UPDATED 5/14! A Cajun Disneymoon | Coming May 2014! WITH LINKS!

[courtthib]

Hey y'all! I have been on the Dis on and off for a few years now. My mom initially sparked my interest while I was preparing for my DCP back in 2011! I joined and was HOOKED right away!

Welp, fast forward a few years and here I am, months away from marrying my prince charming and planning our Disneymoon! So....I'm HOOKED again!

I'll start off with some introductions, of course

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HI! My name is Courtney (right) and I am a Disney lovin' Southern Belle from South Louisiana! My fiance is Beau (left) and he is definitely the realistic/rational one! This picture is from our first trip to Disney together last year (I know, I know, it breaks my heart that this pic is not the best shot in front of the castle. We'll get a good one this time, promise!)

We are both students at LSU and of course we love all things Disney!

Courtney
Favorite Park: Epcot and Magic Kingdom
Favorite Character: Belle and Ariel
Favorite Resort: Boardwalk
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Attraction: Mickey's Philhar Magic

Beau
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Character: Donald Duck
Favorite Resort: Contemporary
Favorite Ride: Toy Story Mania
Favorite Attraction: It's Tough to Be a Bug

Here are a few of our engagement pictures!

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We're obviously dorks, but we have fun!

We got engaged for my 21st birthday last September. It wasn't at Disney but was super romantic! We will be getting married May 24, 2014!

I've loved Disney since my first trip with my family when I was 13, but I became a TRUE Disney lover after being accepted to the Disney College Program in 2011! Here is my picture with the coveted "purple folder".

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I will write more about my CP in another thread maybe, if y'all are interested!

For now, back to the Disneymoon planning! Since I was a CM, I have a lot of friends who are still CMs and offered to help us out with our trip!
One of my sweet friends ended out finding us an amazing deal on a studio villa at BLT! We are booking it this Saturday morning and I am in full-force Disney planning mode! Since we have less than three months until the trip, I REALLY need to get the ball rolling!

I am really hoping to make some friends here. My mom is big into the boards and she has had several dismeets on all of our trips! When I was about 15 (rebellious teen years ) I would freak when she would meet her dis friends. I was convinced we were all going to get murdered and chopped up into tiny pieces. Now here I am six years later doing the same thing! It's inevitable.....I am turning into my mother!

Please let me know if you are interested in following along, I can't wait to add more as I get further along in my planning!

| CHAPTER LINKS |
1. My CP Adventure (& the story of how I was a princess for a day!)
2. Meet my Mama!
3. Booking Our Trip
4. Dining Reservations (so far, anyway!)
5. Praying for the room of my dreams!
6. What do you mean you want to sleep in?! WE'LL MISS ROPE DROP!
7. Too cool for matching shirts and a nostalgic trip down memory lane
8. I'm Baaaaaack (for now)
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[amazingact21]

I'll follow along.


I'm a sucker for Disneymoons. They make for such special trips, something you'll remember forever. (I did a Disney cruise with 2 days at the world for mine so I am familiar with the pull to go there.)


And late May/early June is such a great time to be in the parks. It's not unbearably hot yet and the summer crowds haven't swarmed in quite yet. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time.


Oh, and congrats on completing the CP. I've heard that is a difficult program to be accepted into.

 

[MatoMany]

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

 

[courtthib]

I'll follow along.


I'm a sucker for Disneymoons. They make for such special trips, something you'll remember forever. (I did a Disney cruise with 2 days at the world for mine so I am familiar with the pull to go there.)


And late May/early June is such a great time to be in the parks. It's not unbearably hot yet and the summer crowds haven't swarmed in quite yet. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time.


Oh, and congrats on completing the CP. I've heard that is a difficult program to be accepted into.

Thanks! I'm hoping we'll have good luck with the crowds/weather. I LOVED my CP, it was seriously the best experience of my life! Three of my friends from the program are actually bridesmaids in my wedding! I can't speak highly enough of the program.

 

[courtthib]

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Thank you!! It's getting so close! I'm nervous but also super excited!

 

[coteau_chick]

Hi y'all,
I am Courtney's momma.......Its obvious I raised this girl right. LOL! I will be following along and putting my two cents in as needed. She made fun of me for years for writing trip reports and now look at her.......We are having a blast getting things ready for the wedding and now I get to help her plan her Disneymoon. It didn't take much arm twisting to get me on board to help plan a Disney trip. I am pretty much a professional.

 

[courtthib]

Hi y'all,
I am Courtney's momma.......Its obvious I raised this girl right. LOL! I will be following along and putting my two cents in as needed. She made fun of me for years for writing trip reports and now look at her.......We are having a blast getting things ready for the wedding and now I get to help her plan her Disneymoon. It didn't take much arm twisting to get me on board to help plan a Disney trip. I am pretty much a professional.

