I got the job... and another request!!!

I got the job!!!!... I got the job!!!!... I got the job!!!!

I am the assistant manager for the Cherry Hill Photo Santa Set at the mall!!! SOOOOOO excited!!!!!

And I also got a request on facebook to give my feedback on which rules I think should be put in place on the CP apartments between roommates, so here goes nothing...

Technically, all of your roommates are going to be legal adults. With that being said... not all of them will act like it and in order to keep yourself from going insane, you might want to sit down with your roommates day 1 and come up with some friendly guidelines...

Here are some ideas:

1. My roommates and I did a chores chart. we took a piece of paper and drew a line down the middle. on one side, went everyone's name on the other side went the chores that needed to be done : garbage, dishes, get the mail, etc etc etc.

We found cute little square magnets in the target dollar section and placed that list on the fridge. When the magnet was on your name, you did that chore. and then you would place the magnet on the next name. It worked really well for us.

2. Figure out a cooking schedule. My roommates and I bought all of our own food and then we had masking tape and a permanent marker so we could write our name on our food. No one ever had the same schedules, so we all cooked for ourselves. Something you may consider buying though and splitting the cost of is stuff like pots and pans. The ones we got in chatham were in kind of poor condition and for 8 people, we didn't get that many.

3. You may want to figure out in your apartment who has a car and who doesn't. I allllwayyysss drove everywhere and noone ever really offered to help chip in for gas and the gas stations by the apartments are a lot higher then anywhere else. It really adds up in gas when you think about it, so come up with some reinbursement system for gas if that is something you will particpate in.

4. talk with your roommates and decide on the rules of inviting others over to your apartment. Like how late is too late, on noise levels, etc. Also... get it across to your roommates that you WILL be termed if there is illegal stuff going on in your apartment and you get caught. No one wants to get termed for something that isn't their fault.

5. Have rules about sleepovers and levels of PDA. seriously. my roommate and I didn't have any such rules and I had one too many surprises... also keep in mind that you can lock the bedroom door from the inside, so if you get home, and all you want to do is go to bed... your roommate might have the door locked, so talk about how you will handle that.

6. Talk to your immediate roommate about what kind of a sleeper you are. How do you handle lights turned on, hair dryers blowing, etc in the morning?!? If you can sleep through it, GREAT! If not... let them know. After a week or so of being woken up every morning, you'll get cranky. trust me. Just be honest from the begining and you'll be much better off!

I think that's about all i've got now. Remember... your roommates pay to live there too, so compromise is key. You will be living with people from all over the country and in some cases, all over the world. People have different ways of doing things than you do and it's part of the learning process of the college program. Learning to live with different people. Have fun though, be creative, and follow the housing rules. Property Management doesn't take them lightly.

not much new with the CP

well i can't believe it's happened... but i'm starting to run out of new information to share with you guys.

I guess now it's going to be the time where if I see stuff online or something, i'll post it here for y'all to read :)

I guess the only thing CP related is that a few days ago I made my CP presentation at school to get full credit for my internship class. My professor loved it and i got all the kids asking how they could apply. What was supposed to be about a 15 minute presentation turned out to be between an hour - an hour and a half... my part was over in 15 minutes but they just kept asking all these questions. My professor even asked me if he could keep my report I made about it as a great example to show future students. No professor has ever asked me that before!! It made me feel really good.

I got my grade in the mail a couple days later (A) and my professors comments were "excellent! I can't wait for your second internship!"

Him and I both.

So I guess that's about it for this post. I've been following other Fall 10's blogs and even a couple of people have started bloging.

OHHHH and my parents just gave me a $50 visa giftcard for halloween (apparently I get halloween gifts now, haha)... they asked me what I was going to spend it on and I said I'm saving it until I find out if i'm accepted, and if I am, I'm spending it on FLORIDA STUFF!!! haha :-)

Have a MAGICAAAAALLLL day <3

ROLES!!!

Ok, so the Disney College Program has a variety of roles to select from when applying. Some of which include:

~ Attractions
~ Concierge
~ Custodial
~ Full Service Food and Bev
~ Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
~ Housekeeping
~ Life Guard
~ Bell Service Dispatch
~ Hospitality
~ Main Entrance Operations
~ Character Attendant
~ Performer
~ Photopass
~ Merchandise
~ Quick Service Food and Bev
~ Costuming
~ Recreation
~ Hopper
~ Transportation
~ Vacation Planner

I only did the hospitality role, so far... and I had a lot of friends in many other roles, but I can't tell you exactly what their jobs entailed... so:

Here's the website for you to go to which has role descriptions available!!!

