5 months in the Most Magical Place on Earth...my College Program TR

[francis6306]

YES!!! Tasha will be back...she's just been a little busy!!
Hang tight!

Sigh… Okay Momma… I guess I'll just sit and wait!

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

Well I had to come back here to ask if you had any tips for the web-based interview? I just got my email this morning stating I had 5 days to do my web-based interview!

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Hey there everyone! So sorry to keep everyone waiting for an update for such a long time! Things have been crazy busy around here but I am glad to get the ball rolling again

On our most recent trip to WDW (to move my brother in for his CP!!) we took lots of notes so that we can do a trip report for that too Keep an eye-out for that one!

When I last left you, I had just finished my training at CRT. The last two weeks of January were full of working, playing in the parks and making new friends. I was having tons of fun but was anxiously awaiting for February to come because Alex was going to be visiting me!!

We used my cast member discount to book a room at the All Star Sports resort which wasn't our first choice but ended up being great! He flew Virgin America straight from LAX to MCO and took the Magical Express to the resort. I had to work the day that he arrived and it was the loooongest shift of my whole college program haha.

Once he was all checked in, Alex text me our room number and decided to go to the pool bar to check it out and grab a beer. When 10PM finally rolled around, I basically ran to the locker room, changed into my street clothes and then went onstage to exit the park and catch a bus to All Star Sports. I decided to do it this way because if I had relied on the CP bus system I would have had to take the bus all the way back to the apartments and wait for the next bus that would take me to the resort.

I found our room, gave Alex a HUGE hug and then we decided we were hungry so we headed out to Downtown Disney and grabbed dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express. We were both very pleased with our meals and said we would go back again. Our plan was to hit the parks the next morning so we headed back to our resort and hit the pillows

The next morning we started off at Animal Kingdom, Alex's favorite park.

Then made our way over to Epcot.

We had "free" lunch at Tangerine Cafe with the $20 I found on the ground at Animal Kingdom

We stayed for Illuminations and were exhausted by the end of it. RIGHT as we walked up to the bus stop there was an All Start bus waiting, we were so soooo happy...

We came home to a signed picture from our pals Mickey & Minnie

The next morning I had to work a breakfast/lunch shift. I had to get up super early and catch the CP bus back to the apartments and then the bus from the apartments to Magic Kingdom. I had a pretty good day at work and then headed back to the resort. We spent some time relaxing and wandering around and then watched Wishes from the beach at the Polynesian

The next day was Superbowl Sunday! I had to work a morning shift again but ended up getting an early release. We watched the game in our room and ordered a pizza. It was nice and relaxing...plus the Packers won!

That night we had dinner at 'Ohana. It was Alex's first time and I was very excited to take him! We wore our "just engaged" buttons which was fun. Wishes played during our meal too and we had a great view. Such a fun night!

The next day we decided to do parks again. We started off at Hollywood Studios.

And then moved on to Magic Kingdom.

Sadly, the next day it was time for Alex to go home. After checking out of the hotel, we headed to DTD and walked around/had lunch. I rode the Magical Express to the airport with him and we hung out for a little while before having to say goodbye again. I was really sad to see him go but very thankful for all the fun we had together! ​

 

[Crystal824]

I love the costuming building for Magic Kingdom.

Every park/resort area has their own costuming department. Magic Kindom's is located in the cast member parking lot right across the street from Disney University (called Westclock) It was extremely convenient for me because that is right where the CP buses would drop us off and right where I would hop on a bus to take me "underground"

The first time I walked in I was a little overwhelmed. Every costume that a cast member wears at MK is in one building. Attractions, Photopass, audience control, character attendants, you name it - they got it.

Our guide that took us in for the first time asked each of us where we were working, showed us where to find our section and then told us to meet her at the dressing rooms. The CRT costume consisted of a skirt, a blouse, a vest and an optional pouch. I grabbed a few sizes and headed to the fitting rooms. This process took quite a while because there are only 4 or 5 rooms and a TON of new CMs there trying on costumes. You had to try your costume on for your leader and they would make sure that you were in the right size that made you in compliance with the Disney look. For example...my skirt needed to be around my true waist, not on my hips.

This is what my costume looks like...

(I HATE that picture haha)

I actually liked my costume (minus the puffy shoulders...and the arm ruffles got annoying after a while but I soon learned that I could tuck those in!)

