I’m officially a Disneyland Custodian!

Today was our last day of training! It’s a bitter sweet feeling. It wasn’t as exciting as the other days but at least it wasn’t boring. We learned all about bio-hazard stuff and what to do if we have to clean up blood and other contaminated things.

After we were done in our lass room training we learned how to do trash in Toon Town. Let’s just say trash isn’t my favorite. It gets messy, smelly, and you’re directly in the sun without moving around too much. There’s so much to pay attention to with trash. There are 3 different kinds of trash duties (trash with bags, without bags, and recycling) plus taking it all to the back and compacting it.

Right after we got done with our first 2 trash cans we spotted our first code v and had to clean it up. It was pretty gross but at least we got to do it together on training instead of by ourselves for the first time tomorrow!

Obviously we don’t get as much guest interaction but we do get a little here and there. Mostly people ask for a map, directions, or the parade time. Today I answered 2 questions wrong, oops. #imstillnew One person asked what time the second parade was and even though I got that right, I told them the wrong direction the parade was headed in so I chased them back down to tell them the correct information since I felt bad haha. Another kid asked if there was a height requirement for Roger Rabbit and I said that there actually wasn’t a height requirement for anything in Toon Town. For some reason at that moment I got Toon Town and Fantasy land mixed up. There is no height requirement in fantasy land but in Toon Town at the Gadgets Go Coaster there is a height requirement. At least he was mainly asking about Roger Rabbit which has no height requirement.

Tomorrow is my first day of being on the job “by myself.” I mean there will be plenty of custodians to ask questions if I have one but for the most part I’ll be by myself. I hope I do okay without a trainer to shadow me!

You can find me in Adventure/Frontier land tomorrow doing trash. Our trainers said that for new cast members leads usually go easy on you your first couple of shifts so they might have me doing something else, which I will gladly take!! Either way tomorrow is the start of a new chapter for me being out on my own and learning new things myself. I can’t wait to bring a smile to Adventure/Frontier land and create some happiness!

 

“If you want it Magical, keep it clean”- Walt Disney

“When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, ‘But why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.’ I told her that was just the point – mine wouldn’t be.” – Walt Disney

Walt Disney himself (everyone’s a custodian at Disneyland)

Today was our 3rd day of training and it was even more magical! We got more time on stage then in the class room, score!!

We started out learning how to sweep so we went down Main Street to clean pre-parade. When we were done we stayed behind stage until the parade went by and then followed it all the way to Small World. I even got some guest interaction just by sweeping believe it or not. 

After lunch we got to learn how to sweep the attraction lines (queues). So we went to Fantasy land to learn which was closed for the fire works so that was nice so we could learn without feeling awkward of embarrassed of not knowing exactly what to do. Usually you would sweep while people are in line (whether you follow the line or go against it).

Once we were done, we learned how to do post-fireworks clean up on main street. While waiting for them to end we got an awesome view of them right next to Pixie Hollow and we literately just stood there and watched them (unlike yesterday when we were walking and couldn’t even hear the music).

All in all, training keeps getting better and better. Honestly I’m sad that tomorrow is my last day of training! I hope to see my fellow DCP custodians around often (since we’ll be working by ourselves a lot). Even though my back hurts, my arms ache from sweeping, and my feet are blistery from new shoes, I wouldn’t trade it for any other job!

Nobody does it better

“I want to have a place that’s as clean as anything could ever be, and all the people in it are first-class citizens, and treated like guests.” -Walt Disney

Today was 2nd day of training! We learned even more then we did yesterday and I hope I retain all this information for when I start my first shift by my self of Sunday. After we read a couple chapters of training online, we took a test and went over it in the class room. We talked more about stuff in the classrooms but when that was over we finally got to do the fun stuff!

When we went on our lunch break we got there at prime parade viewing time (from backstage of course). I’m not going to lie, it didn’t necessarily ruin he magic for me, but it was a little disheartening when I saw the dancers just start walking away rather then dancing all the way to costuming haha. I still felt like a 5 year old watching the parade though and pointed out each character; it was really cool to see the characters get off the floats and get out of costume! I mean how many people can say they’ve seen that?

After lunch we finally got to do my favorite part of training, ON STAGE! So we got to tour all of back stage this time (unlike traditions and operations where we toured a little here and a little there). Well we obviously didn’t see other roles break locations and that kind of stuff but each land has a “locker” which is like a custodian closet so we got to see where they all were.

