I believe apologies are in order...

Of the most profuse kind.  I have neglected this blog.  There.  I said it.  NEGLECTED.  So horribly, that it's May and I'm back home and I've told you readers nothing at all of my life in the world of Disney.

This.
Will.
Change.

I have officially completed my second college program and May 9th I moved back home (temporarily for the summer) to work and save up enough money to move BACK to Orlandoooo

I LOVE YOU ORLANDO!

Since I will be doing absolutely nothing for the better part of the summer, I have challenge myself and my memory to give all you devoted fans everything I forgot to do the first time.  Meep.  I know, that's a big challenge, but I have been jotting a few things down here and there so it won't be too difficult.  I hope.  This is a lofty goal, but I hope to post at least twice a week if not more.  

For those of you joining us now, these next billion and a half posts will be what happened during my college program.  No, they are not happening in May/June/July.  And I will state that at the beginning of my posts.  I'm gonna call them flashbacks.  This will be my flashback series.  Haha, like LOST! Oh man, I need to get our more.  Hmmm maybe I should have a disclaimer?  

Ex: All content provided on this "[Sample Blog Disclaimer]" blog is for fun purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site (because she was a lazy ass and forgot to post during her programs)

The owner of [sampleblogdisclaimer.blogspot.com] will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information due to the fact that she can't remember what color underwear she currently is wearing. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.  If you get DCP depressed and sad and mushy, I can't help you there.

Yeah.  I'll work on that.  Anywho, I'll get cracking on these posts.  Best be sure they will be magically delicious!  Wait, wrong company.  Well you know what I mean.  

I was thinking of how I should sign off on these.  Talk to you later? [too texty]  Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust?  [too basic].  I'm gonna go with ttfn (ta ta for now).  

Alright peeps,ttfn

Livin dat bus lyfe

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the queen of Transtar.

Transtar. The name strikes fear and loathing into any CP's heart.

If you are one of the unlucky bunch that doesn't have access to a car to bring down for your program then you will be at the mercy of the Transtar buses.  When you first apply for the program Disney lists many of the perks of living in their housing.  One of them is provided transportation. At first your response may be, "Holy smokes, free transportation!!! I'm so lucky this company cares about me so much!" At least that was mine.  A few months down the road your opinion may change drastically. 

 Unfortunately Transtar has the large reputation of being a lax company with their scheduling and their bus maintenance.  Several times I've heard stories of bus drivers who abandon their buses and leave.  This has happened to me only once, but of course it was the one day where I couldn't be late to my shift.  You'll also hear of buses catching on fire and just plain breaking down.  One time my bus pulled up to the Chatham bus stop and died.  The driver said that he ran out of gas.  Who does that?! How do you just lose track of your gas level.  

This is just a warning for all you CP's.  If you wish to never worry about being late to work or catching fire spontaneously, I would bring your own car.  Luckily I've been pretty ok with Transtar (I've been spoiled by the C bus to Epcot) and don't even get me started about the E bus.  If you can read a bus schedule and always prepare for the worst, you'll be fine.    

Discovery Day

Discovery Day is one of the four park specific training you can receive while working at WDW.  Discovery Day (Epcot), Once Upon a Time is...Now! (Magic Kingdom, DAKlimation (Animal Kingdom), and On With the Show! (Hollywood Studios) are the four training classes.  

One day after Operations I had my scheduled Discovery Day class.  Out of all the parks, Epcot hasn't always been my favorite.  It has the feel of a more adult park because of the addition of World Showcase. Wow, have I been wrong this whole time (see post about Food and Wine).  Discovery Day was a day of new experiences, new information and memories, and definitely some new discoveries.  Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.  Epcot is all about learning and embracing cultures, and new technology while focusing on diversity, progression, and traditions.  

We met right outside the entrance to Cast Services and were taught how to clock in and enter the cheese grater as I like to call it.  You have 6 seconds to go through the turnstile otherwise you will be locked out for 15 minutes.  Not a good thing when you are running late!  We started our day in a classroom behind cast services.  This beginning segment started with a video that went back to the orginal storyteller and man behind Epcot, Walt.  In the fall of 1966 Walt put together a video pitch to the state of Florida for his new Disney World entitled the Florida Project.  During the time the video was made, Walt was ill and sadly died in December of that same year.  He never got to see his Disney World and Epcot plan through.  The Epcot was have today is vastly different from what was planned initially by Walt. 

Afterwards, we got to delve into the park!  Our group was so large that we split in half with two Discovery Day guides leading each group. Our leaders were very knowledgeable and quite nice.  We learned many Epcot facts and had some great jokes to boot! Now hear this, it was the beginning of August and that means the weather that day was around 90 degrees--IN THE SHADE.  We walked all around Future World starting with a group ride through Spaceship Earth (the attraction inside the big golf ball looking thingy for those of you who don't know).   Next was world showcase and you could tell that our group was feeling the heat.  I especially was not looking forward to a solid mile of walking with little to no shade.  Lo and behold, that was not to be the case.  The friendship boats came to our rescue!  Turns out that was the plan the entire time. These boats take you all along the pavilions on the man-made lake in the middle of World Showcase.  Many more facts about the countries were spewed at us and I remember very little because the entire time I was sending up prayers to the Disney gods for this unexpected bit of magic.  One fact I do remember is that Morocco, which was not a part of the original opening pavilions, was built with special instructions. The prince of Morocco sen over his personal architect to work with Disney in making sure the construction of the pavilion was authentic.  This is also why the pavilion does not have lights on it for Illuminations at night (see Illuminations post).  

