DCP: The Tale of 4 Princesses and their 4,454 mile adventure! -- Update 1/9!

[::Snow_White::]

Foreword: Katie and I were/are HUGE fans of Jess’s DCP Frump Style trip report! It gave us so much to look forward to and really showed us a lot of what we will be experiencing. We loved it so much that we wanted to also enjoy sharing our adventure with you all!

Introduction: Katie will have a separate introduction post.

Howdy! My name is Kayla, I am 20 years old, I live in the Midwest and I’m a junior in college. I’m currently pursuing a graphic communications major with a minor in marketing; I’ve been to WDW 7 times with my family and there is nothing I love more! I was accepted for the WDW Fall Disney College Program for 2013 and will be in the merchandise role. I will be checking in on August 5th. What a dream!!

Fun facts:

I am a huge television fan, especially BBC. Doctor Who, Sherlock, Merlin, you name it. I’m also a massive Harry Potter geek so Universal is on my list!

I am a new Disunplugged fan, the 7 in 7 Coronado Springs Review was the first podcast I watched and I’m obsessed.

I am a vegetarian/vegan so be prepared for some delicious alternative dishes.

I am a runner and will be participating in the Tower of Terror 10-miler.

Photography and Video are my passions so expect a lot of both. (and if Tom Bricker somehow finds his way to this TR than you are awesome and your blog is my favorite and I am always drooling over your photos. )

I want to oversee/manage Photopass or work within any media section of Disney when I graduate. Anything to deal with advertising, photography, or film and I’m there; I hope to spend my life with the company. I will be graduating in the Spring of 2015 and will be applying for an internship at that time.

Some of my favorite disney movies are Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations, Wreck-it Ralph, An Extremely Goofy Movie, and Lilo and Stitch!

My favorite rides at Disney are Carousel of Progress, Peoplemover, Spaceship Earth, and Tower of Terror.

What’s with the title?
Glad you asked! Katie and I brainstormed over a title and realized how far some of us had to drive from our hometowns just to get to Florida and we began comparing and decided that almost 5,000 miles is a long ways to come for the Disney experience and thus it was titled accordingly.

DCP Advice:

So, for anybody who is going to apply in the future, here is a timeline of events:

In October I joined the facebook groups and met some AMAZING people who have already turned into some of my greatest friends, if you are planning on applying DO THIS, it makes it so easy to find friends. In December I went to Disney with my family, which kept my mind off waiting for applications. February, applications finally came out! I had my phone interview, and then received my pending email a few weeks later. In the middle of March I received my email stating I was accepted for merchandise! I picked my arrival date and found my roommates; The rest was a waiting game, until now!

Adventurers:
I have 3 wonderful roommates! Whom I do not have photos of because we have not met yet (well 2...). We filled out our housing paperwork just a few days ago and are hoping for a 2 bedroom apartment at Patterson Court, but we will find out soon. It's possible we'll get 2 more roommates.

Katie, she will be in merchandise as well, she is the baby of our group at 19 but we love her anyway!

Emmy, she will be Main Entrance Operations, she’s a darling, we met up to go shopping in July! We both have a passion for dining reservations and vinylmation.

Gina, our newest roommate, she will be a character performer (most likely she will be friends with mickey and Minnie), and is super sweet! We are all pretty jealous of her job!


My momma will also be coming to visit me in October with my grandmother. I love my mom to death and it’s the first time I will be away from her for an extended period, so I’m definitely going to miss her. She’s the one who made me a Disney addict! She is SO excited for me to go on this adventure and was the one who pushed me to do this trip report. She also LOVED Jess’s DCP report! My mom is a crazy Disney planning fanatic, she is almost more obsessed than I am.

There will also be a ton of other DCPers who I will introduce you to when we meet up. I made so many friends in the past year just waiting for this fall that I can’t wait to hang out with them all!

Just for you I made my own instagram and twitter accounts to document my journey so that you can follow along. My username for both is @cm_kayla!

I love all things Disney and I love sharing my opinions and thoughts on new experiences and what Disney has to offer so I hope there will be plenty of reviews (especially food…) and photos to keep you entertained. If anybody has any questions regarding the program or the application process (or anything else) please feel free to post and we’ll respond as fast as we can.

I will be starting the 1.5 day drive to Orlando tomorrow for a mini vacation at Pop Century, Port Orleans, and CBR and then on the 5th I will check-in. I will definitely have a post up the night of August 4th after I get back from dinner and wishes at Poly with the roomies!

I also forgot to mention that there is an education component to the DCP. Unfortunately for my major Photopass was the only position that I was able to get credit for, however Disney also offers courses at the apartment complexes. Of course, the one my roommates and I jumped at was the Disney Heritage class which is a 2 hour lecture class once a week where we learn about Disney History and all aspects of the company. There is also a good chance we will get to go to the parks during some of our lectures. Therefore I am VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS CLASS! It's going to be a ton of fun and Katie, Emmy, and some of my other friends are all in the same class! This doesn't start until the beginning of October however so we still have a while to wait.

