It's Kind of Fun to Do the Impossible - MY DCP ADVENTURE (Updated 2/3 x3)

[Irish_Mike]

February 1st - Shopping Day!

It was around 8 in the morning when the three of us started to finally wake up and get going. Today was set to be a very long day of running around to various stores in Orlando to get everything I would need to move in tomorrow.


Oh yeah, in less than twelve hours of me writing this (10:04 PM), I check in to the program! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!


I showered and the three of us got dressed before heading out to Walmart to start the trip. We got a lot of the household necessities here, like a first aid kit, hangers, and bath necessities.


We also got some basic groceries since we won’t have a ton of time tomorrow.


Only problem was that my bread got squashed in the trunk. Boo!


By the time we finished at Wal-Mart, it was close to 11:30, and since we weren't having dinner until around 7:30, we decided to get a small lunch. Since we still needed to find a comforter for my bed, we decided to swing over to the Millenia Mall….


And then remembered that the Millenia Mall is extremely high end. Look, I love me some Jimmy Choo’s and Emporio Armani as much as the next guy, but on a college program budget, that ain’t happening. Especially when my Mom is fawning over the "little blue box".

At least the food court was good.


Still empty-handed on a comforter, but having picked up a t-shirt, we headed down to the Orlando Premium Outlets to see if we'd have any luck there.


Holy. Crap. It was MOBBED there – the parking lot was crazy. Like, Magic Kingdom on Fourth of July crazy.


Thankfully, we ended up finding some spots in the far corner near I-4 and began strolling through the stores.

Mom pointed out some high end Coach and Dooney & Burke purses that she liked (Mom, if you're reading this, the answer is still no!), and I grabbed some Starbucks.

I am such a white girl. ​

Again, there was no comforter to be found, so we left the outlets to (hopefully) find one. Thankfully, we managed to find one at Marshalls, because all this shopping was wearing me out.

We also grabbed another towel so that I would have a spare and headed back to the hotel to relax before heading out for dinner later.​

 

[Irish_Mike]

February 1st - Sightseeing and Seafood!


After relaxing in the hotel room for about an hour, the Disney bug was itching for my Mom. After all, we are so close to property, but can’t enjoy most of it because we decided to not opt for park tickets for a day.


Obviously, that means we do the next best thing – resort hop!


Since Mom is still not entirely sure on where she’s going when driving, we figured we would take advantage of the Disney bus system and park at Downtown Disney, which was so much quieter than it was last night.

We started off by heading over to the Contemporary, which is one of my favorite resorts. Yeah, the design might not be pleasing to everyone, but it is the ORIGINAL resort. It’s that sentimentality that I really enjoy.


And yeah, being five minutes from the Magic Kingdom certainly has it perks.

(Hi Mom!)

From there, we took the monorail around Bay Lake to the Polynesian and Grand Floridian. We didn’t stay long at any of the resorts since we had to get over to the Beach Club, so we just looked in some of the stores and took some photos.

SO CLOSE! Magic Kingdom, I’ll see you later this week!

We grabbed a bus and headed over to the Yacht & Beach Club, which is my FAVORITE resort. Literally, if I could live in this resort, I would!


The décor, the staff, the theme, and the pool – I can find no flaws.

We had a 7:25 reservation to Cape May, so we checked in and I headed over to the hotel store while my Mom and Grandma relaxed.


I’ve decided that I want to collect a pin designed around every hotel during my time down here. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s something I can slowly work on over the next few months and hopefully finish before I go.


So, of course, I had to start off my collection with the Beach Club pin.

Adorable, isn’t it?


Soon after, we got buzzed in and headed into the restaurant. Our server was Sarah, and she was lovely! She’s a former DCP alumni as well, so we ended up discussing that a bit before we left!

My family and I have always been huge fans of Cape May, and my Mom loves the crab legs.

(I've never been a fan of crab, but it does look good)

The food was amazing as always! I especially loved the Vodka Blush pasta with seafood. Grandma had plates similar to mine, along with some soup.

And then, dessert!

Oh my god, so delicious.