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Count me in!!! So glad to see you writing a TR on your wedding/honeymoon! I remember when your mom told us that you thought we were going to chop y'all into pieces. ROFL!!!! Anyhoo...I'm Cherie and I met you once when you were working the gift shop at the Swan (I think, or was it the Dolphin?) along with my husband and little boy. (We are also from south La.) I was hoping you wouldn't be scared that we were some of those crazy stalking lunatics that chop people up, because your mom really, really, really wanted me to give her a report on how you looked and if you seemed ok and happy. I was so glad to give her a good report. I told my hubby right before we went in there...."Good Lord if this girl looks unhappy, you know I may have to smuggle her out of here and bring her to her mama!" Yes, he rolled his eyes at me.

Great start to your PTR. Can't wait to read more. Love the engagement pictures. You two are sooo cute!!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Hi y'all,
I am Courtney's momma.......Its obvious I raised this girl right. LOL! I will be following along and putting my two cents in as needed. She made fun of me for years for writing trip reports and now look at her.......We are having a blast getting things ready for the wedding and now I get to help her plan her Disneymoon. It didn't take much arm twisting to get me on board to help plan a Disney trip. I am pretty much a professional.

Yay!!! Go mom!!!

 

[courtthib]

Count me in!!! So glad to see you writing a TR on your wedding/honeymoon! I remember when your mom told us that you thought we were going to chop y'all into pieces. ROFL!!!! Anyhoo...I'm Cherie and I met you once when you were working the gift shop at the Swan (I think, or was it the Dolphin?) along with my husband and little boy. (We are also from south La.) I was hoping you wouldn't be scared that we were some of those crazy stalking lunatics that chop people up, because your mom really, really, really wanted me to give her a report on how you looked and if you seemed ok and happy. I was so glad to give her a good report. I told my hubby right before we went in there...."Good Lord if this girl looks unhappy, you know I may have to smuggle her out of here and bring her to her mama!" Yes, he rolled his eyes at me.

Great start to your PTR. Can't wait to read more. Love the engagement pictures. You two are sooo cute!!

OMG, YES I remember you!! I worked at both but I was at the Swan when you came to meet me! I seriously used to think she was CRAZY when she talked about her dis friends, now....here I am I also just told Beau a little while ago, "You better not read in the dark, you're gonna hurt your eyes".......I am SO turning into my mother!!

I'm so glad you're reading along, I can't wait to get this party started!

 

[courtneybelle]

Okay, I had to join in on this one. My name is also Courtney. I am also 21. And my mom was on the DIS forever and I couldn't get into it until this year...now I am obsessed! (Unfortunately, I'm not from Louisiana, however I did visit New Orleans last year and LOVED it.)

I can't wait to hear about your wedding/honeymoon plans! And that's so awesome you did a DCP, my school plans meant I couldn't do it while I was in school but I'm hoping to do it the semester after I graduate!

 

[courtthib]

Okay, I had to join in on this one. My name is also Courtney. I am also 21. And my mom was on the DIS forever and I couldn't get into it until this year...now I am obsessed! (Unfortunately, I'm not from Louisiana, however I did visit New Orleans last year and LOVED it.) I can't wait to hear about your wedding/honeymoon plans! And that's so awesome you did a DCP, my school plans meant I couldn't do it while I was in school but I'm hoping to do it the semester after I graduate!

OMG, how crazy!! Also, I noticed you have belle as your avatar...I did a face character audition during my cp and I was actually chosen as belle! It went from almost 300 girls at the audition to only 8 of us!! Unfortunately, I have a Cajun accent and can't dance to save my life (the next part of the audition included choreography) so I wasn't chosen to officially be friends with belle, but I wore the dress and wig and got the makeup done for one day! MOST magical experience of my life!!

I'm so glad you're joining in, hope I don't disappoint

 

[MatoMany]

Thank you!! It's getting so close! I'm nervous but also super excited!

Just remember to enjoy it.. I was so nervious on my wedding day that everything had to go just right and, of course, it didn't. I didn't enjoy the day because of my desire to have things perfect...

Enjoy your day and your honeymoon. Remember no matter what goes wrong at the end of the day the perfect thing has happened, you have joined your life with the one you love. Nothing could be more perfect than that.

 

[courtthib]

Just remember to enjoy it.. I was so nervious on my wedding day that everything had to go just right and, of course, it didn't. I didn't enjoy the day because of my desire to have things perfect...

Enjoy your day and your honeymoon. Remember no matter what goes wrong at the end of the day the perfect thing has happened, you have joined your life with the one you love. Nothing could be more perfect than that.

You are so right! I'm having nightmares lately where I show up to the wedding and we forgot to invite people....or none of the bridesmaids show up...or I don't have a dress I am determined to not let little things bother me and just go with the flow...I love your advice

 

[courtthib]

Alright y'all, as promised, here are a few tidbits from my experience on the Disney College Program!