I seriously cannot believe it's finally time to go, I have been posting on the DIS for a long time and have been planning to do the DCP since I was a sophomore in high school which was more than 4 years ago!! It's been a terribly long wait and I've been impatient at times but the dream is finally coming true! I can't wait to find out where I'm working in just about a week!! As you know, we get quite busy on the DCP so I apologize if there is a time where an update does not come. I will also be training for my 10 miler at the time as well as taking 4 online classes with my Disney Heritage Class. Hopefully, however, since Katie and I will both be updating you won't have to go without too long.

ENJOY!!

 

[momabbate]

Congratulations!! I can't wait to hear about your adventures this coming year. You must be so excited that Aug is almost here.

 

[::Snow_White::]

Thanks, momabbate! I really can't wait!

Post Links, Ordered by date: Kayla's = Teal Katie's = purple.​

Kayla's Introduction! -- July 27th​

Katie's Introduction! -- July 27th​

On the Road & Check-In Part 1!
On the Road & Check-In Part 2!
7/30 -- GO AWAY BUGS!
7/31 -- First Park Day!
8/1 -- More Ice Cream!?
8/2 -- It's HOT & 8/3 -- Our First ADR!
8/4 -- I Love ya, tomorrow!
8/5 -- Check-In! & 8/6 -- Free Day!
8/7 -- Housing Meeting ; 8/8 -- TRADITIONS! ; 8/9 -- Time to Play!
8/10 -- Retail Therapy​

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[::Snow_White::]

Saved spot, just in case.

 

[ValiantHeart]

Someday I'll Be Part of That World!

Hello, you darling people! I'm Katie! I'm 19 years old and I am a sophomore at Texas A&M University--Corpus Christi, and my hometown is a short distance from there. I was born and raised in south Texas, and yes, I do talk like it I am a sophomore and I am studying Chemistry and Theater, and have a minor in vocal performance.

As a freshman, I was taking 24 hours both semesters, which I say not to brag but to say that the stars certainly aligned (maybe with quite a bit of pixie dust!) to enable me to do the College Program this year! As Kayla said, I'm doing Merchandise, and we're checking in August 5th! I could not be happier to get to go back to my happy place!

Here's a timeline of events for you.. I applied for Fall February 8th, 2013, was pended February 15th, and was accepted March 13th (two days shy of a month after being pended)! Within the next two days, I paid my fees and found my oh-so-lovely roommates!

I've only been to WDW once in my entire life (that I remember). My parents took my as my senior graduation present last summer, and at the time I had no idea that that time this year, I would be preparing to go down again, but as a Cast Member this time! (Fun fact: Kayla and I were in Disney at the same time last year!)

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And that ugly lug P) is my brother, who is 16! He and my family will be coming down to visit at Christmas and I'm very excited!

Anyway, I'm excited to get to share this experience with you and I hope you enjoy following along! If you're an Instagram fan (Or Twitter), my name on both is @katiedoesdisney!

Have a magical day, y'all!

 

[jpmom97]

Good luck girls! This sounds like such an amazing experience! Enjoy! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Subscribed! Can't wait to hear all about your time working in Disney

 

[Allisonlc]

Subbing! Can't wait to hear about your adventures!

 

[rachel09985]

I am in!! This sounds fun! I am also into photography so I am excited to see your pictures. Just followed you on instagram too!

 

[pirateprincess1976]

Joining in. Can't wait to hear how your programs go. I'll have to keep an eye out and see if I catch you when I'm in Disney World in September

 

[::Snow_White::]

On the Road & Resort Check-In! Part 1

Sunday morning my car was all packed and we left the house at 4:30 AM. We ended up driving 17 hours straight and made it to Georgia at 10PM to stay the night. Surprisingly, the drive wasn't too bad and my mom was kind enough to drive the whole thing! I took quite a few naps.

Come to today, we woke up at around 7AM and headed down to breakfast. We stayed at a Hampton Hotel in Valdosta, Georgia and it was really nice! The breakfast was great and we hit the road again around 8AM. Today we only had about 3 hours until we made it to Florida!! Something funny to note is that every person I ran into at a gas station was incredibly grumpy and ignored me anytime I said hello or excuse me when we bumped into each other. At the Hampton I met a wonderful worker named Cat whom I had a nice conversation with. She said that one of her friends named Penny works at the Polynesian and to say hi for her. Maybe I'll see her! Anyway, it was nice to run into someone so sweet when we hadn't ran into the best people.

Finally at 11:30 AM WE ARRIVED AT POP CENTURY. We were going insane sitting in the car and we were exhausted from all the driving, we were so pumped to finally make it. For this trip we didn't do online check-in but had our room ready and keys in about 5 minutes. We booked a standard room but requested a room by the bridge to AOA because we found it was awesome the last time we came. Lucky for us, we were given it! It's actually in the preferred section so we technically got an upgrade!

We hauled our stuff in and decided to head over to AOA for lunch after we got our mugs and looked around Pop a bit. We really enjoy AOA and have stayed at the LM rooms, but our favorite is definitely the Cars section. Landscape of Flavors is great! I checked out some of the veggie stuff. They had Rice Dream Rice Milk, Silk Soy Milk, Vegetable plates with hummus, and a Spicy Tofu entree at the to-go section. They also had babycakes in the dessert section, which I LOVE. You can go to the babycakes bakery at downtown disney but I'm super excited to see they had them in the to-go section!