There is a part of the tour that I have not discussed and I will not discuss because I swore to keep it a secret.  Legit.  We all had to raise our hands and repeat an oath searing to never ever share so help me Mickey.  You'll just have to work at Epcot to discover the special moment! All I will say is that was the first time I cried in a Disney park while down here.  I felt very welcomed and at home.

At the end of Discovery Day is when you find out your assigned location (attraction, merch, qsfb etc).  I already knew where I was being placed because I looked it up on the HUB previously. I received my schedule to train at the Sum of All Thrills (SOAT).  There will be a whole post dedicated to it, but in short the ride is a virtual rollercoaster type simulator that you create from scratch.  It also incorporates some math and science into the design process.  Hurray for rudimentary equations and middle school math! 

TRADITION.... Tradition! Aaaaaaand a little thing called Operations

First off....

IM SORRY.  I said I wouldn't fall into the Sarlac pit of despair that all DCP blogs do because we get so busy and I did the exact thing I said I would.   SHAME SHAME SHAME ON ME.
I guess you probably don't want to here my excuse that my computer is broken so I haven't had access to a working laptop since October....it's still the truth.

Alrighty.  I'm going to dig deep into the recesses of my brain to try and recall all the details that I can, so I can attempt to salvage this sad little corner of the internet.  I want to help others who are interested in the DCP.

After the Housing meeting, I had a day off to just lounge around and get things sorted.  Still couldn't play in the parks because I hadn't had my "Traditions" class yet.  I feel like during the beginning of your program, it's similar to the beginning of college. Everyone asks the basic questions: "Where are you from?"  "What is your role?"  "What park are you working in?" "When is your Traditions class?"  That last one is SUPER important and can make or break new friendships. Once you get that blue card, the parks are your playground.  People were already making plans to meet up with strangers friends to explore Walt Disney World.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, but was really only less than 24 hours, Traditions arrived.  There were two Traditions groups over the span of several days.  One was in the morning and the other the afternoon. I was fortunate enough to have the morning class, which meant after we were finished we could hit up the parks!  WOO-HOO. I won't give away any spoilers and if you really want to find out what happens you can honestly just troll the internet, but Traditions was magical. (Did someone say something about a trip through the utilidoors??) This training is given to every single new employee from CPS to executives.  It's about why Disney does things the way they do.  You get your nice nametag and blue company ID.

Operations training for me was two days after.  It was pretttttttty boring. Consisted of lots of videos on safety and a deeper explanation of the roles within Park Operations (including attractions, vacation planner, custodial, main entrance ops, and parking.  Did I mention the A/C was broken in Disney University that day? The temperature was around 80 or so in the building.  We were thankfully allowed to remove our blazers and cardigans even if that put us in non-Disney look because they didn't want us passing out.

What fun.

Don't forget that it all started with a mouse.

Whew.  I feel like I have neglected my blogging duties.  Guilty as charged.

Ok I apologize because this post will be short (by short I mean lacking) pictures and funny captions, just because I'm exhausted and need to get some much needed zzzzz's after these long work shifts I've been having.  I vow to not fall into the CP trap of starting a blog and then not posting for months because of my work schedule.  These next few days will be a catch up of what has been happening for the past two weeks!

ALRIGHT HERE GOES.  On August 4th, I moved into Chatham apartments with my 6 other roomies for the program.  We still have a missing girl, which we think is our linked roomie who had to change her move-in date super last minute.  Check-in was very organized and super efficient and me and my roommate (Jessica!) didn't have to wait long at all!  After the initial queue line and getting our program guides we were led into a semi-(I'm stressing the word semi) air conditioned room where we received our assignment and work location as well as housing selection.  I will be/am working at DRUMROLL....EPCOT!  At Innoventions as a host/hostess for the Sum of All Thrills ride.  It's similar to the Downtown Disney roller coaster simulator with the only difference being that the ride operates with robotic arms instead of a rolling centrifuge.  More on that later.  

After the big housing room we were shuffled outside to learn a little more about the first few days here and find out our schedules for drug testing and the housing meeting.  I had casting right at 9 so there wasn't much of a turnaround for me in that regard.

The Casting building is right next door to DTD (Downtown Disney).  Yes, I will be abbreviating.  Disney loves abbreviations.  Kapiche?  The bus to casting was filled with corny jokes and some Disney trivia--Holla to winning a DCP pin merely hours after checking in.  Once there we waited in more lines with more paperwork and documents to sign.  I may have pulled a little mermaid and signed away my voice/soul.  BUT WHO CARES CAUSE IT'S DISNEY.  <---I may regret that statement.  After casting I headed back to Chatham where the 'rents had oh so graciously unpacked all my things.  I met all the roomies--Jessica, Crystal, Julie', Annie, Kristen, and Barbara.  We all seem to get along just fine as of now, which is comforting. I dislike drama and hate confrontation.

Fast forward to the next day.  Tuesday August 5th.  I had my drug testing and housing meeting back to back. In order to be fully prepared I chugged two water bottles 30 minutes before heading over and then had to wait 30 more minutes until they called my name.  Big.  Mistake.  I thought I wasn't going to make it.  The absolute torture.

Personally, I loved the housing meeting.  It was corny and cheesy and highly dramatized CP living, but it had that personal Disney spark of magic that made everything seem so believable and realistic.  I know that my program won't be glamorous or as easy/breezy as everyone in the housing videos.  I fully understand that my program is a job.

Alright, those are the first few days out of the way.  I think I'm going to pass out now.  I'm catching a little bit of a cold/allergies from being down here and I need all the rest I can get.  I have my job assessment tomorrow.  Like I said before, I'm a little behind on posting these so by the end of next week, I should be in current time.

Let me know if you have any in-depth housing/move in questions!  Always happy to lend a helping hand.

-Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust*