Training

Oh my goodness.  It's amazing how quickly this week went by, yet so much happened that it feels like I've been in Orlando a lot longer.  I started training yesterday with an orientation to the park, and I already feel like that was days ago.  It seems as though most of the other CPs I know had at least one day off this weekend, but I didn't.  Seven straight days of training for me!  And I won't lie, I've felt a bit lonely the past two days.  So far it's been really early mornings with extremely busy days until the evening.  Then I'm so exhausted after each shift that I just go home, eat dinner, and get to bed soon because I need to be at the park early the next morning.  My roommates and some of my other CP friends have spent their day(s) off getting to know each other by hanging out around apartment complexes or going to parks.  And I've either been too busy with these training shifts or too tired once my work day ends to spend much time with my friends before I need more sleep.  But on the bright side, I will have my first two weeks' rent paid off before many other participants! :-)

By the way, now I can officially post here that I am working at Splash Mountain!  I think this is one of the reasons why my training schedule is so packed; it's one of the busiest attractions and there is a lot to know about it.  At the end of the day, I'd rather have a really busy shift than one with lots of lag time.

ETA: I should probably mention that I haven't met any coworkers over the last two days, either.  The shifts consisted of following around the coordinator and doing e-learning in the computer labs.  I actually start training at Splash during this next shift, so I can meet people with whom I'll be working and hopefully feel more involved.

Now I realize my last post said you would get detailed info on check-in and Traditions.  Truth is I'm just too tired to go back over all the details.  So instead, here are some highlights from the past few days!

• Getting our desired apartment at Patterson Court and moving in with some great roommates!
• Watching the fireworks from the Poly on Monday and Tuesday night with said roommates as well as some other CPs
• Finally getting groceries :)
• First time in the Utilidors (I think they're really cool)
• First time I got into a park with my work ID the night after Traditions (and so far the only time.  Like I said, busy!)
• Knowing that I don't need to rush through anything.  I have plenty of time to see attractions, explore resorts, etc.
• Going to a CP party and getting free food.  Seriously, nothing attracts students like free food!
• Registering for my two classes.  I'm taking Disney Heritage and Guest Service, both part of the Exploration Series.
• Almost being instructed to color my natural hair.  I just found it amusing that my real hair color was "thisclose" to not fitting the Disney Look.  Luckily they changed their minds!
• Once Upon a Time... Is Now!  I enjoyed it, except for the part about wearing nice/uncomfortable shoes to walk through the MK.
• "Area Awareness" with one of the Frontierland coordinators.  She was really nice and helpful!

Well I need to get to sleep.  Take care!!

Arriving in Orlando!

Hello, blogland!  I'm writing to you now from the living room of my new apartment in Orlando!  I'll leave those details for the next post, though.  I have so much to write about check-in that I will do a separate post about it (including finally telling you my work location!)

Due to my last post sounding so sad and whiney, I hoped to update again before I left with a much more excited "I can't believe the time is here!" bit.  But that never happened.  There was just so much to do!

Friday was a day full of errands, including getting my hair cut and a stop at the bank.  Not terribly exciting.  It was the last night that my family spent together so we went out to dinner after some shopping.  The weirdest part of leaving my family is that I won't see my sister for so long.  My parents can come visit me now and then if they want to, but with Laura's school schedule I don't think I'll see her again until December.  For me, being the older sister comes with this strange idea that the younger one can be frozen in time.

Anyway, Saturday was another busy packing day.  I got up at 6am just to get myself prepared for the next few early mornings and got straight to work.  I can't even tell you how many loads of laundry I did throughout the packing process.  That was the step that took the longest actually, just waiting for stuff to come out of the dryer so I could pack it.  I used Space Bags for all the big stuff like towels, sheets, pillows, and my comforter.  This was a big help when it came to maximizing space in my car, but I can tell you that most of these things were terribly wrinkled when I opened the bags.  Silly infomercials.  I wanted to completely finish packing in the afternoon, which kinda sorta happened.  The last thing left to pack was my books, but other than that I was pretty set.

So I went over to Rob's house for the night after packing was finished because he won't be able to come visit me while I'm here.  We had a dinner date a couple of nights before so I was expecting Saturday to be very low-key.  At about 5pm I was really exhausted because I didn't get much sleep the night before.  So Rob told me to lay down for a nap and then he'd wake me up in half an hour so we could eat dinner.

