Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Week 1

The Melbourne pavilion actually did open on the Festivals advertised opening date, there was just allot that hadn't been completed, and still hasn't... the builders come in each morning and paint or fix or alter or add something, so every day we all try and spot whats new!

its taken everyone almost a week to realise how thing are meant to work, like what the hell were exactly meant to be doing, when breaks are needed and for alterations to be made to the schedule as the hours we are working are crazy!

the first weekend was full on, so many guest and we barely had time to realise if we were doing anything the right way, but i don't think anyone really noticed if we said the wrong thing or spoke about the wrong state in Australia, as long as we were talking to the guest and the pavilion was actually open, that's all that counted. even Leigh and Andrew got into the Melbourne costumes and were out talking to all the guests and serving wine!

The rest of the week was quite dull in comparison...so I'm quite happy that my scheduled days off are a Wednesday and Thursday. Having weekends off would suck as there the best time to work, the 10 hour days go by so quickly!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Festival Opening

Thursday was the official cast opening or soft opening of the food and wine festival
6 Australians were scheduled to work so we all arrived to find out that the Melbourne pavilion was no where near ready, instead of serving wine we sat around against the wine fridges for a good 5 or so hours...
With an hour lunch break, and counting wine walkabout passports to keep us occupied
a manager finally realised that we were all sitting up there with nothing to do so they sent us all down to the welcome center that also wasn't open, so we helped out by stacking pallets, sorting out plastic shelf's and stocking the merchandise!

It was a pretty pointless day, maybe that's why they had taken the shift of me a few hours before i was meant to start but still had to pay me for working as they didn't give me or Zoe ample amount of notice!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

4 days of training

So the past 4 days kinder went like this...

Sunday 21st - discovery day
it was my first official working day as i didn't go to traditions the day prior, Felice and i had to be at EPCOT cast services by 10.30am, were we meet some other seasonal cast members arriving to work at the food and wine festival as well as the 8 other Australians that are currently working for Disney, so there's 10 of us in total, all girls!

The Aussies spent the morning doing computer related activities, about serving food even though none of us were going to. Then we meet up with half of the discovery day group, watched a few videos, a presentation or to on the Disney basics, had a short tour of cast services and in the afternoon we had a tour around EPCOT, a very long, hot detailed tour. it was interesting though as we found out alot about the food and wine festival, the kiosks and whats different this year. We also got our first glimpse at the Melbourne pavilion,located in between Germany and the outpost, all we could see was huge construction walls and some steal bars poking out from over the top, nothing to get excited about but hey there was still a few days left before opening...

Monday 22ND - Australia Welcome Day!
all 10 of us Australians meet at the front of the cast services building at 9.30am, "frank" from Disney came and escorted us (the long way) to west side innovations were we went up a staircase and into a cool boardroom that i never new was there, it had couches and computers, really fancy actually, then off on the side it had a more official looking board room with 10 places all set out with books and paper and lollies and sharpies! (we were pretty excited about the sharpies) Here we meet Andrew and Leigh, to Americans who work for tourism Victoria and were the people in charge of pretty much everything though out the festival. i think we were all pretty hesitant to learn about parts of Australia off two American however they were great and they know ALOT, but i suppose it is there jobs!

we spent most of the morning getting to know one another, then about our roles as cultural ambassadors, the basic messages that need to be conveyed, sponsors, participants, events, media etc. etc. this was all followed by an amazing buffet lunch, coffee, cokes and desert! and then an afternoon of details, about the wines, Victoria itself and the 5 main regains we needed to focus on, all that kind of stuff.

at around 3pm we packed up our stuff, took a heap of chocolates for the road and head up to the world showcase to get a backstage look at our pavilion with Leigh and Andrew, we also got free Disney ponchos on the way over as it was raining. when we arrived there was still numerous builders working and a whole heap needed to be done, but all the same it had changed from what we all saw the day before, but it was starting to look really good. we all finished work after that and headed back to cast services to get the bus, all in shock of how good the day was, what we were going to be doing and hoping that we were going to get a buffet lunch the next day!

Tuesday 23rd - F&W specific training
another 9.30 day meeting at cast services, were Frank once again escorted the 10 of us to the east side of future world this time, to another hidden small board room, not as cool as Mondays but good all the same. this time the room was all set up with numerous placings of glassed and pens and paper, there was alto of wine at the front of the room and a whole heap of Disney bags to the side. we soon found out that inside those Disney bags that had our names on it were our new Melbourne uniforms! we all rushed to the bathroom to try them on, and i think the consensus was that we all liked them, after hearing about them the day before, there made up of dark blue shorts with the Melbourne logo on the front of one leg and back of another, a black belt, white fitted polo top with the same logo and a "fendora" had, hard to explain but i shall post a picture at some stage. anyway mine fit and the massive plus was that we DIDNT have to tuck our shirts into a shorts! take that Disney!

the rest of the day was spent tasting wines if you were over 21, or in my case, sniffing wines as we wern't allowed to put them in our mouth and spit it out, we got to get a good nose full of the smell, then pour it into a bucket, it was a very sad afternoon ans i had the smell of red wine stuck up my nose for the rest of the afternoon! we also had another buffet lunch, this time it had food that we were actually going to be selling at the Melbourne pavilion, we got to try the prawns and the barramundi, both really really good. we also had a few guest from the different represented winery's talk to us and just before we left we had a test (that we had been reminded about for the past day and a half, also about the fact that prizes were going to be involved) pretty much the easiest test ever as it just comprised of questions about Melbourne, tourism and others along those lines.

Before clocking out we were taken down to the food and wine welcome center just to look around before heading back to get the bus.

Wednesday 24Th - F&W Global day
This by far was the worst training day. it started at 8am and was a long and drawn out day of listening to presentations from Disney management about the Disney basics, the food and wine festival and everything we needed to know about it all. They even escorted us to lunch, who knows why as I'm pretty sure we were all adults in the room. Then in the afternoon we had to listen/watch a computer presentation on alcohol laws etc. pretty much the American version of Australia's responsible service of alcohol, which should only take about half an hour if you were doing it by yourself, however as we had numerous people in the room who were much older then us, it took over 2 hours because of all the REALLY dumb questions being asked, then we had to do a test on all the information, THEN go over all the answers, they finally let us leave (1.5 hours after when we were meant to clock out)

and that my friends pretty much concludes my 4 days of food and wine training


Monday, September 22, 2008

I got my Castle fix

So last night after i was bumming on the Internet, i decided not to go to wallmart and opt for going to the magic kingdom to see WISHES :) with Felice as she hadn't seen them before (not like you need an excuse!) but also because they were having some 60Th anniversary of pyrotechnics at the Contemporary resort before wishes...


both were amazing




(wishes won hands down though)
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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Second Day

So today was the second "Official day" of housing and orientation stuff
Felice went to an 8 hour traditions class this morning (Well i assume she did as shes not here!)
and i slept in a little, got up watched a DVD and got ready...
i was just about to leave (at like 1ish, as i had to go to property control promptly before 4.45pm!) when i decided i was really tired and having a Nana nap for an hour wouldn't kill me, so i set an alarm and fell asleep, Only to wake up at like 3.45! a whole 5 minutes after the last possible bus i could have caught to access control at Disney university left!

i totally panicked as i have training starting tomorrow and i needed my work id, but i had no idea what to do. so i looked at the timetable, realised that the A bus didn't leave vista until 4.08 leaving me like 15 minutes to get there somehow to still make it to access control. So i ran out the front of Chatham where just my luck a taxi was, i told him what time i had to be at vista and he got me there!
i jumped on the bus, headed down to Disney university (secretly hoping to get a glimpse at the castle for the first time since Ive been back, didn't happen as the bus was soooooo full) and made it there with only 10 minutes to spare! i was soooo lucky that i already new where i had to go. The man at access control was great, he gave me my id after reminding me that my last years one should have been handed in or i would have got a $35 fee for it! I'm assuming he didn't charge me as he started talking about Australia, and told me to have a nice day!

i caught the next bus back to Chatham were I'm sitting now waiting for the H bus to come so i can go buy a phone from Wallmart (3 visits in 3 days, I'm a wallmart addict!)

P.S. photos to come soon...

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Friday, September 19, 2008

First Days

well today isn't really my first day
yesterday was
but in terms of Disney related activities and housing orientation
today is my first day..

Yesterday however i landed at like 6am, retrieved my luggage( that didnt go missing YAY), found the Mears desk, found the pay phone to call Mears as there desk was closed due to it being so early in the morning (FYI the sun doesn't even get up a 6am!) and finally i was picked up from the parking area by a Mears van at like 7.30 - 8 ish...

the bus took me to Chatham Square (i found out i was living there like a day prior to my arrival as Disney sent me an email telling me that i should go directly there instead of vista way) where i picked up my information pack that had my apartment key inside and the nice security guard pointed me in the direction of building 17, apartment 108 (i think, i still cant remember the exact number)

so i lugged all my bags down there, knocked, no answer so i some how managed to use the key and let myself in... i walked into quite a small lounge room and kitchen with only one connecting door, assuming it was the bedroom and that no one else was in the apartment, i went in to find out my room mate was fast asleep and me barging in scared the crap out of her! we spoke for a few minutes and realised she was the other Australian ICP who arrived the night before...i had been speaking to her on facebook before i arrived, her names Felice, shes 21 and from Sydney (well a few hours away, but same difference!)

we only spoke briefly as i could clearly tell she was still half asleep, also i realised at this time that it was only a 2 person apartment, sightly relived that there was only two of us, kinda makes things easier, but at the same time i would have loved to been with a few other people from maybe anywhere but Australia! anyway i left her to sleep, used the Internet for a little while and fell asleep myself on the couch, thinking i would be there for maybe an hour or so, this was at like 9 am and i didn't wake up until like 2pm!!!!!!!!!!

i didn't even wake myself up, i got such a scare (probably in return of what i did to Felice a few hours earlier!) by Disney housing people coming to do a room inspection! i was like "ah we have only been here a matter of hours, there wont be much to inspect besides suitcases". They realised there maybe wasn't any need to check out the state of the apartment, instead they starting to talk to us and spray for bugs.. after they left we both got ready and headed to Wallmart as we had no orientation that day

about 3 hours late, 3 pillows, 1 duvet, a bundle of random stuff, food and some cheese in a can! we caught a taxi back to Chatham to unpack it all, talk about a mission to get it from the front security gate all the way to our apartment, a nice American boy helped us, despite one of the many bags breaking!

we finally got everything back, all in one piece. unpacked it all to find we forgot stuff! but hey that was bound to happen as we were both extremely jet lagged! the rest of the night wasn't all that exciting, we ate, then went to bed... thanks jet lag thanks!

the next day (being the 19Th) we had orientation for housing etc. due to jet lag i was up and awake at like 6.30am, but i ate breakfast, bummed on the Internet, got ready and headed over to the commons where it was being held...
we both arrived to find that we were the only 2 not from china! needless to say it wasn't very hard to spot the Aussie! as that's what one of the Disney housing people did, they walked over and were like "amber, Felice!" so it was clearly obvious we were the odd ones out. Anyway they singled us out because we were going to do all our paperwork by our self with a man named Robert by the commons pool, it was sooooo nice and relaxing, and we got it all done in like half an hour opposed to spread over 2 days like it normally is. Then Robert informed us that all we had left to do was listen to a short speech about the housing rules, then go to Vista later that day and get our housing Id's and that was is, the following day Felice had to go to Traditions, and all i had to do was go to access control and pick up my id...

so we did everything we had to (hate my housing ID!!) then headed back to Wallmart to buy cork boards and a few other bits and pieces and some DVDs, which we watched that night whilst eating dinner then headed to bed and that's about it!

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Almost in Orlando...

so i only have like an hour left before my flight to Orlando takes off...
we can start boarding in like half an hour, finally, those 8 hours kinda dragged on
and i never really liked LAX much, and today hasn't made that feeling any better, like don't get me wrong its exciting to be here but to spend this long here and then also have a full on security search of my bags and drug test and stuff (i think the chose me cause i was pretty much the only person going into the terminal so early and/or because I'm Australian!)

however it doesn't matter about all that now, in half an hour i will be on the plane and in matter of hours i will be in Orlando
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LAX - for 8 hours!

I'm finally in America, i was so busy during the days leading up to leaving that i didn't get a chance to post anything but hey as i have SO much time on my hands now i will update everything!

I left yesterday bright and early from my house with James, Mum and Kyle to make the peak hour traffic drive to the airport...everything went a whole lot smoother this year, my suit case weighted more then 10kg less then last time(that's a huge effort for me as i usually cant stop myself from packing everything + the kitchen sink!), there was no line for check in, money exchanging was easy enough (except for the rude lady with the giant hunk of silver hanging out of here nose, but we will excuse that!) then we ate a McDonald's breakfast (somewhat of a tradition now) hung around at the security gate for awhile and before i new it, it was time for me to leave!.... tears were shed this time round, and I'm extremely happy every man and their dog didn't come to see me off otherwise i would have been a blubbering mess!


so i went though security, customs and down to gate 9 to find out that my flight was being delayed 25 or so minutes, i also had only found out that day that i had anther stop over in Sydney before going to LA, so anyway everyone was on bored at just after 12pm, and they plane was pretty much empty, not did i mind though because i had 3 seats to myself.... and hour later and we were in Sydney. it was a matter of hoping off one plane, walking up a corridor, down a corridor and onto anther! and to my absolute joy when we got onto the plane that was going to take us to LA i found not only did i have an economy plus seat (thanks lady in Melbourne!) but this plane was also pretty much empty so i got another 3 seats to myself, also 3 pillows and blankets... needless to say i actually got some sleep and it was well needed as a 13 hour flight turned into something around the 16 mark when we had to make an emergency landing in Honolulu due to some boy being really sick and needing medical attention (but you should have heard the flight attendant having a dig at his mum saying she shouldn't have brought him on the plane etc.etc then saying its going to cost the airline $20,000+ for that unscheduled landing!)


We finally arrived in LA 2 hours late, meaning majority of peoples connecting flights had to re-booked at the expense of the airline, i couldn't care less about my connecting flight as i new i had well and truly missed it... instead i stood by the luggage carousel waiting for my precious Disney labeled bags to appear ( i had a small panic attack when i didn't see them come though with the first lot, the fact that Nikki's luggage was left in Adelaide last year didn't help the nerves much!) never to worry they both soon popped out and i went and retrieved my new tickets to find that my new arrival time in Orlando would be 6am THE NEXT DAY! that was the only option, it is a direct flight witch is always a bonus however it meant that i had a total of 8 hours to kill at LAX airport! (hence the title)


so since then i have re-checked my main luggage in (the nice lady let me be 3 pounds over the domestic limit, what are pounds anyway???) received the baggage security guys card consisting of his name and number (Weirdo) and wondered down to the international terminal where Ive found a nice spot to entertain myself with the Internet! (and also trying to escape the Korean guy, lovely that he is i just don't think i can possibly listen to his bad English much longer!)

So the next time i will post anything will finally be from Orlando!


Plane pictures, always a good way to past 30 seconds of the time!
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Sunday, September 14, 2008

2 days

that's all that's left, 2 full days until Wednesday the 17Th, the day i fly to Disney!
i picked up my tickets on Friday
my glasses on Thursday
my suitcase today
and every other little thing along the way
all that's left to do is become the queen of organisation and pack my bag and that's about it

Monday, September 8, 2008

Flights

So today, whilst at work, i finalised my flight arrangements, there being held for me so all i need to do is pay for them tomorrow, along with my insurance and that's about it

So the flights i finally decided on were with United (no like there was a huge amount of options unless i wanted to go via china?? who does that)

17 SEP 08 - DEPART - MELBOURNE/TULLAMARINE A 1115 ONE STOP
17 SEP 08 - ARRIVE - LOS ANGELES/LOS ANGELES 1015 16HRS0MINS

17 SEP 08 - DEPART - LOS ANGELES/LOS ANGELES 1245 NON-STOP
17 SEP 08 - ARRIVE - DENVER/DENVER INTL ARPT 1559 02HRS 14MINS

17 SEP 08 - DEPART - DENVER/DENVER INTL ARPT 1654 NON-STOP
17 SEP 08 - ARRIVE - ORLANDO/ORLANDO INTL AR 2221 03HRS 27MINS

thats what all those flights look like when drawn on a map!


So if my maths are correct in all i will be spending 21 hours and 41 minutes on planes, but that's 22 hours not including the time in between spent at airport and getting luggage and all that fun stuff!

I'm so happy though that it is all sorted out and organised, and the big bonus with flying united (as i would have preferred to fly Quanta's however the $500+ i saved can be spent on numerous other things) is that i now get to fly home with my best friend when she comes over to America, I'll have to explain all those post Disney travel plans at a later stage, she is also flying with united so tonight were getting together to organise flights so make sure were both on the same one!

i was also looking at other company's prices for travel insurance today and i had to enter my dates of travel so i could get an accurate quote, well it came back with a price that i didn't really care much for but it also said that i would be spending a total of i believe it was 167 days in the states! that makes me so excited! so much better then like 10 or so weeks that i was there for in November!

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Sunday, September 7, 2008

Disney Blogs

I'm sitting at work trying to make time fly by reading other peoples Disney blogs.

Stalkerish- maybe...

entertaining - most defiantly!

but I'm going to link them all to my page so others can find them easily

i don't think its actually hit me that in one week and 4 days i will be off to Orlando once again!

my suitcase is still being repaired and i only have tickets on hold, no money has been paid!

Gotta love being organised!

hopefully next time i write i will have tickets, and travel insurance, and at least being that little bit more ready

At the moment its really not looking so good but oh well!!!



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Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Visa Appointment - Tuesday

was ever so bright and early on Tuesday morning... needless to say it was quite difficult to get out of bed, but i did, and i was perfectly organised, even to the extent that i arrived 10 minutes before i was meant to be there!

so i lined up, finally went into the security room, had a blond moment when i assumed that my sticker didn't print my name on it (FYI turn all stickers over before trying to re-print!) whet though the whole bags being X-raid, taking jewelry off etc. but this year i didn't have to take my shoes off as well, i was ever so please about that as i dint really rate walking around bare foot in the American embassy!

So from there the group of 4 that i was in the security room with headed up to the 6Th floor where you go through yet another security check point, you also have those stickers, which are now stuck to your chest, scanned like your in a library! that's seriously what it felt like...that we were all books just waiting to be sorted and in the mean time they were going to be scanned at any possible chance

anyway, back to getting that visa, this year the process was so easy, simple and quick! that may have a whole lot to go with the fact that i was organised this year and also it was my second visa i was going for, but besides that i was number 12 into the interview room opposed to number 27, so really there was a whole bundle of factors that contributed to the ever so quick obtaining of the visa, even the brief interview that everyone has to go though seemed a whole lot less stressful, the American man asked some very basic questions, about Disney, me, uni my program etc. i answered them, and after a minute he said " well we will have this printed and out to you shortly" and that was it, no wanted more documents, or telling me to send them this or do that, nothing...

However the best part is the ever so wanted visa arrived on my doorstep ONE DAY LATER, in comparison to almost 2 weeks last year, the fact i am leaving in like 2 weeks could also come into plat but still, i have a new found respect for those Americans in the Melbourne embassy!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Tomorrow

Is my visa appointment
and it will also make it only 2 weeks and one day until i leave!
I took my ever so large suit case to the makers today to have it repaired as it wonderfully broke on me last time, maybe due to the fact i overfilled it, but still that's not the point, moral of the story is they are fixing it for me for nothing! always a bonus
i also finalised all my documents for my visa interview, payed all the payments, got the passport photos done, even though i had a bundle left over from last year, and i also printed out all the paper work, something i forgot to do last year

so all there left to do now is
get up uber early to be there by 8.15am!
wish me luck!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Visa documents

They finally arrived in Australia!
I received an email yesterday saying my DS-2019 form arrived in Sydney from Florida yesterday afternoon, and they will be express posting it to me with in a day or so, that's some pretty quick mail considering its come half way across the world!
this now gives me the option of changing my Visa interview date to this coming Friday, however that would mean would miss out on my last day of work and a whole bundle of other things so I'm just going to leave it for Tuesday the 2ND of September and hope all goes well
i also have to weigh up my options of getting my broken suitcase fixed or buying a new one, so much to do so little time
in fact, 3 weeks and 1 day to go!!!
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Visa Interview

I finally figured out how to finish the application form for my visa appointment and its been scheduled for the 2nd of September, there is 2 appointments available before that but i really don't think that i will receive my documents in time for those so fingers crossed September 2nd will all work out fine!

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

EPCOTS food and wine festival

Today i received an email asking if i wanted to "officially" take part in EPCOT'S food and wine festival, of course i accepted the offer, i not only get to represent Australia as a whole at the festival, i also get to represent Melbourne and Victoria as i believe there going to be a main focus
here is what my role in tails...
Australia Exhibit Cast Member Roles

Wine Walk-About
(Guests can purchase a walk-about passport and experience a tasting tour of four Australian wineries. It’s an informal walk-through in which guests can have fun sampling different varieties of wine.)
• Interact with guests as you pour wine samples.
• Talk to guests about key points about the winery, wine flavors and descriptions.
• You’ll talk to small groups of guests at a time, as they wander from one walk-about stop to the next.
• It’s OK if you don’t know much about wine. We’ll take you through a short training class to learn about the wines and wineries featured at the walk-about so you feel comfortable talking to the guests.
Cultural Ambassador
• Interact with guests throughout the Australia exhibit.
• Have short conversations with guests about Melbourne in general and the exhibit icons: the Lane ways, Federation Square, etc.
• You’ll get training for this too, so you’ll be able to share key Melbourne facts.
• Our Disney guests love interacting with Cast members from around the globe. They’ll have all kinds of questions about your life in Australia and the differences you see in your home and the USA. This is a fun role that allows you to share your culture and meet guests from the US and beyond.
• You will also be trained to assist guests in downloading pod-casts to their cell phones and PDAs.All Australian Cast Members will be trained on both roles so their scheduler can move them around within the exhibit.


i was interested to know how the other countries, who aren't normally apart of the world showcase are represented in terms of pavilions at EPCOT though out the festival so i googled photos of it and i think i will be working at stalls like this one, but there was a bundle of different photos so who knows, i also read on Melbourne's tourism website that there will be " a purpose built Melbourne pavilion" so I'll just have to wait and find out!
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Monday, August 18, 2008

Disney pack has arrived!

I received my official Disney "Congratulations" pack this morning, containing the Disney look book, luggage tags, stickers, more paper work and lastly something that was different to last years pack...