We even got to have a quick tour of Haunted Mansion (even though it’s closed right now to decorate for Nightmare Before Xmas). We got to go down stairs where HM attractions go and we learned about how we would walk in the attraction with the lights on if we had to go clean up a code v (vomit) or ashes of a loved one that someone scattered (which apparently happens like 2 times a month!!). Honestly, as gross as it is, it’s awesome to be able to have that privilege of being able to see each attraction with the lights on. We got to smell the chemicals we use to clean up code v’s or code u’s (urine) or code h’s (human/horse feces) and it smells like Fruit Loops! So at least the stuff you spray smells yummy and it kinda cancels out the bad smell haha!

We got to see the back stage of Indiana Jones (a huge building btw) and all of fantasy land, which was so cute since all the little attraction cars and boats are adorable. Oh and we got to watch the fire works while we were clocked-in, how awesome is that?!

We also learned today that depending on our location (land) we’ll get a diffrent break/lunch room every day! I love that I can be in all the lands all in one week! You’re so free; you’re never confined to a work location for the whole week!!

Custodial is seriously sounding better and better the more I learn about it. I can’t wait to have more on the job training! 

“Keep the place as clean as you can keep it. Keep it friendly, you know. Make it a real fun place to be. I think they’re convinced and I think they’ll hang on after… as you say… well… after Disney.” -Walt Disney

Custodial 101

Today was our first day of on the job training! It was not really glamorous and we didn’t walk around the park as much as the last 2 days of work, but we had fun!

As soon as we all got there we met our trainers, learned how to clock in, got our (free) shoes, got lockers, got our costumes, and got a quick tour of our custodial building back stage. After all of that, we were in our classroom for most of the shift just learning basic custodial things. We didn’t learn how to clean anything but it kind of felt more like custodial 101. Today was our guest interaction training 🙂 (my favorite part about my role).

We learned that there are day time custodians (me) and night time custodians (when the park is closed). Day custodians “maintain the magic” and night custodians “restore the magic.” I just love that they say that because it really is true! It’s amazing how awesome this role is, and yet it is so over looked! My trainer was right today when she said that this is a really humbling role for that reason!

 
They had these Custodial Mickeys all over the place in my building, it was so cute! I love it because it really is an important job and that’s one thing Walt wanted the most for his theme park; to keep it clean! I’m glad I can maintain the cleanliness and help make it magical for the guests!

Custodians use to be referred to as “Ninjas” as they would clean quickly and then disappear (go backstage)! Obviously this isn’t true anymore since you see custodians in white (to stick out to guests, but also blend in with any land). Custodians also have the most guest interaction in the park so we don’t want to be known as ninjas. We need to make sure we’re available to our guests as their go-to information booth. It also amazed me to hear that there are 400 custodians in the park! I had no idea there would be that much!

After our class room training we got to actually take the things that we learned and apply them out in the park on Main Street. Before we went out though we got our “goodies” for our satchel haha. We got some gloves, scrapers, paper towels, a water spray bottle, a flash light, maps, and buttons. We also got to put a lanyard around our neck for pin trading and we carried a claw pick-up tool around with us for trash. As if we don’t stand out enough with white on, there were about 15 of us so we walked onto main street right by the train station as we got a lot of stares (wondering what we were doing as a group). One man spotted us right away, a dedicated pin trader, and was ecstatic from the “jack pot” he found hahah! After we had a quick talk from our trainer we got to do our first pin trading with him and afterwards he said we “made is night no matter what happens” so he asked for a group picture which made me feel good (even though he didn’t want any pins from my lanyard lol).

We started walking some more and stopped right in front of City Hall where tons of pin traders bombarded us with pin trading. It was so much fun and I was so happy to actually practice guest interaction. I even played with a baby a little bit and told people to have a “magical night”. I FINALLY got to use the things I’ve been learning about the last couple days and it was wonderful. Once we started walking down to the end of Main Street I started picking up some trash and right before we went backstage I got to interact with a little girl by getting down on knee level to ask if she saw Snow White today (she was dressed as Snow White).

I forgot to put this in my last post, but I just found out that since California is in a drought, custodians wouldn’t be able to perform water art until May (after I’m gone), so that made me sad.

Although we were only on stage for about a half hour, tonight was definitely a magical night and a fun beginning to my new dream. I was really happy with how today turned out and it was exciting to meet all my DCP DLR custodian family! There were more then I thought! I know this will be an awesome role and I’m looking to some more training tomorrow (even though I’m exhausted). I can’t wait to see not only what else this role has to offer, but what else I’m capable of! I can’t wait to make those magical memories and experiences!

