DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM - A Spring 2013 Adventure! COMPLETE 11/20

JessicaFaye508 · Jan 20, 2013

"I DON'T KNOW WHEN, I DON'T KNOW HOW,
BUT I KNOW SOMETHING'S STARTING RIGHT NOW..."

Welcome everyone! My name is Jess and I about to embark on the adventure of a LIFETIME. Today, January 20th, is the day that I am moving to Disney for 6 1/2 months. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY MY ENTIRE LIFE.

I will be participating in the Walt Disney World College Program Spring Advantage 2013. Advantage means that I am staying a semester PLUS a summer! (It gives me the "advantage" of having more time in Disney. heh heh

) My check-in date is January 22nd, 2013 and my departure date is August 9th, 2013. AH I AM NEVER GOING TO WANT TO LEAVE!!!!

The amount of magical moments I'm going to experience, the people I am going to meet, the food I am going to eat, and memories that I am going to make in this period of time are just unimaginable.

I am one of those people who like to document their life, so I wanted to keep a diary of my adventures. It is going to be fun to watch myself grow from the beginning to the end of the program. I just know that this is going to be a life-changing experience, so thanks for coming along for the ride!

For those of you who are new, let's do a brief introduction. Here are 10 facts about me:

JESS:

1) Like I said, my name is Jess. I am 19 years old. (I will be turning 20 while on my program!) I am a sophomore in college and I currently study Theatre Performance and Communications.

2) I have been to Walt Disney World probably around 25 times. I have never known the exact number. My family has been addicted ever since I was a few months old.

3) My favorite princesses are Jasmine, Ariel, Belle, and Rapunzel. My favorite princes are Aladdin, Flynn Rider, Prince Naveen and Prince Eric. My other favorite character is Pluto. My favorite Disney movies are Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Tangled, and Toy Story.

4) This is my 10th trip report on disboards. 10TH. No, I'm not kidding.

5) My favorite park is Magic Kingdom. Hollywood Studios is a close second. My favorite ride is Toy Story Mania. My favorite resort is the Yacht Club. And my favorite restaurants are Ohana and Via Napoli.

6) FUN FACT: I have stayed at every Disney resort except for the Polynesian, Art of Animation, All-Star Music, and All-Star Sports.

7) I am addicted to Disney pins. It's rather unhealthy. I just love Disney merchandise in general. IT'S ALL SO PERFECT.

8) You are probably going to want to know what the definition of a frump is while reading this trip report. I'm sure you've all heard the word frump used, but not commonly. A frump, as defined by us Disney fans, is basically a lazy, crazy, food obsessed, and/or Disney loving person. It is the word that provides the perfect excuse to act like your crazy self. The definition is pretty open ended and "frump" can be used as a noun, an adjective, a verb... WHATEVER WE WANT IT TO BE! It ends up being pretty self explanatory. You will see.

9) Something about Disney resonates with me unlike anything else. It is a combination of so many things: the parks, the characters, the memories, the customer service, the magic, the smells, the music, the happiness, etc. I spend hours upon hours researching everything Disney. I am always known as the Disney fanatic in the group. I have more Disney music on my iPod than "normal" music. I want to be proposed to in Disney and have a Fairytale Wedding one day. I also plan on moving down to Florida the minute I graduate college.
Clearly, Disney is one of the biggest parts of my life and it is my greatest passion. Doing the Disney College Program has always been my dream... and it is about to come true!

So hopefully that's enough background to get us started!

I AM STARTING MY DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM IN A FEW DAYS. Can you COMPREHEND THAT FACT!? Because I can't. I'm going to cry. Maybe it's because I'm in denial about my life actually being real. I have been anticipating this for SO long and now it's finally here!! IT'S JUST SO AMAZING I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

For my DCP I was accepted for the role of Concierge. Having this role is going to be SUCH an incredible experience for me. If you have read my reports in the past, you know how much I love giving resort and restaurant recommendations and spreading the knowledge of Disney to others. Well... now I get to do that and use my talents IN DISNEY. I feel like I have been working towards a position like this since I was born.

This is why I am in denial. HOW IS MY LIFE REAL!?

So how is this trip report going to work? The idea, as of now, is to make it a live trip report of my adventures. I do know that once things start rolling, it is going to get BUSY. So I will do my best to update as often as possible... but more than likely I am going to fall behind. Don't worry... I will always be taking notes somewhere so I can come back and pick up where I left off. Just keep checking back for updates! There could be one here and there, there could be a bunch all at once... no one knows, really! I am just as curious as you are to see how this turns out.