Possibly the coolest thing about working for Disney...MY NAME TAG!



When you work for Disney, instead of having orientation, they call it "Traditions" and it's pretty much every Disney lovers dream--complete with a tour of backstage MK with a headset and everything. Super official After touring backstage, they take you onto Mainstreet, USA through this camouflaged door. It's SUCH an awesome experience. In a matter of seconds you go from real world to DISNEY WORLD and it's just amazing! Here is my picture from touring that day in my official Disney headset



I began my DCP working merchandise at the Swan and Dolphin, which was weird because as most of you know, they aren't "Disney" resorts. In fact, the only part owned by Disney are the gift shops. Because of that, there were only two CPs at those locations. After a few weeks, I was transferred to their sister resort, the Boardwalk! WHICH just so happens to be the resort I stayed at for my first ever trip to the world! How cool?!

When you work Boardwalk Merch, you work several locations, including Dundy's inside the Boardwalk, the three gift shops along the boardwalk, Seashore Sweets, and ESPN gift shop.

Here is my costume from Seashore Sweets check out that hat!!! As you can see I accidentally broke the door.....not my finest hour....



This costume for the gift shops on the boardwalk was the WORST! buuuut, this was one of my favorite guests! Her and her family came down to the gift shop to see me everyday of their trip! I told her all about my princess audition (I'll give more details in a sec ) and then she told me they were crazy for not picking me, and she called me the REAL Belle for the rest of the trip! Here is our princess pose!



So....about the princess audition....

My friend and I decided to go to a female face character audition on a whim during our program. We were almost positive we wouldn't get picked, but just went for the heck of it! The way it works is you go through a single file line and wait for them to take down your height and give you your number. After that, you wait with the other girls (almost 300!) and then they take groups of 60 at a time into another room. Each group is lined up in six rows of ten and they play a song and tell you to loosen up and just be relaxed and smile! It's a little awkward! They look at each line of girls for a few second and then after the song finishes, they call out the numbers of the girls they picked.

We were the last group of 60. For the first few groups, 60 would go in, and 58 would come out After we saw that we were sure we wouldn't get picked and we almost left because I was hungry

Wellllll, good thing we didn't leave, because THEY CALLED MY NUMBER!!!!!! I literally almost died......I felt so bad because my friend hadn't gotten picked and she had rode there with me. She assured me that I had to stay and she would find a ride home.

After all the girls who weren't chosen left, it went from a room of almost 300 girls to a room of 8 of us! They came talk to each of us and told us who they were going to have us "be friends with" . They told me they would try me as Belle and gave me a paper with literally tons of information about her. It also had lines for us to learn.

Next they took us into this giant dressing room and asked us our sizes and brought us our princess attire! We went into another room where ladies did our official copyrighted make up (yep....you will face legal action if you leave in the character's make up....) and put on our wigs. After we were all dressed, the eight of us sat in a hallway and practiced our lines. The girl who sat next to me was "friends" with Snow White and we just took a moment to talk about how awesome our lives were at that moment.

Oh, did I mention we were sitting across from a mirror so we got to stare at ourselves as princesses?!?! SO CRAZY!!!!!

Unfortunately, the next step in the process consisted of dancing (I cannot dance to save my life) and giving our lines (I have a cajun accent ). After about three hours the audition was done and we were told to wait a few days for a call back. A few days later I got a call saying I wasn't chosen and to try again in a few months. I cried my eyes out like the big baby I am...HA! My super sweet parents had surprise flowers delivered to me at work to make me feel better. The note read, "You are a special young lady and you will always be our princess"



I never went to try again, but I am so thankful for going as far as I did! I couldn't take pictures because there are lots of rules but I will never forget that day! Overall, it was easily one of the best experiences of my life!

Here is a picture from my audition!



Overall, my college program experience was SO amazing and I can't put into words how much that experience changed my life. I am more than happy to answer any questions if you are interested in applying or if you're just curious!

Here is my picture with my mickey graduation ears and my "Disney Degree"



Hope I didn't bore y'all too much! I am booking my trip in the morning and then my mom and I are on a trip plannin' mission!​

 

[courtthib]

Also, in case you're curious (I'm super nosey and I love to see pictures, so you might be like me ) here is a picture of my mom and I from Christmas this year. This is our "duck face" attempt!

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[coteau_chick]

Great update I am sooooooooooooo enjoying this

 

[rydersmommy]

I just knew you were going to decide on a Disney honeymoon!

 

[courtthib]

I just knew you were going to decide on a Disney honeymoon!

I wasn't up for it at first, but Beau really wanted to go and you don't exactly have to ask me twice!! HAHA

 

[coteau_chick]

Yea!! you are onboard with us. You will love disboards.

I just knew you were going to decide on a Disney honeymoon!