 
My custodial costume!

Playing in the Park

Tonight (3 nights after traditions) we got to use our Cast Member IDs to get into the park for the first time (for free!). I could get use to that! We could have gotten in right after Traditions, but my roommates and I wanted to go together and our roommate, Kayla, had a set-back which pushed her Traditions to today (Tuesday).

The first thing we did was get our mickey ears embroidered!

Then we headed down Main street USA to take our unofficial cast member pictures in front of the castle with our ears and name tags!

We realized none of us had been in the parks since Alice in Wonderland opened back up so we went on that attraction right away to see the changes that have been made. While in line Kayla told us she’s never seen Mickey and the Magical Map (Katie’s favorite thing ever), so we went on over as soon as we got off Alice in Wonderland. 

After the show ended we went over to Tomorrow land to go on Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Astro Blasters.

   

Christine and Kayla have to get up early tomorrow morning and Katie was exhausted so they all left to go home, but Silvina and I decided to stay for an hour longer.

 

So in that time we rode Pirates, found the restaurant that she’ll be working in, ate a corn dog from the red corn dog truck, went in side the baby care center (since we’ve never seen it), and stopped at the (old) casting door!

This was only the first of many adventures and I’m so glad I got to experience my first time in the park as a cast member with my roommates!

My training will be this week (4 straight days and then I’m on my own) so I’m praying that it will go well and that I’ll love it as much as I have hoped I would. 

 

Traditions and Operations

Traditions is the first day of actual work, but it’s just a class where you watch videos and learn things about the company. You also get to tour around the parks “on stage” and “off stage.” Disney actually paid me to watch awesome exclusive videos and take an exclusive tour?! I mean, that’s something I would pay Disney for!

  
I got to dress in my first business casual outfit for work!

Just some quick lingo that I learned: We say “stage” because we are an entertainment company and we put on a show. We also say “role” instead of job because we all have a role in the show. And our clothing is our costumes rather then our uniforms.

Along with this lingo, we also found out why Disney does the things they do, how Disney does those things, and where Disney does those things! It was so cool to see “behind the magic” and (for example) where they set off the fireworks.

Before we went on our tour we got a very special gift, we were the first Disney College Program to receive Classic Mickey Ears (at Traditions)! When we got back from our tour we got our name tags and IDs which just makes it that much more official.

Here’s my name tag and ears from Traditions.

After Traditions we decided to go to “Company D” for the first time to buy some discounted Disney merchandise. Company D is a store off Disneyland property for Cast members that sells marked down park items, anywhere from clothing to food.

Here’s my ears, name tag, ID, Cast Member magnet, Traditions Magnet, mickey figurine (for answering a question in traditions) and Cast Exclusive Vinylmation “VoluntEAR” (even though I haven’t been a voluntEAR yet haha).

Operations was two days after Traditions for me and, my goodness, was it a tough act to follow! It was quite boring compared to Traditions and I’m not going to lie, I felt like falling asleep during some of it (that being said, I didn’t have any coffee that morning!). There was a lot of information shoved into one day (on how to do your role and what it means to be a good cast member). We also broke into smaller groups and toured the park again but this time it was a little bit more specific. We got to see all the roles in “Park Operations” (since I’m custodial) and talk to the leaders and managers of those areas. It was actually really nice to hear from the higher up people specifically about their role and how they got there.

After having gone to all these classes, I’ve gotten a better grasp of what it means to be a Cast Member and I couldn’t be more greatful! That being said, I’m excited and ready to start my training this week! For those wondering, I did indeed get Disneyland (not California Adventure) for my custodial role 🙂

Moving to Anaheim, California

After waiting five and a half months after being accepted, I’m finally moving!

I started packing about a month before check-in day and made sure I got everything on my 3 page packing list all the way up until the very last second before leaving. A few days earlier I had a Disney going away party to say “see ya later” to my friends.

I said my good-byes to my brother and doggies and then it was off to California in my car! My mom took off the whole week off so she could come help me move 🙂

My car was jam-packed!

My new home (for 4 1/2 months)

The drive took about 6 hours; not too bad compared to others. When we got here we were so exhausted we went straight to bed. The next day (today) we slept in and went to breakfast at Denny’s and then headed over to Downtown Disney. My mom and I decided to see a movie (we were the only ones in the theater lol) and walked around the shops. I even ran into 4 other girls in the Disney College Program since alot of people got to Anaheim the day before as well.

In Downtown Disney!

Tomorrow is the day! I’ve been waiting for this my whole life and I couldn’t be more excited, nervous, and anxious. The anticipation has been killing me and I could feel it today! The feeling is like the first day at a new school, this is the beginning of my dream. It’s going to be the first page of my new chapter and it still hasn’t fully hit me yet.

Thank goodness I have already meet my roomies and we’re already best friends or I think I might just throw up tomorrow. It’s also really helped to have talked to other CPs on Facebook and have even meet a couple of AZ CP’s in person this summer.

                                           
My roomie Katie and I in Disneyland in May

My roomie Silvina and I at my work when she was visiting her mom in AZ

My check in time is 10 am so I’m going to try to get some sleep (but I’ll probably be like that little boy in that Disney commercial who says, “I’m too excited to sleep!” and this time tomorrow I’ll be sleeping in my new apartment!

Stay tuned for my Check-in and Move-in blog that I will hopefully posting soon if I’m not too busy this week.

Tips and Tricks on getting into the Disney College Program

Hello friends!
I’ve been wanting to give some tips and tricks on getting into the Disney College Program ever since I was accepted into my program. I wanted to give my advice because I searched and scoured the internet for tips myself. Today is 25 days until my program starts (yay!) and about 45 days until Spring applications come out, so I figured there isn’t a better time than now to give some advice!

So I talked about my own experience on getting into the Disney College Program in my previous blogs, but in this post I wanted to be more direct on things you should and shouldn’t do. Here we go!

(Scroll down to the bottom if you’d rather watch my video than read all of this haha 🙂 )

Applying:

• If you’re like me, and you want a future with Disney, then when applying, you’ll probably want to be VERY open to anything and everything, that way you have a better chance at getting accepted.
• What I’m talking about is role preference and park preference (DLR or WDW).
• If you want to work for the company no matter what (to get your foot in the door and stuff), then apply to both Disneyland and Disney World, and don’t list ‘no interest’ on any of the roles. (You have to decide if you’d rather have a role at Disney that’s not as glamorous as all the other roles, or have the possibility of not getting into the program at all.) What i did was listed about 7 roles for high interest, 7 for moderate interest, and 4 for low interest.
• If you want to do this program, but are not interested in a career with Disney for the long run, then by all means, feel free to put ‘no interest’ on the roles you have absolutely no interest in.
• Research (read and watch you tube videos) every role before you submit your application to know for sure what each one entails and think about if you can envision yourself in that role or not.
• I suggest applying within the first 7 days. Phone interviews fill up fast! To increase your chances of getting in you want to get your phone interview done with in 3 weeks because the first wave of acceptances are usually 21-25(ish) days after applications come out. (From my experience DLR Fall tends to only have 1 wave of acceptance and DLR spring tends to only have 2 waves).

Web Based Interview:

• When getting your WBI in your email, don’t start taking it until you have the time to finish it all at once (it’s timed).
• What I did, and what I suggest you do, is have someone who knows you REALLY well take it with you. I’m a bad test taker and I have ADD so it’s really hard for me to concentrate, especially on time tests! I sat down with my mom and I read the questions out loud and choices out loud and I would tell her what I thought best described me and she would tell me if she agreed or not. Doing this helped because she knows be so well so she could tell which answer was better if I was stuck between two or something.
• This also helped me because you have to be consistent! They will ask you the same question twice but worded differently to see if you’re lying.
• Be honest. At the same time, keep in the back of your mind what Disney is looking for. If you’re late to work sometimes or lazy when it comes to work, you probably don’t want to admit that in this interview. Obviously they are looking for punctual, reliable, responsible people. If that doesn’t sound like you, or doesn’t sound like someone you’d be willing to be, then don’t even bother applying. (Surprisingly some people don’t pass this part, but don’t be too worried because honestly it’s the easiest part of this whole process.)