:wizard:

This trip report is going to be GREAT but it's going to be a huge project. And for that reason... I have to take a slightly different approach than I usually do.

Unfortunately, I don't think I am going to be able to answer back to all of your comments. I HIGHLY appreciate your support and words of encouragement. You all don't know how much that means to me. Each and every one of you who dedicate time out of your life to read about my Disney adventures are some of the most wonderful people in the world. However, one set of comments can take me anywhere from 15-60 minutes to respond to, depending on the day. By taking this new approach, I will have more time to write updates!

This doesn't mean that I want you to stop commenting, though! I LOVE hearing your feedback. I promise I will read each and every post! And some of them I will comment back on. If you ever have questions or if your response is intriguing to me, I will definitely comment back. However, because of the length of this report and the limited amount of time I will have to write it, please assume that I say thank you for all of your kind words. I LOVE ALL OF YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING.

ALSO, when I inevitably get behind, I will still be updating my twitter and instagram. So if you are interested in getting LIVE DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM UPDATES, follow me: @PrincessJess508. It's the same username for both twitter and instagram.

**There is a twitter bug that leaves a lot of you blocked from following my twitter account, so instead of clogging up the thread with everyone's usernames, please send your twitter usernames to:Disneyfreak508@hotmail.com

Alright. Let's get this show on the road. MY DREAM IS COMING TRUE RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES. LET THE MOST MAGICAL ADVENTURE OF MY LIFE BEGIN! :wizard:

**This trip report and my opinions do not reflect those of the Walt Disney Company. This report is written purely as a diary to keep track of my personal adventures. If you ever have any concerns about any of the content, please contact me directly.**

Continued in Next Post

JessicaFaye508 · Jan 20, 2013

JessicaFaye508 · Jan 20, 2013

DCP CAST 2013

There are going to be SO MANY people that I come in contact with over the course of my Disney College Program. To keep everything straight, I will continually update this post with little descriptions of my most important people! This will be your cast key!

COLLEGE PROGRAM FRIENDS:

Mark

Mark was my travel buddy for my Disney College Program! We go to school together and he is majoring in Theatre Performance. He is hilarious, sassy, and we have been really good friends since the day I transferred to our school. When I applied for my DCP, my excitement convinced him to apply and we got to take on the adventure of a lifetime together! I am SO HAPPY that he came along with me! Mark's role during the DCP was in entertainment. Mark's twitter/disboards name is mjp935 and his instagram name is @markjamesp, where he was famous for the "character selfie!" Mark had the time of his life and unfortunately his spring program ended on May 24th, so I had to go through the last few months without him. But we had the most INCREDIBLE time and I am sure we will always cherish the memories we made together in Disney!

Sergio

Sergio was one of Mark's roommates who we hung out with quite a lot. He's from Texas and he is a Film and Television studies major. His role during the DCP was Photopass at Disney's Hollywood Studios and he loved it! Since he was Mark's roommate, he lived next door to me until May 24th. Then when he extended his program until August he and Shane had to move to another building. Surge is a great friend and I'm really glad we got to meet each other during our DCP!

Shane

Shane was another one of Mark's roommates who hung out with us a lot! Our little group was usually me, Mark, Shane and Surge. Shane is from Michigan and his role in the DCP was Port Orleans French Quarter and Riverside as a lifeguard. Shane hopes to be a police officer in the future, so he's very good at dealing with emergency situations. That skill was definitely helpful when it came to being a lifeguard. When he extended his program into the summer he transferred over to Photopass at Hollywood Studios! Shane's so much fun to be around and I'm glad Mark ended up rooming with him so we had the chance to become friends!

Lindsay

Lindsay is the roommate that I was closest to throughout my program. She is from Utah, she is studying animation in school, and she used to work at the Disney Store back at home. Her role for the DCP is Frontierland Merchandise in the Magic Kingdom! We have a lot of crazy similarities such as playing VMK in the past, loving theatre, and HAVING THE SAME BIRTHDAY. No big deal. Her favorite princess is Ariel since they obviously totally look alike. Lindsay is always an amazing friend, and even if our schedules don't line up for long amounts of time, we always end up having awesome life chats in after some of our longest work days. I'm so glad we randomly got placed to live together because she was one of the absolute best friendships that I made during my DCP!

