Where Dreams Come True

The opportunity I've been looking forward to since...well I can't remember has finally come and I'm living my dream!  On August 18th I started the journey for Florida.  My mum and I got on an auto-train in  to Virginia and spent the night on the train on the way to Sanford Florida.  It was an overnight train ride which was a first so I was really excited I got to go on the train and sleep on the train, which was interesting.  Once we arrived in Sanford Florida, which is just outside of Orlando, we made our way to our hotel which was right across from Vista Way where I'd be checking in the next morning.  We got to our hotel which was really nice and had a pool, so of course since I was in Florida, I got into my bathing suit and found my to the pool area so I could enjoy the lovely Florida weather.  After some swimming, we got in the car and headed to the outlets right where I'll be living and let me tell you...I will be going there A LOT!!!  Later that night I met up with my suitmates at Downtown Disney at the Earl of Sandwich.  I've never been there before so it was a great treat!

My suitmates are really nice and they are from all over the U.S. which is awesome.  My roommates name is  Hannah and is from California and is doing quick-service food and beverage at Magic Kingdom.  My other suitmates are from Alabama, Texas, New York, and another girl from Massachusetts.  It seems like we are all going to get along so I'm wicked excited.

AUGUST 20--CHECK IN DAY!
 Lets just say this was probably the longest day that I've had in a LONG time.  We got inline around 5:45 am for check in which was supposed to start at 9 am...We got in line to sign housing agreements, car decals,  housing assignments, etc.  We got our second choice for housing which was a 4 bedroom apartment in Chatham Square, which is a really nice apartment complex.

After we found out our housing we waited a little while to get on a bus to go to casting and lets just say this building was filled with Disney.  Every inch had something, whether it was about Disney's history or about the college program so it was really interesting getting to read all of the information while I was waiting in lines for all of the different check points.  When we first got in line they told us that we would be finding out what our work location was going to be so I got really excited...little did I know they didn't tell lifeguards until they past their swimming test later that night... :(

So...what seemed like hours in casting I headed back to Vista Way to head over to my apartment to start moving in.  The apartment is great and is huge.  There is a ton of space in our apartment that we don't even know what to do with all of it yet.  Around 6 I had my swim test at Mickey's Retreat where cast members can go to hangout, etc.  I had to swim 200 yards, tread water for 2 minutes with my hands out of the water, and retrieve a 10 lbs brick from the bottom of a 8 foot deep pool.  That night after we moved in we had our first roommate adventure to Walmart to pick up food and other items.  It took forever but I pretty much got everything that I needed.



AUGUST 21
Today all we had to do was go to a housing meeting which was actually really fun.  We got to go to the Commons apartment complex which is where most of the international college program students live.  Its also another really nice place that people get to live.  We walked into the meeting and they had fog machines, strobe lights, and Disney music remixes which made all of us really excited.  One thing I'd have to say about this meeting is that they really tried to make the meeting as fun as possible because it could have been really boring with all the do's and don'ts of living in Disney housing.

AUGUST 22--FIRST DAY OFF

All my roommates had the day of so we headed to Universal Studios.  We hit up Island of Adventure first and headed straight for Harry Potter World...all I can say is wow.  I've been there before, but the whole section is just amazing! After we finished with Harry Potter which skipped from land to land and then once we were done in Island of Adventure we left and went to Universal Studios.  The first ride that we went on was the newly opened Despicable Me ride which was wicked cute.  They designed it so it would be a continuation of the movie.

AUGUST 23--TRADITIONS

Had to be at the bus at 6:45 am to head to Disney University where we would learn about the Traditions of Disney and how we can start creating magic for all the guests that we are going to interact with soon.  The first part of the day was pretty boring that everyone was falling asleep but then the quickly woke us up when they told us that we'd be getting to go into Magic Kingdom behind the scenes!!!  It was amazing.  I got to go into the utiltadoors and where a head piece which made me feel official!!!  After our mini tour we headed back to our classroom and learned about the 4 keys of Disney.  We then got a special visit from the man or should I say mouse himself, Mickey Mouse!  Mickey came in to welcome us to Walt Disney company.  We also answered trivia when he was there and I was the first one to get one right so I got a mini mouse toy from him.  He also gave me a hug and kiss and I almost cried because I was sooo happy!  At the end of the Traditions they brought in our name tags and I couldn't believe it seeing my name on a Disney name tag.  It was the coolest feeling ever!

Once we finished at Traditions we headed to Hollywood Studios and went on every ride.  I love that park--Tower of Terror, Rock in Rollercoaster, Star Tours, etc.  The last thing we did was Fantasmic....I love that show it has Mickey and villains all in one!  What could be better!

AUGUST 24--LIFEGUARD TRAINING
Yup thats pretty much it as the title say...we had day on of 3 today.  9 hours of lifeguard training and boy am I tired!

Well I hope you all enjoyed this update and I hope you come back soon to read future updates on what I'm doing here in Florida at Walt Disney World!!!

Have a Magical Day everyone!!!