We finished up with dinner and decided, after twelve very long hours, it was time to head back. We hopped on a bus to Downtown Disney, grabbed the car, and headed back to the hotel where I wrote these updates.

Gonna work on picking out an outfit for tomorrow now, since I check in TOMORROW!!!


​

 

[heathsf]

I hope your check-in went well today!

 

[ThePin Princess]

Just joining in! I'm down here too for the DCP, I started three weeks ago! Hope your move in went well and you have a good first week!

 

[Irish_Mike]

February 2nd - CHECK IN DAY (Part One)

All three of us woke up around 8 in the morning on check in day, since I was scheduled to arrive at 9:45 – one of the last slots for the day. One of my roommates, Adrian, had already checked in at 7:45, so our group of 6 knew that we were all together in a 3 bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment in Vista Way.

Literally one of our last choices for where to live but we’d make due.

We packed up all my stuff from the hotel and headed on over to Vista Way, where check in was, at around 9:30. There was already a small line forming next to the entrance, and after getting turned around once, Mom dropped me off to hop in line and went to park at Walgreens.

Yay for free parking!

The gates opened directly at 9:45, and the thirty or so of us headed on up to the Vista Way Pavilion, located at the back of the complex, where all the magic happened!

I met up with David and Loren, two of my apartment mates, here as well.

Both are super cool, and Loren bakes. Delicious!!

Our program guides! It’s officially happening!

The three of us made it inside the building, where the first thing we got was our roles!

Loren is housekeeping in Port Orleans French Quarters, and David is Merchandise in Animal Kingdom: Harambe Village.

And then it was my turn! The cast member called me up, took my name, and then gave me my work location….

Outdoor Carts in Animal Kingdom!!! This was my first choice in terms of a theme park – I enjoy the atmosphere there, the hours are decent, and I already know some people who work QSFB there.

We then moved on to get our housing keys and ID’s.

My picture is awful lol. But, I have yet to see a new one so that’s good.

After that, we were separated into small groups and received our schedules for the next couple of days.

I had casting today, where they do background checks, fingerprinting, etc. Tomorrow, I have a housing meeting. Traditions are on Thursday in the afternoon!

A few more stand with paperwork and information and I was ready to move in! We are on the second floor in Building 20, right next to the pavilion!

Here are a few photos of our apartment from after we settled in.

(Sneakily while the roommates watch a movie)

Since I had casting at 12:30, I headed over to the bus – just before it starting pouring rain. As in, trees bent at 70-degree angles, angry heavens rain.

Yay Orlando afternoon storms!

We drove over to Chatham to pick up some other people, and then headed over to the Casting building across from Downtown Disney.

GOLD STATUES!

DOORKNOBS!

Casting went fairly quick for me, lasting just under an hour. They had a program coordinator explain our schedule over the next few days, including our first couple days of training!

I have training over at the Disney University on Saturday morning, “DAKlimation” on Sunday, and then further, localized training starting next Monday. Yay!

After that, I filled out some further paperwork, had my fingerprints taken, and was on my merry way!

I am OFFICIALLY a Walt Disney Corporation Cast Member!!!!! ​

 

[Irish_Mike]

February 2nd - CHECK IN DAY (Part 2)

I got back to the apartment around 2, and finished unpacking the rest of my stuff while my Mom and Grandma had lunch. Although it’s the oldest complex, the apartment isn’t entirely bad after we started getting everything settled in.

Nathan and Kyle were both at casting, so Adrian, Loren, David and I just lounged around for a bit before I headed off to do last minute shopping with my folks.

I also saw the inside of a Publix for the first time, and let me tell you – it is NO Wegmans. It’s nice, and slightly expensive, but it can’t replace my Wegmans.

We finished shopping and headed back to the apartment, where we said goodbye to all the parents and finally had some freedom.

Nah, just kidding Mom & Grandma. Miss you and everyone back at home!

The six of us just lounged around for a couple of hours before we headed over to Fort Wilderness for a dinner buffet at Trails End to commemorate our first night together!