Once I found the sizes that worked best for me, I went and grabbed a few more and checked out. We were allowed to have 5 costumes out at the same time. (5 shirts, 5 skirts, etc) Once I got into my rhythm I usually had 1 full costume in my locker at all times (in case I was playing in the parks before my shift and didn't have time to run to costuming) and then one or 2 at home. I almost always changed after work and returned my costume since I preferred to have a fresh one every day.​

Still loving your TR. I just wanted to chime in that when I worked at MK costuming was just inside the utilidor. You HAD to get a new costume everyday. You were not permitted to take your costume home and you were not permitted more than one costume a day. You were allowed 30 min or so to get a costume and change, which you were paid for prior to you actual shift time. Glad to see this has changed. It sounds like MK is more in line with the other parks in that regard now. When I worked at AK, we were allowed 5 costumes at a time. You could bring them back to launder or you could do it yourself. Typically, I just washed it because it was a pain to get to costuming because it is down the road from Animal Kingdom. They still had the chips then too though.

 

[anty30]

subbing

 

[jenseib]

Fun weekend. Now were you able to get him a ticket as well at a reduced rate?

 

[francis6306]

How much fun!

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Just got caught up. What a cute costume! One of the things I've learned from your amazing TR is how many cast members are probably doing the CP. I never realized before that Disney had such a large CP group as part of their cast. We've had breakfast and lunch at CRT and loved both. The stars in my little granddaughters' eyes (all 3 of them!) was worth every penny. I probably would have teared up when I walked in the dining room the first day if I were you. It's just so beautiful! How great for you that you get to sample all the food!! I really want that job!!! I've always wondered about the costumes......how many you get, who launders them, etc. Thanks for answering all those burning questions!

I probably would have teared up watching your granddaughters enjoy their time at CRT I'm so glad that you are enjoying the report so far, hopefully I will be able to answer some more of those burning questions in the process ​

Hi! This is such a fun TR. It is so neat to see what it's like to be in the CP!! And I have to add, how exciting to be working at CRT!! It's such a lovely restaurant. We have been there for dinner our past few trips.

How fun! While I did enjoy plenty of meals in the castle, I never got to fully experience a meal at CRT as a guest. Hopefully I will the next time I get to WDW!​

What a fun TR; can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying ​

I like your TR. It is helping me for my school project. Thank you for answering all of the report quests I sent you.

This is me, Sierra (can you guess my costume)

I am starting my power point today. Thank you for all the help and I can not wait for updates.

I'm so glad you are enjoying and that I can help you with your project I love the costume, are you the girl on the tightrope from the Haunted Mansion?​

Are you coming back?!?!!

Yes! Sorry it took me FOREVER ​

YES!!! Tasha will be back...she's just been a little busy!!
Hang tight!

Thanks, madre
​

I graduated from a 4 year college last May (2011) and I'm interested in possibly doing the Disney College Program so this info is greatly appreciated. I have a few questions though that maybe someone can answer. Since I already graduated like spiroff.natasha I'm looking into just taking an online course at my local community college.

My main question is does the course have to be for credit or can it just be a continuing education course where no credit is offered for the course?

Check your PM ​

Well I had to come back here to ask if you had any tips for the web-based interview? I just got my email this morning stating I had 5 days to do my web-based interview!

Congrats! I might be too late for you (sorry!) but in case anyone else is interested, here is my advice for the web-based interview: Take your time! Part of the interview is timed and being able to see the clock ticking during your test is really distracting but you should have more than enough time to answer each question. Be honest and lean towards the "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree" choices. And finally, RELAX!
​

Still loving your TR. I just wanted to chime in that when I worked at MK costuming was just inside the utilidor. You HAD to get a new costume everyday. You were not permitted to take your costume home and you were not permitted more than one costume a day. You were allowed 30 min or so to get a costume and change, which you were paid for prior to you actual shift time. Glad to see this has changed. It sounds like MK is more in line with the other parks in that regard now. When I worked at AK, we were allowed 5 costumes at a time. You could bring them back to launder or you could do it yourself. Typically, I just washed it because it was a pain to get to costuming because it is down the road from Animal Kingdom. They still had the chips then too though.

Thank you for sharing that! I love hearing about how it used to be! I probably would have washed my AK costume too since the costuming building wasn't super convenient.​

subbing

​

Fun weekend. Now were you able to get him a ticket as well at a reduced rate?

Yes! As a CP you get 6 Main Entrance passes, each pass is good for 3 park-hopper tickets. So we used two of my ME passes when he was there and I saved the rest for when others came to visit!
​

How much fun!

It was a great trip!!​

 

[spiroff.natasha]

**some of my pictures are having weird sizing issues, I'll try to get them fixed soon!! **

I was so lucky to have 2 amazing roommates while on the program. Lisa, Katie and I had SO much fun together while we were there and I miss them both terribly!

Our schedules didn't always match up but when we did have days off together, we tried to use them to our advantage! This post is just a quickie about one of our outings

We spent some time with our friend Peter Pan...

Tried to pull the sword out of the stone...

And then went back to our humble abode. Earlier in the week, Lisa and I had signed up to volunteer at the Give Kids the World Village. It was an absolutely AMAZING experience and I will write a separate post about that soon!