Scheduling the Phone Interview:

• Schedule your phone interview in a few days. Give your self enough time to prepare for it. Don’t feel like you have to do it the next day (if that’s even one of the options).
• You might not want to apply the first or second day because I’ve seen people do that and for some reason their application was over looked (like there was a problem with the system) and they didn’t even get a WBI or PI. (…then again some people did apply the first day and got accepted).
• One more reason to wait and apply the 2nd or 3rd day is so that your PI doesn’t have to be scheduled for 1 or 2 days later. Waiting to apply gives you the chance to have a week of PI preparation 🙂

Preparing for the Phone Interview:

• When you apply, take a screen shot on your computer of your role preferences and the order that they’re in (label your top 4 choices because they most likely will ask you what those are- have your reasons why you want it & why you’d be good at it ready too).
• Do plenty of research on your top roles, print the description out of each one, and highlight the words and characteristics that the role requires that also describes you. This way you can use these words and phrases when describing your previous work (ex: cash handling, stocking inventory, multitasking, solving problems, answering questions, cleaning… ect.)
• Prepare an extraordinary answer for when they ask you why you want to do the Disney College Program. This is one they’ll FOR SURE ask you.
• You’ll probably be nervous when they ask you this question, so instead of reading off the paragraph you prepared, break it down into bullet-pointed words and phrases to give you a cheat sheet (if you just remember those words and phrases in the right order, then you’ll be GOLDEN when it comes time to answer).
• Use words like: dream, passion, opportunities, resume, networking, magic, happiness, family, and guests.
• Talk about the internship aspect of it and the classes provided rather then just working at Disney. If they think you’re applying just to work at Disney, then they’ll probably deny you because you can just apply for a job at Disney instead of just doing the program.
• Look up common DCP phone interview questions, copy and paste them into Word, and read and answer each one. Just by being able to think about it and brain storm your answers before hand will really help you prepare for what it’s going to be like. DO NOT READ YOUR ANSWERS WORD BY WORD IN THE INTERVIEW. That’s what I did last time and I sounded like a rehearsed robot- I defiantly didn’t sound genuine.
• There is a REALLY good chance (like 99%) that your interviewer will ask these 6 questions so have these prepared:
  1. How would you handle an emergency?
  2. Do you prefer fast vs. slow pace?
  3. Do you prefer to work as a team or by your self?
  4. Do you prefer to work indoors or outdoors?
  5. How do you deal with repetitive tasks?
  6. How would you get a task done while being interrupted by guests?
• Prepare 4 situations that you have dealt with in your previous job (like if they ask how you’ve made someone happy or dealt with an upset customer ect.) Use your past experience, it helps to relate your answers back to your jobs (or if you’ve never had a job then volunteer work, school, or just life). They want you to be specific when they ask you questions so go ahead and take your time answering their question in detail and with examples.
• It also wouldn’t hurt to think of three positive qualities and three negative (but in a positive way) qualities about yourself.
• Have 1-3 questions ready for the end when they ask if you have any. Even if you’ve done your research, it shows that your really interested and you want to know more.
• Do a ‘mock interview’ a couple times with a family member or friend to practice what you’re going to say and practice your improv skills. It’ll help you feel more confident and relaxed. Just don’t do it too much or when it comes to your real interview you’ll sound rehearsed. I had my brother call me and pretended to have a real phone interview. He stayed in character and if something didn’t go right, we just went with it like a real interview would.
• Lastly, write uplifting, encouraging notes for yourself!! I took some flash cards and colorful sharpies and wrote words on them like: Be positive, Smile, Passion, Confident, Slow (take your time), Relax, Speak clearly, Friendly. And I hung them up where I was going to have my phone interview:)

The actual Phone Interview:

• Disney says they can call anywhere between 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after your scheduled time, so just pretend like they’re suppose to call 15 minutes early and you’ll be good to go (they are pretty good about being right on time though).
• Have your cheat sheet already in front of you. I suggest having like 2 pages of organized typed out bullet points to help keep you calm and not so nervous during the process.
• So about 20-25 minutes before your scheduled PI be ready: go to the bathroom, get water for when your mouth gets dry in between questions, get a pen, put some chap stick on, grab some tissues… yeah I was really prepared lol.
• Have your interview in a quite place (like your bedroom when no one is home, or ask your family to be silent during your interview).
• Don’t spend a lot of time sitting in one area before they call or you’ll psych your self out. You’ll get antsy and nervous and that’s the complete opposite of how you want to be! (I watched Americas Funniest Home Video before they called so I can laugh a little and relax.)
• Make sure your phone is charged and has service. I used my home phone and my phone died right before my interview was over. Yeah, true story.
• The 3 C’s: Cool, Calm, and Collected. I know this sound cheesy, but it’s true!! They need to hear these 3 things in your voice.
• What do you do for the 15 minutes while you’re waiting? I know this might sound a little stupid, but literally smile, be happy and tell your self you’re gonna do great. Try to calm down and mediate a little so your voice doesn’t shake as you answer the phone. As your smiling and waiting, glance over your notes (don’t feel rushed to read through it all before they call).
• I really loved this piece of advice I got from someone: pretend like the interviewer is a distant relative or a friend you haven’t talked to in a long time. If you do this, I promise you you’ll feel more relaxed. I pretended that the interviewer was my one of my moms friends that I’ve never meet before so I tried being sweet, nice, funny, positive, outgoing, appreciative, and just acted like I was that daughter that all my moms friends would love to meet haha (i know it sounds silly but it helps).
• Talk slow! Pretend that the interviewer is hard of hearing so you have to talk slower so she could hear and understand you. You can take your time! Don’t rush, yes they have to keep on a schedule, but your interview can be 30 minutes if you and your interviewer have a lot to discuss.
• On that note, try to treat it more like a conversation rather than an interview. If you want to make the interviewer laugh a little, go for it!! I made my interviewer giggle and I giggled a little myself:) I think it shows them that you can interact with guests well.
• When they call you, take a deep breath and smile before you answer the phone.
• They’ll say their name so go ahead and write it down so you can use it at least once during the interview to make it more personal. (If you didn’t hear it, ask them to repeat it- that’s what I did).
• Use different tones of voice to show your excitement and passion when answering questions and when saying words that really mean alot to you.
• Be YOU, ok yes, this is extremely cheesy but honestly I wasn’t being “me” my first 2 phone interviews. They want unique people in this college program that are different and want it really bad. So show them why they should choose you!!

Ok, so time for a review. Prepare and practice, but don’t rehearse and sound like a robot. Be genuine and show it in your voice (and your smile) that you really want it! Don’t say you want to do the DCP because you want to work at Disneyland/Disney World. Be open to anything. Convince them that they should choose you! YOU GOT THIS!

I also decided to make a vlog on my tips on how to get in, you can watch it here:

Good luck and have a magical interview!

Meeting my Roomies

After getting to know 4 lovely girls over Facebook for a month, I actually got the opportunity to meet them in person. On Saturday, April 26th I flew to Orange County to spend a little bonding time with Kayla, Katie, Christine, and Silvina. They were so sweet and all offered to pick me up from the airport since they all live in SoCal. Kayla (my actual bedroom mate) ended up getting me since it was right next to her school. We immediately clicked as I hopped into her cute little green bug and gave her a side hug- this quickly changed as I learned she was a very aggressive driver. Just kidding, but never let anyone with a cute little hippie car fool you 😉

We headed to breakfast and meet the rest of the girls at Monkey Business Cafe, this home-style kind of restaurant that is adorable just as much as it is delicious. We all agreed that this would be our favorite go-to spot for meals; and it’s only 10 mins from our apartment! We all connected very easily and laughed so loud that I’m sure we were disruptive to the tables around us, haha. Katie and Christine were so thoughtful that they got Kayla, Silvina, and I a mug with our favorite Disney characters on them. They mostly got them for their birthdays since they were just shortly before the meet up, but they didn’t want to leave me out so they got me one with Rapunzel on it. Obviously I loved it; they already knew me so well.

After breakfast, my friend Marc let us come tour the Carnegie apartment building where we’ll be staying! We know that each apartment is different in the building, but at least it gave us an idea of where we’ll be living. Marc answered our millions of questions and told us a little bit about his program. The apartments were so beautiful! Even the courtyard and shops outside the building were nice! It was a little busy and crowded though since they were having a ‘recycle art sale’ outside the apartments for Earth day, but it was still really cool! We got a few pictures outside in front of the building before we headed off to Downtown Disney.

Christine, Me, Kayla, Katie, and Silvina

Me and Marc

We headed to Downtown Disney and got our Movie tickets right away to see Bears and we even got a free Bears button! We then went down all the shops and looked around. When we went into World of Disney we asked a Cast Member if we could have an “I’m Celebrating” button which he gladly gave to us and we wrote “DCP ’14 Roomies” on it. He told us how they were going to remodel the room were in since it didn’t match the rest of the store, so he asked if we’d like a picture with Ursula since she’ll be no longer in Downtown Disney after this weekend.

