training. We did more E-Learning and learned everything about renting strollers,wheel chairs, and ECVs. We also learned to clean,stack, and park all of them. The last big thing we had to do was our assessment. We had a stroller assessment and a general merchandise assessment. I passed both! With a total of 73/75. I am now an official cast member!
From then on I have been actually working various locations, but mainly Oscar's (strollers,wheel chairs, and ECVs).
The Social Aspect:
I haven't done toooo much since I feel like I have been swamped with work. I went to a paint party at Bar One with my friends Vinny and Katie and their friends which was awesome, although I sliced my finger open since there was glass on the floor I didn't see and I touched the floor. I also went to Bliss last Friday for ladies night. Bliss was really cool inside altough the dance floor was kind of small. We ended up in VIP upstairs where there was more room to move around. Last Tuesday I took the bus to Miami. The weather wasn't too great, but it was a good time. We walked by DASH (the kardashian's store) and got some gelato from Lecca Lecca (the place the Jersey Shore cast worked at). They say you get the most burnt in over cast weather, well that was proven! My entire back side got fried! I had to go buy from yoga pants from one of the gift shops because there was no way I was gunna had a 4+ hour ride home in jean shorts which a burned behind. Since then, I haven't done much since I have had mainly mid shifts at work and I'm usually too tired to do anything after. I did go see The Women In Black the other night after work with Hailey and Bridget, although I slept through most of it which I'm kinda happy about because I hate scary movies and judgeing by what I could hear, it was bad haha.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Pre-Arrival
So my plane takes off at 7:55am tomorrow morning. I think it is finally starting to soak in that I am leaving. The entire past 4 months I have been so excited and anxious to leave, but a bit of saddness is finally hitting me. I think I actually might cry today which I didn't think would ever happen. I guess this is a little different for me since I have lived at home in the same town for my entire life. Leaving this small town, all my friends, family, and cats behind is crazy. It's almost all I've ever known besides my two week vacations with my family every summer. For the most part, I think I will be okay. I have grown up to be a very independent person with my parents working full time and having an older sister who also works full time. I think it's just mainly the little things that are hard to digest, like not seeing any of the people I love or my cats anymore. I know I'll make amazing friendships during my program, but I'll always love my friends and family back home in Illinois. So enough of all the sappyness. Now it's time for an offical update/plans before check in.
Tomorrow I have to wake up around 3am because it takes about an hour or so to get to the airport and we have to be at the airport like 2 hours before our flight takes off. Our plane is scheduled to take off from Chicago/Midway at 7:55am. A snow storm hit yesterday so fingers crossed it's over and we don't get delayed! Since I am flying Southwest Airlines with my mom we each get 2 big checked bags, a medium sized over head carryon and a carry on for under the seat in front of us (back pack, purse, etc.). Since my mom is only staying for a week she doesnt need many clothes so three of the big suitcases plus part of the one she's putting her clothes in are packed with my stuff. One of our over head carry ons is packed with my shoes (I have an obsession), and the other I'm not really sure? We also send two boxes and my TV & DVD player to Florida UPS. It should arrive at our condo on Monday. Anyways, our flight is scheduled to land at 11:35am Florida time. After we land, we must get our luggage and then go pick out our rented car. My cousin Nicole did the DCP about 10 years ago and never came home. She still lives in Orlando and works for Disney through seasonal since she went back to school for Film. Over Thanksgiving break when my aunt and uncle went to visit her, they broguht some of my stuff down like my bed spread, griddle and such. After we get our car and such on Saturday we have plans to go meet Nicole for lunch and get my stuff from her. After lunch my mom and I will probably go pick up some grocery and hang out at our condo that we always rent. Sunday morning my mom and I are going to Epcot. We plan to ride Test Track 46565465446 times since it will be closing for referbishment in a few months. Also on Sunday my roommate Haley flys in at 2:55pm, and my other roommate Kaylee as well as her friend Jordan who checks in Monday fly in at like 4:30pm. They are all coming without parents, so my mom and I offered for them to stay at our condo with us until we check in. So my mom and I will leave Epcot around like 4pm to go pick them up from the airport. Kaylee has never been to WDW, so I'm excited to show her around. Once we bring them back to the condo and unload the car we'll probably let them relax from traveling for a bit. Then later we plan on going to Downtown Disney and getting dinner at Earl of Sandwich (best sandwichs in the world!). After dinner we'll probably walk around DTD for a bit and then head back to the condo. Monday is Kaylee's friend Jordan's check in date and also the day that my boxes and TV are supposed to arrive via UPS. My mom is going to drop Jordan off at Vista Way for check in in the morning while the rest of us wait at the condo for my UPS to arrive at the security house of our complex. I believe UPS is supposed to arrive by noon so I think after that my mom and I are going to take Haley and Kaylee to Orlando Premium Outlets (my favoriteeeee mall!). Later at night we might go to like the Polynesian and walk around and then watch Magic Kingdom's fire works from their beach. Tuesday is the day before check in. We don't really have any set plans besides for night. Tuesday night all of my roommates are coming to my condo for a pizza party. We're all gunna finally get to meet! Hailey and Katelyn's parents are also coming so they can meet us and all the parents can meet too. I'm not sure if Bridget is bringing any family, but if so they're coming too haha. Then Wednesday is finally check in!!!! We plan on getting to Vista Way around 5:30 or 6am. We wanna be able to get the apartment we want (Chatham) as well as get done with check in asap so we can start getting moved in and such. I believe we have thursday off, but there is a welcome party from 5-7. Free food, drinks, dancing, and characters! Woo Hoo! During the day I was talking to my mom about going to another park, so we'll see what happens! Then I believe Traditions starts on Friday! Yayyyy! I'll will try and update again next week when I have the chance and let you know if there were any changes and how things went! Sorry if theres any spelling or grammar errors because I am wayyy too lazy to re read this entire thing haha.