After we got home, the three of us decided to go check out Buffalo Wild Wings. On Wednesday nights, you can find A LOT of CPs at BWW. They have drink specials, karaoke and dancing.

We had fun together but the whole things wasn't really our scene and we didn't find ourselves making it a regular thing

When we got home we decided to have a little photobooth photo shoot...

oh, my ​

 

[Shir Kahn]

Woohoo, more updates!

 

[mrsxsparrow]

Question that has nothing to do with this TR but whatever I'm too lazy to put it where it really belongs:

Your mom and your brother drove from here to Florida? How long did it take them, how'd they like it, and would they do it again?

I'm doing the program in August and am debating on driving or flying.. I want to have my car and I'm planning on making the move permanent it's just such a long drive from SoCal

 

[mauigal]

Question that has nothing to do with this TR but whatever I'm too lazy to put it where it really belongs:

Your mom and your brother drove from here to Florida? How long did it take them, how'd they like it, and would they do it again?

I'm doing the program in August and am debating on driving or flying.. I want to have my car and I'm planning on making the move permanent it's just such a long drive from SoCal

Hi, this is Natasha's mom....I did do the drive....we left on a Monday morning early like 6am and drove to Las Cruces NM where we spent the night. The next day we went from Las Cruces to San Antonio TX....day after that we went from San Antonio to New Orleans and spent the night. We took the next day off and hung around New Orleans seeing the sights! On Friday morning we left around 7am and made it to Orlando by 8pm! So, if you don't take a day off you can get there in 4 nts. It is a lot of driving....but it was fun! I think we did on average 10-12 hr days which are long. But it worked for us!

From what I hear, people like having their cars there...saves a lot of time on the buses!

 

[sherylcin]

Just read the chapter about Alex's visit. What a great time (and you are a very cute couple btw)! The interesting thing is we were there at the same time. Wonder if we passed you in a park? Most of my family are huge Packers fans so we were also talking some smack that day in Epcot with some "other" fans (all in good humor of course!). Going back to read some more................

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Like I mentioned in my last post, Lisa and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Give Kids the World Village, a retreat area for families of children with life threatening illnesses. For DCP participants, there are scheduled volunteer opportunities every Sunday and Wednesday nights. I usually worked both of those nights but this week I had a morning shift on Wednesday

Lisa and I signed up together and were both really excited to go! We met at the Commons and after a little bit of a mix up (the housing team thought we wanted to sign up for the next Wednesday) we were in the van and on our way in our snazzy new t-shirts.

(us later with Katie showing off our Mickey "gang" sign )

Wednesday nights at the Village are "Kid's Night Out", a night where parents and children can get a break from each other and the children are paired with mentors to play and eat all night At first, there were more volunteers than there were children so Lisa and I helped set up dinner in the Gingerbread House.

On our way back to meet with the rest of the group, we found another family who had children interested in joining us so we were paired with some children and officially had buddies!!

We ate dinner with our buddies, rode the carousel and then headed to the theatre for a night of Village Idol. It was SO cute to watch these kids get up and perform. They even had some of the kids be the "judges" and read off cheesy lines like "I'll see you on TV" etc

The night was amazing. The services that they provide at Give Kids the World are wonderful and I was so happy to be a part of that team for the night.​

 

[blessedby3]

Like I mentioned in my last post, Lisa and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Give Kids the World Village, a retreat area for families of children with life threatening illnesses. For DCP participants, there are scheduled volunteer opportunities every Sunday and Wednesday nights. I usually worked both of those nights but this week I had a morning shift on Wednesday

Lisa and I signed up together and were both really excited to go! We met at the Commons and after a little bit of a mix up (the housing team thought we wanted to sign up for the next Wednesday) we were in the van and on our way in our snazzy new t-shirts.

(us later with Katie showing off our Mickey "gang" sign )


Wednesday nights at the Village are "Kid's Night Out", a night where parents and children can get a break from each other and the children are paired with mentors to play and eat all night At first, there were more volunteers than there were children so Lisa and I helped set up dinner in the Gingerbread House.

On our way back to meet with the rest of the group, we found another family who had children interested in joining us so we were paired with some children and officially had buddies!!

We ate dinner with out buddies, rode the carousel and then headed to the theatre for a night of Village Idol. It was SO cute to watch these kids get up and perform. They even had some of the kids be the "judges" and read off cheesy lines like "I'll see you on TV" etc

The night was amazing. The services that they provide at Give Kids the World are wonderful and I was so happy to be a part of that team for the night.​

What a wonderful experience to be able to help out at GKTW! We have 2 families from church that have been on Wish trips and stayed there and they both have only great things to say about the program. I would love to be able to volunteer there! Wish I lived closer

 

[shan23877]

What a great program, and how nice that you were giving the opportunity to volunteer. I think that it says a lot about you that you took the time to do so on your nights off. Very cool!

