Just grab a friend and take a ride, together upon the open road

Getting down to Florida sounds like a little bit of a hassle, and I'll admit I'm kind of nervous about it. It won't be too difficult because I will have everything packed from my apartment at school, but fitting it all into one little civic is going to be the worst part.

There are 3 options in which I could choose from to get down to Florida:

• Driving --an 18 hour drive from New Jersey
• Flying -- give or take 2 1/2 hours
• Auto Train -- 17 hours from Lorton, VA

My family decided the best for me would be taking the auto train down to Orlando from Lorton. It makes a lot of sense- My car is leased so I have to be careful with my mileage, and who really wants to drive 18 hours in a small cramped car, because I know I will have it packed to capacity. It also works out because Lorton, VA is about 30mins up the highway from Mason so I know the area and I'll have a place to stay the night before I get on the train. I've heard good things about the auto train, and hopefully it won't be too bad of a ride. Anything is better than being stuck in a car for that long!!

A new topic of conversation that has come up is what we have to bring with us to the program. Obviously being a girl I want to just pick up my entire room and move it into my new apartment down there but that is not very realistic for the situation. I have everything compact into my room at college now, but it still took 2 cars to get all my stuff here so I need to downsize even more! I'm most likely going to be going crazy trying to make everything fit in my car (good thing my Mama is good at puzzles and always finds a way to make things fit!) The good thing about the apartments for the program is that they provide a lot of items that most apartments don't have.

The apartments are fully furnished  and I mean fully furnished. Reading about the apartments on the website, they list everything you could possibly need. --> http://cp.disneycareers.com

• Bedroom-two beds, dresser w/ a mirror, nightstand
• Dining room- table w/ chairs
• Living room- couch, chair, 2 end tables
• Bathroom-shower curtain, 2 wastebaskets
• Kitchen-refrigerator, stove, oven, & microwave, dishwasher, and dish, pot, utensil, baking sheets, cups (its a fully stocked kitchen)

Having the apartment come with all of this is really going to help when I'm trying to pack. Though I'll need some more key items, I don't have to worry about setting up the entire apartment. Also the fact that there are 6 of us, that hopefully will make the packing even lighter!

I'll be arriving in Orlando on Jan 8th early in the morning, so I'm hoping to venture around the area and get acquainted with it so I don't need Ruth (my gps) every time I want to go somewhere. I'll have the entire day to relax and just go around, hopefully I won't get too lost! But that night a bunch of CPers are meeting at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney to get to know each other a little bit before we move in. I'm so glad someone decided to plan this. Its going to give everyone a chance outside of the program to get to know each other just a little bit before we cross over into our Disney lives! Also I'll get to meet my roommates in person for the first time, so that will be a good time; all thanks to the world of facebook, connecting us Disney College kids!!!


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."-Walt Disney

My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you.

So the next process of this is deciding where to live and meeting roommates. Some people choose to have random roommates, and meet them on the first day we move in, but I'd prefer to get to know the girls I will be living with for 5months rather than them be complete strangers. Alright so anyway on with the housing choices:

• Vista Way- it is the oldest of all the housing. I've heard good and bad things about it. I've heard it is very social over there and its where people hang out for parties and such. They just repainted it but I don't know if they fixed up the inside. I think it just looks aged but still possible good housing. Its also the cheapest of all of them which kind of made me want to choose this but I don't know.
• Chatham (My first choice)- This is what I would call the in between complex it seems like. I've heard vista is crazy and patterson is quite reserved. So this complex seems to be a happy medium. It is mid priced and from what I have researched looks really nice on the inside and not incredibly too small either. 
• Patterson- This is the newest of the complexes and is the most expensive- way to expensive for me! I kind of would like some money after rent is taken out! Patterson is super nice though and that is what you are paying for. Its a quite area, and I think its far from the bus stop though- a downside if you don't want to drive or don't have a car.
• The Commons- This is international housing, I haven't heard really much about it.