Tomorrow I have to wake up around 3am because it takes about an hour or so to get to the airport and we have to be at the airport like 2 hours before our flight takes off. Our plane is scheduled to take off from Chicago/Midway at 7:55am. A snow storm hit yesterday so fingers crossed it's over and we don't get delayed! Since I am flying Southwest Airlines with my mom we each get 2 big checked bags, a medium sized over head carryon and a carry on for under the seat in front of us (back pack, purse, etc.). Since my mom is only staying for a week she doesnt need many clothes so three of the big suitcases plus part of the one she's putting her clothes in are packed with my stuff. One of our over head carry ons is packed with my shoes (I have an obsession), and the other I'm not really sure? We also send two boxes and my TV & DVD player to Florida UPS. It should arrive at our condo on Monday. Anyways, our flight is scheduled to land at 11:35am Florida time. After we land, we must get our luggage and then go pick out our rented car. My cousin Nicole did the DCP about 10 years ago and never came home. She still lives in Orlando and works for Disney through seasonal since she went back to school for Film. Over Thanksgiving break when my aunt and uncle went to visit her, they broguht some of my stuff down like my bed spread, griddle and such. After we get our car and such on Saturday we have plans to go meet Nicole for lunch and get my stuff from her. After lunch my mom and I will probably go pick up some grocery and hang out at our condo that we always rent. Sunday morning my mom and I are going to Epcot. We plan to ride Test Track 46565465446 times since it will be closing for referbishment in a few months. Also on Sunday my roommate Haley flys in at 2:55pm, and my other roommate Kaylee as well as her friend Jordan who checks in Monday fly in at like 4:30pm. They are all coming without parents, so my mom and I offered for them to stay at our condo with us until we check in. So my mom and I will leave Epcot around like 4pm to go pick them up from the airport. Kaylee has never been to WDW, so I'm excited to show her around. Once we bring them back to the condo and unload the car we'll probably let them relax from traveling for a bit. Then later we plan on going to Downtown Disney and getting dinner at Earl of Sandwich (best sandwichs in the world!). After dinner we'll probably walk around DTD for a bit and then head back to the condo. Monday is Kaylee's friend Jordan's check in date and also the day that my boxes and TV are supposed to arrive via UPS. My mom is going to drop Jordan off at Vista Way for check in in the morning while the rest of us wait at the condo for my UPS to arrive at the security house of our complex. I believe UPS is supposed to arrive by noon so I think after that my mom and I are going to take Haley and Kaylee to Orlando Premium Outlets (my favoriteeeee mall!). Later at night we might go to like the Polynesian and walk around and then watch Magic Kingdom's fire works from their beach. Tuesday is the day before check in. We don't really have any set plans besides for night. Tuesday night all of my roommates are coming to my condo for a pizza party. We're all gunna finally get to meet! Hailey and Katelyn's parents are also coming so they can meet us and all the parents can meet too. I'm not sure if Bridget is bringing any family, but if so they're coming too haha. Then Wednesday is finally check in!!!! We plan on getting to Vista Way around 5:30 or 6am. We wanna be able to get the apartment we want (Chatham) as well as get done with check in asap so we can start getting moved in and such. I believe we have thursday off, but there is a welcome party from 5-7. Free food, drinks, dancing, and characters! Woo Hoo! During the day I was talking to my mom about going to another park, so we'll see what happens! Then I believe Traditions starts on Friday! Yayyyy! I'll will try and update again next week when I have the chance and let you know if there were any changes and how things went! Sorry if theres any spelling or grammar errors because I am wayyy too lazy to re read this entire thing haha.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Last Day at the JCP
So tomorrow is my last day at my current job at JCPenney, Johnsburg, store number 2951. It's been a year and 4 months since I was hired. It's a bitter sweet feeling. I have had an intense and extreme love hate relationship with this job. This job, being my first, has truely changed me as well as taught me many many things. From all that I have learned from this medium sized JCPenney store, I can not imagine what Disney has in store for me. I have been lucky enough to meet and work with so many wonderful people that I will never forget. I have had many many bad times in this store, but majority of the people I worked with made it worth it. I will miss them all very much, but I am beyond excited to start a new journey. Working in the happiest place on earth and participating in the college program has been a dream of mine ever since I can remember. It's hard to believe my dream with actually become a reality three short weeks. With that, I'd just like to thank all the people that helped give me the good times at jcp, as well as the people that I am so excited to meet and work with at Disney!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
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