ROLE DESCRIPTIONS LINK

A bunch of Top 5's

It feels like it's been forever since I've actually posted anything directly related to information about the CP that you (the reader) could benefit from. I know these are only top 5's, but... maybe you could go there, eat there, do the things I recommend and get some sort of enjoyment out of them, hah...

so without further a due, ...my top 5's:

Restaurant's Table Service (including buffets)
1. Cinderella's Royal Table ~ MK
2. Crystal Palace ~ MK
3. 50's Prime Time Cafe ~ DHS
4. Rainforest Cafe ~ DTD / DAK
5. Chef Mickey's - Contemporary Resort


Restaurants Quick Service
1. Columbia Harbour House ~ MK
2. Cosmic Rays ~ MK
3. Restaurantsorus ~ DAK
4. Pizzafari ~ DAK
5. Pizza Planet - DHS


Resorts (I'm partial to # 1 and # 2... I worked there ;-) )
1. Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa
2. Old key West
3. Polynessian Resort
4. Animal Kingdom Lodge
5. Wilderness Lodge

(Note: I love all the resorts for one reason or another... )

Character greeting Locations
1. Pixie Hallow ~ MK
2. Character Spot ~ EPCOT
3. Camp Minnie Mickey ~ DAK
4. Animation Building ~ DHS
5. Judges Tent ~ MK

Night Time Entertainment
1. Fantasmic! ~ DHS
2. Wishes ~ MK
3. Illuminations ~ DHS
4. Cirque Du Soleil ~ DTD
5. Alantic Dance Hall / Jellyrolls ~ Boardwalk

Information Resources (yeah, ok I only have 3 here...)
1. www.youtube.com (search Disney College Program)
2. www.disboards.com (college program board)
3. www.wdwcollegeprogram.com

FALL 2010!!!

Just a side note to say :

I have offically decided and gotten the approval to apply for Fall/Fall Advantage 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words can not express my excitement.

I'm absolutely, without a doubt, the most excited girl in the entire world!!

Top 5 Attractions

Here goes nothing!!...

1. Expedition Everest

















2. Rockin Roller Coaster
















3. Tower of Terror (not my picture)

















4. Haunted Mansion

















5. Splash Mountain (not my picture)

CP Perks

With being on the College Program you get most of the same perks as full time cast members do. Check this out:

1. Discounts-

You get various discounts at Full Service Restaurants as well as some discounts at quick service locations. It really varies though so if you ever have questions about the food discounts, just ask before you purchase anything.

You also get up to 40% off of Disney Resorts for family and friends. This is if you are NOT going to be staying with them.

Now, if you ARE going to be staying with them and if your name is on the reservation, you can get 50% off. I've heard that some people have even gotten 60% off, but I've personally never seen a reservation with that... and I've worked at the resorts.

You also get a discount on merchandise... I believe it's 20%. However, when I arrived at the end of January, they still had their holiday discounts going on for cast members which included 50% off for merchandise. That was AMAZING. Especially when you were playing in the parks and you got cold (which it DOES happen at that time of the year) you can go to the merchandise locations and get a hoodie for like 15-20 bucks instead of paying 30-40!! Very nice!!

2. Cast Connection-

This is a building merchandise location backstage Magic Kingdom. Here they have a BUNCH of merchandise you can buy such as outdated clothing, stuff they've used at the resorts, toys, frames, books, etc. It's discounted and they often have a big selection of items to pick from. Hours can be found on the Hub.

3. Property Control-

This is located right next door to Cast Connection. This is where they sell stuff that they can't sell in the parks anymore due to it being damaged or something along those lines. Often times, you can find INCREDIBLE deals there and you often can't tell why it was damaged.

For instance, I've purchased MANY clothing items in this store that I cant tell what was wrong with them... I purchased a Disney Parks and Resorts cookbook that the ONLY thing wrong with it was that the paper cover (on a hard cover book) was ripped about an inch... I think the book was about 40 bucks, and i got it for like 5.

The selection in this store really varies as they get in new items every day!

4. Company D-

There are a few different locations around Disney Property. My favorite is at Disney University. They have a lot of Cast Member Only clothing (including CP clothing)... a lot of CM Only pins, and other merchandise. They also have a WIDE selection of laynards to select from for your IDs and such. I spend a LOT of money at Company D.