Here’s our picture with the not-so-lovely Ursula

After we looked in the shops and with a tear in our eyes agreed not to buy anything until we got our discount, we headed to the gates of Disneyland. No, we didn’t enter the gates, unfortunately. Katie wanted to buy a car sticker at the shop at the entrance and I wanted to meet my friend who’s in the program right now. We then ran back over to the theater just in time to watch Bears, which was so good! It was my first Disney Earth movie and I definitely want to see all of them now!

When that was over we decided to get some food at Earl of Sandwich since some of us have never been there before, or at least I know I haven’t. I now know why they’re called what they’re called, and not called Earl of Soup. I got the Chicken Tortilla soup and although it looked and smelled delicious, it was incredibly spicy. Like my eyes and nose were running. I mean if you like really spicy things- that’s the soup for you… but thank goodness I had some crackers for it.

Our roomie Christine got the role of Life Guard at the Disneyland Resort, but has never seen the pool, so we headed on over there to see what the hotel had to offer. The pool was very cool and this was my first time seeing what the pool looked like too with all the renovating they did a couple years ago. I saw that Trader Sams, an unorthodox Tiki bar, was right there next to the pool so obviously I wanted to check it out really quick. We went in and it was just as awesome as I thought it was going to be. They had a jar that said Paradise Falls on it that was so cute! I can’t wait to go in there with my roommates one evening, sit back, relax and feel like I’m in Hawaii.

We walked around the pool and passed Goofy’s Kitchen! It’s a different kind of restaurant with character dinning that I recently found out about. It definitely went on my bucket list as soon as I got home. The hotel lobby was right there so we decided to go on in and check it out. There were these adorable little Tea Cup chairs that we took pictures in even though I’m pretty sure the front desk CMs were staring at us the whole time.

Silvina had to go to work so we started leaving the hotel but Kayla and I were stopped on the way out and were asked a special question by Mickey!

To which our obvious reply was, “YES!” Sorry Minnie #sorrynotsorry

Anyways, we walked to the parking lot and said our sorrowful good byes to Silvina with lots of hugs. Katie, Christine, Kayla, and I had one more thing on our list though. Kayla had told us about this store that sold cheap, legit Disney merchandise, although not owned by Disney. To which we shouted, “LET’S GO!” We drove to the store which was about 10 minutes away, but it had unfortunately closed 😦 I would have loved to spend even more time with my girls, but my last flight was taking off in an hour so I said my good byes to Katie and Christine and Kayla and I headed back to the airport.

Even though this trip was 9 1/2 hours long, it was way too short. The only thing keeping me smile while waiting for this program to start is knowing that I’ll have some pretty amazing friends and roomies to share it with in just a few short months. I can’t wait to share my experiences, adventures, good times and hard times with these awesome girls! Hopefully I’ll be able to see them again this summer if we can make it work with Kayla coming down from her home in Nor Cal, but if not, atleast we had this incredible day!

My view from the plane on my way back home

My Phone Interview

Right after applying to the Disney College Program, on February 9th, I got a ‘Thank You for Applying’ email. I was thrilled and was awaiting to receive an invitation for a Phone Interview (PI) soon after that. Normally after the ‘Thank you’ email, Disney invites you to complete a Web Based Interview (WBI) first, but since I passed mine last Fall I was not asked to do it again because it is only required once a year. (A WBI is pretty much a timed quiz that asks you as series of personality and work related questions to see if you’d be a good fit for Disney.) I went ahead and scheduled my PI for February 19th, 10 days later! Ah!:( I was hopping to take it sooner then that, but there were only 2 dates available at the time. I scheduled it for the evening so I would be able to take it when I got home from work, but luckily I was fortunate enough to have that day off being that work was so slow.

The good thing about having 10 days before your interview is having time to prepare and practice! I had already rehearsed and rehearsed so much last time that I had pretty much still remembered all my answers to the questions. This was actually a blessing because now that I knew what I wanted to say, I could focus on coming off as genuine and more myself. I didn’t really practice the first couple of days because I knew that if I did, I’d be a nerves wreck. When my interview was inching closer and closer, I went back to my Word Document where I had typed up all my Q&A’s from last time and read over them. I found that some of my answers didn’t really flow off the tongue or maybe weren’t quite what Disney was looking for. I decided to copy and paste the questions and answer them again so I could make this interview newer, fresher, more personal- especially since I had worked 5 months at a new job since my last interview.