Flash forward to about 5:30.  I woke up to someone jabbing me in the shoulder, and when I opened my eyes I saw Rob sitting a few feet away.  So who was jabbing at me?  I turned my head and saw my best friend!  It was pretty great since she lives a few hours away so we don't see each other often (our St. Augustine trip had to be cancelled :-( ).  We started chatting and a few minutes later one of my former roommates walked in!  More chatting ensued, and then one of my friends from high school walked in with his fiancee!  They've been together for a couple of years but I haven't actually met her because they live in Atlanta.  Anyway, long story short: Surprise going-away party!  I was very excited AND totally surprised, which never happens.  We had a great evening with pizza, cookie cake, and Shaun of the Dead, and Rob was so awesomely sweet to put it together for me!  And all who drove miles to see me are awesome too. :-D

Unfortunately we couldn't visit as long as I wanted to because I needed to be up super-early!  Everyone was gone by 1:15am so Rob and I (or maybe just me.  Rob doesn't sleep well lately) snoozed until 5am, when I rubbed my eyes and prepared to leave.  I left at 6am and headed home first.

At the last minute, my parents decided they wanted to go with me to Orlando to check in.  So Dad drove in a car behind me and Mom rode with me.  In retrospect it's probably good that someone else was with me who I could talk to, because I was feeling very sleepy for some of the drive.  We got to Orlando around 2:30pm, but hit terrible traffic on I-4 and were stuck for an hour.  It was a slow drive but we finally made it to our exit. More traffic, and then we got to the hotel!  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree which is basically across the street from Vista Way, where I needed to be for check-in.  If you are still looking for a place to stay before check-in, I recommend this hotel!  The rooms were very spacious and comfortable.  I think I would have been lonely in there by myself, haha.  Two of my now-roommates were staying there too, so I met up with one of them to go to Downtown Disney.  Some of the D-Fam got together and we sat around Earl of Sandwich chatting for awhile.  Then Molly and I went back to the hotel and I pretty much crashed into my bed.

Monday morning I walked down with Molly and Elyse (another one of my roommates) to Vista Way at 7am. We got in line and waited for about twenty minutes.  There was already a line and it grew while we waited.  They started letting us in about 7:30, but my memory just could be fuzzy and it might have been closer to 7:45.  But you'll have to wait for the next installment, because this post is long enough!  Soon to come: Check-In Day for the CP!

First thoughts on arriving for the CP

For something much more CP-related than Disney movie news, I thought I would share the beginnings of my prospective plans to arrive in Orlando in August.  Obviously it is all very tentative at this point, but planning needs to begin!

I have decided that I will probably be arriving on my own, rather than bringing anyone with me.  This is for several reasons.  Firstly, I am driving to Orlando, so whoever would be coming with me would either need to drive their own car there and back or ride with me and take a very short flight home because we do not live very far away from WDW.  This is not terribly practical for anyone that I would want to bring with me.  Secondly, considering how much independence the CP requires I feel that it will be perfectly fine for me to make the drive by myself and check in successfully.  With the CP website providing all necessary paperwork ahead of time, I expect this to be relatively easy to do by myself.  And I will be checking in with my roommate(s), so it is not like I will be totally by myself anyway.  Lastly, bringing a loved one with me would probably make it that much harder to say goodbye. :-(

As for the drive itself, I have made it a few times with no problems, except for trying to find the elusive I-16 near Statesboro, GA.  I swear, there is a different route to it every time I drive to Florida!!

So I check in on August 9th.  Bright and early.  There is talk of a CP meet-up the night before, and I would love to be there for that!  So I think I will drive to FL and arrive on  the evening of the 7th.  Estimated travel time is eight hours.  This way, I can already be there August 8th and be able to find exactly where I need to be the next morning in order to check-in.  I'm the kind of driver who needs not only directions, but to drive the route myself ahead of time if it is somewhere important and I've never been there before.  So rather than risk getting terribly lost on check-in morning, I want to be familiar with the location early.  Hopefully my roommate and I will be meeting up on the 7th or the 8th, too!

Now with this tentative plan, I need to scout out hotels to stay in as close to the check-in area as possible!

Introduction/Acceptance

Rather than do an awkward drawn-out introduction, I'm just going to let you get to know me through my "About Me" page to your right!  It's very much still under construction, but I'm working on it!

So today, at 3am, I received my acceptance e-mail from the WDW College Program!!

I'm so excited!  As you can see, I was offered the role of Attractions, which was my first choice. :-)

That's really all that there is to say about the e-mail!  I accepted the invitation, so I'll be arriving in Orlando for check-in on Monday, August 9th.  Isn't that fun, 8/9/10?

Coming soon, a blog about my application process just for those who want to read about my interview.