Last time when i arrived at MCO at the baggage carousel there was a bundle of Disney people dressed in bright red shirts waiting for us to collect our baggage, then they showed us the way though the airport, up and down like 20 elevators , OK maybe not that many but Orlando airport is on confusing place, then to a really empty part of the airport that had a desk where they gave us more documents that listed were we were living and schedules etc. and then after about an hour of waiting for a bus we all got on and they took us to our housing areas...


well now according to the documents i received today we now have to make our won way to vista where they welcome us and give us all our needed documents for the first few days, it means we have to pay for our own trip, however they did supply us with a coupon for Mears shuttle bus, but at the same time it most likely is going to cut out a big portion of the waiting time we had to endure at the airport last year, a win lose situation but i don't mind, means i get to do something different this time!


so anyway, there is officially 9 full days left of work in the city left, then i have all of September to do as i please (besides working weekends) before i leave on the 17Th! ample of time to see the Friends, the family and the boyfriend before i jet set off to DISNEY!


I'm defiantly getting excited now, about to book my visa appointment, organising air fair tickets and travel arrangements for post Disney... its pretty much all happening all at once!!


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Thursday, August 14, 2008

The countdown

So my official countdown is on... but because of the short notice of my program acceptance its not really a long one, i have 11 full days of work left, and i believe one month and 4 days until i leave!!

Ive also added 2 clocks on my page, one for the time in my new home to be in Florida, and one for the time that it will be back home just so i can know the difference without using a calculator...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Very First Blog

So this is officially the first blog on my brand new Disney blog, by brand new i mean this is the second one i have created. the first was because i participated in the Walt Disney World International College summer program last year from November 27Th until the 8Th of February...

The best summer i have ever had, i worked as a character attendant, once of the best and most rewarding jobs i have done in my life, i got to work at all the parks in all different locations with an array of amazing people, i also was lucky enough to have stayed at Blue Heron Resort (opposed to any of the Disney housing areas) in the master bedroom with another girl from Australia who in the end became someone i could defiantly call a true friend... anyway the list of unimaginable perks goes on and on

So the purpose of this new blog i have open is because I'm returning to Disney!

to cut a really long and detailed story short, after returning from my last program i decided to take a semester off university, get everything in my life back in order, work a bit and then head back to finish off my degree, well instead i found myself wanting so badly to go back to work at Disney and when i found out i could i literally jumped at the chance.

Now after a few months of repeating paperwork, interviews and application forms (all of which were exactly the same as last year) i have been officially accepted to return to Walt Disney World...



And if you can possibly read that blurry part of my email,As a character performer this time, I'm so excited its my true Disney dream coming true! last program i was the voice for the characters and this time i actually get to be the character, my official position that i was offered was the character performer role of Pluto!


i did apply last year to be a character before character attendant but i was told that i was in a height range and unable to perform that job, but whilst i was there i asked a few questions to the right people and it turns out I'm actually the right height and what Disney told me probably was because they didn't have any positions available at the time...


but i don't mind because now I'm going to have experienced both roles in entertainment (by far the best part of Disney!) and i simply cant wait.


However its not only the job itself that is so exciting this time around, its also because this time i will be able to living in the actual housing complexes (hopefully Patterson Court, i saw that being built when i was there last and it looks HUGE) and also i will be there a lot longer then 2 and a bit months... my program dates this time round run from the 17Th of September through until the 6Th of February, so i still get to experience the holidays at Disney (which i think were my favourite part of my last program) but also i will be there for the food and wine festival that runs in September i think at EPCOT, Ive also been asked to work at the Australian pavilion while the festive is running, I'm also so excited to be asked to do that role on top of my other one.


so all in all I'm pretty much over the moon with how everything has worked out, i believe i only have a matter of a month and 4 days until i depart, which really isn't that long considering i still have a visa to obtain, Ive also got about 12 days of work left, because I'm planning on leaving early so i can spend some time with my family before i leave... i think that almost sums it up, i was so unbelievably lazy on the blog i kept last year so this time round I'm going to make a real point of documenting everything, no only for myself and my family and friends, but also for all those other people who want to know everything they possibly can about this amazing experience, epically those on the WDWIP website...



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