Creating your own Magical Moments

No, I'm not talking about at work... although Disney does give you a lot of room to be creative with these... I'm talking about playing in the parks. Meeting characters has GOT to be one of my favorite things to do. Especially if I knew people who were friends with them. Even if I didn't, you just go up to them and strike up a conversation... here's a bunch of my favorites.

The day before I moved into the CP, my friends Corinne, Danny and Meghan went to Animal Kingdom... there is where I met Goofy for the first time on my CP. Goofy grabbed me, hugged me, and proceeded to dance with me for a solid 2 minutes at least. It was amaaaaazing and something I will never ever forget...

















I became fairly good friends With Goofy throughout my program and decided to meet him and my friend pluto in dinoland. That also, was an experience I will never forget and goofy and pluto probably spent half of their set with us... we loved it.



















Meeting Stitch was fun. Stitch had just gone for a quick surfing lesson and when he came back, my roommate Alyssa and I were the first ones to meet him. The photopass photographer was amazing and helped us really interact with lilo and stitch. We had a surfing lesson before taking the picture and stitch decided to make out with Alyssa. It was Epic.



























It was ALWAYS a pleasure meeting Sorcerer Mickey. Once he was acting like a Pimp and was very interactive with my roommates and I... another time, I drew a picture of him at the animation classes and brought it to him for him to sign. He LOVED it and made a big deal about it.






























Other times, just meeting friends of friends was fun. Such as the beast (in the heading picture of this post...), or:

Woody and the Green Army Man:






























Mr. Icredible: (I told Mrs. Incredible that I was going to steal her man. She acted like she didn't care at all... haha)













or Sully: (there was NO line for Sully... we could have spent all day with him and mike if we wanted to. It was pretty amazing.)

CP Only Events

Every now and then there will be CP only events... they are pretty fun and I highly recommend them!! I didn't get a chance to do a lot of the ones that I really wanted to, simply due to the fact that I was working or the fact that they fill up fast... but the ones I did get to do, were AMAZING... such as:

**Cast Quest**

Cast Quest involves getting into teams of 4 and it's a tournament of sorts held at Disney Quest and downtown disney. They shut down Disney Quest just for this (it's basically done after hours) and most of the attractions at Disney Quest are open for use. Some of the attractions the teams competed in were Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Skee Ball, Air Hockey, Trivia and Race Car driving. It was SOOOO much fun.
My team won 3rd place in trivia and everyone got medals for participating as well as medals/certificates if you placed in any of the events. Here's some pictures:


































**Formals**

The formal was awesome. For the Spring and Spring Advantage CPs it was held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort and the theme was "going hollywood". The characters show up in their formal attire for pictures, the food is decent and it's a chance to dress up (or not) and dance the night away with your friends. The best part about formal is... IT'S FREE!! and most managers are pretty cool about giving you the night off if you tell them what it's for. Here's some pictures:










































Now the rest I don't really have pictures of, but I'll still mention them...

1. Pool Parties- I never went to one of them, but from what people told me, they had DJ's, food, characters, and of course... swimming. They sounded fun, but I was ALWAYS working during them... or I didn't know about them until it was too late. They had a few while I was there.

2. Grocery Bingo- This seemed to be really popular. Basically, you play bingo to win bags of groceries!! There was only ONE of them that I wasn't working during, but... it was my birthday and I was busy at Universal and at my party... so I didn't go. I heard they were really fun and I always wanted to go to one of them.

3. Cool Beans Cafe- I never went to this either, but they have kareoke and stuff here... it never really interested me that much... but some people I know went and said it was alright.

4. Night of Stars- I actually went to this, haha! I got an Early Release from work so I could go to it, haha... It's a CP talent show and it was held in Downtown Disney. I went with my friend Tim and it was PACKED. The talent was really good, too. I recommend to check this out.

5. Mickey's Retreat- This is right next to Chatham and it's a cast member only area where you can rent water paddle boats, i think they have tennis or basketball and soccer or something... it's kind of a rec area. I never went here except for graduation.

6. Backstage tours- These are VERY VERY VERY popular and fill up very quickly. While I was there I never got to go to one, but i REALLY REALLY wanted to. They offered tours of backstage Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Expedition Everest and I think a couple more. The Haunted Mansion was held most frequently.