Alex

Alex and Lindsay became best friends on our program, so naturally Alex and I became wonderful friends as well! Lindsay and her live very close to each other back in Utah but didn't meet until their CPs. Alex is such a sweetheart. She is a beautiful person inside and out. We started hanging out together in June, and I wish we would have sooner, but I absolutely loved all of times we spent together! They were always magical!

Russell

Russell was Mark's immediate roommate! We hung out with him mostly during the beginning of our program. He is from San Fransisco, California and he worked stroller rental at the Magic Kingdom! His program ended on May 24th just like Mark's did.

Lauren

Lauren is my friend from Middle School. We hadn't seen each other in about 4 or 5 years, and then our Disney College Programs reunited us! We only got to hang out 2 or 3 times throughout the entire program but those were some of the most fun nights I had! Lauren is crazy hilarious and I'm so glad we finally were able to hang out again. Her role was Food and Beverage in Epcot in Future World, so she was a professional Mickey Bar seller! YAY MICKEY BARS!! Her program ended at the end of May as well.

Miranda

I met Miranda spring semester freshman year at college when we worked on wardrobe crew for the musical together. We found out that we both loved Disney and we INSTANTLY became friends. She did the Fall Advantage 2012 Disney College Program in Food and Beverage Services at Sunset Boulevard in Disney's Hollywood Studios. After her DCP, she decided to permanently move to Florida! She was SO excited that I moved down to Florida so we could keep each other company!

Ryan

Ryan and I have been friends since November 2011 when we met at my first college at a DCP information booth. We've hung out/ran into each other in Disney a several times over the past two years. Ryan moved down to Orlando permanently in May during my College Program so we met up and started hanging out for the remainder of my program. We were together from mid-July until the end of September, but now we are back to just being friends.

WORK FRIENDS:

Rachelle

I met Rachelle at Coronado Springs when we both worked at the Front Desk! She just graduated college (she studied theatre!) and this was her second DCP! Her first role was Fantasyland Attractions, specifically the Carrousel and Mickey's PhilharMagic! Rachelle is a born and raised Floridian so she knows her way around down here! She's the one who finally got me to go to Universal for the first time ever. She had to leave her role at Coronado in June because she got a Professional Internship at Port Orleans Riverside! I am so happy for her and meeting her was so wonderful! She truly is one of the nicest and most fun people I have ever met and I really do hope we keep in touch.

Meredith and Tara

These two lovely girls did the Disney College Program with me at Coronado Springs! Meredith is from New Jersey and we met during our Saludos Amigos orientation!

Tara is actually from the same city as me, we both had roles at Coronado, and we lived in the same exact apartment building! We had so many crazy similarities. These girls were always so nice and I loved spending time with them!

Kelsey and Emma

Kelsey was the first CP that I met at Coronado Springs. She's very friendly, peppy, and always has something to talk about. We had the same exact role so we got to spend a lot of time together. She's always such a great listener, she thinks that the fact that I keep this trip report is so cool, and she knows how important food is to me!

Emma is from Australia and I absolutely love her. Her role placed her at front desk and curbside and working with her always made my day. She was very homesick during her program but we were able to relate well when I got homesick. She gave very good advice! I'm really sad because I didn't get to say goodbye to her because I went home during the week of her end date, but I will never forget my favorite Australian!

VISITORS:

Mom, Dad, and Jonathan

This is my family. They are the most supportive and amazing team of people you will ever meet in your life. The hardest part about going away for my DCP was knowing that we would be apart for months. However, they were there for me every step of the way while I lived out my dream and I couldn't be more thankful for that!

My Mom is my best friend. We have always traveled to WDW as a family and we have taken several mother daughter trips, so my Mom has seen me grow up with a passion for Disney. She is such a faithful and kind person and I couldn't ask for a more wonderful Mother. She was always a phone call away even during the roughest times of my program and I am so blessed to have her in my life!

My Dad is one of the kindest, funniest, and greatest guys that I know. He is a businessman and he is very glad that I took this opportunity to be apart of a strong corporation. Knowing that I have my Dad's support and love while I'm doing my program makes me even more motivated to go out there and be the best I can be! I always love to make him proud!

My brother Jonathan is about 3 years younger than me. He's currently a junior in high school, and we have definitely never been apart for this long of a stretch before! I will miss him a lot, but he has seen me grow up with a love for Disney and I'm sure he knows it's where I want to be!

I love my family so much and I love telling them about everything that happens while I'm at the happiest place on earth!