So when picking a building, you also have to pick the amount of roommates you want. You can choose from 1-7 roommates. So with that being said, I have met and decided to live with 5 other awesome girls in a 3 bedroom apartment in Chatham. I can not express the excitement I have to finally move in and meet them. Its like being a college freshman all over again! There are 3 of us from Jersey, Indiana, Georgia, and Connecticut!

We all found each other through facebook (except one of the girls, I went to high school with).One of the good things about facebook is that people have started groups that are for the Spring 2012 DCP and its the easiest way to meet people. It also lets everyone in on information from each other that you may not know about. It helped me keep up to date with when acceptances went out, and what everyone was doing with the housing situations. It also helps answer questions you may have or maybe have the answer to. Everyone in these groups are going through the same thing so everyone is very willing to help each other out. I like that and it makes me want to meet everyone even more!

Now I don't get to secure my housing and roommates before we move in; it sucks but its how Disney has always ran it I guess. So we are going to arrive at check-in super early and stand in line together so we have a good chance of moving in with each other and getting the complex we want!

So as for now I'm getting to know my new roomies and talking all about what we want to do down there. We are all excited and I think we'll be talking about it everyday from now till Jan 9th! I am also waiting to get a purple envelope in the mail from the program; no more purple folder but an envelope that supposedly has something more exciting than a folder in it, so we'll see what it is!

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" - Casablanca (The Great Movie Ride)

All you need is faith and trust... and a little bit of pixie dust!

So I want to start doing a blog so my family and friends can keep up on what I am doing throughout my journey through the Disney College Program. Also I am hoping if people are searching for blogs about the program they can find mine and I can give them some information on the program and the process. I read a lot of blogs while preparing for applying for the program and they helped a lot so I hope I can help others too, along with just entertaining fellow Disney lovers with the adventure I am about to start. 


"I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination." -Walt Disney


So I applied to the Disney College Program on September 5th, in which I just filled out a normal application listing previous jobs and experiences. Along with my resume. Within an hour or so of completing my application I recieved an e-mail that I was going to have to take the oh so scary Web Based Interview. The WBI was much like a personality test and consisted of a lot of "what would you do" and "are you more like this or like this". I had heard that you should be definite with your answer and confident, so I had tried to stay away from any answer that seemed neutral.

I found out directly after the WBI that I would get a chance to have a phone interview! I was soo NERVOUS. I prepped the entire week for it. My phone interview was on September 10th at 12:00pm. The interviewer called a couple minutes early so I was shaken up! Completely nervous but I knew what I wanted to say. The interview only lasted about 12minutes for me and that made me even more nervous. They asked questions like:

• Why do you want to participate in the DCP?
• Why did you show interest in the roles you chose?
• What do you do when you have a lot thrown at you at once?
• How will you deal with a repetitive work enviroment?
• Do you prefer to work inside or outside?
• What kind of previous experience?
• Have you lived away from home? With other people?

The questions went on, but I barely remember because that whole 12minutes were like a blur to me! We ended the conversation with my questions and then she told me to just keep checking my dashboard online where I had gone to apply.

After an exhausting week and half I got my acceptance e-mail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an exciting feeling. MAIN ENTRANCE OPERATIONS!!! that was in my top 3 so I'm still pretty excited about it. 

After you see your offer letter, you get 10days to either accept it or decline. (in my opinion who would ever decline?! crazy people) You also have to pay a deposit and once you pay that you wait for an e-mail that lets you pick your arrival and departure dates: I chose Jan 9th-June 1st -- for obvious reasons it was the longest for the spring term. I kind of want to extend to a longer program, but between trying to stay on top with school and all we'll see how that works.

Speaking of school I am currently looking at the Univeristy of Florida, and the University of Central Florida to either transfer to for 3 semesters or a graduate school to get my masters in hospitality. I just need to figure out all the transferring information and the tidbits that go along with switching schools like that.