** note: My SSR and OKW managers did arrange for our CPs to get a backstage tour of the Dinosaur attraction at Animal Kingdom. It was very interesting and we got to learn a ton about the attraction. It was held before the park opened and we got to see how everything worked, we got to walk through the attraction with the lights on, pet the dinosaurs and then ride it with the lights off. I learned so much with that and therefore can HIGHLY recommend you do some sort of backstage tour if you can. If nothing else, just to see how a day to day life of an attractions cast member can be is interesting :-)... but i KNOW you will get more out of it!!

Also, every now and then, they would have cast only nights at the parks or cast previews to different things. During my program I had the chance to view the cast preview of the "move it, shake it, celebrate it" parade, but I was working that night.

I did have the chance to go to a Toy Story Mania Cast night when they were doing some testing on how to work the line. That was SOOOO awesome and we got to ride it twice.... and after you ride it twice... if you ride it hard core competitively, you will feel like you just had an awesome workout. No joke.

Overall, there are a lot of opportunities for cast or CP only events to participate in. DO THEM. they are fun!!

Another note about transportation

I just wanted to add a side note in here about transportation... or at least emphasize something I might have already said:

American Coach does not go to places like Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Sea World, etc. The only time it goes to places like that would be if there was a special CP thing set up and even then, they might charter a separate bus for that... i'm not really sure how that all works.

If you're hoping to get to places like that you have a couple options:

1. Bring down your car. It's super easy to get to both places from the CP apartments.
2. Get a taxi.
3. Make friends with someone with a car... but please... either pay for parking or give them gas money. Take it from someone who had a car down there: gas is expensive when you make minimum wage... and those people with cars might not mind doing it out of the goodness of their hearts at first, but once they realize that EVERYONE starts wanting rides from them, they will appreciate the couple bucks for gas, or things like paying for parking. Just my thoughts on that matter :-)

Videos...

Uploading the CP memories video took WAYYYYY to long... so i'm trying something else.

I'm just going to provide you the links to videos. While I'm at it, I'm going to provide the links to other's youtube channels that have amazing informational vlogs from the CP :-)

Note: The first couple words in each sentence are links to the videos, just put your mouse over the first couple words and you should see the link come up!

Starting with me:

Expedition Everest Video- I love this one!
During the first couple months on the CP - a little bit of a lot of stuff
Rainforest Cafe Pre-Check In Dinner- it was insane... over 65 people showed up!! This is just a little bit of it.
Everything you will ever learn in traditions- (after the Pop Century part)

These videos are from down on the cp, from my friend Corinne... our crazy adventures!!

Animal Kingdom- it's WILD
Car Parties- On the way to pick up a friend from the airport


Now, Onto good youtube channels to check out:

** Corinne's Youtube Channel
** John's Youtube Channel
** Dee's Youtube Channel
** Brenna's Youtube Channel

Patterson Court Apartment Tours

one
two
three

Chatham Square Apartment Tours

One
Two
Three

Vista Way Apartment Tours

One
Two
Three

There ya go!! Hopefully that will give you a little more information to get you started!!

Something New: Some YOUTUBE Videos !!

So I'm going to try this and see how I like it... uploading some of the videos I made after the CP. If you are interested in viewing my "pre-cp" videos, you can youtube search me with the username of : epfootballcutie04

This one happens to be a slide show I put together. The music is from the "Illumantions: Reflections of Earth" Soundtrack from Epcot.

Roomies: In a little more detail

I've sort of touched on the roomie situation already in the blog I did about living conditions. However, while talking to a couple of my Disney friends, we agreed that I needed to go into a little more depth. The number one thing we felt it was necessary to mention was:

Do not expect to become best friends with your roommates...

Is it possible that you will become best friends with your roommates? Of course! But don't expect it. I did... and a couple other friends of mine did... and we both ended up moving apartments.

At the beginning, everyone is super nice and you think you really are living in fantasy land... about a month or two later you start to see people's true side. And that is what happened to me, sort of. I had 7 roommates and 6 of them decided to stab me in the back and what they did made my entire CP life hell... so instead of staying in that apartment with the one roommate I could actually stand, I moved.

Luckily, I had talked to a couple friends of mine and it turned out that they had an empty bed in their apartment so all I had to do was get it approved through housing, pay 50 bucks and sign a waiver saying I wouldn't drink alcohol in the apartment since I would be moving into a non-wellness.

I lovvvveddd that apartment. One of the girls and I had a falling out, but I still had 6 other girls who I considered sisters to me and I was much MUCH happier living there.