Last time I had focused so much of my time on the ‘maybe’ Q&A’s but this time I decided to focus my preparation on the definite questions I knew they were going to ask. As you can assume, “Why do you want to do the Disney College Program” was the question I had spend the most time on. This might sound easy to most people but, “because I love the company” or “because I love going to Disneyland,” are definitely not the answers they are looking for. Millions of people love the company and visiting the parks, needless to say, you need a much more thorough, thought out answer. Something that really shows your dedication and passion. Something you can get your finger prints all over and really make it your own.

After editing and revising my answer numerous times, I had finally come to decision on how I wanted to portray to my interviewer why I wanted to do the Disney College Program and why it was so important to me. I practiced what I wanted to say pretty much at every free opportunity. Last Fall my mom and brother had helped me with some ‘mock interviews’ which is pretty much just pretending like you’re really interviewing on the phone. That helped me out a lot, but I didn’t want to ‘rehearse’ this time so we just casually went over my answers in person to make sure they sounded good.

The time had come. All of my months of research, practicing, and praying had led up to this. It was a Wednesday and I had school that afternoon. Thankfully I knew I didn’t need the class anymore since I was changing my major, so my excitement and anticipation wasn’t really disturbing me from my class work. (You might be wondering why I hadn’t dropped the class yet if I didn’t need it. Well, you need to be enrolled in a college class to apply to the DCP, so I remained in the class so I could be sure that that wasn’t hindering me from getting accepted.) Once class was over I rushed home and spent the day practicing for my interview.

It was that time. Disney tells you that your interviewer can call anywhere between 15 minutes before or 15 minutes after your scheduled time. This being extremely important and all, I had everything ready for me to start my interview right at 7pm (15 mins before my scheduled time). I literally had everything you could think of there: my cheat-sheet, my positive note card reminders, my questions, a pencil, water, kleenex, chapstick. Yeah- I was serious. I sat there relaxing so I wouldn’t be nervous when the phone rang and calmly glazed over my notes one last time. I wanted this interview to be totally different then my last two. From 7-7:16 I sat there smiling to get my excited and pumped up about the company and the interview.

My home phone rang! My interviewers name was Nina. She seemed kind of bored and drained from the day. No magic in her voice. Sure she was nice, but I was kind of nervous on this interview going south because what if she didn’t laugh at my jokes? What if we didn’t connect? What if she strictly asks the questions without a nice, bubbly conversation? Yes, all these questions were going through my mind in a matter of seconds. Thankfully when I said ‘Aw, Nina, that’s cute!” she gave a slight giggle. Victory! I kind of felt like I broke through. It was all smooth sailing from there. I mean, how would you feel if you had a hundred interviews in one day… on the phone. Yeah, I don’t blame her.

From my last two interviews I thought I knew the format and order it kind of goes in. Nope. Because pretty much right away she asked me why I wanted to do the DCP. It through me off guard. Wasn’t she suppose to go over my roles of interest first? It must have been because I was open to ANYTHING. Anyways, I only had a second to get myself together. “…Because… *clears throat*…I really want to do the Disney College Program because…” I had to show my confidence. NAILED IT! I got that answer out of the way and it was all down hill from there (in a good way). Nina continued to ask me questions that I had prepared for and I didn’t even get any difficult ones- HAZAH! It was seriously so relaxing and fun compared to my last two. I remained smiling the whole time (something that is a necessity since they can hear it in your voice) and maintained calm, cool, and collected.

Our interview was ending and it was just about 25 minutes long. She asked if I had any questions and I asked her the 3 that I had prepared. My last one was regarding her personal experience with the company and how she got started with Disney. She started to tell me about her first affiliations with Disney and then… silence. Yep, my phone died. I started freaking out! I ran to the living room phone to see if the line was still connected but it was too late. The call had been dropped, there was nothing I could do. It took me a second to realize- there’s still a chance! I had forgotten about my cell phone and how I silenced it. I ran back to my room and flipped it over- it was ringing! I picked up and started apologizing explaining how my phone had died. She was nice about it and said it was fine, she explained how the interview was technically over but wanted to know if I had anymore questions. I told her I didn’t but unfortunately didn’t get to hear the ending to her story. She finished it up and we got a few good laughs in!:) I thanked her for her time and that was it!

Everything was in Disney’s hands now. I did all I could do and that would have to be good enough. The only thing else I could give is my soul (which I learned from the Little Mermaid is NOT a good trade lol). My heart was already poured into the company and I think that showed during my interview. If I didn’t get in this time, I honestly don’t know what I would have to do the next time. From the wise words of Walt himself, “Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better.” So then I just had to wait.

Here are the emails I received:)