This would also be my first time visiting Fort Wilderness, so yay!

We all piled into Loren’s giant fifteen-person van (Lovingly named Rosemary) and headed off, promptly freaking out as needed when we passed under the Disney World sign.

We’re all five.

After arriving and figuring out the whole bussing situation, we finally got over to Trails End about five minutes late. No problem, they took us all in after a five minute or so wait.

The hostesses screamed when they heard we were new College Programers!

Oh. My. God. The food was so good! I’ve heard plenty of good things about it, but it exceeded all expectations! Only managed to sneak in one picture of the food though since we were all starving.

The manager was also nice enough to give us the 40% Cast Member discount with just our housing ID’s, so YAY for that!

Since this is David’s first time to Disney in a long time, he wanted to see Wishes and the rest of us weren’t about to disagree with that. We decided to take the ferryboat over to Magic Kingdom and then hop on the monorail to the Contemporary.

It was FREEZING, but got some nice pictures of the resort.

Shopping ensued since we had time. Nothing was bought (yet), but I have my idea on a “Be Our Guest” pillow.

It will be mine.

With a few minutes left, we headed on up towards the top of the resort via exterior stairwell for the hotel. Cue pictures!

SUCH a great way to start off the program!


Following the show, we took the monorail back around to the Magic Kingdom, took a bus to Wilderness Lodge, and then another bus to Fort Wilderness and Rosemary.


The rest of the night was fairly quiet – a great end to a first day!​

 

[Irish_Mike]

February 3rd - Lazy Day + Chocolate Chip Cookies

Twin beds are terrible, even for short people. Let that be known.

Today was fairly quiet, since the only schedule thing that I had was a housing meeting at 1pm over at The Commons. Other than that, we were free!

Loren, David, and Adrian all had to go do casting this morning, leaving the rest of us to just lounge around the apartment. Of course, with no WiFi (yet) and a hard to work TV, that doesn’t leave a lot of options in terms of what to do.

So, because we just wanted to get out of the house, Kyle drove Nathan and I over to Walmart down the road, for no reason in particular. That killed about an hour of our time before we had to head back to Vista.

I now live where there are palm trees. In JANUARY!!


We really need to get into the parks, like yesterday. SO CLOSE!


We also finally got a modem today to get the WiFi working, so yay for Internet.


Since Kyle had the housing meeting at the same time as me, we decided to just drive over to The Commons – roughly a five-minute ride away.

The meeting lasted just about two hours long, and covered everything that might get you kicked out of the program housing (And the program in general) – stuff such as alcohol, safety with guests, bussing, etc.

It was fairly boring, but not everything can be magic and sparkles 24/7.

Except Loren, but that’s because he is fabulous.

The rest of the afternoon was fairly quiet. Loren and Nathan headed over to

the housing meeting around four, so the rest of us relaxed around the apartment. When those two got back, we headed back to Walmart (Again!) to get stuff for Loren to bake some chocolate chip cookies.

(Unbaked)

OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO GOOD

We also all watched Pitch Perfect since Adrian, Kyle, and David had never seen it. Such a good movie.
​

 

[Irish_Mike]

I hope your check-in went well today!

Thank you! It was great

Just joining in! I'm down here too for the DCP, I started three weeks ago! Hope your move in went well and you have a good first week!

Thank you! I've enjoyed reading your report

 

[Irish_Mike]

Yay! You're finally in Florida!

That mug is adorable. Great first purchase in Florida! I don't know where I would be without all of my coffee mugs (though they're rarely used for coffee.)

Can't wait to read the next update!

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying

congrats on your contract....looking forward to following your adventure

Thank you!

Following! We hope to join you there in June!

Hope to see you!

 

[heathsf]

Thanks for sharing all that info. Looks like checking in and settling in went well. Those cookies look amazing, even uncooked!

 

[MagentaMulan]

Following!

 

[darkdancingwaves]

Congrats and good luck! Will be following along, I hope to do Spring 2016 as a Lodging/Tourism major.

 

[Cassimack]

So are you back from the DCP yet?