Nana and Dea

Nana is my Mom's Mom and Dea (pronounced day-a) is my 12 year old cousin. They both came to visit me, along with my Mom, on February 11th-19th. I have been to Disney with my Nana 3 times in the past and this was basically Dea's first time to WDW! She went once when she was three but she didn't remember anything! It was so much fun showing her everything for the first time.

Preston

I dated Preston from February 2012 - April 2013. We went to school together up north and he is actually from Georgia. We did long distance last summer for three months, so we tried out the long distance during my college program. He was able to visit over spring break from March 2nd-8th and it was such a great week! However, around mid-April we had to break things off. We had two different life paths, with mine including living in Disney, but the time we did spend together was a lot of fun!

Karen, Alexander, and Matt

When Preston visited for spring break in March, he was accompanied by Karen, Alexander, and Matt! They are all freshman at our school in the theatre department.

Karen and Alexander have been dating since high school and they are actually from the town that I grew up in! They are both such cool, nice, and Disney-loving people. It was so much fun spending time in the World with them, especially because they decided a couple weeks before the trip that they were actually coming!

Matt lives about an hour and a half away from our school and he is also a big Disney lover. His family is in love with the Yacht Club and they have been coming to WDW since he was little! We were super excited about our trip since the fall semester, and we were so glad that it actually happened!

Lia and Lee-Anne

You all may know Lia from disboards (__disneygirl) and if you don't, you probably should. She is the blondie in the above picture and she came down to WDW for two whole weeks in May! I "met" her (aka read her trip reports) on disboards about a year and a half ago, and we did a DIS-Meet back in December 2011 when we watched IllumiNations in the freezing cold and were the last people in Epcot. Since then, we have stayed super close and we FINALLY got to be in Disney together again. During her trip we stayed at three different resorts and ate an INSANE amount of food. We had such a blast and it really is amazing how our friendship grew just from having a passion for Disney and writing trip reports!

The other girl in the above picture is Lia's friend Lee-Anne! If you read Lia's #StuckInDisney trip report, you may remember her from there! Lee-Anne was only with us for the Port Orleans portion of the trip, but it was so much fun hanging out with her. She doesn't do thrill rides and she has a much more relaxed touring strategy than Lia, but you can tell she absolutely loves Disney!

Lia and Gina

Gina and Lia have been friends since they were very little girls when they used to live in the same town. Gina moved a few times since then and she currently resides in Florida, but she had never been to Disney World! Lia and her had been wanting to make a trip happen for SO long, and the dream finally came true! Gina was such an awesome person! She's a big 90's fan and she had a TON of cool retro Disney trinkets, she was BEYOND excited to be in Disney World, and I could tell that the trip really meant a lot to her! I hope it was everything she hoped for and more!

Kristen, Vickie, Natalie, Alicia, and Maggie

These five girls came down to visit me at the end of May/beginning of June during my Disney College Program. We were all good friends in high school. Kristen and I were the ones who coined the term "frump" so this whole trip was titled "The Frumps Take Over Disney."

Continued in Next Post

JessicaFaye508 · Jan 20, 2013

DCP Cast 2013 - Part 2

This post is saved in case I need more room for the cast list. There is a 25 image limit per post after all. :laughing:

JessicaFaye508 · Jan 20, 2013

Jess' Trip Report Collection

For those of you who haven't followed me in before, I just wanted to give you the option of reading my past trip reports. There are tidbits of information that all lead up to my DCP in each and every one, but you aren't obligated to read them to understand the story. :thumbsup2

January 2011:
The Port Report: Frumpin Around the World with the Bathrobe Princesses

February 2011:
"She's Looking at Food Pictures Again!" A February Family Vacation!

April 2011:
ITS OUR MOTHER DAUGHTER TRIP! Our Spontaneous Getaway - April 2011

August 2011:
"Theres NO Sleeping in Disney! SURPRISE - The Frumps Are Back Again!

December 2011/January 2012:
Your ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUIDE to Disney World at Christmas Time!

May 2012:
The Frumps Have Hit the Wall... And No One's Mad. "FART SHOES."

October 2012:
The Most MAGICAL Trip Of Them All! "EVERYTHING'S PERFECT!"

December 2012/January 2013:
If the Yacht Club was a Person, I Would Marry It. NYE TRIP 2012-2013!

The two most recent ones have the most DCP information... and the ones with "Frump" in the title are friend trips with Kristen... and the Ultimate Survival Guide at Christmas time is just a Christmas masterpiece... AH so many memories.

