This isn’t the End…

So to FINALLY finish up my blog post from Fall ’14 DCP…

After celebration I only had 3 weeks left of the DCP so I had to get to work if I wanted to finish everything I wanted to and hang out with my friends as much as I could.

I got my 3rd 4 keys card (and a candy bar!) for having helped my (favorite) lead, Bri, with trash duties when one of my coworkers wasn’t doing her job. She told me I was ‘truly an amazing Cast Member’ :’) that compliment made my whole DCP. That night my managers gave us cookies and hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream to show the custodial crew appreciation 🙂

Like I’ve said before, the DCP gets amazing opportunities, such as tours, and one of the tours is a Haunted Mansion walk-through… unfortunately my friends and I didn’t get to attend this tour. However… being custodial I make friends with all the cast members, especially the ones I see a lot (ahem.. the west side), sooo one of my ghostly friends I made at Haunted Mansion offered to give my friends and I a walk through tour of the attraction. A private tour! Just the 3 of us and him. It was such an special experience to get to have something that exclusive with my closest friends. I got to touch the velvet walls, see the animatronics up close, and even walk inside the Ball Room!! I will never forget this night ❤

The next day I had a park day with my best friends and we all accidentally matched! We only got to hang out in the park for a few hours but had fun going on the Mark Twain and making a wish in Snow White’s Wishing well #bucketlist Then I got to work with Jessica in New Orleans and Sarena brought us tacos for lunch!

I received my 4th 4 keys card from one of my favorite leads, Sara, while I was working on Main Street one night:)

One of my favorite experiences was being invited to shadow a Disney Fairy tale Wedding!
For my Corporate Analysis class that I had to take in the DCP I did my project and paper on this topic as it really sparked an interest. So when I heard there was an opportunity to have lunch with the Profession Intern for the weddings, I took it! …and I was the only one who showed up. I got a lot of one on one time with her and chatted. She saw how intrested I was and invited me to shadow her at an actual wedding. The Disneyland Resort has 2 different types of weddings, a small estoption and large option. The one I got to shadow was the smaller one with only a guest list of 20! I know, super duper small, right!? But it was still so beautiful and magical so I was so fortunate to be able to see how it all works. It was at the Grand Californian Hotel outside on the patio followed by the reception in a intimate room. The room was so nicely decorated and they even had a Disney Vinlymation theme, my favorite! I’m so grateful for this opportunity and I hope to be able to do this again in the future! I can definitely see myself working for the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings as a career!

Disney makes magic not only for the guests, but also for the Cast Members! One thing that Disney did for us for Christmas was a meet and greet with some characters backstage! I got a picture with Pluto as I was coming into work and then I headed off to do my job in New Orleans. When I went on lunch I found Goofy back stage and so I took a picture with him and gave him a kiss. Michael, the character host, said we looked cute together so I mustered up the courage to ask Goofy to be my boyfriend and he blushed and accepted… But then Michael got sad and said I beat him to it and he was jealous of Goofy… So we were in an awkward love triangle… So the two of them decided to fight over me and Goofy ended up winning ❤ I love my life.

I really wanted to get some more bucket list things done before leaving, so I went into the parks with Sarena and Laura one day and we decided to ask to Pilot the Mark Twain… and they said yes! So we got to go up to the very tip top and actually steer the boat. It was one of the coolest things I got to do as a guest and we each got to sign the guest book and receive a certificate!

  

It was our friend Chris’ birthday so my custodial friends and I decided to go play in the park to celebrate! We all got so close the last few months so it was also kinda like our one last time all hanging out. It was a really fun night but kind of a sad moment to think that we weren’t gonna see eachother again for a while.

The Christmas Season was a lot different this year. My friends and I didn’t have our families with us to spend time with. But that didn’t stop us from having a magical time. One of my custodial friends, Lucero, was kind enough to offer me, Sarena, and Jessica a Christmas tree to decorate. It was such a surprising and kind jester that I’ll for sure remember! Not only was she sweet enough to let us borrow the tree, but she gave us some snacks and a JcPennys gift card. Thank you again, Lucero!

So on Christmas Eve, my best friends and I had an awesome sleepover! We decorated the tree, hand made enchiladas, baked cookies, drank hot chocolate, made friendship bracelets and watched a movie. We didn’t do a gift exchange but I wanted to give my friends something that I had previously painted before the program even started. I made Disney-friend themed canvases and I couldn’t imagine them going to anyone else, so I wrapped them up and gave it to them. Sarena likes Toy Story and Jessica loves Monsters Inc. so it worked out perfectly. Let’s just say this brought a lot of tears. It was hard realizing that this would be one of the last moments with all three of us together. It was probably my favorite and best Christmas Eve ever.

Then on Christmas morning my family came!! My mom and brother arrived early in the morning, we went to church together and then headed over to California Adventure. We got a reservation at Ariel’s Grotto and we were sooo excited to finally eat there for the first time! The food was delicious and it was so much fun getting to meet all the princesses! I had to work that night so I took my family back to the airport… it was a short trip, but a very nice time getting to see them on Christmas. At least we were together.

After spending the day with my real family, I got to spend the night working with my custodial family! It was really nice being able to work in the happiest place on earth on Christmas. I’m so grateful for my custodial family and that I got to be with them in the same area that night. We even had a Christmas dinner together haha!