Moral of the story: If your roommates suck, move. Don't be worried about causing drama, hurting your roommates feelings , etc... do what is going to make YOU happy. It's worth it in the end.

Also...

You will be living with people from all over the country and possibly people from other countries... if I can offer you one piece of advice about that:

Be prepared to compromise!!

People might surprise you. Some people have never had to take out the trash or do the dishes their entire lives. Some people's "really clean" is your "really messy"... some people just DON'T care about partying at 2 am when you have to be to work 4 hours later... the more you prepare yourself for compromise and team work, the better off y'all are going to be !!!

I also recommend to make some sort of chores chart and set some apartment "rules" right off the bat. It will just help organize everyone right away and will probably save some arguments down the road.

Downtown Disney Must Do's

Downtown Disney (DTD) offers a range of shops, restaurants and entertainment to participate in. It is free to get into DTD but you pay for everything inside of it such as shopping, eating, Cirque, Disney Quest, etc. Here is my list of must do's!!
Shopping
1. World of Disney: It is an incredibly HUGE store and you can probably find any Disney item you want in this store. I've gotten lost in it multiple times. (well, ok not lost but I couldn't find my way back to the way I entered).














2. Design A T-shirt- maybe not a must do, but I made a college program shirt and I like it and thought it was fun. It cost about 25 bucks, but it's not like I did it every day...

Places to Eat

1. Ghirardelli- I am in love with their ice cream. My friends and I went there A LOT!! (and you get a cast member discount!!)

2. Rainforest Cafe- There is also a location at Disney's Animal Kingdom, but I am partial to this location since I had my Pre-Check In dinner there and it's the place where I met a BUNCH of my friends for the first time!













3. Planet Hollywood















Downtown Disney also has a TON of other restaurants that are very popular with guests, I just don't feel like I can recommend them necessairly because I never ate there...

Entertainment
1. Disney Quest- You will like this if you like video games. It is known as a "5 story indoor-interactive theme park". Here is where you can go on a virtual Jungle Cruise, Virtual Pirates ride, Build and ride your own roller coaster, etc. I liked it.













2. Cirque Du Soleil: La Nouba- Wait until you get 50% off tickets. We paid $42.00 for 4th row tickets. We probably could have gotten better yet, but we had 13 people together and we all wanted to sit together. There really isn't a bad seat in the house from the looks of it and the show is SPECTACULAR!

Must Do's at Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios is my favorite park, hands down. I could spend days upon days in this park and not get bored. I spent a lot of time at this park during my CP and my favorite things to do include:

Attractions:

1. Rockin' Roller Coaster











2. Hollywood Tower of Terror


















3. Toy Story Mania- but get there early because the line is always long and fast passes run out early!!













Shows

1. Beauty and the Beast- live on stage... I could watch this all day.



















2. Lights motor Action: Extreme Stunt Show

Food

1. 50's prime time cafe- great home styled food and a fun atmosphere!!
2. Sci Fi- I never actually got to eat here but I really wanted to and I heard it was great!!!

Also... make sure to take the time to view the performances by the street performers!! They are great!!















And please, please, please see Fantasmic... it is my favorite... EVER!

Must Do's at Epcot

Epcot is a park that is split up into two areas: Future world -and- the world showcase. Epcot used to be my favorite park. That being said it's not anymore and I think I went there 3 or 4 total times during my program. There are a couple things I love doing there, though:

Attractions

1. Soarin'- get there early since there is always a constant line without fail.
2. Test Track













3. Mission Space- extreme team













4 .Finding Nemo- it's so cute!!
















The one thing I haven't really done at Epcot, and it's considered a cardinal sin by most, is eat. I know, I know... a reason for me to go back, right!?!

I do love the night time entertainment of Illuminations... it's beautiful... and I'm in love with the soundtrack.

I also love taking pictures around the world show case!!!...

Must Do's at Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom is an awesome park. A common misconception is that it is a zoo. That is not true. It does have animal trails in it like a zoo, but it also has Disney characters, attractions, shops, amazing shows and restaurants. Here is my list of must do's at Animal Kingdom:

Attractions

1. Expedition Everest- sit in the front row!!






















2. Dinosaur- sit in the back row for the wildest ride!! (This picture was taken when my friends and I got stuck on it for 45 mintues and just before we were evacuated... )












3. Kilimanjaro Safaris






































4. Kali River Rapids

Shows

1. Finding Nemo The Musical
2. Festival of the Lion King

Food

1. Character buffet at Donald's Breakfastsorus