Continued in Next Post

MeMom · Jan 20, 2013

I am a big fan of mother/daughter trips, and we have had several. Only with us, it's now mother/daughter/grandaughters. We have written quite a few trips reports, as well.

I will be in WDW in March. Let me know where you are working, and I will try to come by for a DIS hello. Or you can find a group of us (possibly in Epcot) on March 23rd. Do you know Brookelizabeth here on DIS, or wigdoutdismom? They will be there then. Brook became a Disney travel agent a while back, so she doesn't have time to DIS much any more, but she is still around for meets and on FB. We can touch base closer to March.

A friend who we have known since she was about 6-7 years old just finished a CP this month. She worked arcades at CBR, Art of Animation, and Pop. She met so many new friends and had a blast. She was not Disney savvy when she went down there. It really opened her eyes to how big and diverse WDW was. She didn't know about all the resorts and activities outside the parks, so she asked what she should do and see. She had a great time, and I know you will, as well. Have fun making the magic!

Aussiesalad · Jan 20, 2013

Ahhhhh today!!!!!!

Seriously so excited for you, as I have said many many times before :goodvibes

Super excited to read about your time down there and seeing as you capture things so perfectly with your words and your pictures, it will be like we are all down there with you! YAY!!!

vdub322 · Jan 20, 2013

So exciting! Add me to the list of DISers who has been following your journey to the DCP for the last year. Can't wait to read about it...and I'm still planning to keep an eye out for you on our trip in just FOUR MORE DAYS!

Have a great time!

Disneymad1993 · Jan 20, 2013

Good luck for today!! Looking forward to hearing about all of your adventures on the DCP

Nermel9 · Jan 20, 2013

Yay!!! I'm so excited to follow along with you and your DCP adventures! Good luck with everything, I hope you have a magical experience! You are living out my dream, you know! I was too scared to do this in college, even though I REALLY wanted to, and now it's probably the biggest regret of my life! I admire anyone who is that brave and can move so far away from home to live out their dreams! :cloud9:

I can't wait to find out where you are working!

LumosQ102 · Jan 20, 2013

Subbing in early this time!

Safe travels to Disney, I look forward to hearing your tales and hopefully this will just be the start of a very long Disney career :tink:

disneyfan'08 · Jan 20, 2013

I'm so excited for you and that your Disney Dreams are finally coming true!!! I'm really happy you decided to do a trip report and I can't wait to read more about your magical adventures!!!! :goodvibes

Paradise18 · Jan 20, 2013

What an exciting opportunity. I'll be following along and look forward to your perspective. Enjoy the experience. :goodvibes

ditsypixie · Jan 20, 2013

Yay! So excited I found this link! I can't wait to keep up with your adventure. Safe travels to Disney and have a magical time!!! :woohoo:

pirateprincess1976 · Jan 20, 2013

Yay!!!! I'm in! Can't wait to here about all your adventures. Good luck!

Smile_4213 · Jan 20, 2013

I've lurked your reports over the years and followed your journey and I am very excited to follow this new and exciting experience! My family will be in WDW for the first time this September so we will miss you by just a few weeks. Congratulations and I can't wait to see "your whole new world!"

ChelseaIsMyBelle · Jan 20, 2013

Ahhhhh! Today!! So exciting!! Looking forward to seeing all of your updates here, on Twitter and on Instagram!!! It's going to be fabulous!

Reberella · Jan 20, 2013

Ahhh it's so exciting! :cool1:

I'm following long- you'll be perfect for the DCP :goodvibes

LovesTimone · Jan 20, 2013

I love reading your trip reports, I am heading to the world at the end of this month, For my first mom and daughter trip with my mom who is celebrating her 70 th birthday. who know maybe you'll be at the resort we are staying at... Well no matter, I wish you a wonderful adventure and lots of excitment along the way. Congrat's again.

partyof2 · Jan 20, 2013

Oh Jess I am SO, SO unbelievably excited for you. I am looking forward to hearing about your experience so much.

Have a safe journey to your new home!

DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM - A Spring 2013 Adventure! *COMPLETE* 11/20

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DIS Legend

Totes Mcgoats

Are we there yet?

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

How many days left on the countdown?

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

Earning My Ears

Earning My Ears

Mouseketeer

Christmas Day 2017

Colette

DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM - A Spring 2013 Adventure! COMPLETE 11/20