Since Disneyland experiences a high volume of guests around Christmas and New Years, we were asked if we wanted to extend our shifts to 10 hours… so to keep it interesting, we said yes. Why not? I mean we were leaving in less than a week now anyways so we might as well. We had out first 10 hour shift… it was hard… but it was so much fun! Plus we got to sing and dance to Fantasmic; Sarena’s and my favorite!

The first picture was suppose to say “First 10 hour shift, we’re not ready…”

A older, Mexican, custodial co-worker of mine named Mike reminds me of my dad by the way he talks and acts. So one day I decided to tell him that and it meant more to him then I realized. We both got really emotional and it was one of the sweetest moments there. That was the one and only time I’ve ever cried on stage (oops). And ever since then, he has been so happy to see me and told me “There are big gifts, and there are small, but your friendship beats them all. I really mean that. You telling me that I remind you of your dad really got to me and made me speechless, and I’m never speechless. It was the best gift anyone could give to me.” He told me how that was the best gift ever and how it really impacted him. I couldn’t believe that it would touch him so much but it made me so glad that I told him! Tell people how you feel because it might just make them happier then you can even imagine.

So one night my best friends and I decided to cook a meal together… so we went to the store and got the ingredients for Breakfast for Dinner! It was so much fun spending time with them in the kitchen and making something together.

Afterwards we were gonna watch a movie but then we all realized we just wanted to go out on an adventure… it was 11pm. Haha! We came up with the idea to go star gaze! So we tried to get up on the roof of our apartment… but the door was locked. So we had to think of another idea. Griffith Park Observatory in LA was closed, so that couldn’t work. Was there a lake near by? Oh. My. Gosh… we live in California… I forgot there was a beach 25 minutes away!! So we got in the car a headed to Newport Beach. It was midnight and we were on a beach. Yay for spontaneous ideas! We put our towels down and looked up. It was so beautiful. The sky so black, the stars so clear. We ended up making lots of snap chat videos and taking pictures. We laughed so much that we cried. So many memories that night. We decided it was time to go. I looked down at my phone and it was 1 am!! Did we really stay that long?! I guess time flies when you’re adventuring.

 

I tried to make sure I got to spend some time with each of my friends before I had to leave, so Randi and I decided to go on a picnic at the park! The only problem… we didn’t bother to go outside to look at the weather and it was about to rain. Oops. So we have our lunch all packed and no where to go. So we decided to go to the movies! Yes, we ate our picnic in the theater. Yolo.

Being in the Disney College Program you don’t only make friends with other programmers, but also your coworkers in your department. But I had no idea that I’d become so close to some of them. Jasmine became one of my really good friends while I was there. So we had to hang out one last time before I left… and we decided to go ice skating! Neither of us are very good at it, but that’s what made it so fun. Surprisingly we didn’t fall once… too bad though because the guy was cute hahah

I got to celebrate New Years Eve at the biggest party with 100,000 (i don’t know the actual number haha) of my closest friends… Disneyland! I actually really enjoyed working New Years Eve; it was one of my favorite shifts ever. I’ve been there twice on New Years Eve… once when I was 7 and another time when I was 16. But this experience was much different. And even better in my opinion. I mean, what else was I suppose to do for New Years Eve this year? All my friends were working/wanted to work and I was blocked out of Disneyland as a guest. So the only way I could get in was by working haha. And I’m sooo glad I did. My friends and I traded a couple of our shifts around so we could make sure we worked in the same area and closed the park together. So I was surrounded by my favorite people in our favorite place, New Orleans.

Going to work and Sarena brought in cupcakes for everyone!

Last picture of 2014 and first picture of 2015

A few weeks after this I actually randomly started posting a message on Sarena’s facebook wall for fun and it accidentally turned into our New Years Eve story haha. This is what it said:)

So that’s pretty much all that happened. It was a great night:)

Then it came down to my last shift… the part that was so bitter sweet. I didn’t want to leave. I opened up my packet that morning that I received for “earning my ears” aka passing probation (which is your first 4 months with the company). And that’s when it finally hit me. I cried like a baby. It was extremely hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it was over. It seemed surreal. The thing that I was thrown into and did for 4.5 months straight has finally come to an end. I was a weird feeling. But I knew it wasn’t the end. I knew that being there, working, learning, and meeting all those people made it clear to me that Disney is where I’m meant to be.

It’s been the best experience I’ve ever done and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

I spent my very last day as a Cast Member running around the park with Sarena saying “see you later” to our custodial friends and our home (aka Disneyland).

I gave my fav lead, Bri, my flashlight and wrote on it, “Baby, you light up my world like no body else” because one of the first times I worked with her I said this dumb joke “Is that a flash light in my pocket or am I just happy to see you” and she cracked up… so I felt that it was necessary to give her my flashlight as a special way to remember me haha.

The next day I spent all day packing up my apartment. I think I got 2.5 hours of sleep that night because we had to be totally moved out by 9 am the next morning. It was an emotional day as I saw my home competently empty for the first time and drove away in tears. It was a hard drive home, but I knew I’d soon be back and that’s what made it bearable.

Here’s a few of favorite Facebook post from the end of my program.