At AOA today we ordered a large cheese pizza to split between us. The pizza was $13.99 regularly but after using our Tables in Wonderland discount it came to $11.99; pretty great for a family of four! We all enjoyed the pizza here, the sauce was perfect (which is unusual since I don't like a lot of sauce) and the crust was really soft. The only problem was when I was cutting it the cheese would pull off the crust easily, however that's only minor. Delicious!

After lunch we headed to Downtown Disney to take a look around. We decided that we were not going to buy anything at this time. Me, because I will be receiving a CM merch discount after traditions so there really isn't a point right now and my family will pick up what they need at the end. Anyway, we were a bit let down with DTD, just because we were looking for some new merchandise other than what we saw on our December trip but we didn't find much. I've mostly got my eye on The Art of Disney Store as well as new vinylmation and pins!

After awhile we wanted to ride the buses to some other resorts we'd never been to, to check them out. We were all getting pretty tired because of the drive and almost started to fall asleep on the bus to the Contemporary. The ride seemed to take forever! Finally we made it and were completely lost since we'd never been to the Contemporary besides riding through on the Monorail. I absolutely love Pop, AOA, POFQ, CBR, but I just wasn't feeling the Contemporary. It was very big and it felt like nobody was there which for some people is great, but it felt a bit boring. The people make the atmosphere for me which is why I love the values a lot! I didn't take any pictures since I'll be coming back quite often!

We were going to hit up Polynesian but when we boarded the monorail it was going to be about 25 minutes because of technical difficulties. We decided we'd just walk to MK and hop on a bus back to AOA so we could rest and get some dinner. It was our first time walking from the Contemporary to MK and it was a lot shorter than we thought it was. That's definitely a perk of a deluxe!

We made it back to the hotel and chilled for a bit before heading to the Pop Food Court for some dinner, we walked around the Cars section and the rest of the resort. For those who have been saying the Pop Century Food Court has been lacking I would definitely agree. Back in December it was great, but 2 to-go sections were closed down and one station was closed. There was hardly anything we found appetizing and I was looking for a large veggie plate like I saw at AOA and couldn't find one. My brother was looking for chicken strips and fries and we couldn't find those either. Back to AOA it was!!

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[::Snow_White::]

Check-In Part 2!

Sorry in advance for the size of the photos. I've edited them down but for some reason they are not showing up smaller in the preview. When I get everything set up at the apartment I can resize in photoshop to be smaller!

My parents ended up splitting a make-your-own-Pasta plate which they said was delicious. My mom said the bread was a bit salty but they enjoyed it. It definitely smelled great and I'm planning on making my own veggie one soon and seeing if I could get some tofu too! My brother ordered a plain cheeseburger with fries and I went with the Veggie Burger with Cole Slaw.

My brother said his cheeseburger was okay as well as his fries. My veggie burger was decent. It's basically a fried green tomato with cheese and a homemade veggie burger. I first ordered it in May 2012 and it was amazing. I had it again in December and was terrible. It didn't taste great and kept falling apart and the plates they come in do not work well with it. It kept sliding off the bun, etc. This time it tasted better and stayed together so I was quite happy. The Cole Slaw on the other hand was pretty terrible. It was very dry and not flavorful at all. My family agreed and it was left untouched. I do like that AOA has a "homemade" option of a veggie burger rather than a frozen gardenburger or something.

We returned to our hotel at 7 and laid around for a bit. I saw that Princess and the Frog was playing outside so at 8:30 we sat outside and watched a bit of the movie. I hadn't been able to get to one of these movies on all our trips and I really enjoyed it! The weather was nice and PATF is one of my favorite movies! We came back inside after awhile because we were getting sleepy!

And that was our past few days! I figured with the free time I have the next few days I would update as much as I could!
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[Britard]

This looks like lots of fun! I wish I had known about the DCP when I was in college-hopefully it will still be around in 10 years for my daughter

Can't wait to read more!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along.

 

[momabbate]

Opps I forgot to subscribe. Taken care of that now.
Great Pics of Pop and AOA.
Only 3 more days girls!!

 

[Aristocath]

Looking forward to this!

 

[disneylovin24]

Hi!

I'm a big fan of Jess' report so I look forward to reading about your time in the DCP too!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Joining in! I love reading these DCP TRs especially since I'll be looking into it/applying in a couple of years.

Can't wait to hear how Traditions goes for both of you tomorrow (edit: today actually lol)!

 

[PrincePluto]

Subbing!

Foreword: Katie and I were/are HUGE fans of Jess’s DCP Frump Style trip report!

Me too![/B/]


Fun facts:

I am a huge television fan, especially BBC. Doctor Who, Sherlock, Merlin, you name it. I’m also a massive Harry Potter geek so Universal is on my list!

I'm a fellow Whovian, as well... both the classic series and the new (post-2000) one.

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[momabbate]

Today's the day. Good luck!! Have a maggical time!