 

[Shir Kahn]

Hi, this is Natasha's mom....I did do the drive....we left on a Monday morning early like 6am and drove to Las Cruces NM where we spent the night. The next day we went from Las Cruces to San Antonio TX....day after that we went from San Antonio to New Orleans and spent the night. We took the next day off and hung around New Orleans seeing the sights! On Friday morning we left around 7am and made it to Orlando by 8pm! So, if you don't take a day off you can get there in 4 nts. It is a lot of driving....but it was fun! I think we did on average 10-12 hr days which are long. But it worked for us!

From what I hear, people like having their cars there...saves a lot of time on the buses!

We love having our car down there. We drive just over 2000 miles there and 2000 miles back and usually do it in 2 days. About 32 hours driving time but I usually do at least one 24 hour chunk to start off. DW gets to drive about 8 total hours out of all of that because I have so much trouble handing over the wheel!

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

Well I am going to Disney this Fall for the CP!!! I am really excited! And reading your TR will help me a lot!

 

[spiroff.natasha]

Woohoo, more updates!

​

Question that has nothing to do with this TR but whatever I'm too lazy to put it where it really belongs:

Your mom and your brother drove from here to Florida? How long did it take them, how'd they like it, and would they do it again?

I'm doing the program in August and am debating on driving or flying.. I want to have my car and I'm planning on making the move permanent it's just such a long drive from SoCal

Congratulations!! I am so very excited for you My advice is BRING THE CAR, the trip will be fun and you will be soooo glad you have it once you are in Orlando.​

Hi, this is Natasha's mom....I did do the drive....we left on a Monday morning early like 6am and drove to Las Cruces NM where we spent the night. The next day we went from Las Cruces to San Antonio TX....day after that we went from San Antonio to New Orleans and spent the night. We took the next day off and hung around New Orleans seeing the sights! On Friday morning we left around 7am and made it to Orlando by 8pm! So, if you don't take a day off you can get there in 4 nts. It is a lot of driving....but it was fun! I think we did on average 10-12 hr days which are long. But it worked for us!

From what I hear, people like having their cars there...saves a lot of time on the buses!

What the madre said ​

Just read the chapter about Alex's visit. What a great time (and you are a very cute couple btw)! The interesting thing is we were there at the same time. Wonder if we passed you in a park? Most of my family are huge Packers fans so we were also talking some smack that day in Epcot with some "other" fans (all in good humor of course!). Going back to read some more................

Thanks How funny that you were there at the same time. I always wonder if I am in any background pictures here on the DIS ​

What a wonderful experience to be able to help out at GKTW! We have 2 families from church that have been on Wish trips and stayed there and they both have only great things to say about the program. I would love to be able to volunteer there! Wish I lived closer

It is SUCH a great program. I had the best time volunteering there and wish I would have been able to do more. ​

What a great program, and how nice that you were giving the opportunity to volunteer. I think that it says a lot about you that you took the time to do so on your nights off. Very cool!

I had the best time playing with the kids, Village Idol was hilarious ​

We love having our car down there. We drive just over 2000 miles there and 2000 miles back and usually do it in 2 days. About 32 hours driving time but I usually do at least one 24 hour chunk to start off. DW gets to drive about 8 total hours out of all of that because I have so much trouble handing over the wheel!

Wow! That's a lot of driving!! We like having a car on our vacations there too (but usually rent haha) I know all about not wanting to hand over the wheel...both my mom and I like to be in control! ​

Well I am going to Disney this Fall for the CP!!! I am really excited! And reading your TR will help me a lot!

Congratulations!! I can't tell you how excited I am for you (and insanely jealous ) What role did you get?!​

 

[mrsxsparrow]

Hi, this is Natasha's mom....I did do the drive....we left on a Monday morning early like 6am and drove to Las Cruces NM where we spent the night. The next day we went from Las Cruces to San Antonio TX....day after that we went from San Antonio to New Orleans and spent the night. We took the next day off and hung around New Orleans seeing the sights! On Friday morning we left around 7am and made it to Orlando by 8pm! So, if you don't take a day off you can get there in 4 nts. It is a lot of driving....but it was fun! I think we did on average 10-12 hr days which are long. But it worked for us!

From what I hear, people like having their cars there...saves a lot of time on the buses!

Congratulations!! I am so very excited for you My advice is BRING THE CAR, the trip will be fun and you will be soooo glad you have it once you are in Orlando.

Thanks for the advice! I really want to do the drive but I get back from a trip to Hawaii on the 11th and check in the 20th which doesn't leave much time for a cross-country trip. But the more I think about it and hear stuff like this the more I want to do it... Hmm we shall see. Thanks again